IAB Pushes For DIY Ad Units, Modules [MediaPost]

Industry insiders believe agencies, brands and publishers need to take
steps to create and adopt drag-and-drop display ad units online -- or
they risk losing dollars to offline and falling CPM prices. The
do-it-yourself ad units encourage publishers to "de-clutter" Web
pages.

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/179850/iab-pushes-for-diy-ad-un...

AOL Preps Big Changes to Patch Amidst Sound Q2 Results [AdAge]

Ad Age has heard in recent months that the much-maligned news network
was being rebuilt, with its original code base totally scratched. On
today's earnings call, Mr. Armstrong alluded to this, saying that
while the first generation of Patch relied on journalists creating
news about a town, the next iteration will also push more into
listings and commerce.

http://adage.com/article/digital/aol-preps-big-patch-amidst-sound-q2-results/...

Facebook Teaming Up With Television to Become Your News Service [DailyBeast]

Facebook is increasingly trying to get into the news business through
the back door. No longer content to hook up friends with other
friends, the company is pursuing its own hookups—with television
networks that can provide a steady flow of topical information to its
massive base of customers. But analysts say there’s more to these
joint ventures. With traditional media struggling to keep an audience
and Facebook facing continuing issues with its sagging stock price and
the need to retain users, the partnerships might be less a new-media
tool and more a means of survival.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/07/26/facebook-teaming-up-with-tel...

Will Google takeover the likes of WPP? [TheDrum]

Andy Collins, senior partner at Results International, M&A advisers to
the marcoms sector, asks whether tech giants such as Google and Apple
could be poised to invest in marketing networks like WPP.

http://www.thedrum.co.uk/opinion/2012/07/26/will-google-takeover-likes-wpp

One Chart That Explains The Transformation Of Media In 2012 [BuzzFeed]]

Facebook has risen over the last six months to challenge Google's
place as the most important source of traffic to online publishers,
according to data from BuzzFeed's broad sample of web referrals to
about 200 publishing sites. The data from BuzzFeed's first Social
Intelligence Report is drawn from the BuzzFeed Network, a set of sites
reaching 300 million users a month, offering striking evidence of a
tectonic shift in the shape of the Internet.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/bensmith/one-chart-that-explains-the-transformation-o...

Leveson inquiry: Huffington Post is 'not the future of journalism' [Guardian]

The Huffington Post and other blog sites do not herald the future of
journalism as they do not fund complex original reporting such as the
MPs expenses or WikiLeaks scandals, the Leveson inquiry heard on
Tuesday. But Claire Enders, founder of media research firm Enders
Analysis, says traditional newspapers such as the Guardian and the
Daily Mail have not found the "magic bullet" for a digital-only future
either.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/jul/17/leveson-inquiry-huffington-post

New Data Shows Pinterest Users Look But Don't Buy [Forbes]

In the kind of contradictory report usually reserved for dietary
claims, recently released data suggests that Pinterest is surprisingly
ineffective in driving people to buy things on the Internet. Jirafe, a
New York-based ecommerce analytics company, took a look at the
behavior of 89 million online shoppers who visited their clients’
5,000 web stores in the last year. In terms of conversion rates (the
percentage of visitors who actually bought something) and average
purchase size, those coming from Pinterest placed fifth among traffic
sources.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jjcolao/2012/07/13/new-data-shows-pinterest-users...

Facebook begins rolling out Timeline for pages on mobile devices [InsideFacebook]

Facebook has started to bring the Timeline design for pages to its
mobile versions this week, more than four months since it introduced
the new layout for desktop. Timeline for personal profiles rolled out
on mobile at about the same it launched on desktop, but the design for
pages has taken much more time. These changes make the Facebook
experience more consistent and could help improve conversions for
mobile Sponsored Stories.

http://www.insidefacebook.com/2012/07/13/facebook-begins-rolling-out-timeline...

