tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-110330202024-03-14T06:10:20.980-04:00Dr Joe's Printing Industry BlogA discussion of the goings-on of the printing industry and its new media competitorsDrJoeWebbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07775975475053235257noreply@blogger.comBlogger308125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11033020.post-66149352321675644772007-03-01T08:10:00.000-05:002007-03-01T08:15:25.313-05:00The Big News... and The Last Blog Post.... Here Anyway....The announcement of WhatTheyThink's purchase of the assets of Global Forecast Group and my becoming the Director of WTT's brand new Center for Economics and Research is on PrintCEOblog this morning.<br /><a href="http://printceoblog.wordpress.com/2007/02/28/whattheythinkcom-to-launch-economic-and-research-center-dr-joe-webb-to-direct/">http://printceoblog.wordpress.com/2007/02/28/whattheythinkcom-to-launch-economic-and-research-center-dr-joe-webb-to-direct/</a><br /><br />You can access the audio of my recent interview of Randy Davidson where we talk about WhatTheyThink's acquisition of <em>Electronic Publishing</em>, PrintPlanet... and my new role.<br /><a href="http://members.whattheythink.com/home/wttnews070305.cfm">http://members.whattheythink.com/home/wttnews070305.cfm</a><br /><br />My industry blogging will move over to PrintCEOblog.com and also a special blog being set up on the WTT page that will be devoted to the new Center.<br /><br />I will still keep this blog site for personal blogging which will be somewhat infrequent, about things that don't fit the scope of the WTT sites. I'm still working on my karate and prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain blog and will post some things there this spring. It's not likely that WhatTheyThink will start covering my study of Okinawan Karate any time soon. :)<br /><br />This is quite an exciting time for WTT. For years, I believe, what has been going on there has been underestimated by the industry old guard, and it's building up quite a brand, reputation and business. I have been pleased and honored to be part of that, first with "Fridays with Dr. Joe", since moved to Mondays, the economic webinars, and the GraphExpo and Print events. I was dragged kicking and screaming into the Internet by my then business partner Jim Whittington, and I have to say... he was more right than he even suspected at the time. Now that WTT's base is over 50,000, it's quite the industry heavyweight. I'm excited to be part of it.DrJoeWebbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07775975475053235257noreply@blogger.com25tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11033020.post-15785354600316800772007-02-28T18:13:00.000-05:002007-02-28T18:14:40.997-05:00Photoshop: Online!; Navigating the Media Divide; Media Deprivation; Other StuffAdobe offering Photoshop online in 3-6 months<br /><a href="http://news.com.com/Adobe+to+take+Photoshop+online/2100-7345_3-6163015.html?tag=nl.e498">http://news.com.com/Adobe+to+take+Photoshop+online/2100-7345_3-6163015.html?tag=nl.e498</a><br />The network is the computer is becoming more true every day<br /><br />IBM has posted an essential report called "Navigating the Media Divide"<br />executive summary <a href="http://www-935.ibm.com/services/us/gbs/bus/pdf/g510-6551-02-mediadivide.pdf">http://www-935.ibm.com/services/us/gbs/bus/pdf/g510-6551-02-mediadivide.pdf</a><br />full report <a href="http://www-935.ibm.com/services/us/gbs/bus/pdf/g510-6579-03-mediadivide.pdf">http://www-935.ibm.com/services/us/gbs/bus/pdf/g510-6579-03-mediadivide.pdf</a><br />press release <a href="http://www.marketwire.com/mw/release_html_b1?release_id=219579">http://www.marketwire.com/mw/release_html_b1?release_id=219579</a><br />blog posting that has some good insights <a href="http://colincrawford.typepad.com/idg/2007/02/the_user_revolu.html">http://colincrawford.typepad.com/idg/2007/02/the_user_revolu.html</a><br />From the press release:<em> ...IBM conducted a comprehensive study that included interviews with leaders of media companies and an in-depth analysis of the factors that are shaping the industry outlook. The IBM report shows that new forms of media will grow at 23 percent compound annual rate in the next four years, nearly five times that of traditional media businesses. The report also estimates that the music industry lost between $90-160 Billion in its transition to digital and finds that future implications are even greater for television and film if companies do not systematically navigate the media divide... IBM sees a clear delineation between the old and new worlds of media. In the traditional world, content produced by professionals and distributed through proprietary platforms still dominates. But in the new world, content is often user-created and accessed through open platforms. These polarized tendencies mark the clear and present conflict between incumbents and new entrants. A second conflict is emerging among existing players -- between traditional content owners (studios, game publishers and music labels) and media distributors (television affiliates, retailers, motion picture exhibitors, cable and satellite providers). This media divide is pitting partner against partner in a struggle for growth. </em><br /><br />Piper Jaffray has released a new Internet report. Here is the press release<br /><a href="http://www.piperjaffray.com/1col.aspx?id=287&releaseid=966627">http://www.piperjaffray.com/1col.aspx?id=287&releaseid=966627</a><br /><br />Vista activation problems: when the geeks who work at the various PC magazines have problems, they're not afraid to write about it... because it slows down their own work as well.<br /><a href="http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?p=221&tag=nl.e539">http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?p=221&tag=nl.e539</a><br /><br />E-paper used as a keypad<br /><a href="http://www.prlog.org/10009300-sipix-imaging-announces-the-world-first-paper-based-keypad-solution.html">http://www.prlog.org/10009300-sipix-imaging-announces-the-world-first-paper-based-keypad-solution.html</a><br /><br />Students demand to get out of a week-long test of media deprivation, lasting only 4 days<br /><a href="http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003574760_solitude16m.html">http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003574760_solitude16m.html</a><br /><em>...even four days was too much — each of the students cheated, some more than others.<br />Which perhaps proves professor Mara Adelman's point: The art of alone time is increasingly lost in our hectic, frazzled, wired lives.</em><br />My son has an English teacher who has "hell week" when they read Walden. The kids do make it, and they have to write about it. The kids actually love it. The tough one is instant messaging, but they do make it through the week... or at least most of them do. It's a reminder to everyone that much as we love using media, taking a news break or a media break once a week can certainly be the pause that refreshes.<br /><br />Important breaking news tomorrow!DrJoeWebbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07775975475053235257noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11033020.post-57996578091358588912007-02-27T16:32:00.000-05:002007-02-27T16:32:06.160-05:00Dr Joe Part 2; Greenspan's Forecast; Agency Clients Unhappy; Meetings Make Us Dumber; Dell to Start Selling LinuxPart 2 of Margie Dana's interview of me has now appeared<br /><a href="http://www.bostonprintbuyers.com/printtips/07-02-26.html">http://www.bostonprintbuyers.com/printtips/07-02-26.html</a><br /><br />Alan Greenspan expects a recession in 2008<br /><a href="http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070226/hong_kong_us_greenspan.html?.v=4">http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070226/hong_kong_us_greenspan.html?.v=4</a><br /><em>"When you get this far away from a recession invariably forces build up for the next recession, and indeed we are beginning to see that sign," Greenspan said via satellite link to a business conference in Hong Kong. "For example in the U.S., profit margins ... have begun to stabilize, which is an early sign we are in the later stages of a cycle. While, yes, it is possible we can get a recession in the latter months of 2007, most forecasters are not making that judgment and indeed are projecting forward into 2008 ... with some slowdown," he said. Greenspan said that while it would be "very precarious" to try to forecast that far into the future, he could not rule out the possibility of a recession late this year.</em><br />There's only one good thing about this. Despite his reputation, Greenspan's record as a forecaster was actually quite horrible. Bernanke has had a much better record, though obviously much shorter. The comments about profits are very funny. Since the media portray profits as "bad" perhaps they'll start reporting profits declines as "good" news? :)<br /><br />Agency clients are more unhappy than anyone imagined, according to a new Forrester study<br /><a href="http://adage.com/article?article_id=115171">http://adage.com/article?article_id=115171</a><br /><em>...a whopping 76% of marketers had no way to determine their return on investment from their lead agencies. Sixty-nine percent said ROI is too difficult to measure. </em><br /><br />Spectacular print ads get spectacular results<br /><a href="http://publications.mediapost.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Articles.san&s=55984&Nid=27713&p=204904">http://publications.mediapost.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Articles.san&s=55984&Nid=27713&p=204904</a><br />... when the results are measured as recall. Sales are the best results. Recall is not always what it's cracked up to be. Remember how Alka Seltzer had its famous "I can't believe I ate the whole thing"? The ad was very memorable and won Clio awards, but Alka Seltzer sales went down, and the campaign was pulled (and the Clio rules were changed). Recall is used because the direct attribution of sales to an ad campaign is difficult. This is why there is continually growing emphasis on the use of direct marketing techniques.<br /><br />Alka Seltzer redid the ad three decades later with Peter Boyle<br /><a href="http://www.ifilm.com/ifilmdetail/2691910">http://www.ifilm.com/ifilmdetail/2691910</a><br />Boyle died a few months ago, and will always be near and dear to the Webbs because he was "the monster" in Young Frankenstein, the movie we saw on our first date.<br /><br />There's always David Letterman's famous "Alka Selter suit" from 1984... he stopped being funny a couple of years after that...<br /><a href="http://youtube.com/watch?v=ZoIFGxh9IhA">http://youtube.com/watch?v=ZoIFGxh9IhA</a><br /><br />Meetings make us dumber<br /><a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17279961/">http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17279961/</a><br />We knew that all along because of this famous Despair.com poster<br /><a href="http://despair.com/meetings.html">http://despair.com/meetings.html</a><br /><br />Dell will soon start selling Linux notebooks!<br /><a href="http://www.pcworld.com/article/129363-1/article.html?tk=nl_dnxnws">http://www.pcworld.com/article/129363-1/article.html?tk=nl_dnxnws</a><br />The general expectation is that notebooks will be a lot cheaper. Sorry! Vista's OEM price as preloaded is dirt cheap, perhaps $50-75. The notebooks will be cheaper mainly because they can be configured with less horsepower than running Vista requires. As a special feature, look for Dell to offer dual-boot (Windows and Linux) systems. Dell already offers Red Hat Linux for servers, so it is quite possible that will be their main offering. Some postings on their customer blog indicate that they will probably offer Novell's SuSE Linux and Ubuntu as well once the program starts. Linux is gaining steam, but it's not about to unseat Vista. It will be nice to finally have a choice, however. If Linux does start becoming a good portion of business, I wonder how HP, Toshiba, and Gateway will react. (Gateway is the big PC disappointment... boy, did success and an IPO really ruin that company!). And... will Apple react in any special way? I bet if Linux starts doing well that Apple will start to finally license its OS as well.DrJoeWebbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07775975475053235257noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11033020.post-9910860118467938522007-02-24T17:10:00.000-05:002007-02-24T17:10:19.519-05:00Google Solves Everything; Double-Opt-In is Not Always the Answer; Bosacks Column; IAB has a Print Mag; Newspapers Okay?; Other StuffAdvertise all the time... according to Google...<br /><a href="http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=115115">http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=115115</a><br /><em>Google's VP-advertising sales, Tim Armstrong, touted his company's ability to court brand advertisers... He talked of a Long Tail of products, explaining that previously, by using traditional media, marketers could only advertise one or two products at a time because of how long it would take to create and execute the advertising. With services like Google's, however, he said, brand marketers are advertising all of their products, all the time... "Most marketers are used to advertising just a fraction of their products due to that human scale required to advertise them"... Five years ago, he said, Hewlett Packard was running only two or three of their products on search. Today they're running thousands. "Consumers are on 24 hours a day, you should have all your products available to them." ... the company has led road shows to reach out to chief marketing officers and creative agencies to get them to think of Google products for other uses. One oft-cited example is how Saturn used Google Earth and Google Video to create an online ad application where customers "fly" around Google Earth, then through the doors of their local dealership and watch a video of the actual sales manager welcoming them into the dealership. </em><br /><em></em><br />Double opt-in registration is supposed to be the cure for spam and ensuring deliverability of e-mail messages, especially marketing messages. Here's a new wrinkle... and another reason why brand and product support still needs direct mail and space advertising.<br /><a href="http://directmag.com/disciplines/email/opt-in_list_spam/">http://directmag.com/disciplines/email/opt-in_list_spam/</a><br /><em>Anti-spammers and others promote double opt-in as the only fail-safe way to build a permission-based e-mail marketing list. But one e-mail service provider recently found its messages blocked by a major Internet service provider because of the very confirmation process designed to prevent spam. The problem: A so-called spambot—a program designed to collect e-mail addresses off the Internet—repeatedly registered an e-mail address on the e-mail service provider’s Web site. But the e-mail address was a spam trap and every time a confirmation e-mail was sent to the address, the ISP considered the message spam. As a result, the ISP repeatedly blocked the e-mail service provider’s e-mail, said the company’s ISP relations executive, who asked that all names in the story be withheld.... So what’s the lesson for everyone else? For one thing, a good ISP relations program is crucial, said the executive. “To me, it means really get in close contact with whoever is blocking you, and talk to human beings on the other end of the phone.” The executive added that the spambot still hits the company’s site about once a quarter. “All we can do is send a pre-emptive email to the ISP telling them: ‘It's back, please don't block us again,’” the executive said. Meanwhile, the only foolproof way to guard against this spambot’s actions would be use a CAPTCHA—an acronym for completely automated public Turing test to tell computers and humans apart—requiring subscribers to type in the letters of a distorted image. “Convincing people to switch to double opt-in is hard enough,” said the executive. “Double opt-in plus CAPTCHAS and you might as well ask them to do calculus.”