News and Analysis

Street Fight Daily: Reputation.com Acquires SIM Partners, Placed Open-Sources Its Platform

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Reputation.com Acquires SIM Partners… Placed Opens Up Location Analytics Platform for Free Public Use… BrandMuscle’s Paul Elliott Talks New Report on How Brands Can Go Local with Precision…

BrandMuscle’s Paul Elliott Talks New Report on How Brands Can Go Local with Precision

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“Local business partners want to increasingly execute in digital, but there is a reluctance or slowness in the brands or enterprises in shifting their dollars from traditional coverage in marketing and media to digital tactics,” said Paul Elliott of BrandMuscle.

Street Fight Daily: Facebook Invests in Local News, Ford Plans to Enter Local Delivery

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Facebook Announces Support for Local News Subscriptions… Ford Lays Foundation for Autonomous Ride-Hail and Delivery Service… CPGs Focus on Marketing in Tough US Retail Landscape…

Commentary

Why Facebook Killed ‘Deals’

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Mark Zuckerberg has said that Facebook operates on the premise that “everything is more fun when it’s social.” In his mind, things like music, photos, events and even simple thoughts, were inherently more enjoyable when shared with others. It’s precisely for this reason that I believe the company killed its Deals service…

Placing Facebook’s New Location Plans

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Almost exactly a year ago, Facebook Places launched with much fanfare and the requisite “______ Killer” claims. In this case, the proposed victim was Foursquare, having pioneered the check-in feature that was now central to Facebook’s new LBS play…

Ex-‘Rocky’ Editor Weighs in on YourHub

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Street Fight Columnist Tom Grubisich’s recent piece about the trials and tribulations of the Denver Post’s YourHub hyperlocal network sparked plenty of debate among readers in our comments and over social media. Among those throwing the topic back and forth on our pages was John Temple, the former editor of the now-defunct Rocky Mountain News, and one of those behind the original incarnation of YourHub…

Latest Posts

New Hires and Openings at Ballantine Digital, Linkdex, Centro, and Time Warner

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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, new hires and jobs at Linkdex, Gannett, VendAsta, MOGL and LocalVox…

LBMA Podcast: Findery, Esri and Modev Founder Pete Erickson

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On the show: Spindle brings payments to K-Cups in the office; Mozilla launches an open source location service; Tide tries to DOOH up their Halloween Vines; Aptilo launches ad-supported free WiFi in Peru; Google maps Arlington National Cemetery; and Yihaodian launches 1000 augmented reality stores…

Street Fight Daily: Facebook Tests New Ratings, Google Brings Search Offline

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technologyFacebook Tests Out A New Star-Rating System That Could Hurt Yelp (Business Insider)… Google Brings Local Search To Digital Displays Across London (MarketingLand)… Yelp’s New Home Illustrates The Company’s Success (Forbes)…

As Revenue Lags, Groupon Forks Over $260M to LivingSocial for Korean Deals Site

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In Eric Lefkofsky’s largest acquisition since stepping in as chief executive, Groupon has bought Korean Deals site Ticket Monster from LivingSocial for $260 million in cash and stock. The deal, which was announced during the company’s earnings call Thursday, comes as the company posted a wider-than-expected loss in the third quarter due to continued weakness in international markets as well as rapid slowdown in the growth of its goods business…

Street Fight Publishes 2nd Annual ‘Local Merchant’ Research Report

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Street Fight’s “2013 Report on the State of the Local Merchant,” gets up close and personal with dozens of local merchants who shared their desires, disenchantments, successes, and failures in hyperlocal marketing. In a Street Fight survey, 40% of respondents said that “ability to drive new customers” was the No. 1 reason to spend local marketing dollars. Second most important factor was “ensure the right people are being targeted”…

Explainer: How Local Data Startups Are Building Analytics for the Real World

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There’s been a lot of excitement around in-store analytics recently as venture funding has begun to pour into the space. But the trend is one part of a much larger technological effort to quantify consumer activity in the real-world, bringing the same measurement about where we go, when we go there, and where we came from that Google Analytics and Comscore brought to the web years ago…

Revenue a Key Focus for ‘The Brooklyn Game’ Founder

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In his much-quoted report for the FCC, Steve Waldman said that while hyperlocal news sites “do not make much money, they do not need to, because they function more as civic organizations than businesses, relying on volunteer efforts rather than cash.” But Waldman recently told us that The Brooklyn Game, for all its considerable civic presence, is, preeminently, a revenue-driven business where there are no slam dunks…

Street Fight Daily: Square Explores IPO, Google Tests Real-World Tracking

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technologySquare Exploring 2014 IPO With Banks (Wall Street Journal)… Google Takes Its Tracking Into The Real World (Digiday)… The Cost Of Winning: Tim Armstrong, Patch, And The Struggle To Save AOL (Business Insider)…

What Local Publishers Can Learn From Starbucks

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Publishers shouldn’t think about “what thing” they should do to make money, but rather “what experience am I delivering and how can I extend that experience thoughtfully?” If something adds value for readers, adds value for advertisers, and strengthens your other efforts then you should be doing it today…

As Programmatic Buying Gains Steam, Centro Snaps Up SiteScout for $40 Million

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The ad tech company that develops media management software for advertisers has acquired a self-serve advertising platform. The move comes as programmatic ad buying continues to grow in the digital advertising space….