VANCE PACKARD was the Malcolm Gladwell of his day, a journalist with a gift for explaining business to the general public. But in his 1957 classic “The Hidden Persuaders”, he out-Gladwelled Gladwell. The book not only had a perfect title. It also revealed for the first time the psychological tricks that the advertising industry used to make Americans want stuff, instantly transforming the image of America’s advertising executives from glamorous Mad Men into servants of Mephistopheles.
“Brandwashed: Tricks Companies Use to Manipulate Our Minds and Persuade Us to Buy” is an attempt to write a modern version of “The Hidden Persuaders”.
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Thursday, October 6
Tuesday, October 4
Social Media News Site Gains Clout
As portals like Yahoo scramble to hold onto an audience that is becoming less drawn to general-interest news, Mashable, Business Insider and Gawker are among a group of smaller niche sites with devoted audiences that are appealing to advertisers. Analysts credit much of Mashable’s rise to its skillful use of search optimization and a large catalog of articles about how to use social media tools. Then there’s Mashable’s influential online audience, which shares and distributes its links across the Web, further fueling the site’s growth.
Read more here
Read more here
Monday, October 3
Magazines, Newspapers Set for More Decline
The outlook for print advertising remains particularly gloomy, at least in the U.S., with ZenithOptimedia predicting continuing declines in 2011, 2012 and 2013.
Newspapers will undoubtedly get the worst of it, with ZO forecasting consecutive annual revenue declines of 8.5%, 8% and 8% in 2011, 2012 and 2013, respectively.
Combining these predictions with print advertising data from the Newspaper Association of America, that implies that total print newspaper ad revenues will fall from $22.8 billion in 2010 to $20.9 billion in 2011, $19.2 billion in 2012, and $17.7 billion in 2013. That represents just 37% of the peak print ad revenue figure of $47.4 billion in 2005, also per the NAA.
American magazines appear to be somewhat better off in the latest ZO forecast, but publishers won't be breaking out the champagne any time soon. After a tepid recovery in 2010, ZO has total ad revenues flat in 2011, followed by consecutive declines of 2% per year in 2012 and 2013.
Radio is set for modest growth of 2% in 2011, 2.1% in 2012 and 2.9% in 2013, although (like other media tracked by ZO) these gains will be somewhat diminished by inflation. The Internet is poised for double-digit annual growth for the foreseeable future.
Read more here
Newspapers will undoubtedly get the worst of it, with ZO forecasting consecutive annual revenue declines of 8.5%, 8% and 8% in 2011, 2012 and 2013, respectively.
Combining these predictions with print advertising data from the Newspaper Association of America, that implies that total print newspaper ad revenues will fall from $22.8 billion in 2010 to $20.9 billion in 2011, $19.2 billion in 2012, and $17.7 billion in 2013. That represents just 37% of the peak print ad revenue figure of $47.4 billion in 2005, also per the NAA.
American magazines appear to be somewhat better off in the latest ZO forecast, but publishers won't be breaking out the champagne any time soon. After a tepid recovery in 2010, ZO has total ad revenues flat in 2011, followed by consecutive declines of 2% per year in 2012 and 2013.
Radio is set for modest growth of 2% in 2011, 2.1% in 2012 and 2.9% in 2013, although (like other media tracked by ZO) these gains will be somewhat diminished by inflation. The Internet is poised for double-digit annual growth for the foreseeable future.
Read more here
Tablet Users Devour 48% More Internet
If early adopter metrics are a fair indication, then the tablet is poised to be a genuine game changer in both the ways in which people access the Web and the sheer volume of their use. According to research from Knowledge Networks, tablet-owning consumers on average spend 48% more time each day with the Internet -- 4 hours and 19 minutes across platforms compared to 2 hours and 55 minutes for all users.
Read more here
Read more here
HTML5 Gaining But Mobile Fragmentation Remains
The HTML5 programming language may be gaining ground as a standard for the mobile Web, but there's still a long way to go before it leads to a seamless user experience on devices. That's the upshot of a new study (registration required) by mobile software firm Netbiscuits, which found that a majority of the top-selling 10 smartphones in the U.S. have adopted HTML5 features.
HTML5 has gather growing support for mobile Web development in the last year from prominent publishers including The New York Times, Conde Nast and Meredith, in addition to backing from major technology companies including Apple and Google. But most smartphone users prefer to access content on their phones using native apps.
