Authentically Local: 'Local Doesn't Scale'

A group of 30 hyperlocal news sites have joined forces to launch "Authentically Local," a branding campaign to emphasize the need to support homegrown media and businesses.
By
NetNewsCheck,

With local being the latest hot online trend, 30 hyperlocal news sites have banded together to reclaim the word for truly local businesses.

The independently owned sites are launching "Authentically Local," a branding campaign intended to emphasize the importance of supporting homegrown media, stores and places.

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"The Authentically Local campaign seeks to illuminate the difference between authentic local businesses and those that are just cashing in -- before every town in America becomes one giant strip mall," said Debbie Galant, founder of Baristanet. "This is not just about us, the owned-and-operated sites that write about place. It's about place."

Big corporations -- including Groupon, Living Social, Google, Facebook, Apple and AOL -- have been rushing into grab a piece of what the group says is a $100 billion per year local advertising market.

"Local journalism doesn't scale and it doesn't need to scale. It needs to emerge from people deeply engaged in their local community, determined to make a difference and provide a vital service,"Berkeleyside.com co-founder Lance Knobel said in a statement.

The branding campaign will be extended to bricks-and-mortar business, and will include a mission statement, buttons, and multiauthor blog at AuthenticallyLocal.com.

"We're in this with our advertisers," said Timothy Rutt, the editor and publisher of Altadenablog in Southern California. "Because we're local, we spend our advertisers' dollars in the community."

Galant plans to announce the campaign at the GeoWorld Summit in New York City.

A list of founding sites, which collectively reach about 800,000 readers a month, can be found on the Web site.

 

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