Street Fight Daily: 04.14.11

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal media, technology, advertising and startups.… NPR has been quietly laying the groundwork for a nationwide online advertising network that could massively increase underwriting dollars at member stations. The network will allow NPR to place locally targeted sponsorship buys inside audio streams. (Fast Company)… Web advertising in the U.S. resumed double-digit growth in 2010, outpacing traditional media and surpassing newspaper ad revenue for the first time, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau. (Wall Street Journal)… Like every other major Web company, Microsoft is testing the waters of the daily deals industry, teaming up with business directory Lokaldelen to target the Swedish market. (Daily Deal Media)…

EIC Brian Farnham on Patch’s Local-National Dance With HuffPo

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AOL’s Patch was, handily, the brainchild of Tim Armstrong before he became the media giant’s CEO. In 800 local communities across the country, Patch is one of the bright spots in hyperlocal business models, with each “Patch” manned by a single editor and an ad sales person, and supported by a network of regional editors. But how will AOL’s acquisition of Huffington Post impact Patch? Well, just yesterday Arianna Huffington announced that she is planning to hire as many as 800 new full-time employees to beef up content on Patch’s network of sites and reduce the use of freelancers. Street Fight spoke recently with editor-in-chief Brian Farnham about Patch’s mission, the importance of pothole stories, how to help local businesses navigate online advertising, and the local-national strategy it’s developing with HuffPo.

Gowalla’s Josh Williams: Groupon Is One-Dimensional

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Location-based check-in service Gowalla is kind of a virtual tour guide, to use the analogy of the day for such companies. Mobile users log in with their location and get information about the places around them, nearby businesses and places their friends recommend. Gowalla integrates both Facebook Places and Foursquare check-ins, and lets users share photographs tagged to places.

Street Fight spoke to the company’s CEO, Josh Williams, who called Groupon “one-dimensional” for now, and discussed the scramble for local ad dollars, the inseparability of mobile and location, and the persistent privacy problem around check-ins...

Street Fight Daily: 04.13.11

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal media, technology, advertising and startups.… Arianna Huffington says that AOL will hire as many as 800 full-time employees at its Patch sites across the country, reducing the use of freelancers and beefing up local content. (Bloomberg)… Will 2011 be “the year the check-in died?” Mark Watkins thinks services like Foursquare, Loopt, and Gowalla need to find a way to deliver deep value to people beyond the check-in. (ReadWriteWeb)… Google has decided to take its Google Latitude Check-In offers nationwide. The service allows users share locations on a map, rewarding frequent users with exclusive discounts. (Daily Deal Media)…

Street Fight Daily: 04.12.11

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal media, technology, advertising and startups.

Patch’s local news module widget is hardly a new idea, but it’s one that few local newspaper companies have made work, despite the economy of its potential costs and benefits. Will Patch leapfrog newspaper sites with this old-is-new innovation? (Newsonomics)…

Twitter’s Local Trends feature has now expanded to 70 more places. This seems likely to foreshadow a future when advertisers will be able to purchase trending topics on a local level. (ReadWriteWeb)…

Four unsolicited lessons that Groupon’s Andrew Mason should take from what Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg just did in China. (Forbes)…

Street Fight Daily: 04.11.11

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal media, technology, advertising and startups… It makes sense for Groupon to move beyond vouchers, given indications that just 20% of customers using Groupons return to a retailer for a second, nondiscounted visit. That’s a steep price to pay when selling a service for 75% off or more after commission. (Forbes)… Although location-based services are still in the early stages, they appear to be having an influence that is similar to the one that social media has had. (WebProNews)… Google said it has added check-in deals nationally to its location-based service. Companies participating in the service at launch include American Eagle Outfitters, Quizno’s, Macy’s and RadioShack. (DM News)…

Street Fight Daily: 04.08.11

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal media, technology, advertising and startups.Google Latitude, the search giant’s location-sharing mobile app, is launching check-in offers nationwide, giving users the ability to unlock discounts with a handful of launch partners. (Mashable)… Arianna Huffington says that Patch will be key to HuffPo’s coverage of the 2012 presidential election. “We’re launching over 30 new patches in primary states,” she said. (THR)… Yahoo has beefed up its local coverage, adding to its staff of local editors and aggregating local news, deals, and events in specific neighborhoods and cities on Yahoo Local. (PaidContent)

Street Fight Daily: 04.07.11

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal media, technology, advertising and startups.

