Sips from the Firehose
A blog that seeks to filter the internet into a refreshing, easily-gulped beverage
Jul 07
Posted: under journalism, New Media Strategery, Online (Multi)Media, television.
Meanwhile, Google whistles nervously, hoping nobody thinks to raise the issue of AdSense clickfraud again… There’s a yawning gulf in New Media. It stretches from the pittance that most media creators get for their ad space to the other side, where the results of those ads sit, filing their nails. In between are the bleached [...] [...more]
Meanwhile, Google whistles nervously, hoping nobody thinks to raise the issue of AdSense clickfraud again…
There’s a yawning gulf in New Media. It stretches from the pittance that most media creators get for their ad space to the other side, where the results of those ads sit, filing their nails. In between are the bleached bones of media tracking companies that have tried to draw a connection between the two.
From the LA Times story:
NBC has created TAMI — the Total Audience Measurement Index — to better understand how viewers are consuming Olympic content. The system, which Wurtzel has spent the last year assembling, will use technology and old-fashioned focus groups to closely monitor this.
For example, Wurtzel will be able to tell with greater certainty whether viewers are surfing the Web in search of Olympic content. He will be able to determine whether live alerts delivered via cellphones drive fans to television sets or computer screens to catch a record-breaking performance. And he will see how fans use online and VOD replays.
The system also will attempt for the first time to track Olympic watching outside the home via mobile devices created by San Mateo, Calif.-based Integrated Media Measurement Inc. A limited number of people will have the cellphone-like devices designed to monitor every bit of media consumed — whether in a bar, a movie theater or someone else’s house.
NBC Universal also is assembling focus groups to find out how consumers are interacting with what Wurtzel described as “the first 360-degrees Olympics.”
This is refreshing. I’d like to see more major media outlets doing this. Why? Because it’s pretty much the only way to break Google’s stranglehold on ad dollars. See, the problem is that everybody has fallen in love with search advertising, because it seems to offer such great results. Someone clicks on the link, they come to your site, and then it’s up to you to get them to convert to sales, right?
But see, that kinda ignores one little point: howinhell did the user know what to search for in the first place? Clairvoyance? Come on.
I think if NBC can start connecting the two sides of the results gulf, they can start showing that ads on TV (and display ads in newspapers, and morning drive-time shout-athons) have a lot bigger effect than what Google has claimed. And that will mean that advertisers will start realizing that buying search ads is not the end-all, be-all of advertising.
Which could be a very, very good thing for all the Old Media giants who are stuck in midair over that yawning gulf, their feet doing the Wile E. Coyote mid-air invisible bicycle pedal…
Jul 07
Posted: under adsense clickfraud, advertising, Digital Migration, google, journalism, new media, Newspapers, Online Video, television, Web Tech.
Tags: adsense clickfraud
Meanwhile, Google whistles nervously, hoping nobody thinks to raise the issue of AdSense clickfraud again… There’s a yawning gulf in New Media. It stretches from the pittance that most media creators get for their ad space to the other side, where the results of those ads sit, filing their nails. In between are the bleached [...] [...more]
Meanwhile, Google whistles nervously, hoping nobody thinks to raise the issue of AdSense clickfraud again…
There’s a yawning gulf in New Media. It stretches from the pittance that most media creators get for their ad space to the other side, where the results of those ads sit, filing their nails. In between are the bleached bones of media tracking companies that have tried to draw a connection between the two.
From the LA Times story:
NBC has created TAMI — the Total Audience Measurement Index — to better understand how viewers are consuming Olympic content. The system, which Wurtzel has spent the last year assembling, will use technology and old-fashioned focus groups to closely monitor this.
For example, Wurtzel will be able to tell with greater certainty whether viewers are surfing the Web in search of Olympic content. He will be able to determine whether live alerts delivered via cellphones drive fans to television sets or computer screens to catch a record-breaking performance. And he will see how fans use online and VOD replays.
The system also will attempt for the first time to track Olympic watching outside the home via mobile devices created by San Mateo, Calif.-based Integrated Media Measurement Inc. A limited number of people will have the cellphone-like devices designed to monitor every bit of media consumed — whether in a bar, a movie theater or someone else’s house.
NBC Universal also is assembling focus groups to find out how consumers are interacting with what Wurtzel described as “the first 360-degrees Olympics.”
This is refreshing. I’d like to see more major media outlets doing this. Why? Because it’s pretty much the only way to break Google’s stranglehold on ad dollars. See, the problem is that everybody has fallen in love with search advertising, because it seems to offer such great results. Someone clicks on the link, they come to your site, and then it’s up to you to get them to convert to sales, right?
But see, that kinda ignores one little point: howinhell did the user know what to search for in the first place? Clairvoyance? Come on.
I think if NBC can start connecting the two sides of the results gulf, they can start showing that ads on TV (and display ads in newspapers, and morning drive-time shout-athons) have a lot bigger effect than what Google has claimed. And that will mean that advertisers will start realizing that buying search ads is not the end-all, be-all of advertising.
Which could be a very, very good thing for all the Old Media giants who are stuck in midair over that yawning gulf, their feet doing the Wile E. Coyote mid-air invisible bicycle pedal…
Jul 07
Posted: under Uncategorized.
