• by August 17, 2007

In a reversal of the hyper-local formula, which last month saw Washington Post Newsweek Interactive (WPNI) start rolling out narrowly targeted news sites in communities already served by regional print editions of the daily WP, the Chicago Tribune on Thursday launched two weekly print editions spawned by its four-month-old venture in hyper-local citizen journalism, triblocal.com.

The new papers, covering Chicago's West and Southwest suburbs, include photos, stories and other contents posted by readers on the Web site, as well as content from Triblocal's own editorial staff. Published by the Tribune's Chicagoland Publishing Company subsidiary, the papers will be distributed with more than 23,000 copies of each Thursday's Tribune in the communities of Batavia, Geneva, St. Charles, Elburn, Maple Park, Orland Park, Orland Hills, Tinley Park and Homer Glen in the Southwest suburbs.

Thursday's debut issues featured a story about the St. Charles East High School band trip to China and its concert on the Great Wall; a story from a local Batavia businessman on how bridge work has hurt business, and a story from a man walking across the U.S. to raise money for Marklund, a facility in the Orland-Tinley area that cares for disabled kids.

In other news bridging the world of print and online newspapers, Yahoo's Newspaper Consortium announced a new member--Philly.com, the online home of the Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News. The content/ad sharing group now numbers 19 publishing companies, representing more than 400 daily papers with 21 million readers.