Members of the AdSense team from all over the world say hello from Mountain View, CA!
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A Global Greeting
Browsing Posts tagged home
JavaScript was 10 times slower, HTML5 support wasn’t yet an essential feature in modern browsers, and the idea of a sandboxed, multi-process browser was only a research project. All browsers have come a long way in the last two years and the web has become much more fun and useful.
Omnibox, and adjusted the color scheme of the browser to be easier on the eyes.
Sliding back into Doc Brown’s DeLorean and setting the dial ahead by a few months, we have more in store for Chrome. As always, we’re hard at work on making Chrome even faster, and working on ways to improve graphics performance in the browser through hardware acceleration. With the Chrome Web Store, we hope to make it much easier to find and use great applications on the web. We also ratcheted up the pace of our releases so that we can get new features and improvements to everyone more quickly.
If you haven’t tried Chrome recently, we invite you to download our new stable version today at google.com/chrome. For those of you who have been using Chrome, thanks for a great second year! We hope that Chrome has made your life on the web even better, and look forward to the next year.
Excerpt from:
Back to the future: two years of Google Chrome
It’s been 10 years since the first version of Google SketchUp was released, and there are more people modeling in SketchUp now that we ever could have imagined—over a million of you a week, in fact. That’s a pretty humbling number of 3D model makers.
People around the world are modeling everything—from a new design for their kitchen to entire cities in Google Earth. For our small part in this global phenomenon, I’m proud to announce that SketchUp 8, the next major version of our 3D modeling tool, is available for download today. We’ve added significant new geo-modeling capabilities that leverage Google’s vast collection of geo-spatial data to make it quicker, easier and more fun than ever to build models of the world around us.
Head on over to our website for the whole story, or just grab yourself a new build and get back to modeling.
Have you checked your AdSense email preferences lately? If not, you may be missing out on important information and special offers without realizing. Take a minute to log in and update your email preferences under the ‘My Account’ tab.
Want to be invited to upcoming events like AdSense In Your City? Make sure you check the box next to Special Offers when you edit your email preferences so you can stay up-to-date with giveaways and other special programs in your area.
Want tips from the AdSense team for how to earn more with your AdSense account? Check Customized help and performance suggestions and/or Newsletters so we can offer personalized guidance to improve performance and maximize your revenue.
Want to help us improve AdSense by testing out features like the new AdSense interface? Check Google Market Research and you’ll be able to share your valuable feedback with us through surveys and beta tests.
Want promotions and key updates for other Google products that can help you grow your AdSense business? Check Information about other Google products and services which may be of interest to you so we can send you news and coupons based on your potential needs.
We want to help you earn more with tips and promotions, invite you to in-person events, and gather your feedback so we can continue to improve AdSense. So log in, update your preferences, and take advantage of the opportunities coming your way from the AdSense team!
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AdSense email preferences: Get the most from your account and from Google
Attention all Bloggers! We know many of you use AdSense to monetize your blog, and we wanted to be sure you didn’t miss out on the invitation to Blogger’s 11th Birthday party. Using Meetup Everywhere, you can find a party in your area that will be filled with local bloggers like you. We hope you’ll take advantage of this great opportunity to swap stories about your readers, learn about some new sites, share tips about earning with AdSense, and get to know other passionate bloggers. Details are highlighted below, but check out the official Blogger post for more information.
- What: Blogger’s 11th birthday celebration!
- How: Sign up for a Meetup near you or get one going in your town.
- Where: Anywhere you are.
- Who: Everyone! You never know who might show up.
- When: Any time on Tuesday, August 31, 2010
- RSVP: www.meetup.com/bloggerfiesta
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In an effort to expand the availability of sensitive category blocking (also known as category filtering) worldwide, we’re happy to announce that sensitive category blocking has now officially launched in Japanese, Chinese, Polish, and Portuguese. As you might know, this feature is also available in English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, and Arabic with testing being done for Russian.
With sensitive category blocking, you can prevent ads from up to 11 specific categories from appearing on your pages. Ads in these categories will be blocked if they’re in any of the supported languages, regardless of how they’ve been targeted to your pages.
