• ONLINE SPIN
    On Efficient Markets and Monetization of Internet Traffic
    Maybe there are more similarities between advertising and finance. There are ad exchanges patterned after financial exchanges. There are more brokers of ads and stocks than anyone would have imagined. Finally, financial markets are designed to take advantage of inefficiencies in a reasonably compressed period of time. This belief forms the basis for the efficient markets theory. But advertising seems so inefficient, almost at its core, almost by design. Is the ad market really a long-term inefficient one?
  • ONLINE SPIN
    What's Worth A Billion Dollars?
    Last week Twitter raised more than just some eyebrows by raising money based on a $1 billion valuation -- it also raised expectations for digital businesses, along with the hopes of thousands of entrepreneurs everywhere who are looking to make a splash. The news was somewhat expected -- rumors had been flying for a couple of weeks now -- but still shocking. I for one thought those days of high valuations were gone, or at least on hold for a bit, so I feel I need to be the person to ask the simple question: What could possibly be worth …
  • ONLINE SPIN
    Social Media Policy & Today's News Organization
    On Friday, you may have heard that Washington Post Senior Editor Milton Coleman released a social media policy to the staff at-large. Effective immediately, staff use of "individual accounts on online social networks, when used for reporting and for personal use" would be subject to an explicit code of conduct.
  • ONLINE SPIN
    Love The IPhone, But...
    like Apple. It's the best consumer computer manufacturer, no question. My primary laptop is a MacBook Pro, and we have several iPods in my house. I also love the iPhone. It's a game-changer in mobile computing. It's well-designed -- beautiful, actually. Its user experience is brilliant. The iPhone also has rallied a huge third-party application-developer community, which has advanced the device's entertainment, utility and overall value, exponentially. But a great phone? That's one thing the iPhone is not.
  • ONLINE SPIN
    My View On 'The New Socialism'
    I helped emcee OMMA Global earlier this week. The title of this year's event was "The New Socialism" and a key focus in the sessions was the growing importance of social media and micro-blogging as a central means of online engagement -- and the role of those services in tapping the $500 billion global spend on offline brand advertising. Since I opened the event, I got the chance to be the first to give my opinion on how the growth of social media and micro-blogging might play out in the market. Here are some of my thoughts.
  • ONLINE SPIN
    The Real Future Of Newspapers
    The newspaper, as it is defined today, offers two distinct products: local information and news. As it is defined today, the newspaper has no future to speak of, but the newspaper of tomorrow has -- if we examine these two divergent paths and follow them to a possible conclusion.
  • ONLINE SPIN
    Old Idea? Maybe It Just Needs A Fresh Look
    "Out with the old, in with the new" is an unavoidable philosophy in our up-to-the-minute digital culture. New, it would seem, is always better. But consider this, aspiring entrepreneurs: resources that appear "old" or "used-up" might just be the low-cost jet fuel that powers your company or brand into the profitability stratosphere. The trick is to keep your eyes, and your mind, wide open, so you can see opportunity where others simply see "old."
  • ONLINE SPIN
    The Threads And Themes Of Advertising Week 2009
    Every year on the eve of Advertising Week, I look onward with mixed feelings. I am excited but restless as I look at the agenda. Thematically, there are several threads running through the week that will keep me engaged. On the vast landscape before me, these are the conversations and subject matter that feel most crucial, right now.
  • ONLINE SPIN
    The Anti-Advertising Agency
    Advertising agencies typically don't have R&D embedded in their playbooks, budgets or DNA. They're hardwired to favor what's worked in the past. They have incentive structures that thwart long-term employee and client loyalty. And perhaps their biggest challenge is their relentless quest to deliver service, which often comes at the expense of pure product inventiveness. That's why I was intrigued by a small agency called Rockfish Interactive, featured as Ad Age's Small Agency Of The Year.
  • ONLINE SPIN
    Predicting TV's Future
    Television is undergoing an enormous technology-driven transformation. This fact is well known to all in the industry -- and is even obvious to all those who watch TV. Yesterday, I spoke about some of the effects of this transformation at the Collaborative Alliance, an important television industry group focused on "advanced TV" issues. Here are some of the points that I made, based upon nine months of intensive analysis by my team at Simulmedia of anonymous, second-by-second set-top-box viewing data, representing millions of U.S. viewing households...
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