Articles of the Day
Media Contacts’ Global Traders Angle For Access - Long before news about DoubleClick’s online ad auction system broke, Havas’ Media Contacts not only knew about the trading floor-style platform, but offered feedback and briefed clients on it. The digital media buying and planning shop got an early peek at the system and signed on to participate in a test driven largely by the work of its Global Trading Team.
Glam Media Snags iVillage’s Salant To Lead Biz Dev - Fashion and shopping e-publisher Glam Media has hired former iVillage executive Jennifer Salant to lead its expansion and business development efforts.
NYTimes.com Adds Outside Content To Relaunched Auto Site - Taking a page from other popular news and affinity sites, NYTimes.com has relaunched and redesigned its auto site to include content from non-Times sources. But the effort may be too little, too late in a highly competitive category.
CAB Axes eBay Media Marketplace - The Cabletelevision Advertising Bureau — which essentially held the keys to launching eBay Media Marketplace, the long-ballyhooed online buying and selling system for TV time– said it was a permanent no-go. The trade group’s opposition was based on two points: The eBay functionality was flawed, and the system wasn’t in step with the new age of media buying.
Travel Channel, SideStep Partner Online - The Travel Channel has teamed with SideStep Inc., an online travel search company, as part of an overall redesign of its flagship Web site, TravelChannel.com. The revamped Web site, which features a new design, navigation and search-optimized pages, enables visitors to get information on specific travel destinations, watch travel-related video and book trips. It also has updated information about various Travel Channel shows.
Top Online Current Events and News Destinations - Charted display of the top news and current event destinations. Includes a drill-down of reader demographics, advertisers, ad types and sizes for the top Online global news and current events destinations.
Let the Games Begin Advertising! - In-game advertising will evolve in scope and sophistication, offering new platforms for marketers, new business opportunities for technology providers and vital revenue for game developers, who have struggled with the escalating production costs of increasingly complex games,” says eMarketer Senior Analyst Paul Verna, the author of the new Video Game Advertising: Getting to the Next Level report. “eMarketer estimates that over the next five years video game advertising will grow at a compound annual growth rate of nearly 23%, reaching nearly $2 billion by 2011.”
Venture Capitalist Robert McNamee Sounds Off On Web - Bambi Francisco of Marketwatch talks to Roger McNamee, the venture capitalist who famously called Google a “Web 1.0″ firm at a Web 2.0 trade show about a month ago. Web 1.0 is still very disruptive to the media hierarchy; its time has not yet passed. He calls YouTube “Web 1.5,” and adds that Web 2.0 will disrupt both YouTube and everything that came before it. In other words, Web 2.0 hasn’t started disrupting yet. “Everything that matters will come on my person,” he said of the future, Apple’s iPhone marks the beginning. “That’s the thing that disrupts the PC market.”
Does DoubleClick Fight Mean an Ad Network Fire Sale? - Various reports have pegged the New York-based firm’s valuation at more than $2 billion. What does this mean for DoubleClick’s competitors? Forbes says a DoubleClick sale could boost their value in the eyes of potential acquirers. “DoubleClick has set a benchmark,” says Gurbaksh Chahal, co-founder and CEO of the privately owned ad network Blue Lithium. “It validates our need in the marketplace.”Other potential ad network acquisition targets include ValueClick, whose market capitalization is $2.77 billion, Right Media, which operates an ad exchange similar to the one announced by DoubleClick yesterday, 24/7 Real Media and aQuantive, owner of the ad-serving firm AtlasDMT.
Search Innovation Spotlight: Video Search - List and short description of various video search engines, including Blinkx, Flurl, SearchVideo, SingingFish, Pixsy and more.
New AOL Search Marketplace Launches To Sell Sponsored Links; Based on Google AdWords - Back in December 2005 when Google won a five-year extension of its search deal with AOL, the fine print included an AOL Marketplace based on white-label Google ad technology. Some 16 months later, the AOL Search Marketplace will launch after several months in beta with 30 advertisers. The custom version of Google AdWords gives AOL a viable addition to its display advertising while providing advertisers with the ability to target their search buys to AOL users.
ESPN Acquires NASCAR Fan Site Jayski - Nascar information site Jayski.com, named for its founder, Nascar fan Jay Adamczyk, has been bought by ESPN. Terms of the deal were not revealed. Adamczyk, who started Jayski in 1996, will continue to operate the site, which says it attracts Nascar crew chiefs, drivers and owners among its regular visitors. Jayski features more than 1,500 pages of content on the Nascar Nextel Cup, the Busch Series and Truck Series.
Hostway Acquires Affinity Internet - Hostway Corporation and Affinity Internet Inc. today announced that Hostway has acquired Affinity, combining two of the most prominent web-centric service providers, with clients ranging from consumers, small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) and large enterprises. The new company will offer customers all the products, tools and services necessary to build and operate an effective online business on a global scale – from professional web development and design, results-oriented online advertising solutions, to powerful hosting and eCommerce applications.
IT Professionals Network Tom’s Hardware Guide Sold - Tech professionals-focused news and info network Tom’s Hardware Guide (and its parent company TG Publishing) has been sold, paidContent.org has learned. The sale was confirmed by TG CEO Omid Rahmat in an e-mail to the Inquirer.We couldn’t confirm the buyer, but one name that cropped up through our sources was French B2B tech media company BestofMedia Group.
