ImpreMedia announces plans for Hyperlocal Coverage.

ImpreMedia announced its plans to introduce hyperlocal coverage, initially in New York and Los Angeles, via community blogging partnerships.

As part of its commitment to serve the Hispanic community, the company will set up impreMedia Community E-Journalism Media Labs in its newsrooms in New York and Los Angeles to assist local bloggers in their efforts at covering the community at a deep and meaningful level.

“The focus will be on hyperlocal journalism,” John Paton, Chairman and CEO of impreMedia, told more than 1,500 media executives gathered at the 62nd Annual Congress of the World Association of Newspapers. Media companies must become hyperlocal and that means “they will have to harness the power of bloggers,” Mr. Paton said. (A copy of Mr. Paton’s speech can be found at http://www.impremedia.com/john-paton/).

The selected bloggers will take part in four-week orientation sessions working out of the Community E-Journalism Media Labs set up in the newsrooms at El Diario La Prensa in New York and La Opinion in Los Angeles. Mr. Paton said the company will also give the bloggers training in sales and create mutually beneficial sales arrangements.

“We are deeply committed to providing high-quality journalism to underserved communities.” Says Alberto Vourvoulias-Bush, impreMedia’s Corporate Executive Editor. “And the impreMedia Community E-Journalism Media Labs are part of a larger strategy of working together with independent reporting and blogging sites to make sure that U.S. Latinos – our neighborhoods and issues– have a vigorous voice in the new media world.”

The impreMedia Community E-Journalism Media Labs are expected to be in operation by early next year.