Commentary
Police Scanners and Speculation = Necessary Hyperlocal Journalism?
A lively discussion erupted yesterday in the comments section of Street Fight’s interview with B-Town Blog’s Scott Schaefer. At issue: Schaefer’s suggestion that sites did their communities disservice by reporting on rumors and information that comes over the transom via unconfirmed rumors and police scanner reports… Among those taking issue were The Batavian’s Howard Owens, who wrote: “When you don’t do scanner reports, you’re missing a key to audience growth and retention, and I think abandoning your ethical obligation as a real-time news service to keep readers fully informed.”…
Foursquare, Groupon, and the Market-Making Problem
With Groupon’s filing to go public last week, there has been even more debate over the two-sided market strategy of consumers and local merchants. Another business that has focused on this approach is Foursquare. Is the window of opportunity closing for Foursquare to become the breakout success it could be? The answer depends on how much the company is willing to change its DNA to serve both sides of their market — and perhaps take a few lessons on self-serve and average selling price from Groupon…
Partnership With Foursquare Is a Natural Step for Groupon
Earlier this week All Things Digital reported that Groupon and Foursquare were discussing a partnership to push local deals targeted to location-aware check-ins. The media world has been buzzing about the rumor, but neither company has broken an official silence to confirm (or deny) the partnership or discussions. Perhaps it’s just a foregone conclusion, though, that Groupon would add immediacy and social distribution to its model. In fact it already has…
Latest Posts
Street Fight Daily: Yahoo Revisits Ad Consortium, Yelp Goes To Washington
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology… Newspapers’ Ad Consortium With Yahoo Reboots (Poynter)… Yelp Just Got Its First D.C. Lobbyist (Fast Company)… WhitePages.com Fulfills Its Enterprise Destiny, Launches WhitePages PRO Identity Verification Platform (PandoDaily)…
Survey of ‘Indie’ Hyperlocals Finds Mixed Bag When It Comes to Revenue
There are hundreds of independent community news sites in the U.S. — thousands if you count blogs — but only 131 of them meet the standards of “Michele’s List.” The list was assembled and is periodically updated by journalist/researcher/consultant Michele McLellan, who was the principal founder of Block by Block, a network that inspired (and goaded) “indie” community editors and publishers to focus, and stay focused, on achieving sustainability in the brave new world of digital journalism. McLellan, who still compiles her “list,” talked with Street Fight recently about what her new survey revealed….
Famous Footwear Integrates Mobile App With Digital Wallet, Rewards
As shoppers grow more accustomed to using their smartphones to research products and search for coupons while shopping in-store, retailers are being forced to introduce their own branded mobile apps just to keep up. Famous Footwear is one of the latest retailers to jump onboard, with a mobile app that integrates with the company’s rewards program and provides shoppers with features meant to improve the in-store shopping experience…
Street Fight Daily: Foursquare’s Real-Time Recs, First Data (Re)Launches POS
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology… With Real-Time Recommendations, Foursquare Checks Into Google And Apple’s Turf (ReadWrite)… First Data Quietly Buys Payments Startup Clover; Launches Point Of Sale Platform For Merchants (TechCrunch)… Google Now Cards Invade The New Google Maps (SearchEngineLand)…
Study: Digital Ad Revenues Grow As Mobile Accelerates
Internet advertising revenues surged in the first half of 2013, reaching $20.1 billion on continued growth in the mobile sector, according to new study commissioned by the IAB, and conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers. Mobile revenues, which include both smartphones and tablet media, more than doubled in Q1 and Q2, growing from $1.2 billion in 2012 to over $3 billion this year…
Nokia Finding New Life In Location Services, Connected Car
With its device business offloaded to Microsoft, Nokia has turned its focus to its services business, headlines by its location and commerce platform, HERE. Street Fight caught up recently with Nokia’s VP of connected car, Floris van de Klashorst, to discuss the opportunity the auto market presents the local marketing industry, the challenges facing developers, and the business case for auto and local tech…
In Search of the Checkout Pixel for Local
Until recently, the “last mile” offline had been considered the most challenging step to solve for. But today, it’s increasingly where most of the action is happening. Consideration starts online, but picking up the sushi or the TV, or getting the bridal party fitted, occurs offline — and that involves not just more steps, but also more room for attribution. What was opaque previously is now fertile ground. The race is underway to plant flags at every step and, to make things interesting, with each flag planted consumer behavior is changing…
Street Fight Daily: PayPal’s (New) Way To Pay, AmEx Links To TripAdvisor
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology… PayPal, Aiming For Retail Ubiquity, Adds One More Way To Pay (ReadWrite)… Encouraging the Reviewers, Honestly (New York Times)… Google Moving Staff From Search To Its Payments Business In A New Push For Google Wallet (Business Insider)…
Street Fight’s Big 3
Street Fight Columns
Street Fight Categories
The Road Ahead: What Autonomous Cars Teach Us About Marketing Automation