</em><br /><em></em><br />Publishing guru Bob Sacks (Bosacks or "Capt. Bo" among his acquaintances) has written an excellent piece in <em>Production Executive</em> magazine. I know it's excellent because he mentions me.... :) Seriously, Bob and I come from totally different directions about the publishing business and our experiences, but somehow we keep ending up at the same place...<br /><a href="http://www.pubexec.com/story/story.bsp?sid=47352&var=story&publication=Publishing%20Executive&publicationDate=2/1/07&slug=PE_0207_BOSACKS&category=Management&section=Unknown&page=1">http://www.pubexec.com/story/story.bsp?sid=47352&var=story&publication=Publishing%20Executive&publicationDate=2/1/07&slug=PE_0207_BOSACKS&category=Management§ion=Unknown&page=1</a><br />The <em>Interactive Advertising Bureau</em> is starting a print publication<br /><a href="http://www.iab.net/news/pr_2007_02_21.asp">http://www.iab.net/news/pr_2007_02_21.asp</a><br />IAB has one of the best e-mail newsletters around. This is in conjunction with <em>AdWeek</em> so there's nothing really nefarious here about IAB resorting to print. They know just as well as anyone, especially now, that your brand has to be everywhere. After all, the former head of IAB was one of the authors of <em>What Sticks</em>. Now that there's a new executive director there, what's the first job of any trade association leader? That's right... non-dues revenue! It'a a 16-page magazine with about half of it as ads... mission accomplished.<br />The magazine is available as a web site/digital magazine at <a href="http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/vnu/adweek021907/index.php">http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/vnu/adweek021907/index.php</a><br />It's rather cool. You can save it as a separate executable file, and it opens quickly and is easy to navigate. It seems faster than Zinio, using the NXTBook software<br /><a href="http://www.nxtbookmedia.com/">http://www.nxtbookmedia.com/</a><br /><br />Newspapers are doing just fine... according to this article... and the biggest pain is in the big dailies... they're big so they get all the press.<br /><a href="http://www.medialifemagazine.com/artman/publish/article_9914.asp">http://www.medialifemagazine.com/artman/publish/article_9914.asp</a><br />(Which reminds me of an old line for some reason: never tick off someone who has a warehouse full of paper and truckloads of ink)<br /><br />I was interviewed by Margie Dana of the Boston Print Buyers... Here's the link to Part 1<br /><a href="http://www.bostonprintbuyers.com/printtips/print/07-02-19.html">http://www.bostonprintbuyers.com/printtips/print/07-02-19.html</a><br /><br />Big announcement coming next week... it'll be posted here first...DrJoeWebbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07775975475053235257noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11033020.post-72725967582419017092007-02-21T17:21:00.000-05:002007-02-21T17:21:42.880-05:00Oldest Newspaper is Now Digital; Newspapers Video; Electronics Requires Energy!; RFID & WiFi Disappointment; Various Computer StuffMeant to post this a while ago-- the world's oldest newspaper has now gone digital.<br /><a href="http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003541952">http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003541952</a><br /><em>For centuries, readers thumbed through the crackling pages of Sweden's Post-och Inrikes Tidningar newspaper. No longer. The world's oldest paper still in circulation has dropped its paper edition and now exists only in cyberspace.The newspaper, founded in 1645 by Sweden's Queen Kristina, became a Web-only publication on Jan. 1... The paper edition was certainly not some mass-market tabloid. It had a meagre circulation of only 1,000 or so, although the Web site is expected to attract more readers, Vikstrom said.</em><br /><br />Another story about how newspapers are doing website video well<br /><a href="http://nymag.com/news/imperialcity/28152/index.html">http://nymag.com/news/imperialcity/28152/index.html</a><br /><br />How a Norwegian newspaper has found a way to thrive online: branding<br /><a href="http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/02/18/business/papers.php">http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/02/18/business/papers.php</a><br /><br />On-line coupons finally starting to move. Newspaper inserts have been holding up well, considering what has happened to other print products. This will change, of course, but it will be a big market for quite a while.<br /><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/19/technology/19ecom.html?ref=technology">http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/19/technology/19ecom.html?ref=technology</a><br /><br />HaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHa <a href="http://www.technewsworld.com/story/OZrdfAWVDUDCnR/Study-Data-Center-Power-Usage-Exploding.xhtml">http://www.technewsworld.com/story/OZrdfAWVDUDCnR/Study-Data-Center-Power-Usage-Exploding.xhtml</a> Data centers in the United States are consuming 5 million kilowatts of energy per year, an amount equal to the power consumption of the entire state of Mississippi, according to a report released Thursday. These stories always make me laugh because there is the implicit assumption that if data are stored or shared electronically, the amount of energy used in chopping and crushing and cooking and flattening trees will disappear. Data need electrons! Otherwise, they would not exist! A stored book requires no energy. A stored file needs a hard drive to be constantly accessible. That hard drive needs to be powered.<br /><br />Wal-Mart's RFID program is nowhere near where they expected it to be.<br /><a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117150681979009405-search.html?KEYWORDS=RFID&COLLECTION=wsjie/6month">http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117150681979009405-search.html?KEYWORDS=RFID&COLLECTION=wsjie/6month</a><br />Two thoughts:<br />1) suppliers are really miffed, and this is the dark underside of "getting close to your customers."<br />2) four years ago people thought I was dumb when I minimized the effect of RFID on print and packaging. I said "the only ones who will make money are the people who sell the hardware"<br />Score another one for Dr. Joe. But now it seems those hardware sellers had better pare back their forecasts, too.<br /><br />SanFran's WiFi program isn't going well.<br /><a href="http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-fi-wifi19feb19,1,2811102.story?coll=la-headlines-technology">http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-fi-wifi19feb19,1,2811102.story?coll=la-headlines-technology</a><br /><br />IBM makes a breakthrough in computer speed<br /><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/14/technology/14chip.html?_r=2&adxnnl=1&ref=technology&adxnnlx=1171461994-ejRvb1aSNAaUmkKTHWSEjA&oref=slogin&oref=slogin">http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/14/technology/14chip.html?_r=2&adxnnl=1&ref=technology&adxnnlx=1171461994-ejRvb1aSNAaUmkKTHWSEjA&oref=slogin&oref=slogin</a><br /><br />File this under "don't use it, you lose it." Google ran tests on its hard drives and found that its results were counterintuitive. Drives that are not used often break sooner. Heat did less to affect drives than anticipated. It's always funny how real world experience can vary so much from testing labs. Remember that Google built its initial infrastructure from equipment garnered from dot-bomb bankruptcies.<br /><a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6376021.stm?ls">http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6376021.stm?ls</a><br />Just had to replace a hard drive in my "old time radio" computer where I store my collection of shows from the 30s to the 60s. It started to display annoying problems, such as refusing to copy certain files. Good thing I had backup. A 500GB external drive is now down around $175. Certainly worth purchasing at that price. We have file backups of all of the family systems on one drive.<br /><br />MSFT Vista causing problems for gamers<br /><a href="http://www.pcworld.com/article/128961-1/article.html?tk=nl_dnxnws">http://www.pcworld.com/article/128961-1/article.html?tk=nl_dnxnws</a><br /><em>Experts blame still-flaky software drivers, Vista's complexity and a dearth of new video cards optimized for Vista's new rendering technology, DirectX 10. That's despite promises from Microsoft that Vista is backwards-compatible with XP's graphic engine, DirectX 9, and that it will support existing games.<br />Meanwhile, games written to take advantage of DirectX 10 have been slow to emerge. And one Nvidia executive predicts that gamers may not routinely see games optimized for DirectX 10 until mid-2008.<br />It's not that bad, says Microsoft. Chris Donahue, manager of Microsoft's Games for Windows group, says the company has tested 1,000 popular games from the past five years. Most work well with Vista, he said, declining to elaborate how many had problems and why.</em><br />My favorite line in the MSFT Knowledge Base is "engineers are aware of the problem and will post a solution when available." Of course, I was searching for something about Office 2003.<br /><br />Vista's trial/activation period can be extended to 120 days<br /><a href="http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,129148-page,1/article.html">http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,129148-page,1/article.html</a><br />How to do it is on Brian Livingston's <em>Windows Secrets</em> site<br /><a href="http://windowssecrets.com/comp/070215#story1">http://windowssecrets.com/comp/070215#story1</a><br /><br />MSFT is underplaying how a Vista system needs to be configured.<br /><a href="http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9011523&intsrc=hm_list">http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9011523&intsrc=hm_list</a><br />They say that it will run with 512MB, but most people claim 1GB is needed, and others say 2GB is the "sweet spot." This article says 4GB is best.<br /><em>Hardware vendors, of course, will offer systems built on Microsoft's minimum hardware requirements called "Windows Vista Capable," configured with 512MB of system memory and a processor that is at least 800MHz. But their heart may not really be in it. For instance, Dell offers a </em><a href="http://www.dell.com/content/topics/global.aspx/solutions/en/winvista?c=us&cs=&l=en&s=dhs" target="new"><em>Windows Vista Capable</em></a><em> configuration that isn't capable of much, according to what Dell says about it on its Web site: "Great for ... Booting the Operating System, without running applications or games." Dell recommends 2GB of system memory. Microsoft may be using PCs loaded with 4GB of RAM for some of its customer demos; At least that's what Ann Westerheim, president of Ekaru LLC, reports. A Microsoft representative recently demonstrated Vista on a system with 4GB of system memory to some of its customers, and the performance was so impressive that it drew some "ohs and ahs" from the audience, said Westerheim. The Westford, Mass.-based company provides technology services for small and mid-sized business. </em><br /><br />The software in which this blog is created is Google's Blogger. I have tried different blogging software, and without a doubt, I can say that I think Blogger is stored on punched cards that have been folded, spindled, and mutilated. WordPress and TypePad are quite superior. Here's an article about Blogger's problems.<br /><a href="http://www.pcworld.com/article/128766-1/article.html?tk=nl_dnxnws">http://www.pcworld.com/article/128766-1/article.html?tk=nl_dnxnws</a><br /><em>"We know how important a service Blogger is to our users, so the highest priority for the Blogger team right now is monitoring the migration to the new platform, listening to feedback from people who've migrated, and tackling as fast as we can the little bugs that inevitably pop up here and there in a new product," says Courtney Hohne, a Google spokeswoman.</em><br />Bloggers are having all kinds of problems, including disappearing posts. In the prior version, my favorite problem was that graphics could only be posted in Firefox. Yeah, that's the solution the engineers came up with after weeks of complaints from users.<br /><a href="http://www.pcworld.com/article/128766-1/article.html?tk=nl_dnxnws">http://www.pcworld.com/article/128766-1/article.html?tk=nl_dnxnws</a><br /><br />Steve Jobs blasts teachers' unions... and also campaigns for a textbook-free future. The audience gasps... not because there will be no textbooks...<br /><a href="http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,129214/article.html">http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,129214/article.html</a><br /><br />Recording industry is cracking down at colleges for music piracy. Perhaps if they offered music worth paying for things would be different.<br /><a href="http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nation/4568903.html">http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nation/4568903.html</a><br /><br />Yahoo! is thinking of dropping music copy protection.<br /><a href="http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-fi-yahoo16feb16,1,7452706.story?coll=la-headlines-technology&ctrack=1&cset=true">http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-fi-yahoo16feb16,1,7452706.story?coll=la-headlines-technology&ctrack=1&cset=true</a><br /><br />Dell customers cast votes for them to offer Linux and OpenOffice. Sure, there may be some ballot stuffing going on... I wonder what computer manufacturer/retailer will be the first to break and start offering Linux on computers other than servers. Dell currently sells servers with RedHat Linux.<br /><a href="http://www.linuxinsider.com/story/g0KzNaPMJq4HBi/Dell-Users-Seek-Linux-OpenOffice.xhtml">http://www.linuxinsider.com/story/g0KzNaPMJq4HBi/Dell-Users-Seek-Linux-OpenOffice.xhtml</a><br /><br />Another story about the $100 I mean $150 I mean $100 two years from now and $50 five years from now Laptop<br /><a href="http://www.pcworld.com/article/129201-1/article.html?tk=nl_dnxnws">http://www.pcworld.com/article/129201-1/article.html?tk=nl_dnxnws</a><br /><br />Why is it that spammers want to sell me authentic prescription medicines at the same time they want to sell me fake "replica" watches?DrJoeWebbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07775975475053235257noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11033020.post-90574682130419728812007-02-19T20:42:00.000-05:002008-12-10T21:06:08.634-05:00XRX Buyback, Publishers Step on Agency Turf, Newspapers Sue Google, Non-Print Revenues Ain't So New, Don't Feel Sorry for MSFTI said it for Heidelberg, and now I'll say it for Xerox: stock buybacks are a bad idea. If you have that much cash that you can't figure out what to do with, give it directly to the stockholders. Buybacks are too often a sign that a company no longer has a clue where to invest its cash. Keeping your powder dry for for future opportunities is also a good idea: one never knows when some opportunity may come your way, and it would be nice to fund things from your own cash. This is disappointing. Doesn't Xerox still have debt to pay down? Sure they do, $7.7 billion woth. Is there no further restructuring that needs to be done? Is there no technology or acquisition that could sweeten the company's current offerings. Right across town in Rochester, Kodak did a buyback a few years ago at $52. I bet they wish they had that money back right now. Instead, the money evaporated as Kodak's fortunes dived, and the stockholders got nothing. I hope Xerox never finds itself in that position. The company has gone through such a marvelous and well-orchestrated turnaround, with some occasional pain, of course, that a special dividend would have had, I believe, a bigger effect on reminding investors about how far Xerox has come. Now, stockholders should legitimately wonder if the company will do things like this to inflate their earnings per share. The goal should be to create more stockholder wealth through their newly retuned operations. I hope that this is a sign that Xerox' big financial rebound is now over and that management has no more major initiatives to build EPS organically. Ann Mulcahy (<a href="http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/37259">more powerful than "The Oprah"</a>) resisted the advice to declare bankruptcy a few years ago after the company manipulated the structure of its debt to inflate its earnings and stock price. It would be a shame if this buyback started with pressure from institutional shareholders who did not have the company's, employees, or individual shareholder's interests at heart.