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Hyperlocal media receives £1m funding boost

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By John Glenday, Reporter

March 29, 2012 | 2 min read

A £1m development of the UK’s hyperlocal media sector is being launched today by Nesta and the Technology Strategy Board.

‘Destination Local’ is seeking to identify the technologies, business models and content opportunities which the hyperlocal service offers and will issue two calls for entries.

One from Nesta will seek projects requiring seed funding of up to £50k to test the next generation of hyperlocal services whilst the TSB will seek entrants needing up to £56k in the first of a three part programme focussed on convergence in a digital landscape.

Jon Kingsbury, Programme Director, at Nesta, said: “The increasing adoption of new, mobile-based technologies offers exciting possibilities to deliver highly localised information services to niche audiences. ‘Destination Local’ will prototype the next generation of hyperlocal services in a bid to understand whether these new technologies and platforms can deliver sustainable, scalable models that serve local communities and deliver economic benefit.”

Dr. Jeremy Silver, Creative Industries Lead Specialist of the TSB, added: ‘Traditional models of local media, print or broadcast, have suffered as the internet has undermined their business models. But the combination of social media with location-aware technologies, the lowering of barriers to entry for self-publishing, and the high degree of user-engagement now visible online suggests that new models for local media might emerge out of new smarter uses of enabling technologies.”

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