Articles of the Day
Glam Ceases House Ads — News that ad network Glam Media has chosen to cut certain guaranteed payments to publisher partners had the blogosphere buzzing over the weekend. Preexisting commitments aside, Glam no longer offers “house ads,” which were served for unsold inventory throughout its network, according to an email to publishers last week from Scott Swanson, Glam’s general manager and vice president. In the email, posted online Saturday by industry blog TechCrunch, Swanson said the move was designed to give publishers “more choice when it comes to how you use your unsold inventory.” Yet, the ads are believed to have generated significant incremental revenue for publishers, and at significant cost to Glam. The decision, therefore, is seen by some as merely a cost-cutting measure. As one anonymous publisher told TechCrunch: “Publishers were previously guaranteed $3-$5 CPMs for house ads. By no longer running any house ads, that revenue dies. And given Glam’s fill rates network (sic) wide are only 30%, that’s 70% of traffic (for most publishers) that’s no longer earning revenue from Glam…It’ll basically cause a 30-80% drop in revenue for publishers.”
MyWaves Adds New Advertisers, Launches In-House Studio — Mobile video site mywaves has added a group of new advertisers and launched an in-house studio to help adapt TV spots for cellphone screens. Among the 25 brand marketers on mywaves since it opened up to advertisers in December 2007 are Microsoft, Toyota, Mini and Paramount Pictures.This week, Microsoft kicks off a campaign on mywaves that is geo-targeted to 4 million mobile users in India promoting the MS Office New Day product line. The general awareness effort developed with WPP/Quasar in India will feature animated mobile banner ads. In mid-March, a campaign promoting the new Toyota Matrix launched on mywaves that included both mobile Web banners and 15-second pre-roll spots. The flight runs through April.
Yahoo Hopes To ‘Shine’ With New Women’s Site — Acting on its oft-stated strategy to become the “starting point” for most consumers, Yahoo is focusing on a new audience: Women. With the launch of Yahoo Shine today, the Web portal unveils a one-stop-shop lifestyles site aimed in particular at women ages 25 to 54. The site is organized according to familiar categories including fashion and beauty, food, parenting and health. Each category takes the form of a blog featuring both professional and user contributions. But the venture is far from a free-for-all. Serving as editor in chief is Brandon Holley, who joined Yahoo last year after holding the top editor posts at the now-defunct magazines Elle Girl and Jane. Her staff consists mainly of other magazine and Web veterans, who oversee each of the site’s 10 content areas.
AT&T Pushes Back Mobile TV Debut To May — A year after Verizon Wireless’s similar launch, AT&T has set May 2008 as the date when it will debut mobile TV using Qualcomm’s MediaFlo service. AT&T initially set January 2008 as the launch date for mobile TV but has continually postponed the release. AT&T plans to deliver full-length programming from networks including CBS Mobile, Fox Mobile, Comedy Central, ESPN Mobile TV, and MTV. The service will debut on two new handsets, the LG Vu and the Samsung Access. It will also add a pair of exclusive channels yet to be named. Separately, Verizon is also launching new Mobile Web 2.0 sites for Viacom-owned cable networks MTV, VH1, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon and CMT. The carrier’s Mobile Web 2.0 portal launched last year is intended to provide easier access to e-mail, news, sports and weather from partners including ESPN, USA Today and MapQuest.
Bad To Worse: Newspaper Revenues Down 7.9% in 2007, Online Growth Slows — Total newspaper revenues tumbled to $45.37 billion in 2007, down 7.9% compared to 2006, according to a year-end summary released by the Newspaper Association of America. Within the total revenue figure, online revenue grew 18.8%, to $3.16 billion — but failed to offset a much larger drop in print revenues, down 9.4% to $42.2 billion. The 2007 figures confirm that the revenue decline at newspapers accelerated from 2006 to 2007. In 2006, total revenues declined a more modest 0.32%, as well as from quarter to quarter within 2007. Over the course of last year, the slide turned into a free fall with a 4.8% drop in the first quarter, followed by 8.6% in the second, 7.4% in the third, and 10.3% in the fourth.
Original Content Coming To Xbox Live — Who needs Internet TV? The New York Times is reporting that Microsoft just hired a Hollywood producer to create programming that will initially only run on the Xbox 360 console. Its first major deal –”the first of many,” according to Scott Nocas, the global marketing manager for Xbox Live–is with the Safran Company, a Hollywood talent manager representing the producers of such films as “Monster’s Ball” and “My Big Fat Greek Wedding.” Safran co. founder Peter Safran told the Times that the first round of programs would be scripted, and would run under 10 minutes. His group plans to focus on comedy and horror–genres that appeal to Xbox Live’s core 18-34 male demographic. The first slate of shows should be available by the fall.
Mobile Marketing Will Have To Wait — Unfortunately, 2008 won’t be the year that mobile marketing finally takes off, says Ad Age’s Alice C. Cuneo. For starters, there simply aren’t enough mobile Web users in the U.S.: of the 219 million nationwide subscribers, a paltry 30 million have data plans. Why? Two reasons: one, the mobile Web isn’t a great experience, and two, it costs too much. Advertising can help the latter problem–but which comes first–a leap of faith on the part of marketers to reduce the cost of mobile content, or a leap of faith on the part of carriers to provide free or low-cost data plans? Probably the latter.
