TKG Data and Analysis: A Weekly Recap
Here is a recap of posts from last week, in case you missed any. Click below to read each post in full.
Cincinnati Bell Nixes Residential White Pages
Cincinnati Bell just received approval from the Public Utility Commission of Ohio to forgo delivery of print residential White Pages directories except to those who request a copy. This fits into a trend that has been brewing for some time, and was one of the predictions we made in December in the Advisory, “The Kelsey Report Analyst Picks and Predictions for 2009.” (read more…)
Fisher Communications Sells Pegasus News
Pegasus News, the Dallas hyperlocal site, was seen as a great model for other markets when Fisher Communications, a leading broadcaster in Seattle and the Northwest, bought the site in July 2007. But the roiled market in broadcasting apparently stifled Fisher’s ambitions. Ultimately, there were never serious efforts made to install a Pegasus platform on any Fisher property. On Dec. 31, Fisher sold Pegasus for $1.5 million to an unnamed company that is only being described as a “broadly held private media company.” (read more…)
Yelp Crosses the Pond
Yelp announced today that it will launch Yelp U.K.. Apparently more than 100,000 people from the United Kingdom visited Yelp.com over the past month to research U.S. travel destinations, and Londoners have been asking for this for three years. The site will compete with Hamburg-based Qype, among a few others. Qype has gained lots of traction over the past year and has come to be known — fairly or unfairly — by many U.S. industry watchers as the “Yelp of Europe.” (read more…)
Feeling the Local Community’s Layoffs
A few weeks ago, in a stimulating interview in The Wall Street Journal, Clayton Christensen said the bad times will bring out more innovation. “If you give people a lot of money, it gives them the privilege of pursuing the wrong strategy for a very long time,” he said. “In an environment where you’ve got to push innovations out the door fast and keep the cost of innovation low, the probability that you’ll be successful is actually much higher,” he went on. (read more…)
SpotMixer Extends Distribution via Google
SMB video ad creation company SpotMixer announced a partnership today with Google to push its videos into Google’s content network, and TV Ads programs. This essentially makes SpotMixer a designated AdWords reseller and gives its advertisers the ability to push out videos to Google’s content network (pay-per-click), or to cable television spots (CPM). (read more…)
Gannett Rolling Out Local-National Network
If any company had the local and regional footprints to build a local editorial network, it would probably be Gannett, with its 85 newspapers. If Gannett were to go that route, I always thought the conduit would be USA Today. USA Today, however, has traditionally steered clear of integration with the local papers. It has waded in a little, with classifieds and regional news clips, etc. But clearly, it wasn’t going to be Gannett’s connector service. (read more…)
Online Video Continues to Rise; What About Local?
ComScore has released its Video Metrix data for November, showing a staggering 40 percent year-over-year increase in online video viewing (measured in time spent). Number of videos viewed also jumped 37 percent to 12.7 billion videos for the month. (read more…)
RAZR Tops Mobile Phone Usage; iPhone Catching Up
Nielsen released data last month showing the top mobile phones in use in the U.S. in Q3. Motorola’s RAZR continued to top the list, but it’s interesting to note that the iPhone outpaced it in sales, according to previously released data from NPD Group. (read more…)
10 Ideas for Saving Yellow Pages
I won’t say I agree with everything Chris Smith says in his column today in Search Engine Land, which offers 10 ideas for saving the Yellow Pages. But I do agree with a lot of it. In fact, much of what he says is similar to recommendations we have made in recent years, such as adopting ubiquitous call measurement and embracing rather than resisting opt-out distribution. (read more…)
Where Will Mobile Local Search End Up in ’09?
Briefly referenced in the previous post is a column I wrote for Local Search News on mobile local search. This is the basis for a TKG report currently in the works. Here is the column itself, which continues after the jump: (read more…)
