Ofcom – the independent regulator and competition authority for the UK communications industries – has noted the rising profile of hyperlocal websites in the regional 'media ecology'.
Their researchers say one in five people now claims to consult community websites at least once per month, and to have increased their use of such sites over the past two years.
Spurtle cannot claim sole credit for the trend, but the numbers accessing this site have certainly risen dramatically since we launched it in October 2009. We'll study the figures and try to make sense of them in Issue 187.
In the meantime, you can read Ofcom's synopsis of their findings at www.ofcom.org.uk.