4 ms·

How's this different from Patch and EveryBlock, both having demonstrated how to fail at monetizing "local news" communities? It seems like crime data is the on

by mslate 12y ago

How's this different from Patch and EveryBlock, both having demonstrated how to fail at monetizing "local news" communities? It seems like crime data is the only real data of local interest/inbound traffic.

mooreds 12y ago
I think NextDoor is different than patch because it is almost entirely user generated content (as opposed to having paid editors). Everyblock, as far as I understand it, was really an attempt to automate distribution of data and information provided by local authorities. The real question, which you touch on, is what do you want to talk to your neighbors about? Crime data is certainly one thing, but local email lists that I'm a part of indicate others: * can I borrow a tool? * anyone have a recommendation for a service (lawnmower, roof replacer, etc, etc)? * I have free stuff in front of my house. * I have friends who want to move into this neighborhood, anyone looking to sell? I think that event organization is possible, given enough uptake. Disclaimer, I used to work for a real estate brokerage that was pursuing a neighborhood model (8z.com) and was a competitor of NextDoor.
- hayksaakian 12y ago
  I think their growth model is quite aggressive too. They have "leads" in every neighborhood and they financially reward leads for bringing in new users.
  - raldi 12y ago
    Um, do you have a citation for that?
    - hayksaakian 12y ago
      i got an offer in the mail that said i'd get paid 25$ per referral to nextdoor.
      - raldi 12y ago
        That's not per neighbor; that's if you can get an entire new neighborhood off the ground, with at least ten founding households: https://help.nextdoor.com/customer/portal/articles/1287247-how-the-amazon-promotion-works https://help.nextdoor.com/customer/portal/articles/1287247-h...
    - testingonprod 12y ago
      None of the leads that I know are financially rewarded, they are just the people that happen to start the neighborhood and are often the most involved in making it take off. I think what the above poster is referring to is the referral program where if you invite someone to Nextdoor AND that person starts a neighborhood, you get a $25 Amazon giftcard. I've personally invited a few people to Nextdoor, but all of them already had a Nextdoor website for their neighborhoods so I didn't get anything even though I referred them.
  - deleted 12y ago
    [deleted]
- robertwalsh0 12y ago
  "Everyblock, as far as I understand it, was really an attempt to automate distribution of data and information provided by local authorities." I was an EveryBlock user in Chicago for about a year and it was definitely more that a distribution of stats (although I think they may have started out that way originally). There was a very active social neighborhood based network where people talked about what was currently going on in the neighborhood.
e40 12y ago
Patch is completely different. Nextdoor is Facebook for neighborhoods. Patch is news for neighborhoods. And speaking of Patch, I used to be a huge fan. Right after they had a big layoff the quality went way down and the essentially started posting non-local news to my Patch. I stopped visiting shortly after that.
yummyfajitas 12y ago
Patch didn't fail at monetizing local news, it failed at achieving profit margins. Patch had significant revenue coming in, it just had more money going out than in. Revenue numbers were leaked at some point: http://techcrunch.com/2013/08/18/inside-patchs-leaked-revenue-numbers-and-its-hunt-for-profitability/ http://techcrunch.com/2013/08/18/inside-patchs-leaked-revenu... The core problem is this. If 1 reporter writes "Top 6 reasons why kittens are cute - number 5 will SHOCK YOU", the potential audience is millions. You can scale your content as needed, and readers / writer is potentially unlimited. If 1 reporter writes "Bishop School closed due to heavy rains", the potential audience is merely the students and parents of Bishop School. Your potential audience is thousands - you simply can't scale past this except in special cases (e.g., Boston bombings, school shootings, hurricanes). tl;dr; For local news, readers / writer is simply too low and your margins suck. (Disclaimer: I worked for Patch. However, this post is based on no inside knowledge - I know little more than what techcrunch leaked.)
- mtbcoder 12y ago
  > If 1 reporter writes "Top 6 reasons why kittens are cute - number 5 will SHOCK YOU", the potential audience is millions. You can scale your content as needed, and readers / writer is potentially unlimited. Even in this scenario you still need a tremendous amount of domain authority and/or a Herculean marketing effort to achieve any kind of traction in terms of traffic.
  - yummyfajitas 12y ago
    My point is that no amount of domain authority/marketing/etc will drive much traffic to "Construction causes traffic delays on Nagar Road". Even if everyone who commutes on that road reads your article, ad revenue - cost of reporter is probably negative.

