Media Today and Tomorrow

Martin Sorrell's View of the Key Developments Facing Advertisers and Media Firms

2011-02-01T06:17:00.000-08:00

Martin Sorrell, who grew up and lives in the UK, is head of WPP, the largest marketing-communication conglomerate. As such it decides which media firms to support around the world. List list is from "Jack Myers’ Think Tank," a newsletter. Meyers evidently got it from a speech Sorrell recently gave.

1. Global Shifts in economic, political, social and cultural power.
2. Continuing Auto Production Capacity and the under-capacity of people/customers. While U.S. auto capacity has declined, the capacity in China and India has expanded. Over capacity of supply and under capacity in the supply of people makes the role of agencies and marketing even more important.
3. The Web. The reason the Consumer Electronics Show is important is that the tech companies are now media owners. The Web disintermediates legacy players and is a more attractive destination for talent.
4. Internal Communications. Communicating strategic and structural change is an internal challenge for organizations as much as -- or more than -- an external challenge.
5. Retail Power. Major retailers are gaining power, especially when there is little inflation. Retail companies put pressure on manufacturers, pushing companies like P&G into direct consumer marketing through websites.
6. Global Centralization. As companies expand and gain global influence, they are integrating their organizations at the center.
7. Procurement and rise of the finance function puts more emphasis on cost management.
8. Governments, as both regulators and as clients.
9. Corporate social responsibility. Doing good is good business.
10. Content. We have to think about content in the context of how business is fundamentally changing. Consumers have to pay for content. There is not enough advertising to finance the business models of all the new media. There needs to be more consolidation for the health and development of the media business. State subsidies have to play a greater role to maintain professional journalism.

- From Jack Meyers, "Sir Martin Sorrell's Ten Priorities for Media, Agencies and Advertisers," From Jack Meyers Think Tank, February 1, 2010.

Crowd-sourced radio

2011-01-21T08:15:00.000-08:00

A company called Jelli creates a crowd-sourced radio format. "Listeners can vote on audio content in real-time at the station's Web site . . . or by downloading Jelli's iPhone app. The Jelli system lets users push a song to the top of the playlist by voting that it "rocks," or vote a song off the playlist by voting that it "sucks." If enough people vote a song down, it may even be yanked off the air in mid-tune. Jelli rewards listener engagement and loyalty by giving frequent users extra-powerful votes in the form of "Rockets" and "Bombs."

A recent station to introduce the format is Clear Channel's WKLS in Atlanta, from 7pm to midnight.

From Erik Sass, "Jelli Enters Atlanta Radio Market," Media Daily News, January 19, 2011.

Are Traditional Book Publishers Obsolete?

2011-01-20T12:05:00.000-08:00

Matt Shatz argues they might well be. In the digital world, "self-publishing" through sites such as Amazon may be more useful than going through a traditional publisher such as Random House. Those sites know lots about their visitors and can send suggestions of appropriate titles to the right people, Shatz points out. If traditional publishers don't figure out ways to learn about their target audiences, they will be at the mercy of web distributors such as Amazon.

See Matt Shatz, "Why Online Retailers Will Squeeze Out Publishers in the Book Business," PaidContent.org, January 18, 2011.

The Net Neutrality Furor

2010-12-22T06:26:00.000-08:00

PaidContent.org has a useful summary of the furor from the left and the right over the FCC's recent decision on "net neutrality." That is the idea that internet service providers must not show preferences to certain websites by degrading or sling down other websites. Some critics are angry that the FCC passed a ruling of this sort at all. Other critics of the ruling say it didn't go far enough to protect internet competition and the rights of consumers.

See Joe Mullin, "FCC Pushes Through Net Neutrality—And Draws Fire From Right And Left," PaidContent.org, December 21, 2010.

How the Venerable Atlantic Changed for the Digital Age

2010-12-17T10:25:00.000-08:00

The Atlantic, an issues-oriented magazine that was founded 153 years and in recent years has been a consistent money loser, is on track to turn a tidy profit of $1.8 million this year. Jeremy Peters of The New York Times suggests that the reason the magazine has turned itself around relates to a decision of its young management to attach their property to the web enthusiastically at a time when major magazine firms were still wary about hurting their print product. So, for example, in a move rare in the magazine industry the publisher told the advertising sales staff that it did not matter whether they sold ads for the digital or printed edition.

The Atlantic reduced its staff and made other monetary accommodations that are allowing it to prosper in the digital world. Moreover, Peters notes that this periodical with less than half a million circulation and an entire business and editorial staff of about one hundred can break even at levels lower than the big magazines produced by the likes of Time and Conde Nast. Nevertheless, the developments point to the activities periodicals must consider to survive in the new media environment.

From Jeremy W. Peters, "Web Focus Helps Revitalize the Atlantic," New York Times, December 12, 2010. Thanks for Scott Weiss of St. Francis College for suggesting this piece for the blog.

Drugs, Tweets, and Responsibility

2010-12-01T13:38:00.000-08:00

The Food and Drug Adminiistration (FDA) requires pharmaceutical firms to make sure that when drugs are "promoted" to the public "statements stick to approved uses for drugs only and maintain a “fair balance” of information about their risks and benefits." The actual rules about this can get complex in today's world, where there are so many ways that people can learn about medicines.

"For example, the 'social' part of social media means that third parties — bloggers, commenters, Twitter users — are also part of the message. (Kanye West tweeted this summer that 'clothes are my drug,' but what if he’d instead said that Lipitor was his drug? Should the FDA pay any attention to that? What if he or another celebrity were paid for the tweet?"

Two Boston physicians recently suggested that "To maintain a fair balance of benefit and risk information, the FDA might 'try to ban pharmaceutical promotion entirely from these media.'"

From: Katherine Hobson, "Who’s Responsible for Tweets About a Drug," Wall Street Journal, November 26, 2010.

"The Grass Horse Has Been Harmonized"

2010-11-22T08:40:00.000-08:00

Recently, Chinese government authorities a cancelled a conference for bloggers in Shaghai. Blogging is wildly popular in China, which has the largest number of internet users in the world. But a small percentage of bloggers discuss politics critically, and that annoys authorities. Some bloggers have been arrested and are serving prison time.

When the conference website was shut down, "organizers found a way to poke fun at censors: when visitors to the conference's censored home page pressed Ctrl-A—the common computer command for 'select all'—it highlighted previously hidden text that read, in Chinese, 'The grass mud horse has been harmonized.' Grass mud horse is a famous anticensorship pun in China's Internet world—its characters form a homophone for an obscene phrase—and 'harmonize' is a euphemism for censorship, playing off President Hu Jintao's longstanding campaign to create a 'harmonious society.'

See Juliet Ye and Jason Dean,"China Blogger Conference Is Canceled Under Pressure," Wall Street Journal, November 21, 2010.

Battle for the Digital Home

2010-11-09T01:31:00.000-08:00

PaidContent.org just ran a conference on the “battle for the digital home.” Its coverage of its own conference is interesting and brings up many of the leading players and issues in this space. The overarching questions have to do with consumer-friendly digital technologies and copyright permissions.

The winners will need both, and to that extent content providers hold important cards. That’s a key reason Comcast bought NBC-U.

The Fight Over Google TV

2010-10-25T06:20:00.000-07:00

In an important sense, it’s a fight over the future relationship between the internet and the big set in the home. Google is not the first company to try to bring Web video to the TV. Microsoft Media Center can do it, as can Boxee (an Israeli-US startup). Netflix and Apple TV it stream TV shows and movies, but typically for rental or YouTube, though the forthcoming Apple AirPlay will be able to stream all web video into the TV.

Google’s notion, more sophisticated, is to organize the web choices and present them to you via a search engine. That has the networks (typically the content owners) and cable firms particularly concerned. They have been trying to stop Boxee for a number of years. Google has more clout than Boxee but is still boxed in by some forces, at least for now. But Time Warner, which has been trying to put its programming behind paywalls everywhere (and has spun off its cable firm), sees Google TV as an opportunity.

From Jessica Vascellero, "Time Warner Sees Ally in Web," Wall Street Journal, October 6, 2010.

Sam Schechner and Amir Efrati, "Networks Block Web Programs From Being Viewed on Google TV," Wall Street Journal, October 22, 2010.

The New Face of Living Room TV

2010-10-08T05:25:00.000-07:00

Clearly, it’s not just in the living room; bedrooms and rec rooms have them too. A new development is that people are increasingly buying flatscreens connected to the internet, and just as with mobile devices the app-loaded real estate on the top of the deck is taking on big marketing value. Google is deep into this via Google TV (an open source TV search engine aimed at changing the way people think of viewing), but so are set manufacturers.

Digital-media expert Shelly Palmer reflects on some of the implications in "Fighting For the Digital Living Room- Wrong!!!"

Two Kindle E-Books Cost More Than Amazon Hardcovers

2010-10-06T15:03:00.000-07:00

For the first time, Amazon is selling electronic versions of books for its Kindle at prices higher than the hardcover versions. The two are "Fall of Giants" by Ken Follet, published by Dutton,and "Don't Blink," by James Patterson and Howard Roughan, published by Little Brown.

"The skirmish over prices is possible because of deals that publishers negotiated with Amazon this year that allowed the publishers to set their own prices on e-books, while Amazon continues to choose the discount from the list price on hardcovers. That upended a previous understanding by Kindle customers, who were used to paying only $9.99 for an e-book." Also, the hardcovers were discounted by Amazon.

Responding to angry readers, Amazon was placing the blame on the publishers. Yet the publishers contended people were buying the titles at a healthy clip.

Is this a trend? One view is that if you want to read an e-version, what choice do you have? If publishers feel that there are enough people to make the ebook a success at a higher price--that is, that this part of the market is price elastic--they’ll go for it.

See Julie Bosman, "2 E-Books Cost More Than Amazon Hardcovers," New York Times, October 4, 2010.

The Marketers' Constitution

2010-09-20T14:23:00.000-07:00

The Association of National Advertisers (ANA) is the advertising industry’s oldest trade association,"founded on June 24, 1910 in Detroit, Michigan by 45 companies to safeguard and advance the interests of advertisers and consumers." In celebration of its 100th anniversary, the ANA has created The Marketers' Constitution. According to its CEO, Bob Liodice, "Its goal is twofold: to acknowledge the marketing industry's many contributions to our society, and to help the marketing profession move beyond the inefficiencies, limitations, restrictions and unknowns of the past to a new, effective, transparent, economical and socially responsible model of marketing and media for the future."

The ten principles of the "Constitution" follow. The ANA website elaborates on them. They are useful guideposts to the evolving logic of marketing and, by extension, advertising in an increasingly digital media world.

* Marketing must become increasingly targeted, focused and personal.
* Marketing must build real, tangible and enduring brand value.
* Marketing must become more effective - more creative, insightful and accountable.
* Marketing must become more integrated and proficient in managing expanding media platforms.
* The marketing supply chain must become more efficient and productive.
* The marketing ecosystem - including agencies, media and suppliers - must become increasingly capable.
* Marketing professionals must become better, highly skilled, diverse leaders.
* Marketing must be indisputably socially responsible.

News Corp's Daily Planet

2010-09-01T12:03:00.000-07:00

According to The Wall Street Journal, a digital news offering that News Corporation is preparing as an app for Apple's iPad is known inside the company as the “Daily Planet.” That, of course, is the name of the paper in newspaper that Clark Kent works for in the Superman saga created by Siegel and Schuster and owned by Time Warner. Oddly, according to the Journal, management within News Corp has been exhorting employees not to call the Daily Planet a newspaper. The strategy clearly is to have it stand as a new product altogether.

From: Joe Pompeo,
"News Corp Has Name For New Internet-Killing iPad Newspaper: "Daily Planet," Business Insider, September 1, 2010.

The FTC's Rebuke of a PR Agency

2010-09-01T05:36:00.000-07:00

The Federal Trade Commission recently issued its first rebuke under new guidelines that prohibit "social media" and "word of mouth" marketers from passing themselves off as ordinary consumers touting a product and that require endorsers to make clear when they have financial connections to sellers. The FTC found that PR agency Reverb had engaged in this sort of "deceptive advertising" by having employees pose as ordinary citizens while posting game reviews online and not disclosing that the reviews came from paid employees working on behalf of the game developers.

"Word of Mouth" executive Ed Keller works through some of the ramifications of this decision in a thoughtful essay.

See Ed Keller, "FTC to Social Marketers: Keep It Real or We'll Take Action," MediaBizBloggers, September 1, 2010.

Playing Doctor

2010-08-24T14:31:00.000-07:00

You might be interested in my new book about the history of the prime-time doctor show formula and its relation to the sociopolitics of medicine. Called Playing Doctor: Television, Storytelling and Medical Power, it’s a revision and expansion of my book that Oxford University Press published in 1989.

Annenberg’s PR people put together a video in which I discuss some themes of the book. With clips from shows (implemented in a fair-use fashion), it clocks in a 9 minutes, 39 seconds.

http://www.youtube.com/annenbergschool#p/a/u/0/w6_HCSFXWww

The University of Michigan Press site for the book is here:

http://www.press.umich.edu/titleDetailDesc.do;jsessionid=2292CD6C5545748970148891827D8741?id=354930

China Says No to Film Ratings

2010-08-24T14:21:00.000-07:00

China's top movie-industry regulator, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, has put a lid on the notion of a film classification system. A spokesman said that the government believes such a system is "inappropriate."

At present, censorship is the pathe used to decide about the release of films. "[F]lmmakers in China believe that if the censor's scissors were replaced with a reliable ratings system, helmers and producers could take more risks with content and story. The censorship process also takes a long time, meaning there can often be a hiatus between a pic's international bow and its Chinese preem, giving pirates ample time to flood the market with good DVD copies of the movie for impatient filmgoers."

From Clifford Coonan, "China Says No to Film Ratings," Variety, August 23, 2010.

Clearspring Not So Clear on Privacy

2010-08-20T09:00:00.000-07:00

Clearspring Technologies is using its "Add This" button to follow people and sell the resulting data to marketers. " The button allows users to alert friends and contacts to interesting or useful material on the Web. For instance, with a click, a news article could be sent to a friend over email or posted to a site like Facebook Inc." Critics, however, see the activity as a secret way to intrude on people's privacy.

Some industry practitioners have no qualms about the practice. "There's a new sharing economy," says ShareThis CEO Tim Schigel," another firm that carries it out.

- From Emily Steel, "As Web Surfers Share, Marketers Track," Wall Street Journal, August 19, 2010

Internet vs Mobile Device in Emerging Countries

2010-08-19T13:13:00.000-07:00

Interesting Nielsen report on the relative use and growth of the internet and cell phone.

One of the key points: “Instead of a $20,000 threshold [GDP which is the 50% threshold for internet connectivity], in many countries mobile phone penetration exceeds 50% with a per capita GDP as low as $5,000. In middle income countries such as Russia and Saudi Arabia, mobile phone penetration rates are even higher than those of more advanced economies such as the U.S. and Canada because mobile is an affordable, accessible alternative to the Internet. Altogether, the analysis on every dimension suggests that mobile communication is a truly disruptive phenomenon, acting on a global scale.”

From Venkatsh Bala, "Going Global Means Going Mobile in Emerging Markets," NielsenWire, April 17, 2010

Gannett's Hyperlocal-Sports Play

2010-08-19T08:33:00.000-07:00

Gannett is among the many newspaper groups that are broadening their online strategies in search of more online visitors and therefore more advertising as readership and advertising of the print product continues to decline. A popular tack among papers is to go "hyperlocal" online, and Gannett is adding high school sports to its coverage. The company owns HighSchoolSports.net, and will distribute its stories into 100 separate sites that aim of attract people (and advertisers) in particular areas where Gannett owns community papers. The sites will stand alone but will also be linked to the community papers, given them more online material for readers and advertisers. Gannett hopes to reach about 9.4 million people with this hyperlocal play.

From: "Gannett Goes Hyperlocal WIth HighSchoolSports.Net," PaidContent.org, August 18, 2010.

Ad Spending on Internet Tops TV in UK

2009-10-01T06:50:00.000-07:00

This is the first major market where online has overtaken television to become the biggest single medium.

- Guy Phillipson, head of the British the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB)

In Kate Holden, "UK Internet ad spend overtakes TV for first time," Reuters, September 30, 2009

The recession in the UK has caused a general advertising slump, and that has affected the growth of internet advertising there. Nevertheless, advertisers have continued to built their presence on the internet at a faster pace than in other media. "Spending on Internet advertising in Britain grew 4.6 percent in the first half of 2009, outperforming the wider ad sector, which slumped 17 percent, and making it the country's biggest ad medium ahead of TV." One consequence is that the internet has pulled ahead of television as the medium drawing the most advertising pounds.

