Media Trends

I gotta admit, I love me some magazines. Lots of 'em. And I really dig this idea: Magazine buying may get an Internet-era makeover in September when Time Inc. launches Maghound, a service that promises to blend the convenience of subscriptions with the flexibility of newsstand sales. Customers will pay a monthly fee for home delivery of the publications they want. But unlike with subscriptions, which typically run …

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In the UK, France, and Germany, the Internet is significantly more influential than any other media, according to a study (PDF) by Fleishman-Hillard and Harris Interactive. In fact, online experiences, at least in these European countries, are nearly twice as influential as TV and eight times more influential than traditional print media. Matt Dickman, a VP at Fleishman-Hillard in Cleveland, gives a nice overview on …

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Rick Myers points to an interesting piece about how we read online by Slate's Michael Agger. Near the end of the piece, there's a link to "Hamlet's Blackberry: Why Paper Is Eternal" by William Powers. Here's a clip from Powers' 74-page document: Paper is the most successful communications innovation of the last 2000 years, the one that has lasted the longest and had the profoundest effect on civilization. One can …

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Bloggers are not the only people pissed off at Associated Press these days. According to The Wall Street Journal, a growing cadre of newspaper editors are upset with the 162-year-old newsgathering cooperative. Some newspapers have attempted to reduce their reliance on the AP. This past spring, prompted by unhappiness with the AP's fees and reduced coverage of state and local news, the eight largest newspapers in Ohio …

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Publicis on Wednesday unveiled a new digital-advertising system that links together technologies from Google Inc., AOL, Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo Inc. The system connects Publicis's media-buying agencies with the ad space sold by the Web giants, according to The Wall Street Journal. "We are putting the four competitors around the same table," and "that will drive prices down so that we are using the money of our …

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Writer and scholar, Nicholas Carr, is having trouble concentrating. So am I. Perhaps you are too. As the media theorist Marshall McLuhan pointed out in the 1960s, media are not just passive channels of information. They supply the stuff of thought, but they also shape the process of thought. And what the Net seems to be doing is chipping away my capacity for concentration and contemplation. My mind now expects to …

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TBS isn't afraid to interrupt your flow. Not at all. According to Ad Age, TBS is using an "overlay" during episodes of "Family Guy" meant to promote "The Bill Engvall Show." Ad Age blames internet advertising for this development. TBS's chatty come-on offers yet another illustration of how consumers' growing comfort with the way content is designed and displayed in digital venues is starting to affect the flow of …

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According to The Wall Street Journal, square pegs don't fit into round holes. Walt Disney Co.'s ABC News is close to scrapping the current format of its daily "World News" Webcast, an online version of the evening news anchored by Charles Gibson, which the network trumpeted as a major step into its digital future when it launched two years ago. Network executives and media buyers say that broadcast news suffers …

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