Examiner.com CEO Rick Blair doesn’t like the implication that his network of hyperlocal sites is effectively a “content mill.” He describes “examiners” as specialists in old-school and new media reporting with a local flair. (Mediabistro)…

Groupon is taking another move beyond its core deal-of-the-day business with the launch of home and garden deals. This, like its recent location-based changes, are part of a broader strategy to better match offers to specific interests of its subscribers. (Crain’s Chicago Business)…

“We are entering what might be called Hyperlocal 2.0, and the market is still up for grabs,” writes Tom Rosenstiel. “But how to produce local content remains a mystery.” (Washington Post)…

Street Fight Daily: 04.06.11

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal media, technology, advertising and startups.

Hyperlocal network Examiner.com has often been frustrated by being lumped in with the so-called “content farms.” So, over the past year, it’s instituted a process to shore up the quality of its posts and contributors. (Paid Content)…

As developers build rich layers of information atop location data, our understanding of the world is changing. Foursquare is the tip of the iceberg. The new wave of hyperlocal data is surging, writes Shane Snow. (Mashable)…

The “Top 6″ local online companies in ad revenue have abundant local content — but none of it is news. Instead, the ads and associated shopping information are the content. (Poynter)…

Street Fight Daily: 04.05.11

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal media, technology, advertising and startups.

Living Social says it expects $1 billion in revenue this year. The company has also quietly raised $400 million in funding to catch up with Groupon. (Business Insider)…

Back in June of 2009, then-new CEO Tim Armstrong made two acquisitions to move AOL into the local space: Patch and Going. While the verdict is still very much out on Patch, it’s clear that AOL is at least committed to it. Going? Not so much. (TechCrunch)…

Can the Groupon model save newspapers?
Earl Wilkinson notes that the company is the number one search term on his newspaper association site, and gives a rundown of the stats. (INMA)…

Street Fight Daily: 04.04.11

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal media, technology, advertising and startups.

Craigslist, long blamed as the killer of newspaper classifieds (and, by extension, local news), may have jumped the shark. (Business Insider)…

Daily deal sites, most notably Groupon, are taking over the landscape that once belonged to the local newspapers. Whether those newspapers that survive can reinvent themselves is yet to be seen. (Daily Deal Media)

Gowalla says it will double the size of its operations this year and reshaping itself as a “social Lonely Planet.” (Independent)…

Street Fight Daily: 04.01.11

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What’s happening around media, technology, advertising and startups in hyperlocal, every week day.

Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. has acquired Larchmont, New York-based hyperlocal network theLoop for an undisclosed sum.“Hyperlocal news is a trend in news consumption that’s here to stay,” said a well-placed News Corp. executive. (theLoop)…

Walgreens is the first retailer to try a major national Foursquare promotion. Most of the retail chain’s 7,600 locations are now offering store patrons who check in on the geo-social platform 15 percent off eligible items and 20 percent off Walgreens-branded products. (Clickz)…

Location-based services will be so all-pervasive by 2014, experts believe, that it will be possible to locate every one of us every second of every day. But has the law caught up to technology? (Guardian)…

Street Fight Daily: 03.31.11

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal media, technology, advertising and startups.
According to a new study by Borrell Associates, the portion of the local online advertising market held by internet “pureplays” (as opposed to outlets affiliated with other media) is no longer expanding. For the third year in-a-row, the share of revenue going to pureplays has stayed the same. (PoMo Blog)…

Gordon Borrell on what is driving local advertising growth, why newspapers will fall behind the internet, and why Groupon is such a success. (Media Life)…

As everyone from the largest of media companies to independent local hyperlocal news sites seek to capitalize on the $30B local advertising market, which hyperlocal business models are succeeding and why? How will hyperlocal news change the world of journalism? (ScribeMedia)…

Street Fight Daily: 03.30.11

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal media, technology, advertising and startups.

Are expiration dates on Groupon deals illegal? Groupon was sued eight times in all of 2010 — but in 2011, that pace has increased. It’s been sued in federal court 12 times this year. (PaidContent)…

CBS Local Digital Media and CityGrid Media have partnered on an advertising/listings initiative targeting local businesses that want to get broad exposure to online and mobile consumers across the country. (Broadcasting & Cable)…

How to start your own local news site. Tips from a Berkeleyside co-founder. (10,000 Words)…

Street Fight Daily: 03.29.11

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal media, technology, advertising and startups.Ex-TBD chief Jim Brady joins Journal Register “to lead the Digital Transformation of all of its newsroom on all platforms.” (Journal Register Company Press Release)… A new study from Borrell Associates has found that national Internet pure-plays Autotrader.com and Groupon have taken the lead in generating advertising dollars in many local markets. (NetNewsCheck)… Human participation — and thus social media — is central to successful hyperlocal platforms. It’s all about community empowerment. Here are 4 interesting hyperlocal social media ideas. (eMedia Vitals/Ron Mwangaguhunga)…