According to the report from the UK's IAB, "ad spending on the Internet grew to 1.75 billion pounds, with the medium accounting for 23.5 percent of all spend, ahead of television for the first time." One commentator suggested that the shift to online reflects a belief that search advertising and other "clickable" ads show better than with traditional media how successful the ad spending has been. It will be important to see whether this trend continues when the recession ends.

Google Fast Flip Rethinks the Magazine

2009-09-16T11:36:00.000-07:00

There's no grand plan here, nothing more to this other than learning.

-Martin Nisenholtz, Senior VP of Operations, New York Times

In Staci D. Kramer, "Google Fast Flip Goes Live," PaidContent.Org, September 15, 2009

Google Labs released an experimental program it calls Fast Flip, the purpose of which is to allow users to quickly move ("flip") through the first pages of various articles in newspapers and magazines that Google's software has arranged by topic. What makes this different from Google News or from simply using Google to search for a topic is that Fast Flip allows readers to actually read the first page of an article before having to wait for it to load. If the reader likes it, he or she can continue by clicking so that the whole thing comes onto the screen. If the reader doesn't want to read that one but wants to stay with the theme, the reader can move to the next article which also has the first page visible for easy reading.

Google secured the permission of many web publishers so that it could use their pages and logos directly on the Fast Flip main page instead of having text links to them. Google also agreed to share any future advertising revenue with the publishers if they place Google-brokered ads on the pages that show up on Fast Flip. As the Times' Nisenholtz notes, though, at this point the venture is experimental, not moneymaking.

Just as Google News encourages people to rethink the meaning of a newspaper and its potential for personalization, so Google Fast Flip promises to challenge the meaning of a magazine by unmooring articles from their original locations, displaying them in a page-flip manner with articles on a similar topic, and even allowing people to personalize this process and share it with others. Traditional magazine firms will watch this development nervously. Depending on how big they are and how they react, it may eventually help or hurt their bottom line.

Blurring the Boundaries of Advertising and PR

2009-08-11T13:40:00.000-07:00

This is business Darwinism now.

- Sissy DeMaria, president of Coral Gables public relations firm Kreps DeMaria

In Clifford M. Marks, "PR and Advertising Are at a Crossroads," Miami Herald, August 10, 2009

For decades, most people working in advertising public relations saw clear differences between the two businesses. "Madison Avenue types took care of the 30-second spots, the billboards and the full-page ad in Sunday's paper. Their cousins in public relations drafted press releases, networked with reporters to land favorable coverage and helped handle crises that drew negative media attention." Now, MySpace and other sites are blurring the question of what kinds of marketing messages are PR and what are advertising. Moreover, they realize that in the new world to reach consumers they have to use a wide variety of strategies to reach their target audiences--even if the strategies don't fit traditional definitions of advertising or PR.

``Public relations and advertising are blending much more than they did in the past,'' says Jeff Steinhour, director of content management at Coconut Grove-based advertising agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky. ``They used to be separate worlds -- like church and state. Now you're seeing them at the same meetings at the same time.''

Netflix Contest Points to Statistical Future

2009-08-06T06:59:00.000-07:00

A lot of these techniques will propagate across the internet.

- Lester Mackey, Ph.D. Candidate at the Statistical Artificial Intelligence Lab at UC Berkeley

In Steve Lohr, "Netflix Competitors Learn the Power of Teamwork," New York Times, July 27, 2009.

Netflex has since 2006 offered $1 million to the person or group that can improve its recommendation engine by at least 10%. A recommendation engine is a computing medel that predicts "what a person might enjoy based on statistical scoring of that person's stated preferences, past consumption patterns, and similar choices made by others." Netflix and other firms make these predictions based on what their customers do; Google offers search results and ads based on analyses of billions of clicks on its results. The contest is notable for encouraging the creation of teams of contestants with different types of statistical skills. The team with the best chance to win, for example, has members with a variety of skills who live in US, Canada, Austria and Israel.

Statistical evaluations of media audiences are on the upswing, and they will affect how companies and media firms think about us, and what they send us. The collection of such data often may also infringe on some people's notions of privacy.

Fixations on Facebook

2009-07-23T14:11:00.000-07:00

If your company is facing tight margins and low profitability, as many are now, then how can you accept any work distractions that drain your overall productivity?

- Rebecca Wettemann, vice president of research for Nucleus Research, an internet technology research firm

In Sharon Gaudin, "Facebook Use Cuts Productivity at Work," Computerworld, July 22, 2009

In a survey of 237 employees of companies that don't restrict Facebook in the workplace, Nucleus found that 77% do in fact use it during work hours. 87% of those said they had no clear business reason for using the site. Separately, an Ohio State University found that "college students who use Facebook spend less time studying and have lower grades than students who don't use the popular social networking site."

You would think that these findings along with Nielsen’s assertion that “people spend more time on Facebook than any on other Web site” would make Facebook by far the wealthiest place on the web (maybe on the planet) from advertising money. That spot still belongs to Google, for interesting reasons. One of them is that advertisers worry that people are blind to ads when using social media. In that connection, an advertising executive at a conference asked rhetorically why anyone would want to see an ad when she was composing a note breaking up with her boyfriend.

Are Ringtones a Public Performance?

2009-07-10T12:49:00.000-07:00

A finding that consumers infringe the public performance right each time their phones ring in public threatens to stigmatize millions of consumers as lawbreakers.

- Digital rights organizations Electronic Frontier Foundation, Center for Democracy & Technology and Public Knowledge

In Wendy Davis, "ASCAP Strikes Sour Chord With Consumer Advocates," Online Media Daily, July 6, 2009

The Electronic Frontier Foundation, Center for Democracy & Technology and Public Knowledge have together filed papers asking a Federal district court in New York City to rule against the American Society of Composers and Publishers (ASCAP). ASCAP was founded in 1914 to collect money--"licensing fees"--for its members whose copyrighted musical compositions are performed in public, including on radio and in theaters. In recent years, ASCAP has taken the initiative to collect licensing fees in digital media such as the internet. Now the organization is arguing that it is entitled to licensing fees for ringtones because, it says, the playing of ringtones is a "public performance." It wants AT&T to pay the fee for the ringtones it sells to its customers.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation, Center for Democracy & Technology and Public Knowledge reject ASCAP's argument about the public nature of a mobile phone's ring, comparing it to a person playing a CD in a car with the window down. The group notes too, that if the court forces AT&T to pay, the charges will be extended to consumers.

The Fall of the Large Retail Music Store

2009-06-16T11:00:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately the large retail music store is a dinosaur. It does matter because it was also a social gathering space, and that's one thing that buying music online lacks.

- Tony Beliech, a former Virgin Megastore employee

In Ben Sisario, "Retailing Era Closes With Music Megastore," New York Times, June 15, 2009

The real estate firms that own the last of the large record stores in New York City have determined that the land is worth far more than the store sales are worth. They are consequently shutting the store and leasing the location to a fashion chain. Mundane as this reason for closing is, it does reflect the larger trend away from CDs and other physical music recordings. "From the industry's peak in 2000 -- when some 785 million albums were sold -- until the end of 2008, album sales fell 45 percent, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Even with the rise of iTunes and other online outlets, however, CDs have remained consumers' format of choice, though that advantage is slipping. As recently as 2006, CDs accounted for more than 90 percent of album sales. Last year that proportion dropped to 84 percent, and so far in 2009 it is 77 percent."

There are also still many small music stores in New York City, some even still selling vinyl records. Most album sales today are made at chains such as Walmart and Best Buy; FYE is also a factor. ''The Titanic that is physical media started slowly sinking in 2000,'' said Michael McGuire, an analyst with Gartner, a market research firm, when asked about Virgin. ''Certainly this is a traumatic event for those who worked there, but it's an expected product of the digital transition.''

The Rise of Web Video

2009-06-03T06:57:00.000-07:00

[B]roadcast mode is dead. Now is the time for co-creation, user distribution and a true democratization of video content.

Tom Smith, managing director of Trendstream

In Gavin O'Malley, "Report: Online Video Fastest-Growing Medium In The History Of The World," Online Media Daily, May 29, 2009

Trendstream is a social media research consultancy, and so it has a vested interest in highlighting the popularity of the rapid growth taking place in the sharing of online video. The major broadcast and cable networks would dismiss Smith's comment. They would point out that the viewing of broadcast and cable television still takes up substantially over 95% of Americans' time with video. Nevertheless, Trendstream is using its findings from a survey (carried our by research firm Lighstream) of 1,000 "active web users" to point to the quick growth of watching clips online. The company claims that "with 72% of US Web users watching clips online, Web video outstrips both blogging and social networking, and is now the leading 'social media platform.'"

In recent months Hulu and other sites for network-quality video have gotten much news, but Trendstream notes that most of what goes on around video is the downloading and uploading of short clips. Moreover, "users of all ages now generate far more content than traditional broadcasters and collectively contribute the majority of video content to the Web."

Beyond TV's 30-Second Commercial

2009-05-12T07:37:00.000-07:00

...the whole industry is moving toward a different model where deciding whether something is a hit or not is not just based on how much you charge for 30 seconds of advertising.

Brad Adgate, senior vice president for research at Horizon Media

In Edward Wyatt, "Despite Lower Ratings, Cash Flow Rises for ‘Idol’," New York Times, May 10, 2009

Despite declines in audience ratings over the past few years, the American Idol TV show is still making enormous--and growing--revenues for its owners. But the money is increasingly coming from more than the standard 30 second commercial: "The deals, which include products as disparate as ice cream and trading cards, as well as the more familiar partnerships with iTunes and AT&T, have driven tremendous growth in the profitability of “American Idol,” according to the public financial statements of the parent of 19 Entertainment, the company founded by Simon Fuller, the creator of the show." Fox Television, which broadcasts the show, also makes money by spinning off syndicated versions of it.

The activity is clearly not limited to Idol. Everyone in TV is trying to find "ancillary revenue streams" for their materials as audiences for individual programs decline with channel fragmentation and the amounts networks can charge for commercials consequently decline as well. One gauge sponsors of program deals like to see is audience "engagement" in the material. And Idol certainly still has that: "Last week, viewers cast 64 million votes, the most ever for a nonfinale episode."

Web Publishers Organize to Demand Ad Revenues From Sites Using Their Material

2009-04-22T06:41:00.000-07:00

What we are saying is maybe there is a middle ground If people are taking full copies of your content—why don't you take a revenue share?

Jim Pitkow, CEO of Attributor Corporation

In Jessica E. Vascellaro, "Startup Tries to Rally Publishers With Ad-Sharing Proposal," Wall Street Journal, April 21, 2009

Attributor has technology that identifies copies of its clients' articles and videos that websites take from other sites. Sometimes the sites use full copies, which is a copyright violation. WHen it finds such content, Attributor sends the sites a note requesting that that they the content off the site. Attributor now has a new approach: It wants to allow sites to keep the content up but to share the advertising revenue they generate with the copyright holder. It has organized a group of publishers, called the Fair Syndication Coalition, to go to the advertising networks that serve ads on pages that are full copies of copyrighted material and demand some of the money that the ad networks would send to the sites carrying the material.

This approach is by no means straightforward. It's by no means clear that the ad networks will want to share the money without first getting permission from the websites. Moreover, many sites deal with more than one advertising network. It might be difficult to notify the relevant party of a copyright violation.

A larger question, which the article doesn't discuss, is whether the Fair Syndication Coalition will eventually go beyond wanting cash for full article to wanting cash for use of part of the article-- an activity called scraping. That approach will be sure to raise much controversy among websites.

Email Marketing and Politics

2009-04-14T12:43:00.000-07:00

This is the first time a politician of any kind has used the internet for daily one-to-one dialogue.

- Steve Cone, Chief Marketing Officer at Epsilon, a database marketing agency

In Michael Bush, "Why Watch Obama? Here Are 13 Million Reasons," Advertising Age, April 13, 2009

During the presidential campaign, President Barack Obama amassed a database of 13 million fervent supporters. After the campaign the Democratic National Committee took over the database and began an email campaign to reinforce and mobilize Obama supporters for the long haul. "Turn out the database has continued to be one of his biggest assets, and the 'permanent campaign,' as it has been dubbed, continued to roll on after the election, with e-mails from President Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama and campaign manager David Plouffe asking supporters to identify ways to get involved in their communities, donate money to the DNC and to the inauguration ceremony." For example, the president recently signed one email that asked people to support his proposed budget by phoning the email recipient's local congressional representatives. (The phone number was included in the email.)

Marketers are marveling at the effectiveness and organization behind the activity, which they say consumer products firms should learn. But some worry that the DNC might be starting to commit an email sin that too many marketers commit: Sending out too many emails and risking the audience's annoyance.

Ghostwriting Tweets: Part of PR's Future

2009-04-02T06:11:00.000-07:00

It’s 140 characters. It’s so few characters. If you need a ghostwriter for that, I feel sorry for you.

- Shaquille O'Neil

Noam Cohen, "When Stars Twitter, a Ghost May Be Lurking," New York Times, March 26, 2009

Basketball star O'Neil is reflecting the "purist" notion that many athletes take toward the use of Twitter, a microblogging tool that allows people to post messages 140 characters in length. And while certain celebrities agree with O'Neil, others have people writing in their name to the thousands, even hundreds of thousands, who follow their "tweets."

While many online commentators think the Twitter ghost-writing practice is in bad faith, defenders of the practice insist that stars are brands with personas. Just as companies have twitter feeds that show their products well, so celebrity brands should have tweets that reflect a public-relations approach. The point is reflected in comments by a business partner of rapper 50 Cent, who does not write tweets signed by him: "He doesn’t actually use Twitter,” Chris Romero said of 50 Cent, “but the energy of it is all him.”

Canoe Ventures Paddles to Cable's Future

2009-03-27T07:43:00.000-07:00

The cable industry gets it. We have 18-year olds. We know what the internet is. We are not Luddites.

- David Verklin, CEO of Canoe Ventures

In Wayne Friedman, "Death Greatly Exaggerated," Media Daily News, March 25, 2009

People are still watching lots of "television," according to Nielsen. The company found that viewing in 2008 increased five minutes in 2007 over 2008. Manish Bhatia, president of advanced digital services for the Nielsen Company, says the "average person spends two minutes watching a video online. If I were to fast-forward, we will probably be spending more -- not less -- time with TV."

But what "television" means is changing dramatically. As Bhatia notes, people interactions with video online is pushing programmers and marketers to transform TV into an interactive medium. That is where Canoe paddles in. It is a consortium of cable operators representing 96% of U.S. cable TV homes. By late 2009, , will be able to send targeted commercials to zones based on incomes. In an example, Verklin said “American Express could get to advertise their Green card nationally, while its upscale gold card will target a ‘zone’—households with income of over $100,000.” He added that “the holy grail of TV marketers” will happen by around 2012, when advertisers will be able to customize their offers to individual households based on a huge variety of data about them.

By 2012 or a bit later, "television" to people may well mean bringing internet video, broadcast stations, and cable networks together to the large flatscreen home set, as well as to desktops and laptops. To attract marketer-specific audiences, cable operators may well begin to customize news and entertainment as well as ads based on viewing, demographic and lifestyle data. All this raises important issues around privacy as well as placing people in information "silos" based on marketing categories.

Strategizing About The New York Times' Future Revenues

2009-03-15T08:27:00.000-07:00

Journalism is being transfigured by the new information ecosystem and its very definition is changing. Given the volcanic explosion of Web sites, search engines and social networking channels, how could it not?

High-quality journalism – from covering City Hall or Iraq – is getting harder and harder to pay for. Traditional revenue streams are, in many cases, anemic and getting weaker. Due to the combination of secular and cyclical pressures I mentioned earlier, the immediate future looks, at minimum, grim.”

One of the many reasons why such a solution [ie, a any answer on how to charge for content] is so elusive is that what works for The New York Times is not going to work for Newsday or The LA Times; what works for NYTimes.com is not going to be a solution for Politico, Salon or Slate. As I will discuss shortly, each site has a different relationship to the Internet and has to be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.”

We have to respond to their [ie the web audience’s] desire to do something with the content we make. Our readers want to share it, or blog it, or comment on it, or tweet it. They want to use our journalism as raw material for what they make. This can be a very good thing because it does enhance our audiences’ involvement with our sites, but it also takes us back to issues of authority and what is and is not “Real Journalism.” … Our strategy must be rooted in the fundamental premise that we must be OF the Internet, not merely ON it, requiring all of us to move from publishing our content on the Web to becoming full Web publishers.

