Street Fight Daily: 11.22.11
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal media, technology, advertising and startups.
102,000 Cupcakes! Small Bakery Burned by Groupon (MSNBC)
A bakery owner was forced to make 102,000 cupcakes after being swamped by customers taking up her cut-price Groupon offer. Rachel Brown’s Need a Cake bakery, which employs eight staff in Reading, U.K., had to bring in temporary workers through an employment agency to fulfill the orders, at a cost of $19,500 (£12,500) — wiping out her profits for the year.
Knight-Backed Local News Site ‘Brooklyn Bureau’ Launches (PaidContent)
The Brooklyn Bureau, a nonprofit local news site with backing from the Knight Foundation, is now live. The site will focus on civic affairs and investigative reporting, particularly in the borough’s less trendy neighborhoods.
Google Backtracks a Bit on Charging for Maps API (Nieman Lab)
Joshua Benton: Google says only about 1 out of ever 300 websites using the Maps API would be affected by the new fees, at current usage levels. Between that and the new exemptions and exceptions, for some news orgs at least, assembling a new map stack might just have dropped a bit on the to-do list.
Reading Yelp’s S1: Rapid Growth, Amidst Challenges (Local Onliner)
Peter Krasilovsky: Yelp’s S1, which was issued last week as a run-up to a $100 million IPO, reveals a lot of new data about the reviews leader. The big question about Yelp has been whether it can grow against increased pressure from Google, and also begin to take market share away from traditional media players such as Yellow Pages.
Online News Startups Can Win the Future by Staying in the Present (CJR)
Michael Meyer: Most founders of local online news operations I talk to … have a strong sense that building a digital news source for their communities puts them on the right side of history, but little concept of how to keep their operation afloat long enough to be vindicated.
Five Foursquare Tactics to Attract Customers (Harvard Business Review)
Carmine Gallo: Innovative retailers are leveraging the growing popularity of check-ins to create fun, meaningful, interactions that encourage long-term loyalty. Here are five ways to use Foursquare to build loyalty.
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