Oxbury Media and Fwix join forces to create 'hyperlocal newswire' for UK

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Hyperlocal news and advertising agency Oxbury Media has signed an exclusive deal with online aggregator Fwix to create a "hyperlocal newswire" for the UK.

Oxbury's 10,000-strong network of titles below local newspaper level, to which it serves advertising and other products, and its UKVillages.co.uk sites will be used with Fwix's technology to create websites "on a village level", featuring live news updates, local information and advertising.

Working with local titles, from glossy regional lifestyle magazines to parish newsletters, Oxbury says it is in a unique position to broker national and local advertising deals with these publications. The agency wants to create a two-way syndication supplying national advertising and products, such as crosswords and listings, to hyperlocal titles, and specialist and local news to regional and national news outlets.

"What we're looking to achieve is a full, hyperlocal platform for national and regional newspaper groups to use. We've got a database of very small business and they also put their business on Villages.co.uk. What we're able to achieve now is pushing from national to local we can push content and advertising; with Fwix we're able to push hyperlocal news and advertising up the chain as well," Jason Mawer, managing director of Oxbury Media, told Journalism.co.uk.

The price of the deal with Fwix has not been disclosed, but Mawer told Journalism.co.uk that it was "a sizeable contract".

"People can give us a postcode or a region and a service and tell us to come back with the appropriate hyperlocal titles in that area. There just isn't anyone else around that can do that and there aren't the databases available to do that. It's a way for brands to get better return on their investment," PR spokesman for the agency Richard Stone told Journalism.co.uk in an interview in February.

Working with Oxbury will usher in rapid expansion of Fwix's service in the UK: the local news aggregator currently serves just 11 UK cities and Wales, despite covering more than 80 US and Canadian areas.

The Fwix city sites already breakdown news by topics such as crime and politics, but Mawer can see Oxbury and Fwix's partnership being used to cater for specific niches and verticals beyond local areas.

"We're looking to create Fwix categories. At the moment we're just looking at hyperlocal news but why can't we have sport news or fishing news or potholes news and advertising relating to that?" he asked.