ILM:10: Local Content Economics ‘Not Like Demand Media’

ILM:10: Local Content Economics ‘Not Like Demand Media’

Content farms and aggregators are a major part of the new, scaleable local ecosystem. But the rules of the road are different for local content than for general content, according to executives speaking at ILM:10 in Santa Clara.

 

MerchantCircle Local Content Studio GM Andy Halliday noted that Merchant Circle is pumping up its context with local content, and now has 120,000 pieces of local content from 15,0o00 contributors after just six months. “Local content has a long tail but there are fewer searches per item,” said Halliday. “It is not the same economics as non-geo topical content like Demand Media.

Halliday also noted that local is “the wild west frontier for getting content up on the Web. It needs to have ‘liveness’ or it’s just a placard. More possibilities open up with the advent of mobile with geo-tracking,” he adds.

 

Local.com VP for Octane 360 Adam Rioux echoed Halliday’s view, noting that Octane is custom building content that Local.com can sell targeted advertising around. He also noted that Local.com is driving much greater usage for the content by distributing t he content not only to Local.com, but to its partner network, publishers and to SMB profiles.

 

Perfect Market CEO Julie Schoenfeld said the company has been successfully focusing on working with publishers to monetize non-mainstream content that may have low usage at first but can be pumped up with contextual placement based on search algorithms. It is now working with 30 publishers.

 

“Think of every article you produce as a deposit in the vault that yields dividends over time,” said Schoenfeld. She advised the audience that with location based services becoming more prevalent, “great meta data, including local geo-targeted content about when or where it was written, is very important.”

 

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Yahoo CEO: Don’t Judge Me Until 2012

From Forbes.com
 

Dec. 7 2010 - 6:04 pm | By JEFF BERCOVICI

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Carol Bartz has been CEO of Yahoo for almost two years now. That’s long enough for some people to declare her ineffective and call for her to be replaced. But to hear Bartz tell it, not only is it premature to demand her resignation now — it will still be premature 12 months from now.

In a keynote interview at the UBS Media and Communications Conference, Bartz noted that she has said from the start that an overhaul of Yahoo’s technology operations that she undertook upon arriving at the company is only now nearing completion. “We were very, very forthcoming with investors that the technology refresh would take two years,” she said. “It does take time to work under the hood. It’s nice to see the car going down the highway, but if you’re trying to change the tires at the same time, it’s a little precarious.”.

 

But shouldn’t that mean we can judge Bartz’s performance based on Yahoo’s results starting in the first quarter of 2011? No, she said, because of a deal cut last year under which Microsoft will power Yahoo searches in exchange for 12 percent of the revenues they generate. Trying to make year-over-year comparisons would therefore be misleading, said Bartz: “One year has full revenues, the other has minus 12 percent.”

 

But wait — Yahoo and Microsoft have said it will take months to complete the transfer of Yahoo’s search platforms to Microsoft. The whole thing won’t be completed until early 2012. That means that to give Bartz a completely fair shake, you’re going to have to hold off on making any final evaluations until, says, second-quarter 2013.

 

Whaddya say, Yahoo investors? Can you sit tight for another couple years?

 

http://blogs.forbes.com/jeffbercovici/2010/12/07/yahoo-ceo-dont-judge-me-until-2012/

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Can you stop yourselves?

Don't fall for it. Changing your photo to a cartoon won't stop child abuse. Volunteer or write a check or do anything except perpetuate another Facebook craze that gives people a false sense of doing something rather than encouraging them to actually do something.

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Q and A with Jim Brady about TBD.com, hyperlocal and what’s next

Q and A with Jim Brady about TBD.com, hyperlocal and what’s next

Posted in Journalism by sarahhartley on December 3, 2010

This is the full text of the email correspondence between myself and Jim Brady in Washington about his decision to quit from TBD.com. Extracts from this appear in today’s Media Guardian post by me which you can read here.

1. The inevitable first question. Your surprise resignation from TBD. Could you explain a little more about the ‘stylistic differences’ which prompted your decision to leave?

The press on this was largely correct. Robert Allbritton wanted to shift away from some of the stuff I thought was most innovative — geo-coding of content, heavy use of aggregation, heavy use of social media, etc. — and put more toward original reporting. I’m all for more original reporting, but not at the expense of the strategic elements that I felt were a large part of the reason we’d been successful. We could not come to an agreement on how to move forward. Robert is the boss, and he needs someone in that position who agrees with his strategy. I obviously didn’t. As for stylistic differences, I think what he meant when he said that was he wanted me to do things I didn’t agree with, and I wouldn’t do them. I guess you can say both sides had a stubborn belief in what they thought was right, and neither was the type to back down.

2. What was the most difficult thing about setting up TBD and how did you overcome it/them?

Well, it was probably getting the Channel 7 folks to understand and support what it is TBD was doing on the web, and to be truthful, I don’t know that we ever did while I was there. I think, on the web side, everything went pretty smoothly — beyond coming up with a name. But I think the issue any web site faces when it’s connected to an existing legacy brand is the steely desire of some on the legacy side to preserve their own way of doing things, and by extension, their own existence. That’s a difficult battle to fight, since the legacy folks are entrenched, better-known than new folks coming into an organization and — not insignificantly — still working for the parts of the business that generate more of the revenue. Frankly, it’s a battle I’m not interested in fighting anymore. I want to be somewhere where everyone is pulling the same direction, a direction set clearly and uncompromisingly by senior management. That wasn’t the case with TBD and Channel 7. The former NewsChannel 8 TV folks that we inherited were a joy to work with: they bought into the concept, were willing to try new things and brought a lot of positive energy to the effort.

