i am victorious

Seeding New Local Content

This post originally appeared on 2/5/10 in PaidContent as a guest article titled “Some New Ways To Make Money on Local”

Most companies working on solving “local” have so far focused on ways to provide more and better-targeted local news. But by defining “news” in such a narrow and traditional way, they all face two big problems: the high cost of content production and the lack of contextually relevant advertisers.

There are great opportunities for entrepreneurs to mine a slew of non-“news” content, in areas ranging from local job opportunities to neighborhood safety, that has potentially huge appeal for both local readers and advertisers. It’s not that no one is trying to do this already. A recent report by the American Society of News Editors, for example, looks at some of the efforts by local newspapers to branch out into new areas of coverage using data that is locally available but that has been all-but ignored until now.

But there are still plenty of content areas where lots more could be done. So how to find them?

The most obvious places to start would be monitoring Google search trends for a local area, the local blogs via Outside.in, and tweets filtered by location (e.g. Twitter’s local trending service). While these locally focused resources can provide leads to what a particular community cares about in the moment, they fall short in offering a steady stream of content ideas.

A more promising, but untapped, source for locally relevant content is now available thanks to the rise of data aggregators for specific verticals. You can easily imagine coupling, say, content about local real-estate trends with relevant advertisers like real-estate agents and even local political campaigns. Here are some possible scenarios that demonstrate how companies could generate new local content cost-effectively by simply monitoring and curating data that is already readily obtainable.

1) Safety: Companies like SeeClickFix are creating data around issues in the community like potholes and poor lighting. Journalists and others can use this data to spot and comment on trends like growing pockets of criminal activity or neighborhoods neglected by the city. Until now, this information has not been easy to gather, analyze and report.

2) Jobs: With unemployment at the top of the nation’s worry list, there is surprisingly little local effort to examine employment trends. Simple analysis across existing employment sites could yield interesting and surprising figures about which industries are doing well locally and where the jobs are. Month-to-month analysis of job-listing volume could produce a simple employment index to show whether hiring is going up or down. It could also include business-license application monitoring through a service like EveryBlock.

3) Autos: You could track the volume of listings across auto sites and provide some basic data breakdown. How useful would it be to know when local used-car dealerships have a large increase in inventory (and thus are probably more willing to sell at a lower price)? Other data like new-car listings could show what the local population is buying by examining what is posted and taken down by the dealers. Publishers can even create new content by encouraging users to input data about what sorts of deals and treatment they got, which would be useful for other local buyers and could be turned into a local car-buying guide.

4) Real Estate: Many real-estate portals make their residential data available through APIs.  It’s surprising that more content isn’t produced around neighborhood trends, or even how well specific residential real-estate agents are performing. Right now, print publications showcase a handful of recent transactions, whereas online, every recent sale could be captured and analyzed to reveal important trends that would have real value for readers.

New-apartment developments rarely get spotlighted or scrutinized –wouldn’t it be interesting to see occupancy rates and overall rent trends?  This data could be gathered over the phone or even through user responses. Some enterprising web developer may already have created an app that captures this info. Curbed, in New York, already produces content like this and has been very successful.

These are just some ideas of how the thousands of local publishers – traditional and new – can make use of data that’s there for the taking, waiting to be collected, reported and monetized. Local isn’t just about breaking news; it’s also about what’s trending over time. Local content is always there just waiting to be produced.

New Frontier: mashing up public domain and new content

As a throwback to my childhood, I watched Justice League: New Frontier on Netflix Streaming the other night.  Something about super hero epics is so appealing — could be the simple good versus evil and clear solutions that exist in the comic world which don’t necessarily reveal themselves in the real world so easily.

However, what really struck me was the very end where the creators took excerpts from JFK’s Presidential Nomination Acceptance Speech.  It has to be one of the most creative mashups of public domain creatives with new original content production.  They selectively excerpted parts of the speech and recombined elements to make something applicable to the video.  It also happens to be inspiring:

The pioneers of old gave up their safety, their comfort and sometimes their own lives to build a new world here in the West.  They were determined to make that new world strong and free, an example to the world.  Some would say that those struggles are all over – that all the horizons have been explored – that all the battles have been won – that there is no longer an American frontier.  We stand today on the edge of a New Frontier,  the frontier of unknown opportunities and perils.  Beyond that frontier are the uncharted areas of science and space, unsolved problems of peace and war, unconquered pockets of ignorance and prejudice.

I am asking each of you to be pioneers towards that New Frontier. My call is to the young in heart, regardless of age.

Can we carry through in an age where we will witness not only new breakthroughs in weapons of destruction, but also a race for mastery of the sky and the rain, the ocean and the tides, the far side of space and the inside of men’s minds?

All mankind waits upon our decision. A whole world looks to see what we will do. We cannot fail their trust, we cannot fail to try.

Cost of Taking Money from Consumers

Google may be risking its reputation with the Nexus One phone.  Reports are showing up indicating customers are directing their support questions to Google now instead of the carriers who typically handle customer service. 

Not many consumers like their customer service experience in general — phone calls can be a frustrating experience and email-only support can leave people feeling helpless.  Customer service nightmares can tarnish a company’s reputation as consumers tell others about their experience.

This is why until now Google has enjoyed enviable brand loyalty and love.  Nobody pays anything for Google Search, Maps, Gmail, etc.  No one can really complain too much when a free service goes down for a few hours a year.  Everyone had been getting tremendous value for no cost and the relationship was perfect.

Now that money is involved, consumers need to be heard.  I’m not sure there are algorithmns that will substitute well for a person on the other end appearing sympathetic to your issue and willing to resolve it. 

It will be interesting to see how Google responds to the growing volume of consumers paying it money and the issues that come with it.  If they can’t handle customer service, expect their $100 Billion brand to decline.