Monthly Archives: December 2014

12 Million in November

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Customers In Busy Coffee ShopCombined the three GoLocal24 markets on the East and West Coast surpassed 12 million page views in November.

This number included GoLocal24’s newest market Portland, OR (GoLocalPDX.com) which launched in August of 2014.

For the two markets on the East Coast, the growth in pageviews from 2013 to 2014 was 95% year-over-year.

The growth overall including the new market was 210% growth across GoLocal24.

“We are excited by the tremendous growth – most folks in each of our communities see us as an important source of news and a tremendous way to connect in the community,” said Josh Fenton, CEO and Co-Founder of GoLocalProv.

 

GoLocal Wins Three Major Awards for Coverage of Issues of Diversity in 2014

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GoLocal Editor, Kate Nagle

GoLocal Editor, Kate Nagle

The NAACP Providence Branch awarded GoLocalProv’s News Reporter and Editor Kate Nagle the Ida B. Wells Award for her contributions in coverage of important stories facing Rhode Island’s minority community. The award was presented at the 101st Annual Dinner of the NAACP on Friday, October 24.

Previously this year, GoLocalProv won:

The Metcalf Award for Diversity in the Media that has been given yearly to honor outstanding journalism — and was awarded in 2014 to GoLocalProv.com for its coverage of the Davey Lopes swimming pool closure and the lack of recreational opportunities provided to Providence children.

The Fund for Community Progress honored community leader GoLocalProv in April. The digital media company was recognized for creating vital local news information that is free to the public. “Access to local news that is responsibly researched and investigated is critical to a democratic and participatory society,” said Sally Turner, Executive Director for the Fund. “We are especially proud to recognize a home-grown Rhode Island media company.”

GoLocal24 Announces Expansion to Portland, Oregon

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Digital Local Media Company Leverages East Coast Success

Providence, RI and Portland, OR – GoLocal24, a rapidly growing digital local news and information company, is expanding to the west coast, launching a new site this spring in Portland, Oregon.

GoLocal24, which serves mid-sized markets and is based in Providence, will launch its third news and lifestyle content platform with GoLocalPDX.com.

The company has been delivering news and information to Rhode Island consumers since the company was founded in 2010. The company launched GoLocalWorcester two years ago. Combined, the two platforms now deliver in excess of 7.5 million pageviews per month and just under 800,000 unique visitors monthly.

“In both Rhode Island and Central Massachusetts, we have quickly grown to be a leading source of enterprise local news content,” said Josh Fenton, Co-Founder and CEO at GoLocal24. “GoLocal is creating new ways to access vital news and information for citizens who want their local content delivered digitally.”

GoLocal24 is a privately held company and has attracted local investment from private investors in the Portland market.

Debi_Coleman2

Debi Coleman, Former CFO of Apple

“I am excited to be a part of GoLocalPDX entrance in the Portland market,” said Debi Coleman, an investor in GoLocalPDX and the former Chief Financial Officer at Apple. “Journalism is critical to a strong community and GoLocal’s innovative, collaborative and disruptive model aligns content with what users want and need.”

Merrill Brown, the founding Editor in Chief of MSNBC.com and the Director of the School of Communication and Media at Montclair State University, says GoLocal has an important opportunity in Portland. “Our company will be in a position to prove that our model works not only in East Coast markets but also in new cities like Portland, a vital cutting edge community that’s a national leader in technology, commerce and food, to name a few. The team at GoLocalPDX will serve the Portland population with great news coverage and will launch new products that will contribute to civic life and encourage civic engagement.” Brown serves on the Board of GoLocal24.

GoLocalPDX.com has begun to hire reporters and editors in the Portland market. The content is locally focused and the company does not aggregate third party sources or publish from news services.

