For a fee, some blogs boost firms
Concerns raised on disclosure
By Jenn Abelson, Globe Staff | June 26, 2005
Jeff Cutler has never purchased anything from Dot Flowers, but you might think otherwise, reading the Hingham resident's blog.
''No more driving to the corner to buy flowers and hand-deliver them," he wrote on his Web page. ''Nope. Now I go online to places like Dot Flowers.com and 1-800-Flowers. I like Dot a little better just because of the personal touch."
Dot Flowers's ad agency paid Cutler $5 this spring to promote the florist and put a link to its website on his blog, or online journal, short for web log. Cutler, who does not disclose the payment on his blog, is one of more than 2,000 bloggers whom marketer USWeb enlisted to hawk products and services. That helped the nascent florist double its sales in the first three months and shoot up near the top of Google's search list, according to USWeb.
Yes, corporate America has discovered the blog and found that the grass-roots medium for supposedly unadulterated opinions is also a powerful marketing tool in a country where about 37 million Americans read these online journals. Even the state of Pennsylvania has joined in, offering free vacations to people who blog on its tourism site.
The blog, in many ways, is the perfect marketing tool: original, personal, and cheap. It has grown popular as advertisers find it harder to capture consumers' attention in a fragmented media market that is making traditional television and newspaper advertising less effective. But despite their foray into advertising, blogs remain an unregulated forum.
With a growing number of businesses using blogs to help promote their products, sometimes in ways that are not very transparent, it is increasingly difficult to discern who or what is behind a blogger's pitch, be it for a museum exhibit or flower company.
Concerns about disclosure have even reached the Federal Election Commission, which is holding hearings this week, in part, to discuss whether to require bloggers to disclose funds they receive from political campaigns. Disclosure became an issue in South Dakota's US Senate race between Tom Daschle and John Thune last year, when the Thune campaign paid two political bloggers to scrutinize Daschle, who was defeated. The compensation did not come to light until campaign finance reports were filed.
''People should be trained to take what they read with a grain of salt," said Cutler, 40, who also was paid to promote credit cards and car insurance on his blog, www.jeffcutler.com. ''A person is not spending their time to throw something up on the Internet unless they have an objective or an ulterior motive. For me, it was making a few bucks and disciplining my writing."
For other bloggers, the compensation can be a windfall. Somerville resident Susan Kaup received $2,100 this winter for writing a dozen times about Marqui -- a Portland, Ore., marketing software company -- and linking to its website on her blog, www.sooz.com. Though Marqui disclosed it was paying bloggers, Kaup did not always mention the compensation on her site
Blogger Linnea Sheldon, 26, of Worcester, has scored nearly $200 in complimentary tickets to events around Massachusetts in exchange for writing about them on her blog, www.linneadates.com, which details her dating life.
''There are freebies everywhere that all different people take advantage of," said Sheldon, who usually discloses that she receives free tickets. ''It is simply a way of getting the word out."
A growing number of companies are also setting up their own online journals and giving bloggers full-time jobs. Earlier this month, Country Music Television disclosed that had it signed a $100,000 contract with a fan of ''The Dukes of Hazzard" to blog daily about the show.
Though many companies involved in blogging spend a fraction of their budgets on these promotions, Forrester Research Inc. reported last month that 64 percent of marketers surveyed are interested in advertising in blogs, the highest percentage compared with other emerging interactive channels, such as instant messaging or video on demand.
Marketers say that bloggers are viewed as opinion influencers and trendsetters and that getting them to write about a product or service is an effective way to spread the word. The blogosphere also offers access to a key demographic: young people. According to Forrester, young adults between ages 18 and 24 make up one-quarter of all adult bloggers.
''Blogs are the hottest area online," said John Cate, vice president of national media for Carat Interactive, a marketing firm that recently launched a blogging division in San Francisco. ''There's real power to be able to speak to and listen to influencers like bloggers."
The more companies can get bloggers to link to their websites, the higher their sites will appear on Google's search list. Google ranks its listings, in part, on how many Web pages link to a website. So paying $5 to a few thousand bloggers is a small price for companies such as Dot Flowers to move up closer to the first page of results in a Google search.
For that reason, some advertisers joke that blog actually is an acronym for ''better listing on Google."
Two weeks after Marqui launched its program to pay bloggers in November, the company's Google results skyrocketed to 278,000 from 2,040, said spokeswoman Tara Smith.
While Marqui remains open about paying bloggers, not all companies are so forthcoming. Though laws exist to protect consumers from deceptive practices and false advertising in other media outlets, there is no formal oversight in the blogosphere.
For now, self-regulation rules. ''We try to be as ethical as possible," said Ed Shull, chief executive at USWeb, the ad agency that pays bloggers to post about Dot Flowers and other companies.
''In our opinion, paying bloggers is no different than Tiger Woods getting money to wear the Nike logo."
Jenn Abelson can be reached at abelson@globe.com.
© Copyright 2005 Globe Newspaper Company.
This news article is taken from www.boston.com
Jumat, 01 Juli 2005
Paying bloggers to advertise
For a fee, some blogs boost firms
Concerns raised on disclosure
By Jenn Abelson, Globe Staff | June 26, 2005
Jeff Cutler has never purchased anything from Dot Flowers, but you might think otherwise, reading the Hingham resident's blog.
''No more driving to the corner to buy flowers and hand-deliver them," he wrote on his Web page. ''Nope. Now I go online to places like Dot Flowers.com and 1-800-Flowers. I like Dot a little better just because of the personal touch."
Dot Flowers's ad agency paid Cutler $5 this spring to promote the florist and put a link to its website on his blog, or online journal, short for web log. Cutler, who does not disclose the payment on his blog, is one of more than 2,000 bloggers whom marketer USWeb enlisted to hawk products and services. That helped the nascent florist double its sales in the first three months and shoot up near the top of Google's search list, according to USWeb.
Yes, corporate America has discovered the blog and found that the grass-roots medium for supposedly unadulterated opinions is also a powerful marketing tool in a country where about 37 million Americans read these online journals. Even the state of Pennsylvania has joined in, offering free vacations to people who blog on its tourism site.
