Back in 1995, I went to work for Cablevision, whose chairman at the time (Chuck Dolan) had a vision for providing hyperlocal news to Long Island communities. In theory, it was great. In practice, it sucked.

No one bothered to ask community journalists whether a weekly news format could be transformed into a 24-hour, 7-day a week news channel. The answer is no. Instead of a news program, it ended up looking like a TV bulletin board from 1986 (with nice color pictures added). I always said that if your grandmother picked her nose, we'd cover it. But we also covered house fires, toxic waste dumps, handicapped parking permit scams - and local personalities. Those were the best stories. I said at the time the concept would have worked beautifully as a "local hereos" station or, even better, as an online, digital newspaper - since the channel aka Neighborhood News12 - was all digital before most people in television even knew what digital was.

Needless to say, Neighborhood News12 is no more. So now I read that hyperlocal news sites are catching on. Sigh.