If you’d like to set up sensitive category blocking, please sign in to your AdSense account and visit the Ad Review Center, located under the ‘AdSense Setup’ tab. Once you click ‘change,’ you’ll be able to view the full list of categories you can block. In addition, to help you understand the impact of applying these filters, we’ll show you the percentage of revenue and ad impressions you’ve been receiving from each category in the last 30 days.
For more information about sensitive category blocking, we encourage you to visit our Help Center.
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Sensitive category blocking now available for Japanese, Chinese, Polish, and Portuguese
This Saturday, our engineers will be performing routine site maintenance from 10am to 2pm PDT. You’ll be unable to log in to your AdSense account during this time, but we’ll continue serving ads to your pages and tracking your clicks, impressions, and earnings as usual. In addition, your ad targeting won’t be affected.
We’ve converted the maintenance start time for a few cities around the world:
London – 6pm Saturday
Alexandria – 7pm Saturday
Hyderabad – 10:30pm Saturday
Jakarta – 12am Sunday
Perth – 1am Sunday
To learn more about what goes on during these maintenance periods, check out this Inside AdSense post.
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Site maintenance on Saturday, August 21
Last week I was given the opportunity to attend the Boston AdSense In Your City event. Though Boston technically isn’t my city (I’m a New Yorker by birth) I can see why so many of our fabulous publishers call it home.
Despite our varied interests (ranging from hot sauce to sheepdogs, ab workouts to online video games), every single person in that room was connected by their intense passion for their site’s subject, experience with AdSense, and desire to learn more.
We covered a lot in a single afternoon, and the Googlers learned a lot about your needs and concerns. Whether it was a feature request for the new user interface, a question about what Analytics report to check to help maximize ROI, a clarification about how to leverage DoubleClick for Publishers Small Business, or an optimization tip for the group, I was thrilled to see such lively discussion and engaged participation.
My favorite part of the day was getting some one-on-one time with a few publishers during the cocktail reception and individual optimization sessions. Regardless of site content or amount of product experience, everyone I spoke to shared a similar story: the money earned from AdSense has allowed them to spend more time doing the things they love. Some had more time to build great content for their users, others to quit their day job and blog about their favorite hobby. I was lucky enough to speak to two publishers who shared that AdSense not only allowed them to spend more time with their families, but even to put their kids through college.
Though Boston was the last stop of the AdSense In Your City roadshows, we hope to come visit more of you in the coming months. We’ve looked at all of the comments left so far, and will be sure to ask all of you before we decide where to go next. Make sure you’re opted in to receive special offers via email so we can invite you to events like this, and hopefully AdSense will get to see you in your city very soon!
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Getting to know you at AdSense In Your City: Boston
We wanted to give you all a heads up about a new Google blog that is focused on helping small businesses grow. Check out their first post below and visit googlesmb.blogspot.com to follow their future posts and updates. -ed.
Most every business, including ours, starts small. These days, technology is giving businesses even more ways to grow bigger… faster.
In our recent Small Business series on the Official Google Blog, a handful of real-life entrepreneurs have shared their experiences building companies from scratch and embracing Internet tools that have taken their businesses to the next level. We’ve received fantastic feedback about these posts, and realized that there’s a healthy appetite among small- and medium-sized business owners who want to know all about the latest web tools and tricks. Fortunately, we have lots more to share with you, too!
That’s why we’re introducing the Google Small Business Blog, a central hub that brings together all the information about our products, features and projects of specific interest to the small business community. Rather than having to sleuth around in many different locations for details about templates for creating video ads on YouTube, tips for your employees using Gmail or how to respond to the business reviews on your Place Page, you can find all of this helpful information right here in one place.
Of course, we’ll continue to post relevant news about individual services such as AdWords, Apps, Google Places and YouTube on their respective “home” blogs, but feel free to visit or subscribe to the Google Small Business Blog to get everything relating to your small business needs. We’re starting small today, but who knows what tomorrow will have in store!
