Twitter updates for 2010-03-11

• KSTP to launch hyperlocal network in Minn – St Paul http://bit.ly/9KA7L5 #
• Do you agree with the forecast that local digital ad revenues are poised to rise higher (and higher…) http://bit.ly/aBTEm3 #
• RedBeacon adds Facebook recommendations for businesses, partners with BigTent. Could this be local search reinvented? http://bit.ly/bwI6MW #
• CNN's Klein says he fears social networks more than his TV competition. A reasonable fear? http://bit.ly/9yctvH #
• Both Foursquare and Gowalla have just pushed new iPhone app updates with fresh new designs. We're downloading 'em… #

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CNN’s Klein says he fears social networks

At a press event in NY today, CNN chief Jonathan Klein says he fears social networks more than his TV competition. “The competition I’m really afraid of are social networking sites,” he said. “That threatens to pull people away from us. The people you’re friends with on Facebook or the people you follow on Twitter are trusted sources of information. Well, we want to be the most trusted name in news.”

A reasonable fear in a new world of social distribution?

RedBeacon goes social, partners with BigTent

Last September, the local services company RedBeacon took the top award at TechCrunch 50 with an innovative approach to local search. Today, it announced a new set of social features and a partnership with BigTent, an online community.

RedBeacon allows you to post a job request to service providers in your local area. Let’s say, you want a personal trainer who’s available on Saturday mornings. A handful of personal trainers respond to your request with price quotes. You pick the one you want, and schedule the appointment with a click. Think of it as a next-generation yellow pages.

RedBeacon says its focus is on helping users make the best decisions. They currently aggregate reviews from Yelp, Google and Yahoo, and today they’re rolling out a new feature (above) that pings your Facebook friends for their advice. Your friends see the update on their wall, click to RedBeacon, and leave their feedback. They can even suggest a new service provider, which RedBeacon in turn contacts for a quote.

“This is really adding a social layer to RedBeacon,” said CEO Ethan Anderson. “It’s something we haven’t really seen in the local search space.”

RedBeacon has also rolled out the ability for service providers to list endorsements from trusted organizations, like the Better Business Bureau (see at bottom of image above). These endorsements appear as badges on providers’ profile pages. And with a new partnership with BigTent, endorsements from community groups will also appear.

This combination of reviews and endorsements from friends, family, community groups and trusted organizations is a more holistic approach to providing users with as much information as possible to make the right decision. You can imagine how this free approach to not only finding a qualified service provider, but book one on the spot, could be a competitive threat to the paid Angie’s List model.

But as always, RedBeacon faces the tall challenge of scaling outside its pilot market of the tech-savvy Bay Area. Anderson says they’re pursuing more funding, as well as closing more distribution partnerships like BigTent. So stay tuned…

Links and notes: SXSW local edition

Taking a break from packing and preparing for the SXSW Interactive conference and I thought you would find these links interesting. I’ll be blogging and tweeting (@lostremote) from SXSW starting Friday and will be looking for insights and new developments that will have an impact on local media.

Speaking of “South-by” – if you plan to be in Austin this weekend, join us for a journo-meetup Sunday at 5 pm at Opal Divine’s. It would be great to see the LR community come together to exchange ideas and business cards in Austin. (Steve and Cory declined bankrolling a big shindig. There’s always next year.)

On with the links:

• Print’s advertising problem – tying one hand behind its back (Online Journalism Blog)
• Bay Area News Project has high hopes, few employees (LA Times)
• Web ads to get a 10% boost in 2010. For the first time advertisers will spend more on digital than print (Forbes)
• Bicycling Directions, Trails Come to Google Maps (ReadWriteWeb)
• Departures are “a clue of the upheaval and human stress at the epicenters of change in the newspaper business” (Jack Lail)

KSTP to launch hyperlocal network in Minneapolis

KSTP (ABC) in Minneapolis-St. Paul is launching a network of 80 – 90 hyperlocal sites in the region. KSTP, owned by Hubbard Broadcasting, is going to use the DataSphere technology – the same platform that powers the KOMO hyperlocals in Seattle. Paul Gaulke, creative services director of KSTP, tells MinnPost:

“A lot of the news that comes in to a newsroom, like press releases, never gets on the air,” he says. “The true beauty is finding groups of people interested in the area, and small advertisers who are interested in following.”

