Europeans buy more online

eMarketer - The Old World takes to new ways.
Europeans have long been avid online shoppers, but according to the “Mediascope Europe 2006 Study,” sponsored by the European Interactive Advertising Association (EIAA) with research conducted by Synovate, now they are becoming online buyers.

The study found that currently 78% of European Internet users shop online. They spend an average of Eur750 and buy 10 items online over six months — which represents an increase of 11% year over year.

Comparing the different countries, online shoppers in the UK and Scandinavia spend and buy the most goods online, while Germans are online bargain seekers, buying a higher number of items at a lower cost.

Increasingly, however, savvy online shoppers throughout Europe are also using price comparison sites to help themselves find deals. Dutch online shoppers are the biggest bargain hunters, with more than half (54%) checking comparable costs online at least once a month; the Germans (50%) and the French (50%) are hot on their heels.

Auction sites are popular with online shoppers in Germany, as well as in the UK, with 62% and 49% of the users in those countries, respectively, visiting them at least once a month, compared with the European online average of 41%.

What are Europeans shopping for online? Mobile phones top the list.

The research shows that mobile phones had the largest growth in conversion rates year over year, growing at 23%, followed by music downloads, car accessories and home furnishings.

“As consumers further embrace their digital lifestyles, they are becoming more ambitious in what they choose to buy over the Internet as well as how much they spend,” said Michael Kleindl of the EIAA. “More money spent and items bought online shows that consumers are integrating online shopping into their daily lives.”

Direct Link Ads giving away 60% revenue share to website owners

Internet advertising firm Direct Link Ads has announced a massive increase in the amount of revenue it will share with advertisers.

Sparked by a huge demand for advertisers associated with travel and finance websites, the leading text link advertising firm said that advertisers would receive 60 per cent of link ad publishing revenue when cash is withdrawn, or a staggering 75 per cent when revenue is re-invested into link buying.

Publishers placing ads on their websites in this way can provide one-way links to relevant websites, gain free content and boost their search engine optimisation.

Direct Link Ads offer some of the highest revenue shares and this will only be boosted by the current strength of sterling. To find out how much you could be receiving from ads on your website, use the LinkRank calculator.

Any sites using PHP, ASP , ASP.NET C# or PERL CGI code can make use of Direct Link Ads, as can most blogs and forums.

Google Kiosk could lead to mall 2.0

paidcontent.org - Google is coming to a mall near you – and UBS Internet Analyst Benjamin Schachter is intrigued by the concept as a logical addition to its existing advertising initiatives. Last month, the search marketing giant filed a patent for an outdoor-display ad concept involving kiosks or billboards displaying audio, video, or graphical ads. Google wants to connect billboard advertising in local malls to actual products for sale in local stores, in the same way that its AdWords/AdSense network that manages contextual advertising on the web. Aside from just altering passersby to a particular sale, the “Google Kiosk” could be set up like an ATM machine and could offer coupons and other communications from stores to shoppers.

In particular, UBS analysts are intrigued by the idea integrating inventory data into the serving of ads. Ads could be displayed by a retailer looking to sell a particular item, and with routine inventory information updating, Google could stop displaying a particular ad when the item is sold out.

ClickZ compared Google’s planned display to current systems already available, noting that advertising in these screens are limited to looped, poster-type advertisements of movie promotions and other nearby events. Google’s new system could remove that burden and allow advertising and inventory cycles to move in tandem. But unlike imany of its other ventures, perhaps, Google is entering a space that’s already crowded and highly competitive. For example, last May, Publicis Groupe entered into a joint venture with Simon Property Group, the nation’s largest owner of shopping malls, to start the OnSpot Digital Network to showcase in-store ads. Whether or not Google is simply testing the waters, this is one area where the internet company might have to play catch up. The UBS report is available as a PDF.

Wikis can be successful on newspaper sites – claims Wikipedia founder

Journalism.co.uk - The founder of Wikipedia has claimed take up of wikis by mainstream media is dependent on the cultivation of communities rather than concerns about vandalism.

Jimmy Wales told Journalism.co.uk that newspaper sites could use wikis to serve as a focal point and support mechanism for communities to post news that would not normally be covered by the paper.

Issues surrounding vandalism and inaccuracy, he claimed, could be lessened with software features.

“To do a successful public wiki it really has very little to do with the software and a lot to do with people,” he said.

“The LA Times experiment with a wiki really pretty clearly failed because it didn’t bother to first cultivate a community of users.”

He added: “If newspapers think of it as a cheap way to get content then people aren’t going to appreciate that.

“But if they think of a segment of the community that it isn’t serving well and which it can’t serve well because the economics don’t work out then this new method of production means they can actually provide a new service.

“I think that would be a healthy way to look at it and it actually has a lot of potential.”

Mr Wales said he did recognise there was potential for news publishers to be open to libel should wikis run on their sites fall foul of vandals. However, he suggested that there were ways to lessen the effect of vandalism.

“One of the things we’re introducing soon is a new feature in the software to allow the community to identify the best work and flag it,” he said.

“It still allows open editing but you could also surface the best version of an article rather than the most recent if something is vandalism prone.

“Some little tweaks in the software like this one will over time make wikis more usable on things like newspapers where they have a feeling they have to be more conservative and cautious about what they are displaying to the general public.

“We’ve never worried too much about it, we come from the internet. This is a new medium and consumers are aware that although the overall product is quite good with user generated content it’s occasionally dodgy and you have to keep an eye out.”

He added that since announcing plans for Openserving, in December, Wikia had received several thousand requests to use the software.

Despite having to work through a sizable backlog of requests Mr Wales said he was hopeful of launching the much anticipated search engine project - wikiasearch - in the next three months for public testing.

“To me the idea of having a freely licensed fully transparent search engines it really cool and exciting. It has really captured peoples imagination and for me this what I intend to spend most of my time working on in the next year.