Continued here:
Introducing the Google Small Business Blog
Microsoft continues to wrestle with the e-commerce side of its search engine, Bing, in an effort to more effectively compete with Google’s dominance.
The company discontinued Bing Cashback as of July 30. Bing Cashback was a novel way for shoppers to save money by earning a percentage of the price paid for an online product as “cashback” – in essence, an instant rebate. The cashback was paid out of proceeds from search advertising fees from participating stores. Consumers received cashback payments through PayPal, direct deposit, or mailed checks.
George Michie, CEO & Co-Founder of The Rimm-Kaufman Group, a search engine marketing firm, tells Internet Retailer, “Cashback was a big win for merchants and users, but I don’t know how big a win it was for Bing in terms of buying market share.” According to Microsoft, while Bing Cashback attracted over a thousand merchant partners, it “did not see the broad adoption that we had hoped for.”
Bing is trying to remove the sting from killing Cashback with the launch of Bing Shopping, which appears as a navigational link on the Bing home page. Bing Shopping is following Google’s lead in offering online retailers free clicks from the Bing Shopping page. Microsoft confirmed that a product feed service for merchants was being offered without charge, so product listings and images show up in search results as essentially free placements. Eventually, Microsoft is expected to add paid advertising to the mix.
Bing Shopping is a nicely organized shopping portal, with featured products, featured stores, and “products people are talking about.” It will offer some new search marketing features; for example, “shopping slide shows” allow consumers to click through product photos and purchase a product of interest, directly through the portal. Bottom line, however: Bing Shopping is basically similar to Google Product Search, with some added functionality.
Bing Shopping will also be similar to Google Product Search in ranking products. Rick Backus, co-founder of CPC Strategy, an online data firm, tells Internet Retailer, “Bing’s data on search clicks will be part of its overall algorithm that ranks product search results, giving popular retailers an advantage.”
But the big question about Bing Shopping is whether the search engine can drive enough traffic to build the numbers merchants want, especially in terms of sales conversions. Bing Cashback presented a pretty compelling reason to shop because of attractive rebate offers. Bing Shopping has no such built-in incentive.
Bing Shopping needs to do two things quickly: get as many merchants as possible to participate, and get as many shoppers as possible to visit. Launched last summer, Bing has seen increases in traffic, but its U.S. market share is under 10 percent, while Google’s is over 71 percent. Microsoft has also been losing money in its Online Services division.
If Bing Shopping can’t make the cash registers ring for online retailers, dumping Bing Cashback may come back to haunt Microsoft.
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Will Shoppers Click with Bing Shopping?
Three things are always on my agenda when I visit New York: the arts, the museums, and the food. This year there is a surprising addition: funny puppets. Whom do I have to thank for such an odd itinerary item? That razor tongued curmudgeon of the webs Loren Feldman, who flicks his Flip camera on anytime he wants to watch Michael Arrington duck. Affiliate Summit Co-Founders Shawn Collins and Missy Ward have teamed up with Loren for a night of humor and yes, puppets that is the Audience Conference. That precursor to Affiliate Summit will take place at Caroline’s on Broadway (it is technically a separate event and tickets are still available).
Usually I tend to be attracted to panel sessions because I find the dynamics and the possibility for intelligent discourse and debate compelling. This year Affiliate Summit East features a lot of very strong individual presenters around a range of innovative topics. There is simply not enough focus within the affiliate industry on innovation. I don’t feel the networks do enough to cultivate innovative publishers. That is unfortunate because the flexibility of the affiliate marketing can be applied to many emerging models and sometimes I feel we are missing the boat on social media, mobile commerce, and local marketing. This is why I am glad Shawn and Missy have compiled the line-up they have.
So before you get lost hunting for some restaurant you saw Bobby Flay throw down at, here is my pick for the top ten sessions you can’t afford to miss:
1) Innovate! New Exciting Applications of Affiliate Marketing
Session 1c
Location: Sutton Complex (Beekman & North)
Session: 12:00pm-1:00pm, Sunday, August 15th
A lot of innovation has becoming out of the UK. I’m glad to see Joe Stepniewski who has been doing some amazing things over at Skimlinks, fresh off the 2010 Technology Genius Award at LinkShare’s Golden Links, present this session focusing on new ways affiliate marketing is being used in web startups, services and applications. Here’s hoping he mentions PopShops (I’m proud to be part of their original team).
