Today's Seattle Times announcement is a happy thing for the four community news businesses involved in the hyperlocal partnership including my own site, CapitolHillSeattle.com.

But the partnership will be meaningless the next time there is breaking news in a neighborhood not named in the press release. If this partnership does what it is supposed to, the system of communication and the internal news culture that the Seattle Times is trying to build will be put into motion to connect Seattle's news audience with community news providers across the city. That change is much more important than today's announcement.

The systems, procedures and, maybe, technology the Times will develop around this partnership have the potential to drag big media forward to give community news a begrudging respect and change the interaction with the independent news sites from ignorance to respectful attention. It won't be an immediate change but the new habits are starting to be formed already. When these initial partners break important news, the Times is going to make sure its audience knows it. This will spread quickly as the habit develops. The Seattle Neighborlogs sites will all benefit from this new connection as will any other dedicated news and information provider who works to build a dedicated audience.

And good things will flow in both directions. An example: Look how important a system like flickr is in this new news environment. Why shouldn't the Times find a way to gain attention for its own deep system of photography by finding a way for other news outlets to tap into that system?

Meanwhile, efforts like SeattlePI.com's neighborhood blogs and KOMO's cookie cutter approach erode any hope for their backers of participating in the valuable networks that will form in a collaborative environment. This announcement -- unlike so many other recent ones in 'hyperlocal' -- has brought a burst of attention and a new respect to all neighborhood news sites. It's good news for everybody.