Local news sites are popping up like daisies.

This one is in North Haven. It’s an experiment in “hyperlocal” news, its creator, Chris Kirby says.

Kirby’s site once again affirms what the rank-and-file at The Courant have known since before the invention of market research: Local folks want local news.

(I blanche at the term “hyperlocal,” by the way. It’s big media corporate newspeak… a language trick meant to trivialize and diminish real local news — meaning town news — because big media no longer has the guns to cover it. )

Here’s another online project: the Hometown Today news. It’s  apparently trying to cover a growing list of towns in the Mansfield, East Hampton, Coventry area. Longtime area journalist Brenda Sullivan is the editor on this one, and it looks like she has her hands full.

As it becomes technologically easier and cheaper to put up these little sites,  more and more will appear.

The ones I’ve seen so far are still a little light in content. It’s to be expected when operating on a shoestring, I suppose. I hope they evolve from the experimental “hobby” stage into something more substantial.

I’ve seen what an aggressive and engaged local press can do… in New Jersey, for instance, where local weeklies filled in the blanks that the Newark Star Ledger didn’t want to bother with. They helped their communities tick.

As always, the real challenge is doing meaningful and original reporting. It can be tricky to provide sound and courageous coverage while still maintaining an ad base.  Tricky but important.

I suppose, like everything else, the key is financial; and that’s where journalists like me come up short. We don’t have the business acumen — or stomach — to make such an operation tick.

That’s what makes these functioning local sites so special. They’re actually trying to make the numbers work.