THE IMPORTANT LESSONS OF BACKFENCE'S CLOSING
The announced closing of Backfence has brought about some refreshing and much-needed discussion on the subject of hyperlocal news and the web. This is an important discussion, because a lot of companies are looking to hyperlocal as the salvation of their business model.
Context & Ripple Effects
Three days after paidContent reported that Backfence was shutting down all 13 of its hyperlocal community sites, Terry Heaton argues the closure deserves more than a shrug: with many companies betting on hyperlocal to rescue their business models, one of the earliest dedicated players failing is a data point the whole sector has to absorb.
The reporting around the shutdown points to execution rather than a single cause — a year of management troubles layered on top of an admitted failure to win editorial traction with local audiences — which is exactly why the post-takedown debate over what 'the lesson' is matters more than the shutdown itself.
First-order effects
- Backfence's thirteen community sites go dark, removing one of the few standalone citizen-journalism networks and leaving its local contributors and advertisers without a home.
Second-order effects
- Every other hyperlocal startup now has to answer for Backfence's failure in pitch meetings — distinguishing their editorial approach and management from a named cautionary tale when seeking local advertisers and funding.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, hyperlocal consolidation will favor operators who solve the audience-participation problem Backfence could not, while the sector's funders treat community engagement metrics — not site count — as the test of viability.
The trend: Hyperlocal news is moving from an uncritically funded salvation narrative to a sector judged on execution, where early failures like Backfence set the terms of debate.