Yes hyper local news sites might be on a sticky wicket, but it is an interesting debate and again an area where the legislation has not caught up with the technology / web.

I would be interested to know of any liable suits that are currently ongoing with local bloggers?

A particularly good example is the Bristol Blogger (anonymous) who has a no holes barred style and has avoided prosecution to date. (as far as I am aware).

However, ultimately it is all about community and contacts. You have to build bridges in a community to get to the best stories. Burn them at your peril…

Having just started as community manager for a Northcliffe Meda local site in Bristol (Redland People) and having run my own neighourhood blog for 4 years, I agree these are real issues.

The complexity is heightend when you have a family who are integal members of the neighbourhood.

At Redland People, we only cover soft news, but I agree that an independent blogger may want to push the boat out at times – as I did when a local youth was arrested for manufacturing a suicide vest, and I broke the story about his school background.

Food for thought, thanks.

I think there is a need to reflect on “hyperlocal”. Does that mean the Evening Standard or the Lower-Twisleton-under-Piddle village paper? Jeff Jarvis’ recent models from CUNY suggest that “ultralocal” may actually mean “regional” or “metropolitan” in some quarters.

>The skillset is totally different – you need to be trained, brave and hungry for career success to succeed as a local journalist, to succeed as a local blogger you need a community interest and time on your hands.

I think that is a false dichotomy, and that anybody can combine the roles and skills however, and whenever, they want. Do I have to be interested in what anybody decides is “success” for my local site, or perhaps it is not for anybody to set up criteria?

I’d encourage local bloggers to evaluate themselves on their own terms in their own context, though I’d certainly encourage them to take a vigorous and campaiging approach to scrutiny of their local politicians – since that role is available in spades as the local commercial media withdraws.

I’m wondering – but haven’t put it systematically yet – that “trained journalists” are perhaps trained out of a whole set of skills and a mindset which are native to bloggers, which may be crucial for one type of ultralocal site.

Is one strand of local blogging is about building (I would say rebuilding) life in a community, and you can’t do that by flying in with a newspaper and dropping a story from 30,000 feet. Is the possibility of having someone annoyed turn up on your doorstep a necessary risk for a local publication which is truly local? Can a publication *be* part of local life without that risk?

And is that a competitive edge that local blogs will have over less local newspapers?

As a final note, I think that anonymous reporting – unless there is a local trusted brand which lends an integrity to counterbalance the anonymity – is a dangerous game editorially.