<br /><a href="http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070215/xerox_buyback.html?.v=1">http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070215/xerox_buyback.html?.v=1</a><br />(Disclosure: I do not own any Xerox stock, but owned shares a few years ago in a retirement account.)<br /><br />Magazine publishers are getting into traditional ad agency turf as Meredith acquires some agencies. Part of this is funny because ad agencies started when publishers were not able to assist advertisers in creating ads, more than 100 years ago. Finally, the publishers wised up! Seriously, it is common for small, especially local, magazines and non-daily newspapers to work on ad campaigns for their smaller customers. This takes that trend to a higher level.<br /><a href="http://www.btobonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070212/FREE/70209025/1108">http://www.btobonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070212/FREE/70209025/1108</a><br /><em>Meredith Corp.'s acquisition last month of two marketing communications agencies is the latest sign that publishers are offering more integrated marketing services to clients as well as building out divisions that can help them diversify to create new revenue opportunities.Last month, Meredith announced the acquisition of Genex, an interactive marketing agency, and New Media Strategies, an interactive word-of-mouth marketing company. Financial terms of the deals were not disclosed.The acquisitions follow the media company's purchase last year of O'Grady Meyers, an interactive marketing services firm, and will strengthen its Meredith Integrated Marketing division, which provides custom publishing and online communications services to clients... Other b-to-b publishers, including Hanley Wood and Meister Media, have created marketing services divisions through acquisitions, offering services such as Web site design, custom publishing, creative development and public relations.</em><br /><em></em><br />There's a disagreement over the new NAA campaign to promote newspapers.<br /><a href="http://newsosaur.blogspot.com/2007/02/wrong-number-et.html">http://newsosaur.blogspot.com/2007/02/wrong-number-et.html</a><br />But perhaps he should look at the latest data about visits to newspaper web sites<br /><a href="http://naa.org/sitecore/content/Global/PressCenter/2007/Online-Newspaper-Viewership-Experiences-Record-Fourth-Quarter.aspx?lg=naaorg">http://naa.org/sitecore/content/Global/PressCenter/2007/Online-Newspaper-Viewership-Experiences-Record-Fourth-Quarter.aspx?lg=naaorg</a><br />The press release about the campaign is at<br /><a href="http://www.naa.org/sitecore/content/Global/PressCenter/2007/NAA-INTRODUCES-2007-NEWSPAPER-VALUE-CAMPAIGN.aspx?lg=naaorg">http://www.naa.org/sitecore/content/Global/PressCenter/2007/NAA-INTRODUCES-2007-NEWSPAPER-VALUE-CAMPAIGN.aspx?lg=naaorg</a><br />The research about consumer media use behind campaign is at<br /><a href="http://www.naa.org/upload/attitudes-toward-media-2006.pdf">http://www.naa.org/upload/attitudes-toward-media-2006.pdf</a><br /><br />Arthur Sulzberger, Jr. of the <em>NYT</em> took back his remarks about not knowing if the <em>NYT</em> would be in print in five years.<br /><a href="http://www.observer.com/20070219/20070219_Tom_Scocca_pageone_newsstory5.asp">http://www.observer.com/20070219/20070219_Tom_Scocca_pageone_newsstory5.asp</a><br />He had it right the first time. Then somebody reminded him they own paper mills, that probably dropped in value to a potential buyer just minutes after he said that.<br /><br />Some Belgian newspapers have successfully sued Google for copyright infringement because... Google links to their stories! How dumb! I'd be thankful for the hits and that people can actually find my newspaper. So very strange... and this in an age when a newspaper story gets linked on the <span style="font-style: italic;">Drudge Report </span>that newspapers hate it because their site traffic goes through the roof and can shut down their servers! Wonder if Matt Drudge would ever link to a Belgian paper now :)<br /><a href="http://adage.com/mediaworks/article?article_id=114979">http://adage.com/mediaworks/article?article_id=114979</a><br /><br />2/3 of Internet users surf while watching TV<br /><a href="http://www.infozine.com/news/stories/op/storiesView/sid/21077/">http://www.infozine.com/news/stories/op/storiesView/sid/21077/</a><br /><br />PIA's report about "navigating print markets" is at<br /><a href="http://www.gain.net/eweb/upload/2007-2008%20Navigating%20Print%20Markets%20Report.pdf">http://www.gain.net/eweb/upload/2007-2008%20Navigating%20Print%20Markets%20Report.pdf</a><br />There's still this myth in the industry about "ancillary services." I took the list and identified what each item "used to be" in the "old days" (the 1980s!). This ancillary thing is really a bunch of hogwash. Printers have ALWAYS sold other services, and it always has been some more than others.<br /><br /><br /><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5031127452286196802" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center;" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHWiQdTbjLbCgak5gXbiqwoymw3Ap5aVSUJ1HVGVPSk7gR5JIiWP4pqbtIXtD-7VvEGFdaOZ2DRh5gwOQuHXyZ2PT6nNqRjKfQ2LwxtfB6N4v_gAnFjzVEGyvh3pNEv5Z0UHwb/s400/ancillary.JPG" border="0" height="396" width="540" /><br /><br />Microsoft is saying that forecasts for Vista revenues are too aggressive<br /><a href="http://www.pcworld.com/article/129105-1/article.html?tk=nl_dnxnws">http://www.pcworld.com/article/129105-1/article.html?tk=nl_dnxnws</a><br />Translated: it didn't take off the way they wanted.<br /><em>In a conference call Thursday with financial analysts Ballmer said lower selling prices, limited new corporate sales, and software piracy may combine to temper Vista sales forecasts.<br />"I'm really excited about how enthusiastic everybody is about Vista," he said. "But people have to understand that some of the revenue forecasts I've seen out there for Windows Vista in fiscal year 2008 are overly aggressive."</em><br />Ummmm... gee, he doesn't mention how the new EULA puts people off, or how in order to get the software to run well you have to upgrade RAM or other components, or just the high cost of Vista.<br />If someone in your family just needs a computer to do small tasks like an occasional letter, e-mails, and general surfing, look for a closeout Windows XP computer. If someone can help them with basic things, Ubuntu would work, too.<br />But don't feel bad for Microsoft... when people replace their computers, Vista will be pre-loaded.DrJoeWebbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07775975475053235257noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11033020.post-28219919921977971962007-02-14T13:25:00.000-05:002007-02-14T13:22:17.083-05:00ToolsBlogger Adam DeWitz has asked others what tools they use. I first saw his request on Steve Duncan's Lornitropia and I responded there. But I have copied my comments from there and added hot links, and added a few other comments as well.<br /><br />Steve Duncan <a href="http://www.lornitropia.net/archives/2007/02/06/tools/">http://www.lornitropia.net/archives/2007/02/06/tools/</a><br />Adam DeWitz <a href="http://printmode.net/blog/archives/2007/02/03/tools">http://printmode.net/blog/archives/2007/02/03/tools</a><br />Peter Muir <a href="http://bizucate.typepad.com/my_weblog/2007/02/tools.html">http://bizucate.typepad.com/my_weblog/2007/02/tools.html</a><br /><br />On my desktop (Windows) I use <a href="http://www.sun.com/software/star/staroffice/index.jsp">StarOffice</a> (the paid version of <a href="http://www.openoffice.org">OpenOffice</a>). I use Excel only when I have to make charts. I use 2 free browsers developed by Anderson Che. The one that sits on top of IE is <a href="http://www.avantbrowser.com">Avant Browser </a>which adds all kinds of goodies like ad blocking and a variety of creature comforts that IE does not have. I have been experimenting with his <a href="http://fileforum.betanews.com/detail/Orca_Browser/1128532815/1">Orca Browser</a>, still in beta, that sits on top of <a href="http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/">Firefox</a>. I have no clue when he will release Orca for real. I use Eudora as my mail program on my business account. <a href="http://www.eudora.com">Eudora</a> was just released to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_source">open source </a>community by Qualcomm, and I expect that some of its features will be come part of <a href="http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/thunderbird/">Thunderbird</a> at some point. Next time I set up a computer from scratch, I’ll probably use Thunderbird. For instant messaging, I use <a href="http://gaim.sourceforge.net/about.php">Gaim</a>, which is open source and consolidates all of my instant messaging into one clean nice window from all of the services. For VOIP I use <a href="http://www.skype.com">Skype</a> and I have had fun using <a href="http://www.pamela-systems.com">Pamela</a> for Skype which has allowed me to record interviews that I do for my podcast quite nicely. Pamela is free but there are paid upgrades available. When I need to write something quick, I use the open source word processor <a href="http://www.abisource.com">AbiWord</a>. It loads faster than Word or OpenOffice and gets the job done. It has minimal features, but when you're just dumping text, it's a got all you need.<br /><br />I have a <a href="http://www.dansdata.com/ifeel.htm">Logitech iFeel </a>mouse, one of the most unsuccessful pointing gadgets (from a sales perspective) that has been a joy to use. Unfortunately its driver conflicts with all versions of MSWord starting with XP. That’s OK because I have grown to hate using MSWord. For PDF making I use the open source <a href="http://www.pdfforge.org/products/pdfcreator">PDF Creator </a>when I am not using StarOffice, which has PDF making built in. For PDF reading I use <a href="http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/rd_intro.php">FoxIt Reader</a> which is much faster that Acrobat Reader. For system maintenance I use <a href="http://www.v-com.com/promo/SystemSuite7_Launch_1006_VC_HOME.html">SystemSuite Professional</a>, which is far less annoying than Norton Systemworks. I also use <a href="http://www.v-com.com/product/PowerDesk_Pro_Home.html">PowerDesk</a> for my file management. For audio recording and editing I use the open source <a href="http://audacity.sourceforge.net/">Audacity</a>.<br /><br />On my notebook, I have a dual boot system with Windows and <a href="http://www.ubuntu.com">Ubuntu</a> 6.10. I have grown to love working with Ubuntu and I expect that the new release in April of version 7.04 will throw me over the edge to put it onto my desktop. In Ubuntu, I have experimented with the beta of <a href="http://www.codeweavers.com">CrossOver Office </a>from CodeWeavers and loaded MSOffice2000 and worked with it with absolutely no problems at all. It was amazing to be thinking that MSOffice runs faster in Linux with an emulator. I have decided that once 7.04 comes out I will buy a new notebook that will be solely Linux-based.<br /><br />In Ubuntu, I have all of my favorite software as part of the package: OpenOffice, Gaim, Audacity, Skype, AbiWord, Firefox, and others. I also like using <a href="http://www.gnome.org/projects/gnumeric/">Gnumeric</a>, an open source spreadsheet. My biggest problem going "all-Linux" is replacing the charting capabilities of Excel. But I will be able to use CrossOver Office to handle what is absolutely necessary.<br /><br />For e-mail I use Yahoo for personal stuff and newsletters, and I use GMail for all of my news alerts, and also<br />for my blog e-mail. Gmail’s spam filtering seems to work incredibly well.<br /><br />My blogs are in <a href="http://www.blogger.com">Blogger</a>, but I am quite impressed with <a href="http://wordpress.com/">WordPress</a> and will be switching to it soon.DrJoeWebbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07775975475053235257noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11033020.post-30353622509281519242007-02-13T12:55:00.000-05:002007-02-13T12:24:29.137-05:00Newspapers, Print Media Ahead of Broadcast in Online Video, Super Bowl ads and other stuffMargie Dana of the Boston Print Buyers has posted her "Print Tips" archives<br /><a href="http://www.bostonprintbuyers.com/printtips-archives.html">http://www.bostonprintbuyers.com/printtips-archives.html</a><br /><br />The <em>NYTimes</em> staff is probably upset that its owner said this!<br /><a href="http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/822775.html">http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/822775.html</a><br /><em>"I really don't know whether we'll be printing the Times in five years, and you know what? I don't care either," he says. </em><br />Oh yes, and the Internet is not affecting the use of printing.... please, someone tell the Sulzbergers and their staffers.<br /><br />Newspapers outside North America and Europe are doing well<br /><a href="http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/article/060207/world_association_of_newspapers_booming_circulation">http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/article/060207/world_association_of_newspapers_booming_circulation</a><br />Of course, it's a low base... these newspapers are starting off really low. But increased incomes and prosperity increases the use of media overall. Remember, many of these countries also have low broadband penetration. Since newspapers in many countries also had low advertising revenues (there was nothing to advertise because they were undeveloped countries) this will increase as well. It will be quite interesting to see how print and Internet are jointly developed rather than having the Internet be a displacement medium.<br /><br />Print media that are shifting over to the Internet have often realized that they are on the outskirts of the broadcast media.