3. Why do you dislike the term ‘hyperlocal’ and what’s a better term?

It’s just one of those terms that means different things to different people, and is thus meaningless. I also think it’s a bit cursed, as is “there’s no business model for hyperlocal,” etc. I guess I’m not sure we need a name that encompasses the broad range of local efforts going on around the world. Trying to name it wastes time we should be using to build it.

4. What’s your proudest moment from the project?

Coverage of the Discovery Channel hostage situation on Sept. 1. That was the day we used the partnership with the TV stations perfectly, used social media as a newsgathering tool, i.e. building photo galleries using photos uploaded on Twitter, communicating with people inside the Discovery building using FourSquare, being aggressive in updating the story every few minutes, etc. We got great press for how we covered that, and from that point on, I thought we were a breaking news source for a lot of Washington-area residents.

5. How do you see the news industry generally evolving over the next few years and will projects such as TBD have any role to play?

Sure, I think local is the next big thing, so sites like TBD definitely have a future — and a present. The upcoming mobile revolution will do more to help local sites than national, in my view. Location-based services — both on the editorial and business side — will become increasingly important. I also think you’ll see a shift in news organization structure, where there will be far fewer newsrooms of 100 or 200 people, but an explosion in newsrooms of 10 or 20. And I think those newsrooms will need to be more niche in order to have a viable business. So general-interest publications have some challenges ahead of them.

6. What did you want to achieve with TBD – audience, revenue, engagement? And how close is it to achieving those goals?

All of the above. I think what I was trying to do — and the great staff that’s there is still trying to do — is build a local news site that’s of the web, not just on it. That means having a real conversation with readers via social media and commenting. That means working collaboratively with the community by linking with them and, more importantly, working with them via the blog network we built. It means being aggressive in mobile, and producing a mobile site that take into account what information people want when they’re detached from a desktop or laptop. It means understanding that, in any major metro area, people only care about certain areas and you should try and get that information to them by using smart curation and geo-coding. By using curation, social media and excelling at breaking news, you can build engagement, and that eventually builds audience and revenue. Also, having geo-location features and mobile positions you nicely on the business side, especially for local sites.

7. What will you be doing next? i.e. where should well be looking for the next big shift? 

Not sure yet. Going to do some consulting through the holidays, and start looking at some opportunities to start something then. Have some ideas, just need to flesh them out before pitching them. But definitely want to be in something that’s 100 percent digital the next time out. Maybe I’ll feel differently some day, but for now, not interested in evangelizing the web to anyone. In my view, if you still need to be convinced to pay attention to the web, you probably shouldn’t be in the job you’re in. But that’s the culture that legacy companies have set up: Hey, new guys, convince the old guys to get on board. Maybe that’s how it has to be, but I know I don’t want to do that anymore. Working with the TBD.com and TBD TV folks was as close as I’ve ever come to having a full allotment of open-minded, experimental folks all focused on launching something new, different and successful. It’s hard to get that close, and not want to take it all the way.Q

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Movember

Hi, 

 This Movember I’ve decided to donate my face to raising awareness about cancers that affect men.  My commitment is the growth of a moustache for the entire month of Movember, which I know will generate conversation, controversy and laughter.

I’m doing this because:

·     1 in 2 men will be diagnosed with cancer in his lifetime

·     1 in 6 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer during his lifetime

This is a cause that I feel passionately about and I’m asking you to support my efforts by making a donation to support the great work of the Prostate Cancer Foundation and LIVESTRONG.  To help, you can either:

-  Click this link http://us.movember.com/mospace/910754/ and donate online using your credit card or PayPal account 
-  Write a check payable to Movember, referencing my name or Registration Number 910754 and mailing it to: Movember, PO Box 2726, Venice, CA 90294-2726

 The money raised will help make a tangible difference to the lives of others, through the world’s most promising prostate cancer research and LIVESTRONG’s programs that support young adults and their families battling and surviving cancer.

For more details on how the funds raised from previous campaigns have been used and the impact Movember is having please visit 
http://us.movemberfoundation.com/research-and-programs/. 

 Thanks.

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Meeker predicts $50 billion online ad market

Meeker predicts $50 billion online ad market

The online ad segment is on track to reach $50 billion and mobile e-commerce could grow at a faster rate than e-tailing. That's according to Morgan Stanley analyst Mary Meeker, who was called the "Queen of the Net" during the late '90s dot-com boom and who has retooled her methods and messages for the Web 2.0 era. Meeker is scheduled to speak today at the annual Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco. Bloomberg Businessweek

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Old Navy Scares Up Halloween Intrigue

Oct 28, 2010

- Adweek Staff

A bunch of TV stars -- Judy Greer, Jamie Pressley, Bailey Chase -- star in this long-form Old Navy promo by DumbDumb, the digital content company formed by Jason Bateman and Will Arnett.

The effort casts Pressley as "Biffany," who tries to sabotage the Halloween Party hopes of guileless Greer -- who in fact plays a character called "Hope" in the vignette. Chase portrays a hunky fireman.

It's all part of the retail giant's "Scream for Savings" campaign. The work was guided by creative direct Roger Camp and a team at Havas North America.

Old Navy spent more than $100 million in measured media through the first two-thirds of 2010; annual ad spending has topped $175 million in recent years, per Nielsen.

