DISQUS

Karl · 2 years ago

Howe's piece points to an important part of the puzzle - that building around communities of interest - while focusing locally - like CincyMOMS - brings real results.

What I've found with Philly Future is that it is easier to target smaller communities of interest within a geography, than entire geographical communities.

For example Philly Foods - Philly Sports - Philly Liberal Politics - all are potentially greater centers of community then a generalized Philadelphia community like Philly Future.

The more general your community effort is (to me news and community are synonymous) - the harder it is to gain traction.

Jeff Jarvis once said the web is about niches - he's right. Hyper local isn't a successful niche - it's just a strata to identify communities of interest - niches - within local geographies.

Mathew · 2 years ago

Thanks for the comment, Karl -- I think you're right.

In many ways, I don't think actual physical communities matter as much as we think they do -- shared interests (which may have to do with physical location or may not) are much more powerful.