The question of "when it comes to content which is better, long form or short form?" came up during a case study panel at BIA/Kelsey’s NEXT conference. Our panel attendees, who are leaders from major local marketing companies, had a lot…
"Content is not King, it's the Emperor" said Constant Contact's Heather Jackson during a case study panel at BIA/Kelsey's NEXT conference on Tuesday. According to Heather, the biggest hurdle small businesses have is trying to come up with content. Constant…
Today I am excited to announce that BIA/Kelsey has greatly enhanced its focus on social media to include dedicated coverage on our Local Media Watch blog and a new Continuous Advisory Service called Social Local Media. BIA/Kelsey Analyst Jed Williams…
SB Nation (Sports Blog Nation) presents a fan-centric, highly verticalized (i.e., local) view of sports from dozens of bloggers. The site has completed a new $10.5 million "C" round of funding, pushing it past the $23.5 million mark. The new…
The Sacramento area is fast becoming Ground Zero for local blog networks. McClatchy’s Sacramento Connect, a project carved from The Sacramento Bee, is a content connector for 70+ area blogs and Web sites. It started incubating last summer and was…
Praized Media, recognizing that social-based media has largely moved from the blogosphere to social media sites during the past two years, has now rolled out “Needium,” a new semantic search site that crawls Facebook and Twitter for specific leads. “A…
DataSphere, which creates hyperlocal blogs and sells advertising packages to small businesses on behalf of local broadcasters, will now do the same for Gannett Broadcasting, The deal initially covers ten of Gannett Broadcasting’s 19 markets, including Atlanta, Washington D.C., Tampa,…
I recently attended a webinar hosted by SalesBlogcast that featured social media company BizBrag. My reason for attending was to learn how small and medium sized-businesses can take advantage of social media. Based on our Local Commerce Monitor research, 32…
The local and community news “aggregator” space is poised to become increasingly important. Local news staffs, obviously, are being whittled away with the declining economics of local news. But there is more local content than ever, via blogs, pro/amateur content,…
Outside.in, a major aggregator of local blogs, has begun the integration with CNN that was announced last December at our Interactive Local Media conference in L.A. First up is integration with CNN’s home page, weather page and profile page. On…
Yodle, the third-party SMB reseller, has now divided its business into “Yodle Sponsored” and “Yodle Organic.” The formation of the latter division, which has been live for a month with 150 clients, is a recognition that SMBs are increasingly relying…
Special thanks to the 60 speakers and 515 attendees who made the ILM:09 conference such a great learning and socializing experience. Among the 85 conferences produced by John and Pam Kelsey and their team (including myself), we think it might…
The Los Angeles Times today debuted “Mapping L.A.,” an online effort to map 87 distinctive neighborhoods in the sprawling Southland. For the paper, the designation of neighborhoods goes beyond civic duties. Not only does it intend to base news stories…
The New York Times covers a new daily news provider called The Printed Blog that's building a new model based on what it hopes to be the best of online and offline distribution. As its name implies, this will involve…
Placeblogger, a 2007 recipient of $220k from the Knight News Challenge, has recently been revamped by its founders to encourage more personal interaction. Why? Location-based blogging without the context of a person is just kind of stale, says founder Lisa…
The Yellow Pages Association has launched its own blog, apparently to add its voice to the ongoing blogosphere debate on the future of Yellow Pages. The blog's first post from YPA President Neg Norton explains the rationale for the blog…
A new online source for local search news and viewpoints launched today. Known as Local Search News, it was started by local SEO guru Steve Espinosa. Espinosa will supply most of the content on a daily basis and tap outside perspectives…
Buzz tracking software firm BuzzLogic released a report yesterday, administered by Jupiter Research, which affirms the role of blogs in influencing purchasing behavior. These data come at a key time for BuzzLogic's story, when Madison Avenue remains somewhat wary about…
I like all the services using LinkedIn as their platform for social networking. The local implications haven’t really come into focus yet, but the latest publisher to put something out is BusinessWeek, with its Business Exchange. Developed by former PowerOne…
The Huffington Post has launched a beta of its first local “Internet newspaper” in Chicago, with promises to produce 10 to 20 more local efforts in the next couple of years. The Chicago site is a mishmash of local news,…