Tag: Local News

Google Launches Emergency Relief Fund to Support Local News

Google is launching the Journalism Emergency Relief Fund in an effort to help support local journalists and news outlets amid the coronavirus pandemic.

In a blog post, Google News VP Richard Gingras said that “local news is a vital resource for keeping people and communities connected in the best of times. Today, it plays an even greater function in reporting on local lockdowns or shelter at home orders, school and park closures, and data about how COVID-19 is affecting daily life.”

After highlighting the challenges local news outlets are facing during the economic downturn, Gingras said the Journalism Emergency Relief Fund will focus on helping small, medium and hyper-local news publishers. The amount of the relief will range from low thousands to low tens of thousands, depending on the size of the newsroom.

“Starting today, publishers everywhere can apply for funds via a simple application form,” Gingras continued. “We’ve made this as streamlined as possible to ensure we get help to eligible publishers all over the world. Applications will close on Wednesday April 29, 2020 at 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time. At the end of the process, we’ll announce who has received funding and how publishers are spending the money.”

Google’s announcement is good news for small newsrooms and will hopefully help publishers keep delivering news at time when it’s more important than ever.

April 15, 2020
Apparently There’s Only One Way to Report News About Mike Myers and a Baby

One of Conan O’Brien’s best bits is his “media reacts” bit, where his team compiles various local new broadcasts reporting news in the exact same way. Seriously, the exact same way. It’s as if there’s one writer sitting somewhere writing a single script and distributing it to W-blah-blah-blah before every evening news telecast. It’s hilarious.

Well, Mike Myers and his wife Kelly Tisdale are expecting a second baby. I’ll give you three guesses as to the joke everyone made – but you won’t need them.

via Team Coco
Image via Wikimedia Commons

October 18, 2013
AOL CEO Armstrong Moving Full Steam Ahead with Patch

On the heels of winning a proxy showdown against a gang of grumbling shareholders yesterday, AOL CEO Tim Armstrong is punctuating his victory over that cabal of activist investors known as Starboard by pushing the very product they insisted was a poor business endeavor: AOL’s local news platform, Patch.

Although Patch has yet to return a profit for AOL, the platform started showing signs of life last month by setting a new record in both traffic and revenue. Now, Armstrong appears to be taking the rebuke of Starboard’s attempted insurrection of the company’s board of directors as a license to continue developing the online local news service. “There are only two people in the U.S. investing in local news and information: me and Warren Buffett,” Armstrong told The New York Post.

While Patch is expected to have its best year yet in 2012 by generating $40 to $50 million in revenue, Armstrong expects that the platform will finally be producing a profit by the end of 2013. He said two key components to turning Patch into a source of profit involve increasing consumer engagement as well as developing new ways to monetize the expected growth in traffic.

Meanwhile, Starboard took a break from licking its wounds after yesterday’s vote and sold off more than 425,000 shares of AOL in the aftermath, sending the company’s stock falling 5.7%. Way to lose with dignity, guys.

June 15, 2012
Cute One-Eyed Dog Guards Google’s Oklahoma Data Center

Urs Holzle, Google’s senior vice president of technical infrastructure, this week pointed his followers on Google+ toward a local Oklahoma television news station and a report on an interesting Googler working at Google’s Pryor, Oklahoma data center. From the Google+ post:

Did you know Google had a one-eyed security dog at the Oklahoma data center? I didn’t, until I saw this clip.

The clip Holzle refers to is a heartwarming animal-intrest piece filmed by Fox 23 in Oklahoma. Miss G, a one-eyed guard dog at the Google facility is a stray taken in by the employees there. The security staff at the data center are completely enamored of the dog, who’s name was shortened from Miss Google. Take a look at the report below and see the generosity of the Googlers in Oklahoma:

Last month Google created “The Story of Send” to show off the lengths the company has gone to make its data centers run green, so it’s not surprising that Googlers would take in a stray dog. I, for one, agree with Chris Lichowicz’s comment under Holzle’s post: that dog needs an eye patch. Eye patches are cool.

June 5, 2012
Google ‘News Near You’ Comes to Mobile

Google began aggregating local news in its Google News service in 2008. When it first began, users typed in a city name or zip code and viola! News from their specific area was now available from a huge variety of sources. Currently, local news is now displayed in a box on the right side of the Google news homepage.

Google knew from the beginning that they weren’t the first or only news aggregators around, so what they touted at setting them apart from other was their thoroughness.

We’re not simply looking at the byline or the source, but instead we analyze every word in every story to understand what location the news is about and where the source is located.

Today, on the official Google News blog, they are announcing the “news near you” feature on Google News mobile.

Here’s how it works:

When you visit news.google.com from your Android of iPhone mobile browser for the first time, you will see a pop-up notification that asks for persmission to share your current location. Privacy concerns be damned, if you want local news you’re going to have to let them pinpoint you.

Considering you say yes, “news near you” will then appear at the bottom of the homepage. It will also be accessible at the “jump to” tab on the top right. Users can reorganize the sections to put “news near you” at the top on the personalization page.

May 13, 2011
Mobile Devices Driving Local News Consumption

Nearly half of all American adults (47%) get at least some local news and information on their cellphone or tablet computer, according to a new report.

These findings come from a survey of 2,251 conducted in January by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project and Project for Excellence in Journalism, in partnership with the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

The information people search for on mobile platforms is practical and real time: 42 percent of mobile device owners say they get weather updates and 37 percent get information about restaurants or other local businesses on their phones or tablets.

