This article examines motivations, rewards and strategies in hyperlocal news entrepreneurship. The material is an interview study with eight entrepreneurs who independently own and manage hyperlocal news sites in Sweden. The conclusion is that the means of the hyperlocal entrepreneur both motivate and create an obstacle for growth. The findings of struggling business models, self-exploitation and civic motivations correspond with previous research in different countries, but alternative perspectives are suggested drawing from theories of entrepreneurial passion and processes. Civic motivations can be viewed as part of entrepreneurial passion, and the precarious nature as a low-risk effectuation process. The effectuator explores possible outcomes of given means and builds the business by controlling the affordable loss rather than calculating the possible return. Along with the obvious difficulty in finding a profitable business model when operating in a very small market, this implies a new perspective on failure and success in hyperlocal entrepreneurship, but also underlines that any measures of support for the sector need to be easily accessible for the individual entrepreneur.

This study investigates how hyperlocal entrepreneurs interpret and undertake the role of accountable journalism, but it still acknowledges the many roles hyperlocal news may hold in a local community. The analysis is built on the approaches within this group toward (1) business and (2) journalism. The findings suggest that the focus of (A) nonprofit/nonprofessional could be to mirror community events, often as a “positive” counter-image. Within (B) nonprofit/professional, interrogative reporting could be viewed as a contribution to the common good. Niches of news alerts and partnership content are found within (C) for-profit/nonprofessional, while a full news standard is the (struggling) ambition within (D) for-profit/professional. The argument can be made that a deeper understanding of how media accountability can be addressed and/or promoted in this diverse sector of scarce resources is a vital question for policymakers, educational institutions and the public–as well as for the future of local journalism. © 2018, © 2018 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.