Archive for January, 2009

The Media Equation: Hollywood Now Cast as Sensible

Monday, January 26th, 2009
Historically, media companies in New York have seen their Los Angeles-based divisions as wayward children. But now the pointed finger of reproach is going the other way.

Sometimes, a Political Position Is Just About Wanting a Cigar

Monday, January 26th, 2009
The latest issue of Cigar Aficionado magazine advises President Obama on relations with Cuba and argues for abolishing preconditions if the United States should re-engage the Caribbean nation.

Drilling Down: Smart Move in Letting You Pick Price?

Monday, January 26th, 2009
By letting Internet buyers name their price for its 2007 album, Radiohead introduced many people to the retailing strategy called ?pay what you want.?

To Fleet Street by Way of the K.G.B.

Sunday, January 25th, 2009
Britons aren?t sure what to make of an ex-K.G.B. officer?s deal to buy London?s most enduring afternoon newspaper, The Evening Standard.

Jim Horne, a Familiar Face in Ads From the 1950s, Dies at 91

Sunday, January 25th, 2009
Beginning in the late 1940s, Mr. Horne was perhaps the most widely seen male model in the country, appearing in hundreds of advertisements.

Streaming Onto the Mall, and Into Laptops

Sunday, January 25th, 2009
An estimated 1.8 million people watched the inauguration of Barack Obama in person. How many more watched it across the country?

Essay: See the Web Site, Buy the Book

Saturday, January 24th, 2009
Do elaborate Web sites and videos really sell books? As in so much of publishing, no one really knows.

Scene Stealer: Suddenly, Hollywood Seems a Conservative Investment

Saturday, January 24th, 2009
Although the movie business has been hurt along with nearly every other industry, it?s proving far more resilient to recession than most.

DirecTV Raises Its Sights for a Channel

Saturday, January 24th, 2009
The satellite television provider picks up well-regarded series from other networks.

France Expands Its Financial Support for Newspapers

Saturday, January 24th, 2009
In an effort to help newspapers through the recession, President Nicolas Sarkozy said the government would double the amount of advertising it did in print and online newspapers.

A Linking Strategy Is About More Than Just Quality Content

Friday, January 23rd, 2009
Some SEOs seem to think that all you need to do to get good links is to build quality content, but improving the quality and quantity of your inbound links doesn't rest on the shoulders of good content alone. You need to spend the time to develop a sound linking strategy, or no one will ever find your quality content. ...

Banker Emerges as Cubs? Top Bidder

Friday, January 23rd, 2009
Thomas Ricketts got the backing of the Tribune Company?s creditors committee on Thursday to acquire the Chicago Cubs and Wrigley Field for around $900 million.

ABC to Merge 2 TV Units to Streamline and Cut Costs

Friday, January 23rd, 2009
The plan was prompted largely by a desire to streamline operations and cut costs as audiences for network television continue to dwindle.

Times Co. Is in Talks to Sell Part of Building

Friday, January 23rd, 2009
The New York Times Company is in negotiations to sell a substantial portion of its headquarters building on Eighth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan to W. P. Carey & Company.

Advertising: Making Every Second, or $100,000, Count

Friday, January 23rd, 2009
For advertisers, Super Bowl ads are just part of overall marketing campaigns.

Google Conversion Optimizer: The Best-Kept Secret in PPC?

Friday, January 23rd, 2009
Google quietly added Conversion Optimizer to every advertiser's AdWords account a few months ago. In a nutshell, it regulates keyword-level bids, promising to deliver as many conversions as possible, at or below a cost-per-conversion you specify. That's right: automated bid management, available for free and using Google's proprietary data. ...

The TV Watch: A Day Best Captured by Image, Not Narrative

Friday, January 23rd, 2009
For many a historic event, being there is the next best thing to watching it on television. The inauguration of Barack Obama was the exception.

Publisher Rethinks the Daily: It?s Free and Printed and Has Blogs All Over

Thursday, January 22nd, 2009
The Printed Blog, a Chicago start-up, plans to reprint blog posts on regular paper, surrounded by local ads, and distribute the publications free in big cities.

Jumpstart a Viral Marketing Campaign

Thursday, January 22nd, 2009
About to launch a viral campaign and need to energize it to increase the likelihood of success? Here are some strategies that can help jumpstart it and spread the word. ...

Powder Mailed to Wall St. Journal Is Harmless

Thursday, January 22nd, 2009
The powder, apparently flour- or food-based, was declared harmless after field tests by the city?s Department of Environmental Protection.

Ex-K.G.B. Agent Buying London Tabloid

Thursday, January 22nd, 2009
The owners of The Evening Standard announced that it would be sold to a Russian tycoon, Aleksandr Y. Lebedev, a former K.G.B. agent.

Advertising: In ?Trust Me,? a Fake Agency Really Promotes

Thursday, January 22nd, 2009
A new series on TNT is writing actual products into scripts of episodes ? including some that are also sponsors of the series.

MSNBC Wants to Add a 3rd Prime-Time Show

Thursday, January 22nd, 2009
Building on the momentum of its prime-time hours, MSNBC is developing a 10 p.m. program that would complement its left-leaning evening lineup.

Online Video of Inauguration Sets Records

Wednesday, January 21st, 2009
Overwhelming demand for live Internet video feeds of the inauguration ceremony caused some providers to experience network problems.

Top Newsday Editors Return to Work After Dispute

Wednesday, January 21st, 2009
The return of the newspaper?s top editors ends a period of several days when the newspaper staff did not know whether the editors had been ousted by the paper?s owner.