<br /><a href="http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6415922.html?display=Breaking+News">http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6415922.html?display=Breaking+News</a><br /><em>Local online video advertising is shaping into a battle between traditional print and television news providers, according to a new report from Borrell Associates. The growing advertising category has benefited publishers and broadcasters moving online, but initially has been embraced much more quickly by print. In 2006 newspapers sold approximately $81 million in local online video commercials in comparison to $32 million sold by TV broadcasters. </em><br /><br />The economy is collapsing because we don't save enough. As usual, the Associated Press does little to inform its readers. IRAs, 401k and pension plan capital gains, and interest, are excluded from the calculation. The same holds true for increases in the value of real estate.<br /><a href="http://www.billingsgazette.net/articles/2007/02/04/news/business/45-savings.txt">http://www.billingsgazette.net/articles/2007/02/04/news/business/45-savings.txt</a><br />Here's an ominous quote:<br /><em>During the Depression, when as many as one in four people were out of work, households were exhausting savings in order to pay the rent and buy food.</em><br />I suspect the Depression was a slightly different time than we have today. The report goes on to discuss how hard it is for young people to make ends meet. Of course it is... they're young! The have little job experience. The have comparatively low education because... they're young! The assumption is that all dollars are just consumed, but that's not true. If I earn $30,000, but I buy a house that costs $100,000, as far as the savings calculation goes, I have overpaid by -$70,000. Yet the purchase of an asset is treated as it was a latte or a beer. The same goes for me if I am young and have borrowed to go to college. A college education nets, on average, on an inflation-adjusted basis, an additional $1,000,000 over a lifetime, in earnings. But no, if I spend $120,000 on college, it might as well be a hot dog or a taco. How the press can continue this economic reporting malpractice is beyond me. Luckily, I saw a few more stories about how bad the savings rate data are this time around, but they are still few and far between.<br />The most important measure? The Federal Reserve's calculation of household wealth. It set another record recently. Declines in housing were offset by rises in asset values of.... you guessed it... savings in stocks, bonds, and other instruments.<br /><br />Sun sponsored a panel of college students about how they use technology<br /><a href="http://news.com.com/College+students+find+existence+online/2100-1025-6157405.html?part=dht&tag=nl.e703">http://news.com.com/College+students+find+existence+online/2100-1025-6157405.html?part=dht&tag=nl.e703</a><br /><em>Despite the fears that kids are leaving permanent digital footprints when they post personal information online, college students think it would be even weirder if someone </em>didn't <em>exist on the Web.</em><br /><br />Nice commentary from Clickability about how new technology in publishing needs buy-in from publishers, advertisers, and readers, and often the readers are the ones most overlooked. The main lesson is to avoid replicating the older medium attempting to be replaced.<br /><a href="http://www.clickability.com/press/eap/5549046.html">http://www.clickability.com/press/eap/5549046.html</a><br /><em>I overhead someone at a conference recently describing the Zinio approach as "like pointing a tv camera at a radio," and I think that pretty well sums up the problem.</em><br /><em></em><br />Someone... please tell these folks that the Internet is not having any effect on print!<br /><a href="http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2007/02/07/most_advertisers_now_spending_on_new_media_survey/">http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2007/02/07/most_advertisers_now_spending_on_new_media_survey/</a><br /><em>Nearly 90 percent of all U.S. companies polled in a new study will use part of their marketing budgets to advertise in new media like video games or virtual communities.<br />The survey by the American Advertising Federation underscores the shift in advertising spending away from television, magazines and, particularly, newspapers, which have suffered badly from declining circulation as more media choices have become available.<br />Concluding that "traditionally staid media categories are in need of innovation if they are to remain competitive," the study found that 73 percent of the executives interviewed planned to spend up to one-fifth of their budgets on new media.<br />More than 12 percent of respondents said they would spend as much as 40 percent of their budget on experimentation and new media, according to the survey released this week, which polled nearly 1,000 advertising executives.<br /></em><br />We spend more than 3500 hours a year consuming media<br /><a href="http://www.voanews.com/english/AmericanLife/2007-02-06-voa28.cfm">http://www.voanews.com/english/AmericanLife/2007-02-06-voa28.cfm</a><br /><br />Kodak has announced that it has plans to lay off another 5000-7000 workers. This is why their ranting old man lunatic executive YouTube video is such poor strategy. Every time they want to talk about the "new Kodak" something like this is announced. When I heard the story about the layoffs, I thought of the line from the now-edited graphic division version... now adapted for this news "think of this as a big fat makeready for the 2010s." What's really hard is when you are working in a division that is doing well and all of the bad news is coming from other divisions. It's not like you can control them. It's one of the fallacies about "conglomerates" being stronger companies, when historically, they underperform, and the diverse businesses do not limit risk but actually increase it because none of them have the full range of resources they need for long term investments.<br />I've spent parts of four decades in marketing, teaching it, and doing it, and it still is fascinating how "inside-out" thinking pervades marketing and advertising, and that "outside-in" does not. The difference is discussed by Trout and Ries in their book, <em>Positioning</em>, long since updated by Jack Trout since Al Ries has gone on his own a few years ago. The worst advertising campaign I have seen this year is the one where they brought Orville Redenbacher back. I blogged about that on 1/22. <a href="http://drjoewebb.blogspot.com/2007/01/yahoo-and-newspapers-new-rules-of-pr.html">http://drjoewebb.blogspot.com/2007/01/yahoo-and-newspapers-new-rules-of-pr.html</a><br />Kodak layoff <a href="http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/kodak-ups-estimates-job-cuts/story.aspx?guid=%7B2B5147F5%2D59E1%2D419C%2D8552%2DA942DEE633DB%7D&siteid=yhoo&dist=yhoo">http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/kodak-ups-estimates-job-cuts/story.aspx?guid=%7B2B5147F5%2D59E1%2D419C%2D8552%2DA942DEE633DB%7D&siteid=yhoo&dist=yhoo</a><a href="http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/other_business/article/0,2777,DRMN_23916_5339045,00.html"></a><br />Kodak's YouTube video has been viewed more than 200,000 times... this is the consumer division video<br /><a href="http://youtube.com/watch?v=Sz6XjXu-oT8">http://youtube.com/watch?v=Sz6XjXu-oT8</a><br /><br />Speaking of YouTube, 7 of its top 10 videos for a few days were Super Bowl ads. <em>Advertising Age</em> had a story about how advertisers are not taking full advantage of the post-event buzz.<br /><a href="http://adage.com/article?article_id=114893">http://adage.com/article?article_id=114893</a><br />My favorite ads from this year's Super Bowl?<br />Blockbuster <a href="http://www.superbowl-ads.com/2007/2007_winners/blockbuster_mouse.htm">http://www.superbowl-ads.com/2007/2007_winners/blockbuster_mouse.htm</a> only because I'm a part-time computer geek.<br />eTrade <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Whxc9to-1qs">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Whxc9to-1qs</a> I really miss their "money out the wazoo" ad from years ago, but luckily, it's on YouTube <a href="http://youtube.com/watch?v=E0_tfoTTGOQ">http://youtube.com/watch?v=E0_tfoTTGOQ</a><br />Sprint <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNT1Y2sLLKU&NR">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNT1Y2sLLKU&NR</a> "connectile dysfunction"<br />My favorite all-time Super Bowl ad is FedEx' sendup of the movie <em>Castaway</em> <a href="http://youtube.com/watch?v=XvX7ovvf-LI">http://youtube.com/watch?v=XvX7ovvf-LI</a><br /><br />The $100 laptop program has addressed security issues in a unique way... and they are discussed in this article<br /><a href="http://blogs.zdnet.com/security/?p=20&tag=nl.e539">http://blogs.zdnet.com/security/?p=20&tag=nl.e539</a>DrJoeWebbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07775975475053235257noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11033020.post-65861185410740669822007-02-04T18:15:00.000-05:002007-02-04T18:17:52.392-05:00Marketers and Blogging, Time and Print, Tax Revenues, More PC StuffMarketers having trouble figuring how blogs fit into their marketing<br /><a href="http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/bloggers---fifth-estate-journalism/story.aspx?guid=%7B94D2F69D%2D3F0A%2D4D80%2D87FB%2DD75345D4E464%7D">http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/bloggers---fifth-estate-journalism/story.aspx?guid=%7B94D2F69D%2D3F0A%2D4D80%2D87FB%2DD75345D4E464%7D</a><br /><em>Their spontaneous, unedited, sometimes emotional "first takes" on new products are substantially impacting business, according to Pete Blackshaw, chief marketing officer of Nielsen BuzzMetrics, a 100-person division which monitors the blogosphere. He calls bloggers "a kind of Fifth Estate or journalism."<br />Blackshaw says bloggers are everywhere, using laptops, video cameras, and digital recorders to publish their comments, reactions, and criticisms. Nowhere was this more evident than earlier this month when the Detroit Auto Show, the Consumer Electronics Show, and MacWorld were vying for attention.<br />Wikipedia had an iPhone entry within minutes of Steve Jobs' announcement of the product, and YouTube had more iPhone-related clips than it did for Gucci or the Pope.<br />"Bloggers have become the ultimate news aggregators," Blackshaw said. Major media reporters monitor blogs for tips as well as informed perspective on product features. A swarm of bloggers posting about new products, often positively, ends up in search engines. "That comes back as search results when consumers do research; the bloggers enthusiasm turns into advertising," Blackshaw said.<br />Ad agencies and media buyers are trying to gauge what to do about bloggers and other online media. Since bloggers are looking for Web links to include in their reports, marketers are weighing whether to spend all their money in traditional media or to take some to build a fuller Web site for the brand.<br />Blackshaw cited Apple Computer for coordinating its online assets for the iPhone introduction. Product photos, specifications, and narrative about the product were available immediately at Apple.com. Blackshaw says advertisers in this weekend's Super Bowl should be following the same road, to build interest in their ads.<br />So it's no accident that Bowl ads for Doritos are already online. Don't waste money on a Super Bowl ad unless you have these other pieces of the mix in place. You can't just buy media in a vacuum, Blackshaw said. "You have to think about how others pieces of the marketing mix reinforce, amplify and ultimately drive more return on that investment." </em><br /><br />Please... someone tell <em>Time</em> that the Internet is not affecting print volume<br /><a href="http://www.forbes.com/business/businesstech/2007/01/30/time-advertising-web-tech-media-cx_lh_0130time.html">http://www.forbes.com/business/businesstech/2007/01/30/time-advertising-web-tech-media-cx_lh_0130time.html</a><br /><em>Time Inc. is trying to figure out how to capture readers and ad dollars that are leaving print media for the Web. Time magazine decided last year to shift its publication date from Monday to Friday. The company said earlier this month that it is eliminating 289 jobs, including 172 editorial jobs, bringing its employee head count down to about 11,000. And last week, the company announced the sale of 18 smaller magazines, including Popular Science and Field & Stream, to Bonnier Magazine Group of Sweden.</em><br />Interesting point in the article:<br /><em>In 2006 Sports Illustrated generated about $118 in revenue for every person who paid for the print magazine, compared to $5 per online reader.</em><br />This is like comparing Apples and Intels... ummmm, like comparing apples and lawnmowers. The $118 in revenue includes postage, printing, and other distribution costs. The $5 probably has a superb gross margin, but one wonders if it's being charged all of its costs, especially for repurposing print content. <em>Time</em> really needs to increase its online audience for its properties and claims it will not charge for it until the size of its audience grows significantly. One has to marvel at the way Dow Jones structured its <em>Wall Street Journal</em> online business. It charged from the day it started, and has never had to worry about converting from free to paid. <em>Time </em>and its properties do... and I suspect that the change of its businesses will continue to be quite painful and that these layoffs are nothing like what is bound to come 12-18 months from now.<br /><br />FedEx Kinko's says low margins are just fine for them... good thing they have lots of shipping revenue that goes through the stores to make up for it... all printers should sign up with UPS and DHL, I guess.<br /><a href="http://money.cnn.com/2007/01/17/news/companies/pluggedin_boyle_fedex.fortune/index.htm">http://money.cnn.com/2007/01/17/news/companies/pluggedin_boyle_fedex.fortune/index.htm</a><br /><br />Tax revenues are increasing again! According to the 1/29/07 <em>Wall Street Journal</em> quoted Congressional Budget Office data:<br /><em>Data released last week from the Congressional Budget Office confirm that the tax cuts of 2003 keep soaking the rich, especially on their capital gains. CBO and Congress's Joint Tax Committee originally estimated that reducing the capital gains rate to 15% from 20% would cost the Treasury $5.4 billion from 2003-2006.<br />Whoops. Actual revenues exceeded expectations by 68%, creating a $133 billion revenue bonanza for the feds. CBO's original forecast for 2006 was for $57 billion in capital gains revenues, but actual receipts were $110 billion. This surprise windfall is one reason the budget deficit is also far lower than CBO predicted.<br /></em>The problem is that the CBO, by law, cannot assume that tax policy affects people's behavior. "Dynamic scoring" is a no-no as far as the CBO is concerned. Therefore, they would have to assume, that if tax rates were doubled, tax revenues would double, too. If they were tripled, revenues would triple. The last time this happened was with the Clinton tax increases early in his administration, which only delivered half of what the CBO said. But Clinton and Robert Rubin were smart enough to cut the capital gains rate a few years later and created a capital gains windfall, that combined with a Congress that believed in spending restraint, resulted in budget surpluses. Milton Friedman hated surpluses, and he was right... they slow an economy down, and they did. Better to reduce the tax rates... again, until the reduction is at some kind of equilibrium where their reduction can't throw off more yet more revenues. The Laffer Curve (Laffer was a Clinton supporter, and not many people know that for some reason) is a curve, and it looks like a bell curve. The CBO insists that there is no such thing, by law, and that everything is a straight line. This is the reason why "pay-go" or "pay as you go" legislation does not work. Luckily, Congress will be gridlocked over the next year or so. But it is probably the case that at this time that tax rates will be the lowest they will be for quite some time, perhaps a generation. Coolidge, Kennedy, Reagan, Clinton, and Bush43 all knew the power of lower taxes to stimulate investment. Johnson, Nixon, and Bush41, never learned the lessons.