Breaking the hotel story before the cranes arrive

Carmen runs a small news site for Lavapies and the streets around it in Madrid. Twelve thousand neighbours read it every week. The council posts planning applications and meeting agendas on pages nobody checks. She learns about a new hotel on her street when the cranes arrive, like everyone else. The big papers get the story, and her readers ask why she missed it. With xMap Flows, Carmen built Courier. Every hour, Courier watches the council’s planning and agenda pages for new entries, reads the city’s news feeds, keeps only Lavapies and the streets around it, picks out what her readers will care about, and sends each tip to her phone. On Wednesday, Courier spots a plan for a hotel on Calle de la Fe, posted at seven in the morning. Carmen’s story is up by noon, two days before any paper. Three hundred neighbours come to the council meeting. Carmen stopped finding out when the cranes arrive. Now she breaks the news.

The story in words