This has been the year for new sites that combine service directories and social features such as ratings and reviews. Earlier this year, we’ve seen sites such as RedBeacon, HelpHive, and others launch. Depending on definitions, earlier entrants include Citysearch, Yelp.com, Tree.com’s DoneRight, FixR [...]
New York Magazine, whose online effort is run by longtime MSNBC.com exec Michael Silberman, has emerged as one of the most ambitious city magazine efforts on the Web, competing directly against city guides and other local services. Yesterday, the site, which leverages a sales force [...]
NBC has redefined its “core” to fully leverage key forms of online and offline media, and has consequently seen its reach boosted astronomically, even as individual elements such as the TV stations decline in overall figures, noted ILM:09 Keynoter Brian Buchwald, Executive VP, Local Integrated Media [...]
Money is tight in the VC community for local startups, with the dollar outlay down by 30-40 percent, and money raised just a third of what was raised in 2008, per research by Canaan Partners. There is also expected to be a sharp consolidation among [...]
Outside.in, the blogger and hyperlocal news site aggregator, has scored $7 million in a new round of financing that includes CNN – a relationship that will include a content tie and that echoes MSNBC.com’s outright acquisition last summer of Everyblock. The company [...]
Citysearch today became the first SMB site to integrate Twitter functionality into its claimed SMB profiles. The effort complements earlier efforts to integrate the SMB profiles with Facebook, and consumer social media options.
Citysearch SVP of publishing Kara Nortman tell us the deal [...]
More than 73 hyperlocalites participated last Friday Dec. 4 at USC’s Annenberg School for Communications and Journalism to discuss not only hyperlocal journalism but sustainable hyperlocal commerce as well.
The meeting, “Entrepreneurship and the Community Web, was convened by Annenberg’s Executive in Residence David Westphal (and [...]
The Huffington Post has branched out into local editions, and has just launched its fourth site: Los Angeles. Prior rollouts have occurred in Chicago, New York and Denver. Former ABC TV Correspondent Senior Editor Willow Bay is running the LA site, with one additional [...]
Small businesses often buy online advertising or email campaigns and then don’t know what else to do to capitalize on the effort. Maximizing online advertising for SMBs is the new orientation of Portland,ME-based Local Thunder, a four-year old services company that we last wrote [...]
Facebook has ended the classification of its members into regional networks (i.e. “Peter Krasilovsky, San Diego”). It cited the practice as being invasive to people’s privacy and obsolete besides, given its behind-the-scene geo-targeting and demo-targeting capabilities.
In an open letter to Facebook’s “350 million+ members,” [...]
Does it make any sense to build a national chain of city sites by hiring local editors, one by one? The answer is a resolute “no” according to Examiner.com CEO Rick Blair, who said he’d been there and done that when he was a top [...]
Newspapers haven’t done too well with local search, despite efforts to leverage their potential mix of human editors and algorithms. But Boston.com made more of an effort than many others, launching a local search effort in 2006. As chronicled by Nieman Lab, that effort started [...]
Seven Philadelphia CBS-TV and radio stations have combined their news resources to create a new Digital Out of Home (DOOH) News Network utilizing 39 CBS Always On “Digital Newsstands.” The Newsstands include HDTVs and a 24 hour news ticker.
The Digital Newsstands have been created in partnership [...]
Local.com has reorganized around three business units: “Owned & Operated,” “Sales & Advertiser Services,” and “Network.” The latter unit will consist of over 700 regional media sites, formerly associated with PremierGuide and its successor, and the new Local Distribution Network. Former Autobytel SVP of Advertising [...]
Small businesses that buy search spent $1,658 on average in Q3 2009, a figure that was up 91 percent from 3Q 2008, according to a new report issued by WebVisible, a company that manages online marketing campaigns for SMBs.
Thirty-three percent of the SMB [...]
The ILM:09 conference Dec. 9-11 in LA is now just around the corner. We’ve handpicked 60 cutting-edge speakers, and we think we are onto something that is really important. I can tell you that signups have been great, too.
Recent adds to the speaker roster include [...]
National Public Radio has been recently getting more aggressive in promoting sponsorship packages in advertising industry trades. Indeed, NPR has positioned itself as an advertising alternative to other news outlets – positioning that hyperlocal sites such as Sacramento Press are also assuming.
How far can [...]
Following in the footsteps of ESPN Local and CBS, Comcast will develop local sports sites on the back of its existing TV properties. Comcast has already launched Comcast SportsNet News England, which it calls “the most comprehensive and dedicated online local sports [...]
