(image credit alextorrenegra)

The two juggernauts of the U.S. newspaper world are both experimenting with new initiatives to broaden their appeal beyond traditional audiences.

The New York Times looks set to expand its local editions into ten to 15 cities in the near future.  paidContent.org sums things up nicely, also drawing on yesterday’s Audit Bureau of Circulation figures and pointing to the various considerations the NYT should mull over before doing so.  Interestingly one being:

What about the Journal? The Journal is starting to move on local editions as well. Will it meet the NYT expanded challenge with local partnerships of its own?

With the Wall Street Journal also vying for the localised market this could get interesting, leading us seamlessly onto…

In partnership with the WSJ, foursquare has developed an interesting feature allowing users to see news articles as tips when they check into various locations across New York City.  With tips being editorially hand-picked, to avoid unpleasantries creeping in, this could be a nice feature with plenty of room to grow beyond the shores of NYC.

(image credit GooseGoddessS)

We posted just last week about ‘local’ being the new ‘social’ for news publishers and it seems the guardian.co.uk (perhaps even taking editorial inspiration from the Moreover Blog!?) agrees.

The Digital Content Blog has posted a nice write-up of just a handful of the developments over in the States where many online news outlets are already trying to take advantage of this new ‘hyperlocal‘ buzz. AOL and some former eBay execs are both taking interesting steps in this direction, with AOL looking to expand it’s recently acquired Patch network and eBay founder Pierre Omidyar bidding to kick-start his local news service Peer News. Not forgetting that we have blogged in the past about YouTube’s efforts in this area and with foursquare regularly being touted as the ‘next Twitter’ is hyperlocal getting you excited?