With the Hyperlocal News Network, TAPinto adds a licensing option to its longtime franchise model

Fun fact: Local news network TAPinto and Nieman Lab share a birthday (month)!

We were both founded in October 2008, in a moment of trepidation and excitement about possibilities for news on the internet. Two years before, in 2006, BuzzFeed had been established; in 2007, the first iPhone had been released; and the same year our respective outlets launched, social media helped bring Obama to the White House.

Mike Shapiro founded TAPinto in 2008 as “an all-online local newspaper” for his hometown at the time, New Providence, NJ, and for two neighboring towns, according to the Local Media Association. In its early years, TAPinto competed with Patch, which was then owned by AOL. Following significant layoffs at Patch, Shapiro saw an opening to expand TAPinto to other communities.

In 2013, TAPinto converted to a franchise model for local news: Franchisees operate on the same platform and can share content, and sell one another advertising, giving local outlets a collective scale that would be virtually impossible to achieve alone. Today, more than 15 years later, TAPinto counts nearly 100 local organizations, including local news outlets and digital marketing platforms, across four states within its network. Beyond New Jersey, franchisees operate TAPinto sites in New York, Pennsylvania, and Florida.

TAPinto CEO Shapiro has said he sees the franchise model as a viable way to support local news in communities that might otherwise be news deserts. In his view, providing backend support makes local news franchisees’ work more manageable and lowers the barrier to entry for creating a news outlet from scratch. More recently, though, he’s zeroed in on an opportunity he sees to support existing publishers who need help with tech and their backend, but want more branding flexibility than the franchise model provides.

In May, TAPinto announced an addition and alternative to its franchising model: a licensing option called the Hyperlocal News Network. Under a licensing model, news outlets have more branding autonomy but can still benefit from being part of the same network, and CMS platform, as the franchisees.

“There are…hundreds, if not thousands, of existing publishers who are really struggling with their digital presence and would benefit from our technology and back office services, yet want to keep their own branding,” Shapiro told me in an email. “Our license model enables them to do just that.”

The model includes à la carte “back office services” like graphic design support, media liability insurance, a customer relationship management system, and contracting software — the kinds of services that can be a heavy lift, operationally and financially, for lean local outlets to figure out themselves. The Hyperlocal News Network plans to add HR services “soon,” Shapiro added.

The program requires a one-time $1,000 “start-up fee” and costs $750 per month after that — similar to Newspack’s pricing for its smallest publisher customers by annual revenue. Shapiro noted that the Hyperlocal News Network is a fundamentally different offering from the WordPress.com-affiliated Newspack. TAPinto’s publishers are typically based in smaller communities and “usually have more modest revenue goals,” he said.

Shapiro also views the new licensing program as “a match for media outlets that would benefit from an enhanced digital presence, additional digital revenue streams, and/or the content and sales collaboration inherent in our platform.” These could include types of outlets ranging from weekly print newspapers, to local and regional magazines, to local radio or TV stations, hyperlocal sites, or “publications for particular audiences,” he said.

The Hyperlocal News Network remains small for now. TAPinto announced a licensing partnership with NJ-based business publication Commerce Magazine in March, before the new program formally launched. Beyond that outlet, Halston Media Group, whose New York newspapers were previously TAPinto franchisees, comprises the other six member outlets of the Hyperlocal News Network.

Shapiro’s vision for the local network’s future is ambitious. Since TAPinto franchisee and Hyperlocal News Network licensee partners are all on the same platform, Shapiro hopes to build “what will eventually be the largest collaborative network of independent publishers in the country,” he said.