NewsTrust - Advertising - Most Recent Stories: Opinion (Independent)

After Facebook fails

Thu, 24 May 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Harvard Blogs - By Doc Searls - May. 24 (Opinion) - At the heart of the Internet business is one of the great business fallacies of our time: that the Web, with all its targeting abilities, can be a more efficient, and hence more profitable, advertising medium than traditional media. Facebook, with its 90

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Rick Santorum's Dystopia of the Year 2014

Sun, 25 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Paleofuture - By Matt Novak - Mar. 25 (Opinion) - According to Rick Santorum, if Obama is re-elected Americans will be forced to fill up their heads with gasoline Probably inspired by Hunger Games mania, Rick Santorum recently released the most dystopian campaign video we've seen in quite a while. Called "Obamaville," the video depicts the bleak world of 2014: President Obama has been re-elected, the playgrounds sit empty, freedom of religion is under attack, and apparently we're all cyborgs powered by putting gasoliine directly into our heads. THANKS A LOT OBAMA! As a fan of apocalyptic fiction, I watched closely and noticed a few interesting images that the campaign chose to include in the video. Some of the weirder images are below. If you notice the same timecode for some images it's because these images were only up for 2 or 3 frames, and trust me, that's where the gold is!

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Newspapers, Paywalls, and Core Users

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

shirky.com - By Clay Shirky - Jan. 04 (Opinion) - This may be the year where newspapers finally drop the idea of treating all news as a product, and all readers as customers. One early sign of this shift was the 2010 launch of paywalls for the London Times and Sunday Times. These involved no new strategy; however, the newspaper world was finally willing to regard them as real test of whether general-interest papers could induce a critical mass of readers to pay. (Nope.) Then, in March, the New York Times introduced a charge for readers who crossed a certain threshold of article views (a pattern copied from the financial press, and especially the Financial Times.) Finally, and most recently, were a pair of announcements last month: The Chicago Sun-Times was adopting a new threshold charge, and the Minneapolis Star-Tribune said that their existing one was working well. Taken together, these events are a blow to the idea that online news can be treated as a simple product for sale, as the physical newspaper was.

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When candidates lie, what's a political reporter to do?

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Nieman Journalism Lab - By Dan Froomkin - Nov. 30 (Opinion) - How journalists respond to intentional deception will be a defining feature of 2012 political coverage. Will they allow themselves to become accessories to deceptive politicians? Or will they aggressively and repeatedly expose misinformation and the people who traffic in it?

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Why We Need the New News Environment to be Chaotic

Sun, 10 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

shirky.com - By Clay Shirky - Jul. 10 (Opinion) - The business environment for newspapers continues to be grim. Pew recently reported that advertising revenue rebounded in 2010 for all forms of media, except newspapers.* This might just be a matter of transitioning from print to digital revenues but for the fact that the market values a print reader far more highly than a digital one. The more or less official label for this problem is “analog dollars to digital dimes”; because of the enormous difference in assumed value per reader, lost value from print is not made up for by gains in digital readership. The ‘analog dollars to digital dimes’ problem doesn’t actually seem to be a problem. It seems to be a feature of reality. Digital revenue per head is not replacing lost print revenue and, barring some astonishment in the advertising market, it never will. There is no supply-side scarcity to boost margins; power over aggregation has moved from producer to consumer; advertisers prefer selling cameras and shoes on purpose-built sites; readers feel the same about finding jobs and dates; and there are few commercial or geographic restraints on competition. The market values analog readers more highly than digital ones because the market is right.

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Newspaper Publishers: It's Time To Embrace "Fly-By" News Readers

Sat, 18 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Business Insider - By Jay Budzik - Jun. 18 (Opinion) - Facing a steady decline in print revenues, news publishers have  struggled to build replacement revenue streams. For more than a decade,  online business models that rely on free access and directly-sold  display advertising have shown promise, but failed to deliver a  profitable business, especially in light of the traffic dynamics of  news sites.   A recent report from the Columbia Journalism School, "The Story So  Far: What We Know about the Business of Digital Journalism", gives an  excellent account of the history and current state of the industry,  analyzing existing and some emerging business models. Online,  newspapers have struggled to recreate the kind of loyal relationship  with readers that they had in print. Print business models are built  on production and distribution channels that are capital intensive and  difficult to recreate.  

