Like Seattle-based local media analysis and news site Local Remote, we don't like it when the terms local and hyperlocal get tossed around and misapplied. LR takes a stab at defining what makes hyperlocal special:

"Hyperlocal” covers neighborhoods, while “local” covers towns and cities. We get some press releases here about how stations or newspapers are starting new “hyperlocal” websites that cover their city or a given topic in their city (say, “moms”). A mom blog is a niche site. A neighborhood blog is hyperlocal. A city blog is local. 

We won't venture into the mom blog waters, but we're not sure this definition set satisfies. Like the rest of the hyperlocal experts* on the Internet, we have to toss in our $0.02 on the debate. Here's how Neighborlogs looks at it.

Hyperlocal to us is about a set of assets -- not necessarily official borders or measures like population size. Here is that asset package that a hyperlocal site must cover and, equally important, must focus almost entirely on. Add another item to some of the categories and you're talking local coverage -- not hyperlocal.

Hyperlocal Asset Package

• Related business districts -- no more than three, typically one
• Arts districts -- at least one but not more
• Colleges and universities -- maximum two, typically one
• Government -- unlimited layers!
• Local 'friendly' names for locations -- no more than two layers. Example: "Pike/Pine > Capitol Hill"
• Major arterials, highways and freeways -- no more than four, typically two
• Parks -- no more than two major parks, typically one
• Significant bodies of water -- no more than two
• Police precincts -- typically one but at most two
• Fire stations -- at least one but no more than two
• Hospitals -- at least one but no more than three

There's our stab at the package. I'm sure there are more categories to add and plenty of good examples of sites that cover areas that either lack a category or exceed some of our 'limits' that consider themselves 'hyperlocal.' But hyperlocal has much more to it than population or acreage -- it's about a focus on a basic set of life components that define a community.