Report: Brands Ignore Negative Social Buzz at Their Peril [eMarketer]

With more social networkers every day, and brands increasing their
presence on social media, the consumer-brand dynamic was bound to get
tricky. “In a world of social sites that allow consumers to post
photos, videos and opinions about companies and brands, disparaging
comments and other content detrimental to brands are bound to bubble
up,” said a new eMarketer report “Dealing with Negative Buzz on Social
Media.” “And that content can stay online forever.”

http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1009189

Buffett Poised To Add Newspapers As Publishers Face Slump [Bloomberg]

Warren Buffett, the chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK/A), said
he may increase his journalism bet as publishers seek to get rid of
newspapers with falling sales. “I like buying individual papers at the
right prices,” Buffett said on Bloomberg Television’s “In the Loop
With Betty Liu” in an interview from an Allen & Co. media conference
in Sun Valley, Idaho. “The prices should be low because their revenues
are going to decline.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-07-13/buffett-poised-to-add-newspapers-as-...

Study: Viewers turning to YouTube as news source [AP/Yahoo]

A new study has found that YouTube is emerging as a major platform for
news, one to which viewers increasingly turn for eyewitness videos in
times of major events and natural disasters. The Pew Research Center's
Project for Excellence in Journalism on Monday released their
examination of 15 months of the most popular news videos on the Google
Inc.-owned site. It found that while viewership for TV news still
easily outpaces those consuming news on YouTube, the video-sharing
site is a growing digital environment where professional journalism
mingles with citizen content.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/study-viewers-turning-youtube-news-044203854.html

As Tablet Race Heats Up, Apple May Try Smaller Device [NYTimes]

This summer, Microsoft announced that it would create its own tablet,
Surface. And Amazon is working on a new version of the Kindle Fire,
with a larger display, that could compete more directly with the iPad,
according to a developer briefed on Amazon’s plans who did not want to
be identified talking about unannounced products. But Apple is hardly
about to cede ground. The company is developing a new tablet with a
7.85-inch screen that is likely to sell for significantly less than
the latest $499 iPad, with its 9.7-inch display, according to several
people with knowledge of the project who declined to be named
discussing confidential plans. The product is expected to be announced
this year.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/16/technology/apple-may-meet-tablet-competitio...

Celeb mags morph in digital age, but PR execs like staying-power of print [Variety]

The Tom Cruise-Katie Holmes divorce has provided A-list fodder for
fanzines in the past two weeks, a vivid supermarket-line reminder
that, even in the digital age, celeb magazines are still a force.
However, the relationship of showbizzers, PR execs and celebrity
journalism continues to evolve. The Internet, with its endless hunger
for showbiz gossip, consumes a disproportionate amount of time for
publicists, but it's still the old-fashioned magazine that's the Holy
Grail.

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118056562

MSNBC.com breakup gives Microsoft more freedom online [SeattleTimes]

It was a good marriage, one of the best among their circle. But 16
years later, with the children grown and on their separate paths,
Microsoft and NBC are ready to try new things and perhaps join with
different partners. On Friday, the companies formally dissolved their
joint venture in Redmond-based MSNBC.com, ending a grand experiment in
online news conceived early in the dot-com era.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2018696715_brier16.html

Kevin Rose: Digg Failed Because ‘Social Media Grew Up’ [WSJ]

Kevin Rose chalked up Digg’s failure to a combination of its own
missteps along with an acknowledgement that the news-sharing site was
outmaneuvered by Facebook Inc. and Twitter Inc. Among the missteps:
Digg botched its re-launch in the summer of 2010, and, more
importantly, he said the company was slow to respond to the criticism.
“We were desperately trying to figure out how to get traffic back,” he
said. “A bunch of the community had already revolted by the time we
fixed it.”

http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2012/07/13/kevin-roses-exit-interview-digg-failed...

Social media top news source for under 25s [Telegraph]

The first Reuters Institute Digital Report has found that 43 per cent
of Britons aged between 16 and 24 are now much more likely to access
news through social networks, such as Facebook, rather than search
engines. However, the report, which is aiming to chart the consumption
of news in the digital age, found that only 11 per cent of over 45s
access news stories through social media while 33 per cent still
favour search engines.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/social-media/9386445/Social-media-top-n...