<br /><br />Comcast states that streaming video is boosting its broadband subscriptions<br /><a href="http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/earnings-comcasts-roberts-4-percent-of-comcast-hsd-traffic-connected-to-you/#When:04:37:00Z">http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/earnings-comcasts-roberts-4-percent-of-comcast-hsd-traffic-connected-to-you/#When:04:37:00Z</a><br /><br />Perhaps Santa can come early... what a cool Linux computer. It's (in round numbers) only 7x7x2" --- you could lose it on your desk!<br /><a href="http://system76.com/index.php/cPath/2_52?osCsid=9ac85ecb37260c403ecb05f215fcf8bc">http://system76.com/index.php/cPath/2_52?osCsid=9ac85ecb37260c403ecb05f215fcf8bc</a><br /><br />Microsoft Vista won't allow clean re-installs... ugh!!<br /><a href="http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=5887">http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=5887</a><br />Sometimes, you computer needs a totally clean re-install where you reformat the hard drive, etc... and what if your hard drive gets fried? Looks like a real annoyance. The next Ubuntu release is in April... perhaps that's the time I can end my Microsoft ties for most of my work?<br /><br />There are some people, however, who think Microsoft is evil, just like all corporations, and Vista is a conspiracy against computer users?<br /><a href="http://badvista.fsf.org/">http://badvista.fsf.org/</a><br />Puh...leeeeez.... Last I saw, computing was a competitive market and we have more choices than most people know about. There are two major PC operating systems, of course, Apple and Windows, but even that is changing. Linux is starting to expand from Geekdom (had the DOJ not inserted itself into the market by suing MSFT, I still believe that the uprise in negative MSFT sentiment would have sent millions of dollars into the development of alternatives; instead, the market relied on the DOJ getting MSFT to "play nice" and that took the wind out of any rising OS enmity). Palm, Windows Mobile, and Linux are on PDA's. I think we're on the verge of thin clients that rely on browsers. When Gartner Group said that this was the last major PC OS release, I thought that they were dead on. But some of the anti-MSFT folks are wackos... MSFT has outwitted and outmarketed its competitors... and it plays hardball... so? I just want to get away from buggy software with horrid EULAs.<br /><br />OpenOffice is the leading free alternative to MSOffice. A blog that has good tips about using the program and its hidden features is at <a href="http://www.linuxjournal.com/blog/800902">http://www.linuxjournal.com/blog/800902</a>DrJoeWebbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07775975475053235257noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11033020.post-92092076958411115702007-02-02T11:10:00.000-05:002007-02-02T11:11:52.052-05:00Printing Shipments Up 8 Consecutive Months: Strong DecemberText and chart of the analysis is at the <a href="http://www.PrintCEOBlog.com">www.PrintCEOBlog.com</a> -- the link below goes directly to the entry.<br /><br /><a href="http://printceoblog.wordpress.com/2007/02/02/us-commercial-printing-shipments-up-8-consecutive-months/">http://printceoblog.wordpress.com/2007/02/02/us-commercial-printing-shipments-up-8-consecutive-months/</a>DrJoeWebbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07775975475053235257noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11033020.post-19536840204770789392007-01-29T16:42:00.000-05:002007-01-30T08:26:48.307-05:00Media Job Cuts Distorted, In Search of Stupidity (good book!), It's 1998 Again, Oil Prices, Mises and the $100 Laptop, I'm a Locksmith...An outrageously misleading headline came out last week. It was about media industry layoffs.<br /><a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070125/bs_nm/usa_economy_jobs_media_dc">http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070125/bs_nm/usa_economy_jobs_media_dc</a><br />"Planned media job cuts up 88 pct in 2006" it said, and the first two paragraphs were<br /><em>The number of planned job cuts in the U.S. media sector surged 88 percent last year and that trend will likely continue as readers shift from print to online services, a study on Thursday showed.<br />For all of last year, the media industry announced 17,809 job cuts, up sizably from the 9,453 cuts announced the prior year, according to the job outplacement tracking firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.</em><br />It is horribly out of context. First of all, CG&C is a famous outplacement firm that handles top executives, and all they track is announced corporate layoffs. It brings them great publicity, and they use it very well. Occasionally, however, some context is needed, which is why Dr. Joe is sometimes so sorely needed.<br />Non-newspaper publishing employment is up by 12,000, according to the BLS. Publishing overall, including newspapers is flat, only up 500-800 employees. Seems like lots of these people are finding jobs in their own industry. One company's layoff is someone else's new hire. Remember, these employees either exit the workforce, change industries, but usually work for a smaller and more nimble company in the same or related industry. Ad agency employment, for example, is up by more than 10,000. Why is it that Dr. Doom is the optimist for once?<br /><br />I just finished reading the second edition of <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1590597214?ie=UTF8&tag=drjoewebbcom-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1590597214">In Search of Stupidity</a></em>, which is subtitled "Over 20 Years of High-Tech Marketing Disasters." The author is Merill Chapman, an expert in software marketing. The book is well-done and has some of the best software anecdotes... and discussions of marketing... that I have read in quite some time. I'm only including some quotes here because people may have heard me chuckling about them when I was on the plane reading this... I recommend it highly for both entertainment and for marketing insights.<br /><em></em><br /><em>"Please to remove the solid drive to check to the connection orifice for proper adherence." </em>(p8 footnote, this is the advice that was spoken to him over the phone by Dell tech support; his call had been transferred to an overseas call center... makes you wonder if they were using Google's translator! You kind of know what they are saying: take out the hard drive and see if it's connected properly. One can only wonder what kind of document they were working from)<br /><br />p267 had an interesting writeup about the WGA-- Windows Genuine Advantage -- program that verifies your MSFT software, similar to something I've already posted.<br /><em>WGA was misidentifying hundreds of thousands, maybe millions, of legitimate installs as “non-genuine.” Exactly how many was somewhat mysterious, since Microsoft was not very forthcoming on the issue. The company did say that of the 60 million checks it had run, 80 percent of the machines tattled on by WGA were using invalid keys. That left about 12 million “others.” High levels of complaints were coming from a wide spectrum of users, particularly people who'd had Windows preinstalled on their laptops.<br /></em><br />On p269-270 there was a quote from a Microsoft employee that is actually good advice<br /><em>I recommend to my friends that they always keep a copy of OpenOffice on their systems in the event that MSOffice's activation system locks up the software when they're not expecting it and they can't reach a phone or the Internet to reactivate it. Interoperability is excellent and you can usually get something done. It's good protection against our copy protection.<br /></em>It's not just copy protection -- ANY software can stop working properly for any reason, such as corrupt files anywhere in the OS or in the program itself. OpenOffice has bailed me out on a number of occasions, but admittedly MSOffice has too... and also WordPerfect Office. Since I'm relatively fluent in all of these, I know which software to grab when I need something done quickly or what to do when I encounter a problem file.<br /><br />The <em>Boston Print Buyers</em> newsletter had a report about the printing economy, in 2 parts.<br /><a href="http://www.bostonprintbuyers.com/printtips/07-01-22.html">http://www.bostonprintbuyers.com/printtips/07-01-22.html</a><br /><a href="http://www.bostonprintbuyers.com/printtips/07-01-29.html">http://www.bostonprintbuyers.com/printtips/07-01-29.html</a><br />Funny... the title is "What Lies Ahead for the US Print Market?" may actually be a warning... emphasis on the word "lies" and perhaps making it an exclamation "What Lies!... for the US Print Market"<br /><em>"...while so much printed material has migrated to the Web, [interviewee... name withheld] does not consider the WWW [worldwide web] a major threat to the industry. Indeed, the Internet has created additional need for print materials, if only to support e-firms."</em><br />I had some other people read it to make sure that I was not living 1998 all over again. I'll never forget the paper distributors meeting I spoke at around that time when I was hit by that comment. I refuted it and lost the entire audience's friendship in a matter of a couple of minutes. Nonetheless, here we are almost 10 yeasr later with $30 billion less in annual print volume, and 150,000 fewer employees in the industry and this kind of sentiment isn't dead yet? The Internet is a baby. There's lots more Internet effect to come.<br /><br />Margie Dana, who runs the print buyers group has a marvelous "Margie's Print Tips" newsletter, and everyone should get it. The site is at <a href="http://www.bostonprintbuyers.com/index.html">http://www.bostonprintbuyers.com/index.html</a> and you can sign up on the home page... in the upper right hand corner. I just sent her some notes based on some questions she sent me a week or so ago that will appear as an article sometime soon. It's an excellent organization, and its reach is beyond Boston.<br /><br />Speaking of the Internet, the # of PDFs online using my Google search keeps jumping around. It's now at 266 million. Google supposedly has been tweaking their search engine, and you don't always get the same number of hits even within the same day. Ask.com gets 87 million. Yahoo.com gets 400,ooo. MSN.com gets 86 million. Clusty.com gets 197 million. Adobe claims 200 million. I have gotten counts as high as 400+ million.<br /><br />The next computer screen technology... about 5-7 years away, perhaps... but I want one now :)<br />The company is "Perceptive Pixel" and it has a touch screen like you have never seen before.<br />Video <a href="http://fastcompany.com/video/general/perceptivepixel.html">http://fastcompany.com/video/general/perceptivepixel.html</a><br />Articles<br /><a href="http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/112/open_features-canttouchthis.html">http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/112/open_features-canttouchthis.html</a><br /><a href="http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/18079/">http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/18079/</a><br /><br />Great chart about oil prices from brokerage firm Raymond James<br /><a href="http://www.raymondjames.com/images/inv_strat/inv_strat_070122_1lrg.gif">http://www.raymondjames.com/images/inv_strat/inv_strat_070122_1lrg.gif</a><br />It's amazing to see what happens when prices are inflation adjusted, and how the prices we are seeing are nothing new at all.<br /><br />The free market economists at the Mises Institute have taken on the $100 laptop.<br /><a href="http://mises.org/story/2455">http://mises.org/story/2455</a><br />Just so people are clear... as the article says, the countries that these are going to have far bigger problems than any nearly-free laptop could hope to cure. My only interest in it is that as these countries grow, items like the $100 laptop mean that they have the opportunity to grow without print. In any of these countries, if the choice is sanitation or immunization or a $100 laptop.... the laptop doesn't even make the list. Give me sanitation first. Good article.<br /><br />Windows Vista is out today.<br /><em>PC World </em>article explains why you should not buy it <a href="http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,128645/article.html">http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,128645/article.html</a><br /><em>PC World</em> reports that the first service pack is in the works... already<br /><a href="http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,128645/article.html">http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,128645/article.html</a><br />In some ways it's unfair to fault them for preparing for the eventual service pack because you cannot always use what happens in alphas, betas, or early users until a product is in the full marketplace. I'm not running out to get it... my next computer will be Linux from the ground up. But the best way to get Vista is to not upgrade at all, and that's to get a new computer with it preloaded.<br /><br />Finally, after all these years, the six episodes of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000H7JCFK?ie=UTF8&tag=drjoewebbcom-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&amp;creative=9325&creativeASIN=B000H7JCFK"><em>Police Squad!</em> are on DVD</a>.<br />Wikipedia entries<br />Show background: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police_Squad">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police_Squad!</a><br />Running gags: <a href="http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Police_Squad!">http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Police_Squad!</a><br />The DVD has the shows and some additional features that are pretty unremarkable. They have some shows with "commentary" and all that commentary consists of is the directors and producers or writers sitting around a table watching the episode and making comments. You get to learn silly and trivial things like the number of garbage cans or other items Lt. Drebin drives into is the same as the episode number in the series. There's a rambling interview with Leslie Nielsen that is not all that satisfying, and the same goes for the outtakes. The series hit its stride in the <em>Naked Gun</em> movies, that were outrageously successful, and benefitted from the big-screen treatment. The shows and its sight gags and double entendres of the original series are what really matter, and they're all there in the DVD as we remembered them, the few of us, who saw them when they were first aired back in 1982.<br /><em>Drebin, posing as a locksmith, enters a man's office and is greeted by the resident with "Who are you and how did you get in here?" to which Drebin replies, "I'm a locksmith ... and I'm a locksmith."</em>DrJoeWebbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07775975475053235257noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11033020.post-47868038386690236342007-01-24T07:42:00.000-05:002007-01-24T07:56:36.930-05:00Preference for Print, Data Quality, Scripps, Newspaper Adaptation, Ubuntu, Vista<em>Folio: </em>article about the preference for print among B2B communicators<br /><a href="http://www.foliomag.com/viewmedia.asp?prmMID=1000741">http://www.foliomag.com/viewmedia.asp?prmMID=1000741</a><br />The report is at <a href="http://www.usachicago.com/whitepapers/pdf/usawhitepaper.pdf">http://www.usachicago.com/whitepapers/pdf/usawhitepaper.pdf</a> and is yet another report that points to the authority that print conveys. I wonder though if a more thorough examination of the age of respondents would yield different results.