MinnPost also reports Hubbard will launch hyperlocal networks in Duluth and Rochester. DataSphere has been on a big roll lately, having raised about $11 million in capital earlier this year. Earlier this month, Datasphere announced it will roll out hyperlocal networks for Raycom, as well.

(Disclosures: I consulted for Hubbard and Paul Gaulke on separate occasions.)

Local digital ad revenues to rise higher (and higher…)

Cue the music. Open the floodgates. Strap on the jetpack. Keep your seatbelt tightly fastened as we continue our ascent.

Local digital ad revenues are poised to explode. “Tell me something I don’t know…” is very well the thought that is going through your head. Media prophets have been shepharding stories of giant local digital ad buys for a few years now.  What I bring you to support the foreshadowing is a new research report from BIA/Kelsey that includes some eye-popping numbers.

Yes, these reports do need to be taken with a grain of salt. You could probably exhaust days recounting similar research documents that were proven incorrect over time. So if you want to approach these figures with skepticism, that is fine by me. It never hurts, though, to know what industry analysts are projecting. Who knows, maybe you will come to share some of their optimism.

As detailed in the BIA/Kelsey forecast released on March 9, digital advertising revenue for local TV and radio will outpace overall ad spending for those media between 2009 and 2014. Digital revenue from multiplatform, mobile and Web, will grow at a 17.8 percent compound annual rate to $2 billion compared to total ad revenue, which will grow at a CAGR of 2.8 percent to $34.3 billion.

By 2014, local TV digital ad revenue will reach $1.2 billion and represent 6.5 percent of TV’s total $18.3 billion in revenue, up from 3.1 percent in 2009. Radio digital revenue will reach $0.8 billion representing 5 percent of radio’s $16 billion up from 2.9 percent in 2009.

“Broadcasters must evolve to participate in more areas of the media ecosystem,” said Rick Ducey, chief strategy officer for BIA/Kelsey. “This means developing the right multiplatform and multiple revenue stream strategies which in turn requires new workflow, partnerships, business models and resources.”

Facebook location sharing could impact local advertising

Don’t tell me you couldn’t see this one coming: Facebook will begin allowing location-based status updates as early as next month, according Nick Bilton’s report on the Bits Blog. The plan, apparently, is to unveil the feature at f8, the company’s annual developer’s conference.

While the move will initially be seen as Facebook’s attempt to compete with the growing activity on check-in based services like Foursquare, Loopt and Gowalla, the ultimate motive is more threatening to local media companies. Bilton writes that Facebook “wants to go head-to-head with Google in the fight for small-business advertising.” Facebook has made a steady push during the last year toward attracting small businesses and now  hosts more than 1.5 million local businesses from around the world (according to Facebook).

Will location sharing serve as Facebook’s trump card? It depends on whether its users and developers take advantage.

“It will be interesting to see if Facebook’s users are even interested in sharing this information,” Frederic Lardinois writes on ReadWriteWeb. “While services like Foursquare and Gowalla are slowly but surely gaining new users (in part thanks to offering incentives for checking in at various venues), Twitter, which introduced a geotagging API last year and just introduced some location features on its website today, hasn’t seen a very strong response from users and developers so far.”

MSN: ‘Local is a home run’

The new MSN home page, which has been in beta testing, is beginning to roll out today. One of the core new features is Local Edition, a section of the site that features local news, events, traffic, restaurants and more. “In just a few months, MSN Local Edition has grown to 5 million unique users while still in preview mode, with more than 40% of those users coming back every day,” explains the MSN team. “With the launch of the new MSN home page and local module, that audience is expected to grow exponentially.” Since the beta, they’ve added new features, including geolocated Tweets and local video from partners Hearst TV and NBC Local Media.

“Our internal research shows this is the number one consumer demand for more local content, specifically hyperlocal,” explains Cyrus Krohn, who heads up MSN’s local efforts. “And based upon what are competitors are doing in local, I presume they’re seeing exactly the same research, because everyone is investing in local. It’s going to be a fun couple of years ahead.”