“We’re hopeful that we can at least match and perhaps surpass the quality of Google but we are going to do it with open source software and open public algorithms.

“What makes it so interesting is that it invites participation from lots of different people. It’s a brand new idea.”

70%+ Canadians see internet as first source for shopping, news, connecting

Canadian poll finds ‘bandwidth boomers’ driving the next wave of social networking

TORONTO, January 16, 2007 Teens and college students turned social networking into an international phenomenon, but a new Leger Marketing study sponsored by Kijiji Canada (www.kijiji.ca) has found that Canadian adults aren’t far behind the trend. In fact, they may be leading the charge when it comes to interacting online within their geographic community.

2007 trend-spotting reports cite a renewed importance on localization as opposed to globalization, and according to the Kijiji Canada/Leger Marketing survey, 73% of Canadians aged 30 and over rely on the Internet to search for local news and products to buy within their community, while 70% now cite the Internet as their resource of choice for finding local services, such as handymen or domestic help. This demographic is also making inroads to meeting people online: 20% say they have met someone who lives in their area online and 28% feel more “at home” in their online community than in their own neighbourhood.

In addition, the vast majority (89%) of survey respondents cited convenience, ease of use and the variety of goods they find online as opposed to more traditional sources like the Yellow Pages as reasons for turning to the Internet for so many of their daily activities.

According to Dr. John Pliniussen, Director, Queen’s Business Consulting, and Associate Professor of eMarketing, Innovation, and Sales, this is the next wave of a powerful social trend for adults and something he expects to become even more mainstream in the very near future.

“In the last six years, Internet use has more than doubled among baby boomers, and this isn’t just to send emails to family and friends or to look at pictures of their children,” says Dr. Pliniussen. “The age-group that I like to call the ‘bandwidth boomers’ are just the tip of an even bigger segment of the population that is turning to the Internet for five main activities: shopping, sharing, caring, earning and learning.”

The percentage of Boomers now using the Net is equal to that of younger demographics (13 45). Boomers constitute just under half the population, and are the wealthiest demographic segment, which presents a huge opportunity for online businesses.

Additional Survey Highlights
Online use

• Three in four Canadians older than 30 check the Internet at least once a month (73%) for products to buy, services, jobs, or community information, and over half check the Internet once a week or more (54%).
• 69% of adult Canadians have searched for local services online and 54% view community postings and events online.

Online satisfaction

• 4 in 5 Canadians older than 30 say their experiences interacting with people online have been positive, including shopping on eBay, participating in blogs or discussion boards or meeting people (83%).
• Almost 90% say that there is a good variety of goods and/or services online and 86% say it is easy to find what they are looking for online.

Regional Differences

• British Columbians are the most active, regular users of community websites, as 61% use the Internet once a week or more to search for jobs, products to buy or other local community information.
• Ontario cites the highest rate of searches for products to buy online, at 40%.
• Quebeckers have the highest preference for online classifieds, as 43% would choose online classifieds, even if newspaper classified ads were free.
• Not surprisingly, more than one-third of Albertans look for part-time or temporary jobs online (35%) and one-quarter look for apartments online (25%).

About the Survey
The survey was conducted for Kijiji Canada by Leger Marketing, a Canadian representative of the Gallup International Association, from December 13 18, 2006, with a representative sample of 1,000 Canadians over the age of 30. The survey is considered accurate within +/3.1%, 19 times out of 20.

Most-read lists now a major feature on papers’ websites

Vancouver Sun:

For Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2007, the most e-mailed story from the New York Times website was entitled Appreciations: Mr. Noodle.

It was a sentimental eulogy of the recently deceased Momofuku Ando, inventor of instant ramen noodles.

The second most e-mailed story in the Times website was Happiness 101, about a class at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., on how to make yourself happier.

The third was Hot Stuff, about the gaudy new range of silicon kitchen utensils.

This ranking was offered, as it always is now by the Times, in the bottom right-hand corner of its Web page, in the section called Most Popular. It ranks the top 10 most e-mailed stories, the top 10 most blogged stories and the top 10 most researched stories.

As such, it’s a kind of barometer, though of what exactly is not clear.

That a story is the most e-mailed does not make it the most important, or that with the most impact. It does not even make it the most widely read, though it could be argued that the universality of the Web increases the odds that the most e-mailed story would have the best chance of reaching the greatest number of readers.

But what is clear about the Times list is the nature of the stories that dominate it.

The majority of them are almost all what a serious newspaper editor would call fluff, or even more tellingly, “human interest.”

They’re apolitical. They’re quirky, even screwball. They have what I call an “ah-h-h” factor — that sigh of relief a reader makes when he or she finds something in the paper to leaven the heavy, if necessary, fare of crime, war and policy issues.

Animals figure big in these stories, but so do stories on nature, cosmology, history, cuisine, art, culture and sometimes even the travails of real live human beings. (And so, too, do the stories of real dead human beings. On our Web page here at The Sun, said managing editor Kirk LaPointe, the obituaries are always among the most highly read parts of the website. That sensibility put reporter John Mackie’s terrific obit on Yvonne De Carlo on today’s front page.)

In the spirit of interactivity that the Web encourages, the habit of including most-read lists has spread among larger North American newspaper websites. (True to form, the Los Angeles Times most-read selections for Wednesday’s paper included a story about the increased use of Prozac to decrease anxiety in pets.) I’m not sure what this says about newspaper readers these days, or what it should tell newspaper editors about what people want to read. There is the danger that, in trying to stanch circulation losses, editors can read too much into it.

“You can’t design a newspaper on a feedback loop alone,” LaPointe said, arguing that while it is no surprise readers are drawn to quirky stories, newspapers have to strike a balance between entertainment and sobriety. A steady diet of cats on Prozac would leave a bad taste in the mouth, and ruin a paper’s reputation as a reliable news source. On the other hand, there is a case to be made that newspapers have become too sober.

