Opinion: News at your doorstep’s worth knowing, and we deliver

Perhaps you’ve heard the term “hyperlocal.”

I hope so. If not, let me explain what it is and why The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and other news organizations are investing in this category of news.

Hyperlocal, simply put, are the things happening closest to your home. It’s geographically centered information you might need to help you navigate your community.

Think of it as the newspaper endeavoring to answer the questions about where you live that might be raised during your morning commute.

What’s that under construction?

Why is traffic around here increasingly gridlocked?

Will that new school scheduled to open soon change attendance lines and change where my kid is assigned?

And what’s the best place around here to get a terrific slice of pizza or a good, sloppy burger?

Obviously, this isn’t the deep, investigative journalism upon which the AJC has built much it’s reputation. We would never retreat from that. But we have, for some time now, recognized that new digital tools have created new audience expectations and new capabilities for us.

Among those expectations is the idea that the AJC should be able to answer the questions of right now, the kind of information you need to make daily decisions and understand your local community at the street level. The kinds of questions that may not require us to pore through government documents and analyze data, but requires us to be observant, present and well versed in the kinds of information you’re interested in consuming and understanding.

Nearly two years ago, I wrote here about how we had launched a team of reporters and editors dedicated to producing hyperlocal news. It was an experiment aimed at leveling what had been a deliberate, strategic shift to concentrate heavily on watchdog news, often aimed at the highest levels go government. Ultimately, hyperlocal has confirmed for us that you, the audience, have broad interests and we needed to build ourselves in a way to meet all of your information expectations.

As I explained then, it’s a great time to be a journalist in search of deeper connections with the public. That’s because technology has stitched together mankind in ways previous generations could have never imagined. As a result, all news is local, immediately available and shareable.

Smartphone technology and social media have forever changed the way the news is delivered. That technology has also empowered communities to have real-time discussions about the issues of they day — discussions that help us understand what’s most important to you.

In years past, there wasn’t much of a two-way conversation between media and media consumers.

Now, it’s simple for media outlets to speak directly with our audiences about our priorities and theirs. At the AJC, we’ve used Facebook as a primary tool to expose that work and to conduct those community conversations.

Over recent years, we’ve launched five geographic Facebook pages, all powered by the AJC newroom. They are:

Collectively, those pages have more than 875,000 followers. That’s a large audience in search of news relevant to their local communities.

We have used those pages to serve our readers and, through carefully analyzing metrics, understand some audience preferences in metro Atlanta.

So what have we learned over the past two years?

If you live in Cobb, traffic is a big concern. Understanding this, our hyperlocal reporters have diligently kept Cobb residents up to speed with road construction and other projects that have often increased gridlock and forced many of you to consider different ways to move about. While I-75 toll lanes might grab the biggest headlines, the story Ben Brasch wrote in April about the collapsed culvert that caused Tanyard Creek Road to close for two weeks was vitally important to the folks in that area. An example of the kind of hyperlocal reporting we produce to help you make decisions in your daily life.

If you live in Gwinnett, as I do, food is a big deal. Restaurant news is an audience winner there, with some of the most viewed stories we produce in that area being health inspection scores. Recently, my 16-year-old daughter and her theater group decided to celebrate after a performance at a chain restaurant. It had recently posted a failing score. So I forwarded her a story we produced that made them rethink the decision.

If you live Intown Atlanta, the category of news we term “Things to Do” always performs well. In a vibrant city that boasts many entertainment choices, the folks inside the Perimeter are keenly interested in the events around town.

We’ve learned that school news is really important everywhere, with some distinct preferences. The Gwinnett audience, for example, loves news about kids doing well. DeKalb, on the other hand, is more interested in test scores and institutional watchdog stories.

We are working each day to better understand you, the audience, your needs and interests.

It’s information worth producing because it’s information worth knowing.