NAA President John Sturm Guests on Colbert
It was kind of gutsy of NAA President John Sturm to go on Colbert's "Better Know a Lobby" segment last week on Comedy Central. But I don't think it turned out so well ... (Thanks to Steve Outing for the…
NAA 2009: Paying Attention to Newspapers (Still)
Next week is the Newspaper Association of America’s Annual Convention in San Diego. I’ll cover Google CEO Eric Schmidt’s keynote on Tuesday, in which he’ll express his support of the newspaper industry despite Google’s very public axing in January of…
Yelp Comes Around to Mobile Reviews
Yelp has had lots of success with its iPhone app, which currently accounts for 5 percent of its overall traffic. This is partly because its base of urban "foodies" maps well to iPhone user bases. This was a smart platform…
Web 2.0 Expo: Will Tweet for New Business
A session today at the Web 2.0 expo examined how Twitter can be used as a business tool. Twitter has been gaining lots of momentum over the past year and has more recently reached mainstream status. But beyond the minutiae…
BIA/Kelsey Expert Commentary: Booth on 2008 IAB Ad Revenue Results
The IAB and PricewaterhouseCoopers are out with their semi-annual report on the online ad market. IAB/PWC say that interactive revenues were $23.4 billion for 2008, which is up 10.6 percent from the prior year. But everyone seems to be pointing…
Google’s 10-Pack: Now With More Local
Local SEO guru Andrew Shotland just alerted me to the fact that Google is now serving the local "10 pack" in searches that don't include geographic modifiers (original discovery by Google Maps expert Mike Blumenthal). For those unfamiliar, the 10…
As Expected, Idearc Enters Chapter 11
Idearc announced it has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Texas, a move that it signaled in its year-end 2008 earnings announcement, when it indicated some form of bankruptcy filing was likely if not inevitable. Here is how Idearc describes the process…
Citysearch CEO Jay Herratti Talks About MySpace Local
MySpace and Citysearch today confirmed the launch of MySpace Local, a new local city guide using functionality and feeds from Citysearch, including its taxonomy of categorization, geography structure, search functionality and content. A beta version of the site launches this…
Eniro CEO Karrbrink: ‘This Is a Database Company’
On a recent visit to Stockholm, we sat down with Eniro President and CEO Jesper Karrbrink, who is managing Eniro through a strategic shift described in a presentation late last year as moving "from print dependence to online opportunity." In a videotaped interview,…
Booking by the Hour? HourVille Enters ‘Appointment’ Space
The local appointment space has a new entrant in the form of Austin-based HourVille. The start-up, created by several friends from UT’s business school, premiered at SXSW. It lets users book anything by the hour, including services, rentals, classes and…
What’s Wal-Mart Really Doing With Classifieds? A Few Details
One of the great mysteries is what Wal-Mart is really doing with classifieds. Last June, it signed up to use the Oodle platform, but not much has been heard from it since. In this week's Ad Age, Wal-Mart’s Duncan Dreschel…
The Knot Launches Local Wedding Sites
The Knot has launched 75 local URL sites as well as several niche sites, including Chinese weddings, gay wedding, beach weddings and destination weddings. More than 200 local and niche sites are planned by the end of 2009, according to…
How Can Google Improve? Local Execs Comment
We all live in Google’s world now. Nobody would dispute that there are many positives associated with that. But how do industry practitioners really feel about it?. Can it be improved? We asked three executives who cover different parts of…
Metro Directories to Fold; Yellowbook to Honor Contracts
The independent Atlanta-based Yellow Pages publisher Metro Directories will go out of business this year, and its rival Yellowbook has agreed to honor the contracts of Metro advertisers for books yet to be published this year. Here is a statement…
Doug Weaver: Digital Solutions to the ‘Failed State’ of Advertising
AdAge’s Bob Garfield famously sketched out a “chaos scenario” in which the media/advertising infrastructure collapses, venerable media brands fold bad poker hands and feral cats carry off small children. This week, Garfield says it is all actually happening because of…
Dealix Launches New Leads Platform
Online leads for cars are broken. The vast majority of auto shoppers won’t even fill out a request for bid because they think they’ll get inaccurate, incomplete and tardy information from the dealer. But that doesn’t stop vendors from working…
Search-Oriented Auto Portal Launched by Gabriels and Endeca
Gabriels and Endeca have launched a new white-label auto portal. The effort formally kicks off a recently announced partnership to inject Endeca’s search capabilities into Gabriels' vertical sites. The new portal moves away from a simple listing product, offering a…
Where’s the Beef?
The New York Times publishes separate sports and business sections on Saturday, Sunday and Monday. It may soon move away from separate sections altogether. This past Saturday, there was not a single display ad in either the sports or the…
The Importance of the Reader vs. the Writer
When I went to work in the new Information Services Division of Dow Jones in 1980, I was taken on a tour of the newsroom including the area where the news wires spit out a continuous flow of information called…
TKG Data & Analysis: Marketplaces ’09 Recap
Thanks again to all those who attended Marketplaces 2009. If you missed the show, or any of our coverage, below is a collection of posts from the week. Marketplaces 2009: Top 10 Takeaways Thanks to everyone who came out to…