In a 1997 study entitled American Journalism and the Decline in Event-Centered Reporting (and thanks to UBC assistant professor of journalism Mary-Lynn Young for bringing it to my attention), authors Kevin Barnhurst and Diana Mutz found that over the past century, news stories in American newspapers grew longer, more analytical and were less about individuals but more about groups and officials.

In other words, newspapers have become more abstract, better researched but less interested in the immediate human experience. Newspapers have gone wonk-ish.

“Instead of moulding and shaping stories,” Barnhurst and Metz concluded, “the new long journalism fabricates other things: abstract themes, expert analyses, and discouraging problems . . . Among the many consequences of the shift to interpretive and thematic news, one may be the most ironic of all: that the new long journalism makes news about ordinary people more appealing.”

Did you know Momofuku Ando invented instant ramen noodles in 1958 because he wanted cheap, nourishing food for the working class? Did you know he died at the age of 96? Did you know 100 million people a day dine on his invention, and that according to the New York Times, he has earned “an eternal place in the pantheon of human progress?”

What newspaper reader, starved for the human touch, wouldn’t devour a story like that?

e-commerce hits all-time high in 2006

Raising the ceiling, raising the bar, raising the ante (here).

E-commerce revenues for one year over $100 billion?

Yup.

That’s what happened last year, 2006.

A barrier has been broken.

Maybe, finally, people will forget all about that little bubble burst around the turn of the century and admit that e-commerce is for real — and it is going to just keep growing. Almost anyone who sells anything should be selling (at least part of what they sell) online.

Holiday sales made the point, emphatically.

Most researchers who track the retail industry in the US put overall 2006 holiday sales at between 2.5% and 3.5% above last year, the slowest pace of growth in two years, blaming the lackluster season on weather (either too warm or too snowy), falling home prices and rising energy costs.

The exception to the rule was online sales.

According to comScore Networks, online sales for 12 days during the November/December holiday season surpassed the $600 million mark — each day.

Wednesday, December 13, marked the heaviest online spending day of 2006 with $667 million spent, followed by Monday, December 11 ($661 million), and Monday, December 4 ($648 million).

By comparison, just six days in 2005 reached $500 million in online sales, with the top day, Monday, December 12, registering $556 million.

In total, 2006 online holiday e-commerce sales (not counting travel revenues) reached $24.6 billion, up 26% over 2005.

For the full year, 2006 online retail spending reached $102.1 billion, a 24% increase vs. 2005.

“2006 was certainly an exceptional year for online retailers,” said Gian Fulgoni, chairman of comScore Networks. “The online holiday shopping season of course played a vital role in the year’s success, as spending accelerated during the final two months of the year, helping push total online retail spending over the $100 billion threshold.”

What will 2007 bring?

To see what is ahead for e-commerce north of the border, read eMarketer’s recently published Canada B2C E-Commerce report.

Internet ad spending to reach $20 billion this year

Market research firm eMarketer has predicted that online ad spending will reach a staggering $20 billion in 2007 (here).This figure represents an increase of 19 per cent compared to 2006 figures and is one of ten key predictions for the coming year made by eMarketer.

Massive online sales at Christmas exceeded analysts’ expectations and so the sharp rise predicted by the firm is certainly on the cards.

In fact, a rise of 19 per cent is down from the 30 per cent or more seen in the past few years but is still far greater than the 1.4 per cent growth predicted for the US advertising sector as a whole.

Other trends identified by eMarketer for 2007 include the increased prominence of online video ads, which consumers tend to actively seek out, growing social networks and more video game downloads.

User-generated content is also expected to make its way on to mobile TV, which will become more prominent over the course of the year.

Other predictions include an increase in Hispanic and African-American internet users, more b2c e-commerce, more user interactivity, the increase of voice over internet protocol services and broadband, and changes to TV viewing and its associated advertising.

Separate research from eMarketer found that gay, lesbian and bisexual internet users are more likely to use social networking sites than heterosexuals.

Search ads to be spiced up

Internet search ads are due to get a makeover to make them more interesting in the coming months, according to experts (here).

American advertisers are expecting a greater variety of ads on the internet this year, the Wall Street Journal reports, including those designed to engage the consumer more.

“They are putting less emphasis on traditional TV and print ads and instead experimenting with a variety of new techniques – including amateur-style videos posted on YouTube and traditional video commercials on the web,” Brian Steinberg and Suzanne Vranica write.

One particular trend they predict is the jazzing up of search ads – currently not the most imaginative of internet advertisements. Usually they comprise a clickable link with the company name and some accompanying words of text.

This year, however, search ads are likely to become more sophisticated and creative as advertisers tie them back to larger ad campaigns.

Google’s head of north American sales, Penry Price, told the Wall Street Journal that the phrases used in a certain search ad could echo those used in a larger TV or radio spot.

This will “remind them of what they’ve seen maybe on television or what they’ve heard on the radio or what they’ve seen in newspapers or magazines,” he said.

Other trends that are likely to continue into 2007 include putting ads on the sites of well-known bloggers so that they carry an extra authority.

As consumers shun the high street and flock to the web to make purchases, the opportunities for online advertisers are growing rapidly.

e-commerce to gather more speed in 2007

This year is likely to see e-commerce gaining even more forward momentum, according to information management firm hybris (here).

New technologies, better accessibility to websites, improved usability, the growth of Web 2.0 products and greater integration with physical stores are all likely to have a positive impact and build on the strong online sales figures witnessed over the Christmas period.

hybris chief executive Ariel Ludi commented: “Many new technologies are coming on-stream ready for 2007 and end-user and business trends mean that the convergence of these will see a massive drive for e-commerce in 2007.

“Many consumers are willing to adopt new technologies as the benefits of online shopping become widely recognised; this, along with the willingness of retailers and businesses to try to push out new types of service will see many new types of e-commerce emerging in the market.”

