Retrieving and Repurposing: A Grounded Approach to Hyperlocal Working Practices through a Subcultural Lens

Abstract

The term ‘hyperlocal’ has become part of internet-era local news media vocabulary. In the UK, it symbolizes a twenty-first century style of community news provision which exists on the margins of the local media ecosystem. Mainstream media has lost traction in the ultra-local space, which has been increasingly populated by independent operators. This article proposes that independent hyperlocal publishing has borrowed elements from the mainstream, particularly the socially cohesive aspects. Applying subcultural theory to the working practices of 27 UK hyperlocal operators revealed that they were adopting a ‘make-do-and-mend’ bricolage culture (Lévi-Strauss, Claude. 1966. The Savage Mind. Oxford: Oxford University Press) which both retrieved and repurposed aspects of the mainstream (Hebdige, Dick. 2014. “After Shock: From Punk to Pornetration to “Let’s Be Facebook Frendz!!.” In Subcultures, Popular Music and Social Change. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing). Working practices and business practices once prevalent in the parent culture were at the heart of hyperlocal activities. When viewed as a news subculture, hyperlocal operators were found to be resistant to the mainstream parent culture, yet they retrieved and repurposed elements of it in their daily activities.

Keywords:

• Subculture
• hyperlocal
• bricolage
• community
• local media
• mechanical solidarity
• conscience collective

Introduction

The hyperlocal phenomenon has been part of the local media firmament for the past decade and continues to be championed as a chance for journalism to reclaim authenticity, credibility and trust in the profession (Downham and Murray 2020, 257). It represents a style of news which is devoted to the minutiae of a small geographical area or interest group, with the output at times labelled as downright ‘banal’ (Harte 2018). Hyperlocal is however a contested term, with no agreed definition (Metzgar, Kurpius, and Rowley 2011, 773) and Harte, Howells, and Williams state that definitions ‘remain elusive or divisive even among practitioners’ (2019, 8). Attempts to define hyperlocal have centred on restricted geographical location (Radcliffe 2012). Also their being ‘indigenous to the Web’ (Metzgar, Kurpius, and Rowley 2011, 781) and thus separating them from legacy organizations which were created in a pre-internet era. They have also been labelled a form of hybrid local news operation (ibid, 774) or ‘bridge’ media linking traditional forms of journalism with classic civic participation (Schaffer, 2007, 7). What is clear is that hyperlocal news is created by ‘an emergent generation of community journalists’ who favour a combination of online and print formats (Williams et al. 2014, 13). It is in their approach to news production where similarity can be found, since their working practices represent the re-emergence of grassroots, face-to-face interactions between community reporters and their publics. Hyperlocal journalists are embedded in their communities, at a time when local news journalists from legacy media have become increasingly distant and desk-bound.

They are positioned as ‘bottom-up’, grassroots media, filling a void left in local media by legacy operations which have retreated from the community as dwindling advertising revenues led to financial cuts and the closure of local offices (Howells 2015). They are independent of mainstream media and often positioned in opposition to them (Barnett and Townend 2015; de Meulenaere, Courtois, and Ponnet 2020) suggesting that they occupy the position of a subset. It is this cultural aspect of hyperlocal news operations which this article explores by positioning them as a subculture.

When analysing the hyperlocal phenomenon, the literature has considered such operations in terms of increasing plurality (Barnett and Townend 2015), counteracting democratic deficit (Howells 2015; Williams, Harte, and Turner 2015) and promoting a healthy functioning of the public sphere (Harte, Howells, and Williams 2019). Political economy approaches have concerned themselves with the increasing concentration of local media in the hands of corporate operations. They tend to focus on the problem of finding sustainable business models for new independent enterprises, in an era when even legacy operations, which enjoy economies of scale, are struggling (Naldi and Picard 2012; Cook and Sirkkunen 2013; Williams and Franklin 2007). This article’s use of subcultural theory complements such approaches, offering a cultural view of hyperlocal operations which leads to a more rounded knowledge.

The subcultural lens provides an additional viewpoint of power relations in the local media ecosystem. It suggests a different dimension to factor into political economy approaches by demonstrating the power-difference between mainstream operators and small independent operators, who find themselves underdogs in the local media ecosystem. Our grounded theory approach (Glaser and Strauss 1967) revealed that small independent operators are forced to adopt a bricolage, make-do-and-and mend (Lévi-Strauss1966) attitude, as they find themselves excluded from structures of opportunity (Williams 2011). All of the elements of subcultural theory are present in their daily struggles: marginality (Park 1928), antagonism and resistance to mainstream culture (Hall and Jefferson 2006), a difficult relationship with the “parent culture” (Cohen 1972) and the retrieving and repurposing of both practical and socially cohesive aspects lost in the mainstream (Cohen 1972; Hebdige 1979; 2014).

Applying a subcultural lens was first suggested by Kristy Hess and Lisa Waller in their 2016 paper, Hip to be hyper: the subculture of excessively local news, they proposed a cultural approach to the study of hyperlocal news to “generate fresh insights" (2016, 193–194). This article breaks new ground by mapping subcultural themes onto empirical evidence (Arnold 2019) and producing a new theoretical framework. Applying our framework revealed instances of retrieval and repurposing of activities no longer prevalent in the mainstream, demonstrating the adoption of a bricolage culture (Hebdige 1979, 2014). The importing of mainstream practices has been noted by academics before (Naldi and Picard 2012; Chanda 2016), but without being mapped onto subcultural theory. Hyperlocal is a global phenomenon, so this is a framework has wide-spread applications for future studies.