“Portland is an amazing ecosystem – a community that is smart, digital and growing. The media is in a period of transition and we believe we have the opportunity to provide the community another option to read the most important investigative stories coupled with rich lifestyle coverage. GoLocalPDX will also be a vibrant place where diverse views will be embraced and Oregonians can share their strong points of view,” said Fenton.

“Since we launched GoLocalProv in 2010, we have had an absolute commitment to invest in high quality enterprise journalism. We have broken many of the biggest stories in Massachusetts and Rhode Island,” said Fenton, “We will continue to invest in local content – Portland has a rich history of great journalism.”

In the past year, GoLocal has realized multi-hundred percent growth in pageviews, unique visitors and revenue. GoLocal is becoming a part of the daily lives of the citizens of its two communities and is now realizing more than 300% year-over-year in pageview growth in Providence. GoLocal24 was profitable in 2013.

Investment bank Cambridge Pacific and the Ater Wynne law firm were both instrumental in the transaction.

GoLocal24 focuses on delivering the highest value local content – enterprise investigative stories, lifestyle, and local sports. GoLocal’s model highlights the work of many of the best journalists in the region and features top opinion writers including former Massachusetts Speaker of the House Tom Finneran, broadcast sports editors John Rooke and Scott Cordischi, Meteorologist John Ghiorse, Pulitzer Prize Winning Investigative Report Dean Starkman, and includes the work of more than 50 other reporters, editors, experts, and MINDSETTERS™.

Learn more about GoLocal24 www.golocal24.com

 

GoLocal and News Radio 920 Team Up for End of The Year

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Ron St. Pierre

News Radio 920’s Ron St. Pierre

Clear Channel’s News Radio 920 and GoLocalProv team up for end-of-the year review.

GoLocalProv’s Kate Nagle joins RI Hall of Famer Ron St. Pierre and his co-host Jen Brien to review the biggest news stories in Southern New England and across the nation in 2014.

This is third-year the two news organizations have teamed up for comprehensive end-of-the year review.

Every Day –  GoLocal Big Story of the Day

Each morning at 7:35 am during the height of drive time, GoLocal reporters and editors appear on air with the News Radio 920 team to discuss the biggest story of the day.

GoLocalPDX.com Announces “Portland’s 25 New Cool People”

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GoLocalPDX.com Announces “Portland’s 25 New Cool People”

Portland, OR — GoLocalPDX.com, an emerging local news and information web site focused on providing Portland and greater Oregon with high quality digital content, is recognizing “Portland’s 25 New Cool People.”

GoLocalPDX.com sought counsel from every corner of the community—including its contributors, “experts,” our staff, and community leaders.

The result of the selection process is an incredible and inspiring roster of women and men whose coolness is exhibited by the passion they bring to their life’s work. They are emerging leaders; they take forward a creative flair in everything they do, and perhaps above all, have that certain special quality that just lights up a room when they enter it.

“Portland is an incredible city and this list is some of our very best – this is a group that makes our city and the world better,” said Features Editor Byron Beck.

Did your favorite make the list? Did you?

On Monday GoLocalPDX.com will unveil the first five of the coolest people from Portland and Oregon. GoLocalPDX will feature five each day throughout the week of October 20th through the 24th.

GoLocalPDX is driven to deliver the highest value local content – enterprise investigative stories, top-flight lifestyle features and local sports supplied by the best journalists in the region. More than 50 reporters, editors, experts and MINDSETTERS™ will be contributing to the new site, from all areas of Portland and Oregon life.

GoLocalPDX is the latest site launched by GoLocal24 – a company committed to providing readers the best and most intriguing content in local markets. GoLocal24’s original content has been picked up by Politico, the New York Times, Daily Mail, New York Post, Huffington Post, CBS Radio, ESPN, Yahoo Sports, Clear Channel, Deadspin, Cumulus, Entercom’s WEEI, Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Providence Journal, and dozens of other news organizations

Ken Doctor of Nieman Lab Features GoLocal

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kdoctor

Ken Doctor, Considered the Fair Broker in Media Today

Media’s leading analyst, Ken Doctor, features GoLocal24 in his column in Harvard’s Nieman Lab.