 

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Mobile advertising to ring up $3.5bn this year

Apple and Google drive mobile advertising growth

 

By Shelley Portet, Silicon.com, 28 October 2010 15:49

 

Mobile advertising will generate revenues of $3.5bn this year as big brands move from merely experimenting with mobile ads to spending significant money.

 

As media and consumer goods brands in particular try to increase their engagement with consumers via their mobile phones, this is creating momentum for the mobile advertising industry, which could be generating revenues of around $24bn within five years, the report from Informa Telecoms & Media has predicted.

 

Growth in the mobile advertising market over the past 12 months has been driven by Apple and Google's acquisitions of Quattro Wireless and AdMob respectively, according to the report author, Shailendra Pandey.

 

"The launch of Apple's iAd advertising platform is forcing rivals to speed up their own mobile advertising strategies. Google has responded by acquiring AdMob and has announced it is on track to generate US$1bn in revenues from mobile in 2010, a significant portion of which will be mobile advertising revenues. Google has also reported a 500 per cent growth in mobile search queries between 2008 and 2010," said Pandey in a statement.

Mobile advertising has moved away from an experimental phase and many brands are now spending significant sums on mobile campaigns on a regular basis, the research house said. Despite this trend, the next 12 to 18 months will see a period of consolidation in the mobile advertising market, it warned.

 http://www.silicon.com/management/sales-and-marketing/2010/10/28/mobile-advertising-to-ring-up-35bn-this-year-39746553/

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Facebook and Twitter say social is the new normal

By Ros Krasny. http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE69R54120101029?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Reuters%2FInternetNews+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Internet+News%29

BOSTON

 | Fri Oct 29, 2010 1:32am EDT

(Reuters) - The social networking phenomenon has nowhere to go but up as computer use becomes more mobile, according to leading figures in the development of the popular sites Facebook and Twitter.

"Two to five years from now, the whole question of what other social networks you use will be moot, because it will all be social," Chris Hughes, co-founder of Facebook, said in Boston on Thursday.

"Social is becoming the frame, the filter to a lot of information," Hughes, 27, said during a panel discussion at the Charles Schwab "Impact 2010" investment conference.

Facebook has over 500 million active users, including more than 150 million who access the site through their mobile devices. The number of registered Twitter users is estimated at more than 165 million.

Both companies are privately held, and investors are on constant alert for any sign either will go public.

Biz Stone, co-founder of Twitter, said the expansion of social networking would closely track a rise in personal mobility as devices such as smart phones replace traditional computers.

"I would like to see a lot less people hunched over computers in their offices in five years," said Stone, 36.

Hughes said applications such as Facebook Connect would increasingly be knitted into the social networking fabric.

For example, Facebook Connect users going to The New York Times' website can now see which articles their friends are reading and recommending.

"With a few clicks you're having a social experience," Hughes said, adding that the functionality can be a way to cut through information overload that many struggle with.

"There is no better filter than people that you know and trust," he said.

Stone has 1.6 million followers for his tweets. He said he likes to follow to follow the Twitter feed of Sockington the Cat, a Waltham, Massachusetts, feline with a knack for clever repartee.

Twitter, said Stone, "is not going to be a triumph of technology -- it's going to be a triumph of humanity ... the growth potential is there from a positive change perspective, not just a business perspective."

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE69R54120101029?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Reuters%2FInternetNews+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Internet+News%29

(Editing by Jerry Norton)

TECHNOLOGY

LIFESTYLE

ZAGAT POWER Sent from my 

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What the Detroit Public Schools Can Teach Marketers - The Conversation - Harvard Business Review

Last month we served as judges on the North America Grand Effies Judging Committee. For those of you who do not know the Effies, they are considered the top awards for effective marketing communications around the world. Several rounds of judging submissions in different marketing categories result in a list of finalists for the "Grand Effie" or the award for the most effective marketing across all categories. That's what we were tasked to judge, along with nine other senior marketers representing both the creative and business sides of the industry.

The winner was a surprising choice. It wasn't a multi-million dollar television campaign for a Fortune 50 company, nor was it a digital media program for some new-age service. Instead, the Grand Effie award was given to the Detroit Public Schools (DPS) for a very simple, and cost-efficient word-of-mouth program to encourage student enrollment. Here's what they did.

With enrollment declining 80,000 students in the past 10 years, the school system faced a $305 million dollar deficit, forcing the Governor and The Michigan Department of Education to close 29 schools in 2009. This caused a major public outcry and highlighted the lack of confidence that residents placed in the DPS.

Leo Burnett Detroit created the "I'm In" marketing campaign to drive awareness of the positive aspects of the Detroit Public Schools as well as to halt the decline in enrollment. The main idea of this campaign is that the Detroit Public Schools have amazing and surprising opportunities behind them. This idea was brought to life by the creation of 172 blue doors representing the 172 public schools in the district. The doors appeared at various community events and in a large installation at Hart Plaza in downtown Detroit. Teachers, parents, and students brought the positive message of DPS success to local neighborhoods and encouraged residents to make a commitment to their local school. This commitment took many shapes, including a yard sign that featured a blue door and the phrase "I'm In". Residents could now see which of their neighbors were sending their children to the public schools, encouraging others to join the movement. With only $250,000 in paid media, the "I'm In" program generated over $1.5 million in free press coverage built awareness of the success stories from the DPS. Local and national celebrities, including Bill Cosby, used their status to support the "I'm In" program.

