Media Industry Archive

A golf-tournament watching family member pointed out to me this morning that Hugo Boss has pulled off an ambush marketing coup during the last few days at the British Open, starting apparently in the first round, by parking its hi-tech sailboat in the waters off of Turnberry, Scotland, where the tourney is being played, so that the cameras are forced to pick it up. (The picture at right is not...

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Before you conclude that what follows is entirely orthogonal to the media industry, please allow me the luxury of considering a few details of what I’ve been up to lately. Bear with me, please, this may be a winding path. The past few days I was visiting the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. CalTech is up there with M.I.T. as one of the two most respected scientific...

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I’ll close the week with a news story that caught my eye this morning: that Goldman Sachs has lost a bid to sue ex-Goldman employee Michael Morgan and have his anti-Goldman blog, GoldmanSachs666.com, shut down. (Goldman Sachs is the devil? Get it?) This brought a smile to my face because, while I expect the right for a company to protect its name, in many ways, this is just silly....

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While this week began with virtually no movement in the upfront, it is ending with evidence that movement might happen soon, as strategies for both advertisers, the networks, and some alternative advertising platforms are are emerging. Here’s a recap of the chatter in the marketplace this week: In the context of a 41 percent drop in second-quarter earnings, and what it called a “very...

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Even before I was far into the latter half of the 18 to 49 demographic, I found it bizarre — and depressing — that the TV market was pretty much built on the belief that once a viewer hits the age of 50, they are worthless to TV advertisers, and therefore, the TV networks — particularly in broadcast — relentlessly cater to people between the ages of 18 to 49, and particularly to those...

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McGraw-Hill is making a big mistake. It’s trying to sell BusinessWeek as a cohesive branded entity that should command a premium price based on posterity, when in fact its content is the real prize. But selectively packaging and selling the magazine’s individual features and byline writers could collectively yield a bigger payday from Web aggregators — such as AOL’s...

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Pasadena, CA. Earlier today, during a meeting in Silicon Valley, I spoke with two exceptionally talented executives, both of whom have had long, successful careers with tech/media companies big and small, and both of whom have been extremely active online since the earliest days of the web. One is an expert in technology, whose innovations have affected users the world over; the other, a leader...

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Walt Disney holds a winning hand in a challenging economy with its predictable franchises and mostly stable revenues. The house that Mickey built represents the best case yet for why boring is good in tough times. There are six good reasons to think Disney will emerge from the recession more unscathed than its media peers, despite its dependence on consumer and advertiser spending. Disney is...

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At least a half dozen Big Media players with deep pockets are expected to bid up to $1 billion for the Travel Channel at a time when niche cable networks are among the industry’s most choice assets. Time Warner, Liberty Media, Scripps Networks Interactive, NBC Universal and Comcast could participate in a Travel Channel auction conducted by Goldman Sachs within a week now that Cox...

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One of the more interesting controversies that’s broken out lately in the media and advertising industries is the one involving ad agency holding company Interpublic Group and the decision by the new chief media prognosticator at its Magna Global unit to revamp its decades-old methodology for determining future ad spending, by industry. While lots of entities, including financial...

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