Last night at the Duke of York off London’s Charlotte Street I got an interesting insight into the future of local media in the UK. Addiply’s Rick Waghorn invited me to a small meetup of regional media properties and contributors.

Rick and his business partner Matt Waring are the team behind the Addiply local ad network that is brokering deals with regional media groups such as Trinity Mirror in the North East for its Your place network and independent hyperlocal sites such as Josh Halliday’s Sunderland’s SR2 Blog and Philip John’s Litchfield blog.

Addiply’s contention is that existing ad platforms are too complex to setup for local advertisers and aren’t sufficiently granular to work on a hyperlocal basis.

Addiply makes advertising as simple as posting an ad in a newsagent. And that’s important for small businesses and site owners alike. Costs are intentionally low to buy an ad on a hyperlocal blog (typically £10 per week) with 90 per cent of the fees returned to the publisher.

Rick’s goal is to sign-up more hyperlocal publishers nationwide and then package deals for brands and the public sector that are seeking to reach regional markets on a local basis. He’s got several deals with regional publishers in the works so watch this space.