Read more here
HTML5 has gather growing support for mobile Web development in the last year from prominent publishers including The New York Times, Conde Nast and Meredith, in addition to backing from major technology companies including Apple and Google. But most smartphone users prefer to access content on their phones using native apps.
Read more here
Cassette tapes see new life after mp3s
The editors of the Concise Oxford English Dictionary decided to remove the term "cassette tape" from its pages this summer to help make room for 400 new words including "cyberbullying" and "retweet."
It's starting to look like that move may have been premature. A growing number of indie bands are turning to the format to get their music out more quickly and inexpensively, according to Rob Mason, the owner of Old Flame Records.
Regardless of format, music consumption is at an all-time high, says David Bakula, the senior vice president of analytics entertainment for Nielsen. But even as sales of vinyl records continue to grow -- they've increased 37% from last year, he said -- it's uncertain whether cassette nostalgia will reach those same heights.
Read more here
It's starting to look like that move may have been premature. A growing number of indie bands are turning to the format to get their music out more quickly and inexpensively, according to Rob Mason, the owner of Old Flame Records.
Regardless of format, music consumption is at an all-time high, says David Bakula, the senior vice president of analytics entertainment for Nielsen. But even as sales of vinyl records continue to grow -- they've increased 37% from last year, he said -- it's uncertain whether cassette nostalgia will reach those same heights.
Read more here
"The Daily" Shows Some Promise
Seven months ago when (Rupert Murdoch) launched The Daily, the first (and still only) "iPad newspaper" (it) was a $30 million bet on both the tablet as a medium and the public's willingness to pay for news.
Today The Daily has 120,000 active weekly readers, 80,000 of whom are actually paying for the app, according to Publisher Greg Clayman. The bigger number includes 40,000 non-paying readers on a two-week introductory trial period. But The Daily still has a long way to go before it proves anything about paid media or the tablet. While its subscriber rolls remain well short of the 500,000 paying readers that Mr. Murdoch said would make it a viable business. The Daily's numbers put it in the ballpark with some established print brands' digital editions.
Read more here
Today The Daily has 120,000 active weekly readers, 80,000 of whom are actually paying for the app, according to Publisher Greg Clayman. The bigger number includes 40,000 non-paying readers on a two-week introductory trial period. But The Daily still has a long way to go before it proves anything about paid media or the tablet. While its subscriber rolls remain well short of the 500,000 paying readers that Mr. Murdoch said would make it a viable business. The Daily's numbers put it in the ballpark with some established print brands' digital editions.
Read more here
Friday, September 30
Can AOL and Yahoo Come Back to Life?
AOL (and) Yahoo (have) joined the ranks of the Web’s walking dead—not yet in the ground, but hearts barely beating—alongside other former stars such as Myspace, Digg, and RealNetworks. Yahoo and AOL have tried to live by Old Media rules while masquerading as New Media powerhouses. They have been and continue to be successful at building audiences... But unlike Google or Facebook, Yahoo and AOL earn revenues the old-fashioned way—by employing rafts of reporters and maintaining costly ad sales teams to make sure the articles and deals keep flowing... says Citigroup’s Mahaney. “There’s no real way for them to lock in customers.” As a result, Yahoo and AOL have to spend a lot just to keep pace.. With less of a cash cushion, it’s hard to focus on new markets.
Read more at Business Week
Read more at Business Week
Pay-TV subscriber losses
With more young adults tuning out this TV season, the industry is confronting a generation of viewers who say they won’t pay the typical $75 monthly cable or satellite bill. Nielsen (NLSN), whose TV ratings influence ad rates, in May cut the estimated number of U.S. TV households by 1 percent, to 114.7 million, the first drop since 1990. College towns such as Boston, Madison, Wisc., and Austin, Tex., posted some of the biggest declines.
It’s also because of the growing appetite for Internet-delivered TV programming among younger viewers. To many of them, there’s no difference between watching Gossip Girl online or on the tube, says David F. Poltrack, chief research officer at CBS (CBS). College-age audiences are relying more on laptops than TVs to watch favorite shows...
When students watch sports, however, increasingly they gather in common rooms with TVs, Poltrack says.
Read more here
It’s also because of the growing appetite for Internet-delivered TV programming among younger viewers. To many of them, there’s no difference between watching Gossip Girl online or on the tube, says David F. Poltrack, chief research officer at CBS (CBS). College-age audiences are relying more on laptops than TVs to watch favorite shows...
