Practical guide
How to create a useful local news digest
Build the digest around a real place and resident need. Use city and county primary sources, local reporting, and event or service information; do not publish a location page unless the edition is fresh and genuinely local.[1][2]
Why this gets difficult
Local news is fragmented across government notices, small outlets, neighborhood sources, calendars, and regional media. A generic national feed misses the decisions that change a resident's actual day.[1][2]
A practical way through
- Define the city or service area and the resident questions the digest should answer.[1][2]
- Track official agendas, alerts, transit, schools, public safety, and service notices relevant to that place.[1][2]
- Add local reporting and neighborhood sources that provide observation or accountability.[1][2]
- Reject duplicated regional rewrites and stale event listings before delivery.[1][2]
An example
The situation: A city meeting, transit closure, school change, and weekend event appear across separate local sources.[1][2]
What changes: Official notices establish dates and scope, local reporting adds consequences, and repeated calendar entries are resolved to the organizer's page.[1][2]
What you get: The resident gets a small, current brief tied to choices they can make that day.[1][2]
What to watch for
Sources worth keeping
How Scottie helps
Scottie can include local sources in a reader's broader brief when a verified source pipeline supplies fresh, place-specific material; placeholder city pages remain deferred.[3]