In reading Will Perrin’s excellent post about the continuity of hyperlocal blogs and the ‘hyperlocal life cycle’, it also reminded me of a post I wrote about handing over Blog Preston to Joseph Stashko and Andy Halls in May 2010.
Twice I’ve tried handing over the reigns of Blog Preston – a site I set up in January 2009 to be a hub of community news, views and information about Preston in Lancashire – to someone else, and twice I’ve had to get back involved. I thought I’d expand on Will’s points about how you can find continuinty for your hyperlocal site and keeping it going.
The first is not to rely too heavily on students. They are great because they’re enthusiastic and do have plenty of time, and in the case of Jo and Andy I was incredibly lucky to have two of the best young journalists in the UK wanting to work with me on the site.
They are incredible and very, very, hard-working – constantly finding new content, working with the community and doing everything you’d expect a local news reporter to do while also studying for their degree (and no doubt doing the stereotypical things that 20-year-old lads do while being at university). But would the site be better off with a local Preston based student doing the site? And you always find yourself back in the situation of having to re-recruit when they inevitably move on (in the case of Andy to much bigger and better things – well done lad).
I think the move by the likes of Richard Jones on Saddleworth News is interesting as it brings students into the fold, but also has it structured as part of a course. Should more universities follow suit?
Getting guest contributors for a site is vital if you’re to keep it going when you’ve disappeared. It’s amazing what people will offer up an informed and well-written viewpoint on, and you can use this as a way to fill the gaps in your content schedule while you’re finding someone to take over.
Taking on a hyperlocal site is a big challenge and can be a huge time sapper, so I definitely think I should have done more to make those taking on Blog Preston aware of just how much they were taking on. I should have put more effort into a proper handover, offering more guidance on finding content, running the site and keeping it full of fresh content.
But, at the same time, Blog Preston has proposered when I’ve handed it over – regularly increasing traffic and with this comes expectation. Not just from readers but also from yourselves that the site will deliver the same levels of content, traffic and interaction as during that ‘golden week’ you may have.
So in short:
- Find someone to take on the site if you know you’re going to be moving away
- Still keep a hand in, I’m still amazed at how much I can still do on Blog Preston even though I’m based in London
- Prepare a proper handover with the person taking on the site, have them spend a day with you and see what goes into a typical week on the site
- Build a huge army of guest contributors
- Don’t be disappointed if it takes the new kids on the block time to figure out how to do everything and let them run the site their way
Image credit to Will Perrin
What advice would you give about keeping the hyperlocal flame burning? Would you just shut down your site and walk away? Or let it involved under new ownership? Let me know your thoughts below in the comments
