Zillow, Newspapers Launch Ad Network - MediaPost

In the first quarter of 2008, total print revenues fell 14.38% to $8.4 billion, according to the National Association of Newspapers. Worse, major newspapers’ online revenues are growing more slowly than expected.

Schwartz said its newspaper alliance so far was progressing according to expectations, although he declined to provide details. “We’re finding the newspapers to be quite modern and digitally focused,” he said, adding that more are expected to join the group in the coming months.

MediaPost Publications - Zillow, Newspapers Launch Ad Network - 09/08/2008
Zillow, Newspapers Launch Ad Network
by Mark Walsh, Monday, Sep 8, 2008 7:00 AM ET
Zillow.com screenshotReal estate site Zillow.com and its newspaper partners will begin selling each other’s premium online ad inventory in the latest phase of their nearly year-old alliance.

Under the new initiative, Zillow’s 282 affiliated newspapers including the San Francisco Chronicle and The Philadelphia Inquirer will be able to sell targeted display ads across Zillow.com. At the same time, Zillow’s sales force will offer display units on the real estate sections of the newspapers’ Web sites.

The two sides will split ad revenues roughly 50-50 under the cross-selling agreement.

Previously, the newspapers had offered existing real estate advertisers the option of also buying classified and featured listings on Zillow.com. Newspapers could also add Zillow features to their own sites, including the company’s “Zestimates” tool for finding home valuation estimates.

The newly formed Zillow Ad Network will focus on brand advertising and extend to potential new marketers as well current ones. Greg Schwartz, Zillow’s vice president of sales, said the effort would allow newspaper advertisers to reach not only consumers in local markets, but those moving to new markets.

Facebook Isn’t A Social Network. And Stop Trying to Make New Friends There

TechCrunch reports on a controversy surrounding the Facebook application ‘PackRat’. The app is basically revolving around the trading of ‘cards’, and is popular enough that people are signing up for Facebook accounts just to play PackRat1. The same users are also expanding their network on Facebook solely to have more people to play PackRat with2.

Facebook is unsettled enough about this to disable accounts created solely for the purpose of playing PackRat. In an email to one of the users in question, Facebook says:

Please note that Facebook accounts are meant for authentic usage only. This means that we expect accounts to reflect mainly “real-world” contacts (i.e. your family, schoolmates, co-workers, etc.), rather than mainly “internet-only” contacts. [Facebook] is meant to help reinforce pre-existing social connections, not build large groups of new ones.

Full report here: Facebook Isn’t A Social Network. And Stop Trying to Make New Friends There

Best Buy Puzzles With Napster Acquisition — TechMeme

Best Buy Puzzles With Napster Acquisition
Napster Logo

Best Buy announced today that it has acquired Napster for $121 million in cash. The company said that it will keep Napster’s executive team and will leave the Napster service and its estimated 700,000 users in place without changing much in the near-term.

During the 2008 fiscal year ending March 31, Napster had revenue of $127.5 million, and a loss of $16.5 million. The loss was an improvement over its last fiscal year, though, when it lost $36.8 million.

Best Buy ostensibly believes that it can eventually make Napster turn a profit or, at the very least, provide a service that is valued by its customers (Best Buy inked a Napster distribution deal with the company’s then-parent company Roxio for $10 million in 2004). But how does acquiring Napster help the company in any way?

Napster’s competition is simply too fierce and too far ahead for the once-popular service to stay relevant.

iTunes is the world’s largest music store and there’s no sign of that service losing the top spot any time soon. Worse, Amazon’s DRM-free MP3 store is coming on strong and now that MySpace is starting to get into the music game with free ad-supported streams, there’s little room left for Napster to cement itself in the market.

So where does Napster fit into that equation? Granted, it’s still servicing 700,000 customers and its revenue is quite high, but how much longer can it compete in an environment where at least three services are better and its user-base is minuscule compared to its competitors’?

Napster’s business model is simply too similar and too out-dated for it to compete in this market. The company uses a subscription-based model to let you download songs and also offers freenapster.com for those that want to stream music for free online. Of course, the only problem is the songs sound awful and paying $12.95 per month isn’t worth it to most users, given the success of iTunes and Amazon’s store.

And with new business models on the way from MySpace where it will try ad-supported streams, how can Napster regain its status as the most popular service in the industry by maintaining status quo?

Under the guise of “improving” itself, Best Buy has engaged in a mercy acquisition of Napster in the hope that somehow it will materialize into something worth using. Napster was always the haven for illegal downloads and ever since it went legit, it lost its allure and fewer people have found reason to use it.

Best Buy just wasted $121 million.

Charles Darwin to receive apology from the Church of England for rejecting evolution - Telegraph

The Church of England will concede in a statement that it was over-defensive and over-emotional in dismissing Darwin’s ideas. It will call “anti-evolutionary fervour” an “indictment” on the Church”.

