By my count, there have been only three great sins by online publishers.The original sin occurred at online publishing's genesis in the HotWired offices almost two decades ago: the concept of the banner ad.

I am in awe of the intelligence of those working in the automated buying space. I get how much they care about improving the online display ad business, and I understand the unique benefits this advancement in technology delivers. I also see a fundamental problem being swept under the rug. Programmatic buying via ad exchanges only works for buyers (and related facilitators); it doesn't work for premium branded publishers.

I'll cut to the chase: this will be my final article for MediaPost. The truth is, I can't believe I made it this far. Four years ago, my good friend (and great writer) Ari Rosenberg asked me to write a guest column. It was supposed to be a one-time thing, but for whatever reason, my article resonated, and our editor asked me if I would contribute monthly. I agreed, and promptly spent the next four years pissing off various industry leaders by challenging some of their insane ideas. Needless to say, it was a lot of fun.

The cloud, the airwaves, the cable wires and even printed pages will be full of Facebook obsession for the next few weeks as the media obsesses over the market certifying the new billionaires and centi-millionaires as Facebook goes public. We'll be subject to endless recounting of how Facebook has become a utility for 800 million of the earth's population, and how Facebook is utilizing the many forms of information it gathers to draw advertising dollars. So I offer you some thoughts, not on Facebook, but on what you might see in the future if you could see or hear through …

Question from a salesperson: I work for a large multimedia company. During one of the most competitive times of the year, I was assigned a new account. To make a good impression, I put the inventory the agency wanted on hold for almost three weeks -- but when the launch date approached, they bailed on the buy. I guess I understand that this happens, but now I'm getting reamed internally. What is the best way to handle this? How can I know if a buyer is worth her word?

This week Forbes magazine again touted its success with the business model it calls Entrepreneurial Journalism, without so much as a titter (or a twitter) from the media. Forbes' journalism model, pioneered (then dropped, then readopted) by Nick Denton at Gawker Media, was very recently considered a controversial and even a heretical approach for journalists. The value proposition, however, is deceptively simple and makes sense: Pay writers bonuses based on the audiences they can attract.

It was easier to have dinner with a group of friends in New York City the night before New Year's Eve than New Year's Eve itself. My friends picked out a hot spot in the meatpacking district. I live on the Upper East Side, so with earphones playing a soundtrack for my evening's commute, I headed out towards the subway station at 77th and "Lex."

It's that time of year again, when the press smack around a company they were in love with only moments ago. The most recent target: Groupon. Why? Not because any of the company's fundamentals actually changed, but rather because it's cheap journalism with that magical elixir of wunderkind and controversy. Better yet, it drives pageviews (read: revenue) for publishers. The only problem: it's total bullshit.

A dispatch from a once gilded abbey, now in a state of disrepair: My Dearest Publisher, Over the past couple of decades, we have weathered wave upon wave of challenges -- and, frankly put, it shows. Our carefully built walls of distribution have all been washed away by Search, and we can easily see the tides of Social building on the horizon. A few of us hold out a distant hope for tablets, but in my heart I fear these walls may never be rebuilt.

A client recently told me that it had taken two years for his IT department to deliver a site redesign. The first deadline was six months, but the project had been extended repeatedly. Now he wondered what was reasonable. Unfortunately, too many publishers have experiences like this because they get suckered by two concepts. First, they are convinced that their site has to be "unique" and therefore must be created from scratch. Second, they are tricked to believe the developers who say "don't worry, all the software will be free."