Henry Scott has an extensive career in journalism, but it wasn’t until a hotel blared loud Elton John songs in his own backyard that he dipped his toes into launching his own hyperlocal publication.
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RSSHenry Scott has been working in journalism since he was a fresh college graduate. He worked for multiple esteemed organizations such as the Hartford Courant and The New York Times before heading out on his own to launch a media consulting firm in the late 90’s.
As part of his business, Henry worked to turn around financially failing media entities. This background set him up perfectly to understand what works and what doesn’t for news organizations.
In 2011 Henry moved to the town of West Hollywood in the Los Angeles metro area. On the first night in his new apartment, he was unable to sleep due to the outdoor bar of a nearby hotel playing loud Elton John music into the early morning hours.
After looking into the matter, Henry discovered that this was illegal, but that the city couldn’t be bothered to do anything about it.
This was the origin of WEHOville, an online hyperlocal news website that Henry launched. One objective of WEHOville was to hold businesses and government officials accountable in situations like the one that Henry found himself in on that first night in his new apartment. Henry continued to operate WEHOville profitably for nearly a decade before selling the business in late 2020.
On this week’s episode of Small Press, Big Ideas, I talked with Henry about his story, as well as insights into operating a successful hyperlocal news outlet. We talked about how he initially grew the audience and then monetized the business, including a very cool hybrid subscription offering.
We also discussed how he learned about what his readers actually wanted to read, strategies he used to attain and educate local advertisers, the power of investigative journalism on the hyperlocal level, and a lot more.
Listen to the full episode wherever podcasts are found, or click play on the player above!