Future trends identified by hybris include One-Page-checkout facilities, leading to better usability; greater community and user input; increased use of virtual sales catalogues with intuitive turning of pages; increased accessibility of digital downloads; and more cross-selling between partners.

It is certainly an exciting time to be involved in internet advertising, as more and more blue chip firms allocate larger sums to online campaigns, while services such as Google’s AdWords and Microsoft’s Office Live make it easier for small companies to capture a share of the market too.

NBC’s approach to social networking: integrated, not standalone destinations

An interesting post by Sab Kanaujia, VP in NBC’s Digital Media group, on his blog, about NBC’s approach to social networking.

He mentions that the company views it as integral to all its online extension, and not necessarily as standalone destinations. This is interesting in light of a few things: the company has looked closely at some of the startups in the space, including the flirtation with Tribe.net earlier last year. That was mainly for buying the technology. (here)

He writes that the decision was made to internally build the platform grounds up…the decision not to buy was mainly due to “integration challenges and the inability of most of 3rd party social networking destinations to scale, a key aspect for a large media firm like ours.”

Then, the standalone destination debate: “NBCU is building a core social networking platform that will provide various tools and functionality on all our major properties…we’re not launching separate stand-alone destination(s), ala MySpace, Facebook, etc….There is no reason why users should go to/create The Office community on MySpace when NBCU has the competitive advantage and the ability to provide a differentiated experience on NBC.com (e.g., get cast members involved, exclusive content, etc). We’ll also work on creatively linking 3rd party communities for NBCU shows/movies to our official communities.”

And this approach sounds rational in theory, though some holes in this line of reasoning: how do you get users to go to the TV sites in the first place, when they’re aggregated on other sites like MySpace, YouTube and others? TV cross promotion is one, I suppose. Secondly, in NBC’s case, iVillage will serve as a funnel. And then, a hybrid approach of partnership (NBC with YouTube) to drive traffic from destination sites. And then of course, allowing users to take elements of NBC’s shows and embed in their own blogs, pages etc.

All in all, continued dual progression of social networking as a platform technology and continued widgetization of media.

Executives predict the future of online advertising

As 2007 arrives, the New York Times has asked a range of leading internet advertising figures what they think the future holds for the online world.

According to the experts, upcoming trends include more user-generated ads as well as those targeted more specifically to the individual. This will mean that consumers may soon be seeing adverts that differ from those seen by their neighbours.

Social networking will also play a major part on websites and intranets, the experts predict, and user-generated tools will become more commonplace too. Symbolic of this trend is the news that the founder of Wikipedia is to launch an ‘open-edit‘ search engine, to be funded by ads in much the same way as Google.

The new year is also likely to see a more socially responsible consumer emerge, with clued-up individuals questioning what certain brands stand for and asking what they can learn from them.

And as they become more aware of brand values and processes, the consumer is to be invited more often to contribute to the creation of commercials. Brand consultant Allen P Adamson of Landor Associates said: “Consumers are demanding and getting a seat at the table and defining what the brand experience is about.”

Personalised advertising will see web analytics used to target specific consumers with highly relevant ads, which will greatly increase the all-important click-through rate.

As well as this, a predicted increase in broadband uptake will allow advertisers to be more creative with their commercials as users are able to handle bigger downloads.

According to Internet World Stats, more than a billion people around the world use the internet.

Online advertisers change tactics

Unlike TV or radio, the internet is a relatively new arena for advertisers. With the clever consumer knowing how to block the advertisers’ pop-ups, companies are having to find new ways to sell their products online.

If you have the money, you can buy a totally immersive interactive online experience.

Makers of the American TV series Lost have created an entire online game based on the programme.

The game is spread across the web, involving fake websites for fake companies, as well as fake interviews and adverts which are then spread through online community sites like YouTube.

Some of the game’s sites have even attracted big sponsors, hoping the hype around the game will draw people to the secret pages.

Sometimes you can create an online furore purely by accident. The new Samuel L Jackson movie Snakes on a Plane picked up an enormous following online before the movie was even made.

It spawned a torrent of spoof ads, and spin-off suggestions, including Snakes in a Minivan and Foxes in a Canoe.

But instead of shying away from the unintended hype, the studio embraced it - even incorporating some of the fans’ suggested script lines into the final movie.

Of course, films and TV shows can build loyal online fan bases which can effectively become publicity machines themselves.

Bloggers’ endorsement

Everyday products, however, need a little more help with the hype.

Some advertisers are considering enlisting the help of popular blogs to spread their message.

Writing a cheque to a search engine is not terribly creative; this is not why advertising agencies have creative departments Technology journalist Tim Phillips

So-called blogvertising involves paying respected bloggers to endorse products, but is that really in the spirit of what a blog is?

“The whole thing defeats itself,” said technology journalist Tim Phillips.

“Either they don’t say that they’ve been paid, in which case it becomes a time bomb and it immediately self-destructs if it comes out that they’ve been paid to do it.

“Or they do say they’ve been paid, in which case they lose the respect of the community they’ve built up.”

In a web where pop-up windows are blocked, more advanced methods are needed to make adverts run in web pages.

The pop-up window has been replaced by overlays, which take over the whole web page.

Overlays cannot be blocked in the same way, because they are actually built in to the web page you are looking at.

It is just a case of finding the close button, if there is one.

Search advertising

But the largest area of online advertising does not involve fancy graphics or comic ideas - it is simply a case of paying a search engine to associate your product with search keywords.

“It’s the dirty secret of online advertising,” said Mr Phillips. “This is the stuff that really works, and the reason it works is because if you search for something on Yahoo! or Google then you actively want it, and these are the people you want to be putting your advertising in front of.”

“Unfortunately, writing a cheque to a search engine is not terribly creative; this is not why advertising agencies have creative departments.

