Cathy › Comments

In the minds of many media executives and most media buyers there is still an absurd Chinese wall between broadcast and cable, which, inexplicably leads the broadcast networks to still outpace cable in terms of the rates it can charge. But a few ratings figures from the last couple of nights alone, have to make [...]

A number of trends in advertising are becoming clear this spring that have significant implications for the content side of the media industry. One is the rapidly expanding reach of vertical ad networks, like Adify Media, Federated Media, Glam Media and Travel Ad Network. Adify exemplifies this relatively young sector; it says that to date it [...]

I guess this YouTube home page ad placement worked, because here I am blogging about an ABC special tomorrow night called “UN-BROKE: What You Need to Make Money,” which, in addition to telling viewers how to get smarter about money, is also a great example of the trend toward product integration — in which advertisers, [...]

Trying to sort through today’s pile of industry reports to discern the trend lines is much like having to redesign a cranky website from the bottom up, though layers of spaghetti code. That said, here you have it: A Russian group has invested $200 million in Facebook for only a 1.96 percent stake in the company, [...]

In Today's Media Roundup: Richard Branson eyes Playboy, Microsoft launching new Google competitor, Latest New Yorker cover created with iPhone, The New York Times hires social media editor and AOL's fate to be decided tomorrow.

Since the buzz this morning is about the Wall Street Journal’s AllThingsD conference interview with Twitter founders Biz Stone and Evan Williams, it’s time for BNET Media to join in the fun. The real action starts about halfway through, unless you’re obsessed with the minutiae of why Stone and Wiliams gave V.C. money back to [...]

In a move that infuriated many its marketing associates earlier this year, Amazon removed the Kindle from its marketing affiliate program.  That means that affiliates who are driving eBook traffic to Amazon are not getting any financial reward for their efforts. But entrepreneurs love a void, so today eBook publisher Smashwords announced its own program, which [...]

OK, we know that print has a lot of problems, but here’s another one to add to the list: the average age of those who read print publications is aging faster than the population as a whole, according to a story in Advertising Age. If that finding is a little confusing, here’s further detail: in [...]

It wasn’t back in the mid-nineties, when Craigslist was still new, that the newspaper industry truly lost its chance to retain its treasure trove of classified advertising, according to a new report, but just over the past four years. As recently as 2005, states the report from Pew Internet, only about one in five adult users [...]

When historians get around to chronicling the convergence of print and mobile technologies in the media industry, they’ll duly note today’s development. Artist Jorge Colombo drew the cover of this week’s New Yorker magazine on his iPhone, using an app called Brushes, “while standing outside Madame Tussad’s Wax Museum in Times Square.” The magazine playfully [...]

Finally, a story that explains how it is that the singing phenomenon, and YouTube sensation Susan Boyle hasn’t been reaping monetary rewards above and beyond the normal for the companies who produce “Britain’s Got Talent,” the British talent show on which she made her name. To me, this story in The New York Times is [...]

If classified ads were a backbone of the newspaper business, then the very center of the spine was the public notice. Mandated by laws and courts, these often long recitations of detail were to give official notification, to any who were interested, of the legal intents and actions of both government entities and companies that found themselves under some appropriate regulation. But the town of Apex, N.C. must be giving publishers a shudder, as the town moves at least some public notices to its own web site and out of the local newspaper, saving $13,000.

David Weir noted the recent advertorial from the Newspaper Association of America. David ably points out how the financial health of some bellwether newspaper properties flies in the face of the Pollyanna-like pleadings of NAA CEO John Sturm. But I found myself struck by how delicately constructed the claims were, and so decided to deconstruct the piece.

“Dear Home Delivery Subscriber, “Effective Monday, June 1, there will be an increase in the price of the home delivery of The Times…We regret having to raise rates at this time of financial challenge for so many cross the nation. It is, however, one of a number of steps we must take in order to secure [...]