In the end, student enrollment in Detroit actually rose 6,500 in 2010. As a result, an incremental $49 million of funding was generated for DPS, keeping the school system financially viable. The program provided a beacon of hope for Detroit and its public school system.

Here are five lessons we tookaway from the Detroit Public Schools campaign and the finalists at this year's Effies:

1. Cause marketing matters more than ever. We live in a difficult world. Through these difficult times we expect brands to do more for our communities. If they take the lead, we'll reward them. The Detroit Public Schools campaign and Ford's "Drive One 4 UR School" are perfect example of this. People are excited to rally around important causes and brands that engage authentically in this effort can benefit too. The critical factor is to find a cause that authentically relates to your brand's equity and culture.

2. Taking the right posture in an economic downturn can bring success. The economic downturn caused a lot of suffering, but it also created an opportunity for brands to say, "We understand what you're going through and we are going to do something different as a result." Programs that did well in 2010 were ones that understood the impact of the economic crisis and responded to it with the appropriate voice and tone. For example, Hyundai brought compassion and assurance to a new car purchase by offering to refund your money if you lost your job.

3. Advertising is dead, long live advertising. There's a meme in the world of business that consumers do not like advertising and even more broadly, that marketing communications does not work. If there's anything that the finalists and the winner showed is that there's a very direct line from successful marketing programs to an organization's bottom line. The Detroit Public Schools turned around a 10 year decline in enrollment with some paint and lumber. Hyundai was the only car company to grow while their other competitors declined by up to 40%.

4. Resonance, resonance resonance. We live in a cluttered media ecosystem. For a message to break through, it needs to resonate with customers. That's what Apple did with "There's an App For That" campaign, where different iPhone applications were matched with corresponding print publications. For example, the advertisement in Gourmet magazine only promoted food related applications. Simple but powerful. The Detroit Public Schools took their message to the streets, neighborhoods, and local events frequented by the residents of Detroit.

5. Marketing means creating movements. There is no doubt about it that the most effective marketing programs are the ones that rally people, encourage them to serve as social voices for the brands, and make them feel like they are part of something greater.

The Detroit Public Schools is a brilliant example of all that works in marketing in 2010. It had a simple and emotionally compelling idea. It had disruptive and brilliant creative executions. And it leveraged the power of personal persuasion to generate outstanding results. As judges, we had to compare the impact of a national effort like Hyundai "Assurance" with a local effort like DPS's "I'm In." In the end, we made our decision based on the magnitude of the challenge. Many of the finalists required people to change their minds or make major purchases during an economic downturn. The DPS "I'm In" campaign encouraged over 6,000 more people to put their most precious possession on the line — their child's future. That's great marketing.

Shiv Singh is the Head of Digital for PepsiCo Beverages and a regular blogger at Going Social Now. Peter Carter is the Director of Brand Building Integrated Communications-Americas at P&G. To review the work and read the case studies of the campaigns mentioned visit their page on the Effies' site.

via blogs.hbr.org

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L.A.Times: 5.4 earthquake hits Southern California

From the Los Angeles Times:

5.4 earthquake hits Southern California

A 5.9 earthquake rocked Southern California this afternoon and was felt across a wide area.

The full story can be viewed at: http://www.latimes.com/la-0708-quake-m,0,4085478.story?track=latiphoneapp

Get the Los Angeles Times iPhone app from iTunes: http://www.itunes.com/apps/latimes

A 5.9 earthquake rocked Southern California this afternoon and was felt across a wide area.

According to U.S. Geological Survey, the quake hit at 4:53 p.m. near Borrego Springs, about 28 miles south of Palm Springs. It was followed by several small aftershocks.

There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries, but some residents said the quake caused glass to break.

Its the latest in a string of powerful of quakes to hit Southern California in the last few months, ever since a 7.2 quake hit the Mexicali area on Easter Sunday.

[Updated at 5:07 p.m.: The USGS downgraded the quake to 5.4 magnitude. The Los Angeles Fire Department said it has not received reports of serious damage or injuries. Residents in Riverside County told The Times they felt a sharp jolt but have not witnessed major damage.

Riverside Police Chief Sergio Diaz said that he experienced strong jolts at police headquarters but that there was no initial report of serious damage.

“So far everything is OK,” Diaz said. “To me it felt like two separate events. The first felt like a foreshock;  the second one was stronger.”

“It was scary,” said Celina Vega of Borrego Springs. “I can hardly talk because I’m still shaking. “

She said the earthquake hit as she was getting ready to go to work at Kendall’s Cafe. “I screamed. Glasses fell at my house. We’re not used to earthquakes here in Borrego Springs. When we felt it, oh my gosh, scary!”]

[Updated at 5:26 p.m.: The quake swayed skyscrapers in downtown San Diego, but there were no reports of damage there.

A rock slide was reported on a road outside Palm Springs near the aerial tramway, accord to the Desert Sun. But someone at the tramway restaurant told The Times there was no major damage.

Mary Jane Laws, an assistant manager at Center Market Grocery Store in Borrego Springs, said a lot of products fell off the shelves but there was no major damage.

“I’ve been here 30 years, and it was bigger than any of us have experienced,” Laws said. “It shook up and down really hard. That was the big jolt, then back and forth. It feels like forever, but it was probably only 10 to 15 seconds.”

There weren’t many customers in the store when the quake hit, but Laws said, “The employees, they bolted. The cash registers are right by the door.”