“So it does not really get talked about a great deal, but it really works and you can measure it works as well.”

However, search advertising is becoming an overcrowded area, and ad agencies are looking for ways to get their clients turning up in the natural search results.

“Marketers can pay to be in the right hand side of the Google page. That’s paid advertising, also known as pay-for-click,” said Fadi Shuman of Pod1 Media Solutions, a web development company.

“However, the ideal place to be is in the centre of the search results, and the way to achieve that is through search engine optimisation. To optimise your site so it’s as highly visible to search engines as possible requires a number of different skills - editing content, adding links, etc.”

Social marketing

Search advertising is where most online ad money is spent, something which has helped Google negotiate a $900m (£470m) deal to become search engine of choice for social-networking site MySpace.

This will give advertisers access to that hard-to-crack youth market, which seems to be a law unto itself.

Users of MySpace typically ignore traditional adverts and meet to discuss the latest trends and fads, creating their own hype, something that has been credited with launching pop group the Arctic Monkeys without any other publicity.

“When it comes to online advertising you cannot underestimate the power of social networks,” said Fadi Shuman.

“Millions and millions of users are building communities within communities on these networks. They’re global, they’re unstoppable, and they’re big, big money to marketers if they know how to communicate with them.”

The web is by far the fastest growing advertising medium, but with so many web pages out there, the chance of us happening upon a particular brand or website is pretty small.

Advertisers are hoping that search, and social networking, will help point us towards their carefully crafted ads.

Otherwise, all that creative investment is just going to go to waste.

Newspapers need to look at personal needs to seek info

US Newspaper companies need to embrace change or they will fade away - according to an industry observer.

“The land rush is on. Google and Yahoo! know this, they know about [the importance of] local.

“In the average day people want to know about local stuff,” Stephen Gray, director of Newspaper Next initiative of the American Press Institute, told the Media Giraffe Project.

“Newspapers are uniquely positioned to capture this land rush, but not if they don’t grasp the opportunity.”

Mr Gray opened the inaugural Media Giraffe Project conference at University of Massachusetts, Amherst, US, by telling delegates the US newspaper industry was under threat from ‘disruptive innovation’ - technological developments that could cause readers to seek alternative sources of information.

He quoted from a Newspaper Next survey of newspaper managers that found that 72 per cent of them did not know how to change their business to accommodate the digital age.

“It is clear the industry does not know what it needs to do next,” said Mr Gray.

To prosper in the future, newspapers needed not to fear technological innovation and to better understand what kind of information readers were seeking.

He said: “Newspapers need to be looking at the individual and think ‘what is going on in this individual’s life that requires them to seek information’.”

He recommended a need for traditional media companies to sustain core products while embracing and developing their own new ‘disruptive’ products that responded to information needs of the public.

He told the conference that the Newspaper Next initiative was working on seven demonstration projects with major publishers throughout the US.

These included a project with the North Jersey Media Group to rethink its approach to the web and broaden its audience and a plan to put The Oregonian in touch with ‘urban creatives’ in the state, who traditionally did not rely on the newspaper for information.

He added that disruptive products were an opportunity to expand the public reach of newspaper business, which it needed to do if it wished to increase or maintain its readership.

“It would pain me to see the vast resources that newspapers have just piddled away into insignificance.”

He added: “I just don’t want to see those things get thrown away.”

Commenters’ blog included - technocrati

The Associated Press (AP) and blog search engine Technorati have initiated a service to connect bloggers to nearly 500 US newspaper websites.

The service is intended to present blog comment alongside AP national, international, business and sports news to 440 local paper websites throughout the US - such as the Buffalo News and the Sun Journal.

When readers visit websites carrying AP News, they can click a box containing the five most blogged about AP articles from the previous 48 hours.

A box also appears alongside each AP article with links to related blogs.

If readers comment about a particular story they can get mentioned next to that article by linking its news URL in their blog - a function that already exists on larger news sites such as Washington Post and Newsweek.

Peter Hirshberg, of Technorati, said: “We’re delighted to be working with the AP and thrilled that blogger voices will now be heard in several hundred local online news organizations across the USA.

“I believe that this is a deep validation of the power of citizen media and how each person is gaining more power - power to have their opinions and thoughts heard, in a truly democratic process.

“Increasingly, what the blogosphere says about a news story becomes part of a more complete story, lending diverse perspectives and often expert commentary.”

BBC opens news archives

BBC News announced a breakthrough recently by opening its news archive to the public under a Creative Commons-like license.

Available only to UK residents, the news archive currently houses around 80 clips of many of the top stories of the past 50 years, including the uprising in Tiananmen Square, the fall of the Berlin Wall and other landmark events.

Users can then use this footage to create new works that build on the existing BBC material, without fear of reprisals from the British media giant. The license utilized, BBC’ own Creative Archive license, is similar to the Creative Commons license, with stipulations for non-commercial, non-endorsement use, as well as for share-alike and attribution usage.

Although the offerings are currently small, opening the archive is another step forward for the BBC following their move last fall to allow users to remix BBC content. Free to use.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/calc/news/index.shtml

Reuters offers free breaking news video

Free breaking news video player for your site: Reuters Video



If you have not yet seen the new free news video player from Reuters, you should certainly give a good look at it. Launched this week, this Flash-based video player can be integrated within any web site or blog in a matter of seconds providing your readers with the ability to watch the latest Reuters video stories as they break, directly on your web pages.

Just apply, and receive via email a snippet of code to place inside your next article or within the template of all your web site pages. That is right: you can place and display the news video player on as many pages as you want, while Reuters keeps all maintenance, publishing and bandwidth costs for itself.

The Reuters news video player has up to 20 of the latest breaking stories from around the world which your readers can watch right in the context of your page. No pop-ups, no software installs. The Reuters video news player is free though it, next to news items, it may display some advertising.
http://labs.reuters.com/video/

Are heterosexual Internet users antisocial?

