On Tuesday I was at Social Media Cafe Manchester, held at the BBC on Oxford Road.

A good venue – I am sure the drinks are subsidised, well a little bit – and not a bad turnout at all.

As usual the attendees include a range of professionals from journalism, PR, digital and other interested parties such as Salford / Manchester creative & digital recruitment agency Orchard.

Anyway on to business and in particular the first talk (and the one I will talk about) on Hyperlocal News (HLN).

What is it you ask, well might be asking?

If you will allow a little short cut, Wikipedia gives the following explanation:

“Hyperlocal content, often referred to as hyperlocal news, is characterized by three major elements. Firstly, it refers to entities and events that are located within a well defined, community scale area. Secondly, it is intended primarily for consumption by residents of that area. Thirdly, it is created by a resident of the location.”

Local journalists Nigel Barlow and Richard Jones were on hand to talk about the issues as well as mention that they are planning an M60 blog to be launched in April  (Manchester’s answer to the M25) .

They are other HLN news blogs such as ones for Lichfield and Sunderland.

The benefits of HLN is, or are claimed, to be more versatile, vigilant and immediate.

But without the necessary advertising revenue it is not a sustainable business model as both Richard and Nigel admitted.  The value of having community based news has to be recognised by local government and associated organisations for it prosper.  There is the big sell.

Yet HLN was proposed as vital for democracy.  Richard expounded the view that robust reporting of say a council meeting can be done better by HLN than a traditional newspaper that is relying on press releases owing to lack of resource.

Simon Wharton of PushOn commented, when the talk was opened up to the floor, that search and HLN are ideally suited to one another and the volume of content with a focused reference will be picked up by search.

One local example is Salford Online, which is in the process of developing its reach in the city.  It seems to be looking at both the advertising and community based funding model.  It should make interesting viewing as it progresses.  I know Brian who runs the team is putting his all into making it work – it has made good progress.

Nigel Barlow concluded: “No-one has got the journalistic model right and we need to come out of the ad recession before it will be possible to make a call.”  We are all wondering about that to some level.

This lunch I was lucky enough to be invited by Manchester Science Park to hear Kevin Feddy.

Here is a synopsis of what Kevin, who runs the MEN business desk, had to say:

“It is all about (the business pages) people, innovation and ideas….how ideas relate to the public at large.  It is much more than figures, it is about people, dreams and aspirations.”

SMEs are of interest as much as the blue chips.  In fact there is a lot of room for stories about smaller concerns.

Kevin is especially interested in hearing from businesses that he feels will emerge from this recession in a very healthy state:

• Internationally trading companies / exporters
• Green technology
• Innovation – companies that will shape the way we live
• Technology – but make sure the layman can relate to it.  The MEN business readership is general and professional in nature and stories must be understood by all.

The key point is that business titles such as the Manchester Evening News want to hear from all types of business, of all sizes that have something to say.  As a PR I ask potential clients, “What can we say, what do you want to say?”

Everyone can have a voice, offline and online, providing their company, service or product, is of interest.

If this has a typo in it, it is owing to my support of the French wine industry last night.

The Big Chip 11 is the set piece event for the North West digital media sector.  This year the event was held at Manchester’s Palace Hotel, and was well attended by agencies, in-house digital departments and interested parties.

The Big Chip used to be an award ceremony that everyone took part in and Code Computerlove won.

Well this year it won again but was joined by Love and New Concept Gaming Limited in the victory stakes.  Other notable wins, as I know the guys well, were Simon Wharton and his motley crew PushOn who picked up Best Use of Search and Melbourne who won The Big Green Chip Award and AdInsight with Best Newcomer.

The effort this year, the push behind the awards, was to get the sector revitalised, to generate interest outside the sector as well.

Manchester Digital, the body behind the awards, feels that the North West can compete with London agencies.  Shaun Fensom who is chairman of Manchester Digital opened the evening by saying that agencies in the North West have a collaborationist outlook, success isn’t just measured by how many pitches you win – the sector up here is as talented as anything else in the UK.

With this in mind Simon Wharton, supported by many contributions, used blogs, Twitter (#Big Chip 11) and any other social media techniques he could think of to push the message home.

The event was a success, no doubt.  I think it was going to be anyway, but the effort in promoting the event to act as a catalyst for the industry being viewed as a more recognised and integral part of the business scene is the interesting issue.

