Late last week, Yahoo News soft-launched its enhanced Local News section, which now features top headlines from 400 U.S. markets - from three to 10 local sites each - compared with only 30 markets previously, writes Poynter. The move is likely the first of a series for Yahoo News to become more localized.

Yahoo is still working out agreements with more sites to bypass registration for spidering local news. Yahoo News users can suggest news sites that should be added via an online form; local bloggers or citizen-media sites would likely turn up eventually.