The blog, in many ways, is the perfect marketing tool: original, personal, and cheap. It has grown popular as advertisers find it harder to capture consumers' attention in a fragmented media market that is making traditional television and newspaper advertising less effective. But despite their foray into advertising, blogs remain an unregulated forum.
With a growing number of businesses using blogs to help promote their products, sometimes in ways that are not very transparent, it is increasingly difficult to discern who or what is behind a blogger's pitch, be it for a museum exhibit or flower company.
Concerns about disclosure have even reached the Federal Election Commission, which is holding hearings this week, in part, to discuss whether to require bloggers to disclose funds they receive from political campaigns. Disclosure became an issue in South Dakota's US Senate race between Tom Daschle and John Thune last year, when the Thune campaign paid two political bloggers to scrutinize Daschle, who was defeated. The compensation did not come to light until campaign finance reports were filed.
''People should be trained to take what they read with a grain of salt," said Cutler, 40, who also was paid to promote credit cards and car insurance on his blog, www.jeffcutler.com. ''A person is not spending their time to throw something up on the Internet unless they have an objective or an ulterior motive. For me, it was making a few bucks and disciplining my writing."
For other bloggers, the compensation can be a windfall. Somerville resident Susan Kaup received $2,100 this winter for writing a dozen times about Marqui -- a Portland, Ore., marketing software company -- and linking to its website on her blog, www.sooz.com. Though Marqui disclosed it was paying bloggers, Kaup did not always mention the compensation on her site
Blogger Linnea Sheldon, 26, of Worcester, has scored nearly $200 in complimentary tickets to events around Massachusetts in exchange for writing about them on her blog, www.linneadates.com, which details her dating life.
''There are freebies everywhere that all different people take advantage of," said Sheldon, who usually discloses that she receives free tickets. ''It is simply a way of getting the word out."
A growing number of companies are also setting up their own online journals and giving bloggers full-time jobs. Earlier this month, Country Music Television disclosed that had it signed a $100,000 contract with a fan of ''The Dukes of Hazzard" to blog daily about the show.
Though many companies involved in blogging spend a fraction of their budgets on these promotions, Forrester Research Inc. reported last month that 64 percent of marketers surveyed are interested in advertising in blogs, the highest percentage compared with other emerging interactive channels, such as instant messaging or video on demand.
Marketers say that bloggers are viewed as opinion influencers and trendsetters and that getting them to write about a product or service is an effective way to spread the word. The blogosphere also offers access to a key demographic: young people. According to Forrester, young adults between ages 18 and 24 make up one-quarter of all adult bloggers.
''Blogs are the hottest area online," said John Cate, vice president of national media for Carat Interactive, a marketing firm that recently launched a blogging division in San Francisco. ''There's real power to be able to speak to and listen to influencers like bloggers."
The more companies can get bloggers to link to their websites, the higher their sites will appear on Google's search list. Google ranks its listings, in part, on how many Web pages link to a website. So paying $5 to a few thousand bloggers is a small price for companies such as Dot Flowers to move up closer to the first page of results in a Google search.
For that reason, some advertisers joke that blog actually is an acronym for ''better listing on Google."
Two weeks after Marqui launched its program to pay bloggers in November, the company's Google results skyrocketed to 278,000 from 2,040, said spokeswoman Tara Smith.
While Marqui remains open about paying bloggers, not all companies are so forthcoming. Though laws exist to protect consumers from deceptive practices and false advertising in other media outlets, there is no formal oversight in the blogosphere.
For now, self-regulation rules. ''We try to be as ethical as possible," said Ed Shull, chief executive at USWeb, the ad agency that pays bloggers to post about Dot Flowers and other companies.
''In our opinion, paying bloggers is no different than Tiger Woods getting money to wear the Nike logo."
Jenn Abelson can be reached at abelson@globe.com.
© Copyright 2005 Globe Newspaper Company.
This news article is taken from www.boston.com
Concerns raised on disclosure
By Jenn Abelson, Globe Staff | June 26, 2005
Jeff Cutler has never purchased anything from Dot Flowers, but you might think otherwise, reading the Hingham resident's blog.
''No more driving to the corner to buy flowers and hand-deliver them," he wrote on his Web page. ''Nope. Now I go online to places like Dot Flowers.com and 1-800-Flowers. I like Dot a little better just because of the personal touch."
Dot Flowers's ad agency paid Cutler $5 this spring to promote the florist and put a link to its website on his blog, or online journal, short for web log. Cutler, who does not disclose the payment on his blog, is one of more than 2,000 bloggers whom marketer USWeb enlisted to hawk products and services. That helped the nascent florist double its sales in the first three months and shoot up near the top of Google's search list, according to USWeb.
Yes, corporate America has discovered the blog and found that the grass-roots medium for supposedly unadulterated opinions is also a powerful marketing tool in a country where about 37 million Americans read these online journals. Even the state of Pennsylvania has joined in, offering free vacations to people who blog on its tourism site.
The blog, in many ways, is the perfect marketing tool: original, personal, and cheap. It has grown popular as advertisers find it harder to capture consumers' attention in a fragmented media market that is making traditional television and newspaper advertising less effective. But despite their foray into advertising, blogs remain an unregulated forum.
With a growing number of businesses using blogs to help promote their products, sometimes in ways that are not very transparent, it is increasingly difficult to discern who or what is behind a blogger's pitch, be it for a museum exhibit or flower company.
Concerns about disclosure have even reached the Federal Election Commission, which is holding hearings this week, in part, to discuss whether to require bloggers to disclose funds they receive from political campaigns. Disclosure became an issue in South Dakota's US Senate race between Tom Daschle and John Thune last year, when the Thune campaign paid two political bloggers to scrutinize Daschle, who was defeated. The compensation did not come to light until campaign finance reports were filed.
''People should be trained to take what they read with a grain of salt," said Cutler, 40, who also was paid to promote credit cards and car insurance on his blog, www.jeffcutler.com. ''A person is not spending their time to throw something up on the Internet unless they have an objective or an ulterior motive. For me, it was making a few bucks and disciplining my writing."
