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Brightcove Founder Lays Out Media Vision For A New Video World - Brightcove founder and CEO Jeremy Allaire yesterday challenged media people to prepare for a new form of planning in a world of distributed content where video and advertising travel as far as the viewer wants them to go. Delivering the keynote at Media magazine’s Outfront conference, he also proposed a new online ad format more relevant to the coming wave of longer-form video.   

Online Banking and Bill Payment Spur Loyalty - For the first time ever, online bill payments surpassed paper checks among Internet households, according to a CheckFree report titled “The 2007 Consumer Bill Payment Survey.” The report, conducted with The Marketing Workshop and Harris Interactive, found that 74% of all US Internet households pay at least one bill online. Also, 39% of total bill payment volume among US Internet households in January 2007 was online, up 4% over December 2005. Mailed check volume fell 4%, to just 34% of the total bill payment volume.

Social Networking Increases Internet Time - Social networking increases Internet usage, according to a Marketing Evolution study commissioned by MySpace called “Never Ending Friending.” A copy of the study provided to eMarketer reveals that nearly a third of social network users ages 14-40 have increased their Internet usage, while 8% decreased usage. Usage remained the same for the rest of those surveyed.

Google Is Most-Visited Web Publisher - Google continues to blow by its main competitors in just about every area in which they compete. ComScore Inc. on Wednesday said the Web giant had surpassed Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo! Inc. as the Web’s most-visited site, attracting 528 million visitors in March, squeaking by No. 2 Microsoft, with 527 million. Yahoo, the leader in February, was third with 476.3 million.

YouTube Goes With Pre- And Post Rolls - So the rumors are true: YouTube, which has been frantically searching for a way to court big advertisers and is set to roll out a series of new products for advertisers this summer, which are likely to include pre-, post- and mid-roll video spots. Suzie Reider, YouTube’s head of advertising, said, “We’re looking at executions like a very quick little intro preceding a video, then the video, then a commercial execution on the backside of the content.”

Strong Quarter For Microsoft Belies Mixed Online Results - It was the usual story in the online ad department for Microsoft Corp. during the first three months of the year: Modest growth compared to the company’s core software business. Revenue from Online Services, which includes Live Search, Web portal MSN, and its ad management system, adCenter, grew 11% from a year ago, while overall revenue growth was nearly triple that, at 32%. The online division’s increases came at the expense of a $200 million operating loss–considerably higher than last year’s loss of $24 million. This was due to increased investment in the division.

TG Publishing Acquired by BestofMedia - TG Publishing, a provider of a Web site for PC hardware reviews and news, was acquired by BestofMedia (Puteaux, France) for an undisclosed amount. The company was previously backed by BMP.

PayPerPost Expands; Buys Zookoda Blog Broadcaster - PayPerPost, the controversial firm paying bloggers to write about companies, has acquired Zookoda, a blog broadcasting service provider focused on helping bloggers get better visibility. Zookoda keeps readers updated via email whenever their favorite bloggers issue a new post. Over 2.3 million people opt in to blog newsletters powered by Zookoda technology, according to the company.

Responsys Acquires Loyalty Matrix - Responsys Inc., a Redwood City, Calif.-based provider of on-demand email and marketing automation solutions, has acquired Loyalty Matrix, a San Francisco-based provider of predictive analytics and contact optimization solutions. No financial terms were disclosed.

Autonomy Exercises Option To Buy Blinkx; Merges With Its Consumer Division; Will IPO It In London - This is among the first such IPOs in the still-nascent online video search space, and almost solves the mystery of the weirdly secretive relationship between the data/information search company Autonomy and video search consumer site Blinkx. Also, keep in mind that Blinkx was on the block for a while two years ago, but a deal never materialized.

TheStreet.com Acquires Remaining Stake In Financial Social Net Stockpickr - That was quick: As TheStreet.com prepares to release its quarterly earnings results Thursday, it has acquired the remaining 50.1 percent stake in social net/financial advice site Stockpickr that it did not already own. Terms of the deal were not revealed. At the start of the year, TheStreet.com made its initial purchase in part of Stockpickr, which operates an online forum where people can trade techniques on how “the rich get richer,” as well as exchange investment strategies.

NBCU Acquires RSS Email Start-Up Rmail - This just in … a smallish but interesting acquisition by NBCU, the new owner of Rmail. Randy Charles Morin, founder of the RSS email start-up, announced the sale late night Wednesday on the company blog: “What does that mean to Rmail users? It means a lot of new stuff is coming, as we finally have the team to make this joyride a rollercoaster.” The most recent numbers on the site boast of 50,000 plus users, 100,000 subscriptions and over 50,000 emails per day.

Earnings: CNET Users Up, Views Down, Webshots To Be Scaled Back - CNET Networks’ net losses grew from $1.3 million in Q106 to $9.1 million this time around, thanks in part to costs of $4.4 million paid to auditors, accountants and general counsel associated with investigating a stock options scandal. The company had restated financial statements between 1996 and 2005 after discovering irregularities in stock options practices. But quarter revenue grew 10 percent to $92.1 million. Without the investigation costs, operating income was $11.8 million - up 18 percent from Q106’s $10 million figure. Accounting for those costs, operating income was $7.3 million.   

Earnings: TheStreet.com Revenue Booms On Advertising Growth - The online ad boom and syndication partnerships helped financial news site TheStreet.com report record revenue of $14.5 million for the first quarter ending March 31 - up 30 percent from the same quarter last year and marginally better than the $14.4 million expected. The company said advertising revenue was up 56 percent to $5.1 million, subscription revenue up 15 percent to $8.7 million and other revenue, comprised mainly from syndication revenue, was up by an eye-popping 152 percent.