Yahoo News is bolstering its local efforts and building “a staff of editors around the US who will improve the local news experience on the frontpage,” according to a Tweet from Anthony Moor, who was recruited from Dallasnews.com, per Lost Remote. The [...]
Outgoing CBS Interactive head Quincy Smith, in a New Teevee Live interview conducted by Om Malik, said he continues to have confidence in the future of TV, which is unlikely to suffer the same disruptive fate that many people are assuming for the music and [...]
A “hypercamp” dedicated to New Business Models for News was held yesterday in New York City by The CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, lead by Jeff Jarvis of Buzzmachine. We weren’t there – wrong coast- and nothing is on the site yet. But the [...]
Hyperlocal models continue experimenting with ways to make it work on a standalone basis. Networks, ecommerce and other revenue streams have all been tried out. BackFence vet Mark Potts has even set up GrowthSpur as a consulting firm and national network specifically to leverage the [...]
HelpHive, the new Seattle-based leads provider for service SMBs, had made some changes after running into real PR problems last week from Evan Conkllin, an angry (and persistent) plumber. He was irate that the company was taking SMB phone numbers and trademark info, and [...]
Its not just about advertising anymore. Social media is important too. Accordingly, a number of vendors and network providers have developed tools to help them see where there best placements are; how their reputations are unfolding online; and to simplify and automate their processes for listings and [...]
Following the success of eBay Motors with special classic and custom car restoration verticals, other sites have pitched their own tents to get a piece of the $2 billion annual business, including AutoTrader and The New York Times. Now comes Angie’s List.
Angie’s List, [...]
Village Voice Media, the large media company that includes 14 alternative weeklies, is rebranding its national network that includes 50 alt weeklies, as the name shifts from Ruxton Media to Voice Media Group. As part of the rebranding, It is also refocusing national advertisers [...]
A flurry of business lead services have cropped up, each a variation on the model that has been successfully developed by ServiceMagic and others. They basically provide a directory, information, leads and marketing services.
Self-serve ad solutions aren’t a major part of the ad universe today. A recent BIA Kelsey survey found few companies selling more than 10 percent of their SMB advertising via online. But self-serve meets of the needs of certain online-oriented categories. And for economic reasons, of [...]
In what may be the first of many media deals, AutoTrader has taken over Adicio Motors slot on SignonSanDiego, the newly-revised online site for The San Diego Union Tribune. AutoTrader, a Cox Enterprises property and the leading third party auto site, has been the [...]
The potential of working with Chambers of Commerce to sell online marketing accounts to local businesses is an alluring one. They potentially can provide the highest quality, best context leads for SMBs. Initial efforts to partner with Chambers, however, haven’t generally worked out due to their [...]
Allbritton Communications will merge its two Washington D.C. area TV station sites—WJLA.com and News8.net –and build a new, 50 person local DC site behind former Washingtonpost.com editor Jim Brady, who developed the concept. The site will be run adjacent to Politico, Allbritton’s successful, [...]
AOL CEO Tim Armstong, interviewed by John Battelle at Web 2.0 in San Francisco, gave a thumbs up to the future of the Yellow Pages – at least, the Internet Yellow Pages. Noting that the Internet YP business is largely synonymous with small business marketing, [...]
Speakers at last week’s Web 2.0 conference in San Francisco mused about the future of journalism with moderator John Battelle. “We’re living in an era of great change all over the place,” noted New York Times Digital Head Martin Niesenholtz. The Internet has “given to [...]
Consumers are likely to be more motivated to try out a local business if the offer is linked to a charity. That’s been the thinking behind charity based programs by Oodle and Insider Pages. And it is also the thinking behind Bidding for [...]
All accounts from last week’s JD Power’s Automotive Roundtable in Las Vegas suggest that Ford Group VP Jim Farley laid out a really compelling picture of how a major manufacturer looks at its opportunities in digital, and especially, social media.
Alex Snyder, in Dealer Refresh, [...]
Local news blogs may have trouble making their economics work. But what if their content can be picked up and paid for by major media outlets? That’s the model behind the Chicago News Cooperative (CNC), a new organization of former Chicago Tribune staffers.
The CNC, which has received start-up funding [...]
Cablevision has made good on its threat to put the online version of Newsday behind a firewall, accessible only by print subscribers or online only users willing to pay $5 per week. Classifieds will remain free.
Newsday, purchased last May from Tribune Corp. for [...]
Smelling blood at the presumed decline of Yellow Pages, a number of sites have launched that provide leads to local service SMBs. You got Angie’s List on the membership side. And ServiceMagic, Tree.com’s DoneRight, Sears’ ServiceLive and a number of regional companies [...]
