For Small Businesses - Easier PR, A New Local Directory Model, and More

**There's a new channel for small busines PR. I can't vouch for them, but it's a good pitch. I quote right from their Web site:
Welcome to PRNewsChannel: The first and only news distribution channel created by journalists with small businesses in mind. PRNewsChannel offers unparalleled customer service at a reasonable price... And we offer FREE Search Engine Optimization (SEO) of your press release.


**Peter Krasilovsky has a blog post about the local 411 partnership between Say Hello and the Florida Times Union. This is a potentially mighty model, with its strong local promotion, local identity, plus built-in local sales and content.It has all the elements that Google and Yahoo -- and every other national dot com -- work so hard to line up with their local products. Definitely worth checking out Peter's post and watching the product to see where it launches next.

**Ken Doctor has a blog post about the Santa Cruz Sentinel, and the gutting of an integrated local presence in the name of economics. It is an intelligent presentation of what is happening with local newspapers, and one that everyone involved in local marketing should care about.

**Saw a press release from Orange Soda saying they are "a marketing and technology company that empowers businesses with smaller advertising budgets to maximize their online presence." Awful copywriting but I figured, hmmm, agency that specializes in small budgets....and I emailed and asked if they had a blog. They do have one, and it looks like a treasure of information: http://blog.onlineinlocal.com/


**The new Veronis Suhler Stevenson research on media is in, and more info is available here.

Some of their conculusions: 1) consumer media usage will level off; 2) there are strong gains in alternative advertising, marketing, and institutional spending; 3) consumer media usage dipped but institutional time spent with media increased 4) overall communications spending is projected to grow 6.4% in 2007, exceed $1 trillion in 2008, and Internet advertising is expected to become the largest ad segment in 2011, surpassing newspapers.


The bit about surpassing newspapers grabbed most of the headlines, but the other info is important for local marketers also.

New York Times Pairs With JetBlue

DM News reports on the partnership between JetBlue Airways Corp. and The New York Times to offer Times On Air, a new in-flight video magazine featuring content from the newspaper’s TimesTalks events, as well as original articles and multimedia from NYTimes.com.

The in-air exclusive programming is sponsored by the JetBlue Card from American Express, and JetBlue is in turn the official airline of TimesTalks events. The programming, which will be updated monthly, covers lifestyle topics such as travel, style, dining, arts, business and technology.

OK, this isn't strictly local marketing, but it is a great example of the type of promotion every business should be looking to implement. Peter Krasilovsky gave another good idea for cross promotion awhile back. Local marketing needs to be all about creativity.

Times On Air can be viewed at www.jetblue.com/timesonair.