Street Fight Daily: 06.13.11

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

Groupon’s Andrew Mason has been visiting Beijing, and is now responding to a few very obvious problems at Groupon China that seasoned observers have been noting since the group buy Web site first opened up shop in Beijing and Shanghai. (TechCrunch)

One current Patch editor, who says she was “hired as part of the 2010 end of year push to launch 750 sites,” sent a note she titled “5 Things to hate about working for Patch” — one of which is “The Patch model isn’t sustainable.” (Business Insider)

Daniel Maurer has been named the new editor of The New York Times blog The Local East Village. The blog is a hyperlocal news site that features community contributors as well as posts from Times staffers. Maurer was most recently with Grub Street, the New York blog he helped create in 2006. (FishbowlNY)

There has been a lot of excitement about the daily deal being the next big thing in online marketing. It’s actually just a clever repackaging of old ideas. Google’s entrance into the space with Google Offers gives the daily deal business a legitimacy it doesn’t deserve, writes Rocky Agarwal. (TechCrunch)

American Express and AOL’s Patch have entered into a strategic partnership to offer Serve, a robust, next-generation digital payment and commerce platform, to millions of Patch customers, it was announced today. Users will be able to sign up for Serve accounts via hundreds of Patch sites this fall. (Press Release)

It’s alarming that new daily deal startups continue to make their way into a market where there seems to be little if any room left and in which even merchants and consumers are beginning to feel overwhelmed, writes Kris Ashton. (Daily Deal Media)

GoLocal’s Josh Fenton says that his company “is proving that content is in fact king — delivered the way the consumer demands it and in a context that allows all to experience. If the content is quality, then readers will seek it out and share it. And, if readers are on the site, then advertisers will value the opportunity to join the conversation with consumers.” (Business Insider)

Groupon Inc., seeking to raise $750 million in an initial public offering, has asked six more banks to help underwrite the sale, including Barclays Plc and JPMorgan Chase & Co., said two people with knowledge of the situation. Citigroup Inc., Deutsche Bank AG, Bank of America Corp. and Allen & Co. were also reportedly offered a role. (Bloomberg)

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