The residents are accustomed to an occasional temblor, but Laws said, “It was a little bit more than we’re comfortable.” At least for the evening, it will give the sleepy town something to chat about in the off season. “This place is going to be just atwitter,” Laws said. “We’ll be in the coffee shop, talking about all kinds of things." ]

-- Andrew Blankstein, Rong-Gong Lin II and Kimi Yoshino

Map: U.S. Geological 

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Looking Up | American Journalism Review

At the Los Angeles Times, Vogel thinks the iPhone has proven that some people will pay for content, which is promising. However, "I think a lot of people view [the tablet] as a destination, and it's not."

Looking Up American Journalism Review

5 Creative Uses for Crowdsourcing

About 2 days ago

 Sarah Kessler 9 

5 Creative Uses for Crowdsourcing

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When Jeff Howe coined the term “crowdsourcing” in a 2006Wired article his examples were mainly “labor markets for specialized talents,” like iStockphoto, iFilm, and InnoCentive. But the business model of outsourcing to the crowd has grown (as has Howe’s article — he published a book on the topic in 2008).

As open-source software developers learned long ago, asking a pool of people to create something can be faster, cheaper, and more accurate than putting a project in the hands of individuals. These five start-ups are doing just that by using crowdsourcing in creative ways.

http://mashable.com/2010/05/26/creative-crowdsourcing/

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Reuters readers spend 3 times as long on the iPad app than on Reuters.com

via editorsweblog.org

Posted via web from Local Andy

Times Media Group promotes entertainment ad execs

From the Los Angeles Times

May 27, 2010 |  5:52 pm

The Los Angeles Times Media Group announced Thursday that it restructured the entertainment division of its advertising department.

The company announced the promotion of three sales executives to head up its film and media and live-entertainment groups: Andy Vogel, appointed to the new position of vice president of emerging media; Francie Berns, promoted to vice president of film advertising; and Stacey Farish, vice president of media and live entertainment. 

 

All three will report to John T. O'Loughlin, executive vice president of advertising and chief revenue officer of the Times Media Group.

 

"It is crucial that our team, our products and services continue to evolve to create and provide new value to our clients," O'Loughlin said. "Francie and Stacey are both innovators and experts in their fields who will bring the tenacity and vision necessary to aggressively drive bold solutions. Likewise, Andy's rich background in new ventures and digital initiatives makes him uniquely qualified to lead new and nontraditional product sales efforts for our entire media group."

 

Vogel also will work with digitally focused advertising agencies and on expanding the Times Media Group's portfolio of tech-driven products. He joined The Times in 2009. Before that, he had been sales director at InfoSoft Group and vice president of advertising and online products at Shepherd Express and ExpressMilwaukee.com.

 

Berns will oversee the expansion of film-related sales efforts, including a series of editorial and event-related entertainment products such as new blogs on latimes.com and the upcoming Hero Complex Film Festival. She has been director of movie advertising at The Times since 2006, during which time she was the architect of creative advertising campaigns in The Times for Walt Disney Co.'s films "Alice in Wonderland" and "Prince of Persia." Berns came to The Times from an advertising agency in Chicago.

 

Farish will lead a broader program to increase sales, particularly in the cable and satellite TV categories, and will oversee sales teams on both coasts. Before her current assignment, Farish was The Times' senior director of entertainment advertising sales, where she created HBO's front-page "True Blood" Season 2-opener ad; she spearheaded an innovative campaign for the TV listings that appear in the Calendar section and the Envelope Primetime Emmy Screening Series. She previously was senior director, Western region, at ABC Radio Networks.

 

As part of the realignment, Lynne Segall, vice president, entertainment and luxury, is leaving the company to pursue other opportunities.

 

The Business section has the full story on The Times' entertainment advertising appointments

 

-- Times staff writer

Photo: (Left to right): Farish, Vogel, and Berns

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Three Birds, a Billionaire and the Hyper-Local Future of News | The New York Observer

Mr. Ricketts, who owns a movie business called the American Film Company, was in France for the Cannes Film Festival and unavailable for an interview. In an email exchange with The Observer, he explained that he started DNAinfo here-and not in, say, Jackson Hole-because he loved Manhattan neighborhoods and believed, in general, that there was an "under-served market for concise, factual, original local content."

John Sutter, the longtime publisher of Community Media, a network of local newspapers and Web sites in Manhattan, including Downtown Express, The Villager and Chelsea Now, disagrees. "The easiest thing to do in publishing is to spend money," he said. "The hardest thing to do is to earn money to pay for your operations."

Mr. Sutter said that in recent months, he has lost a number of talented employees to DNAinfo and (what he believes to be) their higher salaries. "A charismatic benefactor has opened his wallet and attracted serious journalistic talent," he said. "We'll see if this exercise can transcend into a media property capable of supporting its journalism. When they do develop a revenue model in cyberspace, they're going to find that it is a very crowded space. They're going to confront some of the people that they think they're moving ahead of, like us-traditional newspapers with very viable Web sites."

Currently, the only advertisement running on DNAinfo.com is for High Plains Bison ("Buy 4 Bison NY Strips, Get 2 Extra Steaks" $69.99, free shipping)-a company owned by Mr. Ricketts' family.

 

MS. DE KRETSER said that DNAinfo recently expanded its sales team, and Mr. Ricketts is keen on profitability. "He comes to New York all the time," said Ms. de Kretser. "It's not a vanity project. He genuinely cares."