Sony To Unveil Its Second Video Sharing Site Friday - Sony has created an ad-supported video-sharing site that will be launched in Japan on Friday called eyeVio, Reuters reported. If the site achieves a measure of popularity in Sony’s home country, the company will issue additional eyeVios globally. And to ensure its popularity with content providers, Sony promises to strictly police the site for copyright violations. The site will also allow users to have a degree of control over content they put on the site, as they will be able to select who can watch their videos and for how long.

Broadband Conquers the World - The number of adult Internet users who connect via wired broadband may be peaking, according to Ipsos Insight’s “The Face of the Web” study. More than three-quarters of the online population in 12 major countries used broadband at the end of 2006, while just one-fifth used dial-up. In 2003, Ipsos Insight reported that 45% of adult Internet users were on dial-up connections while 56% used broadband.

WPP May Buy 24/7 Real Media: What’s It Mean? - Analysts don’t quite know what to make of reports that WPP is pursuing online ad company 24/7 Real Media in the wake of Google’s agreement to buy online ad giant DoubleClick. Said JEGI’s David Clark: It would mean WPP breaking out of its agency role into an operator’s role representing clients’ campaigns. Estimated price: Easily upwards of $600 million.

Quantcast Offers Alternative To Panel Web Measurement - In the wake of the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s call for an audit of panel-based Web measurement firms, a San Francisco-based startup named Quantcast is raising its hand as the first open Internet ratings site claiming direct audience measurement and total transparency.

Mashups, Wikis Let Consumers Follow the Money - Mashups and wiki-based programs are making it easier for everyday consumers to keep an eye on the flow of special-interest money in Washington. Beware politicians; custom data mashups allow the layman to cross-reference public databases containing information about public spending and lobbying dollars to votes cast in Congress.

Google Shouldn’t Overlook Microsoft - Few would argue that Google is eating Microsoft’s lunch when it comes to Web advertising. The software giant has tried to build its way (piecemeal) into a position to compete with Google, but its efforts have failed to gain traction–or at least, so goes the consensus in tech circles. Nevertheless, a pair of Gartner analysts paint a picture of Microsoft as a sleeping giant, overlooked by an increasingly complacent Google. In other words, the tables have turned: Google isn’t going after Microsoft, as much as Microsoft is Google.

Joost Adds 30-Plus Advertisers To Beta Program - Online video startup Joost has added 31 big-brand advertisers to its roster, including P&G, Coca-Cola, Nike, GM and Visa. The fledgling company is offering a series of units–from 30-second mid-roll videos to digital overlays, display ads, even widgets (embedded programs)–to these marketers on a three-month contract.

Study Confirms Popularity Of Wikipedia - The collaborative encyclopedia Wikipedia has become one of the most popular sites on the Web, according to a report issued this week by the Pew Internet & American Life Project. Eight percent of American Web users visited Wikipedia during a typical day this winter — a higher proportion than those who made an online purchase, visited a dating site or chat room during a typical day, according to Pew.

I recently had the opportunity to attend the Milken Institute Global Conference in Los Angeles.  If you ever have an opportunity to attend, I highly recommend it.  My company has been a sponsor of this conference, and many others, over the years and I can say this is truly one of the most unique conferences today.

More than 3,000 of the world’s leading decision-makers gather in Los Angeles to attend over 120 sessions that examine challenging global issues from reducing our dependence on oil to ensuring that people everywhere have access to a good education, quality health care and well-paying jobs.

Some of the highlights of the conference included director Sydney Pollack interviewing architect Frank Gehry, a look at public-figure philanthropy with Andre Agassi, Michael J. Fox and Ted Turner, and a session on the politics of climate change with Sen. John Kerry and other experts.

I didn’t have a lot of time at the conference but I did manage to attend a very good luncheon hosted by financier Mike Milken, an interview with actor Kirk Douglas, a breakfast by publisher Steve Forbes, and a luncheon hosted by Maria Bartiromo of CNBC fame.

Nobel Laureates in Economics Address “The Future of Capitalism”

This luncheon was moderated by Michael Milken and included three Nobel Laureates (Kenneth Arrow, Gary Becker, Myron Scholes).  He posed an expansive question for them: What is the future of global capitalism? The result was a wide-ranging, big-picture discussion of the role capitalism has played in increasing society’s welfare, and whether this development is likely to continue.  Overall, the panelists were quite positive and there were some interesting charts regarding the positives and negatives and the role technology has played in our population development.

A Conversation With Kirk Douglas

I have always been a huge fan of Kirk Douglas movies (and his son) and so it was really interesting to attend this interview hosted by Mort Zuckerman, Chairman and Editor-in-Chief of U.S. News & World Report.  Kirk has appeared in more than 70 films over six decades in Hollywood.

At 90 years old, Kirk discussed his latest autobiographical book titled ”Let’s Face It”.  He has had a stroke so his speech was a little slurred but he was very understandable.  He spoke at length about the need for peace in the world for our children’s sake, the suicide of his youngest son, the great achievements of his son Michael Douglas, and his views regarding racism in the USA.  One of the final questions/comments came from the mother of Joachim and River Phoenix who shared her similar experiences raising her sons.

U.S. Overview: Not Too Hot, Not Too Cold?

This panel was moderated by Steve Forbes, President and CEO of Forbes Inc., and included Brian Fabbri (Chief U.S. Economist for North America, BNP Paribas), Angelo Mozilo (Chairman and CEO, Countrywide Financial Corporation), Peter Orszag (Director, Congressional Budget Office) and Andrew Rosenfield (Managing Partner, Guggenheim Partners). 

