A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal media, technology, advertising and startups.

Where Does Arianna Fit Into AOL’s New Patch Plans? (PaidContent)
Jeff Roberts: The appointment of Rachel Fishman Feddersen suggests that Arianna Huffington wants to distance herself from Patch. The new appointment looks like Patch’s last kick at the “hyper-local” can before the sites become “hyper-regional” or simply vanish altogether.

Dear Patch: I Was Hyperlocal Long Before You (Romenesko)
Jim Romenesko: Dear Patch: I am not your enemy. … I really am a big fan of hyperlocal. In fact, I was hyperlocal nearly two decades before you launched. In 1992, I started a biweekly paper in Milwaukee called The Public Record.

Groupon Hires Paul Taaffe to Improve the Online-Coupon Site’s Public Face (Bloomberg)
Groupon has hired public-relations executive Paul Taaffe to run communications for the daily-deal site, which has had several publicity mishaps in the last year. Taaffe, 50, was previously chairman and chief executive officer of Hill & Knowlton, a unit of WPP Plc, before he resigned from the post in January 2011.

Glancee: A Nice-Guy Ambient Social Location App For Normal People (TechCrunch)
Eric Eldon: Some of us can’t be bothered to check in, but still want to find interesting people nearby. The challenge for developers is how to do this in a way that is both useful and not creepy. Glancee, available for both iOS and Android, gets closer to solving these problems than most I’ve seen.

PaperG Sees Local Ads Opportunity With Advertisers Large And Small Says CEO Wong (AdExchanger)
“Small advertisers don’t have in‑house design teams to produce their creative so they have to locate a designer or an agency that’s selling them advertising – such as AT&T, the Yellow Pages, Newspapers – anyone already selling them local display advertising,” says PaperG’s Victor Wong. “For the most part, though, the small guy is thinking: ‘How do I even buy an ad, let alone, design the ad?’”

Manta’s Massive, Unrealized SMB Opportunity (ScreenWerk)
Greg Sterling: Manta offers business profiles and some enhanced visibility services for a monthly subscription fee. But the paid services are really in an embryonic state. Manta is now sitting on a massive opportunity, with more than a million members now growing to 2 million by the end of this year.

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