When students watch sports, however, increasingly they gather in common rooms with TVs, Poltrack says.
Read more here
Thursday, September 29
Amazon's Fire
On the new frontier of the magazine industry: Amazon debuted a new tablet computer to compete with Apple, while Hearst reported strong circulation growth for its digital editions, among other digital-related news.
On the tablet front, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos unveiled the new Kindle Fire, a full-color touchscreen tablet computer that costs $199, making it significantly cheaper than Apple's iPad, which retails for $499 or more, depending on options.
Read more here
On the tablet front, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos unveiled the new Kindle Fire, a full-color touchscreen tablet computer that costs $199, making it significantly cheaper than Apple's iPad, which retails for $499 or more, depending on options.
Read more here
Internet Ads Reach $15 Billion, First-Half 2011
Internet ad revenue rose 24.1% to $7.7 billion in Q2 2011, contributing a 23% uptick to $14.9 billion in the first half of the year, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers U.S. stats.
Aside from display ads, paid search ads continue to take the majority of the media buy.
Read more here
Aside from display ads, paid search ads continue to take the majority of the media buy.
Read more here
Wednesday, September 28
No paper might mean no news
A Pew Research Center survey reveals a disconnect by news consumers about where their information originates. It turns out that the audience doesn't merely fail to recognize who produces most local news. Even those who do give credit to their local paper don't express particular concern about finding an alternative if their paper goes away, a new and detailed survey of community news consumption habits shows.
Americans turn to their newspapers (and attendant websites) on more topics than any other local news source, according to a survey released this week by the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism. But, despite their own reading habits, more than two-thirds told pollsters that if their hometown paper disappeared, it would not seriously hurt their ability to keep up with the news.
TV news remains the No. 1 source for local news, with 74% of Americans saying they tune in at least once a week, usually to on-air programming, though sometimes to station websites. Half of those surveyed said they get information once a week or more from newspapers or their websites. But the audience turned to newspapers for a much greater variety of information.
Yet the Pew survey also found that Americans now turn to a variety of sources for their information, with no particular loyalty to any one. Fully 69% of those questioned (here comes the disconnect) said there would be little or no impact on their ability to keep up with local news without their newspaper. And nearly half of adults, 45%, said they do not have a favorite local news source.
Read more here
Americans turn to their newspapers (and attendant websites) on more topics than any other local news source, according to a survey released this week by the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism. But, despite their own reading habits, more than two-thirds told pollsters that if their hometown paper disappeared, it would not seriously hurt their ability to keep up with the news.
TV news remains the No. 1 source for local news, with 74% of Americans saying they tune in at least once a week, usually to on-air programming, though sometimes to station websites. Half of those surveyed said they get information once a week or more from newspapers or their websites. But the audience turned to newspapers for a much greater variety of information.
Yet the Pew survey also found that Americans now turn to a variety of sources for their information, with no particular loyalty to any one. Fully 69% of those questioned (here comes the disconnect) said there would be little or no impact on their ability to keep up with local news without their newspaper. And nearly half of adults, 45%, said they do not have a favorite local news source.
Read more here
Tuesday, September 20
Video games may not boost cognition
Researchers say that previous studies that claim video game players have higher cognition than non gamers are flawed. U.S. researchers say several influential studies showing action gamers' skills are superior to those of non-gamers suffer from a host of methodological flaws.
Walter Boot, an assistant professor at Florida State University, and Daniel Simons of the University of Illinois, and colleagues say many of the studies compared the cognitive skills of frequent gamers to non-gamers and found gamers to be superior.
However, Boot and co-authors point out that this doesn't necessarily mean game experience caused better perceptual and cognitive abilities -- it could be that individuals who have the abilities required to be successful gamers are simply drawn to gaming. Boot says. "But we found no benefits of video game training."
The findings are published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology.
Read more here
Walter Boot, an assistant professor at Florida State University, and Daniel Simons of the University of Illinois, and colleagues say many of the studies compared the cognitive skills of frequent gamers to non-gamers and found gamers to be superior.
However, Boot and co-authors point out that this doesn't necessarily mean game experience caused better perceptual and cognitive abilities -- it could be that individuals who have the abilities required to be successful gamers are simply drawn to gaming. Boot says. "But we found no benefits of video game training."
The findings are published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology.
Read more here
Sunday, September 18
What Can’t you Live Without?
