Can Nextdoor save local news?
It may be a digital hellscape, but at least it has an audience.
I spent some time Wednesday chatting with someone from a major newspaper about the challenges facing the news industry and what potential roads might lead to salvation amid all these cutbacks and layoffs. During our conversation, I wondered aloud whether there could be some potential product, strategy or partnership around Nextdoor. It got me thinking …
I did some quick Googling Thursday and came across this very interesting Nov. 2023 perspective from Steven Waldman written for Poynter. Waldman is the CEO for Rebuild Local News, a nonprofit local journalism advocacy organization. His idea was to embed reporters in Nextdoor’s various neighborhood communities as a way to both combat misinformation and off-base speculation (neither of which is in short supply on the site) with actual reporting and fact-checking and to use the popular discussions to fuel story ideas. After all, if there’s a big conversation about a local topic on Nextdoor, it’s probably a topic worth exploring for coverage, particularly for a local or community publication.
The thinking here is simple, Waldman cites that 53 million people use Nextdoor in his article. Like I mentioned in my post about Yahoo, it’s far easier to create good journalism than it is to create a massive audience. So going where there’s already an established audience makes a ton of sense.
The question is one of execution: How exactly would this work in a way that would foster audience growth for local news outlets?
Waldman’s proposal would assign reporters to peruse community social media sites like Nextdoor, Facebook and any relevant Subreddits to “listen and react to the concerns of people in the area — not with opinions but with reporting.”
He continues:
So when someone posts a question about why there were helicopters over the neighborhood the previous night, the members need not just trade speculation. They could ask their embedded reporter, who could call the appropriate officials to find out.
They could post the answers on the Nextdoor site and possibly on the home website of the news organization.
The value of this model is clear: A trained reporter not only could vet and research questions posed in these forums, but also gauge the topic’s interest for a separate story on the reporter’s home site. The issue I see is this: If the reporter is performing all of this work and posting the answers in the original forum (Nextdoor, for example), then we have the same issue outlets had with reporters breaking news on Twitter. The app, Nextdoor, in this case, gets the benefit of that traffic.
Would the audience come to the local news outlet after reading the reporter’s response on Nextdoor? Twitter’s reputation as being bad at referral traffic seems to indicate it’s unlikely. And I think the natural audience inclination would back that up.
If I’m a Nextdoor user, and a reporter is in the thread I’m reading on Nextdoor providing answers to my neighbor’s question about helicopters flying overhead, that’s great! Now I don’t need to go check my local news outlet! And thus, that robust audience on Nextdoor you’re hoping to capture doesn’t actually need to leave Nextdoor. This also applies to the same approach carried out on Facebook or Reddit.
Is there a longer-term benefit of establishing the reporter as a trusted authority and building their profile/brand within the community and having them associated with the local news outlet? I can see the merit. But I feel like most local outlets would need more of an immediate return on investment from this approach.
Still, it feels like there is “something” here. Nextdoor has an audience that is hungry for local news and information and the app is terrible at accurately providing that. Local news outlets are great at providing that local news and information, but need a bigger audience. It should be a fit. So why isn’t it? Shouldn’t Nextdoor be looking to add vetted news sources to its offerings?
Speculating here, but the immediate thought is that they just don’t need to. Just like Twitter or other social networks, Nextdoor doesn’t need to improve its local news beyond its network of curious users because it already has scale and, despite it’s reputation for hypercritical neighbors complaining about gas-powered leaf blowers and overly suspicious types eyeing every Amazon delivery person like they’re actually a porch pirate, people continue to utilize the app en masse. To date, there’s been no penalty to the company for misinformation or wild speculation by users or legislators. You don’t fix what ain’t broke.
Let me leave you with one idea though: The reason I, and I suspect a number of other moderately sane people use the app, is for its utility. As Waldman notes, it’s a great place to poll locals about eateries or places to have your kid’s birthday party. It’s also a great way to find someone to take stuff off your hands. So, is there an app to be built by local news outlets that could help fulfil those functions and provide relevant, well-reported local news and field questions from local users? Could a local news organization create an app that’s even better than Nextdoor?
As Nextdoor’s popularity suggests, it’s worth thinking about.
Hi, I’m Mike. I’m a former editor for The Washington Post and ESPN. In 2024 I founded and now operate Launcher, LLC, a digital media consultancy operating out of Arlington, Va. Want to work together? Reach out on LinkedIn.