When I joined Business.com last month I mentioned we would have some news coming soon. Well, soon is today and I’m excited to announce we’re officially launching the new Business.com — including a new site, new company identity, new features and an expanded product line. For my Media, Marketing and Tech geek pals I wanted [...]
Last May, after 6 great years at UBM – and a decade helping legacy media businesses adapt to a new reality defined by the Internet – I decided to step back. I wanted to really explore the trends that continue to reshape media, marketing and technology before deciding what to do next. Over the past [...]
Historically I’ve not invested in individual stocks, particularly tech-related stocks. Given my background running technology media companies I’ve followed the policy that if you have responsibility for editorial operations, you don’t trade in the stocks of companies your media brands cover. I’ve always analyzed the value of tech companies however: their market positioning, their product [...]
Never has something so valuable been worth so little. Never in the history of media has a still new medium had the vast majority of its inventory valued at zero. Such is the state of online advertising. The latest click-through rates for online media sit at .09%. Given that click-through rates serve as the foundation [...]
After a decline of over 11% in 2009, the US advertising industry grew at the anemic rate of 2.8% last year. Estimates for 2012 are in the same range. But with two major events that are historically drivers of high advertising spending — a presidential election and the Olympics — slated for 2012, the lack [...]
For the last 6 years I have led a team that has transformed a declining print-centric business into a fast-growing $200 million digital media, live event and marketing services behemoth, otherwise known as UBM TechWeb. It has been an extraordinary experience and one that I’m immensely proud of. I’ve made the difficult decision that this [...]
Fifteen minutes after the first Tweet stating that the US military had found and killed Osama Bin Laden, CNN’s Wolf Blitzer was struggling on air. Blitzer could only react to what he (and everyone else) was reading on Twitter. For an excruciating amount of time Blitzer repeatedly explained that they couldn’t verify the reports. At [...]
A newspaper was always so much more to its readers than a printed page full of news. It was the place that provided local, regional, national and international news. It was also at the center of your universe, your community. It was a breakfast routine. It was utilitarian as well as informational. Unfortunately, everything that [...]
In order to buy a company you need to value it. That’s not so easy in the media business, these days. Lots of folks refer to multiples, of cash flow or revenue or whatever, as a way of determining future value. You project the expected future performance of the company, factor in the cost [...]
There are so many reasons why print newspapers are failing. Mostly, people complain that newspaper content is available on the Internet for free, so subscribers need not subscribe any longer, even though in reality circulation revenues were usually not more than 20% of total revenues. Or, more importantly, that classified advertising, the largest profit contributor [...]
