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Hyperlocal news site outside.in confirms UK launch

Hyperlocal news and information site outside.in has confirmed it will launch in the UK.

Built predominantly on content aggregated from local news sources and bloggers, the existing US-focused site lets users search for and filter news and information by location.

The site's GeoToolkit allows publishers to geotag their content, which helps outside.in's aggregation process, and offers statistics showing how their submissions are viewed by readers and how they compare with other local contributors.

The UK site is currently in beta, but a sneak preview, seen by Journalism.co.uk, showed a similar structure to the US version, but with reduced content at present.

Nina Grigoriev from outside.in told Journalism.co.uk the US market for the service is similar to the UK's.

"Internet penetration numbers and use of blogging platforms are similar to both markets," she said.

"Placeblogging is a universal phenomenon, with interest in reading personalized content also extending to both sides of the Atlantic. We anticipate similar adoption in the UK as in the US."

Grigoriev also said the company would consider setting up a UK-based office to support the new launch.

'Popularity and low barriers to entry of creating original content' are the main factors driving outside.in's success, Grigoriev said.

'The demand for personalized information on the web, and the failure of the newspaper industry to capitalize on featuring hyperlocal content' are also key factors, she added.

The company, which launched in the US in November 2006, has claimed its site reaches an audience of 'around half a million educated, predominantly female (53 per cent) city-dwellers, over 38 per cent of whom are 18-34 years old'.

In January 2008, the site announced a deal to supply story maps for Washingtonpost.com.

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