- Arthur Sulzberger, Jr, chairman of The New York Times, in Staci Kramer, Weekend Reading: NYT’s Sulzberger Admits Need For More Paid Content, PaidContent.Org, March 13, 2009

Sulzberger gave an interesting talk at Stony Brook University on March 12, 2009, about the Times’ approach to its precarious new environment. The quotes above are interesting excerpts. The key issue (also echoed by Times Sernior VP of Digital Operations Martin Nissenholtz in the Times itself recently) is finding ways to charge for content while not derailing the huge audiences the Times gets through search engine and blog links and that attract advertisers.

Broadway Association Pushes Against WIFI's Use of "White Spaces"

2009-03-05T12:58:00.000-08:00

We have no interest in standing in the way of progress. We just want to make sure that we are not at a disadvantage.

- Tom Ferrugia, director of government relations for the Broadway League

In Wendy Davis, "Broadcasters, Broadway Appeal FCC's 'White Spaces' Decision," Media Daily News, March 4, 2009

The Broadway League of New York, a trade association for the theater industry, has asked the Second Circuit Court of Appeals to reverse the Federal Communications Commission's November decision on the use of so-called white spaces. White spaces are radio airwaves not used by television broadcasters. The Commission's intent was to open that space to use for wireless internet activities because of that part of the spectrum's capability of going through walls. The wireless internet frequencies used today do not do that, prompting the Republican head of the FCC to support the move as "WIFI on steroids."

TV broadcasters, though, fear that the unlicensed use of the white spaces will lead to interference with television signals. Broadway performers also worry that WIFI use on the white spaces will interfere with wireless microphones that work on frequencies close to the white spaces. "We feel that we have enough evidence to demonstrate that the order was published without sufficient consideration of some of the technical information that the FCC engineers received," Ferrugia said. The Broadway League and others hope that the Court of Appeals will force the FCC to look more carefully at the issue.

Can Hosting Illegal Music Links Be Legal?

2009-02-27T12:39:00.000-08:00

Defendants deliberately refuse to take any meaningful steps to deter the rampant infringement on their Web sites, even though they have the ability to do so.

- EMI, in a lawsuit against the SeeqPod and Favtape music sites

In Wendy Davis, "EMI Sues Music Search Engine, On-Demand Site," Online Media Daily, February 25, 2009

The record label EMI is suing music search engine SeeqPod, music-on-demand site Favtape, and the companies' investors for copyright infringement. EMI says that the two are helping consumers to procure copyrighted music that is circulating on the web illegally. The activities of the sites, however, raise difficult issues regarding the definition of copyright infringement. According to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act's, even websites that host materials found to be violating copyright are not liable if they take off the material as soon as they find out. Courts have tended to safe harbor provisions might protect even companies that host infringing material from liability, provided they remove it in response to takedown requests. Links to unlawful material would also seem to be exempt until the firms posting the links are notified they should not be there.

The record label's executives contend, however, that SeeqPod and Favtape know that many of their links are to illegally versions of songs, and that this knowledge should make what they are doing illegal. They further contend that sites that legally license the label's music are being harmed by the existence of Seeq and Favtape.

SeeqPod already faces a separate copyright lawsuit by Warner Music, filed in January 2008. Both cases raise an important issue that will help shape the ability of the music labels to control their music online.

How Important Is Distribution Now?

2009-02-18T05:38:00.000-08:00

The gatekeepers are dead ... platforms are dead. Content providers are going to fundamentally win.

- Gary Vaynerchuk, founder and host of the video blog Wine Library TV

In Gavin O'Malley, Industry Leaders Discuss TV, Facebook At Social Summit, Online Media Daily, February 11, 2009

Speaking on a panel at an industry meeting called SocComm: The Social Communication Summit, Vaynerchuk argued that distribution was longer a powerful factor in deciding the success of content. He asserted that because of new digital platforms the individual creators of content can distribute material easily by themselves and so do not need intermediaries--or "gatekeepers"--that help them present materials to audiences for a fee. The result, he said, is that The Wall Street Journal and Fox Broadcasting are "fundamentally out of business." By contrast, he feels that Facebook will be the medium through which creators get out their materials to huge numbers of people.

Others at the conference disagreed strongly. Kenny Miller, EVP of MTV Networks Global Digital Media group noted that distributors are still important for funding and marketing; calling attention to a media product in today's world still takes a lot of work. "The idea that every content creator is going to go out there and fund their own show, I think, is unrealistic," he said. Steven Greenberg--who left his post as president of Columbia Records in 2007 to head up a wb-based music label S-Curve Records--made the case for traditional talent management and media models. "Some violinists are really great, but they are horrible entrepreneurs," said Greenberg. What's more, "Columbia and others are still content owners," he said. "There is still room for collaboration."

Amid the roiling changes of the new digital system, it is tempting to believe that production is everything and that distribution has become a cheap commodity in the presence of blogs, RSS feeds and other vehicles. How much importance one places on the impact of this ease of distribution depends to a certain extent on one's point of view. Yochai Benkler, in The Wealth of Networks, would certainly emphasize it. But major media firms are proceeding with the idea that certain distribution routes (including the web) are crucial to master. The most popular sites online are, in fact, owned by major media firms with only a few exceptions (such as Facebook).

The RIAA's Next Step?

2009-01-30T11:31:00.000-08:00

Perhaps we have a chance to rebuild the music business after a period of tremendous looting.

- Rick Carnes, president, songwriters Guild of America

In Greg Sandoval, "Sources: AT&T, Comcast may help RIAA foil piracy," CNet.com, January 28, 2009

Reliable rumors are circulating that AT&T and Comcast, two of the nation's largest Internet service providers, will be among a group of internet service providers (ISPs) that help the Recording Industry Association of Amera (RIAA) to battle illegal file sharing. The RIAA is a lobying group that represents the four largest recording companies. It said last month that it would no longer battle piracy by filing lawsuits against individuals. This approach through the ISPs may represent their new tack.

The approach would involve the RIAA's telling the ISP to send a presumed copyright violator a "take-down notice"--a request that the person stop offering music files for uploading onto the internet. If the person doesn't listen by the third notice, the ISP would stop the person's internet connection. "The entertainment industry has been trying to get laws passed throughout the world that would force ISPs to implement a 'three strikes' policy."

No word has emerged so far about what the music industry would give ISPs in return for their circulation of the notices and for pulling subscription-paying customers off their services. One model may be found in Disney's relation with Verizon. In return for sending the take-down notices, Verizon got permission to transmit twelve Disney TV channels over its broaband (FiOS) network.

A New Goodwill Era Toward Social PR?

2009-01-29T14:03:00.000-08:00

Corporate America deserves, in this instance, a pat on the back.

- Bon Jovi, on Oprah! TV show, quoted in Emily Bryson York, "Starbuck's Volunteer Push Gets Boost From 'Oprah Effect'," Advertising Age, January 1, 2009.

Bon Jovi and Oprah Winfrey both heralded Starbucks' campaign to promote volunteerism as part of the new era of social concern ushered in by the presidency of Barak Obama. The Starbuck "I'm In" campaign encourages consumers to pledge five hours of community service during 2009. If you commit to doing that at Starbucks between now and Sunday, you'll get a free coffee.

Starbucks contacted Oprah after an Election Day free-coffee promotion. When she liked the idea, the public relations blitz began. "The chain later organized an ad buy at oprah.com. Online ads promoting "I'm In" are also appearing at Slate, Huffington Post, NBC.com, NYTimes.com, CNN and Facebook, among other sites."

Of course, a cynic would say that the troubled coffee chain is simply riding a wave of Obama love with an activity--the circulation of free cofee--that it has done in the past only for its own publicity. Moreover, no one will track whether the people who pledge the five hours to get coffee actually carry out their promise. But Oprah, Bon Jovi and others chose to be optimistic. Perhaps it was the halo-effect of the good will surrounding the new president.

Seattle Newspaper at a Major Turning Point

2009-01-13T06:52:00.000-08:00

One thing is clear: at the end of the sale process, we do not see ourselves publishing in print.

- Steven Swartz, president of the Hearst Corp.‘s newspaper division

In David Kaplan, "Hearst Says Seattle P-I Will Either Be Sold, Close Or Go Web-Only," PaidContent.Org, January 9, 2009

Reflecting the increasingly dismal situation of the U.S. newspaper industry, Hearst Corporation has decided that it can no longer support the Seattle Post Intelligencer, the weaker of two dailies in the city. Steven Swartz said the paper’s losses have been escalating steadily for the past nine years. The paper was founded in 1863. "Publicly, Hearst sees three possibilities for the Seattle P-I, which is one of only two of the city’s daily papers: it will either be sold, turned into a web-only publication or shuttered." Hearst is giving itself thirty days to find a buyer, and then will turn to the other options.

Hearst owns 15 other papers around the US, including the San Francisco Chronicle. It and other newspaper firms are facing the twin problems of lower print circulations, difficulty of making the lost print money from online growth, and the current recession.

Courts Seem to Protect Privacy Over Defamation

2009-01-11T14:08:00.000-08:00

...We're beginning to think that a judge might be reluctant to rule as a matter of law that these stzatements aren't capable of a defamatory meaning.

- Sam Bayard, assistant director of Citizen Media Law Project

In Wendy Davis, "Model: I Am Not a Skank," Online Media Daily, January 7, 2009

Model Liskula Gentile Cohen has asked a New York court to force Google to reveal the name of a person who called her "skankiest in NYC," libeling her (she says) as promiscuous. A Google spokesperson said that while the firm sympathesize with victims of "cyberbullying," it also respects the privacy of its users. Whether the judge would consider the word skankiest as libel would depend on whether he considers the word fact rather than opinion. At least one court in California has held that using the term skank against someone is not libel because it is not a factual statement. A New York court also ruled that comments that might be considered factually negative (that a person is a bigot and has "no interest in helping the private school community") were actually opinions and so could remain anonymous. The next hearing in the Cohen case is scheduled for January 26.

Cable Makes Major Ratings Gains Against Broadcast in 2008

2009-01-01T14:40:00.000-08:00

We're not just talking about a substantial number of people, but the biggest loss ever.

- Jack Wakshlag, Turner Broadcasting's Chief Research Officer at Turner Broadcasting System

In Daniel Frankel, "Cablers Shine, Broadcast Struggles," Variety, December 31, 2008

According to Jack Wakshlag, who directs research at Turner, 37 ad-supported cable networks enjoyed their best-ever primetime audience deliveries. Among them were USA, TNT, Fox News, Discovery Health, and History Channel. The broadcast networks were the losers, said Wakshlag. That, he suggested, is why basic cable added 5 million viewers to its universe since the beginning of the 2007-08 TV season.

Observers offer several reasons for the shift toward cable during 2008. A writers strike in early 2008 forced broadcast network repeats and led viewers looking for new fare toward the networks. Olympic coverage helped NBC-U's Bravo cable network and the presidential campaign helped Fox. In addition, original scripted series such as Burn Notice on USA and The Closer on TNT attracted increasing numbers of viewers.

Cable's victory is yet another knock at the major broadcast networks, which have been suffering ratings declines and financial pressures. A key question is whether cable's good fortunes will last.

The Financial Future of Video Game Firms

2008-12-12T06:07:00.000-08:00

We do believe that the continued popularity of our products, even during these tough economic times, are evidence that consumers are judging us as a good value and a great way to engage in social interaction.

-Denise Kaigler, vice president of corporate affairs for Nintendo America

Video gaming is not immune. It's certainly been robust over the last couple of years, and it's gotten much more popular, and a much broader install base of users, but they're certainly not immune, especially if it's a deep recession.

- Van Baker, analyst for Gartner

In Daniel Terdiman, "Is the video game industry recession-proof?" CNet, November 25, 2008

The quotes represent two views of an industry that is used to flying high. Certainly Nintendo and other videogame companies are hoping that people will continue to buy video games despite the sharp economic downturn. Consumer surveys suggest that people consider video games important elements of their leisure. And it's hard to ignore that on November 13, Blizzard Entertainment's Wrath of the Lich King, the second expansion to the mega-hit, World of Warcraft, broke the for one-day sales for a PC game. It sold 2.8 million units of the $40 upgrade on that first day of release.

Nevertheless, there are observers who argue that the notion that the video game is recession-proof is misguided, and they see clouds ahead for the video game companies. They suggest that if the recession deepens, as expected, people will be watching their money very closely and will be loath to spend even $50 for a game. The industry may do better than other electronics areas (such as large flatscreen TVs), but it's growth will slow substantially. It is no accident, they say, that the stocks of the leading firms have tended to fall even lower than the general market.

Long-term things will undoubtedly improve, but some experts on the industry predict that the big video-game makers will have a tough time. One critic is Corey Bridges, a co-founder of the virtual world platform developer The Multiverse Network. He believes that the fundamental problems facing the industry have more to do with the fact that its biggest publishers design and distribute their games aro. the dominance of giant publishers like EA and their general reliance on physical, in-the-box, units, can't hold up. Instead, he said, "new tools, ubiquitous broadband and hungry independent developers are going to all combine to eat away at the continued supremacy of the $60 big-name title. And that could spell big trouble for the industry."

Profiting from Internet Radio is Tough

2008-12-05T11:35:00.000-08:00

It's a real shame because Yahoo was such a pioneer in this field. It should serve as a cautionary tale of what can happen when copyright holders want too much money.

- Tim Westergren, founder and chief strategy officer of the Pandora web music service

In Michael Liedtke, "Rising royalties send Yahoo's Launchcast to CBS," Associated Press via The Industry Standard, December 4, 2008

Yahoo Launchcast is the second major music website this year to turn to CBS for streaming its internet radio services and the ads connected to them. AOL Radio, owned by Time Warner Inc., hooked up with CBS in June, 2008. Both Yahoo and AOL were responding to a March 2007 decision by the U.S. Copyright Royalty Board that raised the royalties for music streamed over online radio. "That aided the music industry, which is desperate to offset steadily declining revenue from compact disc sales, but it meant by some estimates that royalties could eat 70 percent of Internet radio stations' revenue." Yahoo's executives have also been trying to cut costs substantially in the face of revenue shortfalls.

CBS Radio can afford to carry this type of streaming despite the higher royalty rates for two reasons. One is that some of its internet radio channels steam news and sports-talk formats that attract advertising put do not have to pay music royalities. Launchcast's music-only approach, playing News and sports-talk stations don't have to pay the higher rates because they don't play music. The second reason is that CBS executives believe that they can target ads to listeners better than Launchcast could--based on ZIP codes--and that this ability will help them garner more advertising money while playing music.

Many internet streaming companies, including much-acclaimed Pandora, are under strong financial pressure. Clearly, as Tim Westergren suggests, the Royalty Board's ruling has made a web filled with a huge number of independent music streamers a thing of the past.

Questioning the AP's Future

2008-11-26T10:54:00.000-08:00

Right now, the biggest thing you're fighting is the overall sense of impending doom.

- Bernie Lunzer, president of the Newspaper Guild

In Erik Sass, "Ripple Effect: Newspaper Cuts Hit AP, Newspaper Guild," Mediapost Daily News, November 23, 2008

Newspapers around the United States are suffering from the convergence of a secular trend and cyclical phenomenon. The secular (longterm) trend is the decline in readership of print papers over the decades and the rise of the web for estwhile newspaper specialities such as classified, auto, and movie advertising. Although the growth of advertising on newspaper websites has been strong, the revenues lost by print editions to the have not been anything near those gained. The "cyclical" phenomenon is the current fiscal crisis which has led to a business recession and so a further decline in the revenues papers bring in from their printed editions. Important newspapers such as the Chicago Tribune lie at the edge of bankrupcy, and hundreds of their workers have been let go.

"The Newspaper Guild said it has seen membership rolls shrink by about 2,000 over the last year, reflecting the sweeping push by newspaper publishers to reduce their workforces through buyouts, attrition, and layoffs over the last couple of years. That equals about $200,000 of membership dues." This "collapse" of the newspaper industry is also affecting the Associated Press and the Newspaper Guild, which are both highly dependent on the health of the industry . Beyond the AP’s high cost in the terrible newspaper economy, part of the problem newspapers have with the AP is that because readers can read its stories throughout the web, papers no longer really have a monopoly of AP news in their areas. Because of that and the AP’s supposed increased concentration on feature stories have convinced publishers it doesn’t pay to keep it.

