• by George Simpson , Featured Contributor, March 18, 2004

While the media and advertising communities struggle with monumental issues such as audience fragmentation, the shift of ad exposure control from producers and carriers to consumers, accurate audience measurement and the crumbling separation of church and state, no single issue has polarized the industry more than the debate over the proposed merger of the online and traditional media editions of Media Magazine.

Industry pundits like Underscore Marketing's Tom Hespos and Universal McCann's David Cohen have come down on opposite sites of this vital issue leaving MediaPost readers conflicted and anxious.

"There is so much symbolism at play here, it gives me one of those old fashioned Picasso-looking headaches," bemoaned one long time reader of one edition or the other - but didn't know which one.

A Pew Research Center for the People and the Press survey provided little guidance as 0.0005 percent of the American public said "Merge" and 0.0005 percent said "Keep them separate!" and 99.99 percent said "What in the hell is Media Magazine?" An ABC News/Washington Post poll conducted March 14 - 18, found that 45% of Americans think Media Magazine is sold at check-out and is edited by Bonnie Fuller; 30% think it has something to do with Martha Stewart, but they are not sure just what; and 25% agreed to subscribe if they also got a MediaPost alarm clock or a poster of a scantily clad Nick Friese.

A committee of subcommittees of the OPA, IAB, ABC, MPA, BPI, RAB, NAB, CIA, 4As, and ANA met for 14 days in Pebble Beach, CA but failed to resolve the issue, however Michael Zimbalist was nearest to the pin on Spyglass Hill and Nina Link had the longest drive at Quail Lodge.

David M. Rubin, Dean of the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University has applied for a $2.5 million grant from the MacArthur Foundation saying, in that solemn, weenie academic kind of way, "This is not an issue where we should rush to judgment. We need to gather information, assess the facts and study the implications of each proposal, then issue a completely meaningless white paper that will ask the question in a more erudite way, but in the cherished tradition of academia, provide absolutely no actionable resolution."

In a straw poll taken of people who called me in the past couple of days, the overwhelming response was, "Who cares, but can you get one or the other to profile my company?"

With the onward march of printing and binding technology some have suggested that rather that have only or two editions of Media Magazine, that the company produce hundreds of more vertical editions. Said IndustryBrains CEO Erik Matlick, "I'd like to see an issue just on paid listings on premium sites." Added Dave Morgan of TACODA Systems, "An issue that focused on the challenges of managing your audience to greater profitability would certainly be widely read."

Michael Donovan, President of Asphalt Media said, "I think they under cover advertising on long haul trailers now, why not an edition for environmental advertising?"

Kenneth Fadner, Chairman and Publisher of MediaPost acknowledged that while it is technically feasible to produce say, 1,000 issues of Media Magazine, he'd have to have 999 sales reps to sell ads into each vertical book. "That is a fair amount of overhead," said Mr. Fadner at the palatial New York offices of MediaPost. "But on the other hand, think of the audience composition of each book! I'll bring it up at the weekly staff meeting."

MediaPost Editor-in-Chief Joe Mandese, who started the controversy in a Riff several weeks ago, says that since then, his life has been a living hell. "My phone never stops ringing and I've gotten about 10,000 emails espousing one view or the other. Geez, it was just something I doodled on a napkin at lunch," he said.

The 4As has asked Mandese if it can have the napkin for a display in its highly anticipated inaugural Advertising Week celebration.