In the wake of Bob Pittman’s resignation and a stock market thrashing of AOL/TimeWarner stock, research firm Gartner G2 has issued a report urging more advertiser-friendly practices for cross-media buys. “Advertising recession aside, Pittman was largely responsible for and involved in developing cross-platform deals and combining separate advertising sales teams,” says G2 senior analyst Denise Garcia. “AOL's Global Marketing Solutions group—established in August 2001 to sell cross-platform ads and integrated promotions—was intended to save time and money for advertisers as well as AOL Time Warner. With all of these positive attributes, the Global Marketing Solutions group was able to sign over $1 billion in deals. But the individual media properties argued that they could get more out of each advertiser by working separately, and it's unclear how much of the reported $1 billion in advertising space was actually sold.” Garcia says AOL/TW did not disclose the terms of each cross-media deal, but many were business development arrangements that exchanged advertising and integration for products, services or stock, as was the case with Nortel, Philips and Kinko's. She says concerns also arose around the deep discounts given to these large advertisers—some as much as 50%. “Advertisers also expressed confusion in working with these groups, wondering who was actually in charge. Since many of these deals were signed within the past year, results can not be measured, but Toyota—which signed a $160 million deal last September—has not indicated that it will renew another cross-platform deal,” the report states. “This is not a good sign.” Garcia recommends better organization and management from the media owner to make cross-media deals work. Centralized advertising sales should only concern themselves with a few carefully considered, named accounts, she says. This team should set clear goals for the centralized department. If the centralized group fails to meet goals, accounts should go back to individual sales teams. To advertisers Garcia says: “Clarify which individuals have primary responsibilities with each account and who your primary contacts are. Work only with those people who create, negotiate and evaluate your contract. Working with individual media properties to negotiate best price and creative options only confuses the arrangement. It generates internal strife and the very real possibility of having to work with media properties individually."
Despite a rocky time on Wall Street, some financial-information websites are seeing strong advertising gains. TheStreet.com announced last week that advertising revenue jumped 74% to $1.2 million from the first to the second quarter. The Motley Fool has seen strong ad-revenue growth over the past six months. And CBSMarketWatch.com has seen success with a number of initiatives, including a new opening. Executives at TheStreet.com attributed the quarterly jump to internal initiatives that started paying off. Those initiatives started by going back to the basics of advertising and client relations, said Robert A. Verrico, SVP/Advertising and Sponsorship. Verrico joined TheStreet.com earlier this year. Verrico said TheStreet.com hits an upper-level demographic, with household incomes between $100,000 and $150,000 or more, 88% male. Beyond the traditional financial-services sector, Verrico said increased efforts were made in the categories of luxury goods like automobiles and travel, preventive health and diet and technology. The latter category was spotlighted because 40% of TheStreet.com’s regulars are decision makers in technology at their companies. There are similar demographics at CBSMarketWatch.com, which also has seen success with several new initiatives. EVP/Sales and Marketing Scot McLernon said one such effort, an eight-second message that greets visitors to the site, was introduced at the end of the first quarter and has been a hit with advertisers. “The eight-second message has really appealed to branded non-endemic categories” like beverages, telecom, packaged goods, sporting goods and automobiles, McLernon said. “They’ve really embraced this.” McLernon said it isn’t surprising that MarketWatch has been successful in the financial category but there’s been “a very nice pulse in a lot of the non-endemic categories too.” MarketWatch has also been successful in other efforts, including reaching out to other publishers like the At-Work Brand Network advertising consortium and a new focus on integrated media that combines content on MarketWatch’s radio, TV and interactive media. “There are a lot of optimistic signs,” McLernon said. The Motley Fool has also seen increased ad revenues, both on its website and its sponsored email newsletters. Ad revenues on the site are up 64% over the same period a year ago. Email sponsorships were up 150% in June compared to January. Ted Ryan, VP/Advertising Sales, said The Motley Fool’s bedrock businesses are strong. Motley Fool spokeswoman Jamie Patten said conventional wisdom has pronounced it a hard year for financial websites, but that it isn’t the case. “Advertisers are coming back to the Internet media,” Patten said. “It’s still the easiest to track, easiest to target and gets the greatest results for the dollar.” Patten said Wall Street’s troubles actually help The Motley Fool, which builds its site around the individual investor. She said its independence – and its broad content on personal finance – gives it strong customer and advertiser appeal. “Advertisers look at us, look at our brand and the trust that we’ve generated with our customers, and say, ‘This is where we want to be,’” Patten said. The site has 5 million registered users. And another site, Hoover’s Online, said advertising revenues have held flat, not seeing much change. “We haven’t seen a lot of market indicators that it’s going to pick up anytime soon,” said Joe McWilliams, VP/Advertising Sales at Hoover’s Online. But not every financial website accepts advertising. Economy.com got rid of its advertising when it became a subscriber site last December. Senior product manager David Pogemiller said it didn’t seem right to have intrusive ads pop up on customers who were paying for unfettered access to the site. Pogemiller said there’s been talk around the company about re-instituting advertising, although it would have to be the right kinds of ads. “We’re not going to force our subscribers to use pop-ups,” Pogemiller said. “It’s almost as if they’re paying to be annoyed.” The company has discussed advertising, although nothing is imminent. “We haven’t taken a close look at it,” he said. Pogemiller declined to release how many subscribers economy.com had, although he said that the company has been happy with the results since the conversion to a premium service. Hoover’s also frowns on intrusive ads for its customers, reserving most of the pop-ups and pop-unders for the small portion of the site that is free. “We try to keep that away from our subscribers,” McWilliams said. Hoover’s Online has been a subscriber service since 1995.
