The Alternative Press: A Successful Hyperlocal in the Garden State

By: Tom Grubisich | Street Fight

In April 2008, Shapiro, a New Jersey native and an attorney with a litigation firm in Manhattan, is at a hospital with his wife, waiting to see if their 1-year-old son Shayne will survive high-risk open-heart surgery. He does. In gratitude, Shapiro decides to build a new career promoting social good. Wanting to be close to his family in suburban New Jersey, he decides to publish “high-quality, objective, non-partisan, hyperlocal news and information.” For an extra measure of goodness, the product will be “in an environmentally-friendly format” (i.e. electronic bytes instead of dead trees).