NEW YORK, May 8, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- When it comes to hyper-local journalism, mainstream media outlets no longer dominate.  Instead, community news is being pioneered by individuals in the thick of the local scene.

At "Innovating the Local News Ecosystem," a conference sponsored by Montclair State University's Center for Cooperative Media / NJ News Commons, Michael Shapiro, Josh Fenton, and Lissa Harris discussed their respective experiences running TheAlternativePress.com, GoLocal24, and The Watershed Post.

While many of today's local news innovators do not hail from journalism backgrounds, their success can be attributed to a pair of common qualities: an understanding of their towns and counties and dedication to focused, personal coverage.

"All too often you see these generic stories that run on 20 sites," says TheAlternativePress.com's Shapiro, "a former attorney turned publisher who has grown his business into a 30-site franchise. "That's not what people want. They want their kids' pictures on the site. They want to see their neighbors."

For more on the future of local news, continue reading on Beyond Bylines: http://bit.ly/BBinnovatelocalnews  

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