Street Fight Daily: Facebook’s Local Opp, LivingSocial’s $93 M Loss
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.
Facebook’s Massive, Still-Untapped Local Opportunity (Screenwerk)
“Local business advertising is considered by many to be the Holy Grail of Internet advertising since the market opportunity is so great. . . Facebook is uniquely accessible to them,” Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg said in the company’s Q2 earnings call. “As they typically learn to use Facebook by setting up personal profiles or Timelines, they then discover the value our service can provide them as business owners.”
Losses are Mounting for LivingSocial (GigaOm)
LivingSocial, the other social commerce company is not yet public, but its results are, thanks to the investment it received from Amazon. In its 10-Q, Amazon revealed that during the for the second quarter of 2012, LivingSocial lost $93 million on sales of $138 million.
Report: Daily Press removes Journatic bylines, but Stories Remain (Poynter)
The Tribune-owned Daily Press in Newport News, Va., has removed evidence of Journatic’s involvement in content on its local sites, Desiree Parker reports. That follows Parker’s earlier report that a Journatic writer with the byline Mike Moreau muffed a fact about a city council meeting, and that another with the byline Austin Prickett had bylines in Delaware and Ohio as well as in Virginia on July 3.
Innovations Snuffed Out by Craigslist (NYT)
The Internet is littered with digital carcasses that once built on top of the listings site. Their pixelated tombstones are inscribed with one-liners that Craigslist killed access without any notice, or they were sent a cease-and-desist letter by Perkins Coie, a top corporate law firm that frequently represents Craigslist.
Clif Bar Launches First Geo-Location Twitter Campaign (Mashable)
Organic foods and beverage maker Clif Bar is launching what it claims is the first geo-location Twitter campaign. The company wants you to send a geo-tagged tweet to @CLIFMojoGo the next time you’re in a park, at the beach or on a trail.
Man Bites Dog: Website Hopes to Rescue Brick-and-Mortar Businesses (Crain’s New York)
Lucky Ant, a hyperlocal crowd-funding platform, is helping the St. Mark’s Bookshop raise the money it needs to move to a cheaper location. An East Village fixture for the past 35 years, the St. Mark’s Bookshop has been pushed to the brink by a succession of challenges, including the economic downturn, the rise of online book buying—followed by the rise of e-books—and increases in its rent.
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