If you are reading this, you most likely work in some area of advertising, marketing or marketing communications and are involved in online activities. Well you may also be a parent, guardian, or around kids. Sit down for this one.

At the iMedia Summit in Scottsdale last month, Andrew Heyward, President, CBS News spoke about a number of interesting and enlightening topics. One thing stuck with me greater than all of the others. He said that teens and kids (and probably others) have a new way of taking information in. They don't get all of their information from a single, linear stream such as reading a complete analysis or watching CBS News every night.

Last week I wrote about the implications of the FCC vote to overturn decades-old limitations of media outlet ownership. I wondered whether it would lead to homogeneous cultural output and if the Internet could play a role as an alternative voice to the media monoliths that will undoubtedly consolidate as a result of the FCC rule changes.

Spam is on the rise and ISPs are offering more Spam-blockers than ever before. Email effectiveness is decreasing with open rates and click rates plummeting. With CPMs for stand-alone email dropping as a result of these two factors, is it possible that email marketing, once one of the Internet's killer apps, is dying?

We parked in the corner of my high school's lot and prepared for the treasure hunt that awaited us. It was raining a bit, but we knew that we would be under the protective canopy of the trees in the Pine Barrens.

We've all heard the adage, "Don't put all your eggs in one basket." That's very true for digital media, especially when it comes to measurement.

Everywhere I go, people want to know if the turnaround is happening. It sure feels like it. From the ebullient feeling at iMedia to individual conversations with buyers and sellers nationwide, it is clear that something is happening. John Durham of Interep says that June and August are starting to look decent. The jury apparently still being out on July. I have a couple of observations.

The FCC voted this week to overturn media ownership regulations that have held sway over the media business for some 50 years. It is difficult to know exactly whether or not this is something that will be good or bad, but I think it is quite clear that in this instance, the FCC's vote is good for media companies, bad for media consumers.

One of the big selling points for online advertising over the last few years has been the concept of personalization. The ability for marketers to personalize their advertising to "the one" or "the few" has been attractive as it focuses the message specifically on the needs and desires of a smaller group, thereby increasing the potential for response.

I sit on the board of a local organization called Boston Interactive Media Association (BIMA). Last week we had an event entitled "Demystifying Search Engine Marketing." In attendance were planners/buyers, vendors, search firms, and clients alike. A few years ago we had a similar event. I forget the exact title but it was something like, "Why rankings aren't enough." Back then few people were talking about search. And those who did focused solely on search engine optimization (SEO). Such efforts were to drive traffic to websites.