For other bloggers, the compensation can be a windfall. Somerville resident Susan Kaup received $2,100 this winter for writing a dozen times about Marqui -- a Portland, Ore., marketing software company -- and linking to its website on her blog, www.sooz.com. Though Marqui disclosed it was paying bloggers, Kaup did not always mention the compensation on her site
Blogger Linnea Sheldon, 26, of Worcester, has scored nearly $200 in complimentary tickets to events around Massachusetts in exchange for writing about them on her blog, www.linneadates.com, which details her dating life.
''There are freebies everywhere that all different people take advantage of," said Sheldon, who usually discloses that she receives free tickets. ''It is simply a way of getting the word out."
A growing number of companies are also setting up their own online journals and giving bloggers full-time jobs. Earlier this month, Country Music Television disclosed that had it signed a $100,000 contract with a fan of ''The Dukes of Hazzard" to blog daily about the show.
Though many companies involved in blogging spend a fraction of their budgets on these promotions, Forrester Research Inc. reported last month that 64 percent of marketers surveyed are interested in advertising in blogs, the highest percentage compared with other emerging interactive channels, such as instant messaging or video on demand.
Marketers say that bloggers are viewed as opinion influencers and trendsetters and that getting them to write about a product or service is an effective way to spread the word. The blogosphere also offers access to a key demographic: young people. According to Forrester, young adults between ages 18 and 24 make up one-quarter of all adult bloggers.
''Blogs are the hottest area online," said John Cate, vice president of national media for Carat Interactive, a marketing firm that recently launched a blogging division in San Francisco. ''There's real power to be able to speak to and listen to influencers like bloggers."
The more companies can get bloggers to link to their websites, the higher their sites will appear on Google's search list. Google ranks its listings, in part, on how many Web pages link to a website. So paying $5 to a few thousand bloggers is a small price for companies such as Dot Flowers to move up closer to the first page of results in a Google search.
For that reason, some advertisers joke that blog actually is an acronym for ''better listing on Google."
Two weeks after Marqui launched its program to pay bloggers in November, the company's Google results skyrocketed to 278,000 from 2,040, said spokeswoman Tara Smith.
While Marqui remains open about paying bloggers, not all companies are so forthcoming. Though laws exist to protect consumers from deceptive practices and false advertising in other media outlets, there is no formal oversight in the blogosphere.
For now, self-regulation rules. ''We try to be as ethical as possible," said Ed Shull, chief executive at USWeb, the ad agency that pays bloggers to post about Dot Flowers and other companies.
''In our opinion, paying bloggers is no different than Tiger Woods getting money to wear the Nike logo."
Jenn Abelson can be reached at abelson@globe.com.
© Copyright 2005 Globe Newspaper Company.
This news article is taken from www.boston.com
Paying bloggers to advertise
For a fee, some blogs boost firms
Concerns raised on disclosure
By Jenn Abelson, Globe Staff | June 26, 2005
Jeff Cutler has never purchased anything from Dot Flowers, but you might think otherwise, reading the Hingham resident's blog.
''No more driving to the corner to buy flowers and hand-deliver them," he wrote on his Web page. ''Nope. Now I go online to places like Dot Flowers.com and 1-800-Flowers. I like Dot a little better just because of the personal touch."
Dot Flowers's ad agency paid Cutler $5 this spring to promote the florist and put a link to its website on his blog, or online journal, short for web log. Cutler, who does not disclose the payment on his blog, is one of more than 2,000 bloggers whom marketer USWeb enlisted to hawk products and services. That helped the nascent florist double its sales in the first three months and shoot up near the top of Google's search list, according to USWeb.
Yes, corporate America has discovered the blog and found that the grass-roots medium for supposedly unadulterated opinions is also a powerful marketing tool in a country where about 37 million Americans read these online journals. Even the state of Pennsylvania has joined in, offering free vacations to people who blog on its tourism site.
The blog, in many ways, is the perfect marketing tool: original, personal, and cheap. It has grown popular as advertisers find it harder to capture consumers' attention in a fragmented media market that is making traditional television and newspaper advertising less effective. But despite their foray into advertising, blogs remain an unregulated forum.
With a growing number of businesses using blogs to help promote their products, sometimes in ways that are not very transparent, it is increasingly difficult to discern who or what is behind a blogger's pitch, be it for a museum exhibit or flower company.
Concerns about disclosure have even reached the Federal Election Commission, which is holding hearings this week, in part, to discuss whether to require bloggers to disclose funds they receive from political campaigns. Disclosure became an issue in South Dakota's US Senate race between Tom Daschle and John Thune last year, when the Thune campaign paid two political bloggers to scrutinize Daschle, who was defeated. The compensation did not come to light until campaign finance reports were filed.
''People should be trained to take what they read with a grain of salt," said Cutler, 40, who also was paid to promote credit cards and car insurance on his blog, www.jeffcutler.com. ''A person is not spending their time to throw something up on the Internet unless they have an objective or an ulterior motive. For me, it was making a few bucks and disciplining my writing."
For other bloggers, the compensation can be a windfall. Somerville resident Susan Kaup received $2,100 this winter for writing a dozen times about Marqui -- a Portland, Ore., marketing software company -- and linking to its website on her blog, www.sooz.com. Though Marqui disclosed it was paying bloggers, Kaup did not always mention the compensation on her site
Blogger Linnea Sheldon, 26, of Worcester, has scored nearly $200 in complimentary tickets to events around Massachusetts in exchange for writing about them on her blog, www.linneadates.com, which details her dating life.
''There are freebies everywhere that all different people take advantage of," said Sheldon, who usually discloses that she receives free tickets. ''It is simply a way of getting the word out."
A growing number of companies are also setting up their own online journals and giving bloggers full-time jobs. Earlier this month, Country Music Television disclosed that had it signed a $100,000 contract with a fan of ''The Dukes of Hazzard" to blog daily about the show.
Though many companies involved in blogging spend a fraction of their budgets on these promotions, Forrester Research Inc. reported last month that 64 percent of marketers surveyed are interested in advertising in blogs, the highest percentage compared with other emerging interactive channels, such as instant messaging or video on demand.
Marketers say that bloggers are viewed as opinion influencers and trendsetters and that getting them to write about a product or service is an effective way to spread the word. The blogosphere also offers access to a key demographic: young people. According to Forrester, young adults between ages 18 and 24 make up one-quarter of all adult bloggers.
