Aussie Start-Up Local Measures Insists “We’re Not Replacing Journos”

girl with a laptop sitting on newspapers

For a few years now the way many journalists and brands have sourced both stories and feedback through social media has been reliant on hashtags and @handles.

However, Aussie start-up Local Measure – which now has global offices in London and Singapore – has found a third way for publishers to source content about breaking news, via location.

It’s touted as “more powerful” by its founder and CEO Jonathan Barouch.

“People are sharing their location or they’re checking in, they’re geo-tagging,” Barouch explained to B&T.

“What our platform does, it’s the same kind of paradigm to listen and aggregate and publish stuff on the website, but it’s all around geo.”

It’s a new version of citizen journalism in a manner of speaking, as a publisher can collate a heap of images from social media based on mobile location, as opposed to trawling through hashtags and handles to find something relevant.

For example, Barouch explained how during the tragic Sydney Siege in December last year, many publishers such as Fairfax Media and News Corp relied on Local Measure’s offering to pull updates like photos and videos together for a story.

Instead of relying on a hashtag #sydneysiege, the publishers used Local Measure to find relevant posts in the area of the siege.

However, when asked whether it could diminish some journo jobs as the publishers could just collate a heap of updates, Barouch was adamant it wouldn’t.

“We’re a platform, we’re not replacing journalists,” he said.

“Just like they would use Twitter or they would use Hootsuite, we’re just a too that empowers journalists to tell better stories.

“We don’t control editorial, nor do we want to.

“There’s so much content, the art is of a journalist or a marketer being able to thread together the common narrative they want to tell.”

Brands can also use the offering, as it enables marketers another way to see what’s being said about the brand.

Say, for example, someone is in the Qantas lounge waiting for their flight. They might tweet out something in relation to the Qantas lounge, whether the food is tickling their tastebuds, however they don’t use the @Qantas or a hashtag like #QantasLounge.

Local Measure instead sees the tweet is near the Qantas Lounge via geographical capabilities and let the airline know whether the person is a fan of the food or not.

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