The panel revolved around questions regarding whether the U.S. is poised for a return of the “Goldilocks economy” similar to 1995-96 - not too strong to cause inflation yet not too weak to slip into recession? (In other words, just right.) 

2007: The Year of Private Equity?

This panel had a lot of glitz but not a lot of substance or meaningful takeaways.  The panel was moderated by Maria Bartiromo, Managing Editor and Anchor of ”The Wall Street Journal Report” for CNBC.  On the panel were CEOs of some of the top private equity firms in the U.S. including Leon Black (Founding Partner, Apollo Advisors LP), David Bonderman (Principal and Founding Partner, Texas Pacific Group), Thomas Lee (President and CEO, Thomas H. Lee Capital LLC) and David Rubenstein (Managing Director, The Carlyle Group).

These firms have bought some of the most recognized public companies in America: Reader’s Digest, Dunkin’ Donuts, Toys-R-Us, Neiman Marcus and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. These private-equity firms have changed their image and are now viewed by many as financial saviors, paying good money for underperforming companies and turning them around. And they are averaging 13 percent returns in the past two decades, which is good for institutional investors. Of course, not everyone views them so positively. Flush with money, and running short on targets, these investors have become more aggressive in their search for firms to buy, which has raised concerns with regulatory agencies both within and outside the U.S.

IAB Declares War On Web Measurement Firms - Long-standing discontent over the state of Web traffic metrics is coming to a head. The Interactive Advertising Bureau has issued an open letter to comScore and Nielsen//NetRatings requesting they submit to a third-party audit of their measurement processes. New president and CEO Randall Rothenberg is also galvanizing the ANA and AAAAs to join the fight.  

Privacy Advocates Challenge GoogleClick With FTC Complaint - Three consumer privacy groups are taking their concerns about the Google/DoubleClick deal to the Federal Trade Commission, charging the deal would “create unique risks to privacy” and calling for an investigation into plans for the sharing and storage of usage data.

Digital Agency Leaders On Demand, Consolidation, Spending, and GoogleClick - Ed Montes of Havas’ Media Contacts and Andrew O’Dell of AKQA discussed a wide range of industry topics on a conference call organized by investment firm Piper Jaffray. 

Roo To Power mtvU Online College Papers - Roo Group’s customizable video players will now service mtvU’s network of more than 500 online college newspapers.  

U.S. Online Banking Population Grew 9.5% In 2006 - As the online banking industry matures, the rate of customer growth is decreasing. In its annual review, comScore reports the U.S. online banking population grew 9.5% in 2006, which is down from 27% growth in 2005 and 47% in 2004.  

Should Google’s Influence Be Limited? - Here’s a non-controversial statement: Google dominates the Internet. The quintessential business success story, a technology company built around a simple idea grew into a $150 billion juggernaut–and with unprecedented speed. Success has made it eerily similar to a Web-based version of Microsoft. Which means that companies like Microsoft and AT&T, and consumer groups across the country have every right to question Google’s acquisition of DoubleClick, he says. Microsoft was eventually barred from extending its influence over the software market, so why shouldn’t Google, the undisputed leader in Internet advertising?  

Transformation Breeds Success for Old-School Agency - Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, one of the largest and most established ad agencies, has undergone a “wrenching shift” into new media. The agency, creator of the legendary “Got Milk” campaign, has managed what the newspaper calls a “stunning transformation,” thanks to the forceful direction of its co-founder Jeff Goodby and Rich Silverstein. In addition to hiring 109 new people with interactive backgrounds, today, roughly 54% of Goodby’s work is largely based on the Web. In May 2005, that figure was 17%.

User-Generated Content Hopes and Fears - More than half of media and entertainment executives surveyed in Accenture’s “Global Content Survey 2007″ cite user-generated content as a leading threat to their bottom line. Two-thirds of respondents believe that within three years their businesses will be making money on user-generated content. A quarter does not yet know how that will happen. Respondents agreed that short-form video offers the best growth potential over the next five years.

The Dangers Of Playing Monopoly - Concerns are growing about Google’s increasing influence over media — and for good reason. As the dominant search engine, Google is emerging as a gatekeeper to the world’s information. One day, probably soon, if a business doesn’t exist in Google’s index, it may as well not exist at all. At least one business, KinderStart, already faced this prospect when it found itself delisted from Google’s index and sued the company.

Newspaper Earnings Show Slowdown In Online Ad Growth - In reporting their respective Q1 earnings, newspaper companies have been able to point to at least one general bright spot over the past few quarters: online ad revenue increases, mostly from online classifieds. But as the earnings for the NYTCO, Gannett and Tribune have shown, interactive ad dollars are not growing as expected (Dow Jones and the smaller Journal Register Company represent the exceptions). And as WaPO prepares to release its Q1 earnings, the CEO of its online division tells the WSJ that online ad growth is slowing across the board.

Websites Audition To Become Digital ‘American Idols’ - A number of online startups want to bring American Idol-like talent contests to the internet, the Boston Globe points out: sites like OurStage and HowFamous have recently raised financings for their respective ventures. Others, like Bix recently tried to gain attention when its founder actually tried out with others to audition for American Idol.

