Articles of the Day
Marketers Unprepared For New World Disorder: ANA - More than 90% of the 250-plus marketers surveyed for a study set for release at the ANA Annual Meeting say they plan to increase their digital spending. But plenty of obstacles stand in the way of fully embracing the new world disorder of fragmentation and personalization of media–culture being the biggest one.
Online Ad Marketplace To Exceed $61B By 2012: Forrester - Online publishers need to offer increasingly innovative ways for marketers to reach their audiences if they want to keep their share of ad dollars and not lose out to newer formats such as social media, says the author of the latest Interactive Marketing Forecast from Forrester Research.
IAB To Lead Gen Industry: Shape Up By April 1 - The Interactive Advertising Bureau and its Lead Generation Committee have set a firm deadline for the adoption of guidelines regarding the practice of online lead generation.
A Good Deal for Smaller Pubs? - Reuters warns against the recent alliance between Yahoo and hundreds of newspaper sites. Under the deal, forged last November and amended in April, Yahoo will deliver ads across the network of sites, and feature certain stories in Yahoo News. The alliance was intended to boost readership and bring in more advertisers, but Reuters’ Robert MacMillan says the partnership “will saddle [the newspaper publishers] with unproven technology and cost them some independence and flexibility.”
Schmidt Reveals Social Network Plan - Speaking at Google’s recent (and exclusive) Zeitgeist conference, Eric Schmidt on Thursday dismissed the notion that social networking is just a fad. Quite the contrary–the Google CEO said the company has big plans for the Web’s hottest trend. “People don’t appreciate how many page views on the Internet are in social networks,” he said. “It is very real. It’s a very real phenomenon.”
ABC News Targets Younger Audiences With Web Programming - While the likes of CBS and NBC repurpose their nightly news programs online, ABC News is trying hard to adapt its Web programming to reach younger audiences. Its daily Webcast, simply called “World News,” has an MTV bent to it–delivering news in a “raw” and more “personal” format, says The New York Times. At fifteen minutes in length, it’s cut for the ADD generation, too–a perfect fit for iPod and cell phone viewing.
Google Earth Adds Videos - YouTube users can now peg videos set in specific locations to maps in Google Earth. So, if you go to Paris and scroll over the Eiffel Tower, a video overlay would pop up containing information about the building. The feature could be a real boon for tourism, enabling would-be travelers to surf the digital globe for information about potential vacation spots. Head to Maui and you might find snorkeling or surfing videos, hotel tours, or information about local wildlife. Producers enable the feature by adding geo-tags to their YouTube videos; Google Earth users will not be able to geo-tag videos.
On The Newsvine: MSNBC Buys Citizen Journalism Site - Msnbc.com announced the first acquisition in its 11-year history on Sunday, and is buying Seattle-based citizen journalism site Newsvine.com in an all-cash deal whose terms were not disclosed.
Imaginova Buys Comic Book Site - Imaginova Corp., which recently secured $15 million with a stated intention of adding to its network of sites for the intellectually curious, announced the purchase today of Newsarama, the media property of record for the global comic book community.
Washington Post Acquires Lead Generator CourseAdvisor.com - The Washington Post Company (NYSE: WPO) has announced the acquisition of CourseAdvisor.com, an online lead generator serving the education industry. The Wakefield, MA.-based company matches up students with suitable degree or certificate-granting programs across 800 institutions. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
Sugar Publishing Buys Fashion Blog Network Coutorture - Blog network Sugar Publishing, based in San Francisco, is making another buy: it has bought Coutorture, a network of about 230 sites and blogs focusing on fashion segment. Two weeks ago Sugar announced buying social shopping site Shopstyle.
Microblogging Platform Jaiku Acquired by Google - Finnish microblogging service Jaiku has been acquired by Google (NSDQ: GOOG) for an undisclosed sum, according to an announcement on the company’s site. Like its main competitor Twitter, Jaiku allows users to share short messages and presence alerts with each other, using either a computer or a mobile device. A FAQ on the deal offers few details on the deal’s terms, saying only that Jaiku’s employees will be joining Google and that Google is interested in doing more with activity streams and mobile presence.
CBS Pays $10 Million For Celebrity Blog - Continuing on the acquisition track, CBS has paid $10 million for a nine-month-old celebrity gossip site named Dotspotter. The acquisition follows a string of new media investments by CBS this year.
