News and Analysis
Street Fight Daily: A Major Ruling on Online Reviews; Local Publishers Bet on Marketing Services
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Yelp Can’t Be Forced to Take Down Allegedly Libelous Reviews… Amazon’s Will Supersize Its Second Grab-and-Go Grocery Store in Seattle… Programmatic Guaranteed: A Chance to Rethink Publisher Growth…
Street Fight Daily: Brands Unsettled by Drama at Facebook; IPG Buys Acxiom Marketing Solutions
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Brands More Skeptical of Facebook than SMBs in Wake of Controversies… Acxiom Marketing Solutions Group Sold to IPG; Future of Its SMB Listings Unclear… Gmail App Developers Have Been Reading Your Emails…
Kroger’s Efforts to Connect Online & Offline Experiences Set Standard for Supermarkets
In order to find out more about how the ambitious digital efforts of America’s largest supermarket chain are boosting Kroger’s bottom line, helping the company exceed analyst expectations with a $2 billion profit on revenue of $37.5 billion, we spoke to Ed Kennedy, senior director of commerce at the global software firm Episerver.
Commentary
Local Media’s Data-Driven Future
New value creation is the purpose of media companies today, whether small or big. I genuinely feel sorry for those who believe there is a future in practicing content creation alone. Last week, I called for a strategic makeover. We need a new strategic plan that positions us as more than “just” a media company and behind which our employees can throw their energy. So here are ten things that I view as tactically supporting such a strategy…
Customization Failure: Why Hyperlocal Hasn’t Scaled (Yet)
Most customization that attempts to deliver hyperlocal, or even just local results, falls short. The problem is that they (and we) don’t have much more or better local content and advertising to output than we did in the days before social media and smartphones. A tool is built to operate on a national scale, but the landscape of finding the local information is messy and chaotic, lacking structured data, or consistent geographic coverage…
Local Media Companies Need to Evolve — And Do It Fast
Local media’s traditional big-man-on-campus chest-thumping doesn’t mean the same thing in digital that it does in the analog world. In fact, it’s downright laughable. So what do we do when we hit the wall, when we regularly miss revenue targets, when long term projections keep slipping more and more? So what do we do when we keep hiring more ad reps, only to discover that our revenue-per-rep begins to fall, when the evidence is undeniable that we’ve hit that wall? Here are five recommendations.
Latest Posts
Street Fight Daily: Gannett to Buy Rest of Cars.com, Square Adds Food Delivery
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Gannett Said Near Deal to Buy Rest of Cars.com for $1.8 Billion (New York Times)… As Competitors Close In, Square Moves Beyond the Credit Card (Wired)… Picking Through Google’s Pigeon Droppings (SearchEngineLand)…
Mobile Local Apps: To Bundle or Not to Bundle
Facebook last week made the contentious move to force its iPhone and Android app users to “fast switch” to the Messenger app for all future messaging. The outcome will be worth watching for anyone developing mobile apps. Local media players are increasingly faced with decisions about app functionality. That includes whether to unbundle features to specialized apps (think gas prices), or to federate within one…
From Ad Biz to Hyperlocal: Duo Takes Flyer in Fayetteville, Profitably
Today’s digital community news publisher-editors are increasingly likely not to have had experience working for traditional journalism outlets. But that hasn’t prevented them from making their mark — even when they’re competing against platforms that have strong print resources. That’s the case for Todd Gill and Dustin Bartholomew, co-founders of the seven-year-old independent Fayetteville (Ark.) Flyer. In this Q & A, Gill tells how he and Bartholomew achieved success in a market with a major print and digital daily newspaper…
Street Fight Daily: Facebook’s Ad Strategy, Square Eyes Caviar
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… How Facebook Sold You Krill Oil (New York Times)… Square Said to Be in Talks to Buy Food Delivery Start-Up Caviar (Street Fight)… OpenTable Takes Out Its Wallet for Restaurant Sales Analytics Startup Copilot (VentureBeat)…
Openings and New Hires at xAd, Reply!, AddThis and Newscycle
Every two weeks, Search Influence’s Kelly Benish — who knows practically everyone in hyperlocal — covers some of the latest job changes taking place in this dynamic industry. In this week’s edition, moves and new openings at Hubspot, Colony Logic, Local SEO Guide,AdMax Local, PlaceIQ and Signpost…
Case Study: Tampa Restaurant Boosts Business With Mobile Waitlist
By integrating mobile waitlist management platforms into their business operations, restaurants may be able to increase the length of time that guests are willing to wait for tables. This makes it possible to get more customers seated in the average day or night, and ultimately boosts the bottom line for restaurants…
Street Fight Daily: Foursquare Taps Expertise, SEOs Weigh ‘Pigeon’
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Foursquare’s Redesign Will Make Expertise the New Gamification (Pando)… Experts Weigh In On Google’s “Pigeon” Update Aimed At Improving Local Search Results (SearchEngineLand)… San Francisco Airport Tests Beacon Sensors to Guide Blind Travelers (Mashable)…
Outdoor Advertising, a Media Anomaly, Knocks on the Digital Door
Billboards, like most things in our lives, are getting smarter. A report released this morning by PQ Media estimates that digital out-of-home advertising in the U.S. generated $2.37 billion last year, or 32% of the $7.4 billion of the total outdoor advertising market…
Daily Voice Expands Into Roger Ailes’ Territory
The Daily Voice has expanded to Putnam County in the Lower Hudson Valley, creating the regional corporate network’s 42nd site in the affluent suburban New York-Connecticut market. Tucker said Putnam Daily Voice’ was launched “with zero expansion” of staff, which includes eight reporters covering a number of communities in the New York-Connecticut suburbs…
Street Fight Daily: Andrew Mason’s Next Big Thing, Square Bets on Chips
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Groupon Founder’s Next Big Plan: Audio Walking Tours (Businessweek)…Square Bets Big on Next-Gen Credit Card Tech (Wired)… Payments Giant First Data Acquires Gyft in an Effort to Bring Digital Gift Cards to the Masses (Pando)…
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Meta Is Automating Ads, But Brands Still Face a Bigger Problem