Internet and Digital Media Articles of the Day
AOL Loses Three Top Execs - AOL executive Jim Bankoff, who spearheaded several recent high-profile initiatives including the launch of celebrity gossip site TMZ.com and the free broadcast of Live 8, has resigned from the Internet company. Two other high-level executives–Joe Redling, president of AOL mobile and chairman and chief executive of AOL International, and John Buckley, executive vice president for corporate communications–also will exit.
DoubleClick: Search Costs Rise In Q3 - Search marketing costs rose during the third quarter, according to new data by DoubleClick’s Performics unit. The average cost-per-keyword, or average cost to a marketer of purchasing a keyword for the entire month, grew 20% from June to September.
Visits To Shopping Sites Soar 20% - The ecommerce sites on Nielson/Netratings’ holiday index racked up 563 million visits the week ending Dec. 10, marking a 20% gain from last year, the company reported late last week. Toys/video games saw visits increase 48%, while books/music/videos soared 46%.
Report: MySpace Goes Mobile With Cingular - Cingular Wireless subscribers will be able to access their MySpace profiles via cell phone, under a new deal slated to be announced today, the Wall Street Journal reports. The new service, which will cost $2.99 a month, will allow Cingular subscribers to update their MySpace pages with blog entries and photos.
Slowdown In Interest Income Could Affect Google Earnings - The Wall Street Journal predicts that Google’s unstoppable earnings engine may soon hit a stop. But not because of its advertising system–that’s still unstoppable; rather, the company’s interest income, which is the money Google makes from investing its nearly $10 billion in cash in government securities and other assets that bear interest, isn’t likely to grow as much as last year.
Quixotic Craigslist (Still) Not Out to Make Money - In today’s new media world, Craigslist President and Chief Executive Jim Buckmaster sounds nuts, writes Louis Hau of Forbes.com. With a massive user base (47th on the Web) that brims with monetization opportunities (including advertising), he and other members of the Craigslist board have no intention of making any more money.
Google In Negotiations With CBS On Selling Radio/TV Inventory - It is rumored that Google is closing a deal with CBS that includes a purchase of CBS radio inventory and possibly some TV inventory for Google to resell. This is to be bundled with the CBS-YouTube deal. The idea is that once this deal gets sealed, Google/YouTube could work on a similar deal with Viacom/MTV.