<br /><br />Lack of high quality data is still a problem for marketers, and constrains the market for VDP and many digital initiatives.<br /><a href="http://www.btobonline.com/article.cms?articleId=30478">http://www.btobonline.com/article.cms?articleId=30478</a><br /><br /><em>Ad Age</em> article on Scripps Howard and their embracing of new technologies... so much so that they may sell their newspapers. The excerpt below makes one wonder why Time Warner could not have done the same thing. Scripps makes AOL Time Warner look really incompetent.<br /><a href="http://adage.com/mediaworks/article?article_id=114430">http://adage.com/mediaworks/article?article_id=114430</a><br /><em>Owning its content has allowed Scripps to move quickly in the digital-distribution space, while its broadcast and cable rivals have been bogged down with rights issues. In the past year, Scripps has used its 27,000 hours of archived content to launch broadband vertical sites focused on key HGTV areas such as kitchen and bath and a woodworking channel born out of DIY. Scripps plans to at least double its broadband verticals in 2007.</em><br /><br /><em></em><br />An old newspaper guy writes about adapting to the new media age... quite good<br /><a href="http://www.nieman.harvard.edu/reports/06-4NRwinter/p07-0604-cullen.html">http://www.nieman.harvard.edu/reports/06-4NRwinter/p07-0604-cullen.html</a><br /><em></em><br /><em>E&P</em> article about the revenue tradeoffs and transitions that newspapers are grappling with<br /><a href="http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003535689">http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003535689</a><br /><em></em><br />The Ubuntu Linux project has taken yet another step toward ease of use for non-geeks. You can now do an install from inside Windows!<br /><a href="http://www.desktoplinux.com/news/NS4611592451.html">http://www.desktoplinux.com/news/NS4611592451.html</a><br /><br />When the new release comes out in April, Ubuntu will have a special multimedia version. The release of 7.04 (codenamed "Feisty Fawn" is much anticipated [btw the number stands for 2007.April, so therefore the 7.04])<br /><a href="http://ubuntustudio.org/">http://ubuntustudio.org/</a><br /><br />Computer expert Kim Komando recently wrote in her recent <em>USA Today</em> column that Vista was worth upgrading to... but from the reasons she lists, you really do have to wonder if she really meant it. They sound like they are so minor in most people's lives that you're really paying for an expensive bug fix with a horrible license agreement.<br /><a href="http://www.usatoday.com/tech/columnist/kimkomando/2007-01-18-vista-improvements_x.htm">http://www.usatoday.com/tech/columnist/kimkomando/2007-01-18-vista-improvements_x.htm</a>DrJoeWebbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07775975475053235257noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11033020.post-83686806170599978612007-01-22T10:53:00.000-05:002007-01-22T10:54:02.231-05:00Yahoo and Newspapers, New Rules of PR, Time Magazine and Orville Deadenbacher<em>Yahoo!</em> and its deals with newspapers according to <em>BusinessWeek</em><br /><a href="http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_05/b4019029.htm">http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_05/b4019029.htm</a><br /><em>You can argue that newspapers are dealing with a sworn enemy here, but the reality is more nuanced. The big online players have a horrible record in tailoring products to local markets. ... it's not hard to find examples of some newspaper companies welcoming arrangements that were once deemed unthinkable. MediaNews Group, which publishes more than 50 papers including The Denver Post and San Jose Mercury News, will soon open a combined print and online national sales office in New York—and is currently discussing involving Yahoo, as well. ... souring revenue scenarios—for both Yahoo and newspaper companies—spur creativity. Yahoo seeks a fix appropriate to its content-centric ways... The world's No. 1 portal is betting that, like Microsoft, it can't do local by itself... It's also betting there is huge upside in the local space for the kinds of display ads in which it still outshines Google. And it's a nod to the reality that advertisers remain more comfortable having their ads around tamer and more traditional media rather than, say, user-generated videos. </em><br /><em></em><br />Download this eBook "New Rules of PR"<br /><a href="http://www.prweb.com/destination.php?awsrc=dmseb_fp">http://www.prweb.com/destination.php?awsrc=dmseb_fp</a><br />The Internet has made public relations a far more powerful tool than it ever has been. But it's not just an Internet thing... this has been going on for more than a decade. Al Ries (co-author of <em>Positioning: the Battle for Your Mind) </em>has been writing about this for years. The decline in space advertising is not solely Internet related at all. The availability of data bases, new broadcast outlets, the rise of events, promotions, and others are all part of the rise of PR. <br /><br />The recent layoffs at <em>Time</em> got a lot of media coverage. Here's the letter sent to employees.<br /><a href="http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowlny/magazines/memo_john_huey_on_time_incs_layoffs_51373.asp">http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowlny/magazines/memo_john_huey_on_time_incs_layoffs_51373.asp</a><br /><em>NY Post </em>story <a href="http://www.nypost.com/seven/01182007/business/time_inc_s_bloody_thursday_targets_250_business_keith_j__kelly.htm">http://www.nypost.com/seven/01182007/business/time_inc_s_bloody_thursday_targets_250_business_keith_j__kelly.htm</a><a href="http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowlny/magazines/memo_john_huey_on_time_incs_layoffs_51373.asp"></a> <em>Ad Age</em> story that explains the $100 million shifted by automakers away from print is a main culprit<br /><a href="http://adage.com/mediaworks/article?article_id=114419">http://adage.com/mediaworks/article?article_id=114419</a><br />This is more a story about the old guard, with tired mastheads and annoying content, and their huge fixed costs and bureaucracies, not adjusting to the marketplace. Employment in non-newspaper publishing businesses is up 12,000 this year. The <em>Time</em> folks will get jobs elsewhere. The current <em>Time</em> employees have a lot more to worry about: their business has to transition. It's easier to start from scratch.<br />What's even stranger is the leg up that <em>Time</em> and its other properties had online. Remember when "content is king" was the mantra? Nope. Distribution is king. Ubiquity is queen. The botched ownership of/by AOL is a story of failed cross media. Easy to do technically, but entrenched camps of legal issues (music), bureaucracy (bonuses based on print performance, not on destroying old media), and really bad customer relationships (AOL was a horror to deal with, and could not make its own transition to broadband). <em>Time</em> is part of a larger organizational cancer of structural incompetence.<br /><br />Speaking of transitions, there has been much disgust about the new ad with the dead Orville Redenbacher. His image was created digitally and he appears in a new commercial. As one reviewer put it, he looks like Dana Carvey in bad make-up... come to think of it, that would have been better. One reviewer calls him "Deadenbacher." <em>Ad Age's</em> Bob Garfield has some good insights into why the ad is so disturbing... and why it doesn't work, in his article "Return of the Popcorn-Shilling Zombie."<br /><a href="http://adage.com/columns/article?article_id=114421">http://adage.com/columns/article?article_id=114421</a><br /><em>This was a bit of a casting coup, as Redenbacher died in 1995 -- although apparently not of anything serious. Otherwise, how could he be standing there -- in his trademark horn-rims, vest and bow tie-pitching from the Great Beyond? "These MP3 players get lighter every day," he says, in a geriatric cracker-barrel twang. "Would you believe this little baby holds 30 gigs? But if you want light and fluffy, you've got to try my famous gourmet popping corn." ... Orville Redenbacher is Madison Avenue's first pitchzombie, plodding clumsily forward, not quite dead and not quite alive, like Ashwatthama, of Hindu mythology; Drekavak, the Slavic precursor of Count Dracula; and the Bush administration. ...Big Boss spokesmen have had a rough go of it. Pete Coors got pinched for DUI. Dr. Z flopped for Chrysler. And Bill Ford told the world about the bright Ford future only to draw attention to the miserable Ford present. Even the legendary Lee Iacocca made an ass of himself pitching his old company in a bizarre pairing with Jason Alexander. See the pattern? Those men all have something in common, something that must have contributed to their various spectacular failures. Yes, that's right. They're alive. Why torture those poor bastards when some lucky stiff can do a better job without even, you know, respiring? ... The problem is, the stunt is wrong on at least three levels. It's not only a bit grotesque for the audience but also unforgivably disrespectful of the deceased. It's also not all that well done. Yes, Orville looks marginally more lifelike than the technically undeceased Peter Graves in his spot for Geico, but for all the time and money Crispin Porter& Bogusky spent e-resurrecting Orville, he still looks more like an animatronic Epcot exhibit than a live human being. The lipsyncing is awkward, and (for those of us old enough to remember) the voice is all wrong. For those of us not old enough to remember, it just looks like an ultracheesy commercial with a creepy nerd puppet. Then there's that unbelievably lame opening digression about MP3 players. We're assuming this drivel was meant to embrace the tactic used by kidnappers, who photograph hostages holding the day's newspaper to establish a time frame. Orville's iPod buds prove this is not just some vintage ad footage digitally remastered. They needn't have worried. No commercial from those days was this drop-dead bad. </em>DrJoeWebbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07775975475053235257noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11033020.post-45283750275676724072007-01-17T15:00:00.000-05:002007-01-17T14:56:05.994-05:00Agencies, Mobile Media, Index of Economic Freedom, IT, MSFT, Excel Error AgainWhy do businesses use the ad agencies they do? The latest poll explains. I'll never forget the time our company (when I had a real job) selected an agency and then the account execs came in... and knew nothing about us. Gee, the presentation went well when they pitched the job...<br /><a href="http://www.btobonline.com/article.cms?articleId=30402">http://www.btobonline.com/article.cms?articleId=30402</a><br /><em>BtoB also asked marketers to name their No. 1 criterion in selecting an ad agency partner, in current or past searches. The overwhelming response was understanding the client's business (cited by 64.7% of respondents), followed by good chemistry with the agency (17.9%) and outstanding creative (15.0%). Only 2.4% of marketers said price was the No. 1 criterion in selecting an agency partner. B-to-b marketers that have conducted ad agency reviews in the past year agree it's critical that a potential agency partner understand their business and the b-to-b environment overall.</em><br /><em></em><br />Good article about how technology has changed advertising<br /><a href="http://www.entrepreneur.com/advertising/adcolumnistroyhwilliams/article170166.html">http://www.entrepreneur.com/advertising/adcolumnistroyhwilliams/article170166.html</a><br /><em></em><br />Mobile media had already started to gain steam before the iPhone was introduced by Apple. A site, perooz.com, is already on the case.<br /><a href="http://www.perooz.com/index.html">http://www.perooz.com/index.html</a><br /><br />The annual <em>Index of Economic Freedom</em> has been published by the Heritage Foundation and the Wall Street Journal. For anyone needing snapshot data and insights into the inner dynamics of world economies (including black market activities), this report is an essential resource, and we strongly recommend it. The report is available as an interactive web site, a PDF download, or as a hard copy purchase.<br /><br />The top ten countries, and their scores (100 is best) are:<br />Hong Kong 89.3<br />Singapore 85.7<br />Australia 82.7<br />United States 82<br />New Zealand 81.6<br />United Kingdom 81.6<br />Ireland 81.3<br />Luxembourg 79.3<br />Switzerland 79.1<br />Canada 78.7<br /><br />According to the report:<br /><em>The average economic freedom score is 60.6 percent, the second highest level since the Index began in 1995 and down by 0.3 percentage point from last year. Each region has experienced an increase in economic freedom during the past decade... Economic freedom is strongly related to good economic performance. The world's freest countries have twice the average per capita income of the second quintile of countries and over five times the average income of the fifth quintile of countries. The freest economies also have lower rates of unemployment and lower inflation. These relationships hold across each quintile, meaning that every quintile of less free economies has worse average rates of inflation and unemployment than the preceding quintile has....Among specific economies during the past year, the scores of 65 countries are now higher, and the scores of 92 countries are worse. The variation in freedom among all of these countries declined again for the sixth year in a row...</em><br />The report ranks economies based on measures of ten factors: business freedom, trade freedom, fiscal freedom, freedom from government, monetary freedom, investment freedom, financial freedom, property rights, freedom from corruption, labor freedom.<br />Download <a href="http://www.heritage.org/research/features/index/downloads.cfm">http://www.heritage.org/research/features/index/downloads.cfm</a><br /><br />Steve Duncan of the blog <em>Lornitropia</em> has a great post about technology, business, and our industry... and mentions yours truly.<br /><a href="http://www.lornitropia.net/archives/2007/01/16/the-business-suppression-unit/">http://www.lornitropia.net/archives/2007/01/16/the-business-suppression-unit/</a><br /><br />One of the most reliable and impeccably honest co-workers I know is having problems with their computer. It turns out that MSFT's software for verifying whether or not Windows is legitimate or not keeps saying that it a counterfeit copy is being run. It's an HP computer, purchased factory sealed from HP. It turns out that the detection software has an error rate of more than 40%, based on MSFT's own tracking data.<br /><a href="http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?p=142">http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?p=142</a><br /><br />Speaking of Microsoft I have re-posted that Excel file that miscalculates a basic formula... unless you open it it Quattro Pro, Lotus 1-2-3, or OpenOffice Calc.