SFD: DNAinfo.com Heads to Chicago, Slow Adoption of Mobile Payments

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

Hyperlocal News Site DNAinfo.com Readies November Launch in Chicago (Crain’s Chicago Business)
DNAinfo is gearing up to launch its Chicago neighborhood-focused news site next month after hiring some 20 editorial staffers, including two veterans from the Chicago Sun-Times. The arrival of DNAinfo will bring new online competition to the city’s two big newspapers, which have already seen a decline in circulation and advertisers due to growing online rivals.

Mobile Payments: A Solution in Search of a Problem? (CNET)
Marguerite Reardon: There’s been a lot of hype around mobile payments over the past year, but the No. 1 problem that the mobile payments market faces is adoption. Consumers simply don’t see a reason to replace their cash or plastic with a phone. And yet one company after another is clamoring to get into the market.

Google’s Woes Show Mobile Isn’t Just a Facebook Problem (Wired)
Marcus Wohlsen: Mobile ads simply don’t engage users at the rate their desktop cousins do. Which makes sense: When you’re banging out a Google search on your smartphone, you’re more likely on the go and more likely to need to do something with that information. The leisure to tap an ad that captures your eye isn’t there.

Planning, People Key to Newsroom Change (NetNewsCheck)
Media companies hoping to adapt their newsrooms to a multiplatform world need to focus first on their audience and what it wants, says consultant Gabrial Sama, who feels too many companies under- or over-invest in technology before figuring out exactly how their reporters, producers and editors will use it.

Google’s Margo Georgiadis on Leaving Groupon (Crain’s Chicago Business)
Margo Georgiadis, Google Inc.’s president, Americas, is the highest-ranking woman in Chicago’s tech world. But it’s her brief stint as chief operating officer of Groupon Inc., the company she was charged with helping take public before quitting five months into the job, that really raised her profile.

Hotel Name Change: Google Maps Gets It Right but Apple Corrects Quickly (ScreenWerk)
Greg Sterling: Google was the only one that had the correct data. However, when I sought to recreate the whole experience earlier today so I could write about it I discovered that Apple Maps also now has the correct listing. So in the roughly three days since my initial Hyatt Place search it was addressed on Apple Maps.

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