Why local online sites died: a post-mortem with a possible silver lining

[Commentary] Hyperlocal online news startups can resemble the bloody wars convulsing the Middle East. “In the world of community news, you win or you die,” said David Boraks, founder of the Davidson News and Cornelius News in North Carolina. Boraks died, or at least his sites did a few months ago, he recounted to the Local Independent Online News (LION) annual gathering in Chicago. “I’m totally at peace with the decision to shut down,” Boraks said. The auditorium at Columbia College in Chicago’s downtown South Loop might have been draped in black for a gathering whose de facto predecessor was called Block by Block. There was, after all, a distinctly funereal air to a session titled, “Turning out the Lights.”

The local news journalists shared distinct commonalities. When they started, they saw a potential market. They were proud of their work. And, in hindsight, they weren’t especially good businessmen and wish they had given more disciplined forethought to that element of their enterprise. By the time they came to that realization, it was too late.