<br /><a href="http://www.yousendit.com/transfer.php?action=download&ufid=5A42D5EA243D9A31">http://www.yousendit.com/transfer.php?action=download&ufid=5A42D5EA243D9A31</a>DrJoeWebbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07775975475053235257noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11033020.post-11387972235704564982007-01-12T13:06:00.000-05:002007-01-12T13:42:50.517-05:00Kodak Video is Back (kind of), XRX-EK?, H'berg, Scripps Out of Newspapers?, HVP RIP?The Kodak video is back<br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sz6XjXu-oT8&eurl">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sz6XjXu-oT8&eurl</a><br />Not really, but it's new video about consumer photography, and this one does not insult the people let go in their various downsizings. It's the same ranting old man blabbering about how they're not the same anymore. If he jumps around anymore his Depends will get tied up in a knot. But do we really want someone saying "freakin' " in a Kodak video, especially an "old man"? I know that part of the reason they're doing this is to appear more hip to a younger audience, but it will take a lot more than this to do it. You still want the brand, you don't want the baggage. This doesn't do it. How about compelling products and applications instead? No one will take Kodak seriously until they start making money consistently.<br /><br />There were rumors last week that Kodak could take over Xerox<br /><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/08/AR2007010800968.html">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/08/AR2007010800968.html</a><br />If they took over XRX and installed Ann Mulcahy, a woman ranked by <em>Forbes</em> as more powerful than "The Oprah," that might make sense. It can't happen. XRX is more likely to buy EK, but that would make us question Ann Mulcahy's judgment. The rumors of HP buying XRX still persist, and regularly ebb and flow. XRX is still not where it was, but at least there's honest accounting and a legitimate upside potential to it.<br /><br />Speaking of takeovers, Heidelberg's stock buybacks has not done anything to help their situation.<br /><a href="http://ichart.finance.yahoo.com/z?s=HDD.F&t=1y&amp;q=l&l=on&z=m&c=%5EGDAXI&a=v&p=s">http://ichart.finance.yahoo.com/z?s=HDD.F&t=1y&q=l&l=on&z=m&c=%5EGDAXI&a=v&p=s</a><br />The stock can't keep up with the DAX index since the buyback was announced.<br />Morgan Stanley recently sold its shares, and as an investment banker, if they suspected something was up with a takeover or a potential deal that they could be part of, they would have stuck with it.<br /><a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601100&sid=asRY3iX1DwkY&refer=germany">http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601100&sid=asRY3iX1DwkY&refer=germany</a> (reference is at the bottom of the article)<br />Another article characterizes the buybacks as a defensive measure against takeover<br /><a href="http://www.google.com/news/url?sa=t&ct=us/0-0&fp=45a7a2c2e12bdea8&ei=882nRdCmAYqWswHv2aydDQ&url=http%3A//www.forbes.com/home/feeds/afx/2006/12/18/afx3262379.html&cid=0">http://www.google.com/news/url?sa=t&ct=us/0-0&fp=45a7a2c2e12bdea8&ei=882nRdCmAYqWswHv2aydDQ&url=http%3A//www.forbes.com/home/feeds/afx/2006/12/18/afx3262379.html&cid=0</a><br />Buybacks rarely work... if you have the money, give it to the shareholders if you can't figure out what to do with it. These buybacks are being implemented to protect the vested interests of big shareholders and executive jobs. Shareholders should have the opportunity to have bidders come forward. This does not appear to be playing out the way it was intended.<br /><br />Publishers are improving their web sites<br /><a href="http://www.foliomag.com/viewmedia.asp?prmMID=1000704">http://www.foliomag.com/viewmedia.asp?prmMID=1000704</a><br /><br />Publishers are still fighting over postal reform<br /><a href="http://www.foliomag.com/viewmedia.asp?prmMID=1000716">http://www.foliomag.com/viewmedia.asp?prmMID=1000716</a><br />Small publishers are claiming that large publishers have rigged the system in their favor when it comes to discounts. This is, essentially, B2B publishers claiming that the big consumer publishers are not playing fair. The two trade associations are duking it out.<br /><br />Scripps may sell its newspaper properties to focus on cable, Internet<br /><a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aZKSqu24ldUY&refer=home">http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aZKSqu24ldUY&refer=home</a><br /><br />The industry grapevine says that <em>High Volume Printing</em> magazine is no more. That's sad... the magazine had the perfect demographic for the long-term future of the traditional printing business. Over the years, its bimonthly schedule worked against it, as it did not have the frequency needed to really build its brand when the "the big 3" were all monthlies, and it had no Internet strategy in the least. Remember, 70% of all capital investment in the printing business is made in the top 2500 establishments... and that's probably less than 500 firms.<br /><br />Good graduate student paper on the adoption of Linux by governments... and that it seems to be coming to a tipping point. I'm still using Ubuntu on my notebook and will soon be making my transition on my desktop.<br /><a href="http://www.desktoplinux.com/articles/AT8673493458.html">http://www.desktoplinux.com/articles/AT8673493458.html</a>DrJoeWebbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07775975475053235257noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11033020.post-15668752382850405642007-01-08T19:09:00.000-05:002007-01-08T19:09:29.853-05:00Consumer as Agency of the Year, Jobs, Trade, and a Terabyte disk for only $400?<em>Advertising Age</em> picked "the consumer" as the agency of the year, pulling the same weasel act as <em>Time </em>magazine did for their person of the year.<br /><a href="http://adage.com/article?article_id=114132">http://adage.com/article?article_id=114132</a><br /><em>...big agencies -- great companies that once cast long shadows over corporate America -- are losing more of their control within a marketing process that for decades they have dominated. They're already being squeezed by procurement departments and jostled by media companies and nibbled at by a host of other kinds of agencies that grew in importance as TV ceased to be the only game in town. "Traditional agencies have never had to think about distribution because they'd been told what media to color in," says Nick Law, North American chief creative officer at digital shop R/GA, New York. "Creatively, it's all been about creating punch lines. For years, there's been a guild mentality. Clients came because agencies created the magic behind the screen. The new environment has blown open the idea of being an expert, so you can be very good and working in a bedroom in Dundee, and the world can be seeing your work."</em><br /><br />Excellent jobs report Friday, confounding the experts. ADP had issued a report earlier in the week that payrolls would be down by 40,000. So the fact that this was good must be really confusing to them. :)<br />1) October and November revisions added 29,000 payroll jobs<br />2) December payroll jobs were up 167,000<br />3) The household survey was up by 303,000<br />4) The civilian employed workforce is at a record <a name="content">152.7</a> million+<br />The unemployment rate stayed at 4.5%. Why? Because 23,000 more people decided to join the employable work force. Because unemployment is calculated on the basis of people who are seeking jobs, when the economy grows the unemployment rate can actually go up because more workers are attracted to the workforce, increasing the denominator of the formula. When the economy declines, the unemployment rate can actually improve as workers shun the workplace and no longer seek jobs, decreasing the denominator of the formula. So the fact that it stayed at 4.5% is good news in light of new workers being willing to enter the workforce. It's amazing how little news coverage this report is getting, but why should we be surprised. The newspaper business is downsizing, so in their minds, a good employment report must be a lie.<br /><a href="http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm">http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm</a><br /><br />Economist Gene Epstein ("Econospinning" is his excellent book) had a good article in <em>Barrons</em> about the jobs report<br /><a href="http://online.barrons.com/article/SB116804502334668820.html?mod=9_0031_b_this_weeks_magazine_columns">http://online.barrons.com/article/SB116804502334668820.html?mod=9_0031_b_this_weeks_magazine_columns</a><br />What's amazing to me is how few people actually read the jobs report. Economists who should know better often complain about the unemployment report not counting certain discouraged workers and others who are no longer part of the work force... but they do. Epstein explains...<br /><em>The fall in the labor-force participation rate -- the share of the eligible population either working or looking for work -- has spawned a cottage industry of critics who cite it as "proof" that the unemployment rate is no longer a reliable measure of either the economy's ability to use its workers or workers' ability to get jobs. The participation rate ran 66.2% in 2006, down from its peak of 67.1% from 1997 through 2000.<br />Critics figure this extra 1% that used to participate in the labor force would be doing so if only the jobs were available. From there it is an easy leap to say that the unemployment rate is seriously understating the extent of unemployment... But the critics ignore overwhelming evidence to the contrary. In fact, the BLS has kept comprehensive data on the "hidden unemployed" that are meant to address this very issue. Are people not looking for work for "reasons of discouragement"? Are they not looking for work because they might have difficulty getting child-care or adequate transportation? Are there people who work part time and therefore would be counted in the labor force, but would like full-time work and can't get it (the "involuntary part time")? ... The agency uses these categories to supplement its count of the official unemployed. People are considered unemployed if they did not work in the past week and made at least some effort to look work over the past month. But the hidden unemployed have always been present in large numbers -- even in 2000, when the official unemployment rate was at a 30-year low, and jobs were going begging. Were they present in unusual numbers over the past few years? No... The BLS keeps three other measures of the unemployment rate that incorporate the "discouraged," "marginally attached," and the "involuntary part time." All three confirm that hidden unemployment has been no greater over the past few years than it was in the late-Nineties.</em><br /><br />Speaking of Epstein, he was on booktv.org (division of C-Span) this weekend. I taped it and found it to be good. But then, I'm an economics geek. I was surprised to see someone still using transparencies and not projectors, etc. Struck me as odd. Epstein is astoundingly well-read is the impression I got. I enjoyed the book and have linked to it many times.<br /><br />Magazine consultant Marty Walker has some insights into the magazine market in this interview<br /><a href="http://www.medialifemagazine.com/artman/publish/article_9302.asp">http://www.medialifemagazine.com/artman/publish/article_9302.asp</a><br /><br />Hitachi's terabyte drive: $400. Watch for a number of product intros in this area. Terabyte drives are already available. Note also that there are people selling Linux O/S with applications on USB flash drives. It will not be long before your desktop computer will have only flash memory for the O/S and applications.<br /><a href="http://www.pcworld.com/article/128400-1/article.html?tk=nl_dnxnws">http://www.pcworld.com/article/128400-1/article.html?tk=nl_dnxnws</a><br /><br />The stock market does better when Congress is not in session; a funny, but true article<br /><a href="http://www.clubforgrowth.org/2007/01/the_dc_effect_on_the_stock_mar.php">http://www.clubforgrowth.org/2007/01/the_dc_effect_on_the_stock_mar.php</a><br /><br />"Letter to Lou Dobbs" in the <span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">Christian Science Monitor</span> explains the purpose of trade... but Lou's not about to listen. Maybe we should have him read the jobs report above.<br /><a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0104/p09s02-coop.html?s=hns">http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0104/p09s02-coop.html?s=hns</a><br /><em>If you're still skeptical that America's trade deficit is no cause for concern, perhaps you'll be persuaded by Adam Smith, who wrote that "Nothing, however, can be more absurd than this whole doctrine of the balance of trade."... Smith correctly understood that with free trade, the economy becomes larger than any one nation - a fact that brings more human creativity, more savings, more capital, more specialization, more opportunity, more competition, and a higher standard of living to all those who can freely trade.</em><br /><em></em><br />While everyone is focusing on Bob Nardelli's severence from Home Depot, <em>WSJ</em> looks at it also as a blemish on the "Six Sigma" quality improvement movement<br /><a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB116787666577566679.html?mod=todays_us_page_one">http://online.wsj.com/article/SB116787666577566679.html?mod=todays_us_page_one</a><br />It's a reminder that companies can make themselves very efficient at the wrong things<br /><br />Industry editor Earl Wilken died on January 4, 2007. I first knew Earl when he was at <em>Graphic Arts Monthly</em> as their technology editor, and would see him at NYU Graphics Center events. He worked in the industry well into his 70s. I remember Dick Vinocur telling me how he "discovered" Earl laboring in obscurity at Datamation and brought him over to <em>GAM.</em> Both were part of Technical Publishing, owned by D&B at the time. My comments are at the article on <em>WhatTheyThink</em>.<br /><a href="http://members.whattheythink.com/news/newslink.cfm?id=25542">http://members.whattheythink.com/news/newslink.cfm?id=25542</a>DrJoeWebbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07775975475053235257noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11033020.post-36600219749475659682007-01-04T11:17:00.000-05:002008-12-10T21:06:08.991-05:00Printing Shipments: Stunning! ... and other stuff...<div>Printing shipments in November were stunning, up a strong +$504 million or 6.2%, and October's shipments were revised up a little, too. This is seven straight months of positive comparisons. On an inflation-adjusted basis, it was the fourth consecutive month of real growth, up +$355 million, or 4.6% compared to 2005.