Local News is Dying in the United States, Hive Can Revive It

Start Your Own Local Newspaper on Hive? Why Not?

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Local news has been declining in the past two decades in the United States with technological advances and smaller towns that used to have a local news beat through their local newspaper declining in population. Profitability for a local news team is a challenge not only for print editions, but for television as well. It's a common phenomenon to see smaller Designated Market Areas (DMAs) have common ownership between stations and cross-promote each other. Local newsrooms that operated on a shoestring comprised of "one-man band" reporters fresh out of the competitive and deep Journalism School graduate pools (University of Missouri, University of Georgia, Arizona State University, et al.) work to build their portfolios to impress larger market stations to move up the ladder. With less opportunities out there, the coverage drops and misinformation grows as the news is often released on Twitter. This is interestingly Hive's big opportunity to make a major difference as it creates a low bar to entry and earning for journalists.

Getting Local Communities Invested into their News

Hive and the creation of local news tokens enable local news providers/entrepreneurs the opportunity to provide the coverage their localities need while at the same earning revenue to pay bills. The challenge of attracting advertisers and subscribers is counteracted by the demand for such news and the ability for the likes to enrich both curators/readers and the content creators themselves.

For the cost of 100 BEE (roughly $14 at this given time) and the cost of creating a news site development (this varies based on the development skills and server needs of the local news creator), there can be a token and a connected site to the Hive Blockchain. It's an opportunity to connect with those in Web 2.0 spaces to bring them over to Web3 in a way that is engaging and impactful to the real lives of so many.

Great Local News attracts Great Financial Support

Quality local news on the Hive Blockchain creates demand for the currency and the power that staking it holds. It also adds value to the Layer 2 cryptocurrencies, which is also good for all participants on the Hive Blockchain.

Exposure to 3Speak for local newscasts as an alternative or complement to YouTube is also helpful for generating revenue and exposure to various stories in local areas that are no longer served or are underserved.

Hive Cannot Be a Self-Congratulatory Ghetto

Much of what is published on Hive is not necessarily helpful to people's real lives. Much of the content created are diaries, talk of financial freedom, and sunshine-pumping to tell you that Hive is going to change the world when it still has a way to go to reach ordinary people.

The future of Hive is that not everything on this blockchain is going to applicable to the current community, the Web3 savvy user, it is going to be information that is important to the targeted audiences. The growth of Hive and Web3 is not going to be sexy at all, it's going to be mundane and comparatively boring. A new Lidl opening up a town, a shooting that takes place at a convenience store, a High School Football game, and other stories will be what brings people to this blockchain. No bells, no whistles, and no hype. Ordinary happenings that people want to know about in their localities.

Changing how people consume and are invested in their news is a big shift from the status quo, but it could result in a more informed populace. The improved transparency as a result of the blockchain and edits post-publishing on the blockchain also are extremely helpful in an age where news stories are cleaned and removed for reasons that have eroded trust in media.

Selling Hive to Juniors and Seniors in colleges and universities and to recent graduates who may find themselves in a situation where they could be a part of a newsroom that is discontinued within a few months of their employment by a company like Nexstar, Tegna, Sinclair, Gannett, McClatchy or Tribune Publishing would be a wise decision. It's an opportunity for these individuals to bet on themselves and move up the ladder if they choose to do so, they can sell off their Hive account and ostensibly their newspaper to someone else to take over. There are other possibilities, but there are more possibilities through Hive than there would be without it.