Newspapers' bad relations with the AP might end before they give up their connections. Papers must give two years' notice, and the AP could still convince them to stay. But the fact that newspapers did give notice is one example of the broad changes coursing through the news industry.

The Rise of Product Integration

2008-11-17T07:28:00.000-08:00

Every single first-year show we’ve launched has an advertising partner in place, which has probably never happened in broadcast TV.

- Ben Silverman, co-chairman of NBC Entertainment

In Brian Stelter, "Low Ratings End Show and a Product Placement," The New York Times, November 13, 2008

When NBC ordered the cancellation of My Worst Enemy recently, it meant more than the demise of a series that many in the network were sure would succeed. It also marked the end of a program that it had sculpted to highlight General Motors cars in a deal that had GM underwriting some of the production costs. Such "product integration" deals are becoming common on television, and NBC's Silverman is one of their greatest proponents on NBC-Universal's broadcast and cable properties. The reasoning behind it is straightforward: The network gets money to help create the programs, while advertisers get the ability to present their products within programs at a time when viewers are increasingly likely to use DVRs to fast-forward through regular commercials.

In the case of My Own Worst Enemy, NBC and GM "teamed up early in the production process, created commercials together and carefully added the Camaro and Traverse brands to the story lines." The lead character, played by Christian Slater, had two personalities; he drove the Traverse sport utility vehicle in his ordinary middle-class father manifestation and the Camaro converticle when a secret agent. Of course, even the best laid plans cannot guarantee success with the audience, and Nielsen's ratings doomed the show.

The demise of My Own Enemy by no means spells the demise of the basic product-integration business model. Quite the contrary: NBC not only has built several current shows around advertiser interests (including Knight Rider, with Ford), it is pushing the concept forward with gusto and sensitivity to the interests of specific advertisers. In the words of Marc Graboff, the other co-chair on NBC Entertainment, "It's not about sticking a Coke can on a desk anymore. It's an evolving form."

The TV Set as a Social Hub

2008-11-12T07:43:00.000-08:00

The TV set is evolving and content itself is evolving

- Michael Gartenberg, an analyst at Jupitermedia Corp.

In Christopher Lawton, "TV+Social Network=? " The Wall Street Journal, October 27, 2008

The idea of television as a domestic box that sends programs to homes but doesn't not allow anything else is increasingly out of date. Many cable and satellite systems allow video on demand, and entertainment consoles by Apple and Microsoft allow people to view internet content on their big screens. Increasingly, even people's interactions with their friends and relatives are moving through the TV set.

While many still have to go to their internet-connected computer to interact with others about what they are viewing on their TV, that is changing. A growing number of tools are allowing people to not only view a broader type of programming on their TVs, they are allowing people to share their experiences. "The movement was pioneered in part by videogame-console makers such as Microsoft as a way to connect hard-core gamers [on its Xbox] for competitive matches, and it is gaining momentum as those companies and others seek to entice a broader audience to chat with friends, share photos and recommend movies and music over their television screens."

Microsoft is working to enhance the features of its gaming console that allow people to form communities of interest even when they are not playing games. Sony is doing the same thing. In fact, even Hollywood movie studies have gotten into the act. "Disney's recent release of "Sleeping Beauty," for example, includes a "movie chat" feature in which friends watching the movie simultaneously from different locations can exchange messages on their TV screens with Internet-connected devices such as iPhones or BlackBerrys."

Tracking Product Buzz Around the Web

2008-11-05T10:18:00.000-08:00

If you’re just using the Nielsen results to look at how you think about placing your [advertising] spend, you’re ultimately going to be flawed because we need to take account of the different activities that are taking place on the Web.

- Dan Neely, CEO and founder of Networked Insights

In Jon Lafayette, "Cracking the Code’ to Put Online Dollars Where They Belong," TV Week, October 29, 2008

Neely's company represents a growing business that speaks to marketers' desire to learn as much as they can about the people they want to reach online. Based in Madison, Wisconsin, Networked Insights "says it measures not just the 15% of people who post content online at social sites, but also the other 85% who are interacting with that content by reading, ratings sharing, linking or inviting." The company analyzes more than 17,000 social media sites (such as MySpace) and social networking sites (LinkedIn is an example), which include more than 120 million unique users and 3.5 million interactions per day.

Networked Insights works with clients to figure out where conversations are going on online around certain products or topics. For example, Neely says that television shows with a lot of conversation tend to have more "engaged" audiences when they are viewing. It's useful to know that, he says, because "those engaged viewers are also likely to be paying attention to ads."

Moreover, Neely contends that his company database can tell his advertiser-clients how many people they can expect to reach with social media." “We believe we’ve cracked the code with regard to how do you actually measure this stuff,” Mr. Neely said. “It’s been a trial-and-error approach. We’ve said we can actually tell you where to place and when to place, because this is where they’re going to be and this is what they’re going to be talking about.”

Watching Hulu More Than "Standard" Cable

2008-10-30T06:21:00.000-07:00

And today I can safely say I spend more time watching Hulu than I do my standard home cable connection.

-Michael Arrington, media industry analyst and blogger

In Michael Arrington, "Happy Birthday Hulu. I'm Glad You Guys Didn't Suck," Tech Crunch, October 29, 2008

Arrington marks the one-year birthday of Hulu, the site owned by NBC Universal and News Corporation that streams commercially produced video materials. The site now carries about 400 movies and programming from 110 content providers, including Lionsgate, Paramount, and the Sci Fi Channel. The material is attracting a lot of attention. According to Nielsen, they streamed 142 million videos in September, 2008.

One strategy that Hulu has used to gain attention to its material is to place links to its material on other popular sites around the web. Having 30 distribution partners such as MNC, Yahoo, AOL, Facebook and IMDb means that millions of people will notice it even if they don't go to the site.

Clearly, Hulu and other sites like it (Joost, for example) challenge the traditional model of television. Michael Arrington is not the only person whose ways of viewing are changing fundamentally.

2008-10-27T10:41:00.000-07:00

The internet branded us as slow and a dinosaur, iPods and streaming just made us seem like your father's brand of communicating, and we've done nothing to dispel that.

-Frank Flores, chairman of the New York Market Radio Association and VP-general manager of the Spanish Broadcasting System

In Andrew Hampp, "Radio Gaining Audience -- but Not Ad Revenue," Advertising Age, October 20, 2008

As a result of recent online research, Paragon Research argues that "the youth demo" (14-24 year olds) is, counter to many observers' beliefs, increasing rather than decreasing its radio listening. The reason, contends the president of the Radio Advertising Bureau (RAB), is that, unlike iPods and MP3 players, radio provides "automated way to come across great new music." Yet youth's continued attention to radio hasn't stopped its decline in advertising revenue. The reason is that advertisers and their media buyers see the internet and its interactivity as being superior to radio in connecting with consumers.

In response, the radio industry has been trying to establish technology that also allows for interactivity. The "biggest industry initiative to date, dubbed 'Buy from FM,' is aimed at making FM radio tuners available on every MP3 player and cellphone in the next five years so consumers can identify and buy the songs they hear on the radio directly from their devices." In addition, the RAB is working with the American Association of Advertising Agencies on a way to working together on technology that will allow people to respond directly to radio commercials. The overall aim is to tie over-the-air radio broadcasting to the internet era. These initiatives have only begun, however, and it's unclear that they will take hold enough for the same number and type of radio stations to flourish as in years past.

Akamai Moves into High-Tech Behavioral Targeting

2008-10-23T06:11:00.000-07:00

We have the ability to work with some largest advertisers and networks and publishers today to do much larger and more flexible re-marketing buys.

- Mike Afergan, chief technology officer-senior VP, Akamai's Advertising Decision Solutions

In Abby Klaasan, "Akamai Gets Into the Ad Business," Advertising Age, October 21, 2008.

Remarketing is a company's act of sending a followup message to a consumer to encourage a purchase based on what the company has learned about the consumer since the prior interaction. Akamai's purchase of Acerno gives it a special ability to do that. Akamai itself is a "content delivery network" that helps web publishers, ad networks and advertisers delivered their content to users efficiently. "Because it streams content all across the internet, it has a wide view of the web and how consumers use it." Acerno, meanwhile, "tracks what consumers buy on a variety of e-commerce sites and crunches that data through an algorithm that predicts who the customers are (someone buying maternity clothes is likely a soon-to-be mom) and predicts what they'll buy next and serve them appropriate ads."

Working together, Akamai and Acerno can determing the internet behaviors of a person and then send an ad that the computer calculations deem relevant for that consumer. The system also recognizes when a person puts a product in an online shopping cart but abandons it before making the purchase; Akamai can help that retailer target ads or discounts to that person, promoting the products left unpurchased. Though Akamai executives didn't mention it, the technology undoubtedly sets the stage for serving consumers with different news and entertainment along with ads on the web in the belief that ads will get a better response when served with other materials that match consumers' interests.

Will these sorts of cutting edge activities, that don't require knowing consumers' physical-world names or postal address, raise concerns? That remains to be seen.

College Students Get a Taste of TV's Future

2008-10-20T10:36:00.000-07:00

It's a very personalized experience.

-Linor Tal Levav, vice president-content strategy and acquisition, Intercast

In Joe Mandese, "Esurance, MPG Back New Ad-Supported Video Service: Provide Pay TV Series Free To College Kids," Online Media Daily, October 13, 2008

Students at a few leading universities, among them Purdue and Columbia, are part of a test that allows them to watch TV shows from Paramount's subscription network Showtime for free. The programming includes series like Dexter, The Tudors, and Californiacation. They are being made available for free to students who agree to watch ads on a a new online service, Kazam. Kazam is using technology by Intercast, which runs on Internet2, an ultra-high speed service that research universities have implemented on their campuses.

Although from the students' standpoint the service may be a way to get cool programming that would otherwise cost money, Intercast, Kazam and their advertisers see it as a way to use the fastest technology to test the customization of commercials and programs based on data Kazam has about each student. Intercast's Levav says that "The nice thing about our platform is that we serve the ads from storage, so we can serve them in great quality, high-definition, and we can combine features like targeting and interactivity and data feedback." The consequence is that the Kazam service can serve different shows and commercials --"say an episode of "Dexter" for one student, or a Discovery Channel show for another, or even a Sports Illustrated swimsuit special for a third, along with different commercials"--based on "the viewer's profile, their user behavior and the context of when and where they are viewing the content."

Although it seems like simply a way to make money from advertising in a college environment, it's really a test by advertisers, media planners, and technology firm of the TV model for all Americans in the not-too-distant future.

Newspapers Develop Strategies Toward the Web

2008-10-20T07:45:00.000-07:00

At this point in the game, most newspapers have embraced the internet and are devoting both dedicated and integrated resources to support it.

-Fran Wills, senior VP-interactive and classified sales, The Dallas Morning News

In Nat Ives, "Google, Yahoo Become Print's Allies," Advertising Age, October 13, 2008

Newspapers have been working with digital media since the 1990s. During the past few years, though, they have begun to realize that if they don't figure out ways to generate substantial revenues from the internet and mobile, they will fail. The current bad economic environment is exacerbating the longterm movement of advertising away from newsprint and toward the web. Although newspapers have been attracting online advertising, the amount gained does not make up for the amount lost. "No one knows if or when online will help newspapers stop their overall declines; last year papers found just 7% of their revenue on the web," according to the Newspaper Association of America.

One way that papers have been trying to attract advertising money is to work with the web's advertising giants--Google and Yahoo. Both companies have brought newspapers into networks. Advertisers can buy ads that will end up on newspaper websites around the country, and the papers showing the ads share the revenues Google or Yahoo. The Yahoo Newspaper Consortium has its member newspapes particularly excited because it allows member papers to cross-sell employment ads on Yahoo's HotJobs site, on their sites, and in print. "Yahoo has loads of unsold inventory in local markets," said Gary Pruitt, McClatchy's chairman, president and CEO. "We're able to sell into that under our partnership. They can sell advertising into our websites as well, using their national sales force."

It's doubtful that working with these "third party advertising networks" will solve newspapers' advertising problems. For one thing, the cost-per-thousand (CPM) prices that such networks provide are usually quite low. This approach will likely be just one piece in a multi-pronged strategy that newspapers will evolve to survive in the twenty-first century.

Google's Loss of Two German Copyright Cases Underscores Tensions

2008-10-18T08:00:00.000-07:00

It doesn't matter that thumbnails are much smaller than original pictures and are displayed in a lower resolution.

- Hamburrg (Germany) Regional Court ruling

In Karin Matussek, "Google Loses German Copyright Cases Over Image-Search Previews," Bloomberg.com, October 18, 2008

Google lost two copyright lawsuits in Germany that centered on its display or photos and art as thumbnails when the search engine previewed results. One involved the display of photos by a German photographer who claimed Google violated his copyright. The other involved Google's display of comics that are owned by another German citizen. The rulings can be appealed, but they illustrate the legal complexities involved when material can be moved around digitally. Google users may find the display of these pictures helpful, but their owners want to be compensated for their use--especially because Google makes advertising money through displaying them.

Google and Visa Combine for Mobile Marketing Future

2008-10-10T11:52:00.000-07:00

This has the potential to change the advertising model in the U.S.

- Tim Attinger, head of product innovation and development at Visa

In Beth Snyder Bulik, "Visa Teams With Google for Mobile Play Using Android," Advertising Age, September 25, 2008

Google's new mobile operating system, Android, allows users to use their handsets as credit cards. In connection to this ability, Visa will introduce a system to that provides users who opt in with offers directly to their phones. If the user clicks on the phone offer (which might be customized for the individual), Google Maps will tell the customer where the nearest retailer offering the deal is located. Some of the offers may be frequent-shopper, and when the customer pays using the phone, Visa will keep track and tell the person when a certain number of purchases from the merchant will yield the reward.

Visa is rolling out its system slowly. They are just now trying to sign up merchants. Moreover, at this point, it works only on the Android G1 phone that T-Mobile will release. That means relatively few people will be able to try it. Over time, though, Visa executives see advertisers as having the ability to track their performance from the message sent to an individual consumerto the actual purchase via the handset. That, they believe, will change marketers' understanding of how to judge advertising's success.

Advice for Reconstructing the American Big-City Newspaper

2008-10-05T11:00:00.000-07:00

Reconstructing the American metro newspaper won't be easy, pretty or painless, but the alternative is far, far worse.

- Dave Morgan, blogger partner in The Tennis Company, which owns TENNIS.com, and TENNIS and SMASH Magazines

In Dave Morgan, "Reconstructing The American Metro Newspaper," Media Daily News, October 2, 2008

Morgan, a serial web entrepreneur (he founded Tacoda and Real 24/7) who also worked in the newspaper industry, suggests that the "big city" American newspaper firm must confront its precarious situation in the new media environment and take drastic steps to keep its product viable. Here are some of his main points:

* "Newspaper companies and their management teams have to recognize that their problems -- falling circulation and readership, plummeting ad revenues, disappearing classifieds, and exploding fixed cost structures that won't go away -- are secular, not cyclical."

* Newspapers have enjoyed monopolies in their areas for decades that have allowed them to control production (including owning the printing machines and sometimes the trees for paper) and distribution (including the trucks). Such vertical integration no longer makes sense. "Their survival requires that they ... give up control over a number of parts of their businesses and underlying capital structures." They should, for example, contract out printing activities.

* Produce printed newspapers with fewer pages, more local news, and news that is targeted to those receiving it. "General news products won't be delivered every day, but will avoid days when there is little ad support, like Mondays and Tuesdays."

* With far fewer resources than they had in the past, newspapers should fundamentally change the nature and size of the newsroom. Focus on "a few critical areas of reporting like local news, government and community events, and put the vast majority of their focus on providing and promoting a platform for their readers to report and comment about the issues they care about."

* Local papers should not be covering national and international news but focusing on their areas. This tack opens the door to partnerships with national newspapers such as The New York Times "A national newspaper like The New York Times needs much more print circulation and readership, or it will never reach the critical mass that advertisers require to really make a long-term go of it with their print product."

Some newspapers are already pursuing a few of these approaches. If all of them are followed, it certainly augurs a transformed newspaper industry some decades from now.

Does MySpace Music Point to the Future of the Music Industry?

2008-09-29T08:20:00.000-07:00

If this works, then that is a good statement for the future of the music business. And if it doesn’t, then it tells where the industry is going. In other words, this is a must-win move for the record labels, who are increasingly looks hapless and, well, unable to deal with change.

