Newspapers should produce amazing local databases with great maps, ratings and reviews.
A newspaper company should buy Yelp.
Yelp now has an open API. Newspapers should stop trying to develop something better, and use the API to provide users with Yelp’s functionality on their own sites, applied to their local businesses.
Apply that logic everywhere it makes sense. No need to re-invent the wheel if you can tap into a massive database for free using an API, a la Google Maps mashups.
Do it this week.
Ryan Sholin 
That’s so cool! (I love Yelp.) But do you think newspapers can wean themselves off their compulsion to reinvent the wheel? Maybe it’s in their DNA …
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Ah, how do I put this…
Newspapers should hire people who know the wheel exists.
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[…] heard of Yelp before reading a post by Ryan Sholin announcing it has an API. An API allows outside developers to create new applications using the API’s software. In […]
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