For years, hyper-local news-gathering on the Web was dominated by small-time players-neighborhood-gadfly types dedicated to their blogspots. Recently, however, larger investors have begun launching professionally staffed sites, muscling in on the field. In Washington, Allbritton Communications, the owner of Politico, is pouring money into a new Web-only local news venture, TBD.com. And AOL recently revealed plans to spend up to $50 million over the next year to expand Patch, a network of local-news neighborhood sites, with operations in communities around the country.

New-media consultant and author Jeff Jarvis told The Observer that CUNY research has found that hyper-local bloggers today, who were covering neighborhoods and towns of 50,000 people, were bringing in $200,000 in annual revenue. With a few tweaks, he said, there are profits to be made.

But he cautioned that New York is the grand exception to all rules. "We have many papers and a highly contested marketplace," he said. "The rest of the country is not like that."

Nevertheless, he said that Patch (for whom he has consulted) is on its way into this market. "I just don't think they're going to try New York as a whole," he said. "There are a lot of opportunities here. DNAinfo just has to find its place."

For the foreseeable future, DNAinfo will continue to try and lure in larger local audiences with writing and reporting that is straightforward and to the point. For the most part, phrases don't turn. Narratives don't arc.

"We try and have some fun with stories," said Ms. de Kretser. "There's no reason to bore people to tears. But I think people want to read something for the information and to know what's going on. There are already established leaders in narrative journalism. Why would you get into that?"

fgillette@observer.com

 

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Posted via web from Local Andy

Explained: Why Jill Abramson is Getting a New Job | The New York Observer

As far as we can tell, there are three significant reasons why Jill Abramson is getting a six month leave from her managing editor duties to become the digital czarina. Here's why:

Integrate that Newsroom! And to Help with the Paywall

Obviously, this point can't be understated. The Times still needs to figure out how to fully integrate its newsroom. As Bill Keller explained in an email, she needs "serious time under the hood" before it actually happens in any real way.

Also, the timing of her move is obviously intriguing. Next January, the Times will introduce a paywall. Jill Abramson will be doing digital stuff basicially through the end of the year. This gives the Times newsroom a dedicated point person to talk to the business side about the paywall while it's under construction. It's a big message to Arthur, Janet, Martin and  Denise that Jill will be available for any breakfast, lunch, coffee or dinner to talk paywall.

The Refresh Button

There hasn't been a whole heck of a lot of movement inside or outside the New York Times for the last three years. Not a lot of people have been hired, and other than two rounds of job cuts, not a lot have left.

The lack of movement inspired a whole series of changes late last year and early this year. Rick Berke, the traffic cop for the front page became national editor; Jon Landman went from digital dude to culture editor; Suzanne Daley left as National head to become a writer; Sam Sifton left culture to become a restaurant critic; Trip Gabriel left Styles to write and report. Bill Keller referred to it as hitting the refresh button.

The decision about Ms. Abramson is essentially inspired by the same thing.

"Jill's been in that same job seven years this July," said an editor. "It's a job where you go to Page One meeting twice a day. You're involved in every big story. The oil spill and Afghanistan and coal mine disasters and everything else. It's a wearing job. She has a lot of irons in the fire. She teaches and writes about her puppy. She needs a break as much as anyone else."

It also gives Foreign editor Susan Chira and Business editor Larry Ingrassia--both of whom have been running their departments for more than five years--a break away from their jobs as they fill in for Jill Abramson. Same goes for Dean Baquet who will get to come up to New York for a couple of months.

Empower the Deputies

After the Times made those department head switches there was an undercurrent of frustration in the newsroom that the deputies, for the most part, were being overlooked. Rick Berke, who already had a big job, got another big job. Same with Landman. Same with Stuart Emmrich (who became the Styles editor). What about the deputies?

Well, with Chira-Ingrassia-Baquet stepping aside for two months each, that means deputies for three big departments (Foreign, Business, DC Bureau) get to have fun for two months each.

Other Elements

OK, so we haven't brought up the whole succession thing, since Bill Keller made it quite clear that this isn't about that! But nevertheless, Chira-Ingrassia-Baquet could all be in the mix when it comes time for a new managing editor at the paper. This isn't a bad trial run for them to impress.

via observer.com

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Success for Mobile Coupons Begins at the Register

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I've fallen and I can't get up - iPad Version

It's big when your great grandmother can use it!  Is there anything that Oregonians can't do?

 

 

Here’s the related article.

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Having Ideas Versus Having a Vision

In the past decade, firms have been praised for ideas. Experts have celebrated the power of brainstorming and idea-generation techniques. Eureka light bulbs have populated the covers of many books. Businessmen have been asked to improve their creative attitudes. And 2009 was named the Year of Creativity and Innovation by the European Union.

One consequence of a decade focused on idea generation is ideas are now more easily accessible, which has also made idea generation less of a differentiator in competition than it has traditionally been. When more than 30% of the population belongs to the creative class, as Richard Florida suggested in his 2003 book The Rise of the Creative Class, ideas are not in short supply. And with the diffusion of open innovation processes, ideas competitions, and the like, executives are increasingly exposed to a wealth of ideas.

What is in short supply, I'm afraid, are visionary thinkers who will be capable of making sense of this abundance of stimuli — visionaries who will build the arenas to unleash the power of ideas and transform them into actions.

