The market for paid news: does size really matter?
How much is the news worth? It's a question that's weighing on the minds of many news media execs these days as they grapple with the challenge of figuring out new business models.
Paid content looks to be a big part of those new business models, but there's one question that still dogs execs: just how big is the market for paid news?
Google's trademark policy change worries retailers this holiday season
Google changed its policy on trade marked key words in the U.S. this May, and while it's still too early to fully monitor the implications of those changes on brand marketers, the holidays may become a proving ground for the switch, if the price for search ads goes up as much as some marketers are fearing.
Brand searches go up during the holiday season and Google's self-policing new policy means that key word violators will have more opportunity to buy branded key words and disparage, criticize or otherwise overtake brand searches from trademark owners.
According to ClickZ:
"The holiday season will be a real proving ground, to see how quickly Google responds to issues," Jeremy Hull, account leader at Range Online Media, told ClickZ. "Do they have an adequate team in place, with policies and procedures that are scalable for the holidays?"
Google gets free advertising for Google products by hiring ex-Microsoft employee
Don Dodge was a happily loyal Microsoft employee until last week, when he got laid off with a group of around 5,000 other staffers in a broad reduction of staff. The well-known "Ambassador to Startups" was quickly poached by Google (within 90 minutes no less), where he is now set to work.
The move highlights the differences in culture at the two companies. And Dodge's fairwell note serves another purpose for Google, as an ad for how loyal Microsoft devotees can switch to Google products.
Viral video excellence: 10 examples of big brand action
What makes a great viral video? This is a problem I’ve been coming up against recently, especially as there’s always the simple risk that when trying to do anything viral: it will either work or it won’t.
This is something I’m going to try and explore across a couple of blog posts in the next month or so, as the subject is so huge and complex, but a good starting point seems to be to showcase some of the best examples of viral advertising that currently exist.
FDA Social Media Hearings #FDASM
The pharmaceutical industry is glued on the FDA hearings on social media happening in the US. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is a government agency of the US Department of Health & Human Sciences and acts as the main regulator of US market for drugs, worth $275 billion-a-year.
Why newspapers need brand managers
It's a subject that turns the stomachs of most journalists. After all in journalism, "marketing" and "branding" are dirty words. But given the media fall out as a backdrop for the global recession, it's time that newspapers, and the journalists who write for them, realise that the masthead of their paper is a brand.
Knowing what people think and feel when they see your newspaper's brand is more important than ever.
Are middlemen a luxury, or necessity?
Joe Hewitt is the Facebook employee responsible for the super-popular Facebook iPhone app. But thanks to Apple, he's decided to move on.
On Twitter, he announced that he "handed the Facebook iPhone app off to another engineer". Soon after, he revealed the reason why: the tyranny of Apple.
Load time: coming soon as a Google ranking factor?
Google's algorithm looks at a significant number of ranking factors when it decides where a site should be in the SERPs. These ranking factors, and the weight they're each given, change over time.
Last week at PubCon, Google's Matt Cutts revealed a new ranking factor that may debut in 2010: page load time.
Can Tim Armstrong make AOL king of content by 2010?
AOL's new CEO Tim Armstrong has been quickly buying up talent and increasing AOL's media properties in the lead up to the company's tkt from parent Time Warner later this year.
At the Roosevelt hotel in New York today, Armstrong went into AOL's continuing strategy.
AOL's CEO announced that online content can be "much better."
"That's why we are making such a big bet there," he said during a keynote appearance at the annual Media and Money conference, hosted by Nielsen and Dow Jones.
It's true that content online has a long way to go. But is AOL the one to make it happen?
Can News Corp. win its game of chicken with Google?
The rumors are true. Rupert Murdoch is taking News Corp. content out of Google search.
The media mogul set off a storm last week when he responded to a question about opting-out from Google with the words "I think we will."
And today, News Corp.'s chief digital officer confirmed it. News Corp. content will be off of Google search within the next few months.
But is this a game of chicken that News Corp. can win?
Social media: the best and worst of 2009
Email marketing: six steps to improving customer engagement in 2010
Web 2.0
Graham Charlton
Strategy & Planning