Portals Dominate Online Ad Take - Advertising is the main revenue driver for the top four portals, in growth if not in sheer dollars.Competition among Google, Yahoo!, AOL and MSN is intense, and they each take a large share of US ad revenues. eMarketer estimates that nearly $13 billion will go to just those four sites in 2007. In fact, Google and Yahoo!’s ad revenue (excluding traffic acquisition costs) alone will account for over half of all US online ad spending in 2007.

comScore Responds To IAB’s Request For Third-Party Audit - comScore on Monday offered a diplomatic response to an open letter issued last week by the Interactive Advertising Bureau asking comScore and Nielsen//NetRatings to submit to a third-party audit of their measurement processes.

Honeymoon Is Over For Social Networks - Competition is fierce among social networking sites trying to reach the critical mass of audience necessary for commercial success — and those that fail to start generating revenue will be forced to bow out of the race this year, predicts In-Stat.   

MySpace “Shoot The Rapper” Banners Link To Virginia Tech Shooting Victims - The Web is notorious for inappropriately matching content with ads. It’s happened again with the Virginia Tech tragedy, as MySpace ads encouraging visitors to “Shoot the Rapper, win $5,000″ are appearing alongside profiles of students who lost their lives this week.

Havas’ Media Contacts Signs Global Ad-Serving Deal With aQuantive’s Atlas - Insisting the deal does not mean a move away from DoubleClick in the wake of the Google acquisition, Media Contacts, the interactive arm of Havas, has signed an ad-serving deal with the Atlas unit of aQuantive. It covers more than 400 clients — including Dell, Nike and Air France.

Major Crises Catalyze Interactive News Capabilities - Traditional news organizations typically spring into action online in the wake of significant breaking news events. Using paid search keywords to attract traffic and turning to user-generated content to flesh out reports were both on display during this week’s coverage of the Virginia Tech shooting.

Click Fraud Hits 14.8% For 1Q 2007: Click Forensics - Click Forensics reported an average industry click fraud rate of 14.8% for the first three months of 2007 — the highest reported rate since the firm started tracking click fraud a year ago.

Mochila Launches AdMatch Video Player - Mochila, an online media marketplace for publishers of print, audio, video and photo content, has launched AdMatch Player — an ad-supported video player that enables publishers to create and deliver customized video experiences for consumers.

The Unstoppable Surge of Search Advertising - There are two giants in the space, and they are getting bigger! Saying that search engine marketing is a highly concentrated industry is an understatement. Looking at the numbers, according to comScore, US Internet users performed 75.8% of their January 2007 searches on Google or Yahoo!, and Nielsen//NetRatings put the combined total at 76.4%. eMarketer projects Google and Yahoo to take up 75.6% and 16.3% of US paid search by the end of 2007.

More Boomers Watching Online Video - At 39.4 years old, the average adult who downloads video is about five years younger than the average Internet user, according to BIGresearch. The data refer to all Internet users or Internet video viewers. The number of US adults who have downloaded a TV show, for example, remains small. Like the BIGresearch data, a demographic profile from Arbitron/Edison Media Research is based on self-reported survey results, but still points to the significant trend of more mature viewers. The survey indicates that over a fourth of online video viewers are 45 or older.

Low-Key Reception As Google Beats Street–Again - What if Google delivered whopping earnings and nobody cared? Google’s first-quarter earnings haven’t been the media event of the past. Revenues jumped 65% to $2.53 billion, a $1 billion increase over last year, while its international business grew an astonishing 81%, raising its share of revenues to 47% from 42%. On a pro-forma basis, which excludes employee stock options, the company delivered $3.68 a share, easily beating analysts’ expectations of $3.31.

Social Networking Transforms Academia - Academia is a very different world today. College pofessors now have to compete with mobile phones, wireless Internet and colossal time wasters like MySpace and YouTube for attention in the classroom. In fact, Congress recently introduced a bill to stifle funds for schools that don’t restrict access to certain Web sites on their networks. Naturally, there has to be an opportunity in there somewhere.

Is The Web Squeezing Out Local Broadcasters? - As News Corp., NBC, Viacom and others send prime-tie content to the Internet, local TV affiliates are wondering whether they’re the next business to be left behind by the Internet revolution. NBC and News Corp. plan to distribute prime-time content across a large network of major Internet publishers. Moreover, it’s an on-demand future, as the big telecoms, Apple, Joost, YouTube, Sling Media and others, change the way people watch television.

Circuit City And Napster Launching Digital Music Store - Troubled Circuit City is getting back into selling online music by teaming up with Napster on a new online MP3 service that will give consumers access to songs via monthly subscriptions as well as the choice of buying individual tracks. The company sold its MusicNow subscription service to AOL in November 2005. The latest venture begins April 29, when users can sign up for the service at Circuit City + Napster. The subscription service is $14.95 per month; new subscribers get the first month of access for free, along with five free downloads.

EA Launches Casual Gaming Site Pogo in Germany; Expands In UK - Electronic Arts is expanding its casual gaming service Pogo in Europe, adding services in the UK and launching a German-language site. The company said a French-language site will be launched in coming months. EA is pursuing the estimated 30-45 percent (Media Metrix, 12/06) of the online population in the UK and Germany that plays casual games. After a soft launch, the local UK site already is drawing 3.2 million monthly uniques; they average 11 minutes a day. The U.S. has 11 million monthly uniques who play an average 53 minutes a day. The majority of users in both cases are women over 35.

Google Acquires Marratech’s Video Conferencing Software - Google adds another weapon to its online app arsenal with the acquisition of Marratech’s video conferencing and video new meeting software. The Swedish company will continue to serve and support its customer base and reseller network. Marratech’s cross-platform e-Meeting software creates a virtual office. No terms were disclosed; the small—but potentially loud—acquisition was announced late Thursday after Google’s earnings release and call.