Facebook is more important than having a flushing toilet. That’s the finding of a survey by London’s Science Museum. It asked 3,000 adults what they couldn't live without. Facebook came in 5th while a toilet ranked 9th. The winner was sunshine, followed by being on the internet, clean drinking water and a refrigerator.
The tools of the digital made a strong showing. Email was 8th and possessing a mobile phone 10th. Google came in at 22, Ipods at 37, Computer spell-checks claimed the 41st spot and the last position went to Twitter. The Wii and Xbox made the list as well.
Read more here
Thursday, September 15
Magazine Audiences Dipped 2010-2011
After enjoying several years of stability, the total audience for 70 major American consumer magazines dipped from 2010-2011, according to a MediaPost analysis of data from GfK MRI. Although there have been audience fluctuations in the past, this large year-over-year decrease is ominous, coming as it does alongside falling newsstand sales and stagnant ad pages.
Read more here
Read more here
Monday, September 12
News Trends Tilt Toward Niche Sites
Like newspapers, portals like AOL and Yahoo are confronting the cold fact that there is less general interest in general interest news. Readers have peeled off into verticals of information — TMZ for gossip, Politico for politics and Deadspin for sports, and so on.
Part of the problem is the result of a fundamental shift in Web behavior. Media stalwarts erected a frame around the Web and organized, and sometimes produced, content. Now the frame around content is the Web browser itself, and consumers do their own programming and are more inclined to see news consumption as a kind of voting, selecting smaller brands that reflect their sensibilities.
Many of the news sites that are now having success on the Web — Business Insider, Gawker and Mashable, to name a few — are built on sensibility, which is generally a product of a small group of like minds.
There are exceptions. TMZ has thrived as a division of Time Warner, College Humor continues to crack wise as part of IAC/InterActiveCorp and CBS seems to have done well by CNET after acquiring it.
There are some parallels with the television world. The name NBC communicates very little other than generic bigness, while right now, FX, HBO, AMC and Showtime each convey a cachet that the big networks lack.
Business Insider has become marginally profitable in a short amount of time, Politico has begun to make money and TMZ has a sturdy enough Web brand that it was able to successfully build a television show of the same name. But all of them are hemmed in by the tyranny of small numbers.
Read more at the New York Times
Part of the problem is the result of a fundamental shift in Web behavior. Media stalwarts erected a frame around the Web and organized, and sometimes produced, content. Now the frame around content is the Web browser itself, and consumers do their own programming and are more inclined to see news consumption as a kind of voting, selecting smaller brands that reflect their sensibilities.
Many of the news sites that are now having success on the Web — Business Insider, Gawker and Mashable, to name a few — are built on sensibility, which is generally a product of a small group of like minds.
There are exceptions. TMZ has thrived as a division of Time Warner, College Humor continues to crack wise as part of IAC/InterActiveCorp and CBS seems to have done well by CNET after acquiring it.
There are some parallels with the television world. The name NBC communicates very little other than generic bigness, while right now, FX, HBO, AMC and Showtime each convey a cachet that the big networks lack.
Business Insider has become marginally profitable in a short amount of time, Politico has begun to make money and TMZ has a sturdy enough Web brand that it was able to successfully build a television show of the same name. But all of them are hemmed in by the tyranny of small numbers.
Read more at the New York Times
Magazine Newsstand Sales Halved from 2001-2011
The combined newsstand sales of 68 major American magazines declined by nearly half from 2001-2011, a MediaPost analysis of Audit Bureau of Circulations data revealed. According to ABC FAS-FAX circulation reports, this group of leading weekly and monthly magazines saw total average newsstand sales plunge from 22,019,953 in the six-month period ending June 2001 to 11,562,028 in the six-month period ending June 2011 -- a 47.5% decline over the course of the decade. Newsstand sales have declined steadily, dropping every single year from 2001-2011. After slowly declining from 22 million in 2001 to just over 17 million in 2007, shedding 23% over the course of seven years, the rate of loss increased from 2008 to 2011 -- shedding another 32% in just four years.
In one of the more ominous developments, women seem to be losing interest in many newsstand titles traditionally aimed at them, which are responsible for a large share of total newsstand sales.
