No one talks much about certain topics after public crashes — even when the opportunity remains clear. Hyperlocal is one of these. TBD.com in Washington, D.C., crashed last February, and there is a lot of speculation that Patch.com has become a cash drain on AOL.com and is not sustainable (although CEO Tim Armstrong asserts …

I take great delight in the Carlsbad Patch updates on my smartphone every morning. And the Fwix local app on my iPad. But why do I feel they are my “guilty pleasures”? Because there is a rap out there that hyperlocal doesn’t scale and these are toys.
Is it still the case?
Patch now has a …

ZipLocal, the U.S. independent directory publisher, has launched a new “hyper local” leads-based advertising model called Local Leads that taps into a distribution network featuring 18 properties and 80 billion monthly impressions, according to ZipLocal execs who briefed us last week. The main players in the network are CityGrid, SuperMedia, Chitika and DiscoverOurTown.
ZipLocal is the publisher …

As “the media capital of the world,” New York is rife with daily newspapers, high-culture magazines and lifestyle publications, yet Trevor Sumner says he had “no idea what was going on in my neighborhood. I couldn’t even keep up with restaurants in the East Village.” That lack of district-level information inspired NearSay, a start-up site …

AOL’s Patch gave a progress report today on its $50 million hyperlocal initiative. The site said it now has 100 hyperlocal sites, and will launch 400 more over the next six months. It also said it plans to hire at least one journalist in each community, adding 500 new journalists as part of its growth. …

The latest attempt to make hyperlocal a sustainable reality came today with Allbritton Communications’ launch of TBD.com, a hyper metro site for the Washington, D.C., area. Allbritton, which has sunk “under $5 million” into the project to date, hopes it will grab hold of the D.C. audience in the same way that its Politico has …

Score one for local businesses … at least in Minnesota.
As of Aug. 1, the state began enforcement of a law that prohibits advertising “deceptive local telephone numbers and geographically deceptive business names” across the Internet, as well as in print advertisements and directories.
Legislation targets national businesses that camouflage themselves behind local names and listings, cluttering …

If people would only pay for their local content, nobody would be worried about the future of local news. But so far, most have proved less than willing. EBay founder Pierre Omidyar, however, is testing out new models at his Honolulu “Civil Beat” site, per NYU’s Jay Rosen, who talked with TBD.com’s blog.
Full …

Main Street Connect, a new hyperlocal network founded by former community newspaper executive Carll Tucker, former SmartReply exec John Falcone and others in the New York suburbs, notified the SEC on May 26 that it has raised $3.97 million for “working capital” from ten angel investors. The same form notes that the company will …

When it comes to hyperlocal, the problem may just be that the local reporting doesn’t reasonate with the community as much as the old community papers did. That’s the feeling behind Main Street Connect, a new company launched by a team that includes community newspaper publishing vet Carll Tucker; his wife, financial columnist Jane Bryant …

HelloMetro, the local news and city guide company based in Louisville, Kentucky, said that it now has unique hyperlocal content for 40 markets, and national coverage. The company has “Hello(cityname)” URLs covering the country, and relies on a core team of 25 journalists — or 15 full-time equivalents — to pump out the content. The …

Vermont’s Front Porch Forum is a hyperlocal network that has thrived, usage-wise, without relying on much of anything other than its authentic community voice. As recounted in an article in this month’s Yankee magazine by enviro-writer Bill McKibben, the hyperlocal network has expanded to 100 neighborhood nets, reaching 15,000 households. Each neighborhood is limited to …

EBay founder Pierre Omidyar  and former eBay VP Randy Ching are setting up a local public affairs and civic news site in Hawaii, where Omidyar lives, according to a post on Omidyar’s blog that was picked up by paidContent. Former Rocky Mountain News Editor and Publisher John Temple has been hired as its editor, and …