- Om Malik, media-industry blogger

In Om Malik, "The Fact & Fiction of MySpace Music, Gigaom, September 24, 2008

On September 24, MySpace, the social-networking site owned by News Corp, introduced a service that lets users listen to streaming audio for free. They can also purchase song downloads, and make playlists. Four of the five major music companies (EMY, Warner Music, Universal Music, and Sony BMG) are on board in this joint venture with MySpace (EMI so far is missing), with the streaming part supported through advertising.

For MySpace, the new business is an attempt to derive more revenue from its site. Although it has about 120 million visitors to its site, MySpace has not been getting the amount of advertising this number would suggest. An important reason is that many advertisers don't want to take the chance of putting their messages next to lewd photos or writings put up by MySpace members. This new sub-site will, the firm hopes, provide a safer haven for commercial messages.

For the major music firms, MySpace Music represents yet another hope for finding revenue during a period in which CD sales are declining, piracy is still rampent, and Apple's iTunes, though successful, is not giving them the kinds of profits they want. Although hope runs high for great success among major recording-firm executives, Om Malik notes that his discussion with people in the record business, particularly among independent labels, was more sobering. He quotes MySpace's chief operating officer, Amit Kapur, as having told the Wall Street Journal, "We’re not only going to be [the music firms'] home on the Web…We’re going to be the place they make a living.” Malik comments, "Perhaps Kapur is right, and as one of our readers pointed out, they will be able to generate a lot of revenue through ticket sales and merchandise. But I wonder how many ways that revenue will be sliced and how much will actually end up in an artist’s pocket. What do you guys think?"

What Scholastic's Bratz Ban Indicates Isn't So Clear

2008-09-24T08:06:00.000-07:00

When schools send these book club fliers home with children, the message is that 'We think these are fine and are good for your child.'

-Susan Linn, Director of The Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood

In Motoko Rich, "Scholastic Cuts ‘Bratz’ Products for Book Clubs and Fairs," New York Times, September 21, 2008

Linn's organization is celebrating--and taking credit for--the decision by Scholastic Inc. to no longer include books based on the Bratz dolls in any of its school book clubs or fairs this year. Scholastic makes about a third of its income from those clubs and fairs. Critics of the Bratz dolls consider them overtly sexualized due to the emphasis on particular aspects of the female anatomy; the critics insist that nothing about them should be placed in the hands of girls. In fact, Scholastic has also stopped offering spinoff products--for example, a Bratz computer game and designer stencil kit, in its book clubs and fairs.

Scholastic's president will not state directly that the Campaign influenced its decision; the company's position is that declining sales of these materials as well as anger around the Bratz combined to lead to that decision. Although some in Linn's organization may take the credit for Scholastic's decision as a win against commercialism in books sold in schools, over the long term the picture is much more complex. Many teachers and librarians believe that items in commercial culture are the only predictable items to attract serious attention toward reading by many young people. They feel that if bringing commercial products into books will encourage reading, then it should be done. Rather than indicating a trend against commercialism and childhood, the Scholastic decision make simply indicate an aversion to mixing sexual depictions and childhood.

Hulu's Successful Distribution Model

2008-09-21T16:36:00.000-07:00

"We're very similar to Starbucks in that we're an impulse business. They put (coffee) everywhere and make it easier to consume, and we try to do the same with content.

-Jason Kilar, CEO of Hulu

In Gavin O'Malley, "Hulu's Obsession With 'Every Little Pixel' Pays Off," Online Media Daily, September 19, 2008

Co-owned by NBC Universal and News Corporation, Hulu is an advertising-supported service that streams "premium content"--that is, professional programs from cable and broadcast television networks. The six month old firm has substantial competition; Joost (with CBS as a major investor) and Fancast (owned by Comcast) are two examples. Yet, according to Gavin O'Malley, "while Fancast launched two months before Hulu officially debuted, Hulu recorded vastly more video streams--119 million--than Fansite's 2.2 millions streams in July." Kilar would like to believe that the reason is the video distributor's punctiliousness. "We obsess over every little pixel," he said. "I can give you a hundred examples of that." At least as important, though, is Hulu's cutting-edge appoach to distribution. Understanding that people might choose to view TV shows on a whim, Hulu has chosen to place itself in front of as many people as possible instead of having them come to Hulu. To do that, it negotiated distribution deals with top website portals, including Yahoo, MSN, MySpace, and even competitor Fancast. The result is the more people are exposed to Hulu's products than if it rlied (like Fancast) only on its own website. This strategy of distributing video content on the web via many exhibitors has in the past few years become the preferred mode for companies trying to reach large audiences.

The Future of Audience Research

2008-09-18T07:06:00.000-07:00

We no longer have to rely on old cultural prophecies as to who is the right consumer for the right message. It no longer has to be microsample-based [à la Nielsen or Simmons]. We now have [total-population] data, and that changes everything. With [those] data, you can know essentially everything. You can find out all the things that are nonintuitive or counterintuitive that are excellent predictors. ... There's a lot of power in that.

- Dave Morgan, Founder of the behavioral targeting firm Tacoda, now owned by AOL

In Bob Garfield, "Your Data With Destiny," Advertising Age, September 15, 2008

Morgan's quote reflects current beliefs about the use of data-mining that are reshaping the media system. The idea is that instead of making predictions about specific customers based on general surveys of people like them, marketers should track the customers themselves in ways they may not know. The assertion is that findings from such tracking can lead to accurate predictions about products and persuasive techniques that will appeal specifically to those targeted individuals. Garfield gives interesting examples of how that can work from basic collaborate filtering technologies (as with Amazon and Netflix) to more sophisticated activities via Taboola and My6Sense.

Implicit in his piece—but as important as the main theme—is a view that has begun to take hold in parts of the marketing community: that survey samples (for example, Nielsen’s TV, internet, and billboard samples) should be replaced by population samples via set-top-box data, behavioral tracking, and other methods. In that connection, the Advertising Research Foundation (ARF) has convened “forums” on the topic later this month and next month that will valorize tracking “entire” populations and foreground buzz and other techniques that supposedly get close to the consumers in unobtrusive ways.

"I don't know if we are going to have a choice but to move away from survey research," Donna Goldfarb, VP-consumer and market insights for Unilever Americas is quoted as saying in another Ad Age piece. "We continue to torture consumers with boring and antiquated search methods. What's holding us back is history and norms. But I work in a business where I think most of the senior leadership is still very frustrated with the tools that we are using."

The Ad Age piece acknowledges that firms such as Unilever and P&G continue to spend lots of money on surveys. (P&G spent $200 million on research vendors in 2006.) Yet statements such as Goldfarb’s “signal a shift in paradigms, and most likely budgets, away from surveys and toward mining insights from blogs, social networks, consumer comments to websites and more,” according to Joel Rubinson, chief research officer of the ARF. They also may signal that the audience research that emerges may create increasing tensions around issues of privacy.

Is the Google News Glitch a Mark of Mistakes to Come?

2008-09-17T08:10:00.000-07:00

Anytime anyone spreads false information about a public company over a communication medium like the internet, its message boards, chat rooms or otherwise, that will raise questions as to whether someone is committing securities fraud.

- John Reed Stark, head of the US Security and Exchange Commission's office of internet enforcement

In Joanna Chung and Justin Bear, "SEC Probes United's Sudden Slump," Financial Times, September 12, 2008

The web's power over people's understanding of reality became quite vivid on news on September 8, 2008, when United Airlines stock lost more than 75% of its value because a 2002 article about its bankruptsy filing that had been published that year the South Florida Sun-Sentinel (owned by the Tribune Company) mistakenly appeared on Google News. The appearance led readers on the site to believe it was happening that day, and they responded by selling the stock. A few days later, US security regulators opened an informal investigation of how that happened.

It seems that the glitch began when on early Sunday morning a single visitor to the Sentinel website viewed the 2002 story reporting on United's bankruptcy filing. That visit was enough to have the old article land on the Sun-Sentinel's most-viewed list at that hour. "Google said its web-trawling program spotted the link and indexed it as a new story when it could not find a 2002 dateline. Tribune has said it would have been obvious to a reader that the article was six years old."

Each company, in other words, says that the mistake was the other's fault. United, in the meantime, is considering filing a lawsuit against both. The lurking question: Will--or when will--this sort of agenda-setting mistake happen again on Google News or elsewhere on the web, and with what consequences?

Trying to Squelch a Proposed Copyright Law

2008-09-13T09:12:00.000-07:00

All kinds of people who have good-faith reasons to think that the enterprises they are engaged in are legitimate ones, which comply with intellectual property laws, may nevertheless be chilled from beginning them.

- Peter Jaszi, co-founder of the Digital Future Coalition

In Wendy Davis, "New Law Would Authorize DOJ To Sue File-Sharers," Online Media Daily, September 11, 2008

Peter Jaszi, also a professor at the American University's Washington School of Law, is referring to a proposed new copyright law that the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee was scheduled to consider on September 11. Introduced by Senators Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Arlen Specter (R-PA.), the bill "would authorize the Department of Justice to bring civil lawsuits against alleged file-sharers and other copyright infringers." Clearly, the measure is designed to help recording companies and movie films who are worried about the wholesale piracy of their products that often takes place via the internet. But organizations such as Public Knowledge, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Digital Future Coalition sent a letter to lawmakers on the judiciary committee that argued the law would confer "an enormous gift of federal resources to large copyright owners," which have already been quite busy filing lawsuits against alleged individual violators.

Rather than focus on the misuse of government resources to help private firms, Jaszi focuses on a chilling effect that might ensue if the bill becomes law. It can be hard to decide, for example, whether using a photo or clip from a copyrighted work could be considered fair use. Sometimes companies will leave borderline claims alone because of the cost involved in prosecuting them. Knowing that cost would not necessarily deter the government, says Jaszi,
may scare people from activities that are legitimately pushing the boundaries of fair use. "Being hauled into court on a civil copyright claim is scary enough, but the idea that you would be hauled into court and have to litigate against an adversary who has unlimited resources is really scary," says Jaszi.

The Rise of Microblogging and Marketers' Responses

2008-09-10T10:45:00.000-07:00

...cool and frightening at the same time.

- Christopher Hoff, Southwest Airlines passenger and Twitter user

In Rachel King, "How Companies Use Twitter to Bolster Their Brands," Business Week, September 6, 2008

Hoff is referring to his experience getting a message from Southwest the day after he send a used Twitter to circulate to friends a complaint about his flight. The two-year-old Twitter is a new of microblogging, a way for users to keep friends and acquaintances informed of what they are doing or feeling at a particular moment through text messaging that reaches all of them at the same time. Estimates of the number of people using Twitter range from one to three million. It's not that large an audience, but marketers such as Comcast, Dell, General Motors and Whole Foods see individuals who send "tweets" as potential opinion leaders. As King notes, they task employees with "haunting Twitter to do everything from burnish brands to provide customer service." King adds that "the attention to Twitter reflects the power of new social media tools in letting consumers shape public discussion over brands." But it also shows how companies are trying to exploit and even control that discussion. For consumers who receive messages they don't expect, it can all seem a bit creepy.

Where Will the RIAA Go After Five Years of Lawsuits?

2008-09-07T08:03:00.000-07:00

If the goal is to reduce file sharing, it's a failure.

- Fred von Lohmann, a staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation

In David Kravetz, "File Sharing Lawsuits at a Crossroads, After 5 Years of RIAA Litigation," Wired, September 4, 2008

Lohmann's comments refer to the lawsuit approach pursued by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) against consumers who share copyrighted music with others online. David Kravetz notes that September 8, 2008 marks five years since the RIAA's first lawsuit. He presents an overview of the controversies swirling around the more than 30,000 lawsuits that RIAA instituted during the past half decade. The RIAA says it is continuing its lawsuits to emphasize to individuals that downloading copyrighted content is, in fact, illegal, and to scare people from doing it. Opponents claim that the RIAA's tactics have terrorized people into paying up rather than fighting in the courts, that the company it is using to ferret out wrongdoers is not doing it legally, and that the way the RIAA is trying to prove illegal sharing may also not stand up to court scrutiny.

Kravetz notes that "despite the crackdown, billions of copies of copyrighted songs are now changing hands each year on file sharing services." And he adds that "critics of the RIAA say it's time for the music industry to stop attacking fans, and start looking for alternatives."

A Ten Year Old With a Big Future

2008-09-06T13:17:00.000-07:00

You can't do some of the things that they are trying to do without eventually facing some challenges from the government and your rivals.

- Danny Sullivan, editor-in-chief of SearchEngineLand

Michael Liedke, "Google Reigns as World's Most Powerful 10-year-Old," Associated Press, via Yahoo News, September 6, 2008

Larry Page and Sergey Brin founded Google on September 7 1998. "It sounded preposterous 10 years ago, but look now: Google draws upon a gargantuan computer network, nearly 20,000 employees and a $150 billion market value to redefine media, marketing and technology." What started out as a bid by Stanford University graduate students to build a better search engine--with no real business model--has turned into a firm that makes more money than any other on the internet through launching ads on its website based on people's searches as well as on web pages to which people go. In performing those tasks, as well as through its Gmail service, YouTube, and other activities, Google has collected information on hundreds of millions of people--though it is not forthcoming exactly how it uses that information. The company has made advertising agencies anxious because they believe Google has interests taking their place in selling ads across many types of media. Google has also made Microsoft anxious, as it moves to compete with on computers, mobile devices and browsers by placing free software programs on the web, creating its own mobile operating system (Android) and offering its own browser, Chrome.

"Google's expanding control over the flow of Internet traffic and advertising already is raising monopoly concerns....Privacy watchdogs also have sharpened their attacks on Google's retention of potentially sensitive information ..." To fend off government and advocacy-group attacks, Google has initiated sophisticated government-relations activities. Despite these tensions, observers point out that the web today centers around Google and probably will for years to come. John Battelle, an internet publishing executive who wrote a book about Google, put the point succintly. "Google," he said, "is the oxygen in this ecosystem."

Bloggers and the Palin Nomination

2008-09-03T05:07:00.000-07:00

The Palin story played right to the strengths of the blogs.

- Tom Rosenstiel, executive director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism

In William Triplett, "Bloggers Investigate Sarah Palin; TV News Struggles to Catch Up With the Internet," Variety, September 2, 2008

When John McCain announced that Alaska governor Sarah Palin would be his running mate, many non-Alaskans didn't know much, if anything, about her. To many bloggers, the need for that knowledge was a call to arms. Rosenstiel says that "the best bloggers" knew that they could retrieve information about Palin's background through online research "without the need for classic reporting." He notes that the mainstream media had their hands full trying to deal with the implications of Obama's acceptance speech in Denver and the impact of hurricaine Gustav on the Gulf Coast and the Republican convention. The downsizing of journalism staffs added to the difficulty that traditional journalists had in responding quickly to the new name.

Not everyone agrees that bloggers have been so helpful. "Much of what I read on the blogs was hugely derivative of Anchorage Daily News coverage of Sarah Palin's political career, so unless you can cite a specific blog scoop, I've yet to be impressed by what they've turned up," says Jack Schafer of Slate. "On the downside, I think bloggers were far too eager to spread rumors about Trig Palin being Bristol Palin's son without even bothering to examine the child's birth certificate for proof."

Nevertheless, mainstream journalists have increasing been checking the blogosphere for updates. "When you see cable news analysts on TVs getting ready to talk, what are they doing? Looking on the Web," says one academic analyst. One Republican congressman noted that the bloggers' immediate investigative chatter "is a sign of things to come with conventions as we know them."

Are Game Companies Going Too Far to Protect Their Trademarks?

2008-08-30T09:58:00.000-07:00

I'm a college student, and not an affluent one, and I simply do not have the time, energy, or resources to fight this battle right now.

- Noah Witherspoon, developer of the mobile game Tris

In Wendy Davis, "Tris Plays Its Final Round," Daily Online Examinar, August 27, 2008

Witherspoon developed an application for the iPhone which copied the popular game Tetris. The Tetris Company, arguing that Witherspoon violated its copyright and trademark rights, persuaded him to take it offline or else be sued. The same thing happened with the game Scrabulous, an application for Facebook; Habros and Mattel, Scrabble's owners, forced Facebok to pull it from its system.

Some lawyers believe that games such as Scrabble and maybe even Tetris are not copyrightable because they were were simply rearrangements of old game ideas. Trademark laws may apply because the new games look very much like the trademarked ones, but attorneys suggest it's fairly easy to make cosmetic changes to get around those restrictions. Wendy Davis wonders if zealous owners are too quick to demand removal: "Legal questions aside, it seems obvious that Scrabulous is the best thing to happen to Scrabble in decades. Before the shutdown, the application drew 500,000 people a day -- some of whom became so enamored of the game that they purchased the physical version. One has to wonder whether Hasbro/Mattel and the Tetris Company have really thought through the ramifications of removing programs that serve to increase the popularity of their games."

