News and Analysis

#SFSNYC: How Slice Helps Local Pizzerias Get in on Ordering via Mobile

Lots of apps can connect consumers to restaurants to order meals, but New York-based Slice has focused on a particular food niche that founder and CEO Ilir Sela says is built on customer loyalty — pizza. Sela says his company’s product is offered as a way to extend the natural loyalty consumers have for their local pizzerias.

Street Culture: Taking Estimote’s ‘No Barriers’ Culture Literally

The company’s mission is to build a new operating system for the physical world, and to get there the team needs zero bullshit. Culture is far too important to leave to chance, says John Cieslik-Bridgen, Estimote’s VP of culture. But it’s also important to allow natural evolution.

Street Fight Daily: Apple Innovates on Marketing AI, Facebook Makes a Case Against TV Ads

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Apple Accelerates AI for Marketers… Facebook Says Users Turn to the Platform During Commercial Breaks When Watching TV… Snapchat versus Instagram: What Marketers Need to Know…

Latest Posts

NPR’s Bob Garfield: Hyperlocal News Ventures Doomed

Media analyst Bob Garfield has put a voice behind the industry rumblings about hyperlocal news ventures. As standalone business operations, hyperlocal news “just doesn’t make for a sustainable financial model,” Garfield said in a recent video interview with Borrell Associates.

Advice for Patch’s New Content Chief

If Patch can create an easy way for communities to report on sports events — with minimal or no effort — and then serve up that content in a relatively readable format, the upside would be huge. Also, get rid of your middle management layer. All of it. Hyperlocal works best in conditions of hyper-autonomy, without an overseer and a style enforcer…

Local Quotables: O’Shaughnessy, Kelt, Ramsey and more

Tim O’Shaugnessy talks merchant reups (80 percent!); Group Commerce’s Jonty Kelt makes a plug for the content-commerce combination that took the Social Commerce conference by storm; and Mathew Ingram snarks at Sky News’ Twitter automation…

Street Fight Daily: 02.10.12

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal media, technology, advertising and startups...

Where Does Arianna Fit Into AOL’s New Patch Plans? (PaidContent)

Dear Patch: I Was Hyperlocal Long Before You (Romenesko)

Groupon Hires Paul Taaffe to Improve the Online-Coupon Site’s Public Face (Bloomberg)

PODCAST: This Week in Location-Based Marketing — Yowza, Foursquare

In this week’s episode, hosts Rob Woodbridge and Asif Khan look at Telus’s partnership with WagJag, MomentFeed’s intensifying relationship with Foursquare, Facebook’s IPO, Yowza and CardSpring tap someone else’s money, and Foursquare’s Holger Luedorf talks about the company’s future…

Tagwhat: Creating Location-Based Stories

Foursquare gave us location-based community and merchant information and established check-in behavior among consumers. Now Tagwhat, a Colorado-based company, hopes to build on that legacy by enhancing users’ location experience with what they call a “mobile encyclopedia of where you are.”

Foursquare Brings Explore Update to Mobile

The once geo-social-pioneer-turned-local-juggernaut, has updated its Android and iPhone applications with many of the local search features launched a few weeks ago on Explore for the Web — namely, better filters and in-search photos, as well as improved recommendations through wider access to Foursquare’s dynamic dataset…

Street Fight Daily: 02.09.12

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal media, technology, advertising and startups...

Groupon Reports Quarterly Loss, But Beats Revenue Expectations (AllThingsD)

AOL Hires Chief Content Officer for Patch (Reuters)

‘There Are No Layoffs Planned,’ Says Patch (Romenesko)

Street Fight Publishes First Research Report, ‘The Local Merchant’

More and more hyperlocal businesses are trying to perfect a pitch that will convince local merchants that their product is the best vehicle for getting a targeted message out to potential customers. But what are local merchants really looking for in a digital advertising platform?

Group Commerce CEO: Monetization of Local Content Is Still Evolving

Strategy around local appears to be increasingly moving away from the novelty of daily deals, and toward a broader conversation about local commerce. And while there seems to be a notable decrease in the number entrepreneurs pitching pureplay deal startups, existing media brands continue to be interested in creating deals products…