The Future Buzz

The functions of a traditional, printed community newspaper are to:

• Tell stories that have meaning locally
• Unite small communities
• Provide community calendars and event listings
• Bring hyper-local issues to light
• Provide ads for relevant local businesses

Unfortunately, many hyper local papers are dying off instead of evolving. It doesn’t have to be this way.

What if, in addition to the above mentioned traditional items offered by a print publication, local community news organizations could serve to:

This post is the first in a new category on The Future Buzz called startup ideas. This category will feature content about services, .coms and social networks that could potentially be hits in the marketing/public relations industry and beyond.

The current solution

ProfNet is a great service for the PR industry. If you’re unfamiliar, ProfNet is (quoted from their site):

“An online community of nearly 14,000 professional communicators, ProfNet was created in 1992 to connect reporters easily and quickly with expert sources at no charge. We now provide this same free service to other professionals looking for experts, including:

• Academic Researchers
• Authors/Screenwriters
• Bloggers
• Consultants
• Corporate Researchers
• Financial Analysts
• Government Officials
• Industry Analysts
• Meeting Planners
• PR and Marketing Professionals
• Publishers