For the purposes of this article twentieth century legacy local newspapers are the “parent culture” (Cohen 1972), with independent hyperlocal operations the news subculture. We begin by addressing the factors which have created a hyperlocal subculture. Then discuss the methodology of the empirical study which generated the date. Next, the research participants and their motivations for independent publishing are introduced, when the first set of subcultural indicators are identified. The main body of the paper is concerned with their working practices, identifying the retrieving and repurposing activities of their every-day existence. We conclude by arguing that the working practices of independent hyperlocal operators are not new, but recycled.

Hyperlocal Operations and What Makes Them a Subculture?

Internet-era independent news operations are characterized by diversity and as stated hyperlocal is a contested term. Academics group different types of provisions under the hyperlocal heading (Baines 2010; Metzgar, Kurpius, and Rowley 2011; Thurman, Pascal, and Bradshaw 2012; Radcliffe 2012, 2015; Harte, Howells, and Williams 2019) yet: “producers of some sites and services that appear to fall under the hyperlocal umbrella dislike the term” (Williams et al. 2014, 7). There has been a tendency for definitions to focus on geographical location (Ofcom 2012; Radcliffe 2012) and “indigenous to the Web” has been another favourite (Metzgar, Kurpius, and Rowley 2011, 781). Yet Hess and Waller’s cultural angle on hyperlocal takes a more fundamental approach. They break down the word to unpick meaning, whereby hyper equates to “excessive”, while local:

… is to have a grounded connection with, and understanding of, a physical place and its social and cultural dimensions that is practical and embodied. Importantly, it involves an investment of time, requiring that one maintain a prolonged and continual presence in that place (2016, 197).

A geographical element is present, yet it is the cultural capital - the emphasis on embeddedness in the community – which represents the common factor between otherwise disparate operations. Connectedness and embeddedness are recognized as key components of community reporting (Lewis, Holton, and Coddington 2014).

Embeddedness is contained within the essence of Emile Durkheim’s notion of “conscience collective” (1893; Giddens 1978, 25; Hughes, Sharrock, and Martin 2003, 165). It represents the internal motivation which binds together smaller less evolved societies in his concept of mechanical solidarity. Durkheim’s The Division of Labour in Society (1893) identifies two forms of solidarity, “mechanical” and “organic”, which Jenks describes as: “metaphors for different ways of being in the world, different ways of seeing and understanding the world, and thus for different sociological approaches to the world” (2005, 25). Mechanical solidarity aligns with simple, community-centre society, while organic solidarity is representative of complex, industrialized society. This ‘conscience collective’ in mechanical solidarity society, translates to a feeling of ‘collectivity’ among individual members of a particular group or community causing them to cooperate. This article proposes that hyperlocal operators are part of the conscience collective of their community, be that a geographical community or community of interest. This feeling of belonging to a community is a feature of subcultures.

During the twenty-first century much of mainstream local media has lost its ‘presence’ in the community which is essential to being part of the collective consciousness. Business strategies of cost cutting to maximize profits have resulted in large scale consolidation of titles, newspaper closures and redundancies (Ponsford 2012; Mair 2013, 26; Ramsay et al. 2017). The closure of district offices that: “linked journalists with the local community” (Howells, 2015, 180) physically removed local papers from the community (Jackman 2013, 247–252). This has distanced legacy papers from the communities they claim to represent. The twenty-first century has been a turbulent era for mainstream local news production, with a well-documented crisis (Franklin 2006; Ramsay et al. 2017; Williams 2017). In response to this crisis hyperlocal advocacy group Talk About Local was founded in 2009 by research participant William Perrin to promote and support community publishers. This transformation is important in the light of Phil Cohen’s assertion that subcultures emerge as a result of crisis in the mainstream parent culture (1972, 22). Cohen first identified “generational conflict” between mainstream and subculture in his 1970s study of working-class communities in London’s East End, he coined the term “parent culture” to represent the dominant/mainstream (1972, 22). Subcultural approaches are generally associated with the study of youth culture and framed as resisting the “adult” or “parent culture” (Cohen 1972; Hebdige 1979; Hall and Jefferson 2006; Williams 2011; Blackman 2014). A degree of antagonism frequently exists in the relationship because, as J. Patrick Williams indicates, subcultures are often: “excluded from structures of opportunity” (2011, 11), the subculture therefore operates on the margins of society.

Marginality Spawns a Bricolage Culture

The theme of marginality was highlighted at The Chicago School by Robert E. Park (1928) and appears throughout this article, both as journalists marginalized through redundancy and communities marginalized by newspaper closures. The UK hyperlocal news sector is viewed as precarious (Radcliffe 2015; Tenor 2018; Harte, Howells, and Williams 2019, 181) with marginalized operators adopting a bricolage make-do-and-mend culture. The concept of bricolage comes from the work of structural anthropologist, Claude Lévi-Strauss who states: “The ‘bricoleur’ is adept at performing a large number of diverse tasks” (1966, 17). Bricolage is often linked with originality and innovation (Blackman 2004, 123; Phillimore et al. 2016, 7) and has therefore been associated with entrepreneurialism (Baker and Nelson 2005) and digital culture (Deuze 2006, 70). Bricolage culture is centred on retrieving aspects of the parent culture and repurposing them to benefit the subculture (Hebdige 1979, 2014). Dick Hebdige calls it: “a culture out of next to nothing” (Le Menager 2014).

