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MSNBC and AOL may have just snapped up hyperlocal sites—EveryBlock and Patch respectively—but newspapers are dumping them left and right.  This week the Washington Post announced it would close its hyperlocal “standalone” site, LoudounExtra.  WaPo launched the site only two years ago; LoudounExtra was the publisher’s only foray into the hyperlocal space.  It had planned to launch another local hub Fairfaxextra.com, but never pulled the trigger.

Paid Content’s Rafat Ali explains, “The site will be turned off in September and all the content will be migrated to the main WaPo site. The site was launched in 2007, but failed to gain any traction, partly because the interactive execs who worked on the site and effort left soon after, resulting in no attention/promotion from the main site, and partly because WaPo’s still struggling to define its way with its online strategy.”

You would think that newspapers would be ideally positioned to lead the local market—a space where big media is wagering serious money.  However, newspapers’ struggle to adapt online has held them back from striking gold-- even in an area where they should be natural leaders.  Source: paid Content, more