''Blogs are the hottest area online," said John Cate, vice president of national media for Carat Interactive, a marketing firm that recently launched a blogging division in San Francisco. ''There's real power to be able to speak to and listen to influencers like bloggers."
The more companies can get bloggers to link to their websites, the higher their sites will appear on Google's search list. Google ranks its listings, in part, on how many Web pages link to a website. So paying $5 to a few thousand bloggers is a small price for companies such as Dot Flowers to move up closer to the first page of results in a Google search.
For that reason, some advertisers joke that blog actually is an acronym for ''better listing on Google."
Two weeks after Marqui launched its program to pay bloggers in November, the company's Google results skyrocketed to 278,000 from 2,040, said spokeswoman Tara Smith.
While Marqui remains open about paying bloggers, not all companies are so forthcoming. Though laws exist to protect consumers from deceptive practices and false advertising in other media outlets, there is no formal oversight in the blogosphere.
For now, self-regulation rules. ''We try to be as ethical as possible," said Ed Shull, chief executive at USWeb, the ad agency that pays bloggers to post about Dot Flowers and other companies.
''In our opinion, paying bloggers is no different than Tiger Woods getting money to wear the Nike logo."
Jenn Abelson can be reached at abelson@globe.com.
© Copyright 2005 Globe Newspaper Company.
This news article is taken from www.boston.com
Concerns raised on disclosure
By Jenn Abelson, Globe Staff | June 26, 2005
Jeff Cutler has never purchased anything from Dot Flowers, but you might think otherwise, reading the Hingham resident's blog.
''No more driving to the corner to buy flowers and hand-deliver them," he wrote on his Web page. ''Nope. Now I go online to places like Dot Flowers.com and 1-800-Flowers. I like Dot a little better just because of the personal touch."
Dot Flowers's ad agency paid Cutler $5 this spring to promote the florist and put a link to its website on his blog, or online journal, short for web log. Cutler, who does not disclose the payment on his blog, is one of more than 2,000 bloggers whom marketer USWeb enlisted to hawk products and services. That helped the nascent florist double its sales in the first three months and shoot up near the top of Google's search list, according to USWeb.
Yes, corporate America has discovered the blog and found that the grass-roots medium for supposedly unadulterated opinions is also a powerful marketing tool in a country where about 37 million Americans read these online journals. Even the state of Pennsylvania has joined in, offering free vacations to people who blog on its tourism site.
The blog, in many ways, is the perfect marketing tool: original, personal, and cheap. It has grown popular as advertisers find it harder to capture consumers' attention in a fragmented media market that is making traditional television and newspaper advertising less effective. But despite their foray into advertising, blogs remain an unregulated forum.
With a growing number of businesses using blogs to help promote their products, sometimes in ways that are not very transparent, it is increasingly difficult to discern who or what is behind a blogger's pitch, be it for a museum exhibit or flower company.
Concerns about disclosure have even reached the Federal Election Commission, which is holding hearings this week, in part, to discuss whether to require bloggers to disclose funds they receive from political campaigns. Disclosure became an issue in South Dakota's US Senate race between Tom Daschle and John Thune last year, when the Thune campaign paid two political bloggers to scrutinize Daschle, who was defeated. The compensation did not come to light until campaign finance reports were filed.
''People should be trained to take what they read with a grain of salt," said Cutler, 40, who also was paid to promote credit cards and car insurance on his blog, www.jeffcutler.com. ''A person is not spending their time to throw something up on the Internet unless they have an objective or an ulterior motive. For me, it was making a few bucks and disciplining my writing."
For other bloggers, the compensation can be a windfall. Somerville resident Susan Kaup received $2,100 this winter for writing a dozen times about Marqui -- a Portland, Ore., marketing software company -- and linking to its website on her blog, www.sooz.com. Though Marqui disclosed it was paying bloggers, Kaup did not always mention the compensation on her site
Blogger Linnea Sheldon, 26, of Worcester, has scored nearly $200 in complimentary tickets to events around Massachusetts in exchange for writing about them on her blog, www.linneadates.com, which details her dating life.
''There are freebies everywhere that all different people take advantage of," said Sheldon, who usually discloses that she receives free tickets. ''It is simply a way of getting the word out."
A growing number of companies are also setting up their own online journals and giving bloggers full-time jobs. Earlier this month, Country Music Television disclosed that had it signed a $100,000 contract with a fan of ''The Dukes of Hazzard" to blog daily about the show.
Though many companies involved in blogging spend a fraction of their budgets on these promotions, Forrester Research Inc. reported last month that 64 percent of marketers surveyed are interested in advertising in blogs, the highest percentage compared with other emerging interactive channels, such as instant messaging or video on demand.
Marketers say that bloggers are viewed as opinion influencers and trendsetters and that getting them to write about a product or service is an effective way to spread the word. The blogosphere also offers access to a key demographic: young people. According to Forrester, young adults between ages 18 and 24 make up one-quarter of all adult bloggers.
''Blogs are the hottest area online," said John Cate, vice president of national media for Carat Interactive, a marketing firm that recently launched a blogging division in San Francisco. ''There's real power to be able to speak to and listen to influencers like bloggers."
The more companies can get bloggers to link to their websites, the higher their sites will appear on Google's search list. Google ranks its listings, in part, on how many Web pages link to a website. So paying $5 to a few thousand bloggers is a small price for companies such as Dot Flowers to move up closer to the first page of results in a Google search.
For that reason, some advertisers joke that blog actually is an acronym for ''better listing on Google."
Two weeks after Marqui launched its program to pay bloggers in November, the company's Google results skyrocketed to 278,000 from 2,040, said spokeswoman Tara Smith.
While Marqui remains open about paying bloggers, not all companies are so forthcoming. Though laws exist to protect consumers from deceptive practices and false advertising in other media outlets, there is no formal oversight in the blogosphere.
For now, self-regulation rules. ''We try to be as ethical as possible," said Ed Shull, chief executive at USWeb, the ad agency that pays bloggers to post about Dot Flowers and other companies.
''In our opinion, paying bloggers is no different than Tiger Woods getting money to wear the Nike logo."
