Making the rounds in my world this week is an essay by Linds Redding: "A Short Lesson in Perspective." Linds, a former ad exec who passed away last month from esophageal cancer, spent at least some of the time during his illness looking back on how he had spent his life. And, as is so dismayingly often the case, he was distinctly ungratified by what he saw. Here's an excerpt:

Like all of you, I've been following the news about the fiscal cliff negotiations in Washington, DC. Not because I can do anything about it. Not because it is riveting storytelling and drama. Rather, I've been following this news because whatever is decided will have a significant impact on me, my family and my industry. Oddly enough, I kind of feel the same way about the recent spate of media agency reviews.

Native advertising is another of the most-buzzed-about elements of digital media right now -- but it's not scalable, and it's at odds with everything else currently happening in the business. Native advertising is actually a new term for an old idea: customized ad integrations for a single partner. The Web was launched with it, and native advertising of another kind is what I think keeps print from fading away.

Owning a direct, one-to-one connection with the right consumer is the holy grail for consumer brand marketers. In spite of this, the rise of social media has prompted consumer brands to shift their CRM focus from owning to renting consumer connections.

When the book "Those Guys Have All The Fun: Inside the World of ESPN" was first published last year, much of the coverage focused on the lascivious elements of the story. Especially during the early years, the cable sports network attracted all kinds of characters, some of who engaged in sex with coworkers, took drugs and drank like fish. ESPN also had a serious issue with sexual harassment. But this bad behavior and debauchery is ultimately a small part of the story and distracts from what the book is really about: the improbable rise of one of the most powerful …