The impending death of the newspaper industry is vastly overstated, according to John F. Sturm, President and CEO of the Newspaper Association of America. In a recent advertorial, he offers this evidence: More adults read a newspaper every day than watch the Super Bowl, and more than four times as many who watch American Idol. Sixty-one percent [...]

Can Rock and Roll plus social media save a dying young man’s life? This drama is playing out in real-time on Twitter, as we’ve been following over the past week. This morning, Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails emailed me with the news that as of midnight last night another $200,000 plus had been raised through [...]

In today's Media Roundup: Apple rumored to release Web tablet in 2010, Portfolio to return as Web only, Google not buying a newspaper, Time Warner bids on Midway and Yahoo! has generated $50 million for newspapers.

The latest potential shift in a game of programming musical chairs that’s been going on this week is that TNT might pick up the sitcom “My Name Is Earl” which has been the subject of a “Twit-ition” to keep it on air. (In a delicious side note, when NBC decided to drop the series, “Earl” [...]

About a week ago, former CNN anchor (and current Internet correspondent) Veronica De La Cruz launched a Twitter campaign to try and help save her 27-year-old brother Eric’s life. (He is dying from a rare condition and needs a heart transplant to survive. On Twitter, The Expert picked up on Eric’s cause, which in turn sent [...]

The Twittersphere should collectively hoist a giant glass of champagne to itself, since it is rare for one of Google’s co-founders to come down from their elaborate private jets and admit somebody else is doing something better than they are — in fact much better. But that is what happened this week at Google’s Zeitgeist conference: [...]

I’ve been spending part of the day obsessing about how Google, and Twitter, got the “American Idol” pick wrong, seeming to select, as of yesterday, the rather goth Adam Lambert over the fresh-faced Kris Allen. Given how social media and search are combining to create the National Focus Group, how could both of them be [...]

Not so long ago and not very far away, mainstream journalists could bash bloggers as a lower life form. The public hadn’t really showed up or weighed in yet. Today, however, that era seems as distant as the days when there were still mainstream journalism jobs and other luxury items listed on Craigslist. Ah, back [...]

Much has been written about Jimmy Kimmel’s comedy riff to advertisers at this week’s ABC upfront presentation — in fact, there have even been hints that he might get handed his job because of it — but none of the posts I’ve read have actually posted the video, so here it is. In reality, the reason [...]

There's been a buzz in journalistic circles about a media economist Professor Robert Picard's claim that reporters deserve low pay. Although he makes some good points, his line of argument is largely flawed.

At the center of a parallel, palpable universe that emerged in the mid-1990s, sits Wired Magazine, as well as its blood child Wired News, though the latter no longer loads in your browser as it was meant to load. (Before I continue, I should issue all sorts of disclosures. First and foremost, I was one of [...]

In Today's Media Roundup: SeattlePI.com is growing, AP offers buyouts, Tuscon Citizen to stay folded, ESPN makes deal with Comcast and Netflix now available on Windows Media Center.

The digital ad agency 360i has a well-documented post today on Mashable predicting that Adam Lambert will win “American Idol.” But the agency’s point isn’t to jump the gun on tonight’s results show; it’s about Google as a predictive tool, and not just by examining raw search volume. For instance, in the weeks leading to [...]

The Financial Times has long had one of the most impressive business strategies among global newspapers, including a truly global focus, high-quality writing and editing, and a strong presence on the web. Rupert Murdoch has made no secret that he hopes to eventually engage his Wall Street Journal in a head-to-head competition with the FT, [...]

Want to find a good way to waste some time gather important insight into the fall TV season? Go to Twitter Search and type in the hashtag #upfronts. From doing this, I’ve learned the following about the ABC upfront presentation, which is going on as I type (Twitter account names in parentheses where needed): That [...]

Now that NBC has filled in the holes in its primetime schedule, which it did today with its upfront presentation to advertisers, it’s easy to see what a simplified world the network is now living in — with five of its weekly programming hours now accounted for with the 10 p.m. hour-long “The Jay Leno [...]