Jenn Abelson can be reached at abelson@globe.com.
© Copyright 2005 Globe Newspaper Company.
This news article is taken from www.boston.com
Kamis, 02 Juni 2005
Revenue For Google And Yahoo Costs Competitors
The extraordinary revenue growth exhibited recently by Google and Yahoo is coming at the expense of established players in the $263 billion information industry, a new report says.
By Thomas Claburn
InformationWeek
The extraordinary revenue growth exhibited recently by Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc. is coming at the expense of established players in the $263 billion information industry, according to a report released Tuesday by research and advisory firm Outsell.
"They're literally sucking the financial air out of the room," the report says. "Google and Yahoo are clearly diverting advertising revenue" from established information companies.
According to the report, the 10 largest information companies are Daily Mail & General Trust, Gannett, McGraw-Hill, Pearson, Reed Elsevier, Reuters, Thomson, Tribune, VNU, and Wolters Kluwer. Together, they generated $60 billion in revenue in 2004, an increase of $4 billion over 2003.
Google and Yahoo together brought in $6.5 billion in revenue in 2004, an increase of $4 billion since 2003.
"That $4 billion in revenue growth from Google and Yahoo," says Chuck Richard, lead analyst at Outsell, "some of that is marketing and advertising spending that would have gone to the other 10 companies. This is most clearly evident in the newspaper and the B-to-B trade magazine areas, where the problems are quantifiable."
"The traditional media companies have been in a tough situation for a while in terms of getting ad dollars," says Gary Stein, advertising analyst at JupiterResearch. "Many newspapers get better than half of their revenue from classified, which are really susceptible to the type of ads that Google and Yahoo are offering."
The Outsell study, "Financial Performance Scorecard, Full Year 2004," lists the New York Times Co. as one of its "Sinking Stones," citing the newspaper industry's low revenue growth and its difficulties attracting young adult readers.
Last week, the New York Times Co. said it would eliminate 190 jobs. Reporting on its own troubles, the Times said that national newspapers are bringing in less advertising revenue than in previous years as marketers look for new ways to attract customers, such as Web sites and search engines like Google.
One way for traditional information companies to deal with the changing advertising landscape is through acquisitions, Richard says. He points to the acquisitions of Marketwarch.com and About.com by Dow Jones & Co. and the New York Times Co., respectively, as examples.
"It's hard for a newspaper company to just throw a switch and get online, because they really haven't done it in any significant way," Stein says. "So I think there are structural issues that are inside of these types of companies that prevent them from going online and being more like Google."
And there's another issue. According to Richard, there's a substantial price difference in terms of the impact of offline and online advertising. "If you chose to convert every subscriber that newspapers or B-to-B trade magazines have to an online model, but took as revenue the current revenue rates for online ads and did the math, the total revenue equation is out of balance," he says.
In other words, marketers are either paying too much for print ads or too little for online ones. One reason for that, Stein observes, is that print ads represent a leap of faith in that it's difficult to measure results. Online ads, by contrast, can more easily be measured in terms of who sees them and how effective they are.
Whether print-ad costs decline or online-ad costs rise, reconciling the disparity may prove painful.
United Business Media plc, parent company of CMP Media LLC, which publishes InformationWeek, is among the 100 companies covered in the report.
By Thomas Claburn
InformationWeek
The extraordinary revenue growth exhibited recently by Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc. is coming at the expense of established players in the $263 billion information industry, according to a report released Tuesday by research and advisory firm Outsell.
"They're literally sucking the financial air out of the room," the report says. "Google and Yahoo are clearly diverting advertising revenue" from established information companies.
According to the report, the 10 largest information companies are Daily Mail & General Trust, Gannett, McGraw-Hill, Pearson, Reed Elsevier, Reuters, Thomson, Tribune, VNU, and Wolters Kluwer. Together, they generated $60 billion in revenue in 2004, an increase of $4 billion over 2003.
Google and Yahoo together brought in $6.5 billion in revenue in 2004, an increase of $4 billion since 2003.
"That $4 billion in revenue growth from Google and Yahoo," says Chuck Richard, lead analyst at Outsell, "some of that is marketing and advertising spending that would have gone to the other 10 companies. This is most clearly evident in the newspaper and the B-to-B trade magazine areas, where the problems are quantifiable."
"The traditional media companies have been in a tough situation for a while in terms of getting ad dollars," says Gary Stein, advertising analyst at JupiterResearch. "Many newspapers get better than half of their revenue from classified, which are really susceptible to the type of ads that Google and Yahoo are offering."
The Outsell study, "Financial Performance Scorecard, Full Year 2004," lists the New York Times Co. as one of its "Sinking Stones," citing the newspaper industry's low revenue growth and its difficulties attracting young adult readers.
Last week, the New York Times Co. said it would eliminate 190 jobs. Reporting on its own troubles, the Times said that national newspapers are bringing in less advertising revenue than in previous years as marketers look for new ways to attract customers, such as Web sites and search engines like Google.
One way for traditional information companies to deal with the changing advertising landscape is through acquisitions, Richard says. He points to the acquisitions of Marketwarch.com and About.com by Dow Jones & Co. and the New York Times Co., respectively, as examples.
"It's hard for a newspaper company to just throw a switch and get online, because they really haven't done it in any significant way," Stein says. "So I think there are structural issues that are inside of these types of companies that prevent them from going online and being more like Google."
And there's another issue. According to Richard, there's a substantial price difference in terms of the impact of offline and online advertising. "If you chose to convert every subscriber that newspapers or B-to-B trade magazines have to an online model, but took as revenue the current revenue rates for online ads and did the math, the total revenue equation is out of balance," he says.
In other words, marketers are either paying too much for print ads or too little for online ones. One reason for that, Stein observes, is that print ads represent a leap of faith in that it's difficult to measure results. Online ads, by contrast, can more easily be measured in terms of who sees them and how effective they are.
Whether print-ad costs decline or online-ad costs rise, reconciling the disparity may prove painful.
United Business Media plc, parent company of CMP Media LLC, which publishes InformationWeek, is among the 100 companies covered in the report.