Could the next decade be the decade of vision building? If so, we will witness a significant shift in the way we think about innovation, creativity, and leadership. Popular studies of creativity have suggested that the fast generation of numerous ideas (the more, the better); in contrast, visionary leadership requires a relentless exploration of one direction (the deeper and more robust, the better). Idea generation values a neophyte perspective; vision building is based on research and deep understanding. To generate fresh ideas we have been told to think outside of the box and then jump back in; vision building destroys the box and builds a new one. It does not play with the existing paradigms; it changes them. Studies of idea generation have lingered on variety and divergence, but vision building is based on convergence, on bringing others onboard. Ideas are culturally neutral as long as they help solve problems; visions are intrinsically ideological and biased towards a clear aspiration of how the world should be: They strongly reflect the personal culture of the thinker.

I'm certainly not questioning the essential value of ideas. They will still ignite the innovation process. Tossing around a large number of ideas will still be important, especially for incremental improvements. It is not one or the other. It is a shift in the most rare and precious asset that will drive competitive advantage: visions. It's time for thought leaders to move beyond post-its and embrace a more advanced form of creativity. A radical form of think-action that somewhat resembles that of researchers and entrepreneurs fighting to implement their vision.

What do you think? Is it time to call for a new form of creativity? If last decade was the decade of idea generation, will the new one be the decade of vision building?

Roberto Verganti is the author of Design-Driven Innovation. Changing the Rules of Competition by Radically Innovating what Things Mean and has pioneered research on the intersection of strategy, design and technology management. A professor of the management of innovation at Politecnico di Milano, Verganti also is a member of the board of the European Institute for Advanced Studies in Management. He has served as an executive advisor, coach, and educator at a variety of firms, including Ferrari, Ducati, Whirlpool, Xerox, Samsung, Hewlett-Packard, Barilla, Nestlè, STMicroelectronics, and Intuit.

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Time to go back and re-read "The Art of the Long View" by Peter Schwartz. Vision requires a different discipline than does "throwing ideas against a wall." It also requires senior level buy-in that is difficult in this economy. There were a lot of ideas and quite a few visionaries with business plans back at the turn of the last decade. Mobile commerce was an area that had a lot of vision around it in 2000, but now seems to be focused more on short-term ideas. Who's out there trying to make lives better via a mobile strategy today?

Posted via web from Local Andy

How The Newspaper Business Killed Itself

How The Newspaper Business Killed Itself

02.23.10

Newspapers are on life support, and they have no one to blame but themselves.

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by John C. Dvorak

The New York Times is about to make a huge mistake. The paper thinks it can charge readers $360 or so a year for the privilege of browsing its pages on the iPad or Kindle. When will newspapers realize that the party is over? They can't go on in this dream world.

Sure the print edition of The New York Times and other papers are still making money, but that number is waning. Papers around the country are bleeding cash. Many exist as shells of their former selves or as hyper-local small town papers.

The decline of the big metro daily began with the advent of television. The Internet has sped up that deterioration by highlighting the curious redundancy of the news. Ironically, this began with The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Los Angeles Times syndicating their entire paper for anyone who wanted to pay for it. Now there are papers all over the country running the exact same stories and columnists you find in the Times. They're there when you read Google News—thousands of redundant stories, all the same. The Associated Press is part of the problem as well.

How stupid has all of this become? Here's an example.

Once in a while, there is a story about XYZ. If you visit the New York Times site, it gives you the headline and prompts you to register in order to read the full story. It's a waste of time. Cut and paste the headline into Google, and you'll find the exact same story running in a Florida paper for free. Now The New York Times wants $30 a month from you. It's laughable, unless it stops syndicating everything to other papers that post the content for free. Good luck with that.

The Times and other papers set out to destroy smaller publications by replacing local content with their own stories. One of the keys was getting local papers to dump their expensive columnists, foreign correspondents, and national reporters, in favor of outsourced content. Once the local paper was essentially publishing Times content, The New York Times would slowly begin rolling out localized editions of the paper. People were already used to the paper's content anyway. The Times was trying to take over the country, market by market. The fact that the local papers didn't see this ploy coming from a mile away shows just how dumb they are.

The San Francisco Bay Area was a classical example of this. The San Francisco Examiner and the Chronicle soaked up content from the aforementioned papers and the Associated Press, leaving only restaurant reviewers, food writers, and metro beat reporters in-house. The papers got so dependent on syndicates that many local stories were covered by outside sources.

Just as it became clear that the scene was going to consolidate into five national papers (The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, USA Today, and The Wall Street Journal), the Internet foiled the plan. There wasn't enough time to rid the nation of its local papers. The smaller papers went online and the syndicated content created a flood of news redundancy. Its value waned and soon everyone expect it all for free.

What really killed the papers was their dependency on classified ads. Along came Craigslist, and boom, the classifieds were decimated—and so too were the papers. To save money, publishers cut writers and used more syndicated material than ever. It was like attempting to fix a flat by letting the air out of the rest of the tires.

Many papers began producing a crappy product with no local value. The Internet, radio, and TV all served the public better. Worse, what staff was left on the paper all seemed politically motivated in a very singular, unbalanced, and preachy way. It had no appeal for readers. Most big metro dailies continue to bleed readers like crazy.

Now The New York Times thinks it can charge $360 a year. For what? A daily PDF filled with redundant news and feature articles about the growing use of smoked paprika? This is too funny to watch.

More John C. Dvorak:
• How The Newspaper Business Killed Itself
• Macworld Expo's Iffy Future
• Hey Microsoft, Get Out of the Cloud
• Apple's Good for Nothing iPad
• Why the Past Decade Was No Good for Tech
• more

Go off-topic with John C. Dvorak.