The Big Challenge Facing Local TV

2008-08-28T07:07:00.000-07:00

How much of newspapers' fate are local TV station owners destined to endure? Maybe, too much.

- Diane Mermigas, media columnist

In Diane Memigas, "The Future Of Television: Local TV at Crossroads," Diane Mermigas: On Media, August 25, 2008

Mermigas notes that local television stations are feeling the same long term pressures that are buffeting local newspapers as the media system goes through major changes. She points out that as the February 2009 deadline nears for stations to give up their analog signals and go to fully digital transmissions, questions arise about the directions that station managements will take to place their firms on good economic footing in the new environment. The challenges are many, and not just because of the bad current economy. Ad dollars that used to go almost automatically to local TV stations are now migrating increasingly to websites. Cable TV operators have embarked on a program called Project Canoe that aims to connect cable systems across the United States with the ability to send targeted ads to individual homes. "In a world awash in interactive content distribution options, TV stations have lost their grip. Their sheer numbers exceed what many local markets can economically support..."

What can local stations do? Mermigas suggests that local TV stations may actually have to go out of business. The ones that survive will have to learn to use digital television with other digital media, often working together with Google, Yahoo, local newspapers, and cable operators to gain content and ad support. She says that "Stations able to solidify themselves as the definitive sources of local news and advertising will thrive if they find new ways to translate that online." Finally, she notes that "Local TV station owners could be their own worst enemies in underestimating or failing to properly leverage their local connections to communities, consumers and advertisers in utilizing interactive digital technology to their full advantage. "

Fox Targets Dorms for TV Streams

2008-08-26T14:22:00.001-07:00

The light bulb went off -- by simul-streaming 'Fringe' and 'Sarah Connor,' [the college students] get to see the show, and we get the increased fanbase and buzz.

- Peter Liguori, Fox Entertainment chairman

In Michael Schneider, "Fox to Stream Premieres for Dorms," Variety, April 24, 2008

Fox television and internet strategists have come up with a promotion for two new Fox TV series that aims to attract desired young-adult viewers who go online. Fox will stream the broadcast premiere of Fringe and season opener of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles online at the same time as they bow on TV. However, only people from a .edu domain will be technologically able to watch the stream. Fox figures that most of the .edu viewers will be college students. It knows that they often prefer the web to viewing traditional television. By allowing access, Fox is hoping to short-circuit illegal pirating of the programs as well as to get young people talking about the shows.

The Variety article doesn't point this out, but isolating the streaming audience to the .edu domain has an additional benefit. As Fox executives know, the Nielsen TV ratings do not canvas college campuses except when an individual student comes from a home that is part of the Nielsen national TV sample. If Fox allowed anyone to view the stream online, that might have lowered the national TV rating for the shows. (This is what happened to Gossip Girl on the CW network.) Instead, Fox strategists hope that their approach will raise the shows' profiles among the target audience, short-circuit piracy, build a fan base, and not canibalize its TV ratings--all at the same time.

The Social Dangers of Declining Newspaper Support

2008-08-25T07:07:00.000-07:00

With no end of the cyclical woes in sight, at the end of this downturn, who will be left to investigate those who seek to govern?

- Michael B. Nathanson, senior analyst for Bernstein Research

In Michael B. Nathanson, "Weekend Media Blast: So Attention Must Be Paid," Bernstein Research, August 22, 2008

In a recent privately circulated report (therefore no link), respected Bernstein Research analyst Michael B. Nathanson concisely lays out key secular and cyclical trends that are affecting the system, a kind of perfect storm of problems that in his view bode particularly bad news for newspapers and radio. He worries about the newspaper “carnage” both in terms of the impact on employee lives and for its long-term implications for a free press. Two key paragraphs:

…The reasons behind this demise are fairly well-established
and we have called them the 3 Ds – Dollars, Devices,
Digital. This is shorthand for the negative structural factors
facing the content-creative industries, from the growth of
online advertising, which is eating share of traditional
advertising, to the emergence of negative technology trends,
like DVRs and satellite radio that continue to fragment the
consumer while fostering advertising avoidance. While the
trends are certainly not new, the cyclical pressures of a
softening economy are now just emerging in national
advertising.

…As we watch this carnage, that phrase "attention must be
paid" is reverberating in our heads. For starters, faced with
steeply falling demand, industries are massively cutting back
staff. According to Bloomberg, Gannett is cutting 1,000 jobs
in their community newspapers, McClatchy is eliminating
1,400 jobs (10% of total staff), Tribune is eliminating 235
jobs at the Los Angeles Times and 80 more at the Chicago
Tribune and A.H. Belo is firing 500 staffers. Of course,
there is also sadness on a personal level as affected families
struggle with the loss of income. There also should be
broader concern that a critical piece of our democracy – a
free public press – is in such a tattered state. With no end of
the cyclical woes in sight, at the end of this downturn, who
will be left to investigate those who seek to govern?

What Nathanson's trends fundamentally reflect is the power of media-buying firms to define audience trends and where media money should go. When they and their advertisers act based on their understanding of the media economy, the decisions affect the life and death of magazines, newspapers, and other outlets. Wall Street investors also play a big role in shaping a sense of what is taking place in the media world. A recent Variety article traces the reasons behind News Corporation's stock decline. Much of has to do with Murdoch's purchase of Dow Jones and Wall Street's belief that involvement with newspapers is throwing good money after bad. Supporters of Murdoch buy his belief that Dow Jones can serve as a news-and-information engine across media platforms.

Promoting the CW by Promoting Gossip

2008-08-21T14:35:00.000-07:00

We're not hiding anything ... simply keeping a lid on '90210' until 9/02, riding the curiosity and anticipation into premiere night, and letting all our constituents see it at the same time.

- Statement by the CW broadcast television network

In Brian Sternberg, "Advertisers, Media Left in the Dark About New '90210,'" Advertising Age. August 18, 2008

The comment refers to CW's tack--unusual for a television series--of not screening its remake of "Beverly Hills 90210" for advertisers or the media before the program's premiere. For the ratings-challenged network, the goal is clearly to stoke the rumors, anticipation, and comparison with the original 90210 among the young women and teens who are the CW's main targets. It's hard to stand out in their cluttered media environment, so the CW has clearly tried to get groups that are not their target viewers (in this case television critics and show business personalities) annoyed and vocal enough to cause the target viewers to pay attention.

Perhaps the best example of this phenomenon is the current ad campaign for Gossip Girl. It involves posters with quotes from critics that suggest (in Sternberg's words) "how tawdry and shocking the program can be." Pasting a negative quote from the conservative Parents Television Council (PTC) on the poster below (copied from the Gawker Media site) emphasizes the sexual nature of the poster's scene. It would seem to be a clear way of saying that that the CW disrespects the PTC--and that the viewers should do the opposite to what the PTC would want. This relatively new audience-gathering approach--alienating one group while reaching out to another-- is likely to grow with the development of media outlets that focus on specific audience segments and don't really care whether other segments like the material or not.

Barnes & Noble Angry at Not Being First in Line for New Book

2008-08-20T07:14:00.000-07:00

This election is too important to wait around for traditional publishing lead times.

-Margo Baldwin, president and publisher, Chelsea Green

In Julie Bosman, "Early Sales of a Book on Obama Angers Stores," The New York Times, August 18, 2008

At the Democratic National Convention, the Chelsea Green book publishing company plans to distribute coupons for an Amazon.com discount on a pro-Obama book by Robert Kuttner. To get the book out by that time, the publisher decided to use Amazon's publisher print-on-deman technology. This approach meant, however, that traditional booksellers such as Barnes & Noble would have to wait a few weeks to get their regular shipments. Being put in second place angered Barnes & Noble, which canceled a 15,000 copy order for the book. Clearly, the bookstore chain is worried about the precedent that this two-step publication activity has for the public's awareness of the brick-and-mortar store as the most timely place to buy new titles. Is this incident just an aberration due to a tight publishing schedule around the convention (as Margo Baldwin argues)? Or is it another marker of the profound, long term changes that are affecting book publishing as digital technology spreads?

Royalty Rates Threaten Internet Radio

2008-08-19T05:48:00.000-07:00

We're approaching a pull-the-plug kind of decision. This is like a last stand for webcasting.

-Tim Westergren, founder of Pandora

In Peter Whorisky, "Giant of Internet Radio Nears its 'Last Stand'" Washington Post, August 16, 2008

Pandora is an internet radio services that allows customers to create "stations" matched to their own music tastes. Though it is used by about one million people every day, its founder says it is on the verge of going out of business. The same may be true about other internet radio services. The reason has to do with the federal Copyright Royalty Board which responded to demands by music publishers and artists (represented by an organization called SoundExchange) that they wanted to make money from their songs that were being streamed over the web by the internet radio firms. The Board set fees that are higher than satellite radio must pay; terrestrial radio at this point pays no fees. In view of the fact that Pandora, like other nascent internet radio outfits, makes little money from advertising, the costs per song have become untenable. Unimpressed by these complaints--or by the complaints of fans of the new technology--SoundExchange officials simply state that internet radio should find ways to make money, by advertising or subscription. Internet radio executives are angry that they must pay more than other forms of radio. The next several months will tell whether, how, and how well Pandora and other web radio firms can stay alive.

Advertising in Popular Culture

2008-08-19T05:23:00.000-07:00

Irritate them, Mr. Norman. Irritate, irritate, irritate them.

- Evan Llewellyn Evans (played by Sydney Greenstreet) to Victor Norman (played by Clark Gable) in the 1947 movie The Hucksters

Quoted in Stuart Elliot, "For 60 Years, the Ad Game Has Been Fodder for Scripts," The New York Times, September 18, 2008

The AMC series Mad Men, which takes place in a 1960s advertising agency, had won much acclaim about its reproduction of the tone of that era. Stuart Elliot, The New York Times' longtime advertising columnist, put together a short list of movies and TV shows with advertising as a central theme. One movie he missed: Putney Swope, the 1969 dark comedy written and directed by Robert Downey Sr. starring Arnold Johnson as a black man who is made the chairman of an advertising agency.

One feature that most of the movies about advertising depict, whether critically (as in The Hucksters) or endearingly (as in Bewitched) is the need to catch audiences with jingles or pictures or other persuasive forms.

The following clip from The Hucksters is one of the classics that still resonates with critics of advertising. In it the agency people nervously wait until their client comes in the door. The client is modeled after the real-life George Washington Hill of American Tobacco, who is supposed to have done what the character here does.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvW3JRBeDR0

Elliot's list ignores PR and press agentry. This scene from The Sweet Smell of Success is a classic critique of the relationship between press agents, gossip columnists, and sources. In the clip below the columnist (played by Burt Lancaster) is holding court with a senator who wants good coverage when the press agent (Tony Curtis) comes in on them. The scene turns into a revelation of the acid, tension-filled relationship between all three. The film was written by Clifford Odetts and Enest Lehman and produced by the company owned by Ben Hecht (who co-wrote the original version of the film The Front Page) and Burt Lancaster. It is credited with helping to destroy the often-reptilian power of columnist Walter Winchell.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N77uqGZPUPw&feature=related

Web Publishers Worry About Growing Competition From Google

2008-08-16T16:51:00.000-07:00

The question in people’s minds is how unbiased can Google be as it grows and grows and grows.

- Wenda Harris Millard, the co-chief executive of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia

In Miguel Helft, "Is Google a Media Company?," The New York Times, August 10, 2008

Though it is best known for the capability of its search engine, Google increasingly owns firms that distribute content and need to draw audiences to support themselves through advertising. One examples is the YouTube video website, where Google sells ads around and sometimes in the videos. Another example Knowl, a new online encyclopedia where people write articles about topics they know and can choose to place Google ads next to the articles witth the aim of sharing the revenue with Google. Some media executives say that they can imagine a time when Google "adjusts" the results of searches so that sites it owns automatically show up among the highest rankings. That would send lots of people to its sites and increase its ad revenues.

At this point, there is no evidence that Google does not adjust its searches to privilege its own sites. The company adamently says that will never happen. Yet the Google search formulas are secret, and the company is not bound by any laws that require it to be unbiased in its search results. Even if never does that, Google has power to create content sites that compete well with other sites in search, perhaps because it sees what users want by analyzing their search activities. Harvard business professor David Yoffe points out that with YouTube, Knol, Blogger and other company sites, Google could take 3 of the top 10 results in some searches. That could get Web publishers that advertise on Google search and other Google ad platforms angry, even if there is no evidence that Google distorted the results to favor its sites. Yoffie and others believe that suspicions about Google's honesty and its conflicts of interest with its advertisers will inevitably increase as its investment in content sites grows.

The Tyranny of Prime Time

2008-08-13T18:47:00.000-07:00

Forcing all the "big" events to a time-shifted-to-prime-time model isn't holding the entire audience, and any U.S. network planning to buy Olympic rights will be confronted with more and more audience bleed as viewers find ways to see events as they happen.

Cyndy Aleo-Carreira, writer for The Industry Standard

In Cyndy Aleo-Carreira, "Users run circles around NBC's Great Olympics Firewall ," The Industry Standard, August 11, 2008

NBC-Universal estimates that during the first four days of the Olympic games 157 million Americans, or more than half the U.S. population, viewed some part of the Olympics on NBC properties (for example, the NBC-TV, USA, MSNBC, and Oxygen TV networks and their online counterparts). Nevertheless, as Aleo Carreira suggests, some US viewers are annoyed because NBC-U has held back broadcasting certain games live or right after they happen because the network wants to reserve them to attract a potentially huge (and therefore lucrative) prime time audience.

Because of NBC's fierce protection of its rights, getting videos of certain Olympic events right after the happen is not easy on the US internet. "A quick search of YouTube shows that Google has pulled down copyright-infringing clips of the opening ceremony from NBC, but coverage from Chinese network CCTV is easy to find. As for the events themselves, NBC and BBC Olympic videos seem to appear and disappear frequently, so it's clear YouTube is having trouble keeping up with the uploads." All these cat-and-mouse games are offending many viewers, says Aleo-Carreira. She suggests that audience pressures should lead future firms that control Olympic exhibition not to be wedded to the concept of prime time.

Product Integration Is Increasingly Acceptable Everywhere on TV

2008-08-11T14:48:00.000-07:00

They may be purists, but they'll get over it if they need to.

- Ilene Chaiken, creator of The L Word series on Showtime

In Claude Brodesser-Akner, "On Ad-Less L Word, Brands Become Part of Plot," Advertising Age, August 7, 2008

Chaiken is referring to the concern writers might have about writing marketing messages into episodes of The L Word episodes. The L Word is much-discussed series about lesbians on Showtime, a subscription network with no commercials. Ratings suggest that the program attracts a bit over 300,00 prime time viewers aged 18-49 each week. Research further suggests that these viewers are mostly upscale females--the kinds of consumers advertisers covet. With production costs rising, Showtime agreed with Chaiken about the acceptable of inviting marketers to pay to be included in the program. The network gave Chaikin "the power to control all brand integration for the show's final season, as well as for a spin-off series launching on the network next year."

Advertising Age has learned that for $300,000 a marketer can buy an "integration package" that will link the marketer's products with the show: "either incorporate a brand into existing L Word storylines or allow the brand to work with the show's writers to create customized storylines, participating in one episode or across several. " Although this type of blunt sales approach may be unusual for a subscription channel, it is becoming the norm across many television channels. Another Advertising Age article on the same day tells of a new small-business makeover/advice series on the A&E cable network called We Mean Business for which Dell will not only be the exclusive technology sponsor, it will "will be integrated throughout the half-hour episodes, from laptops and servers to point-of-purchase solutions to help streamline costs and day-to-day operations for local businesses such as bakeries, specialty stores and salons. "

PR Firm: One Fifth of Major Marketers Buying Favorable News Coverage

2008-08-09T10:40:00.000-07:00

I'm not saying it's a huge problem. But 19% of senior marketers saying they do it constitutes a problem.