Revenue For Google And Yahoo Costs Competitors
The extraordinary revenue growth exhibited recently by Google and Yahoo is coming at the expense of established players in the $263 billion information industry, a new report says.
By Thomas Claburn
InformationWeek
The extraordinary revenue growth exhibited recently by Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc. is coming at the expense of established players in the $263 billion information industry, according to a report released Tuesday by research and advisory firm Outsell.
"They're literally sucking the financial air out of the room," the report says. "Google and Yahoo are clearly diverting advertising revenue" from established information companies.
According to the report, the 10 largest information companies are Daily Mail & General Trust, Gannett, McGraw-Hill, Pearson, Reed Elsevier, Reuters, Thomson, Tribune, VNU, and Wolters Kluwer. Together, they generated $60 billion in revenue in 2004, an increase of $4 billion over 2003.
Google and Yahoo together brought in $6.5 billion in revenue in 2004, an increase of $4 billion since 2003.
"That $4 billion in revenue growth from Google and Yahoo," says Chuck Richard, lead analyst at Outsell, "some of that is marketing and advertising spending that would have gone to the other 10 companies. This is most clearly evident in the newspaper and the B-to-B trade magazine areas, where the problems are quantifiable."
"The traditional media companies have been in a tough situation for a while in terms of getting ad dollars," says Gary Stein, advertising analyst at JupiterResearch. "Many newspapers get better than half of their revenue from classified, which are really susceptible to the type of ads that Google and Yahoo are offering."
The Outsell study, "Financial Performance Scorecard, Full Year 2004," lists the New York Times Co. as one of its "Sinking Stones," citing the newspaper industry's low revenue growth and its difficulties attracting young adult readers.
Last week, the New York Times Co. said it would eliminate 190 jobs. Reporting on its own troubles, the Times said that national newspapers are bringing in less advertising revenue than in previous years as marketers look for new ways to attract customers, such as Web sites and search engines like Google.
One way for traditional information companies to deal with the changing advertising landscape is through acquisitions, Richard says. He points to the acquisitions of Marketwarch.com and About.com by Dow Jones & Co. and the New York Times Co., respectively, as examples.
"It's hard for a newspaper company to just throw a switch and get online, because they really haven't done it in any significant way," Stein says. "So I think there are structural issues that are inside of these types of companies that prevent them from going online and being more like Google."
And there's another issue. According to Richard, there's a substantial price difference in terms of the impact of offline and online advertising. "If you chose to convert every subscriber that newspapers or B-to-B trade magazines have to an online model, but took as revenue the current revenue rates for online ads and did the math, the total revenue equation is out of balance," he says.
In other words, marketers are either paying too much for print ads or too little for online ones. One reason for that, Stein observes, is that print ads represent a leap of faith in that it's difficult to measure results. Online ads, by contrast, can more easily be measured in terms of who sees them and how effective they are.
Whether print-ad costs decline or online-ad costs rise, reconciling the disparity may prove painful.
United Business Media plc, parent company of CMP Media LLC, which publishes InformationWeek, is among the 100 companies covered in the report.
By Thomas Claburn
InformationWeek
The extraordinary revenue growth exhibited recently by Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc. is coming at the expense of established players in the $263 billion information industry, according to a report released Tuesday by research and advisory firm Outsell.
"They're literally sucking the financial air out of the room," the report says. "Google and Yahoo are clearly diverting advertising revenue" from established information companies.
According to the report, the 10 largest information companies are Daily Mail & General Trust, Gannett, McGraw-Hill, Pearson, Reed Elsevier, Reuters, Thomson, Tribune, VNU, and Wolters Kluwer. Together, they generated $60 billion in revenue in 2004, an increase of $4 billion over 2003.
Google and Yahoo together brought in $6.5 billion in revenue in 2004, an increase of $4 billion since 2003.
"That $4 billion in revenue growth from Google and Yahoo," says Chuck Richard, lead analyst at Outsell, "some of that is marketing and advertising spending that would have gone to the other 10 companies. This is most clearly evident in the newspaper and the B-to-B trade magazine areas, where the problems are quantifiable."
"The traditional media companies have been in a tough situation for a while in terms of getting ad dollars," says Gary Stein, advertising analyst at JupiterResearch. "Many newspapers get better than half of their revenue from classified, which are really susceptible to the type of ads that Google and Yahoo are offering."
The Outsell study, "Financial Performance Scorecard, Full Year 2004," lists the New York Times Co. as one of its "Sinking Stones," citing the newspaper industry's low revenue growth and its difficulties attracting young adult readers.
Last week, the New York Times Co. said it would eliminate 190 jobs. Reporting on its own troubles, the Times said that national newspapers are bringing in less advertising revenue than in previous years as marketers look for new ways to attract customers, such as Web sites and search engines like Google.
One way for traditional information companies to deal with the changing advertising landscape is through acquisitions, Richard says. He points to the acquisitions of Marketwarch.com and About.com by Dow Jones & Co. and the New York Times Co., respectively, as examples.
"It's hard for a newspaper company to just throw a switch and get online, because they really haven't done it in any significant way," Stein says. "So I think there are structural issues that are inside of these types of companies that prevent them from going online and being more like Google."
And there's another issue. According to Richard, there's a substantial price difference in terms of the impact of offline and online advertising. "If you chose to convert every subscriber that newspapers or B-to-B trade magazines have to an online model, but took as revenue the current revenue rates for online ads and did the math, the total revenue equation is out of balance," he says.
In other words, marketers are either paying too much for print ads or too little for online ones. One reason for that, Stein observes, is that print ads represent a leap of faith in that it's difficult to measure results. Online ads, by contrast, can more easily be measured in terms of who sees them and how effective they are.
Whether print-ad costs decline or online-ad costs rise, reconciling the disparity may prove painful.
United Business Media plc, parent company of CMP Media LLC, which publishes InformationWeek, is among the 100 companies covered in the report.
Revenue For Google And Yahoo Costs Competitors
The extraordinary revenue growth exhibited recently by Google and Yahoo is coming at the expense of established players in the $263 billion information industry, a new report says.
By Thomas Claburn
InformationWeek
The extraordinary revenue growth exhibited recently by Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc. is coming at the expense of established players in the $263 billion information industry, according to a report released Tuesday by research and advisory firm Outsell.
