Economic cycles are a fact of life in the advertising business. It's been true since the beginning. But perhaps more predictable than advertising cycles are advertising forecasts. Hey, there goes another one....

You don't have to have been in the digital media business for a very long time to realize that we are in a period of extraordinary change. Over the past two years, there have been tectonic shifts in everything from enabling technologies to user behavior to business models to regulatory scrutiny. What is driving these changes? Here are some of the drivers....

Thanksgiving has passed and the holiday season is in full swing. It's time to sit back, relax and reflect on the year that was! One of my favorite things to do this time of year is reflect on all the news items related to our industry that were overhyped, over-discussed and way over-publicized. Let's call it "The Year in Re-Re-Re-Review" (or also known as the "You've been bitten by a Werewolf/Zombie/Whatever-Application-Is-Hot-On-Facebook" Awards)!

When it comes to social media, forget the concept of advertising to a captive audience and instead focus on creating branded content that people want to see and would choose to share with others: brand advertising as social media content.

Well, you know the writer's strike has been going on for about a month now. For those of you who don't, I'll give you the quick overview. The Writers Guild of America went on strike Nov. 5. The major issue fueling the strike is residuals to writers for new media. The producers (major studios and networks) say there is no way to predict the future and determine success. The writers think DVDs.