James Meskauskas

Articles by James All articles by James

• Contact: Reclaiming the Water Cooler  in Media Magazine on 05/01/2009
  

  Devices are gateways. People use and consume media. They don't really think much about their device so much until it doesn't work. Like a doorway, you don't think about what it is or what it does until it doesn't do what you expect it to. Content is; it is the intent and the goal of its audience.

• The Biz: A Paean to Print in Media Magazine on 01/02/2009
  

  Every week, my wife complains about a few unread magazines lying around the house. After enduring her complaints for a while, I am forced to read the magazines or throw them out unread. She regularly suggests I kill my subscriptions because I can always get the news I want on the Internet, anyway (I'm an inveterate online newspaper reader).

• The Biz: The New New Media in Media Magazine on 10/02/2008
  

  One of the first brands of the commercial internet to bring online advertising out of the nerdery and into the mainstream was Yahoo. It was one of the first online destinations to accept advertising, and for a time, was the most recognizable brand exclusively on the Web. When it went public on April 12, 1996 (eight months after Netscape, the first dot-com to do so), Yahoo raised $33.8 million dollars by selling 2.6 million shares at $13 each.

• The Biz: The Silly Putty Plan in Media Magazine on 05/20/2008
  

  Kids who play with Silly Putty know this: There's only so far you can stretch something before the tenuous strands holding it together break. The advertising agency business, as a business, is in a tough spot. Tasked with everything from creating product and generating sales to producing global marketing strategies, agencies are now being asked to provide services that are far beyond their traditional range of responsibilities.

• The Biz: Play Russian Roulette in Media Magazine on 04/02/2008
  

  I don't care what part of the media business you're in - print, television, out-of-home, you name it. And I don't care if you are planning it, buying it or selling it. Whatever field of media you work in, wherever you are, you've heard of it: social networking.

• The Biz: A Rational View of Value in Media Magazine on 10/01/2007
  

  The idea of auction marketplaces for media has grown in popularity over the years. The argument seems simple enough. If you have a large, openmarket where both buyers and sellers can communicate easily with one another, working with full disclosure, the absolute, true value of inventory can be determined.

• The Biz: The Slippery Slope of Choice in Media Magazine on 06/28/2007
  

  A lot has been said in recent years about the rise of the consumer's role in the creation and use of media. Bloggers are regularly credited with either breaking a story first or developing a story first introduced somewhere else.

• The Biz: Where Science Can't Go in Media Magazine on 03/29/2007
  

  With the advent of the internet and its acceptance as a mainstream media vehicle, one element of media has been more pondered over and discussed than any other: accountability. It can be addressed in a number of different ways, including the verification that advertising ran, the identification of audiences that have seen ads, and the determination of actions taken by audience members after having viewed a message.

• Column: The Biz -- People Who Need People in Media Magazine on 12/29/2006
  

  The media business is a great one to be in these days. There are so many changes with regard to how people can get their content and what kind of content they can actually get. Figuring out what all of this means and how to capitalize on it is both the supreme challenge and the greatest thrill of working in media today.

• Measure for Measure: Engagement in Media Magazine on 04/17/2006
  

  It's a word heard regularly in the halls of media and ad agencies. It's the topic of conversation at industry gatherings. It's the subject of industry conference sessions. It's even made its way into the titles of senior marketing and agency personnel. And it's the focus of this column: engagement.

Comments by James All comments by James

• Time For Facebook To Face The Music by Cory Treffiletti (Online Spin on 09/29/2010)
  

  Good piece, Cory. Some advertisers may be getting results, others may not be. Not sure if performance was the reason for FB's pulling the plug on the conversion-tracking tool. Could be that they wanted to be "clean" in advance of the government's impending regulation of online data collection. Could be that it reveals that there really is no grand distinction between advertising on Facebook/social media and any other media. Social media, is, after all, a "weak-connection" platform. Not as motivating to action as other environments (like, say, actual rather than virtual communities). I think we're going to find that social media, too, is no magic tool for marketing's needs; it's just one more place to plaster messaging and hope it has some influence on the x-factor of human behavior.

• Will A Real Advertising Conference Please Stand Up And Can the Rest Sit Down? by Jeffrey Lebowski (Online Media Daily on 06/07/2010)
  

  Agree with Tom and Einstein, here. The anonymity is either a) cowardly or b) a way to allow for a competing publisher to slam its competition without taking the responsibility of doing so. Based on the tone, I'd guess the author to be young, without the longevity and experience in our business to properly appreciate the meta-context of Weaver's address. The only content that is obviously sponsored content are the breakfast presentations, the Spotlights, and the Sunday evenings. It's made obvious. My guess is this gentleman felt hurt that his company was not afforded the opportunity to get in front of this crowd in the way some others did. All in all, the rant lacks intellectual honesty, accurate representation of the event. Will the real Dude please stand up?

• Craigslist Commenter Charged With Criminal Libel by Wendy Davis (PolicyBlog on 12/03/2008)
  

  "It turns out that Colorado is one of 17 states that has laws criminalizing libel -- or speaking badly of others." Actually, libel is the act of WRITING badly of others; or, more legally precise, when defamation is carried out via a public medium, like broadcast, print or out of home. Speaking badly of others is called slander.

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