Microsoft Eyes The Future of Web Development - Microsoft unveiled two tools that it plans to use to extend its reach into the Web 2.0 landscape — voice-activated search service via TellMe Networks, and Silverlight, a browser plug-in set to rival Adobe’s Flash.  

Teens Vulnerable to Contact with Strangers on Social Networks - In a digital world increasingly dominated by social networks like MySpace and Facebook, new issues have arisen for younger consumers and the marketers who covet them. According to a new study released by The Pew Internet & American Life Project, some 32% of online teenagers and 43% of social-networking teens have been contacted online by complete strangers.

Study Finds Average Viewer Engagement Time is Cut by More Than Half - Results from a study released by rich media services provider Accela Communications suggest a new benchmark for online video viewer engagement time. And at 4.6 minutes, it far surpasses the 10.8-second average viewer engagement time reported by other rich media vendors. 

Yahoo Extends Search Marketing Pact with United Online - Yahoo has extended its search and search marketing deal with United Online, a provider of consumer Web and media services. Under the new multi-year agreement, Yahoo will continue to deliver its sponsored search and web search results to United Online’s suite of serviced operating under the brand names NetZero, Juno and Bluelight.

Social Network Ad Scramble - Social networking buzz belies an impending sector shakeout, according to In-Stat’s “Social Networking: Finding Friends Online” report. MySpace’s demographics include plenty of wage earners at this point, and Boomers have social networks like Eons.com, but the In-Stat report raises an important question: How can social networks best monetize their memberships? eMarketer estimates that 2007 ad spending on MySpace will outstrip spending on all other social networks combined, so competition will be fierce.

PayPal, Skype Deliver For eBay - EBay had a markedly different day on Wall Street from its Web partner (and rival) Yahoo, delivering better-than-expected first-quarter earnings on Wednesday. Thanks to sharp growth from its Skype and PayPal units, and a higher average price of selling goods on its auction site, first-quarter profit surged 52 percent. The San Jose, Calif. firm reported net income of $377.2 million, up from $248.3 million a year earlier, sending shares up 5 percent in after hours trading. Overall sales were $1.78 billion.

Is Yahoo’s Newspaper Deal A Temporary Fix? - Yahoo CEO Terry Semel on Tuesday was bullish about the prospects for the Web giant’s new partnership with a consortium of newspaper companies to sell online advertising through a joint network. He said the initiative was an unparalleled solution for local and national advertisers.The addition of McClatchy earlier this week brings the total number of nationwide dailies to 260 that will sell ads using Yahoo’s ad targeting technology. Publishers and industry critics agree that the move is a boon, but it’s no panacea for the ailing print business. A combined sales force with established relationships with local advertisers should attract more ad dollars.

MySpace Enters News Aggregation Biz - MySpace is entering the news aggregation business-and why not? The service, called MySpace News, is a cross between Google News, which collect and arranges stories based on keywords, and Digg.com, which lets users vote stories, the most popular appear sequentially in a given category. MySpace News will send crawlers to scour the Web for stories, which users will vote on. The most popular stories become the top news on MySpace.

GOOG/DCLK: Will it Grow the Pie? - By now, I am sure that you are all tired of reading news, analysis and commentaries on Google’s announced intention to buy DoubleClick. Don’t worry. I would like to focus instead on if the deal will grow our industry. For starters, I think that the deal is a fundamental one for our industry. It touches too many market participants for it not to be. There is hardly a publisher, advertiser or agency that doesn’t have some direct or indirect relationship with either Google or DoubleClick. On that score alone, it will be big.

YouTube Beefs Up Demo Collection - In an apparent attempt to boost ad efforts, YouTube is poised to start collecting more detailed demographic information about its users. “There’s lots you can glean from looking at who’s looking at what,” YouTube CMO Suzie Reider reportedly said this week at an Advertising Research Foundation conference. “It’s a real-time focus group that happens all day, every day,” she continued, according to Advertising Age.

Price Is Key to Digital Music Growth - Two new digital developments promise relief for the music industry, which has been fighting declining CD sales since the turn of the millennium. For one, EMI announced that it will eliminate restrictive digital rights management (DRM) technology from the bulk of its catalog (for a price). The second is Sprint-Nextel’s announcement of a 99-cent-per-track over-the-air (OTA) mobile music service in the US. Consumers favor keeping prices at the dollar-per-track level that Apple established when it rolled out its iTunes Music Store four years ago. When Ipsos Public Affairs asked what consumers thought of the price, more than 70% of respondents rated it as either “fair” or a “bargain.”   

Going For Scale, AOL Says ‘Amplify Your Buy,’ Unveils Five Original Web Programs - Positioning itself as a champion of scale, interactive engagement and high quality content, AOL on Tuesday unveiled five original programs for the Web that build on its experience with “Gold Rush” — the interactive/TV series it partnered on with uber-producer Mark Burnett last year. Media buyers saw promise in some of them.

Panama-Related Revenue Gains Not Yet In For Yahoo - Yahoo’s first-quarter profit and sales trailed analysts’ estimates after Panama failed to generate the revenue gain some had anticipated. But CEO Terry Semel and CFO Sue Decker predicted a strong second-quarter, which will include a new consumer advertising push. Bright spots are the company’s mobile, social and partnering efforts.

Google Adds Preferred Cost Bidding To AdWords - Google released preferred cost bidding for AdWords, a new option allowing advertisers to specify the average price they would like to pay per click as opposed to a maximum bid. It’s geared to advertisers who lack the time or resources to micromanage their maximum bids.

