Topix to offer hyper-local news pages to online publishers

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The online news and community network Topix is in talks with online news publishers about expanding the use of its hyper-local editing platform to create quick-fire news pages.

As part of the platform users are able to register as editors of particular news pages, giving them access and editing rights to news items from a 'wire' of published articles relating to their area of interest.

The system also allows the editors to write new articles and add content and sources from outside of Topix's own search facility, enabling the creation of on-the-fly pages of issue and location based news.

Topix is in discussion with several news publishers about launching the platform - which is already used by some discussion groups and communities - as a special feature on their news sites, Chris Tolles, CEO of Topix, told Journalism.co.uk.

Topix, which already runs forums on US news sites IndyStar.com and Sun-Sentinel.com , announced last week that it would manage the forums and article commenting system for MediaNews Group .

"The internet is proving that people want to have a two-way interaction with content on the web, and these tools give a publication that ability in a way that can be easily integrated into their other efforts," said Tolles.

The aim of the sites, he said, would be to allow 'people who care about a topic with the ability to cover it' the tools to provide in-depth local news coverage.

"It's important to give the community voice for the primary reason that the news business can't provide coverage at the neighborhood level in most cases - there's no economic model to do so."

When linked with a publication, he said, it would be that title's decision as to whether stories remain on the site and who is accepted as an editor.

"Topix can provide a platform which at least harnesses the community under the aegis of the media brand," said Tolles.

"This gives the community a great set of tools to roll their own news, as well as connecting back to the larger and established local publication."

Tolles said the template would provide publications with the means to deliver 'neighbourhood level local news' that they had previously been unable to provide without deploying more full-time staff to these areas.