Street Fight Daily: Twitter Launches ‘Buy’ Button, AOL’s Armstrong Ready to Fight Ad Blocking

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Twitter Makes ‘Buy’ Button Widely Available (New York Times)… Tim Armstrong Says AOL Is in the ‘Best Position’ to Fight Ad Blocking (Adweek)… Sources: Jack Dorsey Expected to Be Named Permanent Twitter CEO (Recode)…

6 Strategies for Patching Up Patch

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To meet the promise he made to shareholders, AOL’s chief executive Tim Armstrong is in the process of cutting staff and other costs at Patch in the hopes that his network of hyperlocal sites will be profitable by the end of 2013. But just making short-term cuts to hit profitability might not be the optimum choice. Patch also has to plant seedlings for mid- and long-term benefits that the company can reap 6-12 months from now…

Street Fight Daily: Patch Layoffs Coming, ‘Pay-Per-Gaze’ Advertising

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Patch Layoffs Coming Today (AllThingsD)… Journatic Made ‘Very Poor Decisions’ About Content, Say Aggrego Founders (Poynter)… Is Millennial Stuck in the ‘Middle Seat’ Even with JumpTap? (i2G)…

7 Key Lessons From AOL’s Struggles With Patch

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Why did a well-heeled usurper to newspapers find itself imploding last week? Ultimately, Patch could still reinvent itself — but if it does not there are plenty of lessons to be learned and applied to all of us working to produce the next model of local journalism. Here are seven…

Street Fight Daily: AOL’s Armstrong Fires Patch Director, Twitter Goes ‘Offline’

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technologyAOL’s Armstrong Fires Patch Creative Director During Conference Call (Screenwerk)… Mobile Ads Favor Coexistence, Not Disruption (Financial Times)…

AOL’s Armstrong: 1/3 of Patch Sites Currently Have ‘Viable Business Model’

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On an earnings call Wednesday, AOL’s CEO Tim Armstrong said that the remaining 600 or so sites are split between properties that are on their way to viability, and sites that will likely not reach profitability by the end of the year. The news comes as AOL works to bring the closely-watched hyperlocal media network to run-rate profitability by the end of 2013, a commitment that Armstrong says the company still plans to meet…

Street Fight Daily: Facebook’s New Feed, Plum District Founder Out

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.Don’t Laugh at Zuckerberg’s Newspaper Metaphor, It’s More Accurate Than You Think (PadnoDaily)… CEO And Founder Megan Gardner Out At Mom-Centric Deals Site Plum District, Ex-Googler Susan Kim Takes Over (TechCrunch)… AOL’s CEO to Haters: Our Content Strategy Was Right After All (and Patch is Fine Too) (Paid Content)…

Patch Misses 2012 Revenue Target

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AOL’s network of hyperlocal sites missed the $40 million to $50 million revenue target that the company had set for last year, a miss that CEO Tim Armstrong attributed to disruption from superstorm Sandy in the fourth quarter during a Friday earnings call. The company remains committed to achieving run-rate profitability for Patch by the end of this year…

Street Fight Daily: Aol Under Armstrong, Big Moves in Online Delivery

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.At AOL Under Tim Armstrong, the Only Constant Is Change (AdAge)… Made To Order: Big Moves In Online Food Delivery (ReadWrite)… Report: Geo-Aware, Geofenced Ads Outperform Other LoMo Targeting (Screenwerk)…

Street Fight Daily: Seattle PD Tap Hyperlocal Tweets, Armstrong Talks Patch

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.Hey, @SeattlePD: What’s the Latest? (New York Times)… AOL’s Tim Armstrong Talks Ads, Patch, and HuffPost Live (AdWeek)… The Future of Mobile News (Project for Excellence in Journalism)…

With Patch Revenue Up 100% in Q2, Armstrong Hints at ‘Second Phase’

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The hyperlocal network’s traffic is growing at “double-digit rates,” according to AOL’s second quarter earnings report. Patch is also gearing up for what AOL CEO Tim Armstrong calls, “phase two” of its product roadmap, which will focus on adding the ability for “high-level community involvement in a very precise way on the Patch platform.”