24/7 Real Media Goes Straight At The Conflict Issue, Targeting DoubleClick Clients - Ad network 24/7 Real Media wasted no time in capitalizing on the opportunity presented by Google’s announcement that it acquired rival DoubleClick. It launched an online lead generation campaign targeting DoubleClick customers by getting directly at their fears.

Future of Advertising? It’s All About Branded Products, Services - An ARF panel on ad agencies of the future addressed ads more than agencies. Burger King’s breakthrough online Subservient Chicken was entertaining and very viral, but the future lies in campaigns that offer value and branded products and services, digital agency chiefs said.

Dow Jones Online Revenues Up 30% - Helping to offset a 1.8% decline in ad revenue at the print Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones Online saw revenue rise a robust 30% year-over-year, Dow Jones reported during its earnings call Tuesday.

NBC U., Time Warner Back New, ‘Build Your Own,’ Ad Serving Network - On the heels of Google’s deal to acquire online ad serving giant DoubleClick, a group of investors including of two of the largest traditional media companies - NBC Universal and Time Warner - are backing a new, “breakthrough” ad serving technology. Time Warner Ventures and GE’s NBC Universal and GE Media, Communications and Entertainment units were part of a $19 million round of early stage funding for Adify, which has developed what it calls a “Build Your Own Network” approach to ad serving, which is aimed at traditional media companies as well as endemic online marketers.

NielsenConnect Unveils Operation At ARF - A few months after announcing the formation of NielsenConnect, a new service to measure multimedia exposure, the company gave a peek at the operation. The service draws on proprietary measurements of TV, Web, print and outdoor. And, by mixing customized research programs connected to media, helps expose and clarify consumer behavior.

IAC Eyes African American Market for Social Networking - IAC/InterActive Corp. on Wednesday said it plans to launch a new community site aimed at African Americans, coinciding with a larger social networking movement away from the mass chaos of MySpace toward better-targeted, smaller communities. The unnamed site won’t launch until next January, but it will feature news, entertainment, advice and local business information, in addition to integrating several of IAC’s 60-plus Internet brands, including Ticketmaster, dating site Match.com and the search engine Ask.com.

Semel Welcomes GoogleClick Competition - Poor first-quarter results and speculation over his future had Yahoo CEO Terry Semel firing shots at rival Google over its pending acquisition of DoubleClick. He said the search giant could see an advertiser exodus from DoubleClick as publishers become weary of partnering with a company it competes with for eyeballs and advertising dollars. He added that DoubleClick’s publisher-agnostic approach was one of its most compelling attributes that would be lost after becoming part of Google.

Googlifying The World Of Media Planning And Buying - Over the last few days there’s been a lot of buzz generated (again) by Google deciding to make a move and purchase DoubleClick. I’ve said it before and I will say it again: The agency model as it currently exists is doomed. What Google is doing, though not so silently, is beginning to close the casket door, but it’s not closed yet and there are still a number of things that need to happen. I predict the current agency model of standard media planning and buying and creative development has about 10 years left in it.

aQuantive, 24/7 Real Media, ValueClick Shares Gain On GoogleClick - Shares of online advertising firm aQuantive rose to a seven-year high yesterday as the market rewarded online advertising’s new darlings in the wake of the Google/DoubleClick $3.1 billion deal announcement.   

Google Makes More Announcements, As Microsoft Makes Anti-Trust Rumblings - Just chalk it up as another day in the land of Google. As the company announced it will partner with Clear Channel Radio to sell advertising inventory, Microsoft sounded a louder drumbeat that the $3.1 billion Google/DoubleClick deal merits serious antitrust scrutiny.

Gemstar-TV Guide Debuts Online Video Guide–In Beta - After nine months of gestation, Gemstar-TV Guide finally delivered a public beta of its Online Video Guide. It aims to enable entertainment fans to easily channel-surf with one-click access to their favorite shows and video clips.

WPP Invests in Video-Sharing Community VideoEgg - Lured by the swelling popularity of video-sharing communities, WPP has made a strategic investment in online video technology company VideoEgg. One aim is to learn how to use online communities to build brands.

Comcast To Distribute NBCU/News Corp. Venture Video - Comcast’s Comcast.net and Fancast.com will serve as distribution sites for News Corp. and NBCU’s online video venture, the companies announced yesterday. Comcast will also become the entity’s first non-equity content provider.

Yahoo Adds Newspaper Publishing Partners To Ad Network - Deepening its ties with the newspaper industry, Yahoo has added four new publishing partners to an existing coalition concentrated on classified advertising, content sharing, and search.

Coke Opens VirtualThirst.com In Second Life - Coca-Cola issued an invitation to avatars in Second Life (as well as the general public) to submit ideas for a portable vending machine. It’s all about the thirst for self-expression.

Al Jazeera Extends Brand Via YouTube - Al Jazeera’s English version has reached a deal to take advantage of YouTube’s branded-channel option. It will launch its own locale on the heavily trafficked site and make clips from its programming available to users.

Broadband Brings Broad Changes - As broadband connectivity spreads around the world, so do the value-added services of voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) and Internet protocol television (IPTV). According to the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA), VoIP subscribers will account for over one-third of all US landline subscriptions in 2010, up from approximately 10% in 2006. eMarketer forecasts 41.1 million IPTV households worldwide in 2011, up from approximately five million in 2006.