CitySquares, the Boston-based city guide company, is prominently featured in the “Small Business” section of The Wall Street Journal today (subscription required). The subject? Its frequent use of volunteer advisors (something we have first-hand knowledge of, actually).
The article boasts a big picture of co-founder [...]
We’ve crossed the 40 speaker landmark for BIA/Kelsey’s Interactive Local Media 2009 event. The show reflects new optimism in the marketplace, and has generated a lot of healthy buzz.
ILM is the culmination of this year’s research and analysis, and takes place Dec. 9-11 at The Century [...]
Tree.com, the IAC spinoff built on the backs of LendingTree.com and RealEstate.com, has reapplied itself as a marketplace that emphasizes community, even though its principal business will continue to be built around transactions.
Speaking at TargusInfo’s recent Online Lead Quality Summit [...]
Vertical development is all about serving micro-segments that have been under-served by horizontal media such as Yellow Pages and newspapers. One area that’s been largely missed to date is the nail salon and hand care market.
And that’s exactly the next area of focus for The Castello [...]
Matchbin, a venture-backed firm based in Bountiful, Utah, is banking on aggregating rural and exurban audiences by providing community media companies with a full slate of advertising and social tools, rather than just providing one dimensional local search.
The six-year-old, 40 person company, settled on its [...]
Newspapers have often had lobby stores selling T-shirts and other items. They’ve also long experimented with online stores. Reprints of the presidential election results sold especially well last November.
Last year, The Philadelphia Inquirer launched n especially aggressive store that sells a full range of retail [...]
Angie’s List, the Indianapolis-based premium services directory that charges members to access and participate in reviews of local service businesses, said it has crossed the one million member mark. The threshold has been reached after a major ad campaign on mass media outlets, the launch [...]
MyBallard.com, one of five adjacent neighborhood sites in Seattle that make up Next Door Media, has won the Online Journalism Award for community collaboration. The OJAs are designed to promote the next generation of journalism. They have been run since 1990 by The [...]
The lineup for BIA/Kelsey’s Interactive Local Media ‘09 is really taking shape. The speakers truly represent a “who’s who” of what’s going on in the space that is interesting, progressive and important.
ILM is the culmination of this year’s research and analysis, and takes place [...]
The San Diego News Network announced ambitious plans to expand its template for local news, sports, events, lifestyle and entertainment, to 40 North American cities in the next 30 months. The company, renamed The U.S. Local News Network, already has sites in San [...]
Facebook is tweaking its approach to advertising, given the realities of what’s effective in social media, according to Facebook Director of Monetization Tim Kendall, who was speaking at TargusInfo’s Online Lead Quality Summit last week in Las Vegas. The problem is that people [...]
There has been kind of a disconnect for me in former Web.com head Jeff Stibel’s twin identities as a top local executive, and as a brain scientist. Not anymore. In a provocative and valuable new book, “Wired for Thought,” Stibel lays out a solid case [...]
Newspapers can still win with a hardcore community focus in their journalism and advertising, and a renewed emphasis on print. Or at least, that’s s the message delivered by Ed Moss, the newly installed publisher of The San Diego Union Tribune, which was sold a [...]
Out of home advertising is the next frontier and a big one. Usually, we’re focused on digital forms of it, whether electronic billboards on the side of the freeway, an elevator monitor, or a screen by the grocery checkout.
But in a true sign of our “post [...]
Home Owners Associations would seem like natural publishers of hyperlocal news and information – especially where “many residents’ sense of community rarely extends beyond their own subdivisions, neighborhood schools and the crime and traffic problems closest to their homes,” as The Washington Post noted last [...]
Local media companies have been experimenting with different models for hyperlocal. Some are publishing their own blogs; others are building relationships with specific bloggers. Others are partnering with aggregator sources.
The New York Post has chosen the latter path, having formed a relationship with [...]
ReachLocal has taken sole control of ReachLocal Australia by buying out the 50 percent of shares held by Netus, an Aussie VC backed by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. The buyout , at “an attractive multiple of Netus’ original investment,” means that ReachLocal, [...]
Hordes of vertical sites have been popping up and grabbing the geotargeted ads that could theoretically go to newspapers. In response, design and business consultant Alan Jacobsen – who last year developed RealPeopleRealStuff, an online video classifieds site — is reworking newspapers so they can [...]
OK, we’ve got a solid nucleus for our Interactive Local Media event, which is Dec. 9-11 at our favorite hotel, The Century Plaza in LA. Here’s the registration info.
The show typically attracts about 500 senior level execs, and is a living thing that evolves with the times. This [...]
