Having been in the trenches for the past year talking about multiproduct selling and how a consultative or collaborative sales process is a key component for selling multiple media, I keep hearing over and over again “I’ve been training on consultative selling for years so why should we rely on it to take us into …

Digital media is more cannibalistic than complementary and is seriously eating into the demand for traditional news sources such as newspapers, TV and news magazines, according to the third annual survey of news users done by Outsell Inc.
The survey findings are based on almost 3,000 consumers and are fully detailed in Outsell’s “News Users 2009” …

The IAB and PricewaterhouseCoopers are out with their semi-annual report on the online ad market. IAB/PWC say that interactive revenues were $23.4 billion for 2008, which is up 10.6 percent from the prior year. But everyone seems to be pointing to ominous signs, since the share of second-half revenues was just 51 …

The New York Times publishes separate sports and business sections on Saturday, Sunday and Monday. It may soon move away from separate sections altogether. This past Saturday, there was not a single display ad in either the sports or the news sections of the paper. There was less than a quarter page of classified advertising.

When I went to work in the new Information Services Division of Dow Jones in 1980, I was taken on a tour of the newsroom including the area where the news wires spit out a continuous flow of information called the broad tape. I remember being told that the first responsibility a reporter had was …

Earlier this week I went to hear an economist offer his take on the current economy and how soon it would recover. Long story short, I believe the speaker, who had outstanding credentials, was overly optimistic. (I really believe he may have been on vacation on some secluded island for the past year.) In fact, his …

ESPN, which is 80 percent owned by Disney and 20 percent owned by Hearst, has been a leader in verticalizing its brand and content, with dozens of properties covering everything from the core network to ESPN Desportes to the retail stores. Web sites and online radio have played prominently in the vertical mix.
Now The Wall Street …

Weeks after its decision to abandon its Print Ads program, Google has done the same with its sister program for radio ads. Both programs offered ad buying capability in their respective media, through Google’s AdWords online ad platform.
The company essentially cited the …

As the year-end wrap-ups, top 10 lists, and ’08 retrospectives flood in, I noticed this item released last week from Pew (I was out last week). The part that stuck out is that the Internet has overtaken newspapers for the first time this year as a source for Americans to get their news (see chart …

We’re out with our predictions for 2009. But what’s the final word for 2008? Truly, it was a very stimulating and thoughtful year for our local media and commerce industry. But speaking for myself, it’s hard to say whether it was a good year, especially with fresh layoffs that we are hearing about every day. …

Bakersfield Californian President and CEO Richard Beene says smaller advertisers will be receiving more and more focus by the independently owned paper — something that many newspapers say, but few really do much about.
In a note to employees discussing recent company layoffs, published by LA Observed, Beene says the newspaper’s New Business Development team is “focused …

This morning’s session at ILM:08 on Leveraging Traditional Media Online was an eye-opener in many respects. It was striking, for example, how aggressively NBC is embracing the idea of following the audience wherever it can get its attention — at the gas pump, at the gym, as well as on the couch with a soda …

BIA Advisory Services held a webinar to discuss the state of local radio, and the steps the industry needs to take to revitalize itself. BIA President and CEO Tom Buono set the stage with some daunting figures that show radio’s depressed revenue growth as compared with retail spending over the past 40 years.
Using retail sales as a …

 
After I declared my intention last week to go on an all-Hulu diet, it seems like news about the video site has been popping up everywhere. Maybe it’s just my selective filter looking for affirmation.
Today Saul Hansell writes about Hulu in The New York Times, and compares it to YouTube. In Hulu’s first year, …

I’m here in San Antonio, Texas, having caught the tail end of the Association of Directory Publishers meeting, and now the Association of Directory Marketing’s event. One of the many questions floating around the U.S. Yellow Pages industry is whether the existing three U.S. trade associations will merge to gain efficiencies and, perhaps more critical, …

I just paid a $300 cable bill (three months). This is partly because I’ve had little time for bills, but also because my monthly bill is over $100. That includes basic cable channels plus the $40 package that bundles HBO. HBO is the only thing I watch in that package so essentially I’m paying $40 …

Closely related to our recent ongoing coverage of Google’s offline media efforts (TKG client Advisory released Friday as well), the company has signed a deal with NBC Universal to further push ad buying through its Google TV Ads platform.
Google TV is essentially an offshoot of AdWords that lets companies create, target and track television ads. …

The New York Times writes today about Google’s efforts to court ad agencies as a source of new business. Not surprisingly, these efforts are being met with a fair amount of skepticism from agencies that have seen Google as a means of disintermediation for some time.
The new push comes as a result of Google’s quickly expanding …

We’ve long known Google to be on a path toward facilitating media buys across a cluster of offline traditional media. A clearer glimpse into this vision was given yesterday by Meredith Papp, product marketing manager at Google, during TKG’s session at SES.
Papp, who works for the division that handles traditional media advertising strategies, presented a …

Last night, while watching reruns of The Office on TBS, I noticed something peculiar. During a commercial break, one of the network’s stand-up comedy shows was advertised — a typical house ad.
But it had an odd feel to it. Instead of the montage style you might see on Comedy Central, showing punchy clips of comics …