Virginia Tech and MySpace
We all share the grief in the tragedy at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, but it is especially gnawing on me. Over the years that I lived in Virginia, I watched with pride as the Hokies became a first-rate school and…
FatDoor Crawls the Web for Neighbor Info
Whenever a new man moves into my community, one of the mothers in my neighborhood immediately searches the Megan's List database, which is dedicated to ID'ing sex offenders. A new site, FatDoor, however, hopes to look on the brighter side…
iBegin Providing Free Yellow Pages Database
The disintermediation of local media doesn't stop. First, we got Realtors cutting into newspaper audiences (and advertising) by adding all the area listings to their Web sites. Phase Two is going to be the disintermediation of Yellow Pages, if you…
McClatchy Pact Opens Doors to Yahoo! ’a la Carte’
The WSJ is reporting that McClatchy, the publisher of 30 newspapers, is set to be the 12th newspaper publisher to join the Yahoo! consortium, leaving behind Gannett and Tribune, which had hoped to work with McClatchy to build an alternative…
Gannett, TV Stations Add Mobile WAPsites
Mobile versions of newspaper and TV station sites WAPsites have mostly been corporate vanity projects, generally attracting just a couple of dozen regular users. But as the demographics for enhanced mobile services have graduated from kids downloading ringtones and…
Boom Times for OpenTable?
OpenTable, the secretive eight-year-old restaurant reservation service, was slow to take off, with some of its local media and directory affiliates reporting little traffic in its early days (and a competing service, Foodline, basically dropping off the map). But in…
NBC Affil Plans DigPhilly City Site
WCAU-TV, NBC's owned and operated station in Philadelphia, is launching DigPhilly, a city site, reports today's Wall Street Journal. The site isn't yet up and running, but a teaser features buttons for "learn," "do," "share," "find" and "shop." The Journal…
Lumberton, N.J., Is No. 1 eBay Market
EBay's PR people seem to have tried to get some human interest stories going by citing Lumberton, New Jersey, as its No. 1 town of buyers and sellers on a per capita basis. Are you surprised? I was. I thought…
Local Thunder’s Promotional Stew for TV Sites
The leading evangelists for online TV station advertising WorldNow, IBS, Broadcast Interactive Media, Media Span, the station groups themselves have their work cut out for them. Some TV stations are now registering in the mid-six figures for online sales,…
J-Lab Provides 10 Citizen Journalism Grants
A lingering idea from Al Gore's Information Superhighway is using grant money to jumpstart online (and wireless) community services and involvement. One year, as a judge for the U.S. Department of Commerce, I even helped dole out some of the…
Ready for Online Only? Seattle Paper Mulls It Over
I was recently stunned by a conversation with a group of newspaper execs mulling over which U.S. city would be the first to rely on an online-only newspaper. The switch might be faster in one of the handful of surviving…
Topix Cites Progress, Launches Personal News Bureaus
After its founding in 2002, Topix was definitely an "A List" Silicon Valley company, leading the way for crawling news in a million interesting and valuable ways. Its founders were extremely dedicated and smart, and the company looked like it…
Tribune’s New Owner Is ’Grave Dancer’ Sam Zell
How is one to consider Sam Zell's "purchase" of the Tribune Co.? We can be fairly certain that Zell, a "grave dancer" investor who is putting in $315 million and relying on an ESOP for the rest, didn't win the…
Google’s Expansion into Radio, Cable Sales Not Easy
Google is pushing hard to jumpstart its radio ad business, leveraging its $1.245 billion acquisition of the DMarc rep business in 2005. The search leader says it is working with 900 stations in 200 markets. But so far, according to…
Closing the Gap With Maps, Revenues
Map-centric directories from the likes of Google and Microsoft, enhanced with satellite and 3D imagery, are absolutely fascinating. They're also increasingly functional, with all kinds of searchable links. But is it really clear that they are the future of directories?…
1-800-FREE411 Launches Category Search
The path to self-sustaining revenues for free directory assistance isn't clear yet. But if there is any real money to be made, it is going to come from category search. Unlike name search, users don't have a clear idea who…
EPrize Adds Games for SME Sites
EPrize, a Michigan-based promotions fulfillment company that typically works with the likes of Proctor & Gamble and others, is pushing hard to add its games and sweepstakes promotions to small-business Web sites. The "Caffeine" product can get users to register…
Local ’07: Nick Grouf, Spot Runner
Spot Runner, the high-profile video production house and media buyer for small businesses, is winning some big deals with national players that want to provide solutions for partners and affiliates and also target locally. During his Day 1 keynote at…
Local ’07: Peter Horan, IAC
Peter Horan, IAC Media and Entertainment's new head from About.com and other companies, says he's a "guy who has to run Web sites for a living and sell stuff," so he takes "a very pragmatic view. Visionaries and consultants aren't…
Local ’07: Ralph Kunz, Nokia Multimedia
The big picture guys know the battle of the future isn't just between newspapers or Yellow Pages and Google/Yahoo!. Indeed, as society goes mobile, it is also between the content owners and handset manufacturers. During his Day 2 opening keynote…