In Resistance Through Rituals (2006), Hall and Jefferson state that: “Subcultures, then must first be related to the ‘parent cultures’ of which they are a sub-set. But, subcultures must also be analysed in terms of their relation to the dominant culture” (2006, 7, original italics). This link is emphasized by Cohen who noted that subcultures: “all represent, in their different ways, an attempt to retrieve some of the socially cohesive elements destroyed in their parent culture” (1972, 23). Embedding is one such socially cohesive element, where trust-building reciprocal journalism techniques exist (Lewis, Holton, and Coddington 2014; Harte, Williams, and Turner 2017). Community reporters carry out offline activities such as speaking to people face-to-face, attending meetings and walking a real-world “beat” (Dick 2012).

For a subcultural study, it was important to differentiate between internet-era independent hyperlocal publishers and online hyperlocal sites started by mainstream operators, whose original business was in a pre-internet medium (Persephone and Farris 2008, 36). Independent operators represent the subculture, while mainstream newspapers represent the parent culture. Several commercial legacy media operations have tried to join the hyperlocal bandwagon without success. Academic studies of failed attempts by the mainstream to break into hyperlocal, evidence a ‘top-down’, commercially driven approach at odds with the community-driven ethos of independent operators (Baines 2010, 2012; Thurman, Pascal, and Bradshaw 2012; Barnett and Townend 2015). Hess and Waller suggest that mainstream operators lack the: “‘secret knowledge’ that comes with being part of a subculture, in this instance the essence of what it means to be local” (2016, 204). Ironically mainstream operators who “ruled their towns” in the pre-internet era (Mair 2013, 21) have so far failed to re-enter the ultra-local space. This serves to reinforce the claim that hyperlocal operators are both a sub-set of the parent culture and also retrieving socially cohesive aspects lost in the parent culture (Cohen 1972).

Methodology: A Qualitative Grounded Approach to the Hyperlocal

The data for this article is taken from an interdisciplinary, qualitative study carried out between 2015 and 2019 (Arnold 2019) into the working practices of a select group of UK hyperlocal operators. This study ‘gave voice’ to a small number of operators and revealed subcultural themes. The overall research strategy was inductive, based on the feminist tradition of open-ended one-to-one interviews. The methodological approach was grounded theory (Glaser and Strauss 1967) because the aim was to see ‘what is going on’ first then possibly to build theory from the data. A hypothesis was therefore avoided, and data was collected without the intention of taking a particular theoretical position. The decision to adopt subcultural theory was because the themes which emerged after the first coding suggested that subcultural theory might offer a means to interpret the data collected. Prior to gathering data the aim was to conduct a cultural study of a select number of independent hyperlocal operations and generate sufficient data to aim for a thick description (Geertz 1973, 20). The research questions were therefore designed to be as general as possible. They were:

• What are the professional backgrounds of key personnel responsible for the operation of a range of UK hyperlocal provisions?

• What are their motivations for becoming involved in independent publishing?

• What are the working practises of the independent publishers?

For ease of data collection the sample was restricted to England and Wales. It was chosen to reflect active operations, geographically spread to even out regional factors. There was no official register for UK hyperlocal sites so the voluntary sign-up Openly Local (2012) website was used to select the outlets, some of which had been in operation for 10 years or more and others less than five. This introduced a longitudinal aspect. Eventually 27 participants of varying backgrounds were chosen.

The majority of interviewees self-identified as journalists, with seven emerging from non-media backgrounds. In total 16 worked part time and 11 were full time on their provisions (see Table 1). Participants tended to live in the hyperlocal area, although several operated more than one title; those with multiple titles lived in the catchment area of one of their provisions. Such embedding suggested that they shared the mechanical solidarity “conscience collective” of the community (Durkheim 1893; Giddens 1971; Aron 1967, 21–33; Giddens 1978, 25; Hughes, Sharrock, and Martin 2003; Jenks 2005, 28).

Table 1. Participants’ professional backgrounds and motivations for hyperlocal publishing.

