Hi there! Welcome to my new regular blog series: The Friday 5. Each week, I’ll be rounding up the top industry stories that caught my eye over the past few days. Sprinkle in a little analysis on why you should care and voilà – your cheat sheet to the week!
I hope that this round-up saves you a little time and provides some valuable info. As always, feel free to argue with me or jump in with any stories you think I missed. You can chime in on Twitter — just mention me (@mchadwickMG) or Merritt Group (@MerrittGroup) and use #Friday5.
Without further ado, let’s get things started with this week’s top headlines:
- “No silver bullets” (BuzzMachine, July 18): If you’re still catching up on the equity buy-out of Forbes, Jeff Jarvis offers some insight and then dives some broader themes and ideas around content creation, native advertising and the future of legacy media outlets. Key excerpt: “But programmatic advertising — those ads that follow you all around the web telling you to buy that kayak you looked at once on Amazon — commodify media. They value direct data about a customer over the context media provides — that is, it’s better to show a kayak ad to a kayak buyer than to buy an ad next to a kayak story.”
- “Introducing Save on Facebook” (Facebook, July 22): Let’s face it, we’re all busy. I’ll be happy if you make it half way through this blog without being distracted. That’s why Facebook added a “save” feature. If you recall, Facebook started adding stories from around the web to its News Feed mix. With this week’s news, Facebook is hoping to suck you even deeper into their vortex. Instapaper and Pocket are likely shaking a virtual fist right now and telling Facebook to get off their lawn.
- “‘Audience Measurement’: How Networks And Critics Are Wrestling With Numbers“ (NPR, July 22): My goodness has the broadcast industry changed over the last few years. If you’re interested in ratings and how mobile, DVRs, and more have totally thrown off when/how viewers watch content and how broadcasters measure performance, this article is for you. On a related note, I caught this Marketplace story on the drive home this week, which you might want to give a listen: “5 numbers that matter to the ‘House of Cards’ creator.”
- “LinkedIn to Acquire Bizo” (LinkedIn, July 22): Geeze, LinkedIn. On a buying spree much? Newsle not tire you out enough? This week, LinkedIn acquired B2B marketing platform Bizo for $175M. I could wax poetically about the impact and how many clients are dipping their toe into LinkedIn advertising these days, but VentureBeat summed it up nicely for me already: “LinkedIn soldifies lead within B2B enterprise marketing.”
- “If Gannett is a bellwether, 2014 will be another tough year for newspaper advertising” (Poynter, July 23): I know, I know. Nothing shocking. We already know what a tough time traditional newspapers are facing. So much so that there’s an extremely popular Twitter handle devoted to media industry changes (@themediaisdying). Bigger picture impact? There will be of course more consolidation and advertising challenges, but it also emphasizes the importance of developing smart content marketing strategies to keep up with the ever-evolving media landscape.
Well there you go. That wraps up my first Friday 5. But before you jump, and since I’m not above a shameless plug, here are a few new Merritt Group blog posts from the week in case you missed the re-launch: