Omidyar wrote of his admiration for Jobs last night in a post on Honolulu Civil Beat, the hyperlocal news site he publishes.

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Hyperlocal news sites regard Groupon and other daily deal services with a mixture of love (for flooding their coffers with ad dollars) and dread (for competing with their own deal offerings).

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That point was driven home to Patch, the network of hyperlocal news sites owned by AOL, when a contributor to its Fair Lawn, New Jersey site was arrested last week on charges of stalking.

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But a relatively new crop of "hyperlocal" news sites is growing into the void left by failing news organizations.

CNN: Future of online news may be 'hyperlocal'

Jane McDonnell, executive director of the Online News Association, said the hyperlocal movement places emphasis on community news that's written by volunteers who usually are entrenched in their neighborhoods.

CNN: Future of online news may be 'hyperlocal'

And I got a good lesson in hyperlocal journalism when I entered the Dunn County News as the editor nearly 20 years ago.

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Realizing, belatedly, that Albritton is on the verge of doing to it in local news what it already did to it in political news, the Post is reportedly exploring a major hyperlocal venture of its own.

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Generally, the people who run hyperlocal Web sites say they are optimistic about the future of the news business.

CNN: Future of online news may be 'hyperlocal'