Panelists for the Innovate! New Exciting Applications of Affiliate Marketing session include:
- Joe Stepniewski, Co-Founder, Skimlinks (Twitter @digijoe)
2) New Lead Generation Models: Social-Mobile-Viral
Session 2b
Location: Murray Hill Suite
Time: 1:30pm-2:30pm, Sunday, August 15th
Continuing the innovation theme off-beat veteran Declan Dunn will be taking folks interested in the lead-gen space into the new media game. Focusing on how to turn fans into leads via various social and mobile tools without becoming the equivalent of that insurance sales guy no one wants to invite to parties anymore. A valuable balance to strike in lead-gen.
Panelists for the New Lead Generation Models: Social-Mobile-Viral session include:
- Declan Dunn, CEO, Dunn Direct Media (Twitter @declandunn)
3) Affiliate Freakonomics: Market Quirks at Work
Session 8a
Location: Gramercy Suite
Time: 12:10pm-12:30pm, Tuesday, August 17th
This has potential of being a session with some fireworks. Like Skimlinks, VigLink is also an extremely innovative company. Oliver Roup, CEO, of VigLink devised an intriguing title to this session and it will indeed be interesting to take a look at how wildcards in click data can help give affiliates an edge. So what about the fireworks, you ask? I’m curious to see whether Oliver addresses the blogger fallout over supplanting tracking code inside Lijit. That indeed was an unexpected variance for bloggers using Lijit. If he doesn’t, someone should ask him.
Panelists for the Affiliate Freakonomics: Market Quirks at Work session include:
- Oliver Roup, CEO, VigLink (Twitter @oroup)
4) Android Affiliate Mobile Marketing
Session 5d
Location: Sutton Complex (South & Regent)
Time: 2:00pm-3:00pm, Monday, August 16th
For a long time we’ve been hearing how mobile is the next big thing, that it would soon arrive. Well, if you’ve been watching the market, thanks to the rise of smartphones mobile commerce has arrived. Like the web, the platforms you can choose from in mobile are fractured with very specific nuances. This session by Michael Martin will focus on Android, arguably one of the most exciting of the current mobile platforms.
Panelists for the Android Affiliate Mobile Marketing session include:
- Michael Martin, Owner, Mobile Martin (Twitter @googleandblog)
5) Curation. Can You Filter Free Content?
Session 7c
Location: Sutton Complex (Beekman & North)
Time: 11:30am-11:50am, Tuesday, August 17th
In the debate over the value of content, I’ve always been squarely on the side that holds that “content is king”. But with so many information streams the value of the content produced is often diminished because it is impossible to filter through all the distracting noise. The concept of curation isn’t new, but with the rise of social media it is getting far more attention these days as the need to filter quality content from the chaff increases. With over 42,000 sites featuring a wide variety of topics all with a video distribution backbone, Magnify.net knows a thing or two about effective curation.
Panelists for the Curation. Can You Filter Free Content? session include:
- Steve Rosenbaum, CEO, Magnify.net (Twitter @magnify)
6) How to Eliminate Affiliate Fraud 100%
Session 7d
Location: Sutton Complex (South & Regent)
Time: 11:30am-11:50am, Tuesday, August 17th
If VigLink session doesn’t provide fireworks this one should. I am always wary when someone promises to eliminate 100 percent of anything. It’s too bad eBay didn’t know of Rey Pasinli’s secrets. That being said I am pro any tool or sharing of techniques that can help reduce the high rates of fraud inherent to the industry even if that reduction rate doesn’t quite reach zero. Maybe Rey will make a believer out of me.
Panelists for the How to Eliminate Affiliate Fraud 100% session include:
- Rey Pasinli, Executive Director, Total Apps, Inc.
