MediaNews Group, Hearst Newspapers and Freedom Communications have retained Bain Consulting to help realign their cost structures, says MNG Vice Chairman and CEO William Dean Singleton, who was speaking at a World Association of Newspapers meeting in Sweden. “We asked Bain…
TeachStreet, which lists and profiles local independent teachers for everything from test prep to tennis lessons, is close to its official launch out of beta in Seattle and readying a second market in Portland, Oregon, according to founder Dave Schappell.…
There is a sudden glut of sites that allow people to register their cars and get specific service information and recommendations about them. First, there was Autobytel’s MyRide. RepairPal launched last week. This week, it is DriverSide, which is being…
Some details have been released about Praized Media’s Local Conversations Organizer. Praized is a Canadian start-up launched by YPG vets Harry Wakefield and Sebastien Provencher, and Sylvain Carle, a longtime industry vet. Its tagline is “Trust Your Tribes.” In a…
The Huffington Post has a certain glamour about it and is able to attract an “A” list of contributors. There is always something interesting on it, and its readership is apparently between 3 million and 8 million unique. Now it…
Yahoo! is set to place contextually relevant display ads with its newspaper consortium, which now represents 40 percent of all newspaper circulation. The new AMP program for newspapers begins by the end of 3Q at the San Jose Mercury News…
To all the skeptics who thought that Zillow’s deal with newspapers would never roll out ... next week, The Philadelphia Inquirer, San Francisco Chronicle, San Jose Mercury News and Richmond Times-Dispatch are selling featured listings for Zillow at the same…
MerchantCircle, which is partially owned by IAC, is apparently beginning to make some headway in selling search oriented services to small businesses. It reports that it has achieved a base of 5,000 paying customers, who buy services costing $30, $60,…
The frontiers of Web-based, self-serve advertising moved (a little) today, as Trulia introduced Trulia Pro, a new “starter” package for Realtors that provides unlimited "featured listings" and "Spotlight Ads" that Realtors use for branding. Trulia claims its featured listings capability…
Is there room for a new, locally oriented social network if it is more practical than Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, LinkedIn, et al? That’s what Norwest Partners and Keynote Ventures are betting $6.5 million on with the launch this week of…
Classifieds have made their way to video (See RealPeopleRealStuff). But how about video on mobile phones? That’s a new effort being tried out in Portugal, where high-speed 3G phones are prevalent, but less than 40 percent of the population has Internet…
Rich Barton -- Mr. Vertical -- has added a new recruitment-oriented vertical to a lineup that now includes Expedia (sold), Zillow and Avvo. The new effort is Glassdoor.com, which provides recruitment-related information. It solicits and publishes detailed salary and bonus…
The New York Times is set to recruit small-business advertisers via a deal with AdReady, the Seattle-based ad agency that provides a choice of 600 free templates for banners, customization tools and usage reports. The Times will recruit its own…
Among the developers of iPhone applications is The Associated Press. Featured during the relaunch of iPhone 2.0 today, AP’s Benjamin Moss, director of mobile products, said AP developed an iPhone app for its Mobile News Network in "just a few…
Boston-based CitySquares, which just celebrated its second anniversary, is getting about 70,000 unique visitors per month and now has a base of 700 advertisers, averaging $1,200 per year, reports CEO Ben Saren. He believes they have even more potential via…
Consumers looking to map out a Saturday morning errand run or a Saturday night bar-hop -- and find out about any special offers along the way -- can now do so easily via MetroSeeq, a Portland, Oregon, start-up by Intel-vet…
IAC has sold Entertainment Publications Inc., publisher of The Entertainment Book, to MH Equity Investors. The deal puts $135 million on the books for IAC, although MH Equity, an Indianapolis company, probably paid only a portion of that in cash.…
In a new WashingtonPost.com video, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer talks on a wide variety of topics, including the future of print. “In the next 10 years, the world of media companies will be turned upside down,” he says. “There will…
Walmart.com is a national site without local pretensions. And the company’s stores themselves don’t really have much “community” about them. They generally don’t have bulletin boards or other things to bring the community together. But the giant retailer is now…
Pegasus News, the hyperlocal site in Dallas owned by Fisher Communications, is a state-of-the-art site with local reporters and bloggers, lots of user-generated content and a full roster of other Web 2.0 capabilities. So what’s most important for driving traffic?…
