I've been keeping tabs on how online journalists have been using maps to offer more features. See for example what MetaCarta offers in that realm. Others are going a different route: geotagging stories and asking registered readers to key in addresses to deliver neighborhood news. Recently, Chi*town Daily News did just that. It's a citizen journalist run news site for Chicago. Luckily, I know the neighborhoods there and could regsiter with an old college address. When I log in I see map centered on that address with local news stories linked off a Google Map.

Equally interesting, per MediaShift/IdeaLab, is the deal for advertisers.

For advertisers this represents an amazing opportunity to pay for ads that reach people in a particular neighborhood. And they're cheap -- $50 to get started.

There's more. It's not just that we're matching users with ads near them. We're pairing content with nearby ads, too.

This is a way new media can potential "jump" traditional media and hopefully attract funding via advertising.