"Internal migration within India increased significantly after economic liberalization in 1991. The effect of liberalization really took effect on the ground in India around the year 2000 when the internal migration from the relatively poorer regions of north and east to the more prosperous regions ... of south and west saw a huge spike in numbers. GlobalOriya.com was an early initiative in community media for the internally displaced population of the eastern province of Orissa (now called Odisha) outside of the province. This was a very successful initiative, which spread to have a dedicated and engaged readership of more than 8000 members in little over three years. However, it died a sudden death in early 2007 when different factors combined to lead to its demise. It is an excellent case study of what can go wrong in an otherwise successful community media initiative. This paper details the journey of the initiative from the perspective of one of its founders and disseminates the learnings from this experience aiming to help other community media organizations become much more robust against such sudden failures." (Abstract) more

"There are more than 400 active hyperlocal websites in the UK, compared with 1,045 local papers. New sites are being uncovered by researchers on a daily basis. One in ten say they use local community websites or apps at least weekly (7 per cent in 2013). 17 per cent of UK internet users use websites ... or apps each week for news about their local area or community; a further 31 per cent do so quarterly. Consumption of this content online is increasing. The most common topic covered by hyperlocal media is community activities e.g. festivals, clubs and societies, local councils and the services they provide. Functional information about community events, services, local weather and traffic, are the most popular content types with hyperlocal audiences. Investigative reporting, which has helped uncover controversial new information about local civic issues or events, has been produced by almost half of the UK’s online hyperlocal publishers in the last two years." (Pages 4-5) more