News shows and new shows topped the Nielsens this week. Five of the week's top ten shows were news shows -- Dateline (NBC), 60 Minutes (CBC), 48 Hours (CBS, Monday), Primetime (ABC, Thursday) and 20/20 (ABC, Friday). New shows in the top 25 included Law and Order: Criminal Intent (NBC), Dog Eat Dog (NBC), American Idol (two episodes, Fox) and Yes, Dear (CBS). A special, Most Outrageous Game Show Moments (NBC) also made the list. The week's top shows were CSI (CBS), Law and Order (NBC) and Everybody Loves Raymond (CBS). CSI led the way with a 16 share/9.4 household with 9.9 million households watching. Becker (CBS) also made the top 10. CBS and NBC practically tied for the lead in prime average with CBS scoring a 10 share/5.5 household, followed by NBC 10/5.3. ABC and Fox did tie at 8/4.1. Cable leaders for the most recent week (7/8-14) were Home Run Derby, the baseball All-Star game special, which scored a 5.0 household with 5.2 million households tuned in. Other leaders were TNT Original Door to Door, Real World (MTV), WWE Entertainment and USA Movie Monk Pilot. The most recent syndicated winners were Wheel of Fortune (7.1 household/7.5 million households viewing), Jeopardy, Friends, Seinfeld and Everybody Loves Raymond. Sports winners for 7/8-14 were the All-Star game on Fox with a 17 share/9.5 household with 10 million households watching. Other leaders were the Chicago 400 (NBC), WWE Smackdown (UPN), Fox Saturday baseball and Ford Senior players golf (ABC). In other TV news, NBC is expected to announce plans for new shows next summer today. NBC plans a number of scripted entertainment series. In the past, networks have avoided summer entertainment series due to cost, but with extremely low rerun viewership it now seems worthwhile. Twenty-five to 35 hours of comedies or dramas are planned from two or three series. Meanwhile, two new entertainment series for this summer on USA are on fire. Last Friday, more people watched Monk (4.76 million) than any other show on basic cable. Dead Zone also attracted 4.1 million viewers.
Rosie O’Donnell is clashing with the publisher of Rosie magazine after the comedienne/talk show host became upset with the direction of the year-old magazine that bears her name. The New York Times reported O’Donnell’s concerns center around moves made by Susan Toepfer, who became editor-in-chief of the magazine last month. O’Donnell had already been upset by the departure of Toepfer’s predecessor, Cathy Cavender. O’Donnell is listed as editorial director, although publisher Gruner & Jahr makes the hiring and editorial decisions. The Times reported that O’Donnell threatened to sue over the changes, although the situation has apparently calmed down since then. O’Donnell’s publicist, Cindi Berger, declined to comment about whether a lawsuit had been discussed. “There are some creative differences that they [both parties] are trying to resolve,” she said Tuesday, declining any further comment. A spokeswoman at Gruner and Jahr USA, publisher of Rosie, also declined comment Tuesday. An unnamed source quoted by The Times acknowledged past disagreements. Gruner & Jahr USA publishes Child, Family Circle, Parents, YM and Fast Company. Rosie started in May 2001 after Gruner & Jahr USA closed the 125-year-old McCall’s magazine. It’s marketed as combining “Rosie’s feisty, fun-loving spirit with her passion for family, kids and causes.” Features include crafts, inspirational stories, fashion and “recipes you’ll actually make.” The magazine has been billed as the most successful startup of 2001, with the first issue pulling in $18 million in revenues. There have been increases in advertising page growth, with 45% more ad pages in June 2002 compared with the issue a year earlier, and July 2002’s issue up 37% from last year. The monthly magazine has a base rate of 3.5 million, although The Times said newsstand sales have slowed.