Out With A Bang

As the penny appears to be finally dropping that the world doesn’t do mid-range news – just global and hyper-local…

http://outwithabang.rickwaghorn.co.uk/?p=56

… so The New York Times has today thrown its own hat into this particular ring; or decided to try and launch its own little life-raft into these freezing waters of ours.

http://maplewood.blogs.nytimes.com/

They are, of course, just the latest in a number of local initiatives springing up through NY and New Jersey; all with Mr Jarvis’ helping hand in their midst… that and the man from Google in the case of ‘Patch’.

http://www.buzzmachine.com/2009/02/28/the-times-cuny-and-others-go-hyperlocal/

Having sat on a stool at Jeff’s www.NewsInnovation.com gig with Addiply in the autumn of 2007 with our own, hyper-local/niche advertising system then no more than a twinkle in anyone’s eye, it was – with hindsight – a slightly despiriting event; even if it gave me the chance to put a face to a couple of names in the shape of two of our tops boys on this circuit – David Cohn and Mark Potts.

And it also gave me an insight into certain aspects of the CUNY/East Coast thinking in action – and where my fellow revenue panellists saw the world going; that we were all engaged in a ‘race to the bottom…’ – that we were entering an age where the only numbers that mattered were the big numbers.

That if we all started to run Paris Hilton blogs, we’d be fine… Mr BlogAds wasn’t about to dirty his shoes with anyone trying to launch a hyper-local news-site off a Bay suburb. Or, indeed, in WestSeattle.

Where are the numbers in that? And, besides, by the time any of us got our ass into gear, Google would have an ad salesperson in every town and city in the UK.

Well, I think the world has changed since then. Cos people want to see the numbers. More than ever.

That was a big piece in the WSJ; that we have this one chance to enter an ‘Age Of Transparency’ before big government, big business and what’s left of the big banks close ranks again.

http://outwithabang.rickwaghorn.co.uk/?p=249. Caveat vendor, etc..

And I’d add Google to that list, too. Cos in amidst WWGD, transparency and ‘pixellation’ don’t – for me – actually figure too large.

And as the likes of www.peoplesrepublicofsouthdevon.co.uk delight in the fact that they can now control the means of their own advertising production, I’m not sure big business will ever deliver their needs… Not in the coffee shops and art-houses of Totnes.

http://outwithabang.rickwaghorn.co.uk/?p=246

They want to be empowered with the ability to pick and choose who advertisers on their site; they don’t want Mr BlogAds deciding that for them… Just as, I suspect, our Tracy doesn’t want Google deciding who gets to advertise on her laudable www.westseattleblog.com

All of which thoughts sprang to mind as I cast a curious eye over how the NYTimes intends to ‘do local’.

By offering hair salons and restaurants the chance to advertise on TheLocal/Maplewood by… clicking through the Advertise with NYTImes.com ‘button’ above the ad for the Phillips get-to-sleep-easier thing…

[Update: It's now a photo-copier; seen a rabbit ad in a pile of carrots for the Canton 2009 conference; same logic applies... ain't the local beauty parlour...]

And then clicking through to this… http://www.nytimes.whsites.net/mediakit/online/rates/ad_rates.php

Where you can…

Contact the category Advertising Director for online rates.

Browse examples of creative ad units – View Creative Ad Units

By which stage, I suspect, any PizzaParlour owner or hair salon manageress in downtown Maplewood has another customer walking through the door, waiting to be served…

In the meantime, I will serve the ‘community’ of Maplewood with any old spare Phillips ad that we’ve got knocking about on our digital ad inventory. Here, have that crumb off our table…

It’s a top down solution to a community that’s crying out for a bottom-up solution to their advertising needs.

Sure, some will want to advertise on TheLocal/Maplewood; but they want an advertising opportunity that’s quick, simple and full of numbers – just what am I getting here for my $50 hard-earned bucks…

And, you know what, if I was the ‘beat’ editor for TheLocal/Maplewood, I would my home-page launch advertiser to be Phillips, either. Where’s ‘The Local’ in that?

Three cheers for the NYTimes and Co granting the people of Maplewood access to their own, hyper-local news platform. Brilliant. But that same community want more than that; they want the chance to place a postcard in the window of the ‘general news store’ that is TheLocal/Maplewood; one that they can trust and understand; that meets their simple and straight-forward community advertising needs…

And I don’t see it… I see the community engagement editorially; the chance for the local blog community of Maplewood to find shelter beneath the NYTimes ‘brand’, but that’s where the level of empowerment appears to stop.

You’re giving them a big business solution to their hyper-local needs. And, for all-too many of us these days, big business solutions suck.

Empowerment has to be to the people. And, what’s more, by the people.