7) Affiliate Platforming: How to Attract & Retain Audiences
Session 9a
Location: Gramercy Suite
Time: 2:00pm-3:00pm, Tuesday, August 17th
It took only a few minutes at SOBCon to realize that Scott Stratten is one of the smartest people in the marketing industry. He is an idea factory of sorts but one whose laser focus actually churns out ideas that are practical to implement. Add to that rare talent the fact he is a karaoke rockstar and you have a can’t miss session. Thus I encourage you to forgive the fact he has the most boring title of any session this year and tune in to the UnPresident. It will be worth it.
Panelists for the Affiliate Platforming: How to Attract & Retain Audiences session include:
- Scott Stratten, UnPresident, UnMarketing (Twitter @UnMarketing)
Master of Your Domain?
Session 4c
Location: Sutton Complex (Beekman & North)
Time: 11:30am-12:30pm, Monday, August 16th
The legal labyrinth of the Internet has grown in complexity over the years. Snagging a URL doesn’t always mean you have the rights to use it free and clear. Trademark law often impacts domain owners, especially if another business claims you are infringing on their rights. The constant twisting evolution of the legal space, makes such sessions a must. Plus I have a weakness for panels where one of the members is from a committee that advocates the mirage of self-regulation.
Panelists for the Master of Your Domain? session include:
- Gary A. Kibel, Partner, Davis & Gilbert LLP (Twitter @GaryKibel_law) (Moderator)
- Sara Freixa, Brand Protection Manager, Americas, Melbourne IT DBS Inc
- Peter C. Marinello, Director, Electronic Retailing Self-Regulation Program
9) Avoiding the Google Slap
Session 5b
Location: Murray Hill Suite
Time: 2:00pm-3:00pm, Monday August 16th
Google has been traditionally unfriendly towards affiliates. That has changed slightly since Google bought Performics and has stepped into the space. While I would have rather had a representative from GAN than an AdWords evangelist; having representatives from ClickBank and Google should shed a lot of insight on the impact of quality scores in-channel.
Panelists for the Avoiding the Google Slap session include:
- Dush Ramachandran, Vice President – Sales & Business Development, ClickBank (Twitter @DushR)
- Frederick Vallaeys, AdWords Evangelist, Google (Twitter @siliconvallaeys)
10) Why Q4 is the Year Long Season
Session 6c
Location: Sutton Complex (Beekman & North)
Time: 3:30pm-4:30pm, Monday August 16th
Everyone plans to think ahead but merchants inevitably find themselves scrambling for placements in Q4. This last minute mentality often fails to capitalize on potential placements with publishers. Publishers, as well, can be equally blamed for not pressing merchants often and early enough. The end result is wasted potential and money left on the table. Planning beyond the current season is always smart, and CJ should have some interesting insights on how to leverage such plans.
Panelists for the Why Q4 is the Year Long Season session include:
- Kim Riedell, Vice President, Client Development, Commission Junction, a ValueClick Company (Twitter @CJnetwork)
Special Note: Watch for a rare Jim Kukral post on ReveNews following his keynote at Affiliate Summit East.
That’s the rundown of my picks for Affiliate Summit East 2010 in New York. What sessions are you looking forward to?
See the rest here:
Top 10 Must See Sessions at Affiliate Summit East 2010
The BlackBerry Torch 9800 is being introduced this week on the AT&T network. The reviews are in and they are, at best, mildly enthusiastic. Essentially, reviewers seem to agree that RIM, BlackBerry’s maker, is just keeping up with the Android and iPhone, rather than leaping ahead.
While the Torch isn’t likely to light a fire under the Android and iPhone, the phone is significant because of what it represents about our smartphone future. BlackBerry, after all, has been the market share leader in mobile phones for business use. The Torch 9800 is BlackBerry’s acknowledgment that:
- Such “consumer” features as a touchscreen keyboard can’t be ignored, the Torch has both a touchscreen keyboard and the more traditional BlackBerry keypad.
- Apps matter.
