Kelsey Local Media Blog
WashingtonPost.com has soft-launched “Local Explorer,” which allows users to map crime, home sales and school information by ZIP code. It is a great model for “mapped journalism.” The tag line for Local Explorer says it allows you to explore “Police and…
In case you missed it, here is a compilation of blog posts from last week from TKG's Interactive Local Media program. Click below to read each post in full. The Kelsey Take: Newspapers by the Numbers Earlier this week, the…
As expected, Google today announced the acquisition of hot (no pun intended) RSS feed management company FeedBurner. See last week's post for the drivers and implications of this deal.
Summary Earlier this week, the NAA released its Q1 figures for the financial performance of the newspaper industry. The numbers tell the same old story: Print ad revenues are down, while online revenues saw double-digit percentage growth (although still a…
Eniro AB announced it had acquired 100 percent of the Danish directory company Krak from the Krak Foundation. This deal ends months of speculation as to who would purchase Krak after its announcement last summer that it was open to offers.…
Yellowpages.com recently announced it would increase the number of its sales offices from two to 16, staffing each office with both field and telesales reps. While the move is a statement to the industry that Yellowpages.com plans to dominate local…
Summary Jingle Networks' free DA service 1-800-FREE411 has discontinued live operators in some locations. Operator expenses in these markets have significantly cut into margins as the overall cost of providing these calls isn't being offset by the advertising volumes. Free…
1. Maps are the height of the data pyramid. Once they’re populated, everything else (i.e. local search) gets easier. 2. 3D CityScapes are a big part of the future, and will drive new types of ecommerce. This is the expensive…
The success of American Idol’s TXT messaging voting has gotten women shoppers thinking of it as a major media guide, or so claims NearByNow Founder Scott Dunlap, who is pushing hard to provide TXT promotions to malls around the U.S.…
Summary After completing a free DA call this week using Google's newly launched 800-GOOG411, we were asked if a text message was desired in addition to the free voice and "connect me" features (the multimodal functionality that is standard in…
Summary CBS announced today that it has acquired London-based social networking site Last.fm for $280 million. The site claims about 15 million monthly users (4 million in the U.S.) and hangs its hat on music video distribution – thought to…
Spot Runner announced a deal today with LexisNexis Martindale-Hubbell to distribute spot cable ad creation and buying capability to affiliated law firms. This can be compared to Spot Runner's deal with Coldwell Banker in the real estate vertical that gives…
Here at O’Reilly’s Where 2.0 conference in San Jose, an annual event for 800+ mashup developers, there’s no perspective yet on the importance of maps to the local ecosphere. But a picture is developing of a “3D Data arms race,”…
Amidst all the whiz bang mapping apps showed off at Where 2.0, MapQuest Gm James Greiner brought everything back to Earth with a survey showing that just 42 percent of Internet users use mapping sites, and relatively light penetration of…
Summary BizReport.com reports that Google will begin to axe websites from its AdSense publisher network that have an unfavorable "ad/edit" ratio (to use a magazine term). Though this seems detrimental to Google's strategy to extend its reach for brokering ads…
Microsoft announced this morning from the Where 2.0 conference that it will add New York City to the list of cities available in 3-D in Live Local Maps. We wrote about 3-D mapping and its possibilities for Local in a…
The Vecosys blog is reporting the rumor (take it only as that) that Google has its crosshairs set on Feedburner for its next acquisition. This would make sense for Google, given its ongoing expansion of venues in which to broker…
Summary Examining patent filings has become something of a beat, in the blogospheric reporting of online media. ZDNet's Russel Shaw takes a look at a fresh Google patent application for a new mobile local search app. The long term potential…
We’re all guilty of feature creep. A lot of the stuff isn’t especially useful. Now comes Palore. When it comes to directory listings, Palore believes hardly any of the info is useful. In fact, consumers want to know just one…
Summary The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) released their annual Ad Revenue Report yesterday. Though there were increases in many online ad categories compared with 2005, it's interesting to note that nearly every one declined in percentage of…
