There is still some life in many newspapers, but recent results have encouraged a basic question: What would it be like if newspapers left the scene? Would our information needs be met by NPR? Blogs? The common belief is that we…
We’re out with our predictions for 2009. But what’s the final word for 2008? Truly, it was a very stimulating and thoughtful year for our local media and commerce industry. But speaking for myself, it’s hard to say whether it…
Local mobile portals make a lot of sense since most phones (even the iPhone 3G) don’t really lend themselves to much surfing. Another social/viral dimension is added through social networking enhancements via profile pages, Twitter and especially GPS. Two services seem…
Hyperlocal sites aspire to grab headlines from everywhere and be a one-stop for the neighborhood. That’s been accepted practice, providing the site links back to the origination site, and too much copy isn’t exposed. It tends to build traffic for everyone.…
The local media industry is so fragmented that it seems increasingly essential to aggregate local classifieds from a number of sources. Google Base and Oodle go a long way in this regard -- the latter having recently signed Facebook and MySpace…
Online coupons are getting more attention, and even adding mobile channels. But no single company has really broken through at the local level. They’re largely for national franchises. Longtime Move.com execs Adam Leff and David Bay clearly recognize the challenge,…
Increasingly, we’re seeing pressure on newspaper publishers to forgo seven-day delivery. The idea is they’d refocus on the development of profitable niche sites and the Thursday, Friday and Sunday editions packed with retail advertising. Under this concept, the other days…
In disappointing-but-not-unexpected news, Deutsche Bank has discontinued its coverage of local media (i.e., newspapers and television stations). Most of the companies in the space have lost 70 percent to 90 percent of their equity value over the past three months.…
Realtors are a vocal bunch, especially on the blogs. When something isn’t right, you really hear about it. Today, there was a bubbly post on Active Rain, an excellent real estate community site, by Missy Caulk, an Ann Arbor Realtor.…
The impact of mobile access on media is still being sorted out, but some preliminary data suggests it extends consumer research to the weekends and at night -- and that news is a real driver. The first data we saw…
The Wall Street Journal has been making some bold statements in its recent coverage. A couple of weeks ago, The WSJ’s Emily Steel pronounced Yellow Pages “extinct.” This week, a new article by Steel noted the “tapering off” of ad…
AOL’s MapQuest has strived to remake itself for several years. But it has really been going into overdrive since June, with new management, and the launch of MapQuest Local, a map-based directory and city guide service. More recently, it has…
Huffington Post started it, with a local site in Chicago, with promises of many more. Now Playboy is jumping into the local game as well. The news was buried in this week’s news that Christie Hefner was resigning as CEO.…
Spas and salon advertisers are a huge focus for local sites. They’re a Top 4 selection for Citysearch, and also rank highly on Yelp and other sites. Now they are being specifically targeted by InnerRewards, a new health and wellness vertical…
Bakersfield Californian President and CEO Richard Beene says smaller advertisers will be receiving more and more focus by the independently owned paper -- something that many newspapers say, but few really do much about. In a note to employees discussing recent…
The embrace of social media by the real estate and apartment communities has been strong, with many sites displaying videos of units and the community (or linking to YouTube), writing blogs, and participating on social sites such as Facebook and MySpace.…
We keep going back to Clayton Christensen and his disruptive technology timeline ... and we really don’t see that anything in the local space truly qualifies as the disruptor (although Google is worth pondering). Still, they keep coming. The latest…
Facebook will give up preliminary efforts to build its own classified service and will have classifieds powered by Oodle’s network instead. The effort, announced in Oodle's blog, will launch by Q1 2009. With the signing, Facebook joins MySpace, Wal-Mart, Media…
IBegin has been trying to add its own Web 2.0 sensibility to the listings business, offering free basic directories of businesses, and customization services on an upgrade basis. It now has 150 businesses and organizations subscribing, including schools, local and…
Citysearch has just completed a full revamp of its product and strategy that it hopes will position it in the long-term battle for local. Elements of the revamp include a more intuitive interface, an embrace of social media, a major…