-Mark Haas, CEO of public relations firm Manning Selvage & Lee

In Michael Bush, "Just So You Know, No One Paid for This Article," Advertising Age, Aug 4, 2008

Hass was referring to a finding in a recent survey by his firm of chief marketing officers that 19% of them said their organizations had bought advertising in return for getting news story about them. Representing one in five senior marketers, that is up for 17% last year. Although one aim of public relations is to get favorable media coverage, Hass contends that it gains legitimacy through a process in which the PR practitioner needs to persuade a media practitioner that the story the PR person is pitching deserves coverage. Paying for this sort of coverage means the standard vetting that goes on through the PR give-and-take with media is lost. Moreover, says Hass, if this sort of pay-for-play influence on editorial becomes broadly public, it could cause media to lose credibility. "There needs be credible, independent media," he stated, "and the marketing industry should not be doing anything to undermine credible editorial quality." A cynic might add that Hass doesn't want his clients to get into the habit of simply paying for favorable editorial attention--an activity that would lessen the value of Manning Selvage & Lee's work.

New media seems to be a particular problem, according to the survey findings. More than half (53%) of the senior marketers said that the marketing industry as a whole is not following ethical guidelines in the new-media realm. "It's almost like there's a different standard for online activity, and that's a little worrisome because that's a growth area," said Hass. "That's something that the industry needs to be attentive to, because the reputational damange that can occur if a marketer is dishonest online is huge."

Sony Buys All of Sony BMG

2008-08-07T11:44:00.000-07:00

It’s a less risky business. The advent of the cellphone as a conveyor of music globally takes away a lot of the risk.

-Howard Stringer, chairman of Sony Corporation

In Mark Landler, "Sony and BMG End Their Partnership in Music," New York Times, August 6, 2008

Sony and Bertelsmans recently announced they will disband their four-year-old joint music venture, Sony BMG. Bertelsmann decided that the recording business would continue to tank and that the value it had in the venture would continue to decline, so it sold its stake to Sony for $900 miillion. Sony accepted the gamble of owning the recording company because its executives believe that the purchase of of music through cell phones and Sony's PlayStation Network will bring in stable revenues despite internet piracy. Also building revenues would be increased music sales in huge markets such as China and India, Stringer said.

For its part, Bertlesmann seems to be turning away from consumer media to invest in new service businesses such as education. Last month, the company sold its North American book and record clubs to a private investment firm. Bertelsmann did, however, keep one part of its music legacy: its administration of rights of European musical artists, a business that generates a small amount for such a big company--less than $20 million a year in sales. To Bertelsmann executives, though, artists rights is one area of the music industry with decent prospects, and one that fits with Bertelsmann's growing emphasis on service companies.

--> See chart in article: Share of US music album sales, 2008 -to date

Appeals Court Ruling May Mark "A Seismic Shift"

2008-08-06T11:29:00.000-07:00

This is a real opportunity to transform television.

-Tom Rutledge, chief operating officer of Cablevision

In Chad Bray, and Vishesh Kumar, "Cablevision Wins Appeal on RS-DVR," Wall Street Journal, August 5, 2008

The 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Monday, August 4, that that a lower court judge was wrong last year in ruling that Cablevision would violate copyright laws if it created a remote-storage digital-video-recorder (DVR) system. With a remote-storage DVR system, customers would not need DVRs in their home. They would to simply click through to their area on the cable company's DVR and record or access their shows. This approach benefits cable firms because they wouldn't have to spend lots of money to order, store, deliver and repair home DVRs. Broadcast and cable networks and the companies that supply them with programs are against this activity, though, because the lower DVR costs would entice even more consumers than now to record shows and then skip the commercials while watching them. Media firms might appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court, but if it holds, said one Wall Street analyst, it is "a seismic shift" for the media industry.

Research Group: News Firms Need to Counter Young-Adult "News Fatigue"

2008-08-05T09:00:00.000-07:00

[P] eople were conditioned to respond to headlines and updates as presenting whole news stories, when in reality they do not. We observed consumers click and re-click news updates and headlines and continue to do so, seemingly regardless of the outcome.

- Context-Based Research Group

In Associated Press and Context-Based Research Group, "A New Model for News Studying the Deep Structure of Young-Adult News Consumption," Associated Press, June 2008.

The Context-Based Research Group, an applied-anthopology company, interviewed and observed 18 young adults in the US, UK, and India regarding their news habits. One conclusion was that these people continually confront news while they are multitasking--accessing email while watching television and talking with friends, for example. Yet rather than digging deeply into stories as they click or watch, they seem to be seeing the same stories only at the surface levels. The young adults developed what the researchers call news fatigue. "Many consumers in the study were so overwhelmed and inundated by news that they just did not know what to do. Participants with news fatigue would try to ascertain whole news stories, but they regularly and repeatedly were left unsatisfied. . . . The more overwhelmed or unsatisfied they were, the
less effort they were willing to put in."

The researchers noted that programs such as The Daily Show and Howard Stern Show helped to put more structure and depth on news for the Americans in the sample than they would normally get. To the anthropologists, this and other findings suggest that young adults do want news with some depth. The researchers suggest that news firms such as the Associated Press need to create appealing content that presents not just facts and updates to a story, but also the story behind the story (the back story) and the implications (future story). Moreover, the news organizations need to "deliver it across all the channels these consumers use." But the researchers see the challenge: "[E]ven if you create news people can use, how do you reach consumers who spurn established packaging and consume information in haphazard, nonlinear fashion?"

Here, say the anthropologists, is where the news professionals must enter the discussion: "Anthropologists cannot answer that more difficult question for the news industry, but the value
proposition is clear for both producers and consumers: Young people are tired of the same old news and want something better. They just need some help."

Greenlighting Movies Based on Lesser-Known Actors

2008-08-03T10:08:00.000-07:00

There is a new model for packaging films appealing to a youth audience. Young males and females are driving the box office.

-Kirk D'Amico, an executive at Myriad Pictures, an independent production firm

In Anne Thompson, "New Role Call for International Pics," Variety, July 25, 2008

Only small number of extremely popular actors can lead executives at the Hollywood majors to make sure a film is made. Companies focusing on the non-US market used to have the same requirement of going with a "bankable" star. But with money being tight and companies not being able to pay top-dollar for actors who can guarantee large crowds, the small production companies that focus on the non-US market have drawn up different lists. They are of actors who are not well known but charge relatively little and seem to foreign distributors to be recognizable enough to audiences in different territories to help sell a picture. Moreover, the type of picture that international distributors have in mind is Juno, last year's independent film that did well with teens and young adults. Among those on the current list are Ben Barnes, Jessica Biel, and Megan Fox. "While their backgrounds and resumes vary, all have perceived appeal to the target demo, the magic Juno sweet spot: 17 to 35."

These actors are being offered lots of movies by second- and third-level film companies, and for the sake of their futures they have to choose judiciously. The indie film companies may in the end not be able to distribute the film in the US or major world territories. "Starring in a fest-circuit movie that doesn't get distribution is a black mark that is hard to erase."

Movie Advertisers Target Segments Via the Web, As Newspapers Lose Out

2008-07-31T11:09:00.000-07:00

We will select a mix of media that hits all the individual segments with a creative message that breaks through and compels the audience not just to go, but go opening weekend.

-Suzanne Cole, executive vice president of of media for print, TV, online and outdoor at Universal Pictures

In Laurie Sullivan, "Universal's Suzanne Cole On Grabbing Attention," Marketing Daily, July 29, 2008

Promoting movies has become extremely difficult because of the need to have the greatest attendance during the film's first weekend of release. That is because, as Cole notes, "It sets the bar for everything that happens in the life cycle of the film." Even DVD sales are linked to how well the movie did on its opening weekend.

Cole, with many years of experience in the business, notes, "We're trying to figure out how to reach someone who has 10 things going on simultaneously." Studio planners have determined that the best way to solve the problem is to vary the ads and promotions by gender different age categories. Then the challenge turns on speaking directly to the segment in a way that makes them want to see the film on that on weekend. With TV, the question becomes "How do you make the 30 or 60 seconds of time that you have with consumers impactful?"

For Universal, as well as other distributors, broadcast television and cable remain at the center of advertising and promotional campaigns. What is changing is the advertising-and promotion budget allocated to newspapers. Cole says that newspapers don't do well for "the average moviegoers," because they typically find their movie information online. As a result, newspapers are losing movie-advertising money. Will broadcast and cable TV also lose it in coming years, as the new generation finds mobile phones, games and the web more likely places to learn about out of home entertainment?

Federal Court Rules Fair Use Applies to Radio Commentary

2008-07-30T15:15:00.001-07:00

It seems to be relatively self-evident that you can take small snippets of somebody's content in order to criticize it. But it's a whole lot nicer to have a federal district court saying it.

-Sam Bayard, assistant director of the Citizen Media Law Project at Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet & Society

In Wendy Davis, "Court Rules Fair Use, Dismisses Radio Host's Suit," Online Media Daily, June 29, 2008.

Federal judge Susan Illston in San Francisco dismissed popular radio host Michael Savage's copyright infringement lawsuit against the Counsel on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). The organization has posted four minutes of clips (of a two-hour program) in which Savage asserted that "The Quran is a document of slavery and chattel," and that Islam is "a religion that teaches convert or kill, a religion that says oppress women, kill homosexuals."

Savage's suit argued that CAIR took his statements out of context in order ruin his image and raise funds. Illston said that even if the contention were true, use of the material still constituted fair use. "Plaintiff's allegation that defendants repackaged the original, misportraying its meaning and message, creates a presumption that the work is transformative," she wrote. US law typically considers material copied for transformative purposes, such as critiques or explanation, is generally considered fair use.

Savage's lawyer said that he is considering an appeal.

Boredom and Violence in Google Lively

2008-07-30T12:55:00.000-07:00

Nothing to do here; I don't think I'll come back.

-A visitor to a Google Lively room

In Fahad Manjoo, "Even Lamer Than Second Life," Slate, July 27, 2008

Farhad Manjoo points out that while online digital worlds such as Second Life and The Sims Online have received a lot of notice in the press, "none of these virtual worlds has managed to gain mainstream appeal." In fact, Electronic Arts was due to close down Sims Online at the end of July, 2008. Manjoo is sure that Google Lively, an online digital world launched in early July, will also fail. Apart from technical problems, Majoo simply found nothing to do there. That, he says, has bred mindless violence among those who stay. "Like prisoners in solitary, everyone here keeps lamenting that they've got nothing to do. It's no wonder people turn to violence. Among the actions Lively allows you to perform on others are body-slam, kick, kung fu, punch, slap, and squash. True, there's also kiss and hug, but boredom doesn't inspire generosity of spirit."

More generally, Manjoo argues virtual worlds haven't yet taken because most people don't like to simply talk to strangers. People will throng to multiplayer games like World of Warcraft to challenge others and sometimes engage in social small talk with them outside the game. Small-talk alone is not enough to keep people, he argues, and virtual worlds so far haven't found enough attractions beyond that.

Singer Chris Brown's Product Placement

2008-07-28T10:38:00.000-07:00

[B]y the time the new jingle came out, it was already seeded properly within popular culture.

-Steve Stoute, chief executive of Translation Advertising

In Ethan Smith and Julie Jargon, "Chew on This: Hit Song Is a Gum Jingle," Wall Street Journal, July 28, 2008

Stoute is a former senior executive at Interscope Records. He is now the chief executive of Translation Advertising, which is a unit of Interpublic, the agency holding company. One of Stout's goals for Translation is to use music to support the aims of clients. In 2003, for example, he hired Justin Timberlake to write and record a song for McDonald's that expressed its "Im Lovin It" theme. The Timberlake song, though, was never released as a recording. In 2007, as part of a promotion for the Wrigley gum company, Stout engineered a new wrinkle. He enlisted R&B singer Chris Brown to write a melody that could also be used as a jingle for the client Doublemint gum ( the favorite Wrigley gum among African Americans). He asked to write lyrics for a recorded version of the song and the jingle.

Jive Records released the recording in 2007, and it became a top-ten hit. Only the phrase "double your pleasure, double your fun" would have given away the connection to Doublemint; that was its longtime slogan. Nevertheless, Translation and Wrigley kept quiet about the connection between the song and the gum. As Stout suggest, they wanted the song to become part of the target audience's life. Then, when new gum commercial echoed the song with new lyrics, the commercials would reinforce the song and the song would reinforce the commercial. A few record company executives seemed concerned that the song was created for advertisers without telling the audience. But they said they went ahead with its release because "the song was so potent and strong. That overruled us being maybe a little hesitant."

Translation and Wrigley undoubtedly see this as a triumph of a new form of product placement. In an where recording artists are industry struggling to find new ways to make money from their songs, and where marketers are struggling to find ways to get target audiences to connect emtionally with their brands, it is not hard to predict that we will see attempts to copy and extend what Chris Brown and Translation have done.

Comcast's Subsidiary Set to Compete With Comcast

2008-07-24T10:31:00.000-07:00

More and more of the best content is going to show up on the Internet. As that happens, cable companies are going to get very nervous.

-James McQuivey, an analyst at Forrester Research

In Nick Wingfield and Vishesh Kumar, "Comcast Unit Cuts Web Deals," Wall Street Journal, July 22, 2008

ThePlatform is a Seattle-based subsidiary of Philadelphia-based Comcast. ThePlatform "provides a service that functions as a management system for converting TV shows into the latest online-video formats, inserting promotions from online-advertising networks and transmitting the content to distribution networks that speed up the delivery of Web video to consumers." Although thePlatform has several competitors--YouTube and Brightcove are two--it is developing a reputation for providing longform videos such as full-length movies for the websites of cable and mobile telephone companies. Some observers believe that full-length television programs and movies will eventually show up on the internet, a circumstance that will erode the popularity of cable systems. Seen from that standpoint, Comcast is positioning its Platform subsidiary to be major player in the growth of internet video, just in case its cable systems suffer.

Google's CEO Challenges Hollywood to Create New Business Models

2008-07-24T07:57:00.000-07:00

They won't just copy the old models; they'll come up with new ways of both making money, but also building brand. Seth is a good example.

- Eric Schmidt, Google CEO

In Claude Brodesser-Akner, "Entertainment Will Be 'First Through the Gate' in Digital Economy," Advertising Age, July 17, 2008

Schmidt was referring to Seth MacFarlane, creator of the Fox series "Family Guy" and reputed to be the highest paid TV writer in Hollywood. He recently made a deal with the firm Media Rights Capital (MRC) to fund a new online animated series. In turn, Media Rights Capital, which is funded by Wall Street and Madison Avenue, will make money every time people access the video, and wherever they access it online , through a deal with Google. The reason: Media Rights Capital bought advertising space from Google's Adsense service, which places ads around videos and text on websites. MRC it then resold those ads to advertisers, keeping the difference as its profit. And unlike "Family Guy," Mr. MacFarlane keeps the rights to the online series.

Schmidt was highlighting a development that he hoped would replace the approach that a number of Hollywood actors (such as Viacom) have taken: to sue Google for not adequately policing its YouTube video site for their copyrighted products. By contrast, the McFarlane-MRC approach is, he said, "a perfect example of how Hollywood needed to change to adapt the 'anytime, anywhere consumer model,' vs. what he derisively termed 'the lawyer model.'"

Protecting Trademarks from Birthday-Party Thefts

2008-07-22T12:09:00.000-07:00

But I told her, 'You can't have the real Dora. If you want the real Dora, call Nickelodeon.'

-Elvira Grau, owner of Space Odyssey USA, a party location

In Kathy Roseman, "Why Dora the Explorer Can't Come to Your Kid's Birthday Party," Wall Street Journal, July 22, 2008.

These comments came in response to a parent whose child-partyers were terribly disappointed that Grau's Dora-like costume was not close enough to the real thing. But Grau's semi-Dora-like appearance resulted from a fear of lawsuits. It seems that entertainment companies are increasingly trying to protect their trademarks even in the realm of children's parties. The firms claim they are worried that costumed characters may act badly and hurt the brand, or the free use may dilute the company's right to own the character. As a result, "companies that include Marvel Entertainment Inc., Scholastic Inc., and HIT Entertainment, have sent cease-and-desist letters, threatened lawsuits and in some cases received settlements from companies that market unauthorized character impersonators."

In our brand-saturated society, children often expect not generic clowns but characters that firms have cultivated in their minds for years. "But to sustain live-entertainment and theme-park revenues, most companies that own rights won't offer licensed, authentic costumes that can be worn by professional birthday-party entertainers. That has left parents out of luck." HIT Entertainment, which owns Barneyand Thomas the Tank Engine, says that it regularly monitoring birthday-party planning Web sites and parenting blogs with the aim of making sure that no one steals its trademarks. What if parents don't want to disappoint children who hope the party will be visited by Thomas? According to a company representative, there is still a way: buy paper plates and decorations at Hallmark, which is the authorized provider of paper products featuring Thomas and other of the company's licenced characters.