- Seamless Web connectivity is essential. The Torch, says its maker RIM, features “expanded messaging capabilities with intuitive features to simplify the management of social networking and RSS feeds” and integrates access to the BlackBerry Messenger, Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace, as well as dedicated YouTube and Podcast applications.
Perhaps even more intriguing than the BlackBerry Torch introduction is this breaking news: Bloomberg is reporting that the three leading cell phone networks in the U.S., normally arch-rivals, are cooperating to potentially create a new smartphone payment system that could replace credit and debit cards.
AT&T, Verizon Wireless, and Deutsche Telekom’s T-Mobile USA are supposedly involved in a venture that “would let a consumer pay with the contactless wave of a smartphone.” The system, which may involve Discover Financial Services and Barclays bank as financial providers, is planned for testing in four U.S. cities.
Richard Crone of Crone Consulting, an industry consultant, told Bloomberg, “This is definitely a game-changer.” Mobile carriers, Crone said, “are the biggest recurring billers in every market. They are experts at processing payments.”
The implications of this venture are enormous. For one thing, the move directly threatens the decades-old domination of Visa and MasterCard as the only credit/debit games in town. Discover, always a credit card laggard behind these two companies and American Express, could have much to gain.
Such a capability would finally bring the United States closer to Europe and Asia in terms of sophisticated smartphone usage. Contactless technology using smartphones to make store purchases is already available in the U.K. and Japan. Retailers would probably be only too happy to accept a new payment competitor, since they have fought with Visa and MasterCard over transaction fees for years.
While the new technology applies primarily to the store environment, it has an impact in the online world as well, since mobile payments without relying on credit cards could streamline e-commerce even further.
Reportedly, Visa and MasterCard are working on their own mobile payment systems. Some banks are also testing new technology. According to Bloomberg, Citigroup launched “MasterCard PayPass” stickers in June that, when affixed to the back of a mobile phone, can be used to make a contactless payment at some 230,000 U.S. merchants. Alternative payment solutions are also being offered by a number of start-ups, including Bling Nation, Boku, and Zong.
Payment systems are just one area that will change with the advent of ever more sophisticated smartphones. QR codes, which I’ve discussed in a previous post, are another. QR codes (they resemble a square barcode) embed information that camera-enabled smartphones can read with a “QR scanner” app. Magazine ads or window signs with QR codes can be scanned to receive promotional information.
For the upcoming Fall television season, for example, the Fox network is using “Fox Codes” in magazine ads to offer viewers access to Internet-based information about the network’s shows, including videos and cast interviews. CBS is reportedly using QR codes for some of its shows as well.
“Geo-triggered” applications are also in vogue. The Android and iPhone run such applications in the background and can alert users to a specific event. For example, DailyCandy, an email newsletter for women, just implemented “Stylish Alerts” as an Android app. When a consumer is near a current local event, such as a designer sale, the app can send an alert to the shopper’s phone. The service is only available in New York City for now, but will likely be expanded to other cities.
With today’s smartphones, we are finally witnessing the convergence of mobile communications with the Internet. From a marketing perspective, this puts an individual consumer within reach, just when that consumer is ready to shop and make a purchase. Major new opportunities for retailers and online marketers alike to connect with consumers will now be available. In fact, the smartphone of the future is just around the corner. Are you ready to take advantage of it?
Read more from the original source:
Pondering The Future of Smartphones
We’re excited to announce a revamped design of three of our AdSense for content ad units! After analyzing publisher site layouts and reviewing requests around the world, we decided to make our formats more space-efficient and visually pleasing by changing the layout of the text. We spent a lot of time experimenting with different possibilities, and we’re starting with changes to the following ad units:
- Leaderboard (728×90): the title, description, and URL are now arranged in rows instead of columns (except in the case when only one ad is showing)
- Medium and large rectangles (300×250, 336×280): the URL is now in the same line as the title
In certain cases, you’ll also see a few minor adjustments to the font size. For example, the font size for the leaderboard with four ads is much more readable. Please note that these changes will roll out over the next few weeks.
During testing, the redesigned ads performed extremely well. We’ll continue to experiment and innovate on our formats to help you monetize your content, and we encourage you to submit ideas in the comments below.
