Street Fight Daily: Inside Uber’s Messy CEO Search, Why Brick-and-Mortars Are Closing Down

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology…

Uber’s Search for New CEO Hampered by Deep Split on Board (NYT)
The jockeying between factions has put billions of dollars on the line, as the Uber board fights over control of the $70 billion ride-hailing giant. Interviews with more than a dozen people close to the process indicate that board members’ relationships have been damaged by leaks, shifting wildly as alliances are forged and then broken. Recode: Travis Kalanick’s continued presence complicates Uber CEO search.

The Place of Newspapers in the Local Marketing Ecosystem (Street Fight)
“Digitally speaking, NextDoor is encroaching on a space that local papers really should own.” David Mihm tells Mike Blumenthal. “It’s basically a glorified forum that in my view would be every bit as successful, if not more so, if hosted by a truly local entity.”

Amazon Is One Part of a Much Larger Picture of the Retail Apocalypse (Business Insider)
There’s no single driver behind the decline of retail stores in America, and the effect of online sales growth certainly can’t be ignored. But there are two other factors that arguably play an even bigger role: excess retail stores and shoppers’ changing consumption habits. Digiday: How Best Buy is holding its own in Amazon’s world.

Brand Battle: Weight Watchers vs. Jenny Craig (Street Fight)
Sponsored Content: To gauge how each company approaches local marketing, Brandify’s proprietary technology analyzed Weight Watchers’ and Jenny Craig’s store locations with focus on areas of local presence management. 492 Jenny Craig locations and 663 Weight Watchers locations were included in the data sample.

Focus on Mobile and Product Drives Q2 Digital Ads (MediaPost)
According to new research from Kenshoo, increased emphasis on mobile and product-focused ads drove spending growth in both social (40%) and paid search (10%) year-over-year (YoY) in quarter two. Social and mobile ad spending increased 51% YoY, accounting for 79% of total spend in the quarter.

Facebook Outlines Plans to Monetize Messenger But Remains Focused on Video (AdExchanger)
CFO David Wehner was emphatic that early efforts in Messenger monetization will not offset the expected revenue slowdown in the latter half of the year due to Facebook’s plan to stop blocking ad blockers on desktop and its increased investment in video, where there are fewer impressions to be had.

New CEO at Daily Voice Says Full-Bore Expansion Is His Mission (Street Fight)
Tom Grubisich: Randy Kilgore succeeds Carll Tucker, who founded Daily Voice in 2010, after a long career in print community news and will continue as chairman of the private Daily Voice company. In this Q & A, the two execs talk about the transition and what’s next for hyperlocal news network.

For Some Marketers, Digital Transformation is Still in the Early Stages (eMarketer)
Roughly one-fifth (21%) of the marketers surveyed globally in April had already started a digital transformation program, and 9% already had one in place for two years.

Snap’s Lockup Expiration Could Spell Bad News for the Stock (TechCrunch)
After months of watching Snap’s volatile ride on the stock market from the sidelines, some insiders will be allowed to sell their shares Monday.

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