Street Fight Daily: Patch’s Biggest Blunder, NYC Embraces Mobile Payment

Share this:

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology.Patch’s Biggest Blunder: Ignoring Cities (Forbes)… City Releases Bid for Pay-by-Phone Parking Meters (Politiker)… The Worst Mistake for Small Businesses to Continue in 2014 (Reuters)

Openings and New Hires at Patch, Callfire, Kenshoo and Radiate Media

Share this:

Every two weeks, Search Influence’s Kelly Benish — who knows practically everyone in hyperlocal — covers some of the latest job changes taking place in this dynamic industry. In this week’s edition, new hires and jobs at BIA/Kelsey, AOL, User Friendly Media, and more…

Street Fight Daily: Patch Not Dead Yet, Amazon Buys Square Competitor

Share this:

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology.Amid Postmortems, AOL Says Patch Is Still Alive (Businessweek)… Amazon Reportedly Buys Mobile Payments Startup Gopago, Working On An ‘Ambitious’ New Project (TechCrunch)… Customers Out in the Cold Balk at Uber Surge Pricing (New York Times)…

Street Fight Daily: AOL Winds Down Patch, Twitter Tests ‘Nearby’ Feature

Share this:

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology.AOL Chief’s White Whale Finally Slips His Grasp (New York Times)… Twitter Test Shows ‘Nearby’ Tweets (Wall Street Journal)… Amazon Said To Launch Pantry To Take On Costco, Sam’s (USA Today)…

Street Fight Daily: Shopify To Push Offline, Patch’s Impending Partnership

Share this:

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology.Shopify Raises $100 million Series C To Expand Offline Into general Commerce (GigaOm)… AOL’s Tim Armstrong Hints at Impending Patch Partnership (AdAge)… Square Acquires Evenly, A Venmo Competitor For Sending And Receiving Payments With Friends (TechCrunch)…

Street Fight Daily: Patch Co-Founder Exits AOL, Tracking Tech Gains Traction

Share this:

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology.Patch Co-Founder Leaving AOL to Join a Startup (Wall Street Journal)… Tracking Technology Sheds Light on Shopper Habits (Wall Street Journal)… ApartmentList’s Big Bet On Mobile (PandoDaily)….

Street Fight Daily: Square’s New Reader, Layoffs At Clinkle

Share this:

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology.New Square Reader Offers Better Performance, Thinner Design (PCMag)… 6 Mobile Payment Solutions for Restaurants and Bars (Street Fight)… Uber’s CEO Hints That It Could Branch Out Into Other On-Demand Transport And Delivery Services (TheNextWeb)…

ARLnow Expands to Third Community in Metro D.C. – Reston, Va.

Share this:

Independent hyperlocal publisher Scott Brodbeck has launched a third digital news publication in the suburbs of metro Washington, D.C. His new RestonNow serves a thriving, nationally recognized planned community that was built from scratch on farmland in Northern Virginia’s Fairfax County…

Street Fight Daily: Square Explores IPO, Google Tests Real-World Tracking

Share this:

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technologySquare Exploring 2014 IPO With Banks (Wall Street Journal)… Google Takes Its Tracking Into The Real World (Digiday)… The Cost Of Winning: Tim Armstrong, Patch, And The Struggle To Save AOL (Business Insider)…

Winding Down Investment In Patch, AOL Writes Off Millions

Share this:

AOL revenues fell sharply in the third quarter due to large writeoffs related to the continued challenges at the company’s hyperlocal news network Patch. During an earnings call Tuesday, the company said it took a $19 million charge due to recent restructuring costs at the hyperlocal media division as well as a $25 million charge related to non-cash asset impairment, or decrease in the valuation, of the project…

Street Fight Daily: Showrooming’s False Threat, Groupon ‘Designed’ For Mobile

Share this:

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technologyShowrooming Is Not A Threat To Retailers’ Revenue (eConsultancy)… Groupon CEO: Our Deals Are ‘Designed For Mobile’ (CNBC)… OpenTable Is Hoping For A Second Helping (PandoDaily)…

Street Fight Daily: Patch Staffs Top Sites Only, BrandNetworks Acquires Optimal

Share this:

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technologyPatch Will Staff Outlets In Top-Performing Areas Only, Memo Says (Poynter)… Social Ad Companies Team Up As Brand Networks Acquires Optimal For $35M (TechCrunch)… In-Store Analytics Firm Nomi Raises $10 Million, Looks Beyond Retail (Mashable)…

Street Fight Daily: Google Sells Users’ Tips, AT&T Exits Mobile Ad Business

Share this:

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technologyGoogle to Sell Users’ Endorsements (New York Times)… AT&T Is Ending Its ‘AdWorks’ Mobile Experiment And Laying Off Staff (Business Insider)… AOL Looking at Faster Exit from the Patch (Rayno Report)…

Street Fight Daily: LivingSocial Mulls Ticket Monster Sale, Patch Postmortem In St. Louis

Share this:

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technologyDespite Hedging, LivingSocial Is in Discussions to Sell Korean Deals Site Ticket Monster (AllThingsD)… Patch’s Closure In St. Louis (And My Closure After Patch) (Ryan Martin)… Operation Clean Air: Clearing Up Misconceptions of Yelp’s Review Filter (Moz)…

Street Fight Daily: Patch To Close Sites, GateHouse Files For Chapter 11

Share this:

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technologyMemo: ‘Regretfully, A Number of Patches Will Have To Be Closed (Romenesko)… GateHouse Files for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Protection (Wall Street Journal)… The NSA Refuses To Deny That It Collected The Location Data Of U.S. Phone Calls (TechCrunch)…

What Scale Means After Patch and Groupon

Share this:

Macroeconomic developments and internal politics aside, both Tim Armstrong and Andrew Mason succumbed to the flawed assumption, held by many at the time, that local was a land grab. They mistook opportunity with urgency, falsely believing that the local market was some homogenous block, which would open its coffers to the first company that invested enough money, or put enough feet on the street, to make it work…

Community News Revenues: How the Networks Compare to the ‘Indies’

Share this:

I was surprised — shocked, actually — to discover that the regional community news network Daily Voice has average ad sales of only $38,000 annually on a current basis at each of its 41 sites in suburban Connecticut and New York. Is this the new normal for ad revenue at community news sites? I went to four other community news publishers-owners, all independents, to get their reaction…

Street Fight Daily: Apple’s NFC Alternative, Google Faces ‘Street View’ Lawsuit

Share this:

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technologyWith iBeacon, Apple is Going To Dump NFC (GigaOm)… Google Loses Appeal in Street View Privacy Case (Reuters)… Yelp’s Newest Weapon Against Fake Reviews: Lawsuits (BloombergBusinessweek)…

6 Strategies for Patching Up Patch

Share this:

To meet the promise he made to shareholders, AOL’s chief executive Tim Armstrong is in the process of cutting staff and other costs at Patch in the hopes that his network of hyperlocal sites will be profitable by the end of 2013. But just making short-term cuts to hit profitability might not be the optimum choice. Patch also has to plant seedlings for mid- and long-term benefits that the company can reap 6-12 months from now…

Street Fight Daily: Inside Patch’s Revenues, Yelp Adds Mobile Reviews

Share this:

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technologypatch-iosInside Patch’s Leaked Revenue Numbers And Its Hunt For Profitability (TechCrunch)… Yelp Adds Mobile Reviews (Mashable)…
Groupon Suspends Sales Rep While It Investigates Thinly Veiled Yelp Review Threat (AllThingsD)