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Google gins search formula to favor its own services

Wed, 19 Jan 2011 00:00:00 -0800

The Register - By Dan Goodin - Jan. 19 (Review) - A noted Google-watcher has assembled a convincing argument that the site's search results highly favor Google-owned services, despite repeated company claims that they are algorithmically generated and never manipulated. Harvard professor Ben Edelman and colleague Benjamin Lockwood found that Google's algorithm links to Gmail, YouTube, and other house brands three times more often than other search engines.

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The Digital Economy's Coming Subprime Crisis (And What You Can Learn From It)

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

harvardbusiness.org - By Umair Haque - Nov. 17 (Opinion) - Today's media players aren't investing in better ads. They're investing in more — and more toxic — ads. Uh oh: it's the economic equivalent of the subprime crisis. The parallels, to me, are too striking to ignore. Here are eight time-worn steps to crisis that Wall Street took yesterday, and media's taking today. Toxicity. Wall Street's subprime crisis was built on toxic financial instruments. The mediascape's subprime crisis is being built on toxic communications. Social gaming — Facebook's Farmville, for example — is the hot growth area for VCs, advertisers, and publishers alike. But last week, TechCrunch blew the lid off it: much revenue in this nascent market is derived from scams masquerading as "ads." To me, there are striking echoes of CDOs — a hot new growth market for Wall Street, later revealed to be a house of cards.

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Burger King, Carl's Jr. Remind Us: Burgers = Sex, Duh

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Mother Jones - By David Corn - Jun. 25 (Opinion) - Two sexy burger ad revelations today. First, the burger-as-blow-job Burger King ad burst onto the scene, second, The Hills' Audrina Partridge becomes the latest scantily clad lady to make love to, I mean, to lustily eat a Carl's Jr. burger.

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Saving Journalism, One Idea at a Time

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Mediactive - By Dan Gillmore - Jun. 09 (Opinion) - The recent panic over the demise of newspapers has led to a predictable flurry of omigod, now-what speculation. We’re being treated to one hype-filled piece after another about this or that startup or project that has the potential to save, revolutionize or do something really, really special to move us into the future of news and information.

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Recovering Journalist

Tue, 12 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Recovering Journalist - By Mark Potts - May. 12 (Opinion) - Charging for online content is not a magic bullet—in fact, in most cases, it may do more harm than good.

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Content cops or Keystone Kops?

Fri, 24 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Reflections of a Newsosaur - By Alan Mutter - Apr. 24 (Opinion) - Beleaguered newspaper and magazine publishers may gain a certain amount of emotional satisfaction from mounting elaborate efforts to chase down online content poachers, but the payback may be more psychic than economic.

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Reflections of a Newsosaur

Sat, 18 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Reflections of a Newsosaur - By Alan Mutter - Apr. 18 (Opinion) - Newspaper people are wasting time and wasting their breath in blaming Google for the failure of their products to thrive in the digital universe.

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The Morton Plan

Thu, 09 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

American Journalism Review - By John Morton - Apr. 09 (Opinion) - The death of the newspaper industry has been predicted many times. First, radio would cause it. Then surely television would and, later, cable television with its myriad information channels. Now, it's the Internet.

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Newspapers and Thinking the Unthinkable

Sat, 14 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Clay Shirky - By Clay Shirky - Mar. 14 (Opinion) - When someone demands to be told how we can replace newspapers, they are really demanding to be told that we are not living through a revolution. They are demanding to be told that old systems won’t break before new systems are in place. They are demanding to be told that ancient social bargains aren’t in peril, that core institutions will be spared, that new methods of spreading information will improve previous practice rather than upending it. They are demanding to be lied to.

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'Sex Photos Gate' Shakes Hong Kong - NAM

Mon, 02 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0800

New America Media - By No - Mar. 02 (Entertainment) - no

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Why the Rocky Closed & What its End Says About the Business's Future

Sat, 28 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Poynter Institute - By Rick Edmonds - Feb. 28 (Opinion) - It's my job to be a dispassionate analyst of the media industry, but the sudden death of the Rocky Mountain News is hitting me hard. Not unexpected, but it all came down sooner, more abruptly than expected -- with some ominous implications for other ailing metros.

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A Dangerous Game

Fri, 05 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Rachel's Democracy & Health News - By Peter Montague - Dec. 05 (Opinion) - Five big enviro groups have just launched a new campaign to force the coal industry to put up or shut up about "clean coal." ....Surprisingly, the "reality coalition" accepts the coal industry's definition of "clean coal" -- merely capturing most CO2 emissions and burying them in the ground. This is a very narrow definition of "clean." How dirty is coal? Let me count the ways.