Put another way (and paraphrasing the old Breck’s television campaign), do straights have less fun? Well, online, at least, maybe so…. (here)

The results of a recent survey commissioned by Witeck-Combs Communications and conducted by Harris Interactive suggest that online social network sites are more popular with gay, lesbian and bisexual (GLB) Internet users than they are with heterosexual Web surfers.

An online survey of over 2,500 US adults (ages 18 and older) showed that, proportionately, GLB Internet users visit social networking sites Friendster and MySpace more often in an average week than do heterosexual Internet usrs, with Facebook used about equally by the two groups.

Additionally, 27% of GLB Internet users reported that they visit YouTube for an hour or so each week, compared with 22% of heterosexual respondents.

GLB respondents to the survey were also slightly more likely to visit Craigslist, with 20% spending around an hour each week there, compared with 13% of heterosexual Internet users.

Overall, GLB Internet users spend significantly more time online than their heterosexual counterparts, according to the survey results. Excluding e-mail usage, nearly twice as many GLB respondents (32%) said they are online between 24 and 168 hours a week, compared with only 18% of heterosexual Internet users who reported the same.

“We have consistently benchmarked strong online usage by the gay community,” said Bob Witeck, CEO of Witeck-Combs. “Social networks also appear to be second nature for the gay and lesbian consumer [and] that translates directly into significant market opportunities.”

For more on social networking site opportunities, read eMarketer’s Social Network Marketing: Ad Spending Update report.

Online video becomes a real business

Welcome to the MoneyTube (here).

eMarketer estimates that more than one-third of the total US population ages 3 and older viewed video on the Internet at least monthly during 2006, and in three years more than half of all Americans will be part of the online video audience.

“At this point, nearly 60% of all Internet users watch video regularly, and that share will increase to over 80% by the end of 2010,” said David Hallerman, eMarketer senior analyst and the author of the new Internet Video Audience report.

There were will be 108 million US Internet video users this year, and 157 million by 2010.

But do millions of viewers constitute a market?

According to “The Video Store Goes Virtual: The Global Outlook for Online Video Sales” report from Strategy Analytics, yes, online sales of television shows, movies and other prerecorded video products will become a billion-dollar business — next year.

Although video-download sales made through iTunes and other online sources will total just $298 million this year, Strategy Analytics predicts that by the end of 2007 the online video market will grow to $1.5 billion.

“2007 will be remembered as the year in which online sales of prerecorded video finally become a real business,” said Martin Olausson of Strategy Analytics. “Just like with music, online delivery of video content is now emerging as a viable and increasingly important distribution channel for content owners.”

By 2010, the report estimates that global revenues from online video sales, rentals and subscriptions will reach $5.9 billion, and account for 8% of total home video industry revenues.

Although pay-to-own downloads account for most online video revenues today, other payment models will emerge. By 2010, Strategy Analytics projects that rentals and subscription-based services will account for about one-quarter of annual online video sales to consumers.

For more on this subject, read eMarketer’s recently released Internet Video Audience report.

Americans continue to leave newspapers for other media

Americans Gobbling Up Media

‘I want my media!’

The TV and MTV generations (and that includes almost all of us now) are not satisfied with one channel any longer — we have become multi-channel media omnivores.

In fact, when you add it all up, according to the data in the new “Statistical Abstract of the United States: 2007,” from the US Census Bureau, Americans spend more time every day consuming media than they do eating.

According to the Census Bureau, Americans spend nearly half their lives with TV, radio, the Internet and newspapers — often using more than one at a time.

In the US, adults and teens will spend nearly five months (3,518 hours) next year watching television, surfing the Internet, reading daily newspapers and listening to personal music devices.

The report states: “People will spend 65 days in front of the TV, 41 days listening to radio and a little over a week on the Internet in 2007. Adults will spend about a week reading a daily newspaper and teens and adults will spend another week listening to recorded music.”

That means every day next year, on average, Americans will spend almost 10 hours watching television, surfing the Internet, reading books, newspapers and magazines and listening to music.

“The demand for information and entertainment seems almost insatiable,” James Rutherfurd of Veronis Suhler Stevenson told The New York Times.

Here is how the typical American’s media day breaks down. He or she will spend nearly four and a half hours watching television, two and a half hours listening to radio and a half hour listening to recorded music. The other two and a half hours will be spent reading newspapers, surfing the Internet, playing video games and doing other reading.

Obviously, the amount of time Americans spent on media every year is rising, from 3,340 hours in 2000 to 3,543 hours last year — and that figure is projected to rise to 3,620 hours in 2010.

The time spent with each media category varies. Americans spend less time watching broadcast television, which dropped from 793 hours a year in 2000 to 679 hours in 2005, and more time on the Internet, which rose from 104 hours a year in 2000 up to 183 hours in 2005.

Not surprisingly, Americans spend money consuming all that media.

Consumer spending for media is forecast to be $936.75 per US citizen next year.

Of course, media is not the only thing Americans consume.

The report found that Americans drink about a gallon of soda a week, along with a half-gallon each of milk, bottled water, coffee and beer. Which helps explain why two-thirds of us are overweight, including one-third who are obese.

Dessert Item

Looking back at Internet activity in 2005, the report found that, among US adults, 97 million Internet users sought news online in 2005, 92 million purchased products and 91 million made travel reservations. About 16 million used social or professional networking sites and 13 million created blogs.

If reading this article has made you hungry for more on media consumption, you may enjoy reading eMarketer’s new Internet Video Audience report.

Online video becomes a real business

Welcome to the MoneyTube (here).

eMarketer estimates that more than one-third of the total US population ages 3 and older viewed video on the Internet at least monthly during 2006, and in three years more than half of all Americans will be part of the online video audience.

