News and Analysis
At Liftoff, a Classic Formula for Company Culture
It’s never too early to be intentional about establishing and promoting the key values you want your team to emulate, says Liftoff’s CEO Mark Ellis. It provides a set of criteria against which to assess candidates from a cultural fit perspective, as well as a rationale for promoting certain employee behaviors and discouraging others.
Street Fight Daily: Postmates Sheds Employees, What Oath CEO Learned from Leading Patch
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Postmates Laid Off All Its Cities Managers This Week… What Oath CEO Tim Armstrong Learned from Patch’s Struggles… Amazon Pumps Resources into Alexa to Maintain Dominance as Competition Heats Up…
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Inside Patch During Superstorm Sandy
In the wake of Superstorm Sandy, a big news event for hyperlocal publishers, we asked Patch’s chief content officer Rachel Feddersen to give us the scoop on how the AOL unit managed its own business during the storm: “When my colleagues and I weren’t able to commute to the city during the storm and in the days following, we just joined our field work force.”
From (Temporary) Yext HQ During Superstorm Sandy
When the power went out on Yext’s offices in Chelsea Market in New York City, the team scrambled to find new work space and take care of its employees. Event halls where conferences had been canceled delivered even more space than the company had in its permanent offices, and employees were put up in hotels so that they were free to focus on work instead of water and power. “People were happy to get back together, and the atmosphere is very focused.”
In Superstorm Sandy, GramercyOne Carries on Through the Cloud
As a provider of cloud based software, GramercyOne, based in lower Manhattan, embraced these systems for internal infrastructure and despite the office and surrounding area being completely offline and inaccessible, all of its mission critical systems, including its SaaS application used by thousands of businesses, was fully operational. Here, CEO Josh McCarter shares his company’s and his personal experiences through the storm and its aftermath.
Street Fight Daily: Foursquare Eyes Funding, SEC Presses Groupon
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.… Foursquare Looks Into A Fourth Round At An Over $700M Valuation, Investors Skeptical (TechCrunch)… SEC Asked Groupon for Financial Disclosures (The Wall Street Journal)… Yelp’s Flaws Become Apple Maps Flaws in iOS 6 (GigaOm)…
As Paywalls Evolve, So Does the Perception of Paywalls
It’s time to acknowledge that, overall, people are starting to get used to paying for content online — especially on smartphones and tablets. It will be interesting to see how the various paywall models play out over time, but I have become more confident that paywalls (in some form or fashion) are a piece of the puzzle to running a profitable hyperlocal or regional news website…
Openings & New Hires at Patch, Yelp, Supermedia, HopStop, Square & More
Executives moving on up and over lately in sales, product, marketing, business development and more. Plus, who’s hiring? Yext, Yelp, Yodle, Restaurant.com, LivingSocial, DealHeaven, Apple and HopStop. Hyperlocal is expanding fast, and these openings are just one indication. Listings include links on where to apply. Get started now!
PODCAST: This Week in Location Based Marketing — McDonalds, Mondelez
In this week’s episode, hosts Rob Woodbridge and Asif Khan talk about how McDonalds is taking aim with Rovio’s Angry birds in China; Square makes its way north to Canada; Plus news from Gigwalk, Yelp and Yahoo + special guest Ed Kaczmarek, Director of Innovation and Emerging Technology at Mondelez International…
Street FIght Daily: Yelp Dismisses Google’s Local Content, Google Expands Wallet
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.… Yelp Not Worried About Google’s “Struggling” Local Content Play (PandoDaily)… Google Wallet Expands To Mobile Web (TechCrunch)… Coupons Boost Starbucks (The Wall Street Journal)…
Does Hyperlocal ‘Engagement’ Work — And Can it Be Monetized?
In 2002, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jan Schaffer founded J-Lab to help the news media use technology to engage citizens on big public issues. There’s a lot of talk about hyperlocal news sites using technology and social media to take civic journalism to a new level where the community is an equal player, but how much is wishful thinking and how much reality? I went to Schaffer for answers…
Pirq Closes $1.2 Million Funding Round, Launches New Version of App
Instant-deals and loyalty provider Pirq released version 2.0 of its mobile real-time deals app this morning, offering consumers digital punch cards to accumulate rewards in four new verticals. The Washington-based company also announced it’s closed a $1.2 million round in venture financing…
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Streets Ahead: Perplexity’s Ranking Logic, Instagram Metrics