Friday, February 5

Establish Brand Image in Online Media

"Brand doesn't exist on shelves—it exists in the hearts and minds of people. Your brand is the sum total of perceptions about your product in the heads of your relevant audience."

Read more at the Wall Street Journal.

Thursday, February 4

Young Give Thumbs-down to Blogging, Twitter

Teens are using Facebook but not Twitter or blogging sites, according to the Pew Internet Project's report. In 2006, 28% of teens and young adult (ages 12-29) were bloggers. By the fall of 2009, the percentage fell to 14% of teens and 15% of young adults. Some teenagers may grow back into blogging as they hit adulthood since blogging tends to focus on life's more meaningful issues, not just about communicating to friends.

Only 8% of teens who go online say they ever Twitter.

Read more at USA Today.

Wednesday, February 3

Ad Displays Track Age

NEC Corp. has "designed a method for digital signs to track the age, gender and number of pedestrians that walk by them... NEC sells flat-panel monitors that display ads, commonly found in stores, airports and other heavily trafficked public areas. It also provides the software to manage and distribute advertising content to those screens... The company embeds a camera into the monitor, allowing it to constantly film people walking by. NEC takes that footage and applies a program that can automatically scan each person's face, calculating the individual's rough age and gender. While not accurate to the year, the program is fairly good at placing a person within a 10-year range."

Read more at Wall Street Journal.

Some News Outlets Ready to Try Charging Online Readers

A software system called Press+ will help news outlets get payments from online readers. A news site based in Boston called GlobalPost, focusing on international news, plans to show frequent users a messages urging them to voluntarily join and pay. The New York Times says, "There will be levels of membership with different prices, and those who do pay will be able to suggest topics for articles and have access to premium content. Those who do not join will still have access to most of the site."

Read more at the New York Times.

Tuesday, February 2

Short Attention Span Theatre

A quarter of Internet users who click on videos streamed by newspaper and magazine publisher Web sites will abandon the video if a pre-roll ad runs first. Video analytics company TubeMogul says the number is one out of six for all sites. But just 11% click away if an video ad appears when they are on the site of an network broadcaster.

Read more at Editor and Publisher.

Textbook Firms Ink E-Deals For iPad

Major textbook publishers have struck deals with software company ScrollMotion Inc. to adapt their textbooks for the electronic page, as the industry embraces a hope that digital devices such as Apple Inc.'s iPad will transform the classroom.

The features of its iPad deal with publishers include applications to let students play video, highlight text, record lectures, take printed notes, search the text, and participate in interactive quizzes to test how much they've learned and where they may need more work.

Read more at the Wall Street Journal.

College Radio Station Fined $8K

The FCC has fined the radio station at Gaston College in North Carolina $8,000 for not properly maintaining a public inspection file.

Read more at Radio Survivor.