Interviewee	Professional background	Hyperlocal	Full or part time	Motivation
David Wimble	Radio DJ. Director Radio Waves (entertainment for cruise ships)	The Looker	PT	Resistance
David Shafford	Highways Agency Traffic Officer and web designer	Dartford Living	PT	Voice
Vijay Jain	Global Marketing Manager for flood modelling software	Dartford Living	PT	Voice
James Hatts	Community journalist, founder London SE1	London SE1	FT	Marginal
Richard Gurner	Journalist local and regional media	Caerphilly Observer	FT	Resistance
Rachel Howells	Journalist and academic	Port Talbot Magnet	PT	Redundant
Daniel Ionescu	Founder Stonebow Media Ltd: Journalism graduate	The Lincolnite, Lincolnshire Reporter, Lincolnshire Business	FT	Marginal (Atypical)
David Jackman	Journalist, former local newspaper editor	Everything Epping Forest, Everything Harlow, Everythinglocalnews	FT	Redundant
Sean Kelly	Founder NeighbourNet Ltd. Formerly financial sector	NeighbourNet.com, Chiswick W4	FT	Resistance
Annemarie Flanagan	Freelance journalist, former BBC senior broadcast journalist.	Ealing Today, Acton W3	PT	Marginal (Atypical)
Sue Choularton	Freelance journalist. Former Assistant Editor Teletext	Wimbledon SW19	PT	Redundant
William Perrin	Political adviser and private consultant to technology companies	Kings Cross Environment, founder of Talk About Local	PT	Voice
Jamie Summerfield	Journalist and PR consultant	A Little Bit of Stone	PT	Voice
Jon Cook	Technical solutions analyst	A Little Bit of Stone	PT	Voice
Richard Coulter	Journalist, former assistant editor Bristol Evening Post. Joint founder Local Voice Network Ltd	Filton Voice	PT	Redundant
Emma Cooper	Former Head of Advertising (telesales) Bristol Evening Post. Joint founder Local Voice Network Ltd	Keynsham Voice, Bishopston Voice, Henleaze and Westbury Voice.	FT	Redundant
Richard Drew	Freelance broadcast journalist, presenter and commentator	Frome Valley Voice, Yate and Sodbury Voice	PT	Marginal (Atypical)
Gary Brindle	Graphic designer, former production manager Bristol Evening Post	Downend Voice and Fishponds Voice	FT	Redundant
Paul Breeden	Former journalist Bristol Evening Post	South Bristol Voice, two separate editions.	FT	Redundant
Michael Casey	Freelance journalist, provides content for BBC, national and international media organizations	Your Thurrock and Your Harlow	FT	Resistance
David Prior	Journalist, founder Hyperlocal Today Ltd. Editor business website Prolific North	Altrincham Today	PT	Resistance
Emma Gunby	Journalist. Owner Neon Fox Marketing	West Kirby Today	PT	Resistance
Martin Johnston	Marketing and PR professional	Stockport Today	PT	Marginal (Atypical)
Adam Cantwell-Corn	Law graduate, joint founder Bristol Cable	Bristol Cable	PT	Resistance
Pat Gamble	Former transport and logistics manager	West Bridgford Wire	FT	Marginal
Dave Harte	University lecturer and researcher	Bournville Village. com	PT	Voice
Simon Perry	Digital entrepreneur and journalist	On the Wight	FT	Voice

Data was collected via one-to-one interviews, conducted either face-to-face or via telephone, depending on interviewee preference and their geographical location. Interview data was collected in two rounds and coded to identify themes. Data was not anonymized to allow themes to emerge. Sensitive information was redacted by the author before the transcribed interviews were returned, with all participants given full opportunity to make further changes.

The data suggested subcultural themes of marginality (Park 1928), “resistance” to mainstream culture (Hall and Jefferson 2006), relationship with the “parent culture” (Cohen 1972) “retrieving and repurposing” aspects of the mainstream (Hebdige 1979). Both The Chicago School and the 1970s Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies (CCCS) researchers prioritized collective approaches in cultural studies (Blackman 2005, 1). The indication of collective consciousness displayed by operators makes this theoretical angle particularly valuable.

The focus of the research questions for the study was to establish participants’ professional backgrounds and motivations for hyperlocal publishing; also their working practices and relationship with mainstream local media. There was never any intention to assume generalizability, clearly 27 interviewees from 408 active sites (Harte, Howells, and Williams 2019) is a relatively small sample, it however provides relative depth in the study of a small selection. Table 1 was generated in response to RQs. 1 and 2.

Participants’ Operating on the Margins: Voices of Resistance and Redundancy

The aim here will be to provide a “thick description” of hyperlocal journalistic experience with an emphasis upon the voice of the research participants to “generalise within them” (Geertz 1973, 20). This section provides responses to RQs. 1 and 2. A total of 13 of the 27 participants had been marginalized by the parent culture (see Table 1). Among those made redundant was David Jackman who left his role as editor during a cull of local titles in 2008. Having worked for the same Essex newspaper group for 21 years David was embedded in the area, he had such good local contacts that he relied on sustained reciprocal engagement (Lewis, Holton, and Coddington 2014; Harte, Williams, and Turner 2017) to successfully to launch his first website Everything Epping Forest. Rachel Howells and a group of fellow journalists launched the Port Talbot Magnet in 2009 following the closure of the local newspaper. Here a whole community was marginalized by a mainstream publisher, as Rachel said: “a kind of news blackhole opened-up in front of us.”

Four members of the independent Local Voice Network franchise in Bristol arrived in hyperlocal following redundancy (see Table 1). The founders of the group, Richard Coulter and Emma Cooper met by chance in a lift the day they both left the Bristol Evening Post. Richard was assistant editor and Emma Head of Advertising (Telesales) and they agreed to meet-up to start an ultra-local magazine. Filton Voice launched where Richard lived in 2011, with Emma selling advertising. After three months it had expanded from an initial 16 pages to more than 40. This prompted Emma to set up Keynsham Voice where she lived. Graphic designer Gary Brindle, a former colleague, became the first franchise holder after helping Emma design advertisements. Gary had been a production manager at The Post and lost his job when it was out-sourced to India in 2009. He started Downend Voice in 2013, choosing the neighbourhood where his wife had grown up.