(FULL DISCLOSURE: I work for msnbc.com, which along with our local news partners, powers the news section of Local Edition.)

Foursquare serves up your location history

If you go to Foursquare.com and click on the “history” tab, you can now see a timeline of all the places you’ve checked in as well as your friends who checked in along with you, stretching back to December. For me, I apparently have a penchant for coffee, pizza and Microsoft buildings (I work at msnbc.com on the Redmond campus), and my wife checked in with me about a quarter of the time. (Hmm, you could imagine some relationship analysis springing out of this new feature. But I digress.)

Foursquare says it plans to make this data available in the API, but still only in the context of friends, to preserve the inevitable privacy concerns. By the way, Foursquare plans to roll out a new app version at SXSW, where I’m sure we’ll see lots of activity on the location-awareness and local content front.

Plus: Restaurant says business jumps 110% after throwing Swarm Badge party

Did the iPad’s Oscar performance dazzle or disappoint?

The Internet was buzzing last night, and into this morning, over the iPad commercial that aired during the Oscars. In some circles, primarily those dominated by tech enthusiasts, the 30-second iPad reveal overshadowed the silver screen’s crowning event.

The iPad commercial shared the flare of its iPhone and iPod predecessors. The spot’s pop-rock soundtrack supported its quick visual transitions. It captured the device’s multiple uses. In the span of 30-seconds, the iPad functioned as an e-book reader, a movie viewing device, an interactive photo album,  a digital calendar, and a web browser.

(more…)

ABC restored to NYC Cablevision subscribers

A deal has been reached, and ABC is back on in New York City for Cablevision subscribers. As a result, New Yorkers only missed the first 13 minutes of the Oscars (I can inform them they didn’t miss much). Earlier on Sunday, ABC pulled its New York affiliate, WABC-TV from Cablevision in a fight over retransmission fees. Cablevision had been refusing to pay ABC for carriage, saying it was already paying ABC parent company $200 million for other Disney channels, such as ESPN. The terms of the deal have not been disclosed. But differing accounts have Cablevision paying anywhere from 27 to 65 cents per customer per month. (Disney had asked for $1.) Writes today’s LA Times:

“Rebecca Campbell, general manager of Disney’s WABC-TV in New York, said in a statement that the agreement “recognizes the fair value” for carriage of the station on Cablevision’s systems, although “deal points” had yet to be finalized.

“Cablevision executive Charles Schueler said the deal was “fair to our customers” and “in line with our other programming agreements.”

So who’s the winner? You’d have to give this one to Disney, whose gambit left viewers in the cold but earned the company some big added revenue.

IB CEO David Lebow: The Lost Remote Interview

David Lebow

ABC pulls signal from Cablevision in NYC

Just hours before the Oscars are set to begin, ABC has pulled its affiliate, WABC, off Cablevision in New York City. ABC parent company Disney and Cablevision are in a dispute over how much money Cablevision should pay. Three million New Yorkers are affected by the move. Disney wants Cablevision to pay $1 per month for each subscriber, according to an analyst. Both sides are blaming the other. Rebecca Campbell, President and General Manager of WABC issued a statement in which she said:

“Cablevision has once again betrayed its subscribers by losing ABC7, the most popular station in the tri-state area. This follows two years of negotiations, during which we worked diligently, up to the final moments, to reach an agreement. Cablevision pocketed almost $8 billion last year, and now customers aren’t getting what they pay for — again.”

Over on its website, Cablevision says it “… has asked ABC to continue delivering WABC-7 while we negotiate, but instead ABC is holding Cablevision customers hostage by pulling its programming.”

All of this leaves customers in the dark on the eve of one of the highest-rated programs of the year. WABC is still available over-the-air for free, so look to see if there’s a rush on antennas and converter boxes today.