The next big vertical is…parking? Parking Data Ventures has been created to tackle all things parking. The five person, Baltimore-based service has created a database of 10,000 parking locations. It has partnered with six of the largest parking lot companies in the U.S. and Canada, and has info for [...]
Clever Commute, which aggregates info from commuters on tardy schedules, is now in Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington D.C., per an article in USA Today.
The service was launched three years ago by Joshua Crandall, a New York City-bound commuter [...]
MerchantCircle is seeking to transform itself from a source of search engine leads for SMBs into more of a destination site that consumers and businesses will use over and over again.
The company reports 20 million unique visitors, which if calculated in a certain way, would [...]
In addition to Living Social, which has just launched a local coupon effort, we’ve learned of three other group coupon sites: Groupon, whose tagline is “collective buying power;” Boston-based BuyWithMe,whose tag is “Let’s Get It, Together”; and What’s the Deal DC.
Groupon, [...]
Centro, the media planner that tries to “simplify the entire local online media buying process for agencies and media partners,” took a hit from auto advertising last year. But it has continued to grow overall, thanks to gains in regional-and-political advertising.
The 112 person, Chicago-based company [...]
Quality guarantees are the name of the game in 2009. On the consumer side, ServiceMagic and Idearc Yellow Pages have guaranteed the quality of work for their advertisers. Now, on the advertiser side, Cobalt’s Dealix is guaranteeing the quality of the leads they [...]
Angie’s List, which now has 750,000 premium paying embers, says it will begin verifying the credentials of local service companies. Those found to be out of compliance will have an opportunity to comply or face an outing from Angie’s List. The company will also begin [...]
TV stations can only grow their Internet businesses by leveraging their local credentials and focusing on vertical categories such as automotive and health. That’s the word from Internet Broadcasting’s President and CEO David Lebow, the former AOL Media Networks exec who was interviewed by [...]
Living Social, the Facebook breakout that includes Virtual Bookshelf and eight other verticals (music, movies, video games, television shows, restaurants, beer, slopes, iPhone apps), has gone local, hiring a sales rep in both New York and Washington D.C to sell special “Living Social [...]
The opportunities for “citizen journalism” and “consumer nation” are there. Social and hyperlocal media sites like Yelp and Angie’s List have done more than OK. But mobile on-the-go apps are more than likely going to kick the roof off.
Citysearch has already seen this [...]
Tip sheets on local bargains seem like an obvious local media play. I even sketched one out at dinner with friends last winter. Bargain Babe LA is better than anything I was thinking of.
Launched in July by former LA Daily News Reporter Julia Scott, [...]
Online video is increasingly being segmented into vertical themes, creating on demand networks for specific subjects. The latest network to launch is “Thelaw.tv,” a legal site that, according to reporting in TV NewsCheck, uses former broadcast talent to product legal advice snippets with local [...]
MSNBC.com’s purchase of EveryBlock, the hyperlocal data gatherer, is seen internally as an important piece of the puzzle in building out local content and services. It is likely to herald in a revived focus on local by MSNBC.com, which remains a joint venture [...]
Auto Repairs are a $150 billion part of the U.S. economy, but leads and advertising for auto repair shops remain relatively underdeveloped – even though fewer than 30 percent of U.S. drivers can claim a trusted mechanic. Seeking to change all that are two companies that [...]
Personalized news platforms that can guess what users want to see are being developed by several competing teams. One expectation is that newspapers and other local media will want to use them to power next generation services.
Local websites don’t necessarily follow jurisdictional borders, traditional newspaper circulation areas or broadcast DMAs. Hyperlocal sites, similarly, are finding they can effortlessly extend their market reach and leverage their technology platforms.
The San Diego News Network, which has been funded to the tune of $1.8 million [...]
The glory of Craigslist is “its size and its price,” notes writer Gary Wolf in a provocative dissection of the site in the September edition of Wired. But “Craigslist is one of the strangest monopolies in history, where customers are locked in by fees [...]
Web.com and MerchantCircle are teaming up to leverage Web.com’s appeal as a provider of “premium” SMB services, and MerchantCircle’s appeal as an introductory-level provider of SMB services that is more oriented towards building traffic and selling advertising.
Web.com is a publicly-owned SMB marketing [...]
MSNBC.com, the Seattle-based entity co-owned by Microsoft and NBC, has acquired Everyblock, Adrian Holovaty’s hyperlocal site. The price was apparently for “several million dollars,” per reports.
The six person site, an outgrowth of Holovaty’s Chicagocrime.org site, is a leading edge example of “mapping [...]
