ST. LOUIS – As “hyperlocal” news (especially for transitioning GeoDomains) remains a buzzword, one company riding the wave of this phenomenon is Outside.in, which is a Brooklyn-based Web aggregator of hyperlocal information.

Associated Geos continues its series of Q&As spotlighting outside vendors and Internet professionals. In this interview, Outside.in CEO Mark Josephson talks about his innovative company and the advantages right now for GeoDomainers looking to tap into the new media cache known as hyperlocal.

Associated Geos: For background, please describe the genesis of Outside.in and the evolution to its present mission statement.
Mark Josephson: Outside.in was founded a couple years ago by some really smart guys who saw the proliferation of local blogging and content creation. They saw an opportunity to organize that information in valuable ways. Since then, the company has been executing that strategy to aggregate and organize all of the world’s information by location. That’s our focus.

AG: How do you provide your service to other Web outlets or sources?
MJ: We recently launched Outside.in for Publishers at http://publishers.outside.in. It’s a self-service product that allows anybody to come in and leverage the data from the more than 30,000 hyperlocal news sources we aggregate and organize.

They can use that data down to the hyper, micro or super-duper local level. It’s a self-service product that allows you to come in and create a single page, a map or a feed for every single neighborhood or every single region you might cover. This makes a ton of sense for GeoDomainers because the information is very specific. And it’s free.

AG: Hyperlocal is a big buzz word right now. What does the term mean to you? How does it apply to Outside.in?
MJ: Hyperlocal means a lot of things to a lot of people, but at the core, it means a few things.

It means being more local than historically media has been able to get down to the neighborhood, street and even address level. It also means something incredibly personal and specific for every single person. Hyperlocal is about where you are, what’s near you and increasingly about what is close to you and close to your heart.

AG: Neighborhoods (especially in big cities) are getting more focused via blogs and citizen journalists. What’s your procedure for tapping into this new source of news?
MJ: We have a whole self-service product and channel called Outside.in for Bloggers. This is a series of tools and resources for local bloggers and citizen journalists to organize and distribute their content to our publishing partners. It’s more traffic and more visibility and eventually more revenue for what they do.

AG: The Web is sometimes described as the “electronic picket fence”. This means news travels through and by word of mouth. How does Outside.in filter that picket-fence information into context for end users?
MJ: We’re organizing and looking at more than 30,000 hyperlocal news services every day in real time. As news, commentary and discussion happens anywhere in the country, we’re picking it up and distributing it to more than 5 million people per month.

AG: Monetizing local news and information is always at the forefront for Web developers. What type of business model is working the best for Outside.in in terms of building profitability?
MJ: We get paid for everything we do. We do that by creating high-quality inventory every step of the way. We either own the inventory that we create on other people’s sites or we’re getting paid at the highest rates by the folks who are selling that inventory.

Outside.in for Publishers is free if you want us to own the ad inventory.

AG: What kind of local information has been getting the best feedback so far on Outside.in?
MJ: It varies by market and that’s the beauty of hyperlocal. It could be about the school superintendent in town or the new development around the corner this week. It varies by market and it’s intensely personal.

The concern for GeoDomainers in my estimation is how to get the right ads to run on those information pages. This is made workable by “tent-driven content” and whether, for example, it’s on real estate or other services.

AG: It’s time for the crystal ball. Do you envision the death of newspapers? What model do you envision coming from that demise?
MJ: I think saying every newspaper is going to die just isn’t true. Print is obviously in trouble because of the inherent cost structure. While the economics have changed, I think there still will be newspapers.

We’re creating an ecosystem that connects traffic to those content sites that need it and those with ad impressions to entities that can sell them.

AG: What advantages do you think branded GeoDomains have in the switch to hyperlocal or city news coverage?
MJ: There is a huge, huge opportunity because the cost to enter that market of hyperlocal news business is predicated on a branded domain name and an Outside.in for Publishers account. This could be a big product for GeoDomainers. It’s a no-brainer to create new pages with this type of content.

AG: As a leader in new media, what has been your most telling observation regarding the transition of news from traditional sources to hyperlocal?
MJ: There are sunny days ahead for those who are embracing reinvention and innovation. It’s a big opportunity and smart people are moving toward it rapidly.