Certainly, there’s a little overlap between accounts — for example, someone may be fans of My Ballard and PhinneyWood on Facebook — but we’ve found residents tend to “like” and follow their neighborhoods. Of all the sites, My Ballard has the largest reach: about 12,000 combined fans and followers, with Queen Anne View and My Green Lake following on our most social list.

To “like” or follow a neighborhood site, visit that’s site home page and look for the Facebook and Twitter buttons.

Over the last year, PhinneyWood.com won a national journalism award for deadline reporting, and QueenAnneView.com broke a story that spurred a city-wide investigation. We added four new neighborhood sites, launched NorthSeattleGuide.com, partnered with the UW’s The Daily, teamed up with MyGreenLake.com and inked an advertising deal with KING TV and the Seattle Times.

We have our readers and advertisers to thank for your amazing support. And we can’t say enough good things about our team of neighborhood editors, who have worked hard at providing community coverage around the clock — stories that you can’t find anywhere else in a difficult economic climate.

On the revenue front, we made terrific progress, serving ads for well over 100 local businesses, both large and small. Our clients are thrilled with the ability to target their customers by neighborhood with low-cost, high-exposure ads. And our free deals service is a big hit, too, letting merchants set their own terms while reaching just the North Seattle area. And it all stays local — the money we generate from advertising supports our neighborhood editors, who live here, too.

We’re particularly proud that Next Door Media has grown in such a grassroots fashion. We’re a Ballard company without the luxury of millions (or even thousands) of dollars in investment or donations. We’re not getting rich by any stretch, but we’re having fun (well, except when we hear sirens at midnight.)

Our heartfelt thanks to all of you, our editors and our partners for your support as we move into 2011!

QueenAnneView.com editor Thea Chard posted the heartbreaking story, which rocketed around Facebook and Twitter and tallied up dozens of comments. Soon, Seattle TV stations and news sites were on the story. Seattle City Light warned residents about a potentially widespread problem and launched a citywide inspection of more than 37,000 metal streetlight poles.

The inspection is now complete, and Seattle City Light says they’ve identified 56 sites that were found to have “elevated voltage” — some of them dangerously high. The city has also notified every business, institution and government facility about the need to check light poles on private property.

Kudos to Thea for breaking the story and to the dog’s owner, Nancy Bostdorff, who was willing to bring the tragic story to the community’s attention.

The partnership combines our expertise with driving results for North Seattle businesses — we’re the region’s most-read network of news sites — with KING and the Times’ established base of regional advertisers. As TechFlash explains, “The ad network doesn’t plan to compete for the small local advertisers that are already placing ads on the hyperlocal sites, instead tapping into larger advertisers like car dealers or electronics retailers where KING-TV and The Seattle Times already have established relationships.”

Next Door Media sponsors will continue to enjoy premium positions on our neighborhood blogs, as well as local deals on our new site, NorthSeattleGuide.com.

Next Door Media was among the first partners in the project, and we extend the Times and the other blog partners a hearty congratulations! It’s more evidence that Seattle is leading the way in innovation in local and hyperlocal news.

The centerpiece of the site is the North Seattle deals section, featuring printable and shareable discounts that don’t cost shoppers a penny. They originate from our neighborhood sponsors, who can post deals for no additional charge (see details). This is a big departure from many other sites, which keep a big cut of the revenue and sent it to their corporate offices in Chicago, San Francisco or New York. You can also receive deals from North Seattle Guide via Facebook, Twitter and email.

The site also features the region’s most extensive community events calendar. Powered by Seattle-based Trumba, it aggregates the events postings from our neighborhood blogs all in one place. For example, if a community group posts a Wallingford event on MyWallingford.com, it also appears on NorthSeattleGuide.com.

The home page displays links to some of the biggest and most interesting stories from all of Next Door Media’s sites. You can also see these stories via our new North Seattle News Twitter account.

And finally, North Seattle Guide features a neighborhood guide, which helps introduce users to our network of neighborhood blogs. Stay tuned, we’ll be adding neighborhood profiles and photos in the days to come.

We believe North Seattle Guide is the first regional site in the country that ties together a network of neighborhood blogs without stealing their thunder. It attracts a new audience that may not live in the region — but wants to visit or move to North Seattle — and it helps drive new value for our advertisers in a competitive advertising landscape.

Doree Armstrong and Dale Steinke accepted the award for deadline reporting on the devastating arson that burned a half-block of Greenwood’s business district to the ground. The October 23rd blaze happened in the early morning hours, and PhinneyWood covered the story extensively — including photos, video and Twitter updates — well ahead of Seattle newspapers and TV stations.

“The coverage by PhinneyWood was the most extensive of any media outlet in the area,” said SPJ judges. “(It was) an exceptional collection of work and a model of creative, multimedia coverage.”

This is Next Door Media’s second national journalism award in a little over a year.

“A terrific development in the past year for our journalism program is the creation of a partnership with Next Door Media,” explains David Domke, the department’s chair. “The goal of these projects isn’t hard-hitting breaking news: it’s to delve into the real lives and experiences of Seattleites.”

And stay tuned — more stories are on the way.

This is our first partnership with an existing neighborhood blog. Earlier this year, we launched UDistrictDaily.com in collaboration with the University of Washington’s The Daily newspaper.

With the addition of My Green Lake, Next Door Media’s network now includes ten neighborhood blogs spanning the majority of North Seattle, from the Space Needle to Northgate Mall and Elliott Bay to Lake Washington.

Absolutely, and Next Door Media is proud to be working with the UW, both with the entrepreneurial journalism class and The Daily newspaper.