Wherever there is a discussion of neighborhood news sites and their probability of success as a business, there is an Aaron. Aaron leaves his comments on sites from coast to coast. On this thread. And that thread. He's the nation's leading hyperlocal news skeptic TM.

His latest shot across the bow of neighborhood news as a viable small business came on this thread discussing Baristanet's appearance on the CBS news program Sunday Morning. Baristanet is one of the oldest and most successful local news blogs on the Internet. Like most of his comments, Aaron's points related to the recognition received by the New Jersey news site were focused on poking holes in the notion that local news sites can survive as independent businesses.

As the world's only provider of a free blogging and advertising service designed for neighborhood bloggers, you'd think Neighborlogs might not like Aaron very much. But when I read through these bullet points from Aaron's Baristanet comments, his recipe for (low probability) hyperlocal success is skeptically accurate:

1. Local blogs can work only if they do so in a very limited geographic area
2. They are run by journalists (westseattleblog, judging from their site is just that as are the folks at baristanet)
3. Are able to work extremely long hours seven days a week.
4. Are able to master multiple tasks such as writing, photography, video, sales, and promotion.
5. Are able to sustain this effort for several years without making a profit
6. Are able to rally the community around them to garner public support, cooperation and more critically, contribution
7. Are able to maintain their health since with a tiny staff (usually 2 people) everything rests on them.

All of these points are presented in the most negative light possible but each must be contended with for anybody who hopes to overcome the dark skepticism and own and operate and independent local news business. We aren't on Aaron's side on this -- the businesses can and will be built. But they will be small businesses. And people will need to think about Aaron's list to make it work.

We think Neighborlogs helps solve some of the issues on Aaron's list.

The Neighborlogs service is designed to coordinate community involvement in a local news site so many can contribute pictures and posts to be organized and presented by the site owner. It goes way beyond readers mailing in pictures and posting comments. A Neighborlogs site contributor is able to add to the site in a complete and collaborative way. This helps mitigate the importance of having "pro" journalists and also gives the sites a flow of fresh news that is bigger and better than any one individual can sustain over the long run.

Our self-serve advertising tools make it easy for local businesses to become part of a site without a full sales and campaign management effort to manage each advertiser transaction. Advertisers can upload their ads, manage their budgets, see their performance and pay through the Web site. The ad process, for certain, doesn't go to zero effort -- you can't just sit back and count your money -- but it changes the game significantly for a one or two-person effort.

Our blogging tools are also designed to quickly and easily create a complete local news story with a picture and a write-up of the event or incident. We can't make a good writer out of a bad writer. But we can help you integrate maps and community elements on the fly to make each post a hyperlocal package of information.

Finally, to address Aaron's #5, Neighborlogs helps you reduce your costs significantly. For one, you don't have to worry about paying for hosting. But more importantly, the cost of creating a site and then maintaining that code are removed from the equation. Some people will still want to bear that expense. But others will see the opportunity to reduce and eliminate these kinds of costs as a way to grow their business faster and, maybe, the only real way to get the operation off the ground.

Of Aaron's list, the only thing we can't do much about is #7. Though, rest is good for health and, with Neighborlogs as your neighborhood news site service provider, you'll probably be resting a little easier.