Street Fight Daily: Facebook Redesigns Places, Local News Searching for Answers
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Facebook Takes a Big Step Toward Competing in Local Search (Local Search Insider)… Is There Hope for Local News? (Atlantic)… Groupon Kicks Off First Analyst Day Amid Pivot to E-Commerce Site (AdAge)…
Street Fight Daily: Pinterest Eyes Small Business, Mobile Search Shifts From Google
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Pinterest Takes on Google and Facebook With Self-Service Ads (Wall Street Journal)… Study: Mobile Search Is Shifting From Google to Mobile Apps Like Yelp (AdAge)… P&G, Pepsi Try Out Foursquare’s New App, Swarm (AdAge)…
Street Fight Daily: Airbnb Tests Local Experiences, Patch Turns a Corner
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Airbnb Quietly Tests Selling Tours and Other ‘Experiences’ (VentureBeat)… Patch, a Network for Hyperlocal News, Turns a Corner (Boston Globe)… PubMatic, xAd Team To Launch Location-Based Programmatic Marketplace For Mobile (MediaPost)…
The New Patch: One Site’s ‘Entrepreneurial’ Editor on the First 60 Days
Patch, under its new owner Hale Global, is experimenting with new approaches for structuring and operating hyperlocal news sites, which, in general, have a reputation for losing money. One experiment is creating entrepreneurial editor-publishers for sites in the strongest markets. Sixty days into the experiment, longtime reporter Susan Petroni, explains her new dual role at the Framingham, Mass., Patch…
Street Fight Daily: Google Tracks Offline Purchases, Alibaba Buys Mapping Firm
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Google Tests a Way to Follow You to the Mall (Wall Street Journal)…. Alibaba to Acquire Chinese Mapping Firm as Buying Spree Continues (New York Times)… Digital First Names David J. Butler Its Editor-in-Chief (Poynter)…
Discovering Common Ground Among ‘Indie’ and Corporate Hyperlocal Sites
The digital Grand Canyon that has divided independent and corporate hyperlocal news sites is not looking so immense lately. The “indies” and the corporates are still kicking up a lot of dust in their community-by-community competition. But these rivals are changing their operations and strategies in ways that make them look more alike than different…
Street Fight Daily: Twitter Tests Calls, A Deep Look at Uber
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Twitter Tries to Prove Its Ads Drive Sales with Click-to-Call (Digiday)… A Deeper Look at Uber’s Dynamic Pricing Model (Above the Crowd)… EBay Rejects Icahn board Nominees, Asks Investors to do Same (Reuters)…
Street Fight Daily: Seamless Files for IPO, Norstrom’s Local Sales Slump
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology.… GrubHub Seamless Joins the Tech IPO Crush (Wall Street Journal)… Sales at Nordstrom’s Department Stores Continue to Shrink (Wall Street Journal)… Are Companies Tracking us, or Merely “Observing” us? (Pando)…
Street Fight Daily: OpenTable Buys Ness, Chicago Cabbies Sue Uber
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology.… OpenTable Buys Ness, Tests Mobile Payments (TechCrunch)… Chicago Cabbies Sue Over Unregulated Uber, Lyft Services (Bloomberg)… For Yelp, an Expanding Push Into Politics (Hill)…
AOL’s Armstrong: ‘We’re Not Giving Up on Patch’
Aol’s tenure as Patch’s sole owner may be over, but Tim Armstrong, the company’s chief executive, is not giving up on the hyperlocal network just yet. During an interview on CNBC Thursday morning, Armstrong said that the company has retained a significant stake in Patch and called reports that the company “jettisoned” the struggling property to Hale Global incorrect…
Street Fight Daily: Patch Lays Off Hundreds, Amazon Bets on Real-World Payments
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology.… New Owner of Patch Lays Off Hundreds (New York Times)… Amazon to Offer Kindle Checkout System to Physical Retailers (Wall Street Journal)… Facebook Officially A Mobile Ad Firm With 53% Of Ad Revenue Now Coming From Its 945M Mobile Users (TechCrunch)…
How Patch’s New Owners Can Reverse Its Fortunes
Patch doesn’t have to wind up in the “bone yard.” I believe the hyperlocal network recently unloaded by Aol can, within five years, be a seriously profitable venture. It will happen if the company’s new owners, Hale Global, go all out for engagement-worthy community journalism that’s responsibly budgeted. And it will happen if they adopt a revenue strategy that’s responsive to fast-evolving trends in ad spending…
Street Fight Daily: AOL Unloads Patch, Handybook Buys Exec
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology.…. AOL Unloads Most of Patch Local-News Site (Wall Street Journal)… Handybook Buys Exec in a Deal for the On-Demand World (New York Times)… Jack Dorsey Says The Receipt Is Untapped “Canvas” And “Publishing Medium” (BuzzFeed)…
Street Fight Daily: Cox Buys Back Stake In AutoTrader, LivingSocial Sells Groupon Stock
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology.… Cox to Buy Back Stake in AutoTrader (Wall Street Journal)… LivingSocial Selling its Groupon Stock (Chicago Tribune)… No Mention of Patch in AOL Chief Executive’s End-of-Year Memo (Romenesko)…
Street Fight’s 10 Most Popular Stories From 2013
On this last day of 2013, here’s a look back at some of the Street Fight stories that really piqued your interest this year (at least as far as page views go). We’re grateful for all of your support this past year, and we look forward to bringing you more great content, research, and events about sustainable hyperlocal business models in 2014…
Hyperlocal Publishing: Who Stumbled, Who Was Nimble and What’s Next?
The big story in hyperlocal publishing this year was the fall of corporate hyperlocal pureplays like Patch, and Everyblock — big bets that failed to reach sustainability. And so as we look to the New Year, a persistent question once again emerges for community news: when will publishers find a digital model that works?
Up Close and Personal: Ex-Patcher Tells How He Went Independent
Michael Dinan was senior regional editor for Patch in suburban Connecticut when he — along with hundreds of other editorial staffers — was terminated in January as part of Aol’s deal to sell most of the community news network to Hale Global. After the blow fell, he turned around and set up the independent site New Canaanite within days — and expanded it to a collaborative network in suburban Connecticut shortly thereafter…