VC Investment in NY 2013 1Q more than doubles from 2012 1Q, to $715 million, according to CB Insights.
Pew State of the Media 2013 Infographic
Source: The Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism: http://stateofthemedia.org/2013/overview-5/overview-infographic/
Paper is not Dead
A digital only world? Is paper dieing? Check out this 30-second spot “Emma” from Leo Burnett for Le Trèfle: http://vimeo.com/61275290
Using Location to Book Local SMB Services
Location is a key factor in booking local SMB services, and these transaction will increasingly move from offline to online. Streetfight profiles today 6 early stage companies pursuing this vision.
- MyTime takes up to 40% of bookings made through its platform, focusing on filling up slow times of the day for merchants.
- ClubLocal takes 20-30% of bookings, and pre-screens merchants before listing.
- Booker is appointment scheduling software.
- YourMechanic books auto mechanics to come to your driveway.
- Thumbtack is a bidding platform for homeowners to get help with local handyman
- Redbeacon, now owned by Home Depot, is a booking platform for all those workmen in overalls in Home Depot every day to get jobs with consumers who need help.
More here.
Clark Gilbert’s New Math
Deseret Digital CEO Clark Gilbert, at the Borrell conference this week, laid down the gauntlet in new metrics for newspaper companies:
Illustration from cityweekly.net
- Media companies should get 25% of their total ad revenue from digital.
- 45% of revenue should come from “digital services,” including e-commerce. {side note: check out 72Lux and WSJSelect for some new developments}.
- Clark said McClatchy Co. is over 20% of ad revenues from digital, The New York Times is over 30%, and Gannett Co. was 33%.
More here: http://www.netnewscheck.com/article/24805/deseret-throws-down-digital-gauntlet-nos
A Yodle IPO in 2013?
Yodle, the leading Silicon Alley-based digital marketing platform for small businesses, is “strongly considering” an IPO, according to CEO Court Cunningham, as reported by Street Fight.
Yodle is profitable and generating over $130 million in revenue annually, Cunningham said recently.
Yodle bought Atlanta-based Lighthouse 360, it was reported today. Lighthouse 360 has built an advanced customer relationship management (CRM) system for dental offices which reportedly does a terrific job integrating all those systems in a dentist’s office. Yodle plans to expand the technology each of its 30 verticals.
Read our 2012 Yodle post here.
Some other metrics of note.
- ReachLocal is at a run rate of $430 million annual revenues, with 22,000 clients, which works out to almost $20k per client per year.
- Yodle has $130 million annual revenues, and 30,000 mostly smaller clients with an average of $4k per client per year.
ReachLocal stock closed today at $13.50, up more than 2x in 14 months.
Update: March 7
A Yodle source gave me some other revenue numbers, expecting 35% growth this year.
2011: $75 million
2012: $130 million
2013F: $175 million.
Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator Summer 2013 Class
Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator has a great offer to NYC entrepreneurs. Start-ups get $40,000 in cash (increased from $25,000), office space for 4-months, and access to 200+ amazing mentors from the start-up community.
ERA’s summer 2013 class starts on June 3, 2013, and runs to September 20, 2013
The deadline for early applications is March 7, 2013, at midnight EST.
To apply: http://eranyc.com/apply/.
If you’d like to see a list of the current ERA class, click here.
SMB: A New $2 Billion Business for Newspapers?
Selling digital marketing services to 27 million small businesses (SMBs) could become a $2 billion new business by 2016 for newspaper companies, according to Ken Doctor.
Some benchmarks:
- ReachLocal, with $430 million in most recent 12-month revenue.
- Hearst’s LocalEdge, a reincarnation of its Buffalo yellow pages business, with 1,000+ full-time salespeople. Customers include the Minneapolis Star Tribune (Radius, averaging client paying $426 per month), and the Dallas Morning News (508 Digital), Morris Communications, Wehco Media, Newsday, and the New York Daily New
- Dallas Morning News Speakeasy, a 12-person start-up, with an average client paying $3,600 per month.
- Buffalo News and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, using Guarantee Digital.
- Tribune 435, focusing on $10,000+ per month clients.
- Vocalize Mobile, an early-stage company now in 60 markets.
Ken Doctor’s well-researched piece is here.
With ad revenue dropping by more than half in 5 years, to $22 billion, the $2 billion could make up barely 6 months of average industry ad revenue declines.
This is Digital First, at the Financial Times
Based on the calculations below, for the Financial Times, digital leads print in
- Paid subscribers
- Total Revenues
- Revenue per subscriber.
“The number of readers subscribing to FT.com increased 18% in the year to 31 December 2012 to almost 316,000, bringing the total circulation of the Financial Times to 602,000. It said 15% of these subscriptions had come from mobile which accounts for 30% of all traffic.” Source of quote: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2013/feb/25/pearson-ft-sale-digital-subscriptions
Digital Revenues:
316,000 @ $446/year is $141 million from digital
Print Revenues:
286,000 @$339/year is $97 million from print.
Digital revenues are 59% of total revenues, excluding any impact of discounting or single copy sales.
This is digital first.
Is Hyperlocal Dieing?
Hyperlocal journalism took two big hits this week.
First, NBC closed EveryBlock, a pioneer in the emerging field of data journalism that started with $1.1 million in funding from the Knight Foundation in 2007 before being acquired by msnbc.com in 2009. Everyblock was innovative in bring highly community data-driven, with open data and custom maps. The original open-source code is actually still available. I don’t have the facts to know if EveryBlock can truly be viewed as a failed experiment in hyperlocal journalism, or if fell victim to the legacy of the General Electric cost-cutting knife, as new management at NBC, the former GE subsidiary, gained control of the site last summer.
And, second, AOL admitted what most observers expected, which is that its hyperlocal news network Patch will miss its ambitious revenue prediction of as much as $50 million in 2012 revenue, with only $34 million in 2012 revenue. AOL reportedly lost $100 million on Patch in 2011, a number which they denied. And so the cost cutting axe will be falling on Patch since AOL CEO Tim Armstrong is committed to bring Patch to profitability by the fourth quarter of 2013.
The right formula for sustainably profitable hyperlocal journalism is still elusive. The search, however, is far from over.