More here:
A new look for AdSense for content ad units
The other day, we covered how Google is testing a new paywall system for newspaper called Newspass. But given where the newspaper industry is headed, there’s a very a plausible chance that Google is coming too late to the party.
Essentially, newspapers have struggled with their online revenues because they’ve been unable to successfully implement either a paid subscription or micropayment model on a widespread level. Google is hoping to change that with Newspass, a new a paywall system that offers users one-click access to multiple sites/networks through a single Google Account (like Google Check Out). Essentially, Google seems to be testing whether paid subscriptions and micropayments become more viable revenue models if users can manage their purchases through a single, third-party account.
As good as an idea that Newspass looks like on paper, however, the product faces quote a few challenges.
1. Google’s Non-Search Track Record
Google’s track record beyond search-related products is less than stellar. Essentially, the list of Google’s failures is long and growing, with Google Wave added to it less than a week ago. So if Google hopes to keep Newspass off of this list, it will need to ensure that a strong marketing strategy is in place.
2. Marketing Challenges
Now, Google has had some success beyond search, and Google Checkout is one example that’s particularly relevant to Newspass. But just like Google Checkout has to target both merchants and consumers, Newspass must also engage the market on two fronts simultaneously: publishers and readers.
As it stands, Newspass intends to solve a problem for publishers by catering to readers. That means that the Newspass team must successfully deploy two separate marketing strategies simultaneously. Granted, this isn’t impossible, but it does double the workload for Google.
3. Growing Digital Revenues
Newspass is set to bolster digital revenues, but many newspapers are already experiencing digital revenues growth on their own. As The Wall Street Journal reports:
Several newspaper publishers have reported solid growth in digital advertising revenue for the second quarter in recent days, helping offset continuing declines in print advertising. The New York Times, for instance, reported 21% growth in digital-ad revenue against a 6% drop in print advertising, keeping total advertising “roughly flat” with the year-earlier quarter. Digital now accounts for 26% of its total ad revenue, up from 22%.
4. Newspapers are Losing Less and Less
Even though print ad revenue has continued to fall, print might be pulling out of the nosedive. As we reported last month:
Editor & Publisher reported that even though newspaper print and online revenue dropped 9.7 percent year-over-year in Q1 2010, it was the mildest drop in three years. “The 9.7% drop compares with a 28.3% year-over-year decline in the last quarter of 2009, and a 29% drop in Q3 2009.”
Part of the cause behind these changes in newspaper ad revenues, no doubt, is that there’s just less competition. Essentially, enough of the smaller guys have gone out of business, that the largest ones (such as the NYT) have been able to capture more of the market more easily than before. But this also means that newspapers are under considerably less pressure to adopt entirely new processes — such as integrating an entirely new paid content system such as Newspass.
5. Increasing Production, Lowering Costs
Newspapers are also finding cheaper, more efficient ways of sourcing their content. For instance, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Houston Chronicle, and USA Today have started using a content farms to source content for some of their sections. This is allowing them to broaden their coverage of topics without having to invest in additional editorial infrastructure.
6. News Sources of Revenue
Many major newspapers companies are developing completely new sources of revenue by either partnering with or outright acquiring online marketing agencies. Specifically, Hearst, Gannett Newspapers, and the McClatchy company have all started offering online marketing services to advertisers in the various local markets they serve.
7. New Distribution Channels
Mobile apps are offering newspapers an entirely new distribution channel for their content, and the opportunity to bolster ad sales through mobile content is clear and present. The Globe and Mail, for instance, is already serving gets 7.5 million page views / month through its iPhone app alone, and advertising is embedded throughout each of these pages.
8. Subscription Revenue is Obsolete
Subscription fees are a revenue model designed to cover the costs of distributing content on a physical piece of paper that had to be delivered to readers’ doorstep. Online content isn’t plagued by such overhead, which is probably why online readers have been reluctant to pay for content.
With newspapers adapting to the new content marketing by adopting new advertising, production, and distribution models, they might be reluctant to try and impose such outdated costs on their readers. After all, the first newspapers to do so can risk losing their readers to any competition that holds out. After all, you can’t teach a new user and old (obsolete) trick.
