News and Analysis

Will 2018 Be a Tipping Point for Voice?

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“There may only be 6-7 ‘commands’ that we use regularly with voice, though I’m willing to bet that as people get more and more accustomed to the interface, the horizon of possibilities expands,” David Mihm tells Mike Blumenthal in their biweekly column.

Street Fight Daily: Local Online Pubs Shirk Display, SMBs Key to Growth of Digital Ad Platforms

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Local Digital News Publishers Are Ignoring Display Revenue… IAB: Big Digital Ad Platforms Must Mine SMB Market to Keep Growing… Hearst Scored Record Profits for 7th Consecutive Year by Investing in Data…

As the Local News Industry Struggles, Publishers Ask Readers to Pay

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The local news industry, fighting for survival, is turning its readers into customers. Sites are either charging readers for premium content — after up to 10 free visits a month — or setting up “membership” programs where readers make voluntary monthly or yearly payments.

Latest Posts

Hyperlocal Industry Leaders to Gather in NYC on Oct. 24-25

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Street Fight, the leading voice of the hyperlocal industry, will host its third annual Street Fight Summit in New York in October, bringing together decision makers and influencers from key areas of local marketing and commerce. Topics will focus on the most dynamic areas of hyperlocal, such as indoor targeting, mobile payments, hyperlocal advertising models, and local commerce strategies…

Street Fight Daily: Uber Looks Beyond Taxis, Foursquare Launches Self-Serve Product

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technologyOn-Demand Everything? Uber Might Steer In A New Direction (CNet)… Foursquare Launches Self-Serve Promoted Listings For Small Businesses (MarketingLand)… Shopkick Adds In-App Purchases To Help Retailers Fight Amazon: ‘We Are The Anti-Amazon Coalition’ (TechCrunch)…

What Local Media Can Learn From the Royal Birth

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Who is “royalty” in your community? It’s something news organizations big and small should know, because these are the people who make things happen — or not happen — in and around you. They are of the 1% that we speak of in the widening “us versus them” debate in our culture today. Their comings and goings can be real news, but their social activities and personal lives can also be news…

9 Strategies Merchants Can Use to Protect Their Reputations Online

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It’s not uncommon for local merchants to go to the extreme to make a great first impression when customers arrive at their businesses — designing custom signage and selecting window displays with the utmost care — without giving a second thought to the first thing potential customers see when they search for their companies online. Here are strategies that merchants can use to protect their reputations and make a great first impression on the web…

Street Fight Daily: eBay To Expand Same-Day Delivery, Print Revenues Weigh on Gannett

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology…. With Amazon in Its Crosshairs, eBay to Launch Same-Day Delivery for eBay.com Purchases by Year’s End (AllThingsD)… Decline In Newspaper Advertising Weighs On Gannett Results (Reuters)… Small Businesses Shirk Advertising (AdAge)…

Winning in Local Commerce Means Solving the Data Issues in Discovery

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The acceleration in the local consumer’s purchase cycle means that each layer of the the Local Stack of online-to-offline local commerce — find, buy, retrieve and engage — must fuse together and work to create a seamless local commerce experience. In the “find” layer, local search properties have expanded beyond point-of-interest data, investing in the rich content needed to help consumers make purchase decisions before leaving businesses’ sites…

6 Tools Restaurants Can Use for Better Guest Intelligence

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By the time a guest walks through the front doors at Ping Pong Dim Sum in Washington D.C., marketing manager Myca Ferrer can already be fairly certain what he or she will order. Ferrer isn’t psychic, but he is using a guest intelligence platform to gain a deeper understanding of his most frequent customers. By tracking preferences and payment histories, Ping Pong Dim Sum is better able to offer VIP service to its most loyal diners…

Street Fight Daily: Apple Buys HopStop, RetailMeNot Soars In IPO

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technologyApple Buys 2 Mapping Companies (New York Times)… Coupon Site RetailMeNot’s IPO Soars 32% in First Day (Wall Street Journal)… Facebook Is Testing a Feature That Can Track Customers’ Physical Movements at Businesses (Terra)…

With Digital Video, Newspaper Companies Could Disrupt Local TV

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Here’s what I think will happen. The local newspapers that are smart are already getting serious about creating video content. Some of them are beginning to figure out how to get that content to consumers via set-top boxes, and they will be the first to experiment with partnering with companies like Aereo instead of fighting them in court…

Openings & New Hires at Yellowbot, LiveIntent, Village Voice, and Groupon

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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. Moves this edition include new execs at Punchey and Tribune, and job openings at Yelp, The Weather Channel, Google, and more…