BxB Recap: Is This the Future of Local News?

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The passion with the group at Block by Block isn’t just about great journalism — it’s about turning online journalism into a business; it’s about leveraging existing tools and creating new ones; and most importantly it’s about working to collaboratively across these businesses to make an impact…

Poll: 66% of Consumers Visit Hyperlocal News Sites

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Two-thirds of U.S. consumers visit hyperlocal news sites within their area, according to a recent Street Fight poll, with 9% visiting multiple times per day, 26% visiting on a daily basis, and another 16% doing so weekly. The 500-person survey, conducted on behalf of Street Fight by third-party opinions site Toluna QuickSurveys, reveals an avid and growing reader base…

Report: Retail Check-Ins Most Popular on Saturday Afternoons

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Shoppers in America check in on the weekends. A new study from LocalResponse finds that the hour between 2 and 2:59 p.m. on Saturday is when the most check-ins happen at retail stores. Meanwhile, Friday — led by a strong push at night — trumped Sunday as the second-most checked in day.

PODCAST: This Week in Location-Based Marketing — Twitter, Passbook

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In this week’s episode, hosts Rob Woodbridge and Asif Khan look at Twitter’s new location targeting, Apple’s Passbook and Swarm’s in-store analytics. Plus funding news, the resource of the week and Asif sits down with Roximity’s Danny Newman.

Street Fight Daily: Facebook Offers, Groupon Editor Exits

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.Facebook Adds Barcodes, New Ad-Buy Rider To Its Offers Coupon Product (TechCrunch)… Groupon Loses Managing Editor to Sun-Times Parent Wrapports (Romenesko)… Trulia Stock Pops on Opening Day (Wired)…

Extracting Key Metrics to Make Your Hyperlocal Site More Valuable

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“Quantitative” data — those UVs and PVs — work effectively for advertisers who want volume, Lofgren says, but most hyperlocals aren’t big enough to deliver multi-millions numbers in audience. “Qualitative” data, he says, tells you who your customers are — by their activity on the site, as it’s actually happening — or their identity, with information neatly served up from sign-up info. But it can tell much more if the publisher surveys a sampling of site visitors with multiple-choice questions…

Online Retailer Uses Daily Deals, Facebook Ads to Grow Business

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When Anthony Bronzo was brought on to manage marketing and advertising for Born to Run, a Seattle-based athletic shoe retailer with two physical locations and a popular online store, he was tasked with finding new ways to reach the company’s core customers—active trail runners and CrossFit devotees. In his few short months on the job, Bronzo has managed to reach those customers using a combination of targeted ads on Facebook and Google AdWords, and by running daily deals with companies like Group Commerce and CBS Local…

Street Fight Daily: Groupon Pays Up, Yelp Shines in Apple Maps

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.Groupon Promising Merchants “Lowest Cost” Payments Service (And It’s Using an iPhone) (All Things D)… You May Hate Apple Maps, But the Yelp Integration is Something to Love (Venture Beat)… How Better Location Data Could Mean More-targeted Mobile Ads (GigaOm)…

Report: 72% of SMBs Plan to Increase Mobile Spend in Next 12 Months

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Much of the survey reinforces what we already know – namely, that location targeting is a big value driver for SMBs and web sales models like cost-per-click and cost per impression will not fly in a mobile environment. The survey conducted by Borrell Associates on behalf of Pontiflex also found that 46% of SMBs would be interested in a self-serve option for mobile advertising, which is good sign for the entire local marketing space…

Hyperlocal Sites Making a Church-and-State Mistake?

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Hyperlocal news sites are struggling to earn money. In part, that’s because they have imposed the artificial burden of a full church-state separation (ads / news) like the New York Times and other top-flight pubs. In an ideal world, this separation works. But in small town papers or small papers covering hyperlocal areas, church and state will never be separate – and never have been.

Street Fight Daily: Criticism Over Apple Maps, Yahoo Won’t Be Checking-In

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.Apple’s Maps Are A Disaster Waiting To Happen (SAI)… Looks Like Yahoo Won’t Be Buying Foursquare (Screenwerk)… Official: Yellow Pages May Be Worthless (Paid Content)…

What Do SMBs Really Need From Digital Platforms?

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Amidst the fog of buzzwords and the scramble for investment dollars, are locally targeted startups solving problems that are worth the effort? Within that industry we all generally have a conviction that our products and services matter, but we do spend a lot of our time within a circle of people who don’t need convincing. If our ultimate constituency is the business owner, the question we should ask is: “What really matters to SMBs?”

As Obama vs. Romney Heads to Homestretch, Campaigns Get Hyperlocal

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With seven weeks remaining until Election Day, it’s seeming clear that the ballots of specific swing voters in specific neighborhoods in Florida, Ohio, Virginia and other battleground states could once again decide the presidency. Recent polls show the two candidates neck-and-neck in several states, and campaigns, super PACs and other interest groups are employing geographically targeted political ad platforms more than ever…

Street Fight Daily: Square Goes Big, eBay Connects Its Local Dots

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.Square Goes Big: Raises $200M at $3.25B Valuation (GigaOm)… EBay’s RedLaser Takes On Shopkick, Adds Geofencing And Deals With Best Buy To Barcode Scanning App (TechCrunch)… Amazon May Follow Apple, Give Google Maps the Boot (Wired)…

Hibu Hooks Up With Closely, Continuing Partnership Push

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Amid reports of a creditor takeover, Hibu — formerly the Yell Group — has inked partnerships with Denver-based promotions startup Closely, as well as a U.K.-based payments processor Global Payments to solidify its local marketing suite for small businesses. The moves come four months into the debt-laden publisher’s rebranding efforts…

Forecast: Consumer Daily Deals Spending to Reach $5.5 Billion by 2016

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“We’re leaving phase one, in which deals companies basically sent out sharply discounted deals to large mailing lists,” said BIA/Kelsey’s Peter Krasilovsky. “Deals companies are now beginning to also focus on the merchant relationship, offering them a variety of business services, from reporting and payment processing to loyalty programs and continuous, instant deals.”

6 Social Media Tools for Hyperlocal Publishers

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For a hyperlocal news publication to be successful, its editors have to do more than break news and tell fascinating stories. Using social media to promote great content and interact with local community readers is key. Here are six social media marketing tools that hyperlocal publishers can use to improve reader engagement…

Street Fight Daily: Hyperlocals at Financial Precipice, Rethinking the ‘Patch Experiment’

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.At Precipice, Hyperlocals Face Financial Realities (NetNewsCheck)… The Patch experiment: Don’t drink the Kool-Aid (Amy Jo Brown)… The Mobile/Social/Local/Cloud Land Grab Is Over (TechCrunch)…

MinnPost CEO: ‘Go After Every Stream of Revenue That You Can Think Of’

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With five years under its belt, Minnesota- and Twin Cities-centric local site MinnPost has a non-profit model that seems to be working well. The site combines advertising, donations and sponsorships to support its journalism, and it ended 2011 with a slight budget surplus for the second year in a row. Veteran newsman Joel Kramer, the site’s CEO, spoke with Street Fight recently about the importance of not relying on just one revenue model, and about how to treat local news sites like the businesses they are — matching ambitions with the available potential revenue in a given market.

Who’s Coming and Going at Groupon, Delivery.com, LocalVox, YP & more

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Big changes at Delivery.com with several new members of the management team; a new head of marketing at LocalVox; Groupon brings on an executive to focus on accounting from the C-level; and lots of jobs on offer in sales, marketing and business development at Foursquare, Patch, LocalVox, Factual, Apple and more.