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The Omnigoogle

Wed, 17 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Rough Type - By Nick Carr - Sep. 17 (Opinion) - Google's protean appearance is not a reflection of its core business. Rather, it stems from the vast number of complements to its core business. Complements are, to put it simply, any products or services that tend be consumed together. Think hot dogs and mustard, or houses and mortgages. For Google, literally everything that happens on the Internet is a complement to its main business. The more things that people and companies do online, the more ads they see and the more money Google makes. In addition, as Internet activity increases, Google collects more data on consumers' needs and behavior and can tailor its ads more precisely, strengthening its competitive advantage and further increasing its income. As more and more products and services are delivered digitally over computer networks -- entertainment, news, software programs, financial transactions -- Google's range of complements expands into ever more industry sectors. That's why cute little Google has morphed into The Omnigoogle.

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At RNC, Clear Channel OKs Pro-Coal Ad, Removes UCS's

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Common Dreams - Aug. 29 (Press Release) - Last week Northwest Airlines and Clear Channel Outdoor took down the Union of Concerned Scientists' (UCS) anti-nuclear-weapons billboards in the Minneapolis and Denver airports ostensibly because they did not meet airport advertisement policies. But given that both the airline and Clear Channel have not objected to a pro-coal billboard on the same concourse in the Minneapolis airport where UCS's billboard appeared, it is apparent that both the airline and Clear Channel apply their no-politics policies selectively.

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What Microsoft wants from Yahoo

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

TechUser - By Usman Latif - Jul. 09 (Opinion) - Microsoft's now retracted acquisition bid for Yahoo has been endlessly analysed in the media and myriad explanations have been offered for Microsoft's interest in Yahoo. Analysts have generally assumed the obvious that Microsoft made the bid in order to acquire Yahoo. Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang, though, does not agree with this assumption. He has publicly claimed that Microsoft did not intend to acquire Yahoo. Some analysts have dismissed Jerry Yang's claim as self-serving, but this can not be so. As part of ongoing shareholder litigation, Jerry Yang may need to defend this claim in a court of law and could not have made the claim lightly. Besides, there is plenty of evidence that supports Jerry Yang's claim.

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McCain Hates War, Loves America

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Outside the Beltway - By James Joyner - Jun. 06 (Opinion) - Hotline reports that the McCain campaign will launch this ad, titled simply "Safe," today in "unnamed battleground states." (Although I'm pretty sure that the states have names, since I know of no states without names.)...Granting that I'm not the target audience, this doesn't strike me as a very effective spot. For one thing, the delivery is tired. ... More importantly...Is hated war off the table? Or does he love the country enough to go to war to keep it safe even though he hates war? One presumes the latter. But, if that's the case, what's his point?

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The coal industry is spending $35 million or more to try to persuade us that there is such a thing as "clean" coal.

Tue, 27 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Down With Tyranny - By Howie Klein - May. 27 (Opinion) - The magic words, it appears, are "carbon capture and sequestration." I don't think you want to know any more about them than I do, but I'm afraid we may be hearing them a lot, unfortunately from people who are trying to sell us bogus or at least wildly exaggerated science indicating that with these new technologies coal can be made clean and safe. It appears that they're prepared to spend tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars to sell their message.

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Latest Olive Branch To Agencies

Tue, 11 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0700

OnlineSPIN - By Joe Marchese - Mar. 11 (Opinion) - Since the..."frienemy" title given to Google by the keepers of Madison Avenue, the question has loomed; Is Google friend or foe...Google's real goal is to be THE advertising OS...through which all advertising decisions are planned, executed and measured...an integrated dashboard for agencies is simply the latest evolution. ..I still maintain that the company that best improves users' experience with a medium has the hands-down advantage in building the best system for incorporating appropriate and relevant advertising

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Googleopoly

Mon, 16 Apr 2007 10:50:47 -0700

Rough Type - By Nicholas Carr - Apr. 16 (Opinion) - Google is not only the dominant player in the ad-serving market (and would see its dominance expand greatly by adding DoubleClick's dominant banner-ad business), but is also the dominant player in the web searching market, controlling somewhere between 48% and 64% of that business (depending on whose data you believe). It has also, through its recent YouTube acquisition, seized a dominant share of the burgeoning market for the delivery of video online. Combined with Google Video, YouTube controls 55% of that market, according to Compete, while its nearest competitor, MySpace, holds just 15%. Google's dominance in all these areas, moreover, seems to be increasing, suggesting that all these markets may have winner-takes-all characteristics.

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