Four participants were journalists who became involved in hyperlocal as part of an “atypical” or “portfolio career” (Deuze and Witschge, 2018; 2020) (see Table 1). Voice publisher Richard Drew had not migrated to independent publishing from mainstream local media. He was a broadcast journalist, presenter and commentator who returned to Bristol after living abroad. He took a franchise because he needed a regular, part time project, to work alongside his broadcast commitments. Richard’s professional life consisted of a portfolio career comprising serial short-term contracts as a sports presenter and commentator. He started Frome Valley Voice in 2013 where he lived. The final member of the team was Paul Breeden, a former journalist on a sister paper to The Post, who took redundancy in 2008. He explained: “I thought Richard and Emma had a great idea and I spoke to him about it many times over the next couple of years.” He started South Bristol Voice where he lived in 2015.

Daniel Ionescu found himself marginalized by the crisis in local media when he graduated with a journalism degree from the University of Lincoln in 2010. Jobs were disappearing, so he and two student friends started The Lincolnite, in the city, cross-subsidizing their time with freelance work. The Bristol Cable was also the brain-child of three students. Adam Cantwell-Corn was a law student who with two friends founded The Cable in 2014, none of them with a media background. Their involvement in community activism, underpinned the decision to run the Cable as a democratic, not-for-profit community benefit society. Their motivating factor was resistance to mainstream output, they wanted to marry journalism and community action in a publication that could: “provide what the local press should be doing” (Reid 2014). Its target audience was less geographical more social, it provided a voice for marginalized sections of society, sharing in the conscious collective of that community.

The grounded approach revealed resistance in terms of dissatisfaction with mainstream output as the motivation for seven participants (see Table 1) these included journalist Richard Gurner, who launched the Caerphilly Observer in 2009. He was working in Brighton 200 miles from Caerphilly, in South Wales, when he started the website. At the time online local media coverage was poor and he wanted to know what was going on “at home.” Businessman David Wimble was also unhappy with the coverage of Romney Marsh in Kent which led him to set up The Looker, in 2010. It followed a conversation on local radio when, live ‘on air’, he challenged a local editor to explain why: “so called local newspapers… didn’t have any local content in them.” Resistance also underpinned Michael Casey’s motivation for launching Your Thurrock in 2008. He was a journalist frustrated by what he perceived as the “old-fashioned” vibe of the local newspaper parent culture: “The whole tone of language and presentation seemed very stuck in almost the 1950s […] and I wanted to do something maybe a little bit funkier.” He chose to establish his first website in the area where he was embedded as a reporter and had contacts, rather than in his home-town.

There was also an element of resistance in the decision by Sean Kelly to establish the first of the NeighbourNet news websites Chiswick W4, in 2000. As one of the oldest and largest operations it launched into a different media landscape to provisions started after the 2008 recession. At the start of the millennium local newspapers were a business success (Franklin 2006:4). Sean explained the motivations for the website:

Partly I suppose at that point, everybody was going to become a billionaire by setting up a website […] But I think there was also the consciousness that we weren’t being well served by local news and it was an obvious gap in the market.

Neither he nor business partner Tony Steele had journalistic skills so they employed part-time editors. NeighbourNet therefore adopted a similar organic division of labour to a scaled down legacy newspaper. The high degree of both “difference” and “interdependence” among the staff (Durkheim 1893; Jenks 2005, 28) was something retrieved from the mainstream and repurposed for their operation. One of the editors was journalist Sue Choularton who started Wimbledon SW19 after redundancy from her role as assistant editor of Teletext. She read Chiswick W4 on her way to work, when her job ended she launched a NeighbourNet site where she lived. The other editor interviewed was former BBC broadcast journalist Annemarie Flanagan who turned freelance when her first child was born. She became editor of Ealing Today where she lived, in 2009, and subsequently took on adjoining Acton W3. After the stability of a full time BBC job, Annemarie found herself in an atypical situation.

Journalist David Prior “vowed” to only work in online journalism and in 2014 launched Altrincham Today in his home-town. Resistance underpinned David’s decision to create an online-only provision, because he felt that the mainstream print journalism model: “was a dying industry […] no matter how good your paper was, it would probably still sell fewer copies the next day.” After redesigning the site as mobile-first, he launched the model as the Hyperlocal Today franchise. Journalists Emma Gunby and business partner Mark Thomas launched their franchise West Kirby Today in January 2016. Cuts to local news following the crisis in local newspapers was Emma’s motivation. She said they wanted to do: “back to basics, very, very local news” much more in keeping with traditional local news coverage. This suggests retrieval and repurposing (Hebdige 1979, 2014) of former mainstream practices, resulting from resistance to what was offered by the parent culture (Hall and Jefferson 2006). The third member of the franchise to take part was Martin Johnston who launched Stockport Today in March 2016. He was looking for a part-time role to run alongside other part-time work at a local radio station.

The crisis in mainstream local media has led to marginalization of communities, the grounded approach revealed that providing a ‘voice’ for the community was the motivation for seven participants (see Table 1). This was William Perrin’s reason for launching Kings Cross Environment, in London. He was a civil servant and started the website in 2007 to provide a central source of community information. He viewed the hyperlocal website as: “A handy way of doing my community work more efficiently.” His community work involved “jockeying information” between groups of people so everyone was involved in the decision process: “Back then, the media didn’t cover King’s Cross at all, unless someone had been murdered.” During 2007–2008 the site: “became a really important force” during the regeneration of the area. Residents were able to: “use the website to gain enormous leverage” during the redevelopment because they could process information faster than Network Rail or the property developers. The hyperlocal therefore reflected the voice of the conscience collective.

