> No one really runs a hyperlocal online news service in most places.
What’s stopping them? I’ll answer, money.
Unless supported by subscriptions, who is going to advertise on such a site? Local businesses that would be intimidated by the local thugs. Nice store front you’ve got there, I’d hate to see something happen to it.
Of course though, the overhead for hosting a wordpress based site is probably $2000/year. Don’t have to worry about distributing any dead trees.
There is also the example of blogs like “Second City Cop”. great stuff.