The student group that worked on GoSkokie.com made their report on hyper-local citizen's media available online (big PDF warning). The micro executive summary: "Hyper local citizen's media sites will proliferate whether traditional media organizations participate or not."
Note to interested readers. Medill's New Media Program has now conducted two hyperlocal capstone projects and two youth product projects. The projects have produced real results and have had real industry impact. For example, YourMom, an offering of the Quad Cities Times is a direct result of a capstone project. We're not quite up to the level of Lawrence.com, but we've got some decent expertise in these two areas. If you're a media company or journalism educator and looking for some hired talent, you could do worse than drop Rich Gordon an e-mail.
Disclaimer: I got a small acknowledgement for providing the hardware and some technical assistance in support of GoSkokie.com.