Herding Cats can be Impossible

Hearst has announced ‘Skiff’ and now finds itself either at worst, working against the news consortium being led by Time Inc’s John Squires which we covered last month, or at best , imposing the adoption of Skiff on the new news consortium. It shows yet again, that sometimes working in cross industry collaberation can be like herding cats. The consortium includes Time Inc., Conde Nast and Meredith.

Skiff, will deliver digital magazine and newspaper content to a number of platforms using Sprint's 3G network and claims to preserve newspaper and magazine layouts via its "high‐resolution graphics, rich typography and dynamic updates." The Skiff platform is not just about technology but also a total ecommerce shop window, ad revenue generator and a one stop shop solution.

Skiff is claimed to be also working with the semiconductor company Marvell to create a "system on a chip" for e-reading. This would then be available to be integrated into a range of devices. Marvell's Armada 166e chip will power the EnTourage Systems Edge reader/netbook, be in the dual-screen Spring Design Alex e-reader, and also the long overdue Plastic Logic device.

Hearst was an early investor in E-Ink and now hopes to establish a uniform platform that will appeal to other publishers for digital delivery to all other devices such as mobiles, netbooks, PCs etc. Skiff has spared no expense in collecting an impressive set of executives which include vets from Sony’s Digital Reader launch, Intel, Microsoft and Apple. There again SpiralFrog had a great board but didn’t deliver.

Stop Making AdSense?

When they first appeared we tried AdSense and AdWords but found that although it may work in specific markets or genre, it didn’t work across a wide and deep range of book titles. In fact the experience was a likened by our accountant to putting money on the horses - except you knew when you won on the horses – here you know you been at the races, you know you have spent money placing your bets but you are not sure what the odds were and won. He would look at the money being spent ,the reports generated and ask ‘Where’s the money? Show me the sales?’ We pulled out.

We have just tried the latest internet ad route Facebook ads. The experience is even worse than tha of Google and it was clear that it was easy to take our money and generate stats but site activity was somewhat short of expectation and sales almost non-existent. Another one tried but found wanting.

We always have placed ads with marketing codes, we have swopped mail lists, done inserts, bought lists and as always the safest return is always on customer references and when you can achieve it column inches.

The register reports this week on the latest update to AdSense that will be focused on the better browsing capabilities of smartphones and could lead to ads as you go being pushed to mobiles. Google now has introduced a new JavaScript snippet that is optimized for high-end mobiles. No longer restricted to small text and reduced ad images, smartphone mobiles such as; the iPhone, Pre, Blackberry and Androids could be targeted.

All advertising has to be accountable. Some may build brand, others promote a specific offer but at the end of the day they have to deliver value not just empty stats. We would be interested to hear others thoughts on whether some ads do make sense.

ABC: Mobile Is A No Brainer

A survey from the Audit Bureau of Circulations reveals that print publishers are focusing on the Mobile market as a prime opportunity; to build their brand, reach new audiences, generate new revenue and offer advertisers locally targeted audiences.

ABC and its digital subsidiary, ABC Interactive, has some 4,000 members in North America and is a forum of the world's leading magazine and newspaper publishers, advertisers and advertising agencies. They recently conducted an online survey of its print publisher members. "Going Mobile: How Publishers Are Preparing for the Burgeoning Digital Market," offers an insight into some of the current initiatives in the mobile market.

The survey found that; over 80% of newspaper and magazine respondents believe users will increasingly become more reliant on mobiles as a primary information source in the next three years, 70% agree that mobile is receiving more attention at their publication this year than last, Over 66% believe their publication already has a mobile plan, 44% say that the devices increased visits by up to 10% today. 50% believe mobile traffic to their Web sites will increase by 5 to 25% in the next two years. So mobile is certainly on the agenda.

56% of senior executives have plans to develop a smartphone application in the next 24 months and 17% already have an app in production. However they do not plan to abandon print with 75% believing their publication will be available in a print form five years from now. Over 50% of thr respondents believe that the future business model of mobile content will be supported by both advertising and subscriptions and importantly 33% believe in the 3 next years that mobile will have a significant impact on their revenue.


To learn more, visit http://www.accessabc.com