Community involvement was also the motivation for A Little Bit of Stone in Staffordshire. It was started in 2010 by journalist Jamie Summerfield who wanted to: “Share the wonderful community spirit.” He teamed up with technical solutions analyst Jon Cook who had just moved to the town and also wanted to become part of the conscience collective.

Marginalization was a theme woven through Pat Gamble’s story, starting West Bridgford Wire was the realization of a teenage dream. He wanted to become a journalist when he left school, but was rejected by mainstream local media, subsequently pursuing a career in transport and logistics. After moving to Nottinghamshire in 2012, he found it difficult to source local news so researched starting a website. He considered taking out a commercial franchise, with mainstream local media, but eventually opted to set up on his own. Dave Harte was living as part of the conscience collective in Bournville, Birmingham, and joined the local community site Bournville Village in 2009. Dave was interested in blogging and getting involved: “in the civic digital space.” He took over running the site when the founder left a year later.

The remaining provisions all preceded the economic downturn. Simon Perry and wife Sally set up Ventnor Blog in 2005 after moving to the Isle of Wight from London. Simon explained it was to provide a: “resource that might be useful for people.” We suggest that their original motivation stemmed from the mechanical solidarity of the conscience collective. The website proved so popular that in 2012 they relaunched it as a fulltime business and rebranded it On the Wight. Vijay Jain’s and David Shafford’s Dartford Living, in Kent, was embedded in the community. Neither was a founder of the hyperlocal, it evolved from a newsletter providing information about baby and toddler groups. Vijay bought the newsletter for a “small fee” around 2007 when it expanded too quickly for its owners. David became Vijay’s third business partner after responding to a call for volunteers in 2014. Both came from non-media backgrounds and worked on the provision part-time. Dartford Living was a “go-to” information source for the local community and businesses: “We’re there to make people aware of the stuff that’s going on […] and maybe have some of the meaningful discussions about the local community” David said. The magazine and accompanying website therefore reflected the conscience collective.

James Hatts’ London SE1 started in 1998 as a printed What’s On guide. The provision evolved to become news driven and online-only, yet in terms of the mainstream was on the margins. James was an A level student when the family owned publication started, he had remained a community journalist providing consistency for the community. This indicated both embedding and a prolonged presence in the area (Hess and Waller 2016, 197). James’ motivation can be seen in terms of mechanical solidarity, based on a not-for-profit position, for example he said: “I’m not driven by sales and business. I’m driven by news and community.”

Embedding in the Community: Retrieving and Repurposing “Face-to-Face” and “Footwork” Journalism

The use of subcultural theory highlights the metaphorical distance between community journalists embedded in the conscience collective of their localities and the parent culture which had retreated from the community. In some places the retreat was so extreme it had resulted in news blackholes (Harte, Howells, and Williams 2019, 66–88) and subsequent democratic deficit for those communities (Ramsay and Moore 2016). This indicates the destruction of a specific socially cohesive element (Cohen 1972), the efficient functioning of democracy. There was evidence of the retrieval and repurposing (Cohen 1972; Hebdige 1979, 2014) of this and other socially cohesive elements by the fledgling sub-set. Participant’s working practices evidenced several activities lost in the mainstream. What they referred to variously as “face-to-face” or “footwork” journalism was something that everyone had retrieved. This physical presence in the community by hyperlocal operators has been noted before (Dick 2012; Harte, Howells, and Williams 2019). The data in this section was generated in response to RQ. Three and the researchers’ intention to allow the voices of the participants to be heard.

James Hatts, regularly walked ‘the beat’ of his London SE1 patch. Following the 2017 London Bridge terror attacks an exclusion zone was set up. To minimize disruption to the community James walked the perimeter daily, Tweeting the extent of the zone and diversions in place (Hatts 2018). Emma Gunby was horrified that mainstream journalists could be content to only make contact digitally. She said there was: “nothing to beat speaking to people, person-to-person.” Emma was no digital philistine, she owned a social media marketing company, yet what attracted her to online hyperlocal publishing was the diversity of approaches, she called it: “Old fashioned journalism mixed with modern techniques.”

David Jackman retrieved and repurposed working practices from his years as a local newspaper journalist, he said: “I do all the things that I think a local paper should do but they don’t anymore, like your WIs [Women’s Institute] and coffee morning stuff. I still go to council meetings.” Prolonged and continual presence in the community was once a feature of local newspapers due to the presence of district offices. In her PhD thesis, Rachel Howells found a: “strong association between declines in localness and depth of news output and the closure of district offices” (2015, 281). Pat Gamble said people were extremely grateful he attended events:

I go along to the opening of something, you expect everybody to be there and they've all let them down. The [legacy paper] photographer's not turned up, the BBC haven't got time and the TV channel couldn't make it and I end up on my own.