“At this point, nearly 60% of all Internet users watch video regularly, and that share will increase to over 80% by the end of 2010,” said David Hallerman, eMarketer senior analyst and the author of the new Internet Video Audience report.

There were will be 108 million US Internet video users this year, and 157 million by 2010.

But do millions of viewers constitute a market?

According to “The Video Store Goes Virtual: The Global Outlook for Online Video Sales” report from Strategy Analytics, yes, online sales of television shows, movies and other prerecorded video products will become a billion-dollar business — next year.

Although video-download sales made through iTunes and other online sources will total just $298 million this year, Strategy Analytics predicts that by the end of 2007 the online video market will grow to $1.5 billion.

“2007 will be remembered as the year in which online sales of prerecorded video finally become a real business,” said Martin Olausson of Strategy Analytics. “Just like with music, online delivery of video content is now emerging as a viable and increasingly important distribution channel for content owners.”

By 2010, the report estimates that global revenues from online video sales, rentals and subscriptions will reach $5.9 billion, and account for 8% of total home video industry revenues.

Although pay-to-own downloads account for most online video revenues today, other payment models will emerge. By 2010, Strategy Analytics projects that rentals and subscription-based services will account for about one-quarter of annual online video sales to consumers.

For more on this subject, read eMarketer’s recently released Internet Video Audience report.

Canadian online retail spending to double by 2009

There are signs that Canada’s slow-to-develop retail e-commerce market is finally gaining momentum. Not only are more Canadians buying online, in a wider array of categories, a number of large retail chains and smaller, specialized retailers have launched online stores in Canada over the past year.
Attention: Online Marketers, Advertising Agencies, Retailers and Software, Hardware and Internet Providers.

The Canada B2C E-Commerce report analyzes the forces that are — finally — opening up the Canadian online retail market.

Statistics Canada found that 57% of Internet users like to window shop online, while a quarter less are willing to buy online. But Canadians are relatively comfortable buying services such as event tickets and travel reservations online, and comScore reported that experienced online shoppers up North are now venturing into expensive product categories.

In fact, Canadians are poised to double their online spending for retail goods from $8 billion this year to $16 billion by 2009.

Key questions the “Canada B2C E-Commerce” report answers:

• What is the current state of Canada’s retail e-commerce market?
• How large is the market currently?
• What is the potential size of the market?
• What critical factors are driving Canadian e-commerce?
• What factors are still holding development back?
• And many others…

eMarketer Reports—On-Target and Up-to-Date

The Canada B2C E-Commerce report aggregates the latest data from leading marketing and communications researchers with eMarketer numbers, projections and analysis to provide the information you need to make the right business decision — right when you need to.

10 key predictions for 2007

eMarketer’s 10 Key Predictions for 2007

JANUARY 2, 2007

What to watch for in 2007….

• Online Ad Spending Will Hit $20 Billion
• Some Money and Lots of Hype for Online Video Advertising
• Social Networks Are Set for a $1 Billion Windfall
• Downloadable Games Will Get Hotter
• Thirty-Seven Million Strong: A ‘Minority’ Bigger than Canada
• Mobile TV Arrives
• US B2C E-Commerce Will Cruise Past $200 Billion
• The Retail Power of Word-of-Mouth
• Broadband Services Will Matter as Much as Speed
• DVRs Pump Up TV Viewing

Online Ad Spending
Total US spending on Internet advertising will reach at least $19.5 billion in 2007. This is 19% more than total spending in 2006. This rate of growth is sharply down from the 30% or more that has been the norm for several years. However, even this reduced level of year-on-year growth would be considered spectacular for most industries. With total US advertising spending projected to grow by a mere 1.4% in 2007, the shift to the Internet is clearly set to maintain its heady momentum in 2007.

Online Video Advertising
Internet video advertising will get more media play than dollars in 2007. eMarketer projects that spending on this format will total $775 million in 2007. To put this figure in perspective, remember that it represents only 4.0% of projected US online ad spending. Although marketers are increasingly keen on including video in their online ad campaigns, they will continue to face a shortage of appropriate premium placements.

Social Networks
Worldwide ad spending on online social networks should top $1 billion in 2007, up from an estimated $445 million this year. Fueling this growth will be factors such as international expansion, “niche” networks and Google’s deal to supply search technology to MySpace.

Video Game Downloads
Digital downloading of video games will take off in 2007, and by 2010 this distribution method will account for 22% of all worldwide game software revenues. Besides online stores pushing the new generation of games consoles, look for Time Warner’s GameTap service to position itself as the HBO of PC gaming, focusing on original content to drive its subscription service. Video-on-demand (VOD) marketers may find their skills in demand for promoting these platforms, which play on subscriber taste for instant gratification via download.

Hispanic and African-American Internet Users
The number of African-American and Hispanic Internet users in the US will rise to 37 million, from 35 million in 2006. This market will continue to grow faster than the total US online population for several more years, giving advertisers with the imagination to reach out to them fresh opportunities. (The population of Canada is 33 million.)

Mobile TV
Mobile TV took its first baby steps in 2006 with professional content. The World Cup offered a first glimpse of what the broadcasting future for mobile might look like, and in 2007 another crucial element will be added to the mobile-TV mix — user-generated content (CGC). Given the impact the Web equivalent of this development has had in 2006, advertisers and marketers are likely to face a dizzying array of new choices.

US B2C E-Commerce
US B2C online sales will comfortably pass the $200 billion mark in 2007, reaching a new record total, which eMarketer projects will be $223 billion. Online retail sales will account for $132 billion of this, with online travel accounting for $91 billion. Some of the impetus for this growth will come from existing online buyers increasing their spending. A significant force driving online travel sales is the demand from travel-loving and relatively affluent baby boomers.

Word-of-Mouth
The influence of consumer generated content (CGC) on US consumers’ purchase decisions will continue to grow in 2007. A recent study from market research firm Compete found that consumers were more likely to be swayed by CGC than by information coming directly from brand advertisers and marketers.

