Wednesday, May 13, 2009...10:49 am

How local content could save the Evening Standard

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Yesterday I posted about how news wouldn’t be the selling point for the new-look Evening Standard, unless perhaps it was a real engagement with local news.
Obviously, Recovering Journalist Mark Potts takes a much more incisive and in-depth look at such issues – and his latest post is particularly relevant. 
In it he suggests local news aggregation could be key to giving newspapers a stronger position in their community.

“I’m still waiting for the first big newspaper site to take a serious crack at aggregating all the local news and information it can find, regardless of source, and establishing itself as the expert on all things local … it’s a lot cheaper than putting more reporters on the street. 

If the Evening Standard becomes a kind of portal for local news sources – bloggers, community newsletters, pictures, videos etc – it could use its sizeable distribution infrastructure to get that news to hundreds of thousands of commuters who might then have another reason to pick up a copy. 
As Recovering Journalist says, there is no magic bullet to save newspapers. But if the Standard is looking for fresh ideas, it could do worse than take the risk.

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