Report for America’s ‘Staggering’ Start in Building a ‘Better Local Media System’

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Report for America addresses the double crisis of holes in local news and local democracy by deploying talented journalists into newsrooms in underserved communities—as it did for the Lexington (Kentucky) Herald-Leader in Martin County.

An eBook on Google Q&A: Everything You Wanted to Know and More

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Brand engagement with Google Q & A would not just provide authoritative answers to consumers who are looking to do business with brands but would also demonstrate a level of brand concern that could provide a competitive advantage.

Is Voice the Future of Local AR?

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Visual AR won’t go away and is aligned with several use cases like gaming. But audio could get here sooner and take over a certain share of micro moments like getting informed about people or surroundings. We’re talking local discovery, shopping, and proximity-based social media.

The Biggest Roadblocks to Building a Top Loyalty Program

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To build a successful loyalty program, make sure that customers can see what points and rewards they’ve earned without making them jump through hoops. Make your system as transparent and frictionless as possible, and try to communicate via each member’s preferred channel.

LBMA Podcast: Google’s Just A Line, Walmart & Handy, Snapchat

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Also on the show this week: Drive Time Metrics, VisuWall, the Church of England, Macy’s, Home Depot + Pinterest, Philips Lighting.

‘Ads.txt’: How a Little Bit of Code Is Putting a Big Dent in Ad Fraud

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The ad fraud crisis finally is beginning to be addressed at least partly through an initiative from the Interactive Advertising Bureau bearing the nerdy name “ads.txt.”

First-Party Data is King

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More and more marketers are using first-party data to eliminate wasted impressions and achieve the strongest ROI on their data-driven marketing efforts. Who doesn’t want that?

Selling to Multi-Location Brands: Applying Geotargeting Lessons to Mobile Push

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Mobile push marketing is one of the most popular technologies multi-location brands say they’re interested in exploring in the near term. Suppliers of local marketing technologies and services can help them do more than explore by taking lessons from brands that have had success with geotargeting.

Q&A, Reviews, and Fake News on Google: False Content Is Not Just a Facebook Problem

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“Given the primacy of Google’s market position, and the primacy of Knowledge Panels in SERPs—also a conscious product decision on Google’s part—the percentage of customers who are likely to come across fake information is great,” David Mihm tells Mike Blumenthal in their biweekly column.

LBMA Podcast: GroundTruth, General Motors, Zara, Ikea

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On the show this week: Milestone Pages, GroudTruth, 180byTwo, Tesla’s drive-in, 7-Eleven facial rec., IKEA goes full TaskRabbit, GM launches peer-to-peer sharing, Zara tries AR on.

Will the ‘Sustained Outrage’ of One W. Virginia Newspaper Survive Auction Block’s Hammer?

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The biggest heartbreaker is what happens to those families whose long-held newspapers were dedicated to publishing all the news without fear or favor. This is the story of one of those families, the Chiltons, and their paper, the Charleston (W.Va.) Gazette-Mail, which the Chiltons owned for 111 years.

Image Recognition and Smartphone Ubiquity Create Opportunities for CPGs in Emerging Markets

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The combination of advancements in image recognition technology and a growing global network of smartphone owners is shaping up to be a powerful duo for data intelligence abroad for CPG brands.

Back to Basics: Why Every Business Should Invest in SEO

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Contributor Kelsey Taylor goes back to the basics, laying out a case regarding the fundamental usefulness of SEO that might be presented to local business owners or industry newcomers. 

AR Cloud: The Linchpin for Local AR

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What about the non-Googles of the world? How will they create AR and visual search apps that can map environments reliably and return the correct info or graphics? The answer is the still-theoretical but critical AR Cloud.

LBMA Podcast: Placed, CityMapper, WeWork

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On this week’s LBMA podcast: BAG Networks, Placed, Citymapper, Robomart, REI, BMW acquires Parkmobile, Universal + Amazon Alexa, and WeWork buys Conductor.

How Patch Has Quietly ‘Bootstrapped’ Itself Into 36 NYC Neighborhoods

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Patch CEO Warren St. John tells our columnist Tom Grubisich why he decided to bet big on hyperlocal news in New York City while other local publishers were shutting down or threatening to do so, retrenching or selling out.

SurePath Capital Breaks Down Last Year’s Money Moves in SMB Software

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Last week, my firm SurePath Capital Partners released its annual State of SMB Software Report, which looks at fundraising and exit activity in the SMB software space in North America. 

Taking Control of the Control Group: How to Collect Reliable Data

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Only when marketers account for the totality of their consumer data and account for it in an integrated way will the data actually offer visibility and control.

Turmoil in Local TV, But Brands Still Like It and New Tech Gains Momentum

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TV remains a popular and effective local marketing tactic for multi-location brands, and there are signs that technologies for more precise targeting, media planning, and buying are finally reaching critical mass.

Will AMP Become a Web Standard for the World of Commerce?

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“If Google succeeds at improving AMP with Wordpress and AMP for HTML, it will still be two to three years before SMB adoption has significant impact given how slowly the SMB moves on this front,” Mike Blumenthal tells David Mihm in their biweekly column.