Although magazine publishers are looking to sell both digital single copies and subscription intended for consumption with tablet computers, e-readers and online, digital newsstand sales remain fairly low. In August Time Inc. revealed that it had sold a total of about 600,000 digital copies of People, Time, Sports Illustrated and Fortune across all platforms, and Conde Nast said it had sold a total of about 106,000 digital editions of its various magazines through Apple's iTunes store in the preceding six weeks, per Adweek.
In one of the more ominous developments, women seem to be losing interest in many newsstand titles traditionally aimed at them, which are responsible for a large share of total newsstand sales.
Although magazine publishers are looking to sell both digital single copies and subscription intended for consumption with tablet computers, e-readers and online, digital newsstand sales remain fairly low. In August Time Inc. revealed that it had sold a total of about 600,000 digital copies of People, Time, Sports Illustrated and Fortune across all platforms, and Conde Nast said it had sold a total of about 106,000 digital editions of its various magazines through Apple's iTunes store in the preceding six weeks, per Adweek.
Read more here
Print Media Ad Revenues Continue To Slide
According to a recent note by UBS, print ad growth came in at negative 8.9%, below estimates of a 7.7% decline, to the benefit of other media segments which will receive funds flowing out of print media. Revenues on classified sections deteriorated substantially, with growth down to negative 10.9% versus estimates of a decline of 5.1%. National print advertising was marginally better than expected, falling 8.8% compared with estimates of a 10% drop.
UBS now estimates full year 2011 print advertising growth to fall 6.6%, while in 2012 they expect a decline of 5%, in both cases worse than their previous expectations.
With New York Times’ total company advertising declining 4% in the second quarter and no positive revisions on digital ad revenue growth, UBS now expects The Gray Lady’s third quarter advertising revenues to decline 5.5%.
Read more at Forbes
UBS now estimates full year 2011 print advertising growth to fall 6.6%, while in 2012 they expect a decline of 5%, in both cases worse than their previous expectations.
With New York Times’ total company advertising declining 4% in the second quarter and no positive revisions on digital ad revenue growth, UBS now expects The Gray Lady’s third quarter advertising revenues to decline 5.5%.
Read more at Forbes
Sunday, September 11
Report Details Rise of Social Media
Social media account for 22.5 percent of the time that Americans spend online, according to (a new Nielsen Company report), compared with 9.8 percent for online games and 7.6 percent for e-mail. That makes social media the No. 1 specific category and the No. 2 category over all, behind “other” ways Americans spend time online, among them perusing adult content, visiting retail Web sites and reading about subjects like sports and health.
The social media brand that Americans spend the most time with, the report finds, is Facebook, by an enormous margin. During May, when the report was compiled, Americans spent 53.5 billion minutes on facebook.com from computers at home and work. (That was up 6 percent from 50.6 billion minutes in May 2010.)
Behind Facebook during May was Blogger, at 723.8 million minutes; Tumblr, at 623.5 million minutes; Twitter, at 565.2 million minutes; and LinkedIn, at 325.7 million minutes.
Read ore at the New York Times
The social media brand that Americans spend the most time with, the report finds, is Facebook, by an enormous margin. During May, when the report was compiled, Americans spent 53.5 billion minutes on facebook.com from computers at home and work. (That was up 6 percent from 50.6 billion minutes in May 2010.)
Behind Facebook during May was Blogger, at 723.8 million minutes; Tumblr, at 623.5 million minutes; Twitter, at 565.2 million minutes; and LinkedIn, at 325.7 million minutes.
Read ore at the New York Times
Computer Generated Articles Gaining Traction
Narrative Science, a start-up in Evanston, Ill., offers proof of the progress of artificial intelligence — the ability of computers to mimic human reasoning. The innovative work at Narrative Science raises the broader issue of whether such applications of artificial intelligence will mainly assist human workers or replace them. Technology is already undermining the economics of traditional journalism... will “robot journalists” replace flesh-and-blood journalists in newsrooms?
The company, founded last year, has 20 customers so far. Narrative Science (earns) less than $10 for each article of about 500 words — and the price will very likely decline over time. Even at $10, the cost is far less, by industry estimates, than the average cost per article of local online news ventures like AOL’s Patch or answer sites, like those run by Demand Media.
Read more at the New York Times
The company, founded last year, has 20 customers so far. Narrative Science (earns) less than $10 for each article of about 500 words — and the price will very likely decline over time. Even at $10, the cost is far less, by industry estimates, than the average cost per article of local online news ventures like AOL’s Patch or answer sites, like those run by Demand Media.
Read more at the New York Times
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