The feature, “The newsonomics of the for-profit move in local online news,” reviewed GoLocal’s unique performance versus a range of other media companies that have stumbled in the local digital media space.

As Doctor writes, “For GoLocal, it’s local institutions that are the bedrock of the business model — education, health, advocacy. GoLocal works with local advertisers; 30 percent of the revenue is sponsorship-based. All selling is optimized by technology, raising average CPMs well beyond what run-of-site programmatic advertising will fetch. Fenton says ad revenues have doubled over the last year and he expects a similar doubling this year.”

 

 

 

Forbes Compares AOL’s Patch and GoLocal’s Business Models

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Patch’s Biggest Blunder: Ignoring Cities 

Guest post by Merrill Brown, a member of the founding team of Court TV and the founding Editor in Chief of MSNBC.com. Brown advises digital media start-ups and is a Venture Partner at DFJ Frontier. 

As the management and ownership of the hyperlocal media venture Patch endure contortions about the AOL company’s future, there’s an enormous amount of punditry concluding that Patch’s failures are both about its model and about the impossible nature of succeeding in providing digital news and information to local communities. Some of it is wise, but most everyone is missing a critical point. READ MORE

 

 

BIA/Kelsey Names GoLocal24 Future Star in Local Digital Media

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GoLocal24 named one of the best 7 emerging companies

Boston, MA – GoLocal24, a rapidly growing digital media business delivering local news and information to mid-sized markets, was named by BIA/Kelsey as a Future Star in local digital media.

Leading in Local

Top Local Digital in the US

GoLocal 24 is one of seven companies that are being presented as Future Stars at BIA/Kelsey’s LEADING IN LOCAL: The National Impact conference in Boston, MA, March 18-20, 2013. BIA/Kelsey selected the Future Stars – early stage start- ups that are developing the next big thing in interactive local media.

“Being recognized by BIA/Kelsey as a Future Star is a tremendous honor to the GoLocal team. The experience from the past two years demonstrates our model of providing high quality local content is realizing tremendous validation from consumers, advertisers and leading industry experts like BIA/Kelsey,” said Josh Fenton, Co-Founder and CEO of GoLocal24.

In the past year, GoLocal has seen multi-hundred percent growth in pageviews, unique visitors and revenue. GoLocal is becoming a part of its communities’ daily lives – now realizing more than 500% year-over-year in pageview growth in Providence; in Worcester, traffic in the first year is already the 2nd largest digital source in Central Massachusetts, delivering more than 1.2 million pageviews per month.

“Consumers and advertisers are shifting their behavior from legacy media to digital. Consumers want their content real time, they want it delivered to their mobile device and they want it integrated to social media. GoLocal24 believes we have broken key elements of the code,” said Fenton.

GoLocal24, MeetSoci, LocalBlox, Pricing Engine, Punchcard, Stik, and MapleFarm Media are the seven emerging companies selected.

BIA/Kelsey’s Boston event is being attended by hundreds of the leaders in digital media, including CBS Radio, Gannett, Washington Post, Google, AutoTrader.com, HubSpot, Yahoo!, and The E.W. Scripps Corp to name a few.

BIA/Kelsey advises companies in the local media space through consulting and valuation services, research, Continuous Advisory Services and conferences. Since 1983 BIA/Kelsey has been a resource to the media, mobile advertising, telecommunications, Yellow Pages and electronic directory markets, as well as to government agencies, law firms and investment companies looking to understand trends and revenue drivers. BIA/Kelsey’s annual conferences draw executives from across industries seeking expert guidance on how companies are finding innovative ways to grow. Additional information is available at http://www.biakelsey.com, on the company’s Local Media Watch blog, Twitter(http://twitter.com/BIAKelsey) and Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/biakelsey).