News and Analysis
Street Fight Daily: Google Rolls Out Media Subscription Tool, Amazon Expands Delivery
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Google Rolls Out New Subscription Tool with McClatchy News Sites… Amazon Shows Its Drive for Efficient Ordering is Relentless, Delivering Straight to Cars… DoorDash Makes a Big Push into Grocery Delivery, Partnering with Walmart…
Commentary
How Important Is an Exit Strategy for Hyperlocal News Startups?
“I don’t know a single startup business outside the indie news space that doesn’t articulate its exit strategy up front,” said Rusty Coats, who has created curricula for community news trainings in the Block by Block and Investigative News Network (INN) communities. “That sets the path for growth and helps set benchmarks for success.”
Can Businesses Use Hyperlocal to Leverage Customers’ Politics?
There has been significant coverage about the differences in Democrats and Republicans, but to date there hasn’t been any analysis on real world activities associated with political affiliation. From grocery stores to restaurants, from retailers to gas stations, voting Democrat or Republican plays a part in which establishments we step foot in and which ones we don’t…
A Quick Guide to SMB Success on Mobile
Less than 5 percent of local businesses have a website optimized for mobile devices. In some cases, a company’s site isn’t even “findable” through searches on mobile devices. Worse, consumers, when they do find the local business’s website, can only see a desktop-specific version. Here are a few tips to help demystify mobile for business owners and help them get started right away…
Latest Posts
Closely Raises $3M to Turn Its Social Analytics App Into a Business
Closely, the maker of Perch, a social analytics app for small businesses, has raised $3 million in a series A round of funding led by Grotech ventures. Amid a chaotic local marketing industry, the company has quietly built out a novel business model which draws on learnings from the consumer world to solve one of the most dire problems in the business technology industry: selling to small businesses…
Street Fight Daily: Yodle Plans IPO, Uber Tests Courier Service
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Online Advertising Company Yodle Planning IPO This Year (Wall Street Journal)… Uber Expands Into Courier Service With Manhattan-Only Pilot (Bloomberg Businessweek)… Facebook Wants to Turn 25 Million Small Businesses Into Advertisers (AdAge)…
GrubHub(s) vs. Uber(s) vs. Yelp(s): Making Sense of the Mayhem in Local Commerce
Last week, ride-sharing service Lyft announced that it had closed a $250 million round of funding to compete with Uber in what will likely become a capital-intensive — and noisy — race around the world. But the battle over transportation is just one example of a wider push by tech companies to reinvent traditionally offline industries by developing lightweight marketplaces…
Payment Technology: If it Ain’t Broke… Start an Entire Industry to Fix it.
Mobile payments is an exciting area of cultural and technological disruption, and at the same time a solution in search of a problem. Somewhere in all the excitement, we seem to have forgotten that paying for things with cash or credit card ain’t broke. We’ve been covering mobile payments closely on this blog and many […]
Street Fight Daily: Square Secures Credit, GrubHub Shares Soar
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Square Secures Credit in ‘Low Hundreds of Millions’ (CNBC)… GrubHub Shares Surge in Debut (Wall Street Journal)… TPG Said Close to Airbnb Investment After Snags Resolved (Bloomberg)…
Street Fight Daily: Amazon Tests Local Commerce, GrubHub Raises Pricing
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Report: Amazon to Expand Into Real-World Payments With New Amazon Local Commerce Business(Fierce Wireless)… GrubHub IPO Pricing Tops Estimate(Bloomberg)… Online Services Go Offline in China(Wall Street Journal)…
Case Study: Heineken Uses Foursquare Partnership to Reach Target Demo
Size matters for Heineken, which is why the global beverage brand took a close look at Foursquare’s 40 million users and 3.6 million check-ins at bars, restaurants, and nightlife venues when deciding whether to partner with the vendor on its 2014 mobile campaign. “As a brand, we are always investigating new and innovative ways to bring our programs to life,” Heineken brand manager Bram Reukers told Street Fight…
Alternative Press Expands Hyperlocal Network Into Suburban Philly
Mike Shapiro began his hyperlocal news network The Alternative Press in three suburban New Jersey communities — including his hometown of New Providence — in 2008. TAP has now expanded to 30 communities in the state and Shapiro has decided to cross over into Pennsylvania with a site in Lower Providence, in suburban Philadelphia’s Montgomery County….
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