In its bid to establish itself as a meaningful online company, CBS Interactive has downplayed its traditional strength in local vis a vis TV stations, radio stations and outdoor. The company’s just announced acquisition of CNET for $1.8 billion doesn’t necessarily change things. But company officials acknowledge that CNET’s local brands – Urban Baby, […]
Monthly Archives: May 2008
ICMA Brussels: Shopper Pubs Focusing on Reverse Publishing, Verticals, Mobile
May 16, 2008 – 9:56 am
Shopper publications attending the International Classified Media Association meeting in Brussels this week – the vast majority from outside the U.S. – are showing resilience against the challenges of the Internet, and looking at new models to sustain their existing businesses. I was presenting a keynote on the transition to Marketplaces.
Shoppers, of course, […]
SmallTown Offers ‘WebCards’ Via Google Gadget Ads, Others
May 13, 2008 – 9:00 am
SmallTown, the Bay Area hyperlocal company, is changing its core focus and will concentrate mostly on getting wider distribution of its WebCards microsites for small businesses.
While the nine person company will continue to maintain its hyperlocal sites, which are now in six Bay Area communities, it sees a bigger opportunity in having third parties such […]
Kill the Innovators: San Diego U-T Lays Off Online Leaders
May 11, 2008 – 11:14 pm
These are tough, fast-changing times for newspapers, and many of them are taking severe measures to get back on track. Sometimes, it means putting the innovative online guy in charge of print too, as Bay Area News Group has done with online advertising head David Prizer. But sometimes, it means consolidating power under […]
MojoPages Claims Traction; Announces Deals with Key Players
May 8, 2008 – 9:27 pm
Despite some traction by sites like Yelp – ok, specifically Yelp — the hybrid IYP/ratings-and-review segment remain something of a question mark in the industry. It remains to be seen whether such sites can attract a large number of frequent reviewers and users – and not just recent college grads and/or mother-aged women. It also […]
AOL Reinvesting in Local Products
May 6, 2008 – 11:48 pm
AOL may have trouble on several fronts, but it still gets millions of users and it intends to fully leverage them at the local level, per Chris Spanos, Director of Search Verticals, who was speaking at Kelsey Seattle. “Given its scale, local just hasn’t been getting fair share.”
Spanos says the local products will […]
Cars.com, Google at Kelsey Seattle: ‘Google’s Place in Verticals’
May 6, 2008 – 10:57 pm
Google is a collaborative partner with all verticals, and generally speaking, has no interest in competing with them, per Adrian Madland, Google’s head of automotive strategic partnerships, who was speaking at Kelsey Seattle.“We love all the vertical people in the room,” said Madland. “We don’t do verticals. We try to make them better. We […]