Following New Deals, Google Plays Friend Card - Besides adding DoubleClick to its online ad repertoire, Google has also struck ad delivery deals with EchoStar and Clear Channel, two major holders of offline inventory. Google CEO Eric Schmidt has also been on damage control. Indeed, it’s become standard procedure for Google to publicly reassure its partner/competitors the company has no intention of encroaching on their territory following a significant new partnership or acquisition. “Google is a new phenomena. It does not replace radio and television,” Schmidt said yesterday at a National Association of Broadcasters conference.

Web Radio Loses Copyright Appeal - Web radio broadcasters were dealt a harsh blow on Monday as a federal copyright panel upheld its decision to raise the royalty fees Web radio companies have to pay record labels. The decision comes in the wake of an appeal filed by National Public Radio and signed by hundreds of small commercial Webcasters, which complain that significantly raised fees would put them out of business.

GoogleClick: A Precedent For Ad Domination? - If Google succeeds in buying the graphical ad-server DoubleClick, pending government approval, the search giant will no longer just be the search giant. The company’s aggressive foray into traditional media, like print, radio and now, TV, proves that. Indeed, it would be hard for CEO Eric Schmidt to deny that Google’s aim is to dominate global advertising. Google would corner a big chunk of online advertising with the addition of DoubleClick.

Schmidt: Google Readying YouTube Filtering Service - You could argue that GoogTube doesn’t really have to do this. But Google CEO Eric Schmidt, who’s everywhere in the press this week on Google damage control, says the company is close to implementing a filtering service that would prevent copyrighted content from being uploaded to video sharing site YouTube.

Microsoft, Adobe Headed For Collision - Microsoft and Adobe are on a collision course, as the companies, which have been partners for a long time, roll out software handling multimedia functions like video and animation. Today, this is an area dominated by Adobe’s Flash, but Microsoft is now throwing its hat into the ring with a new software called Silverlight, designed to make the building of advanced programs easier.

AOL’s New Programs Underwhelm - AOL today unveils five new Web programs at its so-called “First Look” — a new event aimed at whetting the appetite of online media buyers. But some of the ventures detailed appear surprisingly unambitious. Consider, there’s “Ye Olde Shrek the Third Royal Tournament,” a game show based on the Shrek movie; a tie-in with “The Ellen DeGeneres Show”; a game called “Million Dollar Bill” involving serial numbers of dollar bills; a sequel to Mark Burnett’s trivia game “Gold Rush”; and “iLand,” a contest created by Big Brother production company Endemol. Some of those efforts sound particularly unimpressive.

Google Couldn’t Wait To Spend $3.1 Billion For DoubleClick - Google’s agreement to acquire the leading online ad network DoubleClick for the astonishing price of $3.1 billion in cash kept it away from Microsoft, but was also a recognition that Mountain View needed to get into the display advertising market sooner than later as the lines between search and display disappear.      

What’s Next For Microsoft? - The perception of Microsoft as a serious contender in the online advertising business suffered a big blow on Friday when Google came out on top of the bidding war for DoubleClick. So what’s next?

An Agency’s Little Dividend: From Dot-Com Spin-Off To $3.1 Billion Google Deal - Google’s acquisition of DoubleClick from private equity firms Hellman & Friedman LLC and JMI Equity marks another surprising chapter in one of Madison Avenue’s most circuitous equity stories. DoubleClick, which was formed in 1996 as a spin-off from Poppe Tyson, an industrial advertising unit of Bozell, Jacobs, Kenyon & Eckhardt, has grown and seen its equity value prosper through spin-offs, mergers, public offerings, a dot-com bust, a leveraged buy-out and yet another sale that have enabled it to overshadow the ad agencies that originally spawned it.

ARF Conferees Weigh In On Google Deal: Game-Changer or Olive Branch? - P&G’s Marc Rosenstock called the Google/DoubleClick deal a game-changer, while others at the ARF’s online preview day saw the move as an olive branch to Madison Avenue.

ConAgra Plans 400% Boost In Online Ad Spending - ConAgra, whose brands range from Chef Boyardee to Orville Redenbacher, will increase its online ad spend by 400% this year, the company’s director of interactive marketing told a kick-off session at the Advertising Research Foundation’s Re:think convention.

R/GA Adds Media Buying Capability - Aiming to offer a complete suite of services, interactive shop R/GA said it added a media buying function and hired Joy Lin, formerly of Agency.com, to the new role of media director. The Interpublic Group agency’s buying presence will complement strategic and media planning functions the shop launched in 2004.

Video Streamers Skew Younger, Have Higher Incomes, And Are Highly Educated - According to recent findings released by Ipsos Insight from MOTION, a study of digital video behaviors, at the end of 2006 58% of Americans age 12 or older, with Internet access, had streamed some form of video content online…100 million Americans, or 44% of the overall US population age 12 or older.

Google: Tomorrow the World? - With its intended purchase of DoubleClick, Google has signalled its interest in extending its online ad revenues business beyond paid search. Given that Google already accounts for 32% of all US online ad spending, does this move mean that a near-monopoly is about to become the real thing?

Microsoft Against Google-DoubleClick Union - Having agreed to a $3.1 billion price tag (about $1 billion more than most estimates in the press) Google is setting out to buy ad-serving giant DoubleClick–subject to regulatory approval in both the U.S. and E.U. Now, Microsoft and the rest (because henceforth that’s how everyone in the Web business should be addressed) are understandably angry, according to various reports.

Second Life Is New Web Browser - Imagine a virtual “metaverse” where people are represented by avatars that can interact with one another and build anything from businesses to buildings. Oh wait, it’s already a reality. But the greater question is, do massively multiplayer online games like Second Life and There represent the future of the Web browser? Will avatars represent our doings online as we conduct research, buy products or even go to work?

