A critical statistic that is often overlooked by our industry comes from the Online Publishers Association, according to OMMA Publish chair Steve Smith. And it is all about the share shifts taking place in the types of content people consume online. In particular, Smith noted that the share of time spent online with professionally produced content has declined from 41.3% last year to 35.4% this year. Meanwhile, at the same time, the share of time people spend with user-generated content has jumped from 13.7% to 29.0% this year. "That's a staggering number, and a very important subject," …

The big question: Are consumers actually engaging more with content on newfangled devices like smartphones and tablets? Oh yeah, says Cameron Clayton, VP of Mobile, The Weather Channel. "The iPhone changed everything from an engagement point of view?" To date, the publisher has recorded 10 million downloads, and now sees 5 million unique a month. "The ad story is huge; the paid version is huge," said Clayton. The iPad experience is different, he said. "It's about weekends," when the publisher witnesses a 300-to-400% spike versus the week days. Rick Levine -- VP, Editorial Operations, Conde Nast -- says GQ …

What's the real value of a publisher's iPad investment, today? Beyond usership numbers -- which are still quite modest -- the branding possibilities "can't really be overstated," says Sarah Rotman Epps, Analyst, Consumer Product Strategy, Forrester Research. "Numbers tell part of the story, but not the whole thing." Also of note, the revenue for impression that publishers can charge on something like an iPad is very attractive. More broadly, the future for publishers is "app centric and multiplatform," according to Rotman. "Even browsers are starting to feature apps." Why? Apps allow publishers to deliver this curated experience to users …

When asked about the recent controversy over Gawker Media's Gizmodo's paying for a stolen Apple iPhone G4 prototype, Gawker Publisher Niock Denton had a simple answer for Joe Mandese: "We will do anything -- legal -- for a story." TV execs seem to tie themselves into knots about paying for news content, but in the backend do pay sometimes, Denton says. "Our attitude is it's way better we just say so. What's it cost?"

"We kicked out the ad networks about four years ago, which is the best thing we ever did," says Nick Denton of Gawker, while explaining the Gawker Artists program to MediaPost EIC Joe Mandese at OMMA Publish. Gawker Media runs works of art (some of which adorns the Gawker HQ in SoHo) in unsold ad spots, promoting the artists associated with Gawker. As Mandese said, "That's one way of showing the value of your ads; the only thing more valuable an ad spot is great art."

Sure there's a lot of inventory on online but saying that it means online ads have no value is along the lines of saying because there are so many trees in the world that magazines have no value, says Nick Denton, publisher of Gawker.

That's right, Digitas global media chief Carl Fremont actually thinks the recession was a good thing for Madison Avenue. "I actually think the recession did a lot of good for our industry, believe it or not," he said during OMMA Publish this morning. Fremont said the main good that came out of the recession is that it focused marketers' attention on the need for "accountability." "Marketers didn't care as much about television as a primary channel. That you had to reach a consumer in a specific channel," he said, adding that now, it's all about, "Where can …

After years of bad-mouthing the "procurement" process, it turns out that that's actually the business that Madison Avenue is in. Quite an epiphany, but that's what Interpublic's Brian Wieser explained to attendees at OMMA Publish this morning. Agencies may not think of their function that way, but Wieser said that procuring media, fundamentally, is what agencies are hired to do for their clients.

Interpublic global forecasting chief Brian Wieser kicked his presentation off at OMMA Publish this morning by acknowledging that some of the people in the digital media industry see him – and his forecasts – as a bit of a "wet blanket." He said that's because some of their more "fanciful" ideas are, in the view of Interpublic, "half baked." Wieser's presentation follows the release of his revised global ad forecast, which nearly double the rate of expansion for 2010 – and beyond – vs. his last forecast at the end of 2009. And surprisingly, most media are expanding, including …

Television will continue to grow and dominate, Brian Wieser, EVP, MAGNAGlobal said in a presentation at OMMA Publish this morning. And he underscored his point with a slide of Winston Churshill's famous quote about democracy, but with some key words crossed out and replaced to produce: "Television is the worst form of advertising, except all the others that have been tried."