Street Fight Daily: AOL Fends Off Starboard, ICANN Domains, Seamless

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

AOL Doubles Down On Content After Surviving Activist Challenge (Forbes)
Jeff Bercovici: Starboard sought to make the case that Tim Armstrong’s strategy, in particular the focus on monetizing premium news content through the sale of display advertising, is an expensive failure. Yesterday’s vote clears the way for him to charge ahead with that program, which, he said, has changed only in minor ways since AOL spun off from Time Warner two and a half years ago

Why Newspapers Were Doomed All Along (Harvard Business Review Blog)
Justin Fox: Once a monopoly was established, the editorial content of a newspaper had no detectable impact on its financial success. News gave a paper legitimacy, and some protection from antitrust laws. Big news, especially sports news, even sold some extra papers from time to time. But even that didn’t really matter, since circulation wasn’t a profit center. The business of the metro monopoly papers simply wasn’t about news.

Groupon Is Winning or Losing, Depending on Who You Ask (NBC Chicago Blog)
“I don’t want to sound pompous, but we made profits when nobody expected us to,” Groupon India CEO Ankur Warikoo told the Business Standard. “We are the only deal site now that is profitable globally.” Just take a moment to let that sink in, because it’s a little difficult to reconcile given that Groupon’s stock is at $9.26.

Why Seamless Uses ‘One-Liners’ To Get People To Order Food (Business Insider)
Seamless marketing VP Ryan Scott spoke on a panel at Business Insider’s Mobile Advertising Conference in New York City today. He talked a bit about how Seamless keeps its brand in the mind of consumers. “We really have to think about the full media mix,” said Scott. “We make sure that we’re top of mind, and speaking to customers differently — from a customer’s perspective.”

ICANN Domain Landgrab: What SMBs Should Know (Information Week)
Accountants, retailers, automotive firms, and healthcare companies are among businesses that should be on alert now that ICANN has released its list of proposed new Internet domain names.

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