

OwnLocal (YC W10) makes newspapers money with Web 2.0 tools - lloydarmbrust
http://thenextweb.com/apps/2011/04/05/ownlocal-is-cleverly-making-old-newspapers-money-with-white-label-products-and-web-2-0-makeovers/

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jasongullickson
_“In rural America, small businesses would rather the Internet didn’t exist,
but it does."_

This is the sort of generalization that leads to countless missed
opportunities in the largest parts of America. Aside from the obvious
advantages of nearly instantaneous electronic delivery and communication to
businesses separated from customers by greater geographic distances, rural
communities have a history for adopting technology faster than urban centers;
they just don't make as big of a deal out of it.

If you want to see an example of this, visit a farming expo; those guys have
had GPS in tractors years before you had it in your car and they have more
robotics and telepresence than the majority of "modern" urban offices.

~~~
lloydarmbrust
Yeah, farmers are really good about adopting this technology because they have
to--the competition is fierce in farming and the industry is constantly
challenged to do more with less.

Contrast that to the tire shop who fixes the farmers' tires, or the local
florist and they will likely not have a computer in their store.

We're not going after farmers (yet) since they don't need websites or lead
generation; however, the other businesses in their communities do.

------
acangiano
There is a huge opportunity for startups that manage to bring small businesses
to the web. It's a large, virtually untapped market.

~~~
hariis
Can you elaborate a bit? What kind of small businesses are you thinking?

~~~
InclinedPlane
A lot of brick and mortar "mom and pop" stores have practically no presence on
the web outside of a yelp page.

~~~
thwarted
It is interesting that major brands, rather than mom-and-pop brick-and-
mortars, have latched on to advertising and creating brand/business pages on
Facebook so strongly.

~~~
retube
Not really. It's major brands, by definition, that spend a lot of time
investing in and developing their new media presence.

~~~
thwarted
But the barrier to entry to having a presence on Facebook, vs their own
website, is so much lower.

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brandnewlow
Lloyd, I wish you guys the best of luck. Quick question: Why'd you change your
name to something that's just a few letters different from your main
competitor? I think OwnLocal is a better name than Seeing Interactive, but
it's awfully close to ReachLocal.

~~~
rgrieselhuber
Wouldn't [anything]Local be awfully close to ReachLocal? I don't see any
particular reason why they should avoid the word "local" just because a
competitor uses it.

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sequoia
This looks pretty neat; I am unclear about one thing tho: Reading the TNW
article, I got the impression that OwnLocal would help local papers with their
web presence, social media blogging, all that, and I assumed a news publishing
platform (I think I was way off here) as well as ad sales and generating
revenue on the web.

When I visited the site, I saw only ad-related products. Am I missing
something, or did I misread that article (perhaps it is just an ad company). I
salute your effort to assist local papers either way, they can use all the
help they can get, but I wonder: is this a newspaper publishing platform, or
mainly an ad platform?

unrelated note: <http://ownlocal.com/products/local-hero/> lightboxes aren't
working in the "screnshots" section (osx.6 ff4, chromium).

~~~
jeremymims
In a nutshell, we're a one-stop shop for small businesses to get online. We
work with small business customers through their existing long-time
relationships with local groups and publications.

~~~
sequoia
I think I understand now: it's a company that helps small media companies make
money advertising on the web; nothing to do with journalism. I was waaay off,
thank you. :)

~~~
jeremymims
The biggest problem with journalism right now is how to pay for it. We help
solve that problem.

(As a side note, it works really well for bigger media companies too.)

------
shawndrost
Typo on <http://ownlocal.com/products/web-builder/> : "wantt"

~~~
lloydarmbrust
Fixed. Thanks.

------
hariis
How saturated is this market? Is there room for more? Are there niches?

~~~
bradleyland
Interestingly, this topic comes up fairly frequently on HN. Any time an
article mentions local web presence, the conversation shifts to how much local
business websites suck. It appears that OwnLocal has set their sights on this
market.

> How saturated is this market?

There are plenty of local development shops, but the quality and value varies
greatly. On one end, you've got your "brother's, cousin's, best friend" who
designs websites on weekends using FrontPage 2003. On the other end, you've
got seasoned web developers who would prefer to focus on larger, national
clients, because local clients don't have the budget to do a web presence
correctly. In order to sell to this market, you need a refined "product", not
ad hoc development. So from that perspective, I'd say the market is not
terribly saturated. It depends on how broadly you define the market.

> Is there room for more?

In my view, yes, absolutely.

>Are there niches?

Every category of small business has its own set of needs. Professional
services (attorneys and accountants), food and dining, healthcare
professionals, auto repair... name a service, and you could consider it a
niche.

~~~
lloydarmbrust
Exactly. We want to commoditize this industry.

~~~
bradleyland
I don't know much about you guys, but I'm really pleased that you made it in
to Y Combinator. So many people like to sit around and jaw about this problem,
but few are tackling it. Best of luck!

