News and Analysis

Macaroni Kid Pushes Stroller Into Big and Site-Packed Local Parent Space

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One of the earliest hyperlocal networks for parents is Macaroni Kid, which was founded by “recovering lawyer” Joyce Shulman and her husband, marketing entrepreneur Eric Cohen, in their community on Long Island in 2009. In this Q&A, Cohen talks about the company’s recent acquisition of also-well-established Stroller Traffic.

Street Fight Daily: Amazon’s Shipping Ambitions, Search Engines Remain Crucial to Local Discovery

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Amazon’s Plan to Dominate the Shipping Industry Is Taking Shape… Most Internet Users Prefer Search Engines to Find Local Products… Publishers Say Facebook Can Save Instant Articles with Better Data, Subscription Tools…

5 Platforms Brands Can Use for Smarter Customer Communications

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By repurposing customer data from connected platforms, like point-of-sale and customer-relationship-management systems, marketers are able to generate more personalized digital content. Here are five marketing platforms that use predictive technology to improve communication and increase engagement.

Latest Posts

Case Study: Park District Picks Patch and Sees 25% Growth

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At the Downers Grove Park District in Downers Grove, Illinois, (pop. 48,724) Brandi Beckley decides which channels to use to draw residents to events. She has relied heavily on hyperlocal sites like Patch, TribLocal, and MySuburbanLife because of the targeted audiences that these publications provide…

Big Picture Stories Make Hyperlocals More Valuable

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Hyperlocals do a great job at finding and generating news. But are enough of them putting government performance to the test? Given the amount of data available to measure performance, these stories should be resonating louder and more insistently than ever in this deep, stubborn recession…

Street Fight Daily: 11.22.11

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal media, technology, advertising and startups... 102,000 Cupcakes! Small Bakery Burned by Groupon (MSNBC)…
Knight-Backed Local News Site ‘Brooklyn Bureau’ Launches (PaidContent)
Google backtracks a bit on charging for its Maps API (Nieman Lab)

DNAinfo Expands — As Does NYC’s Rep as Hyperlocal Incubator

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With its expansion, DNAinfo joins a new class of hyperlocal companies — led by tech startups like Foursquare — that were spawned in New York City and now are in the process of scaling their products into other markets. New York (and Manhattan in particular) has become a hotbed of hyperlocal activity in recent years…

History’s 3 Hints for the Future of Daily Deals

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The CEO of Tippr thinks Groupon’s success will legitimize the daily industry, encourage other players to stay in the game, and open an opportunity for a top deal commerce technology provider to take the market lead…

Aggregation and Attribution: Giving Credit Where Credit Is Due

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Threats by large media companies over aggregation of their content and this month’s highly profiled spat at the Poynter Institute over attribution highlight the perils that publishers face when they rely on third party content.

Street Fight Daily: 11.21.11

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal media, technology, advertising and startups... Mobile Deals Set to Lure Shoppers Stuck in Line (NYT)Living Social to Announce Funding (CNBC)Pandora to Roll Out Geo-Targeted Political Ads (Wall Street Journal)

Foursquare, Groupon: Square Has You in Its Crosshairs

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Square is on a roll. The company is now handling $11 million in transactions each day. The majority of those transactions are coming from small businesses who love the simplicity of the system. Square is not the cheapest way to take credit cards but it is probably the fastest. And part of that roll is the announcement of customer loyalty programs wrapped into their existing POS platform…

What Publishing History Tells Us About Sustainable Hyperlocal News

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The consistent market opportunity to provide relevant information at a community level dates back thousands of years, and it grows with each technological innovation. Yes, the tools have changed, but with each level of innovation a feasible business opportunity exists…

Local Quotables: Gary Cowan, Patrick Kitano, Clara Shih and more…

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The best words about and around the hyperlocal industry. Don’t dismiss local newspapers’ brand equity with audiences, says Ron Blevins from hyperlocal agency Novus. Datasphere’s Gary Cowan notes that hyperlocal news only exists because of some great software platforms; Jed Kleckner from Delivery.com brings out the environmental benefits of hyperlocal; and the Journal Register’s John […]