• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, July 1, 2011

After much talk about the future of news relying more on user-generated contributions, Gannett's early experiments in crowd-sourced local news content has fizzled. It shuttered the company's 17 "hyperlocal" news sites in New Jersey, which operated under the umbrella InJersey.com site.

The local news sites were scuttled by layoffs among Gannett staffers, who were still contributing the lion's share of the content.

That's according to the Poynter.org blog, which cited an interview with Ted Mann, Gannett's digital development director for New Jersey, who founded InJersey.com. When the hyperlocal news service launched in seven New Jersey towns in June 2009, Mann hoped that eventually half the content would come from user contributions, with the other half coming from Gannett staffers, including six full-time reporters dedicated to InJersey.com.

The service grew to include 10 more towns over the following year. However, Mann tells Poynter that user-generated content rarely exceeded 10%.

The recent rounds of layoffs affected the editorial operations, forcing journalists to divide their time in an effort to cover a wider area -- but they also had an impact on the business side, as sales reps familiar with local advertisers were laid off.

Another Gannett employee tells Poynter: "The sales staff are already stretched thin across the company. We didn't sell enough local advertising to pay for staffers for the site."

The local sites did not have an audience size that can be easily monetized through online advertising. One of the more popular sites, for the town of Freehold, peaked at 65,000 views per month. Mann concluded: "I don't see how display advertising is going to be enough to support a hyperlocal," but added that he thought here were "a lot of other revenue streams that hyperlocals can build -- running events, sponsoring things, selling merchandise."