Google Voice Search in Full Swing - Web researcher Stephen Arnold says he reads Google patents to predict the future. Right now, he’s focused on United States Patent 7,027,987–a voice interface for a search engine. Arnold believes the patent reveals Google’s plans to deploy voice search across a variety of media devices, from computers to cell phones, as well as for dictating voice-to-text on a word-processing program.

I have often been asked about the appropriate metrics when valuing an Internet media property. Obviously, at the heart is how the business monetizes its audience.  Here is an interesting article in today’s Dow Jones news wire:

Internet Cos. Try To Revise Means Of Measuring Web Traffic

By Shira Ovide
4/13/2007

The Internet is vast, the interest is immense and its effect is tangible, but how to measure all that remains a multibillion-dollar debate.

The two major firms that track Internet traffic are playing down the significance of ranking Web sites by “page views,” the number of pages viewed on a given Web property each month. Instead, they are offering other metrics, such as time spent or visits.

Page views have been a key barometer of a Web site’s popularity and help set advertising rates, but the measure is growing less relevant. Online publishers and advertisers say page views don’t capture consumer loyalty to a site or reflect the increasing popularity of online video and new technology that automatically refreshes Web sites, thereby depressing page views.

“Page views as an indicator, or consumption as an indicator, of the vibrancy of the site becomes somewhat obsolete,” said Vivek Shah, president of digital publishing at Time Warner Inc.’s (TWX) Time Inc. business and finance network. “It seems a bit of a relic.”

Peter Daboll, Yahoo Inc.’s head of global market research, said last year that page views had outgrown their usefulness.

“We all need to help to wean the industry off the crutch of familiar metrics in favor of more accurate and representative ones,” Daboll wrote in a blog.

As the Internet siphons advertising dollars from traditional media, the lessened emphasis on page views is part of a broad debate over the accuracy and relevance of measurement methods in the still-nascent industry.

At stake is the $17 billion spent annually on online advertising, in part because of the ability to measure the Web audience and their activities in a more exact way than possible with television, radio or newspapers. But spats over the data’s accuracy puts pressure on the industry to create uniform and trusted standards for measuring Web traffic. Since the early days of the Internet, page views - in combination with “unique visitor” counts (how many different people visited a Web site at least once in a month) - have been used to gauge the popularity of online properties and give a rough idea of how many ads people see.

But the importance of the measure is changing. One of the major interactive research firms, NetRatings Inc.’s Nielsen/NetRatings, in June will release what it calls “time spent” data and stop issuing its rankings by page views. The firm’s rival, comScore Inc., said last month that it is emphasizing a measurement called “visits,” which takes into account the time people return to surf a Web site in a month.

“We don’t expect it to go away,” Jack Flanagan, executive vice president of comScore, said about the page view yardstick, adding that “we really wanted to provide a measure that really gets towards the engagement of the user with the Web sites.”

The catalyst for the change is new technology that automatically refreshes Web sites. Ajax - used by Web sites hosted by Yahoo, CBS Corp., Sports Illustrated and many others - cuts the number of clicks needed to see the same amount of information.

At CNNMoney, Ajax lets Web surfers follow the ups and downs of stock prices without manually reloading the page. The problem for publishers is that that translates into just one page view, leaving Web publishers worried about their numbers.

That’s the argument that was trotted out by Yahoo when News Corp.’s interactive sites - including the social-network juggernaut MySpace - suddenly overtook Yahoo last November as the top Web site by pages viewed, according to comScore. Yahoo shot back that its page views had dropped because it uses Ajax in its email service to refresh incoming messages.

“Honestly, page views have always had a hole,” said Scott Ross, senior product manager of Nielsen/NetRatings’ NetView service. Page views also don’t measure instant messaging, Flash technology and online video, which is becoming increasingly popular. Publishers also can skew their page view numbers by, for example, spreading a long news story into three screens instead of one.

Changing technology is just one factor putting pressure on measurement methods. Web publishers talk constantly about the importance of “engagement,” or how loyal users are to a site, rather than a sheer volume of Web traffic.

The change could alter the ranking of top Internet properties. Under comScore’s new “visits” measure, for example, Facebook, the social-networking site, would have ranked second among all U.S. Web sites in February with 23.6 average visits that month. By unique visitors, Facebook was ranked 36th.

As advertisers ramp up spending on the Internet, the issue will grow in importance.

“Data right now is the holy grail for online advertising,” said Chris Portella, associate media director with Organic, a digital marketing agency owned by Omnicom Group Inc.

Web companies currently complain about the data from Nielsen/NetRatings and comScore, which can differ wildly from one another and the Web publishers’ internal traffic numbers. To ensure they’re still relevant, the research firms are working with the industry to define the right measures and ensure their methods are transparent to publishers and marketers.

“We want to make sure we’re giving the marketers good metrics against which to choose where they’re spending their money,” said Sheryl Draizen, senior vice president and general manager at the Interactive Advertising Bureau. “We will work to figure out measurement standards so marketers can feel confident.”

The IAB is pushing comScore and Nielsen/NetRatings to validate their numbers with the Media Ratings Council, the board that sanctions independent ratings for radio and television. Draizen said comScore and Nielsen/Ratings are moving too slowly for an issue that “has a material impact on other people’s business.”

There’s also recognition that the new Web measures may soon become obsolete. NetRatings’ Ross readily concedes the current page view successors aren’t the last word in metrics but rather the logical step in online evolution.

“The Internet is always about inventing and reinventing,” he said. “In the interim, page views have to be brought down in relevance.”