Street Fight Daily: Gannett Cuts Jobs, Fandango Acquires Quantum

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology

Gannett_LogoGannett Cuts Jobs At Some Local Papers (USA Today)
Gannett, owner of 82 daily newspapers and 23 television stations, confirmed Tuesday that some of its local papers have cut staff over the last several weeks. The layoffs, totaling about a couple of hundred jobs, were revealed at many of the company’s local newspapers over the last 30 days.

What Will It Take to Bring All Businesses Online? (Street Fight)
Damian Rollison: Many small businesses are claiming their Google and Bing listings, interacting with reviewers on Yelp, and using social sites like Facebook and Twitter. Inside the local bubble, it might seem as though the importance of these activities has been long established. Surely only a business stuck in the stone age would ignore the statistics we all know and love about searches with local intent, the explosion of mobile, and the critical need to be well represented in Google search results. How, then, are we to take a report showing that 52% of SMBs still don’t have a website?

Fandango Acquires Promotional Ticketing Company Quantum (Wall Street Journal)
Comcast‘s Fandango.com made its name selling movie tickets, but with an acquisition to be announced Wednesday, it’s expanding its reach in the free-ticket business. Fandango said it acquired Lake Tahoe-based Quantum Loyalty Solutions, Inc., which designs promotional campaigns that tie consumer spending to free movie and concession certificates. Terms were not disclosed.

After Latest Woes, Can Community News Hit the ‘Re-imagine’ Button? (Street Fight)
Tom Grubisich: In the two years since Mike Fancher’s “Re-Imagining Journalism” was published, there have been a succession of upheavals in community news, almost all of them about sites closing or retrenching. Can publishers of community news still manage to develop a model that works within the brutal economics of today’s digital space? I went to “re-imagineer” Fancher for answers.

Shopify Launches Point-Of-Sale System To Unify Online And Brick-And-Mortar Retail (TechCrunch)
Ottawa-based Shopify, the online storefront provider that helps around 65,000 retailers reach their customers on the web, including Tesla, Crossfit and others, today announced a new retail point-of-sale solution that uses iPads for its terminals. The POS solution will enable existing Shopify users to unify their online shops with their physical locations, sharing information on inventory, sales and more seamlessly between both.

Case Study: Using Predictive Analytics to Improve Campaign Performance (Street Fight)
In Greg Bucko’s world, data is king. As the manager of customer insights for Southern States Cooperative, a farm supply and service cooperative with $2.5 billion in revenue, Bucko is responsible for making sure his company is targeting its most profitable customers with direct mail and other marketing calls to action. His company uses predictive analytics tools to analyze variations in marketing campaigns, with the goal of being able to improve customer targeting.

Fosbury: One Small Step For Digital Wallets, But No Giant Leap For Convenience (PandoDaily)
Digital wallets are often frustrating, limited, and more trouble than they’re worth. We were promised the ability to use coupons, movie passes, and theater tickets without having to carry around a bunch of itty-bitty pieces of paper — instead we got barely-functional apps and services that make those printed stubs seem like gifts from some sweet, merciful deity.

No Way Amazon is Going to Buy Groupon: Analyst (CNBC)
Groupon is taking a cue from Amazon and developing a warehouse network in North America for its Goods business. While that’s a step in the right direction, it likely won’t be a game changer, said R.J. Hottovy, a senior retail analyst at Morningstar. Still, Goods, which sells a range of consumer products, has grown in North America. That has led some to speculate that the push to bring Groupon’s delivery in-house could make the company a potential acquisition target for Amazon.

Cardlytic’s Transaction-linked Bank Statement Ads Arrive in Europe (TheNextWeb)
Cardlytics gives retailers the ability to display their adverts next to specific transactions on an account holder’s bill or statement. A card payment to Starbucks, for instance, could be used by the global coffee chain or one of its competitors to run a discount or promotion alongside it. The company gives retailers the ability to display their adverts next to specific transactions on an account holder’s bill or statement.

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