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…
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…
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,…
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…
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…
AgendiZe, the French company that enables 30+ Yellow Pages publishers to extend advertiser calls to action on dozens of online platforms, from e-mail to social networks, has raised $1.3 million in new funding led by Entrepreneur Venture, a French firm.…
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…
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…
BT Business is taking on search upstarts such as ReachLocal U.K. by launching BT SearchSmart. The service will provide a full range of search services for £74.99 per month ($123.30). There is an additional £100 setup fee ($164.42). Developed in…
It doesn’t make much sense on the surface and is something of a head scratcher. But Adobe has agreed to acquire Omniture for $1.8 billion. The acquisition is described as an effort to jump-start Adobe’s Web site development and service…
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 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 classified site -- is…
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 L.A. Here's the registration info. The show typically attracts about 500 senior level execs, and is…
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…
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…
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…
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…
In a takeoff of “Sex in the City,” AT&T has taken out the back page of The New Yorker with an iPhone ad titled “Apps in the city.” The ad, part of a series of iPhone ads using different themes…
