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By Stefan Arnold, December 5, 2009 1:09 pm

How do you tell people about extremely local news? Where does this information belong? Years ago, a sign like this would hang on the five-and-dime and the information put in the newspaper. But now?

For the past few years, as mainstream and not-so mainstream web sites have done a better job at getting out national news quickly, many newspapers and their web sites have been focusing more and more on not just local news but also neighborhood-level news to differentiate themselves. Some call this news super local, local local, or hyper local news.

Fine. Hyper local. So does information about an alumni game belong in the paper? Most papers cover a wide enough area so that the alumni game may potentially interest only a small fraction of its readers. If you live in another town even just 10 miles away, do you care?

The issue  now is currently people have three main ways to get hyper local news besides word of mouth … Newspapers, “news” web sites, and social media.

As social media grows in popularity, people won’t need to get the paper or go to a traditional “web site” … they’ll get the information on their phones. They will see a tweet or a friend’s Facebook page. And, in turn, they will tweet, tell their grandparents, and so on.

So, if newspapers don’t focus on strictly national news, and of course they shouldn’t, and they are slowly losing the hyper local market to social media, how do they respond?

The answer? Social media.

Newspapers must do a better job of DRIVING the information.

Tell all the readers via Twitter and the web site. Ask them if they are going. Get a conversation started. Link to photos from that high school team in action, even if it’s last year’s regular-season games or practice. Show video.

The point is to get people excited about the INFORMATION.

If the readers know they can get hyper local news from you again and again … faster, more complete and with better visuals … they will come back.

And that’s the whole point.

Fly on the news.

Comments most appreciated.

And leave your twitter name!

Thanks.