Ad Age and The Wall Street Journal are both running stories about media companies getting in bed with advertisers. From Ad Age: To help sell Toshiba TV sets and laptops, ESPN worked with the Japanese company to create advertising that illustrates specifically how ESPN fans could use those products. The ESPN-centric campaign represents "one of our efforts to reach sports fans while they are watching their favorite …
Bootstrapped Media Companies That Focus On Business Are Rising Up Through The Cracks
In a topical convergence Ad Age is running a Nat Ives' piece on the "harsh reality" faced by business magazines, while David Carr of The New York Times describes the business beat as "defeated." Some of Carr's prose on the matter: While the business of business may be back, the business of covering it with heroic narratives and upbeat glossy spreads most certainly is not. And probably never will be. ...It's not that …
Dead Tree Publishing’s Bad-For-the-Environment Math
Many industries have built-in inefficiencies that some don't want to see fixed, for there's money to be made in these dark zones. For instance, say your team adopts new technology that improves efficiency. Some might fear that change because greater efficiency can lead to fewer billable hours, at least in the short term before more work can be brought into the system. It's faulty logic, but that doesn't make it go …
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Newsday Says Their Content Is Good Enough To Pay For
Newsday, the Long Island newspaper, is about to put a pay wall in place, according to The New York Times. And a spendy wall at that. The paper, owned by Cablevision, plans to charge $5 a week, or about $260 a year (Cablevision customers will get the subscription for free). The Wall Street Journal is $149 a year, by comparison. Other papers in the paid content game include The Financial Times, The Arkansas …
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Oliver Stone “Doesn’t Understand”
Big wigs in entertainment, advertising and Internet technology gathered at Orbita US 2009, a digital media summit hosted by Terra in New York City this week. Those in attendance got the chance to hear Oliver Stone speak. "I've heard the democratic argument [for the internet] and I'm not an elitist, but ... a mashup is not a movie. It's offensive," said the director of Natural Born Killers, Wall Street, Platoon and …
Magazines Speak For Themselves
It can't be an easy time for Magazine Publishers of America to put out self-promo pieces, but the trade group has managed to come up with "Twenty Tweetable Truths About Magazines" like this one: The top 25 magazines reach more adults and teens than the top 25 prime-time TV programs. See MPA's site for the other 19, all of which are Tweet-ready. …
Consistently Great Episodes Are The Deepest of Hooks
According to Variety, online chatter about TV shows is forming an all important "viral watercooler" effect coveted by studios and their PR teams. Thanks to the Internet, a show's shelf-life now extends days after an episode's premiere for shows that lend themselves to obsessive online discussion and analysis. ...nowadays episode recaps for series like "Mad Men" and "Lost" are no mere quick rundowns of major plot …
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What Will Come From Tyree’s Palette?
A new media baron is about to born on the Third Coast. His name is James Tyree. Tyree, 51, is chairman of Mesirow Financial and scheduled to be the next owner of the Chicago Sun-Times and its 58 suburban newspaper titles. "Media kingpins aren't what they used to be, but Tyree said he's not content with modest expectations," according to an article in the paper he's about to own. Tyree said he's convinced there's …
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