The bold move is certain to dismay sections of the Church that believe in creationism and regard Darwin’s views as directly opposed to traditional Christian teaching.

Charles Darwin to receive apology from the Church of England for rejecting evolution - Telegraph
Charles Darwin to receive apology from the Church of England for rejecting evolution
The Church of England is to apologise to Charles Darwin for its initial rejection of his theories, nearly 150 years after he published his most famous work.

By Jonathan Wynne-Jones, Religious Affairs Correspondent
Last Updated: 1:06AM BST 14 Sep 2008
Charles Darwin to receive apology from the Church of England for rejecting evolution
Sections of Church likely to be dismayed by Darwin move

The Church of England will concede in a statement that it was over-defensive and over-emotional in dismissing Darwin’s ideas. It will call “anti-evolutionary fervour” an “indictment” on the Church”.

The bold move is certain to dismay sections of the Church that believe in creationism and regard Darwin’s views as directly opposed to traditional Christian teaching.

The apology, which has been written by the Rev Dr Malcolm Brown, the Church’s director of mission and public affairs, says that Christians, in their response to Darwin’s theory of natural selection, repeated the mistakes they made in doubting Galileo’s astronomy in the 17th century.

“The statement will read: Charles Darwin: 200 years from your birth, the Church of England owes you an apology for misunderstanding you and, by getting our first reaction wrong, encouraging others to misunderstand you still. We try to practise the old virtues of ‘faith seeking understanding’ and hope that makes some amends.”

Opposition to evolutionary theories is still “a litmus test of faithfulness” for some Christian movements, the Church will admit. It will say that such attitudes owe much to a fear of perceived threats to Christianity.

The comments are included on a Church of England website promoting the views of Charles Darwin to be launched on Monday.

Big Marketers Challenge Google-Yahoo Deal - WSJ.com

The Wall St Journal reported today that the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) wrote to the DOJ that it believes the “deal is, on balance, a negative” for advertisers. What wasn’t reported was that the ANA’s Digital Marketing Committee us made up of about 150 people, notably large traditional advertisers — folks like Mars, Kraft, Campbell Soup, and so on (not a surprise but not the kind of advertisers at the forefront of paid search; and Microsoft, with three people on the committee, while Google and Yahoo are notably absent.

Big Marketers Challenge Google-Yahoo Deal - WSJ.com
Big Marketers Challenge
Google-Yahoo Deal
Trade Group Calls for Justice Department
To Block Planned Search-Ad Partnership
By SUZANNE VRANICA and JESSICA E. VASCELLARO
September 8, 2008; Page B1

Some of the country’s biggest marketers are rallying to oppose an advertising deal between Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc., as the Justice Department considers whether to go to court to block the agreement.

The Association of National Advertisers, a trade group that represents major companies like Procter & Gamble Co. and General Motors Corp., sent a letter to the Justice Department Thursday calling the deal bad for advertisers and recommending that it be blocked. The group announced the letter on its Web site on Sunday. The agreement, announced in June, gives Web-search giant Google the right to sell search and other text ads on Yahoo sites, sharing the revenue with Yahoo.
[Big Marketers Challenge Ad Deal]

Whether the letter will influence federal antitrust regulators remains unclear, but it is considered a blow to Yahoo and Google because of the trade group’s high profile. Until now, big marketers have been reluctant to come out against the deal publicly because of Google’s growing power in the ad business. Some large advertising agencies and midsize advertisers have endorsed the deal, however, saying they think it will make advertising on Yahoo more effective.

But in an interview, Bob Liodice, chief executive of the ANA, said the group believes the “deal is, on balance, a negative” for advertisers. The trade group has been studying the proposed arrangement for more than a month.

Mr. Liodice said the group is concerned that the deal could raise the price of search advertising. It also is worried about the “concentration of power” that the alliance represents, he said.

Super Bowl Ads Are Still a Touchdown in Slow Economy - Seeking Alpha

As this story shows, there is still life in mass reach advertising (just fewer places where mass reach actually happens)

Super Bowl Ads Are Still a Touchdown in Slow Economy - Seeking Alpha

The economic downturn has taken its toll on the advertising markets, but still, big events are managing to be stronger than ever. The Olympics attracted unprecedented ad dollars, and now the 2009 Super Bowl has as well.

CNBC’s parent company, NBC (owned by GE (GE)) has already sold about 75 percent of the big event’s commercial time, whereas in past years only 50 or 60 percent would be sold by now. These faster sales are particularly impressive considering the fact that prices are up some 10 percent this year to as much as $3 million for just a 30 second spot. Read more

Written by Tim · Filed Under Media, Top Story 1