Hyperlocal Aggregator Debuts in 12 UK Cities

The hyperlocal news aggregator Fwix, which offers feeds in 80 U.S. cities, debuted in the UK this week, according to the Guardian's PDA blog.

Fwix launched in 12 British cities, including Belfast, Edinburgh and Leeds.

Fwix brings together pro-amateur blogs and professional content. Founder Darian Shirazi, 22, says he has identified an average of 45 local blogs and news sources for each UK city feed.

He also says he is willing to share ad revenue with each of them.

"When I look at the UK, I see a lot of local media, but people are struggling to find content that's written by small bloggers — the extent of local media in an aggregated form is from Thisisbristol.co.uk or those types of sites," he said. "So the focus is to find those really good bloggers and show people what's really happening in these areas."

Readers of the Fwix -- via web, mobile, Twitter or iPhone app -- can browse the news and suggest additions.

Many of the U.S. Fwix feeds, which currently attract a total of around 9 million unique users a month, have newspaper and magazine content as well as grassroots bloggers.

"The professional media sources, we still publish content from them because some of it's very good," Shirazi said. "They cover crime and big local stories very well, but some things that are niche and more interesting don't get covered at all."