State of Local

A holiday trip to my sleepy Massachusetts hometown never ceases to teach me something.  It was a wicked shockah, indeed, when I noticed, affixed to the weekly townie paper, a bright yellow Post-It shouting, “How Local?  Wicked Local… WickedLocal.com.”  On the site, it was relatively easy to find my local paper.  I was happily greeted by a clean design and simple navigation.  There were top stories that allowed commenting, blog posts, user generated photos, current weather conditions… Heck, there was even a little RSS feed just for my town’s news.   

Most impressive was that stories had been created throughout the week.  No longer do the people of my small hometown have to wait until Thursday to learn of the latest town hall scandal, boys hockey upset or embarrassing cow-tipping arrest.  True, the news fodder is thin, but this is certainly a terrific platform for instant, hyper-local information.

I quickly scrolled down the page to see who was behind this.  The firm is called GateHouse Media.  Its site boasts 101 daily publications reaching a local audience of 10 million readers across 23 states.   A quick look at its publications list shows about 500 properties, from paid weeklies to shoppers.  Monetization is achieved through standard IAB ad units and, of course, a slew of classifieds.  At the core of its classifieds is TotallyLocal.com, a consumer-facing yellow pages venture powered in part by Premier Guide, a Local.com company.  Read More… »

This is the time of the year when we look ahead and ponder the challenges we will face in the upcoming months. But as this NY Times article notes, one of the best things you can do for your business is to bring in some outside eyes.

We all tend to think we know our business better than any outsider ever could. But the reality is that new people tend to force us to look at our key challenges in a new light. And sometimes, a fresh perspective can find an answer that we never would have found otherwise.

In her 2006 book, “Innovation Killer: How What We Know Limits What We Can Imagine — and What Smart Companies Are Doing About It,” Cynthia Barton Rabe proposes bringing in outsiders whom she calls zero-gravity thinkers to keep creativity and innovation on track. When experts have to slow down and go back to basics to bring an outsider up to speed, she says, “it forces them to look at their world differently and, as a result, they come up with new solutions to old problems.”
Read More… »

Google is close to claiming 60 percent of all Web searches conducted in the U.S., according to the latest figures from Nielsen Online.

In November, Google accounted for a dominant 57.7 percent of all searches, or over 4.2 billion searches in total. Roughly a year ago, Google’s search share fell just below the 50 percent threshold, though Nielsen said that it has recently tweaked its reporting methodology, which makes it difficult to make accurate year-over-year comparisions.

But regardless of the precise percentage, Google remains the way that at least half of the people who visit your site through a search engine will find you.

But there’s also another side to that stat. If you’re trying to build any sort of local search capability, or online classified ads, you are competing with Google. Many people are conditioned to find things in Google. Not just news, but local car dealers, real estate and other local services.

Lately I’ve seen more and more space devoted to the Independent Yellow Pages (IYP) and frankly, I don’t get it.  After reading pieces by Greg Sterling at Screenwerk  and Media Post I’m left with the conclusion that the IYP is not only a valid publication, but that it hasn’t yet suffered much loss of traction as a result of the Internet.  This absolutely astounds me.

Admittedly, I’m a sample of just one, but I can’t recall the last time I used a Yellow Pages for anything other than a doorstop. I have always felt it to be a nearly useless resource.  When it gets dropped on my doorstep, it goes directly into the recycling bin.  Same goes for the little “local” editions as well.  From poor design (i.e., too much clutter) making it hard to find listings, and the onus being on me to decipher where some listings will appear.

I simply don’t want to work that hard when I’m looking for something.  Frankly, I’ll use a white pages and search in the business listings if the Internet’s not available, or if I know the business name for which I’m searching. Or even better, if I need a mechanic, plumber or electrician — I’ll ask a trusted friend for a recommendation. Read More… »

There seems to be this theory in the business world that everyone should blog.

But, as anyone who has ever read business blogs can tell you, the quality of information and entertainment varies wildly from person to person.

This NY Times article highlights both sides of that quality spectrum, and the piece does make the good point that in the right hands, a blog can be a great marketing tool.

For companies in the technology sector, having a blog is pretty much expected. Still, Tony Stubblebine, the founder and chief executive of CrowdVine, a company that builds social networks for conferences, said that one of his main reasons for blogging is to show that his business model is different from the typical technology start-up.
Read More… »

I received an email from a “State Of Local” reader who suggested that we should post bios for the various regular blog participants.

I think it’s great idea, and it’s something we’re going to get up and running soon. To be honest, considering how much I enjoy talking about myself, I’m shocked that I didn’t suggest it first.

Internet Broadcasting is a big company, and the nice thing about this blog is that it draws on a lot of different experiences and backgrounds.

Consider this near the top of our 2008 “to-do” list.