Such prolonged and continual presence in the locality benefitted both parties, it created trust between journalist and community. Richard Gurner’s junior reporter was tipped off about something that became a national new story: “It was one of those situations where Gareth, […] doing footwork, foot journalism, he went out to a local foodbank […] met somebody there, got chatting. A couple of weeks later, they contacted him.” Michael Casey was telephoned one Saturday afternoon with a tip-off that “something nasty” had happened in the town park. He arrived to find a bouncy castle had broken free, leaving a seven-year-old girl near to death. The story was subsequently picked-up by national media: “A couple of days later I rang my source and said, Your local printed paper’s been here for 33 years, I’ve only been here three years…why did you ring me? ‘I thought you’d turn up’.”

The district office concept was being retrieved and repurposed by Daniel Ionescu’s Stonebow Media. The Lincolnite operation has been identified as a high performing operation (Williams et al. 2014, 25) and by 2017 Daniel had launched a county wide news service called Lincolnshire Reporter. To ensure closeness to the community he was planning to resurrect the district office concept by opening “local bureaux.” He said they would be: “a small permanent office in a couple of the key major towns outside the city in order to have correspondents based there.”

The Advertising Model Retrieved and Repurposed

The advertising revenue model is the dominant form of income generation for the mainstream and the failure of this model is key to the current crisis (Howells 2015, 12–20). Participants’ experience suggested that the parent culture’s retreat from the community was not restricted to reporters, it included advertising staff. David Jackman entered into a partnership with a mainstream publisher, producing editorial content for a mainstream operator’s magazine, with the legacy operator selling adverts: “They had an ‘ad rep’ part time on it and they kept changing staff so there was no continuity.” He felt that another part of the problem was that the reps were not based in the district. Michael Casey was in partnership with another legacy operator, his experience was similar. He believed that local advertisers wanted to see someone in person: “Not just somebody ringing up, you could be anybody.” Their comments indicated a change of advertising focus in the parent culture which was confirmed by Sean Kelly. He found that mainstream operators had moved away from targeting small and medium sized business, in favour of strategies which chased vast numbers of page views. This allowed hyperlocal operators to engage, unchallenged, with the small businesses that the parent culture had abandoned.

The majority of provisions were relying on advertising as their main form of income. They were targeting neglected, small businesses in a way that suggested retrieving and repurposing, favouring the face-to-face selling once widely practised in local newspapers. Gary Brindle said: “I’m not a telephone person, I want to go out and meet people and discuss what we can do for them.” Having struggled to sell banner advertising Emma Gunby had successfully repurposed what she described as: “old-fashioned advertorials.” She said: “There’s nothing new in the world, is there?” Emma Cooper had set up a telesales operation, at home, a scaled down version of how she worked at The Post. She emphasized the importance of advertising and editorial having equal status. In the mainstream she was used to a greater emphasis on advertising. Emma said: “We aim to sell 50% of the space as advertising. That’s the model that’s worked for us.” The other operations repurposing print were also aiming for no-more than 50% advertising. The Bristol Cable was less exploitative still, Adam Cantwell-Corn explained that due to their alternative media business model they: “only accepted advertising on the basis of an ethical charter”. Adam said: “It’s basically for goods and services, mostly with organizations that are relatively cash poor but who share the ethos and principles that we do.”

Even those with online-only strategies were often avoiding mainstream advertising software. They had repurposed the advertising model to suit their operation and several favoured bespoke set ups. Daniel Ionescu’s Stonebow Media ran its own “ad network”, Simon Perry had “built” his own job advertising software and Sean Kelly’s NeighbourNet was also using proprietary software.

Bricolage Practices: Unexpected Social Cohesion of Print and Online

In terms of bricolage culture, adoption of the print platform was an obvious example of retrieving and repurposing aspects of the mainstream. In spite of the format being actively discarded by the mainstream, it was recognized as an increasingly popular platform for UK independent hyperlocal publishers (Williams et al. 2014, 29). Dick Hebdige (2014, 8) asserts that such bricolage activities are: “a victory of the imagination.” The skill is to be: “expert at patching and repurposing: extending the life of manufactured goods beyond their built-in-obsolescence retirement dates.” The grounded approach unveiled evidence of a “bricolage” outlook (Lévi-Strauss 1966; Baker and Nelson 2005; Deuze 2006; Phillimore et al. 2016) with participants trying different platforms and strategies to test what worked. They were not making a binary choice between online and print they were utilizing both, often simultaneously. Three members of the Local Voice Network had multiple titles (see Table 1). However Rachel Howells’ Port Talbot Magnet operation, which accounted for one of the print products, had closed by the end of the study period.

Even some of those who had opted to run online-only operations had considered the print format. Simon Perry had gone as far as producing a mock-up for a physical product before deciding it was not viable. The advertising revenue attracted him: “Advertisers are a lot more relaxed by seeing their ads in a physical bit of squashed tree than they are online and sales are easier because of that” Simon explained. David Prior had been adamant in 2016 that he would only publish online. A year later he had changed his mind and was preparing a print edition of Altrincham Today. He had rethought the mainstream print model both in frequency and circulation area: “The old print model, the old cluster of places that your old local paper used to cover, that’s now too big an area and you need to go hyperlocal.” The bi-monthly frequency of the publication represented a significant re-purposing of mainstream practices, since legacy local media was traditionally daily or weekly. All of those using print had opted for fortnightly, monthly or bi-monthly. Emma Gunby was evaluating the medium. She felt that using a digital platform to launch a print product made sense: “I think that it’s actually potentially the right way to do it - where you build your audience online first.” Emma’s words appeared prescient when a year later, in June 2018, Facebook (Moore 2018) launched a print magazine.