Just 13% of all mobile device owners report having an app that helps them get local information or news, which represents 11% of the total American adult population. While almost half of adults get local news on mobile devices, just 1 in 10 use apps to do so. Call it the “app gap.”

“Many news organizations are looking to mobile platforms, in particular mobile apps, to provide new ways to generate subscriber and advertising revenues in local markets,” noted Lee Rainie, Director of The Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project. “The survey suggests there is a long way to go before that happens.”

One question in the news industry is whether the willingness to pay for online content would grow if people faced the prospect of their local media not surviving. Asked about the value of online access to their local newspaper, 23% of survey respondents say they would pay $5 a month to get full access to local newspaper content online. When asked if they would pay $10 per month, 18% of adults say yes. Both figures are substantially higher than the percentage of adults (5%) who currently pay for online local news content. Nonetheless, roughly three-quarters say they would not pay anything.

When asked about the value of their local newspaper:

*28% of Americans say the loss of the local newspaper would have a major impact on their ability to keep up with local information.

*30% say it would have a minor impact

*39% say the loss of the newspaper would have no impact.

“While on the surface these findings may look bad for news organizations, there is some potentially good news in the data. We found that adults who consume local news on mobile devices are almost twice as likely as other adults to say they would be willing to pay to access their local newspaper online,” said Kristen Purcell, Associate Director for Research at the Pew Internet Project.

“The percentage willing to pay is even higher among local app users, so there’s evidence that this new mobile local news consumer sees value in their local newspaper.”

March 14, 2011
AOL To Expand Patch To 500 Sites

AOL said today it has launched 100 Patch local news sites and has plans to grow that number to 500 by the end of the year.

AOL plans to hire 500 journalists to support its Patch expansion and it will likely be the largest hirer of full-time journalists in the U.S. this year.

"Today’s launch of our 100th site is a significant milestone for us. We began with just three Patch communities in February 2009, and have since made incredible progress toward fulfilling our core mission of providing comprehensive information and trusted, professional news coverage to towns and communities," said Warren Webster, President, Patch Media.

AOL hopes its Patch network will be positioned to tap an estimated $20 billion in local online advertising dollars. Each Patch site is managed by one professional local editor, along with freelancers focused on covering news in a specific community.

Patch sites have launched in California, Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island and Virginia. The 2010 expansion includes plans to extend Patch’s reach into more than a dozen new states including Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Washington and Wisconsin.

"All news is essentially local, and the pace at which Patch has grown shows that the demand for meaningful community news and information is alive and well," said Phil Meyer, Professor Emeritus in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and a member of the Patch Editorial Advisory Board.

August 17, 2010
AOL Launches Patch.org To Fund Hyperlocal News

AOL said today it is launching Patch.org, a charitable foundation to support access to local news and information in underserved communities.

Patch.org will partner with community foundations and other organizations to launch sites and bring local news and information to communities that lack adequate news media and online local information.

For each of the sites launched via Patch.org, a professional journalist will produce news and information about the area and manage user-contributed events, announcements, photos and video. Patch.org will consider funding and partnership requests for other appropriate projects. AOL says all profits will be returned to where the sites are based.

"In a shifting media landscape, the loss of local and community newspapers has created a troubling gap in some communities making reliable objective news and information about critical issues such as local government, schools and services unavailable," said Warren Webster, President, Patch Media.

"Patch.org will empower residents of these neighborhoods with professional journalism, data and information to help shed light on the issues that are so important to their daily lives."

Patch.org will be managed with the support of AOL’s subsidiary Patch Media. The charitable foundation will operate along with Patch’s Give 5 program, which donates advertising space and employee volunteer time to charitable organizations in local communities.

March 24, 2010
Newspaper Websites Most Valued Local News Source

Newspaper websites are the most valued sites for people seeking credible and trustworthy local content, according to a new survey conducted by comScore for the Newspaper Association of America (NAA).

More than half (57%) of the 3,050 respondents cited local newspaper websites as the top online source for local information. That percentage increases for upper income households (63%) and for the college educated (60%).

Newspaper sites ranked first as a source for local information (29%), local sports (27%), local entertainment (26%) and local classifieds (39%), over both local television websites and online portals.

"This important research provides further evidence of newspapers’ successful multiplatform transition, with the medium serving as a continuous local resource for consumers," said NAA President and CEO John F. Sturm.

"While newspaper Web sites often face dozens of competitors touting their own local offerings in any given market, they have been able to thrive by leveraging trusted brands and strong local content to appeal to consumers and advertisers alike."

Local newspaper websites ranked first among all sources for trustworthiness, credibility and being the most informative place to find local content of all types, including news, information, entertainment, sports and classified advertising. When respondents were asked what sources were most trustworthy or reliable, local newspaper websites beat out local television sites (34% vs. 22%), local sports (30% vs. 24%), local entertainment (30% vs. 20%) and local classifieds (42% vs. 13 %).

The survey also found that people consider local newspaper websites to be the most trusted source of online advertising, with ads that are seen to be more current, credible and relevant to them.

Forty percent of adults agreed their opinion of online advertising is influenced by the type of website on which the ad appears. More than one third (36%) selected local newspaper websites for trustworthy advertising compared to 23 percent for local television websites and 12 percent for online portals. This was true across all demographics.

"This survey reinforces the notion that consumers value and trust the premium-quality content found at newspaper Web sites as well as the advertising on those sites," said Randy Bennett, NAA’s senior vice president of Business Development.

"It also provides further evidence that newspapers, which attracted a record 75 million visitors in January, offer advertisers a high-value audience that no other medium can match."

February 25, 2010