Street Fight Daily: Patch Numbers Up, TBD Loses Final Employee

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.

Patch Sets Records for Traffic and Revenue (FishbowlNY)
Patch, AOL’s network of hyperlocal news sites, enjoyed May quite a bit. According to a press release, last month brought record amounts of traffic and revenue to the venture. ComScore says 11.7 million people visited Patch during the month, an 11 percent increase over its previous high of 10.6 million

TBD Loses Its Last Employee (Washington City Paper)
Allbritton’s long-ailing TBD experiment is even closer to meeting its demise. Since May, TBD’s staff has consisted of transportation blogger John Hendel, down from 35 editorial employees at its height in 2010. Now Hendel, who writes the TBD On Foot blog, is leaving TBD to report on telecommunications policy for D.C.-based Warren Communications.

PlaceIQ, Skyhook Using Location for Brand-Audience Targeting (ScreenWerk)
Both PlaceIQ and Skyhook Wireless are now offering data-driven audience targeting based on location. In other words, location becomes a proxy for audience (and interests). PlaceIQ’s product is in market, while Skyhook’s is just coming to market. The concept behind both is similar: using location information to identify audiences who may be in particular places at particular times.

Nextdoor Taking Slow Road to Social Networking (GigaOm)
Nextdoor, a social network for neighborhoods, is proving that there’s a large market for location-based information provided by a company that’s serious about online privacy. The company will announce today that it’s partnering with National Night Out to prevent neighborhood violence as it grows and signs up users across the United States.

Deal Industry Shifts To Better Targeting, Malls (NextNewsCheck)
Deals providers are partnering with credit card company loyalty programs to better track and target the frequent customers at the core of their business. Media companies are also experimenting with deal malls, while analyst Gordon Borrell warns there’s one more competitor to watch out for: yellow pages/local search companies.

Why Mobile Will Dominate the Future of Media and Advertising (The Atlantic)
This is the dawn of the smartphone age. But you wouldn’t know it by looking at mobile advertising spend. Last week in this space, Derek Thompson showed that consumers are spending 10% of their media attention on their mobile devices while the medium only commands a mere 1% of total ad-spend. The disparity between the two mediums gives a strong indication as to how much room mobile still has to grow.

The Californication of the Daily Deals Market: Cheap Tickets (AllThingsD)
Crowd Seats is bringing a bit of Hollywood to the daily deals business. The Los Angeles-based company is focused on selling tickets at a discount. The site does not sell bikini waxes, Segway tours or fancy dinners. It’s all about targeting hardcore sports fans.

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