New Apple TV features TV show rentals

As expected, Steve Jobs took the wraps off the new $99 Apple TV today as his “one more thing.” Admitting that it’s “never been a huge hit,” Jobs announced that the new unit features TV show rentals from Fox and ABC for 99 cents each — a new development that local TV affiliates are [...]

A look at Miami Herald’s hyperlocal approach

The Miami Herald is one of the five newspapers part of J-Lab’s Networked Journalism Project, and compared to the other papers, the Herald is taking a different approach to community coverage with West Kendall Today. The site is hosted on MiamiHerald.com as part of its community news network, and it’s authored by Ana [...]

Trying to distinguish hyperlocal from local

I sent a snarky tweet earlier this week about my frustration with the increasing trend of journalists labeling everything local with the term “hyperlocal.” Hyperlocal is certainly more hip than “local” these days and perhaps more “bankable” as well, so that explains a lot of it. But what’s the real difference between the two?
Instead [...]

Yahoo preparing local content efforts

Update: Yahoo is looking to hire local editors in San Jose, Chicago and Dallas — in addition to San Francisco and New York, reports PaidContent.
Even MORE competition in local news? It looks like it. Fresh off its acquisition of Associated Content, Yahoo is reaching out to find “writers living in or near the [...]

Borrell predicts strong local advertising growth

Borrell Associates has published its online advertising forecast for 2011, and as you might expect, it predicts continued strong growth in local. “The fastest-growing segments of online advertising are the local sector, anything targeted, and everything involving social media,” Borrell explains, pinning the local growth at 18 percent next year, to $16.1 billion.
“The big [...]

PaperG signs more local media partners

The local self-serve platform PaperG, which features a virtual bulletin board ad unit called “Flyerboard,” has signed on a bunch more local media partners: Los Angeles Times, MediaNews Group, Lee Enterprises, and the Sun Times Media Group. That puts PaperG on over 100 sites and a rather steep growth curve. Reports TechCrunch:
“The Houston [...]

Apple’s upcoming iTV and local television

Under the headline, “Why the Apple iTV will change everything,” Digg’s Kevin Rose posted a glowing forecast of the next-generation Apple TV device, which is due out as early as next month. Rose said it will likely have an app store that’s similar to the iPhone/iPad, which means you could punch up your ABC [...]

Foursquare preps new features, links coming?

Now that Facebook Places has launched, Foursquare co-founder Dennis Crowley is getting bombarded by questions asking if he’s going to get, well, “crushed.” The answer (which is “no,” of course) reveals hints about upcoming Foursquare features, some of which are rolling out in a new app version in the next couple weeks. Reports [...]

Gannett to roll out hyperlocal sports pages

Earlier this year, Gannett announced a deal with Datasphere to launch neighborhood blog networks in ten of its local markets. Now the media company says it’s expanding its hyperlocal push with plans to roll out “co-branded high school sports microsites across its network of more than 100 local media web sites.”

“We are combining the [...]

Facebook unveils local ‘Places’ feature

Updated: After many months of work, Facebook announced its “Places” functionality at a press conference this evening. The feature will begin to roll out immediately with a new iPhone app and Touch.Facebook.com for advanced mobile browsers.
At the core of the new product, users can check into locations represented by new “place pages” on Facebook. [...]

ESPN launches local sports apps

To correspond with its five (so far) local sites, ESPN has just rolled out apps for Boston, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Dallas.

Similar to the sites, the apps feature the local SportsCenter videos, team blogs, scores, schedules, local stadium information and weather reports.

Ning switches to paid accounts this Friday

A fair number of neighborhood news communities are powered by Ning — like this one — and as scheduled, the build-your-own social networking service will switch to a paid-only model this Friday. While Ning has been growing steadily, it’s been struggling financially, laying off 42 percent of its staff in April.

It offers three [...]

TBD.com mulls its options with Patch

TBD.com launched this week in DC, and today Patch debuted its first Virginia site, RestonPatch, with three more on the way. Patch also has two new sites in Maryland, and it’s preparing to launch in Georgetown in DC (which would be, by the way, the first neighborhood-level Patch site I’ve seen).
“We have talked with [...]

Former TV anchor lands $1 million for local startup

Former Twin Cities anchor Rick Kupchella has just completed a $1 million round of funding for BringMeTheNews.com, a local news aggregator in Minneapolis with a radio arm.

“This investment and partnership offered by The Dolan Company and Padilla Speer Beardsley will help us grow BringMeTheNews further and faster,” said Kupchella in a press release. “We expect [...]

Facebook seeing green with self-serve ads

As we’ve written about many times here on Lost Remote, Facebook is a huge new player in the local advertising space. And today, a research company says Facebook is seeing a big jump in self-serve advertising.
“We believe it accounted for about half of all ad spending on Facebook,” eMarketer senior analyst Debra [...]

Newsday doubles down on coverage as Patch arrives

With Patch launching several sites in Long Island towns, Newsday is hiring 37 people to beef up its local coverage. The new positions include reporters, community journalists, a social media moderator and a community editor.

“Many initiatives will increase town and local coverage in print and provide our online audience with more updates [...]

Local TV news that tries to be like the web

There’s been a lot … written … about plans to debut an anchorless newscast at KIAH-TV in Houston — Tribune’s first foray into an experimental local news style at a low-rated station with nothing to lose.
While I applaud aggressive experimentation in a business that has barely changed in 40 years, the format works too hard [...]

Location services to ‘devastate local media’

As rumored for what feels like the last decade, Facebook will launch its geolocation feature “within weeks,” according to a CNET report:
It’s going to take the form of an application programming interface (API) for third-party companies on the Facebook developer platform, integrating existing “check-in” start-ups more deeply into the massive social-networking service and in turn [...]

Is TV a better partner for local online news?

Our friend @donlday spotted this paragraph in a Poynter story about the launch of TBD.com by Allbritton, which combines the online presence of its local TV station and cable news network into an aggressive new website:
[TBD GM Jim Brady] said he thinks the partnership will work because the DNA of a television station is closer [...]

TBD debuts with no new ideas, but real action

Journalists love to talk. And over the last few days, they’ve been talking a lot about TBD.com, a new local news site from Allbritton that launched today in Washington DC.

On many levels, TBD is worth talking about. It’s the first aggressive effort in local TV circles to compete in a new [...]