Who Should Rate Communities: Experts, the Public — or Both?
One emerging group that might be able to help publishers answers tough questions is the nonprofit group STAR Communities, which “works to evaluate, improve, and certify sustainable communities.” The company helps cities and counties “achieve a healthy environment, a strong economy, and well being for their residents.”
TownNews Founder: News Sites Will ‘Perish’ Without Latest AdTech
In 1989, Marc Wilson’s Montana news bulletin board put editorial content into the hands of other local-news publishers more quickly, abundantly, and cheaply. Today, Wilson’s TownNews.com serves 1,600 newspapers — big and small, daily and weekly — as well as pure-plays and other digital publications
Moms and Dads Do the Crowdsourcing at New Hyperlocal Network ParentNation
In September, Renee Levine and her husband Josh launched their hyperlocal parent-recommendations site in the New York City suburbs of Westchester County, N.Y., Fairfield County in Connecticut and North Jersey. Here, Levine talks about the birth of ParentNation and why the company is building their content strategy around crowdsourcing.
At Hearst Newspapers, a New Digital Strategy to End ‘Flying Blind’
Just how far local newspapers have to go to plant their flag commandingly in the fiercely competitive world of digital is summed up in a revealing story told by Robertson (Rob) Barrett, the new digital chief at Hearst Newspapers, who says that editors just don’t have information about the interests of the people in their market.
GateHouse’s Newton: ‘We Want to Own More Local Newspapers’
The company recently created a division for new ventures and appointed as its CEO a publishing executive with deep experience in marketing and sales — Peter Newton, who will also continue as CEO of GateHouse’s Propel Business Services. In this Q & A, Newton talks about present and future change at GateHouse:
As 10-Year Mark Approaches, West Seattle Blog Sticks to Profitable Basics
In December 2005, West Seattle Blog was a “personal project” with no news or advertising. A major windstorm that struck West Seattle and King County in December 2006 changed all that, and in the nearly 10 years since, WSB has become a highly regarded inspiration for independent digital community sites.
John Oliver Delivers a Valentine (And a Warning) to Newspapers — But Will They Listen?
John Oliver’s tribute to newspapers on HBO’s “Last Week Tonight” highlighted the challenges for the country’s dailies, as well as the dangers of making online news all about clickbait. To combat this dismal future, publishers should focus on making their sites as engaging as possible, which could ultimately help sell digital subscriptions.
How DMN’s Speakeasy Became a Major Revenue Driver in the Digital Transition
The newspaper’s in-house digital agency has grown to 70 client businesses that provide a significant share of the estimated $40 million of annual revenue that doesn’t originate within the walls of the DMN. The division has become the centerpiece of the company’s work to to re-establish a revenue growth model.
Bloom Geolocation Puts Users Where News Is — And Can Guide Them to Nearby Advertisers
The plugin “empowers the user to pinpoint where they are and then the stories are brought to them. It’s like Pokémon Go for journalism,” says founder Stephen Jefferson. “Users can now walk around to different locations and see what events, what news or crime stories have been reported around them.”
Leader of Reuters Institute’s Bleak News Report: ‘We Can Do It’
A recent report had mixed emotions about the future of community news. So should publishers despair, or is there promise of sunlight behind the lowering clouds? We spoke with Nic Newman, digital strategist at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, and author of the report, to find out more.
LMC Chief: Local News Pessimists Are Missing the Big Innovations
Is the outlook for local digital news as gloomy as a spate of recent reports indicates? Or are the forecasters looking in the rear-view mirror? We spoke recently with Rusty Coats, executive director of the digitally focused Local Media Consortium, about why the prognosis for local media might not be as bad is it seems.
New Report Identifies Enterprise Customer Types & Needs
In our latest analysis, we discovered that the integration needs of enterprise marketers reveal some clear correlations in terms of attitude, behavior and installed technologies. For example, the companies that found local store sites to be most effective were also doing well with local print, and planned to increase their social, mobile, and digital display advertising.