NYTimes.com Goes Hyper-Local, Too

(MoneyWatch)  A couple weeks back, we reported on the deal between NBC and Outside.in to provide hyper-local coverage in New York and other cities where the network has affiliated stations.
Today comes news that The New York Times has launched a similar deal with another of our favorite startups -- EveryBlock.com. This particular partnership aims to expand political news coverage throughout the city.


For example, users visiting EveryBlock New York will be pinged whenever a local elected representative is mentioned in the Times. The data comes from Represent, a searchable catalogue on local government owned by the Times.

The last time I checked in on EveryBlock, it was the service's ability to aggregate government records, local news articles, blogs, Flickr photos, Yelp reviews and the like in Chicago and four other cities that caught my attention. Since then, EveryBlock has established footholds in 11 cities nationwide, including New York, Philadelphia and San Francisco.
At this point, I'm agnostic about the merits of Outside.in vs. EveryBlock. They're both very good in my view. The exciting thing is that growing numbers of big media executives apparently think so too, and this bodes well for an industry that for too long has sat on the sidelines of the digital revolution, rather than jumping in and see where it takes them.