Street Fight Daily: Square’s IPO Filing Now Public, NYC to Launch Hyperlocal News Sites
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology…
Square Discloses IPO Plans (New York Times)
Square has made its IPO prospectus public, indicating it’s close to a roadshow to sell stock to investors. The move follows an action-packed 10 days for the company’s CEO, Jack Dorsey, who was named permanent chief of Twitter last week. In its prospectus, Square noted Dorsey’s multiple jobs, saying the dual roles “may at times adversely affect his ability to devote time, attention, and effort to Square.”
NYC Launching Neighborhood Websites with Hyperlocal Information (New York Daily News)
New York City mayor Bill de Blasio announced that the city will launch neighborhood websites early next year featuring hyperlocal information that affects residents, like leaking hydrants, transit conditions, and restaurant grades.
NinthDecimal Partners with TiVo to Measure TV Advertising’s Real-World Influence (Street Fight)
TV still accounts for the largest share of U.S. media spending, but with marketers increasingly focused on generating hard metrics-based ROI for every aspect of their campaigns, the challenge has been tying TV’s impact to real-world results. With the launch of a measurement solution in partnership with TiVo, NinthDecimal is banking on TV becoming a bigger piece of the ROI puzzle.
UberRush Not Yet a FedEx Killer (Wall Street Journal)
The expanded launch of Uber’s new delivery service is being heralded in some quarters as a potential threat to both FedEx and UPS. But Uber is focused on quick, same-day deliveries, which are only a small portion of its larger rivals’ businesses. So while deliveries by upstarts are no doubt disruptive, they’re unlikely to put the giants out of business or make a material impact anytime soon.
5 Reasons Why Your Business Needs Negative Reviews (Street Fight)
All business owners cringe at the sight of a public one- or two-star review. There is almost nothing that makes business owners more emotional than public criticism of their work. But emotions aside, negative reviews can actually be a good thing. Here are five ways they can help your business thrive.
What If Content Could Come to You Rather Than Making You Go to Content? (New York Observer)
Jeff Jarvis: Why not start a new media enterprise entirely on Facebook? Why not build a news business that is meant to be distributed everywhere while keeping a website merely as an archive? If you’re an old media company, why not give up your dependence on getting readers to come to you and instead go to them; why not become radically distributed?
LivingSocial Lays Off 200 As It Shifts from Deals to ‘Experiences’ (TechCrunch)
It’s been crunch time for daily deals sites for a while now, and today, one of the bigger and older platforms in the space is announcing a round of layoffs as it looks to cut costs, reorganize operations, and push into profitability. LivingSocial, the local deals platform part-owned by Amazon, is laying off 20 percent of its workforce and focusing on further automating areas like sales and customer care.
With a Neighborhood-Level Focus, Hoodline Is Trying to Fill a Gap in San Francisco News (Nieman Lab)
San Francisco’s media ecosystem has been devastated by the changing news business. In this environment, the hyperlocal site Hoodline aims to stand out, and find success, by covering very granular stories — businesses opening and closing, property development, small-time crime — on a daily basis.
BuildZoom Raises $10.6 Million to Focus on High-End Home Improvements (Forbes)
In the last two years, companies have raised hundreds of millions of dollars to address the home services market, and San Francisco’s BuildZoom has jumped into the fray by announcing that it has raised $10.6 million. But instead of focusing on what its cofounders call “lower-end,” “easily-commoditized” services, the startup said it will emphasize remodeling projects and “high-stakes transactions.”
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