Ad Age
NBC chief executive Jeff Zucker was proud to announce that ad inventory on Hulu.com--the joint content distribution venture from News Corp. and NBC Universal--had sold out, although more ad opportunities were being created. Zucker, speaking at the International Advertising Association's 41st annual World Congress in Washington on Monday, said that advertisers were interested in the site because they have more assurance that the content is professionally produced and appropriate for all audiences. "Advertisers want to be on something where you know what you get and not on something where you could be advertising [next to a video of] a cat …
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Billboard
Big music has come a long way in the last 18 months, partnering with a variety of social networks, online music services, and even telecom providers to bring free ad-supported music to the masses. However, for content providers, record company support often comes at a hefty price. Firms can be forced to pay higher upfront fees for licensing music, or in some cases (like that of MySpace Music) they must give up an equity stake in the company. For example, ad-supported music flop SpiralFrog paid more than $3 million in upfront fees to Universal Music Group before it …
The New York Times
Full-time bloggers, who are often given incentives based on the number of page views they generate or the number of stories they write, put their health at risk due to the 24-hour demands of the profession. Being first to a story can generate a page view boon. Hence, bloggers rarely sleep, are addicted to coffee, are constantly connected to their computers. It uses the examples of tech bloggers Russell Shaw, who died of a heart attack two weeks ago, Marc Orchant, who died of a massive coronary, Om Malik, who nearly died of a heart attack in December, and …
Silicon Alley Insider
Digital distribution is threatening Amazon's business. The online retailer specializes in the sale of physical media whose distribution is increasingly moving to the Internet. Perhaps most troubling to shareholders: more than half the company's $15 billion in sales last year came from the sale of CDs, DVDs and books, per The New York Times. Already in music, Amazon is seeing its market share decline as consumers shift to online services like Apple's iTunes. In fact, Apple recently claimed its media store just became the top seller of music nationwide. Amazon, meanwhile, slipped to fourth, tied with big box retailer …