Street Fight Daily: Gannett Buys ReachLocal, Facebook Debuts Staff-Curated Event Recommendations

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology…

Gannett to Buy Digital Services Company ReachLocal (Wall Street Journal)
Gannett has agreed to buy digital marketing services company ReachLocal for about $156 million, the latest move by a traditional newspaper publisher to diversify beyond print media. (Subscription required.)

How Businesses Can Take Advantage of the Massive Opportunity in Local Data (Street Fight)
Eli Portnoy: The difficulty of accessing local data has been changing with the rise of smartphones. We no longer have to guess and approximate where consumers go, because mobile phones can provide data that paints a much richer picture of where, when, and why users visit the world around them.

Facebook Debuts Event Recommendation Based On Staff Opinions, Not Algorithms (AdWeek)
Facebook is debuting featured events, which will offer recommendations — think rock shows, biking meetups, museum exhibition openings, etc. — based on human curation rather than an algorithm. Previously, the digital giant only made event suggestions based on users’ and their friends’ interests via an automated system.

Google Opens Customer Match to Shopping Campaigns (Search Engine Land)
Google is extending its Customer Match feature to Shopping Campaigns, enabling retail marketers to target (or exclude) customers with product listing ads in web and image search results.

Case Study: Non-Profit Searches for Cost-Effective Marketing Solutions (Street Fight) 
Community support is essential for any local organization, and particularly for non-profits like Keshet Dance Company, which relies on partnerships and sponsorships to fund its socially-driven programming for at-risk youth.

Thrive Market Raises $111 Million for its Online Organic Grocery Store (TechCrunch)
Buy organic groceries online, at an affordable price. That’s the mantra of Los Angeles-based Thrive Market, which has raised a significant $111 million Series B funding round, led by Invus.

Online Shopping Forces Changes in Retail Inventory Management (Wall Street Journal)
Home Depot is bringing a new philosophy to its cavernous stores: Less is more. Instead of filling its warehouse-style racks to the ceiling with Makita drills, rolls of Owens Corning insulation and cans of Rust-Oleum paint, Home Depot wants fewer items on its shelves and it wants them to be within customers’ reach. (Subscription required.)

In an ‘Unprecedented Step,’ AirBnB Sues San Francisco Over Rental Laws (Business Insider)
In June, San Francisco essentially backed Airbnb into a corner, asking the startup to comply with tougher rental legislation or face daily fines. At the time, the company refused to say how it would proceed or whether it would comply. Twenty days later, we now know what Airbnb’s path forward will be.

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