Around the Net

Online Ad Biz - Perceptions vs. Reality

  • wordyard, Tuesday, August 3, 2010 1:28 PM
This past weekend, the Wall Street Journal published a thorough report on the science behind online advertising. Scott Rosenberg, co-founder and managing editor of Salon, id surprised by the wide range of reactions the report elicited. "I found it fascinating that two of the smarter Web veterans I know -- Jeff Jarvis and Doc Searls -- arrived at opposite perspectives on the Journal coverage."

Jarvis, for his part, portrayed the coverage as alarmist and overblown, explaining: "I don't understand how the Journal could be so breathlessly naive, unsophisticated, and anachronistic about the basics of the modern media business." The industry thinks the Web is all about making inefficient advertising more efficient, but it's really about "eliminating advertising as we have known it entirely, by giving us 'better ways for demand and supply to meet -- ways that don't involve tracking or the guesswork called advertising," Rosenberg writes of Searls' sentiment. Personally, Rosenberg commends the Journal for shedding light on online advertising practices, "even if the paper went over the top." In effect, Rosenberg also describes the Journal's coverage as shortsighted.

Read the whole story at wordyard »

Next story loading loading..