Adopting the print platform was not misplaced nostalgia, the format had been retrieved and repurposed because of its ability to generate income. Since print’s resilience was a business decision there was continual re-appraisal of the platform. Vijay Jain would like to have removed the time and money involved in the print product, he had considered turning Dartford Living online-only. That side of the business was “growing”, however the print edition was “still very popular.” Richard Coulter was a supporter of print, attributing much of the successful launch of the Local Voice Network to its tried and tested formula: “People haven’t rejected print, they’ve rejected some aspects of it, that’s the problem, i.e. paying for it.” Indeed all of the operations had adopted the free-distribution model popularized by the parent culture in the 1970s and 1980s (Cole and Harcup 2010, 98).

In subcultural terms, the print format nurtured unexpected examples of embedding and community cohesion. Those who distributed their papers spoke of the affection with which the product was held. Richard Gurner said: “The best day then is Thursday when we actually hand the paper out to people…because all of a sudden then it’s a real thing and it’s out there and people really value it.” David Wimble and several of the Voice operators received phone calls if the paper was late. Emma Cooper said: “On the odd occasion somebody will ring us and say I haven’t had my paper yet and it’s literally only come out the day before. So, it is definitely a community product”. When Richard Drew was experiencing distribution problems, he took the drastic step of increasing the print run because he was inundated with calls: “because people do like the paper – they love it.” Richard Gurner’s experience evidenced the printed product promoting social cohesion, people waited for him at the distribution points. James Hatts had dispensed with a print edition in 2014, in favour of online-only. He missed the contact with the community that resulted from hand distribution: “It was a great way of finding stuff out because it forced you, at least once a month, to walk or cycle the whole patch and you would find out so many things.”

The Local Voice Network contracted out their distribution, as a result they played an unexpected role in promoting social cohesion within the community. They were responsible for retrieving paper rounds for young people. Paul Breeden said: “I’ve got a waiting list now because it’s actually quite hard for teenagers to find jobs legally anymore, because when we were children everyone had a paper round but there aren’t many paper rounds to be had anymore.”

Conclusion

In this article we present empirical evidence to support our argument that independent hyperlocal operations represent a media subculture. We utilize the subcultural indicators of retrieving and repurposing (Cohen 1972; Hebdige 1979, 2014) to provide examples of working practices of this subset which started life in the mainstream. This was a cultural study in the grounded theory tradition, with the results of the first coding indicating the benefit of utilizing subcultural theory to reveal a fresh perspective to complement political economy approaches. Applying the subcultural lens to this study revealed both cultural practice and an alternative view of both business model and the platform. As a result, we break new ground by demonstrating the scale of hyperlocal operator’s retrieval and re-purposing of practices discarded by the parent culture. The subcultural approach produced revelations about the print platform, such as socially cohesive aspects at the point of distribution. These included the opportunity to interact with the audience when handing out copies of the paper also the revival of paper rounds. This underlines the value of this research approach and offers the potential for a broad set of findings.

We also introduce the cultural studies concept of bricolage to the study of independent hyperlocal media. Bricolage is an approach characterized by creative use of existing materials and an open mindedness to consider all options. Operators repurposed ideas borrowed from the mainstream and made them work for their particular circumstances, always with an eye to promoting social cohesion. Working practices such as face-to-face journalism had been retrieved and in the repurposing process were supplemented with online strategies. Closeness to the community was evident at all times. Where print had been retrieved, the frequency and focus of the products was changed and the advertising less exploitative. It also contained socially cohesive factors often as a result of the more hands-on distribution approaches of independent operators. However, there was no misplaced nostalgia with print, operators were continually considering their options and participants’ were not choosing between online and print, they were using both. Emma Gunby’s reflection: “There’s nothing new in the world, is there?” could be a metaphor for the bricolage approach of all of interviewees, who were retrieving and repurposing a variety of aspects of the parent culture while operating on the margins.

Subcultural indicators of marginality, resistance and crisis were present in the participants’ motivations for becoming involved in independent hyperlocal operations. Redundancy was a common theme, suggesting that marginalization by the parent culture had forced them to migrate to the subculture and work atypically. The communities they represented had also been marginalized. Subcultural indicators were shared by people running very different operations and from different professional backgrounds. Even those from non-media backgrounds were retrieving and repurposing aspects of the mainstream despite having never worked in the parent culture. They did however have an idea of how things should be done and closeness to the community was at the centre of this ideal, indicating their place in the conscious collective. Ultimately though subcultural theory, when applied to the data from this study, reveals that working practices were not revolutionary, but defined by adaptation rather than innovation.

The adoption of subcultural theory emerged from the coding by virtue of the grounded approach. We pioneer the mapping of CCCS subcultural theory onto an empirical study of UK hyperlocal media. This application is not limited to the UK scene, it is could be usefully applied to independent media in any part of the world. As with any cultural study these findings are not readily quantifiable, they cannot be comfortably squeezed into neat boxes or form a typology. The effectiveness of subcultural study as an approach is that it provides voice to participants. This leads to findings which offer insight into hitherto unacknowledged areas, providing greater understanding and a springboard to future research.

Acknowledgements

The researchers would like to thank those hyperlocal media producers who gave their time to participate in the researcher. We would also like to thank the journal editors and reviewers of the article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by authors.