Whether this is the start of something new will be decided in the coming months, if the sector maintains the momentum.  It is up to the efforts of digital media professionals as well as Manchester Digital.

Whatever the conclusion, Big Chip 11 shows the digital media industry in the North West is vital.

Too tired to proof again.

On Friday I was at the the Manchester Chapter of the NUJ’s meeting to fight the proposed job cuts.

It was a passionate and compelling event and one that certainly opened my eyes.

The received wisdom that many might have is that digital media is the main cause of print media’s demise and in turn the local media – it’s an unstoppable force.  Well the speakers eloquently expressed a different side to the debate.

One of the key messages and this is especially relevant to the Manchester Evening News and the Guardian Media Group is that the publishers are still making a profit.  And those profits were more than healthy when redundancies were made over the last two to three years, including at the MEN.

One fact that might surprise it that The Guardian is not the money maker at the GMG.  It was stated that The MEN and local papers actually propped up the flagship paper.  What is perhaps more galling for local journalists is that there are no substantial cuts at The Guardian, not that anyone wants any cuts anywhere.

It is the ridiculous effort to prop up unsustainable and ludicrous profit margins that is a prime driver behind the redundancies programme.

One speaker pointed out that Tesco expects to make a profit of 9.8p on every pound spent whereas some publishers expect nearer 40p.  Coupled with executive bonuses it is clearly an unsustainable policy.

The result is that if the proposed cuts are to go ahead then the quality of local media will be seriously compromised.

Newspapers are already relying on wires and press releases to a greater extent than ever before.  But the figure of 12% that was quoted as the percentage of news that is researched and sourced and written by the journalists themselves was shocking.

What is more journalists are already responsible for taking images, uploading stories onto the web and taking on the subs work.  Standards will inevitably diminish and quickly if the proposed cuts are made.

So what is the solution?

Whether news is conveyed in print or web is not the issue here.  The issue is the standard of local media and indeed its survival.

And it can survive and prosper.

Initially we all have to as a community make sure the publishers are aware of community feelings and that pressure can be brought to bare.  It is up to the community and if it is not interested in defending our local media then we deserve none.  But I think there is enough of us that do – many attending the meeting were not journalists but members of the public showing their support.

Writing to politicians and the papers themselves might be a start – express support and make sure the publishers know the depth of feeling.  To their credit there were politicians in the room including John Leech MP for Withington, so that is promising.

One solution could be that journalists take over local titles or set-up co-operative style managed media – an emphasis on quality and not weighted on profit.

Whatever the solution is, the current model of bleeding the local media to sustain unsustainable profits is certainly not the way forward.

Manchester PR agencies have been recruiting and getting fat on impressive account wins for some time.  That’s alright.

It seemed that the MEN media section and other Manchester / North West / trade publications have had little trouble finding positive stories.  But now that we are all going to be Okies and live in Hoovervilles (if recent front page editorials from the nationals are anything to judge by), how will this affect the city’s PR outfits?

The  Drum magazine quoting Plimsoll, an industry analyst, paints a bad picture of the industry as a whole.  Findings for 1,000 UK agencies surveyed include:

• 30% of workforce could have to go
• 75% of agencies need to reduce headcount
• 116 agencies need to consolidate immediately or their survival is in question
• 20% of agencies are running at a loss

I spoke to an  PR supplier the industry on Friday and these figures are being reflected in bahaviour.  So much so that agencies are cutting back on £200 extras that would not have been questioned before.

There is a good side though.  There is hope.

Firstly, until something happens it is not 100% definite that it is going to happen.  It sounds like tautology I know.  The slow down could be brief, shallow; cheaper oil and lower interest rates could work.   I am not sure I believe this, but….

Secondly The Drum carried out a poll that found, after digital, PR was viewed as the marketing discipline most suited to survive in a recession.

Thirdly, as Bron Earnes of Hasilmann Taylor (not Manchester based, but I will accept her viewpoint)  says agencies working to 20% margins that closely revue spending and forecasts should survive.  A conclusion could be that the industry might be better placed after a down turn because good agencies, which are keen, will survive.  It could mean a better service to clients and a better perception of the industry.

Fourthly, as Charles Tattersall of Citypress says established players and smaller agencies with lower cost bases and fees could also do well.    Some agencies will do well and adapt.

It could be an opportunity for some.  Indeed while the PR supplier said that while some agencies were making redundancies, there was some that were just full on with their expansion.