"They're literally sucking the financial air out of the room," the report says. "Google and Yahoo are clearly diverting advertising revenue" from established information companies.
According to the report, the 10 largest information companies are Daily Mail & General Trust, Gannett, McGraw-Hill, Pearson, Reed Elsevier, Reuters, Thomson, Tribune, VNU, and Wolters Kluwer. Together, they generated $60 billion in revenue in 2004, an increase of $4 billion over 2003.
Google and Yahoo together brought in $6.5 billion in revenue in 2004, an increase of $4 billion since 2003.
"That $4 billion in revenue growth from Google and Yahoo," says Chuck Richard, lead analyst at Outsell, "some of that is marketing and advertising spending that would have gone to the other 10 companies. This is most clearly evident in the newspaper and the B-to-B trade magazine areas, where the problems are quantifiable."
"The traditional media companies have been in a tough situation for a while in terms of getting ad dollars," says Gary Stein, advertising analyst at JupiterResearch. "Many newspapers get better than half of their revenue from classified, which are really susceptible to the type of ads that Google and Yahoo are offering."
The Outsell study, "Financial Performance Scorecard, Full Year 2004," lists the New York Times Co. as one of its "Sinking Stones," citing the newspaper industry's low revenue growth and its difficulties attracting young adult readers.
Last week, the New York Times Co. said it would eliminate 190 jobs. Reporting on its own troubles, the Times said that national newspapers are bringing in less advertising revenue than in previous years as marketers look for new ways to attract customers, such as Web sites and search engines like Google.
One way for traditional information companies to deal with the changing advertising landscape is through acquisitions, Richard says. He points to the acquisitions of Marketwarch.com and About.com by Dow Jones & Co. and the New York Times Co., respectively, as examples.
"It's hard for a newspaper company to just throw a switch and get online, because they really haven't done it in any significant way," Stein says. "So I think there are structural issues that are inside of these types of companies that prevent them from going online and being more like Google."
And there's another issue. According to Richard, there's a substantial price difference in terms of the impact of offline and online advertising. "If you chose to convert every subscriber that newspapers or B-to-B trade magazines have to an online model, but took as revenue the current revenue rates for online ads and did the math, the total revenue equation is out of balance," he says.
In other words, marketers are either paying too much for print ads or too little for online ones. One reason for that, Stein observes, is that print ads represent a leap of faith in that it's difficult to measure results. Online ads, by contrast, can more easily be measured in terms of who sees them and how effective they are.
Whether print-ad costs decline or online-ad costs rise, reconciling the disparity may prove painful.
United Business Media plc, parent company of CMP Media LLC, which publishes InformationWeek, is among the 100 companies covered in the report.
By Thomas Claburn
InformationWeek
The extraordinary revenue growth exhibited recently by Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc. is coming at the expense of established players in the $263 billion information industry, according to a report released Tuesday by research and advisory firm Outsell.
"They're literally sucking the financial air out of the room," the report says. "Google and Yahoo are clearly diverting advertising revenue" from established information companies.
According to the report, the 10 largest information companies are Daily Mail & General Trust, Gannett, McGraw-Hill, Pearson, Reed Elsevier, Reuters, Thomson, Tribune, VNU, and Wolters Kluwer. Together, they generated $60 billion in revenue in 2004, an increase of $4 billion over 2003.
Google and Yahoo together brought in $6.5 billion in revenue in 2004, an increase of $4 billion since 2003.
"That $4 billion in revenue growth from Google and Yahoo," says Chuck Richard, lead analyst at Outsell, "some of that is marketing and advertising spending that would have gone to the other 10 companies. This is most clearly evident in the newspaper and the B-to-B trade magazine areas, where the problems are quantifiable."
"The traditional media companies have been in a tough situation for a while in terms of getting ad dollars," says Gary Stein, advertising analyst at JupiterResearch. "Many newspapers get better than half of their revenue from classified, which are really susceptible to the type of ads that Google and Yahoo are offering."
The Outsell study, "Financial Performance Scorecard, Full Year 2004," lists the New York Times Co. as one of its "Sinking Stones," citing the newspaper industry's low revenue growth and its difficulties attracting young adult readers.
Last week, the New York Times Co. said it would eliminate 190 jobs. Reporting on its own troubles, the Times said that national newspapers are bringing in less advertising revenue than in previous years as marketers look for new ways to attract customers, such as Web sites and search engines like Google.
One way for traditional information companies to deal with the changing advertising landscape is through acquisitions, Richard says. He points to the acquisitions of Marketwarch.com and About.com by Dow Jones & Co. and the New York Times Co., respectively, as examples.
"It's hard for a newspaper company to just throw a switch and get online, because they really haven't done it in any significant way," Stein says. "So I think there are structural issues that are inside of these types of companies that prevent them from going online and being more like Google."
And there's another issue. According to Richard, there's a substantial price difference in terms of the impact of offline and online advertising. "If you chose to convert every subscriber that newspapers or B-to-B trade magazines have to an online model, but took as revenue the current revenue rates for online ads and did the math, the total revenue equation is out of balance," he says.
In other words, marketers are either paying too much for print ads or too little for online ones. One reason for that, Stein observes, is that print ads represent a leap of faith in that it's difficult to measure results. Online ads, by contrast, can more easily be measured in terms of who sees them and how effective they are.
Whether print-ad costs decline or online-ad costs rise, reconciling the disparity may prove painful.
United Business Media plc, parent company of CMP Media LLC, which publishes InformationWeek, is among the 100 companies covered in the report.
Kamis, 26 Mei 2005
Manage- Mentally 4
You have come a long way, babe.
(I write this article looking at the number of high incidence of female births in this generation. I have 2 nieces and most of my friends are now proud parents to baby girls… hmmm… looks like it is going to be Women Power in the future)
Circa 3345 AI (AI – Stands for After Internet; ‘inspired’ by Aldus Huxley – AF: After Ford)
Mumbai, India: It is almost midnight and there are a few men hurrying to reach home. A few drunken women walk out of the bar laughing aloud. The men hurry faster towards the tube to catch the next local. The ‘Newspods’ -(no jokes here – I’m sure that in the future the news will be transmitted to you every day/hour to your newspods, which can be Wi-Fi connected to your computer, TV, Audio, or special LCD screens - the size and weight of an ordinary newspaper – Author) daily carry news about the male abuses submitted upon the meeker sex.
