Just a few short weeks ago, a couple of Hub staffers stood in a church meeting room in Whitesville, Boone County, to talk to a dozen or so community members about the possibility of starting a simple local news and information blog page.
Today, the brand new Whitesville Word (whitesvilleword.wordpress.com) has 1,463 followers, and is providing information about local events to the people who need it most – the locals.
Since then, I’ve heard from a lot of people interested in perhaps starting a similar local news and information blog for their community.
In a time when some traditional news outlets are struggling to provide the kind of local coverage they used to, simple, locally-driven blogs are immensely powerful tools to keep communities connected, and provide a great opportunity for entrepreneurial locals to take the reins of local information sharing.
Tapping in to this energy, at the Faces of Leadership Conference in Charleston yesterday I presented a workshop on “How to Start a Local News Blog.” Many of the people I spoke to that day told me they planned to start such a blog right away, in their home towns.
That would be awesome. When it comes to encouraging and facilitating locally-driven community development work (which is what The Hub loves to do!), providing a timely local information sharing platform is one of the most important contributions you can make.
Here’s the slides of that presentation, below. If you are interested in starting a local blog in your community but couldn’t make yesterday’s workshop, that’s okay. Get in touch with me and I’ll come and help you guys get started.
Thanks for the ideas.