« April 30, 2004 | Main | May 2, 2004 »
May 1, 2004
Google changes ad buying
The curtain has been lifted on Google with its planned IPO.
Now we see that Google has been very successful selling ads targeted to readers' searches. It sold $658 million in advertising last year, passing Yahoo!, which sold $638 million and was the previous leaders in online sales.
"(T)he striking success of its Internet advertising business poses perhaps an even greater threat to Madison Avenue" is the lead to today's N.Y. Times article: "Google Poses a Challenge for Usual Ad Outlets."
"(A)dvertisers are finding they can attract buyers relatively cheaply without a blaring message and an expensive Madison Avenue agency to create it."
It sounds so simple: Readers come to Google looking for something specific and are ready to look at ads about those things.
Google's success further explains why search ads are hot. Ad revenues of Google and Yahoo! together are about 18% of the $7.3 billion online ad market estimated by New Media Group of PricewaterhouseCoopers and the Interactive Advertising Bureau.
Posted by eubie at 1:46 PM permalink
It's the gurus' fault
Ron Rosenbaum says management-theory gurus have helped create the type of editors that allowed the Jason Blair and Jack Kelley scandals at the N.Y. Times and US Today.
"There seemed to be no understanding that calling a newspaper a 'brand' moves things backwards to precisely the thinking that allowed Jack Kelley to thrive -- protected because he was the public face of a 'brand,' not a newspaperman whose facts are subject to review." Rosenbaum writes for The New York Observer.
"Who is going to be the editor brave enough to sic some reporters on the corporate consultants who ar jargonizing the integrity of newspaper culture away?"
I don't think Rosenbaum would care much for the next Notes item: What's going to be hot next?
Previous Notes on US Today and N.Y. Times: here and here.
Posted by eubie at 1:03 PM permalink
What's going to be hot next?
MediaPost looks at four new ad models on the internet: social networking (both work and play), local search, blogging, and broadband video.
Interesting that RSS (webfeeds) didn't make the list. I've noticed that the ads inserted in the RSS feeds of InfoWorld have disappeared, at least for now. Finding ways to financially support RSS feeds is crucial for publishers.
MediaPost article also looks at what used to be hot: online communities, push, pay-to-surf (paying users to view ads); and ad-supported access. Tip from E-Media Tidbits.
Posted by eubie at 12:47 PM permalink