News and Analysis
On the Various Challenges Facing European Publishers (and Some Solutions)
“As audiences age out, the number of print subscribers will plummet, and as older small business owners retire, old ways of doing business … retire with them as well,” David Mihm writes to Mike Blumenthal. “Legacy media companies that don’t evolve rapidly are going to be left with no audience and no customers.”
Latest Posts
SXSW: With Pivot, Zaarly’s Focus Shifts to Merchants
Zaarly rolled out its “storefronts” initiative last fall, and soon will completely drop the consumer-generated request model it was founded around to shift entirely to a storefront selling approach. From a hyperlocal marketing perspective, one of the most profound effects of this is the way Zaarly is now counting on sellers to bring in buyers…
Street Fight Daily: Google Delivers Same-Day, Local Search on Mobile
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.… Google Shopping Express Test Partners Include Target And Other Local SF Stores (TechCrunch)… Only 29% Of Consumers Regularly Use Mobile Devices To Find Local Businesses (Search Engine Land)… Retailer Enthusiasm for Mobile Payments Tempered by Power Struggles in Industry (Mobile Commerce Daily)…
Why Local Online Publishers Should Also Be Designing Merchants’ Sites
One of the most sustainable sources of income for local digital publishers ought to be web design and hosting for their local customers. Web design and hosting has counted for 20% of my company’s total annual revenue for the last five years. It’s a natural fit for publishers in so many ways, and yet I see very few who offer it. They’re missing out big time…
Defining the Local Coefficient: A Conversation with Yelp
A growing chunk of physical purchases are influenced online. And the path to purchase increasingly weaves between different screens. But for conversions, it’s all about offline. The question is how long this will remain to be the case. Out of sheer curiosity, Yelp VP Mike Ghaffary ventured to quantify this…
Street Fight Daily: Zaarly Pivots, Can Hyperlocal Scale?
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.… Zaarly Shutters Its Reverse Craigslist Marketplace, Goes All In On Virtual Storefronts As Co-Founder Exits (TechCrunch)… Hyperlocal Cooties (Buzz Machine)… NY Daily News Releases City Guide App With MyCityWay (AdWeek)…
Publishers Could Gain More Control as Browsers Curb Behavioral Ads
As limits arise on behavioral ads, endemic sites (or sites with actionable user data) can essentially become ad networks. If browser limits mean that Cars.com can no longer sell its data, then the opportunity exists for the company itself to develop a platform to sell audience extension…
PODCAST: This Week in Location-Based Marketing — CrowdOptic
In this week’s episode, hosts Rob Woodbridge and Asif Khan look at Guardly’s indoor emergency services; Banjo is chosen by Google+; Qualcomm’s greatest location advertising campaign ever; Hot Wheels tweets for Cameros; Sonar introduces us to the Bing Fund; and Andrew Mason shows his character…
Street Fight Daily: Facebook’s New Feed, Plum District Founder Out
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.… Don’t Laugh at Zuckerberg’s Newspaper Metaphor, It’s More Accurate Than You Think (PadnoDaily)… CEO And Founder Megan Gardner Out At Mom-Centric Deals Site Plum District, Ex-Googler Susan Kim Takes Over (TechCrunch)… AOL’s CEO to Haters: Our Content Strategy Was Right After All (and Patch is Fine Too) (Paid Content)…
Deep Cuts Brought Daily Voice Back From the Brink
Faced with uneasy investors and a cash burn of $500,000 a month, the company’s founder Carll Tucker wondered last weekend: “Is this it?” But after 48 hours of number crunching, Tucker finally came up with a one-page document that he was convinced would be Daily Voice’s passport to a secure future…
Streets Ahead: Google Chat, and Instagram Reels