UPDATE: WABC-TV makes new offer to Cablevision

Notes: Iraq election, NYC bloggers, UK Hyperlocal

Noted, while wondering why I wake up earlier on Sundays than any other day of the week…

Notes: Microsoft Tab, ShatnerSpace, YT Captions

Noted, after watching “Alice in Wonderland” and giving it a C…

Lessons to learn: how the iPad will impact local media

With news that Apple’s iPad will go on sale in less than a month, it’s time to get serious about sizing up the opportunity this new device presents to local media companies. There are more questions than answers at this point, with regard to the device’s overall impact, not just what it might do to local media. But there has been no shortage of optimism surrounding the potential this new form factor presents, especially for publishers. Brian Burke, director of mobile devices for Smashing Ideas, recently observed that the iPad will deliver a richer experience than web or mobile currently can, because of the video and interactivity. The lesson here: Print publishers need to look beyond the larger layout and hold-in-your-hands quality that reminds some of a magazine.

“These industries should take full advantage of this,” Burke wrote in a guest post on Techflash. “They’ve invested in their websites, but if those are falling flat (and for many they are), bring people back to the familiarity of having their publications in their hands with interactivity that serves a purpose.”

Advertising, of course, is the area where publishers would really like to see the iPad excel. Apple Insider reported that Apple is hiring a “Senior Interactive Web Developer” in Boston to develop a front-end Web user interface for the “development of compelling, interactive digital advertising experiences.” The lesson here: don’t make the mistake of forcing your already bloated web design, with its abundance of under-performing banner ads cluttering the layout, onto this new 9.7-inch screen. Take the opportunity to rethink how you display (and price and sell) local display ads online. Take a less is more approach and offer exclusivity  to your early adopter customers, trumpeting the prestige factor of appearing on this new buzzworthy device. (more…)

Location-based games for foodies and photogs

The Location-Based Frenzy

The buzz around location-based gaming is electric. New applications and companies are popping up daily to get in on the craze. Dennis Crowley, one of the founders of Foursquare, often notes in interviews that “…check-in functionality is going to become a commodity.”

Crowley’s statement isn’t meant to deter people from entering the location-based space. As one of the sector’s pioneers, he sees the enormous growth potential of the technology. He, however, realizes that such optimism must be tempered against a continued focus on location-based applications that deliver utility, value, and entertainment. You need to give people a compelling reason to “check-in.”

It’s in this mold that location-based games designed for specific market sectors are emerging. While current LBS market leaders Foursquare, Gowalla, and MyTown stretch across various aspects of users’ lives, targeted applications have the opportunity to catch hold, and spread like wildfire, across tightly defined social groups.

Location-Based Games for Foodies and Photogs

As a card carrying member of the league of foodies, I can attest to the passion that people can have for food. When my foodie brethren and I experience a great meal, we are compelled to share details of it with others. It comes as no surprise that mobile developers would look to activate this vibrant group. Even in the shadow of  services like Foursquare and Yelp, which have strong ties to dining check-ins and restaurant reviews (Foursquare has a content partnership with Zagat),  new location-based mobile applications are being developed around the food and restaurant industries.

(more…)

Notes: ProPublica, CNC, WaPo’s $1.99 app

Who’s tops on Twitter in local TV?

We all know that local TV loves its Twitter. Since there’s no easy way to search for the answer, we’ll just throw it out in the form of a question: Which local TV sites and anchor/reporters have the most followers on Twitter? For example, Jenni Hogan, a traffic anchor at KIRO-TV, has 15,500 followers.

Sure, it’s a bit of a popularity contest, and follower counts aren’t everything, but we thought it would be interesting to provide a “top ten” list of local TV on Twitter. Tip us with some ideas in comments below or drop us a note on Twitter. When the list is ready, we’ll send it out on Twitter, of course, so make sure you’re following @lostremote. (Shameless!)

No, we’re not forgetting Facebook — that’s coming up next.

Huffington Post may reconsider local expansion

The Huffington Post first launched a local vertical in Chicago in August 2008, and since then it’s expanded slowly into New York, Los Angeles and Denver. Always billed an experiment, Arianna Huffington says she’s not sure where local will go next, reports All Things D. “This year [we] have prioritized launching other sections, which has been a great decision,” she said, adding that HuffPo may launch more local sites, or partner with other sites instead. We’ll keep you updated…