Advertising: Companies Warm to Sponsoring Mixed Martial Arts

Wednesday, January 21st, 2009
Once considered too risky, mixed martial arts is now seen by companies as a way to reach young male consumers.

Is One-Stop Media Buying a Failed Model?

Wednesday, January 21st, 2009
Once merely an afterthought in the media buying process, auction-based media has changed everything for everybody. Or has it? Is it possible that some things just don't fit? The media buying model has yet to achieve the much-hyped shift that so many pundits predicted a short time ago. ...

Writing Sales Copy For Conversions, Part 2

Wednesday, January 21st, 2009
Once visitors end up on your landing page, you're no longer competing for their attention with other Web sites, so change the focus to the task they're trying to accomplish. You're missing an enormous opportunity by not creating a hype-free zone on your landing page. ...

Rob Roy Buckingham, 88, Retired Editor at The Times, Dies

Wednesday, January 21st, 2009
Mr. Buckingham was a former editor-manager of The New York Times News Service, which sent roughly 20,000 words of synopses of Times articles to 50 newspapers a day.

Sports Business: A Coveted Team, a Tangled Web, a Tough Sell

Wednesday, January 21st, 2009
The identity of the next owner of the Chicago Cubs, which the Tribune Company has been peddling since 2007, could be known Wednesday or later this week.

Google Ends Sale of Ads in Papers After 2 Years

Wednesday, January 21st, 2009
The company said it would end a program to sell ads in newspapers because the effort had not been as successful as expected.

Clear Channel Plans to Trim 1,850 Jobs

Wednesday, January 21st, 2009
Hit with the advertising downturn, the company said it was eliminating about 9 percent of its employees, effective immediately.

Warner Brothers to Cut 800 Jobs

Wednesday, January 21st, 2009
Most of the job cuts will come out of the studio?s headquarters in Burbank, Calif., in a mix of layoffs, the elimination of open positions and outsourcing.

At Sundance, IFC Prepares to Go on a Shopping Spree

Tuesday, January 20th, 2009
IFC Entertainment will probably turn out to be one of the most aggressive buyers at the Sundance Film Festival when it comes to the number of films bought, if not the prices paid.

Editors and Publishers in a Revolving Door

Tuesday, January 20th, 2009
The cost pressures prevailing in the newspaper business have led to rapid turnover at the top.

Endorsement at a Crime Scene: A Book Plugged in ?Scarpetta?

Tuesday, January 20th, 2009
Patricia Cornwell, the best-selling crime fiction writer, uses her latest Kay Scarpetta novel to promote ?American Rust,? a first novel by Philipp Meyer.

Mexican Billionaire Invests in Times Company

Tuesday, January 20th, 2009
The New York Times Company approved a $250 million investment late Monday night by the Mexican billionaire, Carlos Slim Hel

Advertising: Is Star Power Enough to Sell Beer in Hard Times? Two Brewers Hope So

Tuesday, January 20th, 2009
Anheuser-Busch InBev and Heineken are preparing efforts to reach beer drinkers who have been watching their spending since the recession began.

Fox News Primes Itself for a Shift

Tuesday, January 20th, 2009
Far from being subdued by the shift in the country?s mood, the cable news network of choice during the George W. Bush years seems re-energized.

Testing Your Online Business Plan

Tuesday, January 20th, 2009
When a small business fails at search marketing, more often than not the problem boils down to a poorly thought-out business plan. Monetizing a Web site is so much more than slapping some ads on a page and waiting for the checks to roll in. You need to create a business plan, and test viability of that plan before you spend any money on marketing and development. ...

The Better You Rank…the Better You Rank!

Tuesday, January 20th, 2009
The more popular your Web site is, the better the likelihood that your Web site will rank. You need to maintain momentum in your SEO and general marketing efforts to keep a steady flow of traffic coming to your Web site. ...

The Popular Newsweekly Becomes a Lonely Category

Tuesday, January 20th, 2009
The business of telling people what happened in the last week is just about gone, in favor of telling them how to think about the news.

The Media Equation: Can Sundance Get a Break?

Monday, January 19th, 2009
While creator Robert Redford is criticized that the film festival is far too commercial, the knock on Sundance this year has been that it will not be commercial enough.

Hip-Hop Magazine No Longer Accepts Ads for Lewd Products

Monday, January 19th, 2009
The Source hopes to gain more than it loses by chasing mainstream advertisers that do not want their ads alongside the adults-only kind.

Amid Talk of a Departure, CNN Grooms a Team of Health Experts

Monday, January 19th, 2009
New talent will be handy if CNN?s star medical expert, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, becomes the surgeon general.

After Steve Jobs Acknowledges Ill Health, Doubts for Reporters

Monday, January 19th, 2009
For many months, the media munched on denials from Apple that Mr. Jobs was in poor health, despite visual evidence to the contrary.

Web Analytics 101, Part 1

Monday, January 19th, 2009
Web marketers who ignore analytics are like doctors who start writing prescriptions before bothering to examine or diagnose the patient. Without looking under the hood to see how your Web site is performing, and learning more about the people visiting your site, you're throwing away a huge opportunity. ...

Are Rankings Still Relevant?

Monday, January 19th, 2009
Are we heading toward an age where site ranking doesn't matter? By incorporating searcher behavior into their algorithms, search engines are no longer serving the same results to everyone. ...

Billionaire Seeks Deal in Times Co.

Monday, January 19th, 2009
Carlos Slim Hel

SearchDay | Search Shifts and Predictions for 2009

Sunday, January 18th, 2009
Today's search engine marketing news and opinion: Search Ad Quality Score 101; What Makes a Successful Online Promotion?; 5 Web Resources to Find a Job in Search; and more.