Street Fight Daily: Foursquare Teams with AccuWeather; Civil Builds Community-, Blockchain-Based Media Ecosystem
TODAY IN LOCAL & DIGITAL MARKETING AND MEDIA
Foursquare Will Fuel AccuWeather’s New Location-Based Recommendations (AdWeek)
Foursquare has partnered with the weather forecasting app AccuWeather in a deal that signals the location company’s latest ambitions to aggressively build out its portfolio of first- and second-party location data. It’s also one of several recent stories showcasing platforms with lots of location data beefing up recommendations.
Civil’s Bold Plan for the News Crisis: ‘Flip the Business Model on Its Head’ (Street Fight)
In this Q&A, Matt Coolidge, head of marketing and a co-founder at Civil, explains how a “new economy for journalism” oriented around unifying publishers and their audiences is working to flip the business model for news through such innovative approaches as blockchain technology.
The IoT Market Gap: Consumer Knowledge Low, Smart Device Ownership High (MediaPost)
When it comes to the Internet of Things, there’s a gap between consumers knowing about it and using it. Fewer than a quarter (20%) of consumers feel they have a good understanding of what the Internet of Things is, but nearly three-quarters (69%) already own at least one IoT device. MediaPost: Voice assistants can buy your coffee and concert tickets. Sorta
Who Will Own Your Augmented Reality? (Street Fight)
Questions about AR ownership will be particularly contentious wherever money is changing hands, such as in AR advertising. Courts will face questions such as ownership of digital ad inventory when there are AR overlays on private property (or on other ads). There could be similar gray area in retail & commerce.
BUZZFEED INNOVATES, TRONC DEFLATES
BuzzFeed Launches Product-Review Site Akin to Wirecutter (WSJ)
The new venture, BuzzFeed Reviews, went live recently though the company has not formally announced it. It publishes reviews of multiple products in the same category at various price points to give consumers a variety of choices.
It Looks Like Tronc Is About to Be Chopped Up and Sold for Parts (Nieman Lab)
While it still requires some deal jiu-jitsu, Tronc looks to be on the brink of being broken up. Will Wyatt’s new Donerail Group, several confidential sources tell me, has now gotten the financing in place to do a deal to buy Tronc.
THE FUTURE IS … TV?
Amazon Plans New Video App, Latest Step into TV Ad Market (The Information)
Amazon.com is planning to launch a free, advertising-supported video service for the estimated 48 million people who use its Fire TV streaming video devices, say people familiar with the situation.
Facebook Watch Goes International (Verge)
The company announced in a blog post Wednesday morning that the platform will be available globally, meaning partners can now reach an audience of billions of people across countries and languages.
