Digital media is more cannibalistic than complementary and is seriously eating into the demand for traditional news sources such as newspapers, TV and news magazines, according to the third annual survey of news users done by Outsell Inc.
The survey findings are based on almost 3,000 consumers and are fully detailed in Outsell’s “News Users 2009” …

Lots of talk today about a BusinessWeek article that reports Apple is in talks with Microsoft to replace Google as the default search provider on the iPhone. This results from the growing turf battle between the two mobile heavyweights.
What is at stake here is the default Google search bar and button within the Safari Web …

A legal battle over which law firm gets access to the outside back cover ad of the Baltimore SuperMedia Yellow Pages directory underscores that print Yellow Pages ads can still produce a return on investment worth fighting over.
According to a report in the Baltimore legal publication The Daily Record (subscription required), the dispute arose when …

Norwegian browser maker Opera Software today announced it will acquire mobile ad exchange AdMarvel for what TechCrunch is reporting to be $8 million in cash plus a $15 million earnout.
As an ad exchange, AdMarvel has transparency across many ad networks and platforms. This is a technology that can provide Opera with analytics that aide in …

G5 Search Marketing has broadened its vertical focus beyond self storage and now also serves senior housing, multi-family and student housing with its search services. All are aimed at “mid-market” players.
The company reports that its client base has grown more than 80 percent in the past year, and it now serves nearly 2,000 client locations …

Serial Web entrepreneur Mark H. Goldstein  has been the founder of such sites as Kmart’s BlueLight and Impulse Buy. More recently, he invested in green ecology-based ventures, but he grew bored and came back to ecommerce with Loyalty Lab and  Home-Account.com, which matched homeowners with mortgage brokers, competing with the likes of LendingTree , Bankrate.com …

In what is an ongoing humanitarian and mobile story, mobile donations made to Haiti earthquake aftermath relief have exceeded $22 million.
This has been a quickly accelerating total, as news reports mid-last week were boasting $7 million. More importantly, the $22 million now represents about 10 percent of the overall total donations, mostly acquired through traditional means.
Ten percent …

Germany’s Kennst Du Einen, an SEO site that helps local businesses get top search rankings and collect recommendations in the mode of Yelp and ReachLocal, says its run rate reached the 1 million euro mark level in 4Q 2009. That translates to $1.44 million, or almost $5.8 million a year (if every quarter were the …

MerchantCircle has registered its millionth SMB, Nassau Avenue Nails of Islip, NY. Owner Danielle Biegler found out about MerchantCircle after searching for other local businesses nearby, and will receive a lifetime MerchantCircle tools, cool MerchantCircle gear and a new sign.
The million number represents roughly 6.7 percent of U.S. SMBs. It may not mean much in …

Rumors have been flying that Google is poised to buy Trulia, “the real estate search engine” that competes with, among others, Zillow (which just said it is aiming to IPO in 2011).
But according to reports by attendees, no information was forthcoming at Inman’s 2010 Real Estate Connect conference in NYC, where Google Director of Local …

Sears is loath to invest in its physical stores but has built a collection of “shop your way” online and mobile services as a high margin substitute, according to an article on WSJ.com. The article notes that Sears’ e-commerce division boasts 180 employees, and has boosted its revenues by “double digits” in the past two …

Three years ago, BIA/Kelsey created the Marketplaces research program and conference because we saw that local advertising was quickly “verticalizing.” Indeed, money and talent have poured in for the new breed of vertical products that would take their place among existing vertical success stories, such as AutoTrader, Cars.com, Realtor.com and ServiceMagic.
The Marketplaces 2010 conference reveals …

We’re hearing a lot about Google’s Nexus One, failed expectations and enraged customers.
Complaints have reverberated throughout the blogosphere that Google’s direct-to-consumer approach leaves many Nexus One owners without the ability to see and handle the device before purchasing. Worse is the lack of customer support.
These are legitimate complaints. But let’s not forget that Google deserves …

Yell.com has decided to forgo partnering on maps with Google, Microsoft or other potential competitors in favor of building its own propriety map product. The U.K.’s largest directory publisher unveiled a beta version of the Yell Maps product this week.
Yell is positioning its map product as designed for the specific purpose of finding local businesses. …

There’s been lots of talk about how the newly minted SuperMedia (formerly Idearc) is repositioning itself as it emerges from bankruptcy. Some of this is about branding but a great deal of it also involves the longstanding evolution of how it sells media at the local level.
Part of this overall strategy will involve mobile, as …

As we enter the smartphone generation, directory listings may only be a starting point for consumer information needs. In terms of revenue opportunities, they may only be scratching the surface.
CallSpark, which calls itself the “call experience company,” seeks to take it up several notches via deep Web integration of directory listings, Web search, location information, …

By Tom Buono, CEO, BIA/Kelsey
John Kelsey, having sold The Kelsey Group a year ago to BIA, has stepped down from the company after helping us all with the transition.
John has been a remarkable force of innovation in the Yellow Pages industry. He anticipated the rise of electronic media and its impact on the Yellow Pages …

MSNBC.com’s EveryBlock is moving beyond its roots as a hard-core aggregator of hyperlocal data with its first social feature: “Notify Your Neighbors.” The feature, which has been tested for over a month, is similar to other sites, such as Rottenneighbor.com, a real estate tool discontinued in July 2009 that let people complain about barking dogs, …

Here is a recap of posts from last week, in case you missed any. Click below to read each post in full.
CitySquares Acquires Yokel, a Site for Local Retailers
CitySquares, an online city guide and directory company based in Boston, has acquired the assets of Yokel, which provides online retail services and maintains a database of two …

CitySquares, an online city guide and directory company based in Boston, has acquired the assets of Yokel, which provides online retail services and maintains a database of 2 million retailers. Terms weren’t disclosed. The combination should work well with CitySquares’ recent turn toward national/local operations.
Fees for Yokel, whose tagline is “all shopping, all local,” start …