See John get cranky about technology in his new Cranky Geeks IPTV Show.

via pcmag.com

Posted via web from Local Andy

Adify Data Points To Rising Ad Prices

Highlighting a rebound in ad pricing, the median effective CPM on sites across vertical ad network Adify increased to $6.04 in the fourth quarter of 2009, up from $4.28 in the prior quarter. The minimum espy saw a quarterly increase from $1.55 to $2.36 while pricing at the high end remained essentially unchanged at $8.95, according to the latest quarterly data from

Adify.

Among the 11 ad categories tracked on Adify, fashion and beauty enjoyed the biggest gains over the last year -- up 57% to a $4 eCPM, while travel continued to commands the highest rate of nearly $9. The study concluded the fashion audience is spending less on big-ticket offline purchases, but increasing spending on less costly items online such as cosmetics.

The sports vertical had the fastest growth in the last quarter, jumping from a $4 to a $7 eCPM. Adify said the sharp rise in ad pricing in the category wasn't seasonal but the result of attracting high-paying advertisers such as sports drinks, auto, and personal hygiene advertisers.

More broadly, Adify said that the number of page views across the network more than tripled in 2009. "This trend is the result of more vertical ad networks adopting the Adify platform, existing vertical ad networks adding sites and content to their network, and increases in traffic to sites within vertical ad networks," according to the report.

The traffic growth also stems from an increase in repeat visitors to sites. The proportion of unique visitors per month that visit an Adify-powered site on a given day increased from 9% to 14% during the last year. The company's platform overall encompasses more than 200 vertical ad networks and 17,000 sites and blogs.

Underscoring the growing interest of agencies and advertisers in branded content, Media Contacts, the interactive media agency of Havas Digital, last week announced a partnership with Adify to develop custom networks on behalf of clients.

Posted via email from Local Andy

Mobile Phones Organize Lives

A total of 234 million people age 13 and older in the U.S. used mobile devices by the end of Q4 2009.

According to a new survey recently announced by Ruder Finn, Americans are spending an average of 2.7 hours on the mobile Internet, connecting socially, managing their personal finances, and even as a means for advocacy. 91% of mobile phone users go online to socialize compared to only 79% of traditional desktop users. Mobile phone users are 1.6 times more likely to manage finances compared to traditional desktop users. Mobile phone users are 1.4 times more likely than traditional desktop users to rally support for a cause.

According to the Mobile Intent Index, mobile phone users do not access the mobile Internet for educational purposes or for creative expression, as the transitory nature of mobile intent goes against spending time to engage in discussions about personal issues. Usage by gender and age differ, with men accessing the mobile Internet 'to escape,' and women to entertain others.

Kathy Bloomgarden, Ruder Finn co-CEO, says "Mobile phones have become the way people organize their lives... and this trend will... accelerate... the faster businesses can adapt their services... the more rapidly they can... understand their customers to drive growth."

The Mobile Intent Index asked respondents how frequently they use their mobile phones to go online, and the results show that immediacy is the primary factor driving behavior.

Marty McGough, director, Ruder Finn Insights says, though, that "Mobile phone use goes beyond instant gratification...people use their mobile phones... for instant access to conduct business with the most recent information or advocate on the spot on issues of pressing concern and breaking news."

Michael Schubert, Chief Innovation Officer overseeing digital strategy at Ruder Finn added, "... people are taking advantage of (mobile technolog y)... to do their core work while using desktops to navigate longer format and higher bandwidth content and tools... resulting in huge... opportunities across industries... making mobile an essential channel in keeping businesses competitive."

Key results from the Mobile Intent Index Survey, include:

Mobile phones are a social connector, says the report. 91% of mobile users go online to socialize, compared to only 79% of traditional users. The top socialize intents are:

* Instant message (62%)

* Forward e-mails (58%), content (40%) and photos (38%)

* Post comments on social networking sites (45%)

* Connect to people on social networking sites (43%)

Mobile phone users are more likely to go online to do business compared to traditional users, and are 1.6 times more likely to manage finances. Mobile phones offer users the chance to conduct business in real time, and this is the major reason that business-related intents are so high. The top business intents are:

* Online banking - 46%

* Check bill/credit card status - 40%

* Read business blogs - 33%

Nearly half of mobile users go online to advocate compared to only 41% of traditional users. Mobile phones offer users the chance to immediately respond to breaking news, whether it is a new piece of legislation or the latest ongoing development of a corporation or politician under siege. The top advocacy intents are:

* Activate support for a cause or position - 67%

* Post opinions on social networking sites - 45%

* Forward content on a cause - 40%

* Mobile users are much less likely than all users to go online to learn. Learning requires time and patience, something mobile phone users are in short supply of.

* They are 1.5 times less likely than the traditional user to go online to educate themselves

* They are 1.4 times less likely than the traditional user to go online to research

* They are more likely than the traditional user to go online to keep informed

* Mobile users are 1.3 times less likely to personally express themselves online compared to traditional users. The transitory nature of their intents speaks against spending the time to engage in discussions about personal issues while using their mobile phones.

* They are 1.7 times less likely than the traditional user to go online to opine

* They are 1.8 times less likely than the traditional user to go online to be creative

Additionally, gender and age influence the Intent of mobile phone users according to the study:

* Men (79%) are much more likely than women (61%) to use their mobile phone to simply "escape"

* Many more women (70%) than men (58%) go online using their mobile devi ces to entertain others

* Youth (44%) are more likely to shop over their mobile phones than the average mobile user (35%)

* Seniors (82%) are much more likely than the traditional user (64%) to use their mobile phones to educate themselves

Posted via email from Local Andy