“A media powerhouse like CBS has deep relationships with small business advertisers,” said Neil Salvage, executive vice president of advertising at CityGrid Media.

The listings will appear across hundreds of websites and mobile apps through CityGrid, including search engines Google and Bing. The directory will include general business info, editorial and user reviews, insider tips, videos, photos and links to the businesses’ websites.

BIA/Kelsey’s Matt Booth first highlighted CityGrid in February 2010, stating that the company provides local content and local monetization in one package for large and small developers. CityGrid reaches more than 140 million unique users across 250 website and mobile sites. This step is one of many the network has made recently to expand its content offerings. Earlier this year, BIA/Kelsey reported on CityGrid’s move into the deals space.

CBS Local Media is CBS’ local broadcasting business segment. It aligns resources between more than two dozen CBS television stations and over three dozen CBS news, sports and talk stations with a focus on competing in the local marketplace. In August 2010, CBS Local Media launched CBS NewYork.com, the first website in the tri-state area to combine the best brands in local media and offer visitors a “local” New York experience. After debuting sites in 23 more markets, CBS Local is among the top 5 most visited local properties on the Web (comScore, February 2011).

Ezra Kucharz, president of CBS Local Digital Media, said, “By delivering to local advertisers cost-effective and efficient solutions for their marketing and sales needs, CBS is able to reach the active consumer interested in utilizing local search to make purchase decisions.”

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If the first two decades of the local Internet were primarily about on-boarding traffic, then CBS Local Digital Media President Ezra Kucharz foresees that the next decade will be about “opening doors to consumers, getting them the information they want, and getting them to transact.”

This philosophy drives CBS Local’s digital philosophy across its 28 owned-and-operated TV stations and 39 radio properties. Four consumer desires undergird this strategy: robust content (news, sports, local info, weather and traffic), business listings, local deals and answers to local questions. Kucharz shared with the ILM:10 audience that CBS Local will launch a Local Answers platform in January that will address queries as diverse as “who do the Yankees play?” and “who’s a trusted plumber?”

Like so many others who see deals as the hottest inferno of opportunity in the red-hot local ecosystem, Kucharz is also a believer. He spearheaded CBS’ deals launch four months ago and calls local deals “the best way for SMB to get local consumers in the door right now.” He also stresses that business listings must include “rich experiences” that exceed mere links within a directory.

Of course, none of these insights is necessarily new, so what positions CBS Local to capitalize where others may fail?

According to Kucharz, the network’s well-etched brand advantages with its local business partners distinguish it. SMBs encounter several problems in moving their message and money online, from an aversion to complex digital buying to a lack of creative to a general lack of coherent strategy. CBS’ formula to leverage its assets is “the reach of traditional media + the targeting of online media + mobile media = results for SMBs.”

To generate even greater brand and platform synergies, CBS Local is in the process of rolling up its various properties in major markets under a larger banner. In New York, for instance, three radio and one TV have been fused into CBS New York. This approach will scale to its 24 major metros in 2011. The bundled effects (both in revenue and traffic) of rolling up individual properties into an aggregated brand have produced “1 + 1 + 1 + 1 = 7″ benefits.

The post ILM:10: CBS’ Ezra Kucharz Envisions ‘the Next Decade in Local’ appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

CBS Local has launched an auto shopping guide on the Web site of WCCO-TV Minneapolis, using vertical content and services from High Gear Media, a Palo Alto, California-based auto specialist publisher launched two years ago by Daily Shopper founder Hesky Kutscher.

The CBS Local deal marks the first local effort for High Gear, which has 90 vertical auto-related car sites of its own. It also has distribution on site such as NASCAR.com, Yahoo Autos and Huffington Post. Its own vertical sites include TheCarConnection.com, MotorAuthority.com, GreenCarReports.com, AllCarsElectric.com and FamilyCarGuide.com.

VP of Product Management Jeff Birkeland tells us the CBS Local site will launch with 1.2 million pages of “very curated” content including content from a six-person full-time staff and freelance auto writers, as well as 200 community sources. He believes the level of specific, high-level auto writing is much higher from general content creators such as Associated Content and Demand Media.

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