Yell has announced that its iPhone app is available for download in Apple's App Store. It has been available previously but it's now official. The app itself will allow users to search the 2 million local business listings on Yell.com…
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…
Back in April, we broke a story about Skype's developing business model to drive calls to SMBs. Working with directory publishers as channel partners, it would extend its longstanding subscription-based model to now also include ad support. Ad units would…
Here is a recap of posts from last week, in case you missed any. Click below to read each post in full. NPR Gets $3 Million for Local Initiative NPR will work with a pilot group of a dozen NPR stations…
NPR will work with a pilot group of a dozen NPR stations to create multimedia local news that will work online and on radio, thanks to new grants from the Corporation of Public Broadcasting ($2 million) and $1 million from…
Here are some interesting directory and small-business advertising related items I've plucked from recent news alerts. For a bit of insight on how small businesses in a meat and potatoes category (Tire Dealers) view the evolution of their ad spend,…
A spoof is circulating around the Web that Local.com has been sold to Microsoft for $200 million -- a significant markup from the public company’s current valuation at $60 million. The spoof suggested that the valuation was based on Local.com’s…
The ink hadn't dried yet on our Yext post, when the company announced $25 million in venture funding today. The round was led by Institutional Venture partners. More details to follow.
The lineup for BIA/Kelsey's Interactive Local Media 2009 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…
I'm slowly getting around to catching up with all of the local search companies that received accolades at the TechCrunch50 show earlier this month. Rounding out the list is Yext, a company that characterizes itself as a "pay per action"…
I just received an e-mail from Aloqa CEO Sanjeev Agrawal regarding the release of the product's API for iPhone, Android and BlackBerry. In our last writeup on Aloqa, one of the features highlighted was the ability for businesses to create…
Caught up with Bill Dinan after our Directional Media Strategies event last week, where he sat on a panel that I moderated called "Fixing the Yellow Pages Business Model." Much of the session content centered around pay-per-call models. The same…
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…
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…
I missed this until now but Sarah Lacy at TechCrunch has an interesting post on Internet radio business models. This is told through the story of Pandora, which had a few brushes with fatality, since being alleviated by grassroots action,…
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…
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,…
Here is the roundup of coverage from last week at DMS, in case you missed any posts.
CityVoter, the “best of” city service that works with local broadcasters and newspapers, says it has passed the milestone of 3 million votes. The company gets about 1.4 million unique visitors per month and is on pace to increase annual…
Thanks to all who attended DMS ’09. It was a successful show by all counts, with lots of good content and networking. I took away a lot of new perspective on the ongoing discussion about the Yellow Pages evolving sales…