London: 18 men have been arrested and put behind bars for 1 year. Their crime – had been masturbating secretly. UK has strict laws with regard to wastage of sperms as their male population is scarce. All the eligible men are fitted with micro-analyzers that transmit their ejaculation status. UK, unlike its other European counterparts do not believe in technological advancements in reproduction, and still relies on POTS (no, no,… it does not stand for Plain Old Telephone System; but, Plain Old Tedious Sex)
New York: 6 women are killed and 10 injured in a deadly gang war. Police say that the fight erupted between the 2 groups after when one member of the group tried to molest the brother of a member of the other girls group.
L'Institut d'Habilitation Féminine, Paris: The scientists are on a breakthrough research. They are finding a way of changing the reproduction mechanism in a female. Anthropoids usually reproduce by intercourse. Now the scientists are working to change the sexual metabolism so that females can reproduce without any physical intercourse. Though there is ban against such research, a lot of Women Organizations across the world secretly fund it.
Tokyo, Japan: Expectant parents are now paying extra monies at private clinics to have their children’s sex changed, while in the fetus stage. This has become a big time business in Japan and other far-east countries.
Kinshasa, DR Congo: Africa, the last bastion of Male dominance. Due to regress in development and technology, for many years there were female feticides. Today, Africa has become the ‘out-sourcing’ capital for sperms. Almost 40% of world’s sperm demands are met by African countries. You can say that the men here are ‘milked’ out properly, and ‘call-boys’ have to work pretty late into the night (no pun intended to any Outsourcers).
Indian Television:
Some of the famous soap operas in this century are:
ZDK: Zindagi Damaad Ki (Life of a Son-in-Law)
KSBKDT: Kyonki Sasur bhi kabhi Damaad Tha (..because, Father-in-law was also a Son-in-law)
The Meek and The Handsome
Zeda – The Warrior Prince, et al
The movies are multi starred – with handsome hunks being wooed by bold and deadly females. A typical storyline of a Bollywood movie is – 2 females separated at birth; one grows up to become a cop and the other a gangster. They both love the same guy, and they get together to kill the villain (of course, a female), and in the process the bad girl is killed and the good girl gets the guy…. We some stories work on the simple philosophy of ctrl C, ctrl V, ctrl H, etc… (Guys familiar with MS Word will understand)
However, there are some things the will remain unchanged – A female still will cry for no reason. They still will talk and talk for hours before they get to the point. And they still like guys getting them roses. AND GUYS STILL KEEP THINKING ABOUT SEX.
Truly, you have come a long way, babe… but some things rarely change.
- The End.
(I write this article looking at the number of high incidence of female births in this generation. I have 2 nieces and most of my friends are now proud parents to baby girls… hmmm… looks like it is going to be Women Power in the future)
Circa 3345 AI (AI – Stands for After Internet; ‘inspired’ by Aldus Huxley – AF: After Ford)
Mumbai, India: It is almost midnight and there are a few men hurrying to reach home. A few drunken women walk out of the bar laughing aloud. The men hurry faster towards the tube to catch the next local. The ‘Newspods’ -(no jokes here – I’m sure that in the future the news will be transmitted to you every day/hour to your newspods, which can be Wi-Fi connected to your computer, TV, Audio, or special LCD screens - the size and weight of an ordinary newspaper – Author) daily carry news about the male abuses submitted upon the meeker sex.
London: 18 men have been arrested and put behind bars for 1 year. Their crime – had been masturbating secretly. UK has strict laws with regard to wastage of sperms as their male population is scarce. All the eligible men are fitted with micro-analyzers that transmit their ejaculation status. UK, unlike its other European counterparts do not believe in technological advancements in reproduction, and still relies on POTS (no, no,… it does not stand for Plain Old Telephone System; but, Plain Old Tedious Sex)
New York: 6 women are killed and 10 injured in a deadly gang war. Police say that the fight erupted between the 2 groups after when one member of the group tried to molest the brother of a member of the other girls group.
L'Institut d'Habilitation Féminine, Paris: The scientists are on a breakthrough research. They are finding a way of changing the reproduction mechanism in a female. Anthropoids usually reproduce by intercourse. Now the scientists are working to change the sexual metabolism so that females can reproduce without any physical intercourse. Though there is ban against such research, a lot of Women Organizations across the world secretly fund it.
Tokyo, Japan: Expectant parents are now paying extra monies at private clinics to have their children’s sex changed, while in the fetus stage. This has become a big time business in Japan and other far-east countries.
Kinshasa, DR Congo: Africa, the last bastion of Male dominance. Due to regress in development and technology, for many years there were female feticides. Today, Africa has become the ‘out-sourcing’ capital for sperms. Almost 40% of world’s sperm demands are met by African countries. You can say that the men here are ‘milked’ out properly, and ‘call-boys’ have to work pretty late into the night (no pun intended to any Outsourcers).
Indian Television:
Some of the famous soap operas in this century are:
ZDK: Zindagi Damaad Ki (Life of a Son-in-Law)
KSBKDT: Kyonki Sasur bhi kabhi Damaad Tha (..because, Father-in-law was also a Son-in-law)
The Meek and The Handsome
Zeda – The Warrior Prince, et al
The movies are multi starred – with handsome hunks being wooed by bold and deadly females. A typical storyline of a Bollywood movie is – 2 females separated at birth; one grows up to become a cop and the other a gangster. They both love the same guy, and they get together to kill the villain (of course, a female), and in the process the bad girl is killed and the good girl gets the guy…. We some stories work on the simple philosophy of ctrl C, ctrl V, ctrl H, etc… (Guys familiar with MS Word will understand)
However, there are some things the will remain unchanged – A female still will cry for no reason. They still will talk and talk for hours before they get to the point. And they still like guys getting them roses. AND GUYS STILL KEEP THINKING ABOUT SEX.
Truly, you have come a long way, babe… but some things rarely change.
- The End.
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