Twitter ad business "could generate $1 billion a year in the not-too-distant future" [AllThingsD]

If Twitter ads really take off, it will be because CEO Dick Costolo
will have figured out how to sell lots of little ads to small
marketers, in the same way Google did more than a decade ago. In the
meantime, the company seems to be succeeding with the other end of the
spectrum: Big marketers interested in experimenting with a brand-new
format.

http://allthingsd.com/20120711/twitters-pitch-deck-for-big-advertisers-slides/

Facebook's Zuckerberg Says Mobile Shift Is His Biggest Challenge [Bloomberg]

Facebook Inc. (FB) Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg said his
hardest job right now is figuring out how to adapt the world’s largest
social network to mobile devices. Bringing Facebook’s features to
handheld gadgets is difficult because the user experience is so
different than on desktop computers, he said in an interview from the
Allen & Co. media conference in Sun Valley, Idaho. Zuckerberg,
meanwhile, played down the tribulations of running a newly public
company.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-07-13/zuckerberg-says-mobile-shift-is-his-...

Data analysis: Does size matter when building newspaper paywalls? [MediaBriefing]

The beleaguered newspaper industry has finally settled on a digital
revenue strategy—the metered paywall—and now everyone’s pitching in to
get it built. Paywalls have their critics, their boosters, more
critics and then the critics-who-also-want-to-be-boosters. Time will
tell who was right but we were curious to know how this Great Paywall
is getting built—which newspapers are participating and why?

http://www.themediabriefing.com/article/2012-07-10/data-analysis-does-size-ma...

Interview: Mediamath's Erich Wasserman on falling CPMs & raising prices through optimisation [MediaBriefing]

The depression in online CPM advertising rates has been a
disappointment to so many publishers who were hoping the web would
offer a new Nirvana of revenue and profits online. But the
rationalisation and efficiencies brought by supply-side platforms
(SSPs) and demand-side platforms (DSPs) and the on-going
real-time-bidding (RTB) revolution are not to blame, according to
Erich Wasserman, co-founder of the Mediamath DSP.

http://www.themediabriefing.com/article/2012-07-11/mediamath-erich-wasserman-...

Interview: WSJ digital chief Raju Narisetti on innovation, mistakes & opportunities [MediaBriefing]

Forget the idea that newspapers have too much innovation to cope with
- they're not moving nearly fast enough, according to the managing
editor of Wall Street Journal's digital network Raju Narisetti.
TheMediaBriefing speaks to him about innovation, editorial, technology
and mixing them all together successfully.

http://www.themediabriefing.com/article/2012-07-12/interview-wall-street-jour...

Nielsen: Global Ad Spend Up 3.1% to $128bn; Internet leads channels in growth, lags in share [AdWeek]

Between the Olympics and the U.S. presidential election, 2012 is a
biggie for brands, so much so that they got out of hibernation early.
The first quarter is usually quiet for advertisers, but the period's
global ad spend increased by 3.1 percent from last year, according to
Nielsen’s Global AdPulse Report released today. The research firm said
the year got off to a slow start but hit $128 billion by the end of
March, with that month in particular jumping 4.5 percent
year-over-year.

http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/nielsen-global-ad-spend-31-12...

Marketers Seek New Models to Grow Media & Ents; outlook brighter for 2013, growth will reach 17.7% [emarketer]

Online ad spending by the US media and entertainment industries will
rise from $2.77 billion in 2012 to $4.34 billion by 2016, according to
a new eMarketer report, “The US Media & Entertainment Industries:
Digital Ad Spending Forecasts and Key Trends.” “As more consumers turn
to the internet for news and entertainment, advertisers are using
digital campaigns to raise awareness, generate buzz and encourage
online sales.”

http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1009175&ecid=0bce730f2b5c48e9b1ad31d3...

Next Issue “Netflix for magazines” hits iPad [SlashGear]

“All you can eat” digital magazine app Next Issue has launched on the
iPad, bringing unlimited access to titles like Esquire, TIME and
Popular Mechanics to the iOS tablet from $9.99 per month. Released
back in April for Android tablet users, Next Issue bypasses the
traditional single-issue or single-title subscription system attempted
by most digital versions of magazines to-date, replacing it with
unlimited access plans.

http://www.slashgear.com/next-issue-netflix-for-magazines-hits-ipad-10237802/

Measurement in PR has 'not changed in 20 years' [PRWeek]

The PR industry has learned nothing about measurement in the past 20
years, say industry experts. The comments came in the latest PRWeek
podcast, which looked back at the recent International Association for
the Measurement and Evaluation of Communication (AMEC) conference and
the PR industry’s continuing struggle with measurement and evaluation.

http://www.prweek.com/uk/bulletin/prweekukdaily/article/1139832/measurement-p...