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

Leaf CEO: For POS Startups, It’s a ‘Race Against Time’

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“Anyone selling software to SMBs would love it if distribution was through ecommerce or retail,” says Aron Schwarzkopf. “The problem with the industry however, is that SMBs have never reacted well to that. Remote distribution never worked. … But I do believe that five years from now the POS could be the gateway to the SMB. And that the way you will get to the small business may be through applications that work through the POS.”

Customization Failure: Why Hyperlocal Hasn’t Scaled (Yet)

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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…

LBMA Podcast: Thumbvista’s Linden Skeens

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In this week’s episode, Nordstrom brings Pinterest into its stores; eMart’s flying store; What3Words tries to make physical location easier with 3 words; Shopperception goes deep into buyer behavior in physical stores; WyWy signs up Vodafone for cross-screen advertising; Foursquare and Deezer partner for concert check-ins. Plus special guest Linden Skeens of Thumbvista….

Street Fight Daily: Saving Online For Offline, Tablet Owners Stay Put

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technologyA Big Challenge For Retail: Turning Online “Saves” Into Offline Purchases (GigaOm)… Why Bother With Wireless? Tablet Owners Stay Tethered (AllThingsD)… Unlocking The Secret To Yelp’s Global Expansion With A Stop In Istanbul (Forbes)…

Do ‘Walk-Through’ Ads Have the Zip That’s Missing in Hyperlocal Publishing?

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The new “AdSweeps” are being offered by U.K. ad exchange Addiply transform 2D photographs into the 3D-like experiences shown in the above examples. The aim is not to objectify users as statistical constructs of demographic or psychographic data points, but to appeal to the universal sense of curiosity…

Local Media Companies Need to Evolve — And Do It Fast

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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.

Case Study: For NYC Nightlife Group, Adding Restrictions Increases Deal Profitability

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As the marketing director for The Lure Group, Kelly Bruce isn’t afraid to try new digital platforms on for size. Over the years, she’s worked with dozens of hyperlocal vendors, including Foursquare, Yelp, Gilt City, Grouper, Scoutmob, and HowAboutWe. “We’re doing all these different experience packages to bring in a new audience who might not be familiar with the venues,” said Bruce. “Every couple of weeks, we reach new people.”

Street Fight Daily: Tribune To Split Publishing, Google Improves Maps

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technologyTribune to Split Publishing, Broadcast Businesses (Wall Street Journal)… A Better Google Maps App for Apple and Android Devices (New York Times)… Instacart: Crowdsourcing Your Grocery Shopping (Businessweek)…

Yelp Presses Into Commerce With New Local Delivery Product

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Yelp launched a new product Tuesday that will allow customers to order food from participating merchants directly through its site or its mobile app. The move marks a seminal point in the company’s history, as the local discovery firm transitions from an information provider to an integrated local commerce service…

Bolstered By Bulls In North America, Global Mobile Ad Spend Jumps 82%

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A new report from the IAB finds that global mobile advertising revenue jumped 82% in 2012, growing from $4.84 billion in 2011 to nearly $9 billion last year as smartphone adoption ramps and blue-chip marketers shift budget to mobile media. The bullish numbers, which are in line with other estimates, were bolstered by exceptional growth in the North American market…