Patch Launches ‘Partners’ Program With Biz Support for Advertisers

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Small businesses that advertise on Patch can now access exclusive interviews with high-level executives and other relevant content. The beta newsletter featured an interview with AOL CEO Tim Armstrong, and the one debuting today includes thoughts from Vineyard Vines co-founder and CEO Ian Murray detailing how he grew his apparel company. Patch will also launch a Patch Partners website, available to all small businesses, in the near future…

Street Fight Daily: Village Soup Folds, Armstrong Defends Patch

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal media, technology, advertising and startups...

Village Soup’s Hot Pursuit of a Hyperlocal Model Goes Cold (Nieman Lab)…

The Geo-Social Revolution That Wasn’t (GigaOm)…

AOL’s Armstrong: Why Patch Is a Good Investment (Romenesko)…

What If Rupert Murdoch Tried to Out-Patch Patch

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What if News Corporation decided to create its own version of Patch. Could the company that brings you Fox News also deliver the news from your block? And could it do the job better — and more profitably — than Patch has?

Street Fight Daily: 01.03.12

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal media, technology, advertising and startups...

AOL’s Armstrong Touts Patch Growth in Year-End Company Memo (Capital New York)…

Uninsured Turn to Daily Deal Sites for Health Care (Associated Press)…

Real Estate Agents Look Beyond the Check-in (Inman)…

Street Fight Daily: 11.03.11

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal media, technology, advertising and startups...

AOL’s Armstrong Talks Patch Strategy in Q3 Earnings Call (PaidContent)
“When you talk to major auto makers, half goes into local and regional,” Armstrong said, saying that AOL will also be aiming more heavily at local retailers as the company works to make Patch profitable. Armstrong didn’t provide any clearer sense, however, when Patch would be evenly profitable, as opposed to the expectation that some parts of the network will do more than break even by the end of the year…

Groupon’s IPO Is Coming — But How Much Is It Really Worth? (GigaOm)
Colleen Taylor: It’s been a long and winding road, but Groupon is set to hold its initial public offering on the stock market any day now, with several reports saying the IPO will take place by week’s end. It will be interesting to see just how high Groupon goes once it actually hits the public market…

Street Fight Daily: 10.07.11

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal media, technology, advertising and startups.

Groupon said in a regulatory filing that it plans to “significantly” reduce online marketing spending over time as such investments yield insufficient returns. (Bloomberg)

“AOL’s management may be committed to Patch for now, but the company can’t continue pouring money into an unprofitable entity forever, no matter how much Webster talks about a “long-term” investment,” writes Mathew Ingram. (GigaOm)…

Street Fight Daily: 06.29.11

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal media, technology, advertising and startups...

A few months after being named COO of the Huffington Post Media Group, Jon Brod’s responsibilities are being narrowed to focus on running AOL’s Patch network of hyperlocal sites. Brod co-founded Patch with Tim Armstrong and was CEO when it was acquired in 2009. (Paid Content)…

Location-based service advertising will grow to over one-third of all mobile advertising in four years. By 2015, location-based advertising will be $6.2 billion, according to Pyramid Research. (MediaPost)…

Street Fight Daily: 05.06.11

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal media, technology, advertising and startups.

AOL’s Tim Armstrong just keeps piling his chips higher and higher on his Patch bet, but the odds of winning continue to be extremely slim, writes Matthew Ingram. (GigaOm)…

Google’s Marissa Mayer — who took charge of Google’s Location Services division in October — yesterday described Business Photos, a new product that will take Google Maps indoors. She also spoke with Jason Kincaid about the problems facing Google Latitude, and how Google Places is going to differentiate itself from Yelp in the future. (Paid Content, TechCrunch)…