Broadband Services
When broadband emerged, it was distinguished from dial-up by its always-on nature and the greater bandwidth available to users. These characteristics were seen as reason enough to trade up from dial-up. Now, however, broadband is about value-added services and is driven by providers bundling voice, video and data together. Services such as voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) are approaching the 30% penetration range. eMarketer predicts that one in four broadband households in 2007 will subscribe to a VoIP service, rising to nearly 40% of broadband households by 2010.

DVRs and TV Viewing
The alarmist claims that digital video recorders (DVRs) and video-on-demand (VOD) would cause the death of TV and the loss of billions of dollars worth of advertising dollars are increasingly looking just plain wrong. TV distribution and access are changing and audiences are increasingly fragmented. However, every challenge presents an opportunity. More people will watch more TV and video content in the future, not less. They will just be doing so in different ways — via the TV, the Internet, the PC and their portable devices. eMarketer predicts that VOD will be in 30% of US TV households by the end of 2007 and that DVRs will be in 30% of TV households by 2009.

Peak online shopping hours: 9 to 5

I don’t have time for a meeting now, I’m shopping.’ (here)

In the early days of the Internet, the overwhelming majority of online shoppers logged on from work. The reason was simple. They had access to high-speed connections at work, but not from home (where most were still on dial-up), so shopping was easier and quicker from the workplace.

Now things are different.

According to the latest figures from the USC Annenberg School Center for the Digital Future, more homes in the US now connect with broadband than by dial-up.

So why are shoppers still going online from work?

Despite the proliferation of high-speed Internet connections in US homes, a new survey from CyberSource shows that most e-commerce shopping happens during work hours.

CyberSource found that the peak shopping hour on a recent high-volume week (December 3 through December 9, during the critical online holiday shopping season) was 1 pm Pacific time (4 pm Eastern time) — work hours by anyone’s definition.

On the other hand, online transactions hit their low point between the hours of 11 pm and 4 am Pacific time (2 am and 7 am Eastern time). After that, as employees began going in to work on the East Coast and then across the nation, shopping volumes also began climbing to their midday peak.

The survey found a marked difference between workdays and weekends, too. The highest-volume online shopping days were Monday and Tuesday, while Saturday and Sunday had the lowest volumes.

“We’ve all seen the numbers — broadband is now in two-thirds of American homes equipped for the Internet,” said Doug Schwegman of CyberSource. “But our processing stats say the majority of people are still doing their online shopping from the office.”

The survey did indicate some change. The difference between the highest- and lowest-volume hours is diminishing.

For instance, in the same week in 2004, the difference between the lowest and the highest number of transactions was approximately 300%. In 2006, that difference had decreased to roughly 160%.

“The graphs are flattening — albeit with much higher numbers. Online shopping is not only getting bigger, it’s becoming more of a 24-hour phenomenon,” said Mr. Schwegman.

For more of the retail picture online, read eMarketer’s Online Holiday Shopping Preview report.

Survey: 95% of shoppers check online deals

ShopLocal Survey, Says 95% of Shoppers Check Online Deals

Chicago, Illinois - (Cheap Web Hosting Directory) - January 5, 2007 - A new survey from ShopLocal, reports that consumers who visit retail web sites, are likely to shop and spend more at local stores. According to the multi-channel shopping service firm, the survey of 37,500 people underscores the prevalence of the Internet as a shopping research tool.

In the survey, 69 percent of those asked, said they made an in-store purchase after gathering information on products via online advertising circulars compared with 27 percent who bought items over the Internet after viewing the online ads. The majority of respondents (56 percent) went to the online advertising circulars specifically to browse sales and discounts before purchasing and another 35 percent cited new specials piqued their interest.

There was some variance from category to category with respondents indicating they glanced through the advertisements for less costly items, such as comparing groceries and beauty specials, but when it came to big-ticket items such as a consumer electronic product, people often used the online advertising circulars to research and compare specific items before visiting their local stores.

Bob Armour, Chief Marketing Officer for ShopLocal opined, ”The power of the Internet has improved the quality and quantity of today’s shopping experience, both for online purchasing and local in-store shopping. Online purchasing offers convenience but lacks the social aspects of in-store shopping, such as seeing, feeling and holding items and it offers the greatest satisfaction of walking away with something right away and having it in-hand.”

ShopLocal conducted the online survey from October 26 through December 5, 2006. The survey covered 32 retailers across five major categories: consumer electronics, food/beverage and health/beauty, home and garden, mass merchant and office supplies. Over 37,500 shoppers who went to the retailers’ web sites responded to the survey. In a press release distributed last month, ShopLocal also reported an 84% increase from last year in visits to online circulars on November 24th’s ”Black Friday,” one of the holiday season’s busiest shopping days, as consumers took advantage of finding online ads early in the day to help them pinpoint bargains available at local offline retailers.

Mr. Amour continued, ”The conclusion to draw is that the Internet in general is becoming a mainstream source of information for consumers, and specifically, the online circular is becoming a must-have resource for shoppers and retailers. The more frequently shoppers use these circulars the more likely they are to visit a store in the near future.”

ShopLocal provides consumers and retailers with a comprehensive marketplace for multi-channel shopping and advertising. With ShopLocal.com (http://www.shoplocal.com) and The ShopLocal Network - made up of more than 200 affiliate media, search and shopping sites - consumers have access to a source of information on millions of products from local stores side-by-side with online options. With ShopLocal’s SmartCircular, SmartCatalog, SmartMedia and MyStore services, retailers can distribute localized sales and promotional advertising, wherever their customers are on the Web. ShopLocal is owned by Gannett Co, Inc, Tribune Company and The McClatchy Company who also invest in other joint ventures to provide consumers online products such as CareerBuilder.com, Cars.com and Apartments.com.

To learn more, please visit: www.shoplocal.com.