David Castello, COO of Castello Cities Internet, Inc., spoke at the nascent GeoDomain Publishers conference about the future of city.com sites. This interview fleshes out his own plans to build out Nashville.com and his thoughts on partnerships with local media. more

Local media companies play to their strengths by selecting initiatives they are largely already staffed for and competent to execute. But this workable approach sometimes creates tactical thinking, rather than strategy. The first question when addressing a franchise opportunity - such as wedding services - is strategic. Here's how to ROI the opportunities. more

This is a good time of year to be thinking about 2012 - and about 2015 and 2020. The variety of new business models to keep larger local media companies profitable and competetitive is still forming - and reforming. This week's case study on NewOrleans.com explores one business model that most local media do not think about: Travel products. Other emerging strategies include marketing tools and services that go beyond traditional advertising. more

Just before the year ended we attended the 2010 Interactive Local Media conference put on by BIA-Kelsey. As usual the heavy focus on search-type businesses yielded some surprising insights and a variety of new models. Here are several models that go beyond the standard IYP up-sell. more

Last week we recommended a quick ten question survey of advertisers - and this week, we got back some results. One thing is clear: this week's case study, a SoloMo package "gets it right." Merchants want digital marketing - not just advertising. more

One of the most interesting books I've read lately is "The New How" by Nilofer Merchant. She contends how strategy is made now only affects the execution but is, intrinsically, part of execution. Typically decisions to solve important problems are made at the top, then leaders have to explain the new initiatives to the staff who have to execute. For local media executives, this means not only explaining, but inspiring, coaxing, training, ordering, building alliances and so on, that is today a normal function of leadership required to transform companies to new business models. Mechant contends that top down initiatives naturally create an "air sandwich," ie pockets of resistance from middle managers and other teams who are "just not that into it." more

As 2011 draws to a close, attention tends to focus in around concrete plans and budgets. Here are three larger questions that are harder to tackle mid-year, when budgets and plans have already been … more