Street Fight Daily: Yell Buys Moonfruit, Groupon Opens Seattle Office
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.
Can Yell Turn Online Around With Self-Serve Marketing? (PaidContent)
Yell.com and Yellow Pages operator Yell Group is acquiring UK point-and-click website builder Moonfruit, as it tries to salvage even digital classifieds that are in reverse. Over five million sites, including 230,000 e-tail stores, have been created using Moonfruit since its 2000 launch, according to the buyer.
Groupon Hires Amazonian as VP of Engineering, Opens Seattle Office (AllThingsD)
Vinayak Hegde is the latest Amazon executive to join Groupon as its new VP of Engineering. The Chicago-based daily deals company expects to announce his appointment later this afternoon. Hegde will be based in Seattle, overseeing the company’s marketing technology expansion, and will also be in charge of opening a new 20-person office here.
Study: Want High Engagement on Facebook? Offer Coupons (Mashable)
A new report from Wildfire Interactive looked at 10,000 randomly sampled Facebook campaigns to see which got the highest response rates and earned media. Among the findings were a lack of correlation between the two. The campaigns that got the most earned media were not the ones that got the highest response rates.
Local Newspapers’ Crisis: Is Hyperlocal Journalism the Answer? (Guardian)
David Baines: As a variety of approaches develop, each embedded in a particular locality, I would argue that a range of sustainable commercial models are likely to emerge, each supporting an independent media operation (or several operations).
Slow Digital Start for Providence Old Media (NetNewsCheck)
In Rhode Island’s capital, the traditional media outlets are mired in what one expert calls “an analog mindset,” but a number of small independent startups are willing and eager to fill in the gaps in digital coverage left by the market’s newspaper and TV stations.
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