NBC shutters hyperlocal site EveryBlock

NBC News unexpectedly shut down hyperlocal news website EveryBlock Thursday.

MSNBC purchased the site in 2009, two years after making its first acquisition, Newsvine, which is still in operation.

In the site’s final blog post, the site’s team cite financial and economic challenges as the reasons behind the closure.

Meanwhile, numerous commenters took to the site, bashing the site’s owners for not giving any notice before closing the site. Small business owners also complained about the fate of advertising money they have committed to the site.

EveryBlock was billed as a hyperlocal news website, broken down by neighborhood, similar to strategies used at AOL’s Patch and the now defunct Backfence. Backfence faced similar financial difficulties.