Tags: Deathwatch
Buried at the end of this Reuters piece about how there aren’t many analysts bothering to report on the newspaper industry, comes this jewel of a quote: As for the sell-side, the analysts who remain — such as Goldman Sachs analyst Peter Appert — often cover other sectors that command more investor attention. “If I [...] [...more]
Buried at the end of this Reuters piece about how there aren’t many analysts bothering to report on the newspaper industry, comes this jewel of a quote:
As for the sell-side, the analysts who remain — such as Goldman Sachs analyst Peter Appert — often cover other sectors that command more investor attention.
“If I covered only the newspaper industry, first of all I would have been fired a long time ago; secondly, I would have had to kill myself,” Appert said.
Part of me wonders if this is sound strategery – if there is no demand for a product, why continue to produce it? But the other part keeps whispering that some of the smartest investors always take the contrarian view. When they see the mass of groupthinking lemmings all hurtling in one direction (say, away from newspapers), they bide their time and step in and snarf up the companies for rock-bottom prices. When things start to turn around, they are there on the ground floor, and see great returns (see: the real estate investors who bought in the early 90s, when the market was moribund, oil speculators who bought when the prices were around $20 a barrel, etc.)
Then again, the whole newspaper industry could be utterly and completely doomed, and anyone sinking money into it is just “catching a falling knife” in the investor parlance.
So yeah, lemmings – heed the words of the know-it-alls at Merrill Lynch, who think newspapers have no future whatsoever. (Hey, weren’t these the guys who said Enron and subprime mortgages were rock-solid?) Panic and dump your properties. You shouldn’t be trying to run them anyway.
Technorati Tags: newspaper deathwatch, stock market, contrarian, dead cat bounce
Jul 07
Posted: under Catching a Falling Knife, Dead Cat Bounce, Digital Migration, investors, journalism, Lemmings, Merrill Lynch, Multimedia, Newspaper Deathwatch, Newspapers.
Tags: Lemmings
Buried at the end of this Reuters piece about how there aren’t many analysts bothering to report on the newspaper industry, comes this jewel of a quote: As for the sell-side, the analysts who remain — such as Goldman Sachs analyst Peter Appert — often cover other sectors that command more investor attention. “If I [...] [...more]
Buried at the end of this Reuters piece about how there aren’t many analysts bothering to report on the newspaper industry, comes this jewel of a quote:
As for the sell-side, the analysts who remain — such as Goldman Sachs analyst Peter Appert — often cover other sectors that command more investor attention.
“If I covered only the newspaper industry, first of all I would have been fired a long time ago; secondly, I would have had to kill myself,” Appert said.
Part of me wonders if this is sound strategery – if there is no demand for a product, why continue to produce it? But the other part keeps whispering that some of the smartest investors always take the contrarian view. When they see the mass of groupthinking lemmings all hurtling in one direction (say, away from newspapers), they bide their time and step in and snarf up the companies for rock-bottom prices. When things start to turn around, they are there on the ground floor, and see great returns (see: the real estate investors who bought in the early 90s, when the market was moribund, oil speculators who bought when the prices were around $20 a barrel, etc.)
Then again, the whole newspaper industry could be utterly and completely doomed, and anyone sinking money into it is just “catching a falling knife” in the investor parlance.
So yeah, lemmings – heed the words of the know-it-alls at Merrill Lynch, who think newspapers have no future whatsoever. (Hey, weren’t these the guys who said Enron and subprime mortgages were rock-solid?) Panic and dump your properties. You shouldn’t be trying to run them anyway.
Technorati Tags: newspaper deathwatch, stock market, contrarian, dead cat bounce
Jul 07
Posted: under Uncategorized.
…and then I thought about it, and not so much. Still, the bits here about people pretty much boarding themselves up in their houses and waiting until the Bush presidency blows over, seems to be pretty much where we are as a country these days. Everyone seems to be just whiling away the hours, not [...] [...more]
…and then I thought about it, and not so much.
Still, the bits here about people pretty much boarding themselves up in their houses and waiting until the Bush presidency blows over, seems to be pretty much where we are as a country these days. Everyone seems to be just whiling away the hours, not really doing anything, pretty much waiting until this awful period in our country’s history is finally over.
It’s frustrating. All sorts of important decisions are just stuck in limbo … are we going to actually try to come up with some kind of alternative energy plan? Or do we just start drilling holes in everything in the hopes that somehow great big gushers that were hiding from the best scientific gear Exxon can buy with their billions in R&D will spout up?
Bush Tours America To Survey Damage Caused By His Disastrous Presidency
Jul 07
Posted: under Uncategorized.
…and then I thought about it, and not so much. Still, the bits here about people pretty much boarding themselves up in their houses and waiting until the Bush presidency blows over, seems to be pretty much where we are as a country these days. Everyone seems to be just whiling away the hours, not [...] [...more]
…and then I thought about it, and not so much.
Still, the bits here about people pretty much boarding themselves up in their houses and waiting until the Bush presidency blows over, seems to be pretty much where we are as a country these days. Everyone seems to be just whiling away the hours, not really doing anything, pretty much waiting until this awful period in our country’s history is finally over.
It’s frustrating. All sorts of important decisions are just stuck in limbo … are we going to actually try to come up with some kind of alternative energy plan? Or do we just start drilling holes in everything in the hopes that somehow great big gushers that were hiding from the best scientific gear Exxon can buy with their billions in R&D will spout up?
Bush Tours America To Survey Damage Caused By His Disastrous Presidency