by mslate 12y ago

mooreds 12y ago

I think NextDoor is different than patch because it is almost entirely user generated content (as opposed to having paid editors). Everyblock, as far as I understand it, was really an attempt to automate distribution of data and information provided by local authorities. The real question, which you touch on, is what do you want to talk to your neighbors about? Crime data is certainly one thing, but local email lists that I'm a part of indicate others: * can I borrow a tool? * anyone have a recommendation for a service (lawnmower, roof replacer, etc, etc)? * I have free stuff in front of my house. * I have friends who want to move into this neighborhood, anyone looking to sell? I think that event organization is possible, given enough uptake. Disclaimer, I used to work for a real estate brokerage that was pursuing a neighborhood model (8z.com) and was a competitor of NextDoor.

hayksaakian 12y ago
I think their growth model is quite aggressive too. They have "leads" in every neighborhood and they financially reward leads for bringing in new users.
- raldi 12y ago
  Um, do you have a citation for that?
  - hayksaakian 12y ago
    i got an offer in the mail that said i'd get paid 25$ per referral to nextdoor.
    - raldi 12y ago
      That's not per neighbor; that's if you can get an entire new neighborhood off the ground, with at least ten founding households: https://help.nextdoor.com/customer/portal/articles/1287247-how-the-amazon-promotion-works https://help.nextdoor.com/customer/portal/articles/1287247-h...
  - testingonprod 12y ago
    None of the leads that I know are financially rewarded, they are just the people that happen to start the neighborhood and are often the most involved in making it take off. I think what the above poster is referring to is the referral program where if you invite someone to Nextdoor AND that person starts a neighborhood, you get a $25 Amazon giftcard. I've personally invited a few people to Nextdoor, but all of them already had a Nextdoor website for their neighborhoods so I didn't get anything even though I referred them.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
robertwalsh0 12y ago
"Everyblock, as far as I understand it, was really an attempt to automate distribution of data and information provided by local authorities." I was an EveryBlock user in Chicago for about a year and it was definitely more that a distribution of stats (although I think they may have started out that way originally). There was a very active social neighborhood based network where people talked about what was currently going on in the neighborhood.

e40 12y ago

Patch is completely different. Nextdoor is Facebook for neighborhoods. Patch is news for neighborhoods. And speaking of Patch, I used to be a huge fan. Right after they had a big layoff the quality went way down and the essentially started posting non-local news to my Patch. I stopped visiting shortly after that.

yummyfajitas 12y ago

Patch didn't fail at monetizing local news, it failed at achieving profit margins. Patch had significant revenue coming in, it just had more money going out than in. Revenue numbers were leaked at some point: http://techcrunch.com/2013/08/18/inside-patchs-leaked-revenue-numbers-and-its-hunt-for-profitability/ http://techcrunch.com/2013/08/18/inside-patchs-leaked-revenu... The core problem is this. If 1 reporter writes "Top 6 reasons why kittens are cute - number 5 will SHOCK YOU", the potential audience is millions. You can scale your content as needed, and readers / writer is potentially unlimited. If 1 reporter writes "Bishop School closed due to heavy rains", the potential audience is merely the students and parents of Bishop School. Your potential audience is thousands - you simply can't scale past this except in special cases (e.g., Boston bombings, school shootings, hurricanes). tl;dr; For local news, readers / writer is simply too low and your margins suck. (Disclaimer: I worked for Patch. However, this post is based on no inside knowledge - I know little more than what techcrunch leaked.)

mtbcoder 12y ago
> If 1 reporter writes "Top 6 reasons why kittens are cute - number 5 will SHOCK YOU", the potential audience is millions. You can scale your content as needed, and readers / writer is potentially unlimited. Even in this scenario you still need a tremendous amount of domain authority and/or a Herculean marketing effort to achieve any kind of traction in terms of traffic.
- yummyfajitas 12y ago
  My point is that no amount of domain authority/marketing/etc will drive much traffic to "Construction causes traffic delays on Nagar Road". Even if everyone who commutes on that road reads your article, ad revenue - cost of reporter is probably negative.