Monday, September 19, 2005
Things Are Not What They Seem
Data, data, data... Sometimes you can see a lot by looking, as Yogi Berra used to say.
American Business Media, in their 9/15 press release states:
“It is a good sign that print revenue continues to show positive movement even through the summer months,” said Gordon T. Hughes, II, president/CEO of American Business Media. “The modest progress of print continues to be an additive factor in the robust growth of business media and information industry overall.”
Gosh you'd think things were just chugging along. The headline was "AD REVENUE GROWTH CONSISTENT IN BUSINESS PUBLICATIONS" and the subhead was "Year-to-date ad revenue up by 3.35% over same period 2004"
Here's the full release:
http://www.americanbusinessmedia.com/abm/NewsBot.asp?MODE=VIEW&ID=131&SnID=609311191
Then, your highly trained industry statistician looked at the data:
http://americanbusinessmedia.com/images/abm/pdfs/resources/BIN/BIN_JULY_2005.pdf
July pages were DOWN 4.75%. Sure, revenue is up by 3.35%, but that means that B2B ad revenues are NOT KEEPING UP WITH THE ECONOMY. (To keep up with growth AND inflation, they would have to be up by 6.5%).
Hello? Is anyone there?
If I want to hear people say nice things that are not factual, I'd listen to proud grandparents all day ("...but he's the most artistic and intellectual one compared to all of the other inmates in the state prison..." is about the way it sounds).
Is the economy slowing? Yes it is. Advertising is the first thing to be cut and the last thing to be restored is the old rule of thumb. Well, isn't that worth warning people about? Don't give us sugar when we need protein.
American Business Media, in their 9/15 press release states:
“It is a good sign that print revenue continues to show positive movement even through the summer months,” said Gordon T. Hughes, II, president/CEO of American Business Media. “The modest progress of print continues to be an additive factor in the robust growth of business media and information industry overall.”
Gosh you'd think things were just chugging along. The headline was "AD REVENUE GROWTH CONSISTENT IN BUSINESS PUBLICATIONS" and the subhead was "Year-to-date ad revenue up by 3.35% over same period 2004"
Here's the full release:
http://www.americanbusinessmedia.com/abm/NewsBot.asp?MODE=VIEW&ID=131&SnID=609311191
Then, your highly trained industry statistician looked at the data:
http://americanbusinessmedia.com/images/abm/pdfs/resources/BIN/BIN_JULY_2005.pdf
July pages were DOWN 4.75%. Sure, revenue is up by 3.35%, but that means that B2B ad revenues are NOT KEEPING UP WITH THE ECONOMY. (To keep up with growth AND inflation, they would have to be up by 6.5%).
Hello? Is anyone there?
If I want to hear people say nice things that are not factual, I'd listen to proud grandparents all day ("...but he's the most artistic and intellectual one compared to all of the other inmates in the state prison..." is about the way it sounds).
Is the economy slowing? Yes it is. Advertising is the first thing to be cut and the last thing to be restored is the old rule of thumb. Well, isn't that worth warning people about? Don't give us sugar when we need protein.