9. Users Habits
There’s also considerable reason to doubt that, at this point, users will be willing to start paying for content. Essentially, users have been consuming free content for quite some time. They’ve also seen paid content models fail time and time again. So it might be impossible for newspapers and/or Google to convince users to start paying for content now.
10. Bad Blood
The relationship between newspapers and Google is a strained one at best. Essentially, many newspapers feel defrauded because they’ve received no compensation for their content appearing in Google News, but Google has made revenue off of the Adwords ads that appears alongside that Google News content. So it might be unrealistic for Google to now expect newspapers to trust them with revenue and sales data.
Early in the Game
For all the challenge’s facing Newspass, it’s still very early in the game. After all, the service is still only being tested, and only in Italy. It could very well turn out that Google doesn’t take Newspass beyond Italian borders.
Similarly, it’s just as likely that Newspass will pique the interest of many newspapers. While some newspapers cut Google out altogether, others have invested considerably in SEO.
The world of news publishing is going through so many changes, that it’s hard to tell where things will end up exactly. So like all things related to newspaper publishing, we’ll just have to wait and see what happens with Newspass.
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In today’s digital world the hottest new thing often has a lifespan that is equivalent to how long buzz about it trends on Twitter. Certain movements that were once cutting edge fall to the wayside or become part of the daily routine without much fanfare.
Blogs seem to have fallen into that element of routine. Since 2002, Technorati has indexed over 133 million blogs, and over three-fourths of all Internet users read blogs, according to Technorati’s “State of the Blogosphere 2009” report. With the wide adoption of blogging, there is rarely any buzz about blog technology itself.
Recently, however, Tumblr has managed to create some buzz worthy news boasting 25,000 new accounts daily, according to The New York Times, and serving up 1.5 billion page view monthly. For those that don’t know, Tumblr is a microblogging tool that essentially allows users to send anything quickly – including audio clips, images, videos, and of course, text. Other users can instantly “reblog” anything they receive, adding an important viral component to the service.
But Tumblr’s game is more about influence than numbers. David Karp, Tumblr’s founder, tells The Times that unlike Facebook and Twitter,
“Who is following you isn’t that important. It’s not about getting to the 10,000-follower count. It’s less about broadcasting to an audience and more about communicating with a community.”
Karp says creative expression is important on Tumblr as well – it isn’t just about publishing links to other articles and blog posts. Indeed, Tumblr offers the ability to choose from hundreds of themes or create an original theme, post virtually anything with minimal effort, create “photosets” or digital photo books, use a “Bookmarklet” to share anything you’re looking at on the Web, email or text posts from any mobile phone and, of course, publish to Facebook or automatically send a tweet.
Currently, Tumblr is gaining traction with the media because it gives them a means of communicating in a novel way with Tumblr’s primarily youthful user base. According to The New York Times, media outlets that have opened Tumblr accounts include The Atlantic, The Huffington Post, National Public Radio, Newsweek, The New Yorker, and Rolling Stone.
Alexa Cassanos, PR director for The New Yorker, told The Times that the magazine used Tumblr to promote its July 5 cover concerning the Gulf Coast oil spill. “We can highlight graphic content like photo essays or slide shows to an audience that may not read the magazine,” says Cassanos. “You just couldn’t do that, visually, on Twitter or Facebook.”
Another benefit of Tumblr for publishers is relationship building. James E. Katz, professor and Chair of the Department of Communication, Rutgers University, tells The Times that the typical interaction a publication may have had with a reader years ago was limited to a letter to the editor. Now, he says, publishers are realizing “there is a lot of expertise, wisdom and ideas in their readership.”
It may be overly simplistic to think of Tumblr as “Facebook and Twitter’s new rival,” which is what the headline of The New York Times article proclaims. But Tumblr does prove one thing: If you think you’ve seen it all in social media, just wait a minute and you’re sure to see something new.
Here is the original:
Adoption By Media Give Tumblr High Hopes
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