Private and Public Developments in TV Product Placement

2008-07-22T07:35:00.000-07:00

If you can't measure it, you can't sell it.

-Alan Wurtzel, president of research and media development at NBC Universal

In Alana Semuels, "Research Firm Nielsen Tallying Product Placement Ads," Los Angeles Times, July 21, 2008

The measurement of product placement in television programming has become a major activity during the past few years. Marketers increasingly make deals to have their goods show up during the action so viewers will have no choice but to see them. (When it comes to commercials, they can always switch channels or fast-forward on their DVRs.) The Nielsen research firm has ambitions to become the major go-to company in this area (as it is with television ratings) and it has augmented its own audits of products in programs with the purchase of IAG Research, which uses a different method to track placements. Other companies audit placements in different ways, all trying to prove their value to marketers and their agencies, who need to justify their activities. "Advertisers spent $2.9 billion in 2007 to place their products in TV shows and movies, up 33.7% from the year before, according to media research firm PQ Media. This year spending is projected to hit $3.6 billion, not including "barter" arrangements -- in which a company gives away products to be used in shows, rather than paying for them to be placed there."

In the midst of all this private research activity, the Federal Communications Commission has responded to critics who argue that consumers need straightforward information about when products are being placed in programs in exchange for money. "Such disclosures currently run during the credits, but the agency plans to examine whether product placement notices should be written in bigger print and displayed for a longer period."

Artificial Intelligence Increasingly Guiding Video Games

2008-07-20T13:09:00.000-07:00

That isn't scripted. He is figuring it out as he goes.

-An unnamed game developer for the Monolith Productions video game company

In Glenn Chapman, "Videogames Getting Minds of Their Own," AFP via Yahoo News, July 20, 2008

The developer was referring to actions in "Project Origin," an action horror game built by Monolith for Warner Interactive Studios. Artificial intelligence integrated into the game causes enemies to respond to threats in ways that seem to mimic real life. "See, he threw the car door open because it was the smartest way to take cover," the developer added.

The leading edge of development in video games involves programming characters to respond in complex ways to actions in the game environment. A related development is that characters in some of the newest games are continuing their "lives" even when the human player leaves. "Sony Online Entertainment is putting finishing touches on an online secret agent game called 'The Agency' that gives players command of operatives that work around the clock.
If operatives need help, they can send real-world team leaders email or mobile telephone text messages, Matt Wilson of "The Agency" development team told AFP." Clearly, the aim of video game firms is to gain the competitive advantage by making the games seem more realistic, even to the point of reacching out to players in non-game environments. Although the article doesn't explore the implications of these technologies, one might wonder how such AI technologies might be used in other media (for example, electronic newspapers, internet videos and instant messaging) to change the relationship between audience and content.

Taking Advantage of The Long Tail

2008-07-18T15:14:00.000-07:00

Google finds the long tail, and we fill it.

- Richard Rosenblatt, CEO of Demand Media

In Joseph Menn, "Demand Media Wags a Long Tail of Niche Websites," Los Angeles Times, July 16, 2008

"The long tail" is writer Chris Andersen's phrase for products that speak to very small audiences. Rosenblatt has been building a company that takes advantage of the ability of search engines to tap into the long tail--that is, to find obscure websites that deal with topics relatively few people would use--but that would interest advertisers to those who go to them. His company, Demand Media, has quietly amassed a network of thousands of websites such as EHow, Expert Village and a slew of special-interest sites including GolfLink, Trails.com and Daily Puppy. ... Although none are huge hits, together they rank among the Internet's 50 most visited Web networks, according to rating service ComScore Inc." The sites use articles and videos videos created by experts on their topics for low cost. Because Demand Media's websites deal with relatively obscure subjects, they tend to show up high on Google results when people are searching for them. When that happens--and when people the go to those sites--Demand Media makes money from the ads. Demand Media seems to be a case where the long-tail idea is actually working to bring a firm profits.

Does eBay Court Victory Portend Other Website Wins?

2008-07-16T06:43:00.000-07:00

The ruling confirms that eBay acted reasonably and has adequate procedures in place to effectively address counterfeiting

- eBay spokesperson Nicola Sharpe

We are shocked and deeply disappointed in the district court's erroneous reading of the law. The ruling allows sellers of counterfeit goods on eBay to victimize consumers.

- Tiffany & Company spokesperson Mark Aaron

In Wendy Davis, "Tiffany Loses Trademark Infringement Case Against EBay," Online Media Daily, July 15, 2008

The ruling by federal judge Richard Sullivan in New York spoke to two controversy issues relating to intellectual property on the web. Tiffany had sued eBay in 2004 because it said it feared that people were auctioning fake Tiffany goods. The jeweler stated that eBay should prohibit its sellers from listing five or more Tiffany items. eBay replied that it removed counterfeits when it discovered they were fake, but could not see the justification fo prohibiting the sale of Tiffany goods without that knowledge.

The judge agreed, saying that eBay's practice of removing items from its site in response to notices from Tiffany was enough to prevent being liable. The judge also refused to accept an additional argument by Tiffany that because its name is trademarked eBay should be stopped from using the Tiffany name in eBay's advertising on search engines. The judge stated that eBay needed to use the Tiffany to describe certain products and that this activity was "fair use" according to trademark law.

Judge Posner's decision might inflence the outcome of Viacom's lawsuit against Google, alleging that Google should have done more to stop people from placing Viacom's copyrighted programs on its site. "Although Tiffany alleged trademark infringement, its arguments were comparable to those in Viacom's copyright infringement lawsuit against Google's YouTube. Viacom, like Tiffany, wants to hold a site liable for material placed on it by users. And like Tiffany, Viacom argues that Google should be required to police the site for intellectual property infringement."

Will Sponsorships Change "Independent" Web Videos?

2008-07-14T15:34:00.000-07:00

It's still an open question whether big business is going to play Internet culture's game, or if Internet culture is going to play the big business game.

-Tim Hwang, organizer of a Boston conference on web culture

In Mike Musgrove, "Product Placement Creeps Into Amateurs' YouTube Offerings," Washington Post, July 13, 2008

Hwang was referring to the growing phenomenon of companies that sponsor the creation of individually created videos. Sometimes the products are placed into the videos. Sometimes, as in the case of Matt Harding's, the sponsor (Stride Gum) is thanked in a two-to-three second spot at the video's end. "In it, the 31-year-old does his jig with crowds of locals in exotic spots around the globe. The 4 1/2 -minute clip, featuring brief glimpses of 42 locales from Argentina to Zambia, is a smash hit on YouTube, where it is closing in on 6 million views."

Increasingly, videos on sites like YouTube attract corporate sponsors. The reason: Doing that is far cheaper than a 30-second commercial. Of course, it's much harder with a web video to be sure than anyone is watching. But Matt Harding is one of those video creators who are getting a track record for producing material that millions of people view.

Some critics are troubled that the possibility of sponsorships will change the way internet-video creators go about their work. "Internet culture, Hwang said, has spent most of its existence in its own in-jokey world, but that's changing quickly. And as deep-pocketed corporate entities turn to user-generated channels looking for attention, there's no telling how things will play out." From a public interest standpoint, it is worth considering how to encourage sponsors to refrain from integrating their brands into user generating materials.

Father of Video Games Predicts They Will Drive Much Advertising

2008-07-11T09:31:00.000-07:00

We can target consumers so well through casual games. We have all the power of the internet, all the production value of the 30-second spot, which companies spend millions of dollars on to get just right, and then you have the click-through -- it's the perfect storm of advertising.

-Nolan Bushnell, chairman of the board for NeoEdge

In John Godiosi, "Atari Creator Says Games Fertile Ground for Marketers," Advertising Age, July 9, 2008

Bushnell, who many consider the father of video games because he founded Atari, now is chairman of a company that runs an advertising network focusing on putting ads around and in video games. NeoEdge is certainly not the only company doing that. Microsoft, for example, owns Massive, which is also working to push ads in video games. But Bushnell has taken to hype the activity of his firm quite loudly. Working with in-game advertising firm Double Fusion, NeoEdge has made a deal with Yahoo Games to place videos into Yahoo's casual-games. Stressing that the casual game user is typically a woman 25-54, Bushnell opined that advertisers should be rushing to take advantage of what his outfit can offer:

"We know no one is TiVoing through our ads, and we know they're not taking bathroom breaks because there's not enough time. . . . Estimates are that 80 million consumers play casual games on a regular basis. We think this means 20 to 30 billion hours a year," Mr. Bushnell said. "We look at this as a staggering multibillion-dollar opportunity. I think there are still a lot of advertising budgets that are driven by legacy thinkers and they're going to get it one day, and then all of a sudden it'll be like a dike breaking."

Some marketers agree. According to Advertising Age, "EMarketer reports that web-based game ad spending will jump 133% between 2007 and 2012."

Nielsen: Internet Experience Changing for those Under Age 25

2008-07-10T06:33:00.000-07:00

Video is changing the definition of the Internet for those under the age of 24.

-John Burbank, chief marketing officer of Nielsen Co

In Joe Mandese, "TV Screen Remains Most Seen, Nielsen's First '3 Screen' Data Shows Web, Mobile Gaining," Online Media Daily, July 8, 2008

Burbank's comments come with Nielsen's release of its first comparable audience estimates across three screens: television, the internet, and mobile devices. Nielsen's findings are that Americans' viewing of television sets is now the highest ever--127 hours and 15 minutes per month--even while people are devoting more time to video on the other screens. The internet takes up 26 hours and 26 minutes per month, while the people who watched video on cell phones (about 2% of the population, according to other articles) viewed 3 hours and 15 minutes per month on average.

According to Burbank, "Those under 24 use the Internet less than older users but spend a greater percent of time viewing video. For instance, children 2-11 spend relatively little time on the Internet - just 4:58 vs. 38:47 for adults 35-44. But much more of their time is likely spent watching video than checking email or traditional websites."

Of course, the validity of such data is being, and should be, deliberated. NBC, in the meantime, is proceeding with its own "total audience measurement" system, as is the TNS research firm, which is increasingly a broad global competitor to Nielsen.

ICANN Will Allow Domain Names in Many Languages

2008-07-09T07:50:00.001-07:00

The debut of domain names in languages that don’t rely on the Roman alphabet is a major international development.

-Melissa Chang, founder of Pure Incubation, an Internet incubator firm

In Melissa Chang, "Chinese, Arabic and Hindi Domain Names to Go Up for Sale – Finally!" The Internet Standard, July 8, 2008

Currently, all domain names use exclusively Roman characters. That is because the domain name system relies on ASCII, which is based on the English alphabet. The decision by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Numbers and Names (ICANN), the organization that controls the assignment of domain names, to allow non-Roman character IDNs will happen because the organization has decided that domain names can be based on Unicode, a standard that allows the majority of the world’s languages to be represented correctly by computers. "The effort to make this change is being worked on and tested currently. There are a few issues related to rendering some characters due to technical instability and unavailability, but Unicode characters should be ready to fast track come 2009." As Chang notes, "As the world’s population shifts, and the languages based on the Roman alphabet continue to decline in dominance, this decision will only continue to grow in importance."

Judge's Order Confirms Some Privacy Advocates' Fears

2008-07-09T06:09:00.000-07:00

It is an 'I told you so' moment.

-Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center

In Miguel Helft, "Google Told to Turn Over User Data of YouTube," New York Times, July 4, 2008

Rotenberg was referrring to a federal judge's order to Google that it had to turn over to Viacom IP addresses and login names of users who watched which videos on YouTube, the Web's largest video site, which is owned by Google. Viacom is suing Google and YouTube, arguing that the firms' executives have been aware that a dominant activity on YouTube is the piracy of materials copyrighted by Viacom and other media firms.

Judge Louis L. Stanton of the Southern District of New York, who is presiding over the lawsuit used Google's past statements on I.P. addresses to conclude that its ''privacy concerns are speculative.'' Many privacy advocates strenuously disagree, and Google says it is working with Viacom to try to anonymize the data before turning them over. Moreover, Viacom states that only lawyers connected to the case will see the data. Nevertheless, privacy advocates point to the New York Times' ability to piece together the name of someone among AOL's supposedly anonymous data. And Rotenberg and others see this court decision as an example of what they have long feared: ways that supposedly secure data held by companies can become vulnerable to outside uses.

Gossip Girl's Trend-Making Machine

2008-07-09T05:08:00.000-07:00

We tried to launch trends from the get-go.

-Eric Daman, costume designer Gossip Girl

In Ruth La Ferla, "Forget Gossip, Girl; The Buzz is About Clothes," The New York Times, July 8, 2008

The CW Network's Gossip Girl, which centers on the machinations of young ladies in a Manhattan private school, is popular with teenage girls. Although its TV ratings are only middling (though some argue that many more people view it online), the show is having a broad impact on the retail marketplace. "Merchants, designers and trend consultants say that Gossip Girl, which is in summer reruns on the CW network before returning Sept. 1, just in time for back-to-school shopping, is one of the biggest influences on how young women spend. Fans stride into boutiques bearing magazine tear sheets that feature members of the cast and ask for their exact outfits. Or they order scoop-neck tops and hobo bags by following e-commerce links from the show’s Web site." According to Daman, this type of influence--along with the product-placement cash that comes with it--is what the program's creators intended from the start. Daman had worked previously on Sex and the City. Gossip Girls brings a similar materialistic sensibility to its script and screen. The Times writer treats all this quite benignly, quoting someone who tosses it off as "eye candy." But many of the items are quite expensive, and at a time when many US families are suffering financially one wonders what kinds of tensions these induced desires cause. Clearly, too, the program is another example, of the blanket commodification of television programming.

Music Downloads Rise While Physical Recording Sales Dip

2008-07-03T12:31:00.000-07:00

Some future researcher, pouring through Yahoo!'s old files, may be very amused that I made a big deal about a digital album reaching a measly 354,000 copies or an individual song hitting a mere 4 million downloads. I hope so.

-Paul Grein, Yahoo Chartwatch columnist

In Paul Grein, "Week Ending June 29, 2008: Viva La Download Or Death And All His CDs," Yahoo Chartwatch, July 2, 2008

In just two weeks, Coldplay's Viva La Vida has sold more downloads than any album in digital history. The old record was held by John Mayer's Continuum. Viva La Vida sold 66,000 downloads this week, bringing its two-week total to 354,000. Continuum has sold 353,000 downloads since its release in September 2006. "The paid digital download medium scarcely existed five years ago and now it's the biggest growth area in the music business. (It may be the only growth area in the music business.)"

Despite their strong growth, of online music sales still relatively small compared to sales of physicla recordings. They may, however, portend a long-term trend. In the meantime, the slowdown in music sales continues. Just three albums topped 1 million copies in sales (CDs and digital downloads combined) in the first six months of 2008, the lowest total since Nielsen/SoundScan set up shop in 1991. By contrast, six albums sold 1 million copies in the first six months of 2007. Fully 16 albums hit the million mark in the first half of 2006. "The business hit its peak in 2001 when a whopping 37 albums reached the 1 million mark in the first 26 weeks of the year."

Agency Holding Companies and Diversity

2008-06-22T00:53:00.000-07:00

It's perfectly clear that the marketplace, our customers and various regulatory agencies are demanding diversity.

- Michael Roth, Chairman and CEO of Interpublic

In Teresa Howard, "Ad Agency Interpublic Group Acts as Mentor to Build Diversity," USA Today, June 16 2008

Over the past thirty years, forces outside and inside the media have pushed the advertising industry to increase the number of women, blacks, Asians and Hispanics within their ranks. Critics point out that it is ethically untenable and bad from a business standpoint that an "industry that speaks every day to multicultural audiences with $2 trillion in spending power" has a bad record of recruiting blacks, Asians and Hispanics at creative and executive levels. That is the case even in New York City, the center of advertising, which is one of the most diverse US cities. Various companies have tried to solve the problem, but without longterm success for themselves or the industry. The New York City Commission on Human Rights considered the situation so bad that in 2006 it investigated 16 New York based agencies. They settled, making a three year commitment to hiring more black and Hispanic ad practitioners. Interpublic, which owns three of the situation agencies, created its InterAct Associates program to move the diversity needle. It "recruits college graduates for IPG's network of 60 agencies and trains them over two years with six-month stints in specific areas of advertising." The overall numbers are small for IPG, which has about 40,000 employees. Nevetheless, company executive insist it is an important planting of seeds that will grow to affect the entire company positively.