News and Analysis
How Publishers Can Improve Their Revenue — Ezoic’s Experts Spell It Out
Local news publishers are often able to pull together a decent share of pageviews in their communities — but many can’t wring enough revenue out of them. For practical solutions, I went to two experts at Ezoic, whose artificial-intelligence platform aims at helping its thousands of publisher clients to deliver better user experiences.
Latest Posts
Bloomspot Leads an Industry Shift
Who: Bloomspot
What: $40 million in funding and a merchant guarantee
With all the chatter about Groupon’s updated IPO filings this week, and news that Patch is offering up daily deals in 800 (not a typo) hyperlocal markets, a couple of announcements from Bloomspot didn’t get as much attention as they otherwise might. The company said that it had scored a whopping $40 million in new funding, and revealed that it is using the data it collects to guarantee that deals they do will be profitable to vendors, or Bloomspot will cover the difference from its cut. There are a couple of important takeaways from all this news…
Street Fight Daily: 08.12.11
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal media, technology, advertising and startups...
An upcoming promotion with RedBox deal seems to go against Foursquare’s whole raison d’être — which is all about getting users out and about. But the new users that result will become increasingly valuable, particularly as Foursquare focuses not just on letting users share where they are now, but to suggest where they should be going. (GigaOm)…
Should investors run screaming from Groupon? Is it an overrated, hyped-up scam? Are we in the middle of another tech bubble? Well, Groupon does seem rather prone to hyperbole, perhaps because its business has proved so worthy of it in its mere months of existence. (Slate)…
How SeeClickFix Built Revenue Streams From Potholes
SeeClickFix started humbly — from potholes in New Haven, Conn. But it grew quickly as it mobilized citizens in thousands of communities around the U.S. to flag irritating and sometimes serious problems in their neighborhoods. But for all its social purpose, SeeClickFix is a for-profit company. Co-founder Ben Berkowitz talks about how SeeClickFix developed revenue from multiple sources…
Street Fight Daily: 08.11.11
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal media, technology, advertising and startups...
Groupon is spending considerable money to acquire subscribers, but those subscribers are buying less Groupons. Groupon is also spending considerable money to acquire merchants but are making less revenue per merchant. That’s not good. (Yipit Blog)…
According to a new survey, it’s not location-relevant advertising that is most valued by mobile consumers; it’s mobile ads that are personalized to a users’ tastes. (Paid Content)…
Patch Pitch: 855-Town Gorilla Doles Out Daily Deals
Patch certainly reports the news, but it also seems that often Patch is the news. This is one of those weeks. And not simply because one of their interns recently saved a pedestrian, and covered it. The hyperlocal news destination that AOL’s betting a bunch on (closing in on $200 million invested thus far) announced last week that it had crossed a milestone of one million articles published. It’s also rolling out a shiny new daily deals product in over 800 of its communities…
Street Fight Daily: 08.10.11
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal media, technology, advertising and startups…
SinglePlatform has raised another $3.25 million to launch new products. “If you want to monetize local, you will need to go through SinglePlatform one day, because they’ll own the best, trusted relationship with the merchant,” a confident venture capitalist says. (Business Insider)…
One year after the launch of TBD, the local news project barely exists. Journal Register’s Steve Buttry quietly lifts a glass to his TBD colleagues and shares some lessons for other digital pioneers from his TBD experience. (SteveButtry.com)…
Case Study: Daily Deal Pitches Overwhelm SF Restaurateur
If daily deals haven’t already reached a tipping point, then San Francisco restaurateur Joe Hargrave believes that day is coming soon. The Tacolicious owner gets between four and nine pitches from daily deal salespeople each month. He struggles to understand why businesses would want to target potential customers who are only after a good deal…
Street Fight’s Big 3
Street Fight Columns
Street Fight Categories
Why TV Remains the Heartbeat of Local Connection