National media battle locally for survival

While most of the conversation about news media going “hyperlocal” is about the creation of super-localized websites or blogs focusing on a town or neighborhood, an interesting battle is about to be waged in the nation’s largest market.

In a few short weeks in New York City, the Wall Street Journal is about to go “mano a mano” with the granddaddy of them all, The New York Times.  At the core of the battle is Rupert Murdoch’s long-time war with The Times, a battle he failed to win as the owner of the New York Post.  Murdoch, the new owner of the Journal, has always coveted the Times luxury advertisers and now with the Journal he has the more appropriate media vehicle to wage the war.  He is spending $15 million in this latest effort.

As is outlined in this Times article, the first salvo will be shot on April 12th, as the WSJ unveils its local New York section in NYC.  The focus will be some news, but lots of lifestyle, sports and real estate.

On or about the same time, ESPN will likely debut ESPNNewYork.com, the latest in its city-specific team of multimedia microsites aimed at giving sports news sources in cities like LA, Dallas and Chicago a run for their money.  In most cases, the worldwide leader of sports has hired long-time sports reporters in those cities to go head to head with their former employers.

This is an interesting trend and more like NPR and others are following to at least a certain extent.  While most news organizations don’t have the money, the will or the manpower to slug it out locally, these strategically-targeted efforts by established media brands to gain new markets and new advertisers bares watching.

This is different from just opening three-person bureaus to cover news in those markets, this is well-known media brands making significant efforts to compete in select markets locally for stories and revenue.

The fallout may determine the long-term strategies of these brands for the next decade as well as the future of national media outlets as we know them.

What do you think?  I’d love to hear from you.