The brief: Hyperlocal news economics, quick and easy mobile sites + regional press awards
A late one for the brief tonight, but managed to squeeze in a digest of the discussions, posts and tweets I've caught today.
A good one if you're struggling to create a mobile version of your site that makes it look good on iPhone or Android. I've noticed on Blog Preston our mobile traffic has been rapidly increasing in terms of device accessed from, but I'll be damned if we're going to shell out for a custom mobile site.
The post above highlighted via Adam Singer shows off 'Go Mobile'. A Google-backed (is everything these days?) tool that allows small businesses to quickly build their own mobile site from scratch with a "friendly" site builder - but note it is only free for a year, then I guess you've got to pay. It integrates with Google Analytics and I assume Google AdSense so you can start monetising your mobile traffic and measure it accurately. Regional Press Awards shortlist
Congrats to all who made the shortlist, the Society of Editors' Regional Press Awards includes some great names and titles. Well done to all, particularly looking forward to seeing who scoops the Digital Award. Best of luck to the two Trinity Mirror sites (Liverpool Echo and Manchester Evening News) who I work with who are shortlisted.
Data journalism - not just pretty maps
Two interesting posts here both around data journalism. Claire Miller posted a quick blog about the Manchester Evening News' crime series which used data journalism to power a series about crime in the city - taking data and making good stories.
And on cue, journalism student Daniel Bentley produced this map of the planning applications in Preston. Pretty yes, but does it tell you much apart from where the planning applications are? It does highlight the growing trend for data information, be interesting to see if Dan could package this up and flog it to say estate agents, builders, architects or other interested parties in the city.
Hyperlocal news on Google and making a crust
Two interesting hyperlocal posts today, one from Will Perrin spotting that Google News is now indexing hyperlocal sites without them asking in its search results.
And Richard Jones - who ran Saddleworth News - blogs on the BBC College of Journalism site about the pressures of running a local news site. The comments below are very interesting as people debate the economics of hyperlocal sites, and this will no doubt be a theme of the discussion to come at the Talk About Local unconference later this month.