<br /><br /></div><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5016209410278693314" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" height="331" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1HKDFbVycVrjgFWj0A3IxcUgk3XXI2FSkqOX_b7m99FpCT1G_1CYB_kasqqyI3H_9aBnogDKsvj5q6zzibUc_Y3d1mlqpFXisfEHayVZmpVT7yXK-O7nF0wlNzs754UIpJiH4/s400/010807+nov+sales+chart.GIF" width="491" border="0" /><br /><div></div><div>The <em>WSJ</em> has changed its format and is saving $18 million in newsprint and distribution costs in the process. But there's more to it that that, as noted in an <em>Advertising Age </em>article<br /><a href="http://adage.com/columns/article?article_id=114062">http://adage.com/columns/article?article_id=114062</a><br /><em>As an editor who wrestles daily with the wholesale shift that's taken place in readers' business-news consumption habits, I think the redesign ticks just about every box you'd expect it to tick. In giving over 80% of the paper to analyzing what the news means, the Journal has accepted that news is a 24/7 online commodity and that the only way for a print publication to retain value in that environment is the kind of analysis that leaves readers feeling smarter. This might be obvious to those who live their lives in the blogosphere, but it still takes a brave newspaper publisher to tackle the shift head on -- we can all name a couple of obvious examples of papers that are still a long way from accepting that reality. </em><br /><br />Plastic Logic has built an e-paper plant in Germany that will output a million screens a year<br /><a href="http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20070103005271&newsLang=en">http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20070103005271&newsLang=en</a><br /><br />Magazine forecast from <em>MediaWeek</em><br /><a href="http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/news/print/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003526043">http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/news/print/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003526043</a><br /><br />A new $100 laptop story... well, it's actually a $150 laptop... but this has user reactions, and discusses what countries are in and what countries are not...<br /><a href="http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,240701,00.html">http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,240701,00.html</a><br /><br />WiFi in cars through a company called Autonet Mobile. I can't wait for the "surfing while driving" complaints<br /><em>NYT </em>story <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/02/technology/02avis.html?adxnnl=1&ref=technology&adxnnlx=1167829302-L46wmv3KkRMvfqafPCP84w">http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/02/technology/02avis.html?adxnnl=1&ref=technology&adxnnlx=1167829302-L46wmv3KkRMvfqafPCP84w</a><br />Company press release <a href="http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20070102005095&newsLang=en">http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20070102005095&newsLang=en</a><br /><br />Google hint: when you order something online and they give you a UPS tracking code, put the code in Google rather than going to the UPS.com site. It's a lot faster.</div>DrJoeWebbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07775975475053235257noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11033020.post-32965166754279241962007-01-02T18:11:00.000-05:002007-01-03T13:14:12.589-05:00Forecasts, Agencies, Newspapers, Sydney vs. Sidney, and more<em>MediaWeek </em>has forecasts for 2007<br />Interactive media <a href="http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/news/recent_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003526032">http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/news/recent_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003526032</a> Newspapers <a href="http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/news/recent_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003526031">http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/news/recent_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003526031</a><br /><em></em><br />Ad agencies are changing dramatically, and printers should look at the same dynamics as a way of positioning their businesses.<br /><a href="http://www.azcentral.com/abgnews/articles/1228abg-adtrends1228.html">http://www.azcentral.com/abgnews/articles/1228abg-adtrends1228.html</a><br /><em>Phoenix agencies that want to grow their businesses and attract national clients, must evolve and respond to changes brought by the Internet, third screen and mobile technology, shifting demographics and tech-savvy consumers... "<strong>The traditional ad agency model is broken and dead</strong>," said Dan Santy, principal of Santy in Phoenix. "What clients need to know is about how to successfully navigate the shifts in marketing and how to solve their business problems," he said. "As agencies, we need to prepare them on how to navigate that shift."</em><br /><em></em><br /><em>eMarketer</em> has interesting predictions for 2007<br /><br /><ul><li>Online Ad Spending Will Hit $20 Billion</li><li>Some Money and Lots of Hype for Online Video Advertising</li><li>Social Networks Are Set for a $1 Billion Windfall</li><li>Downloadable Games Will Get Hotter</li><li>Thirty-Seven Million Strong: A 'Minority' Bigger than Canada</li><li>Mobile TV Arrives</li><li>US B2C E-Commerce Will Cruise Past $200 Billion</li><li>The Retail Power of Word-of-Mouth</li><li>Broadband Services Will Matter as Much as Speed</li><li>DVRs Pump Up TV Viewing</li></ul><a href="http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?1004418">http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?1004418</a><br /><em></em><br /><em>NYT</em>'s David Carr writes about the generational differences in newspaper use, recent newspaper deals, and the future of the newspaper.<br /><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/01/business/media/01carr.html">http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/01/business/media/01carr.html</a><br /><br />Good editorial in <em>WSJ</em> where economist and gadfly George Gilder explains why "economics is not for actuaries." It's a discussion about Social Security. I can't think of a single circumstance where any SS forecast has been correct. Gee, it's just as accurate when they try to forecast deficits, tax revenues, etc.<br /><a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB116768413349764065.html?mod=opinion_main_commentaries">http://online.wsj.com/article/SB116768413349764065.html?mod=opinion_main_commentaries</a><br /><br />China's Internet users are increasing dramatically<br /><a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/6216231.stm">http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/6216231.stm</a><br /><em>The number of people using the internet in China grew by 30% over the last year to 132 million... the number of people with access to broadband rose to 52 million... China already has the world's second largest population of internet users after the United States... </em><br /><br />E-commerce isn't for everyone. Here's the story of a German vacationer who wanted to go to Sydney but booked a flight to Sidney, Montana instead... and didn't realize it until he arrived there.<br /><a href="http://articles.news.aol.com/news/_a/confused-tourist-lands-in-us-not/20061229081109990011?ncid=NWS00010000000001">http://articles.news.aol.com/news/_a/confused-tourist-lands-in-us-not/20061229081109990011?ncid=NWS00010000000001</a><br /><br /><em>Barron's </em>economist Gene Epstein discusses research that shows corporate giving increases profits<br /><a href="http://online.barrons.com/article/SB116744548699563183.html?mod=9_0031_b_this_weeks_magazine_main">http://online.barrons.com/article/SB116744548699563183.html?mod=9_0031_b_this_weeks_magazine_main</a><br />This was something that Friedman disagreed with... but Epstein explains why it works<br /><br />General Mills reduced sugar cereals have flopped. Some market trends are not worth following. The real marketing lesson: new trends require new brands.<br /><a href="http://adage.com/article.php?article_id=114025">http://adage.com/article.php?article_id=114025</a><br /><br />Convergence is something I have written about, as people mistake entrepreneurial and free market decision for convergence. This is a great comic from <em>WSJ. </em>A child opens a Christmas present and says "What good is a camera if you can't use it as a phone?"<br /><a href="http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/images/ED-AF143_804jan_20061224152816.gif">http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/images/ED-AF143_804jan_20061224152816.gif</a><br /><br />Personalization in e-mail is discussed in a Responsys survey of marketers. Personalization technology is underused, according to the report. What's so "funny," is that personalization in e-mail is "cheap," a matter of manipulating data bases. Personalization is really overrated, and has little staying power. If it did, personalization beyond mailing and salutations, would be rampant. The fact is that the medium used has little staying power. In a multiple media marketplace, personalization is a tactic, not a strategy.<br /><a href="http://www.responsys.com/press/index.asp?page=pr_236">http://www.responsys.com/press/index.asp?page=pr_236</a><br /><em>According to the survey, 44% of marketers already personalize some aspect of email campaigns and 89% plan to increase their use of personalization in future efforts. However, survey data also revealed that nearly 40% of marketers restrict their personalization efforts to the salutation. Only 10% individualize all aspects of their email campaigns, including salutation, images, timing and promotion. The biggest roadblock to more personalization is lack of time and resources, as cited by 64% of respondents. Other major obstacles include limited information about customers and lack of integrated customer data. </em><br /><br />Your English is awesome!... Lake Superior State University's annual list of banished words, or at least words that should be banished.<br /><a href="http://www.lssu.edu/whats_new/articles.php?articleid=1188">http://www.lssu.edu/whats_new/articles.php?articleid=1188</a><br /><br />One of those end-user stories that makes one just love MSFT... another Ubuntu shift. Another example of how assuming every customer is a thief makes for annoyances for honest ones.<br /><a href="http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=36635">http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=36635</a><br /><br />MSFT has created a stir by giving free computers to bloggers. The Acer notebooks were for evaluation of Vista, and could be kept by the recipients.<br /><a href="http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/01/01/business/blog.php">http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/01/01/business/blog.php</a><br />I'd erase Vista and start doing Linux tests :)DrJoeWebbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07775975475053235257noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11033020.post-1540243438722942652006-12-27T17:50:00.000-05:002008-12-10T21:06:09.164-05:00More Mergers, Vistaprint Gets a Web (of the Internet Kind), and a Software LamentCadmus was bought by Cenveo. More to come, I'm sure, and I suspect Cadmus was looking for a deal. Well, so much for getting into packaging as a refuge for the problems in the printing business.<br /><br />Mergers & acquisitions in a mature business is the last refuge of big companies who have trouble adapting to the new marketplace. It's also a great place to make money if you're an investment banker. It's not the stocks, it's the fees.<br /><br />Remember, more than half of all acquisitions fail to deliver on the expectations held at the time of the deal. Markets change, management has to deal with unexpected events, and management cultures and styles take two or three times as long as expected to mesh. These transition costs are almost always underestimated, and don't always appear as lines on financial statements. They're often work undone, customers ignored, new inititatives that are delayed, executives unavailable to direct their workers because they are doing transitional "things."<br /><br />And don't forget the upheaval among the employees... many of them leave and go to smaller companies and often do well there, bringing a level of experience that the smaller companies could not normally attract. Because management can't give them a straight answer about the viability of their jobs, they start looking elsewhere. It's not that management doesn't want to give a straight yes or no answer about the jobs of their underlings... it's that there is rampant uncertainty for all jobs, including the managers themselves.<br /><br />That uncertainty also weighs on the customers. It's hard to have demovitated employees working with wary or confused customers. It's not the kind of situation that breeds confidence. What's worse, customers may lose printing company employees they like working with in the process.<br /><br />As in most markets, their vibrance and innovation comes from the upstarts. In the printing industry's case, the upstarts are not necessarily other printers but purveyors of media alternatives who are competing for the same dollars.<br /><br />Note that these recent mergers are defensive, they are not to create new markets or new opportunities or to ride new waves of demographic, economic, or technological change. They are a search for ways to adapt the same old tools to new problems. Most times they not work out anywhere close to what they hope. When they do, they are financially successful, but not strategically. There is a point where all the financial clean-up and straightening out has significant rewards and is complete. Then there's the next step: facing a changing marketplace with a winning long-term strategy. That's normally two years or so into a merger that it gets properly addressed, and often the company gets sold again to someone else who can supply that when the financial gurus can't.<br /><br />Biggest issue? Starting out with a vision for what that newly merged company looks like in a marketplace at least five years from now and the working the reorganization toward that. If cuts are coming, better to make them swift and hard so that the new business gains a footing, even an uncertain one, early. There's nothing worse than a constant parade of "black Fridays" where people look in their check envelopes for the legendary pink slip.<br /><br />And, just a reminder of what not to do... Radio Shack's mishandled dismissal by e-mail of this year:<br /><a href="http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/08/30/D8JQV30O1.html">http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/08/30/D8JQV30O1.html</a><br /><br />John Harland, check printer, is being bought by Ron Perleman's investment group.<br /><a href="http://today.reuters.com/news/articleinvesting.aspx?type=bondsNews&storyID=2006-12-20T145009Z_01_BNG8323_RTRIDST_0_JOHNHHARLAND-TAKEOVER-MANDFWORLDWIDE-UPDATE-1.XML">http://today.reuters.com/news/articleinvesting.aspx?type=bondsNews&storyID=2006-12-20T145009Z_01_BNG8323_RTRIDST_0_JOHNHHARLAND-TAKEOVER-MANDFWORLDWIDE-UPDATE-1.XML</a><br />Near and dear to my childhood heart is Marvel Comics. Perelman bought that business and killed it, or at least he almost did. It's detailed in a good book called <em>Comic Wars: How Two Tycoons Battled over the Marvel Comics Empire -- And Both Lost</em>.<br />Review <a href="http://today.reuters.com/news/articleinvesting.aspx?type=bondsNews&storyID=2006-12-20T145009Z_01_BNG8323_RTRIDST_0_JOHNHHARLAND-TAKEOVER-MANDFWORLDWIDE-UPDATE-1.XML">http://today.reuters.com/news/articleinvesting.aspx?type=bondsNews&storyID=2006-12-20T145009Z_01_BNG8323_RTRIDST_0_JOHNHHARLAND-TAKEOVER-MANDFWORLDWIDE-UPDATE-1.XML</a><br />Amazon <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0785116060?ie=UTF8&tag=drjoewebbcom-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0785116060">http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0785116060?ie=UTF8&tag=drjoewebbcom-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0785116060</a><br /><br />3Q-06 GDP was revised down to 2.0%, as was expected. My expectation was based on the ISM manufacturing index heading down. Latest reports are that retail sales have started to surge the past few days... makes me wonder if 4Q-GDP may hit 3.0% which would be quite a surprise and would support the Fed's sense that the economy is still quite strong. Based on the heavy discounting going on, I would suspect that the inflation numbers would look pretty good.<br /><br />What was really funny the past two days was the reports from MasterCard and Visa about how retail sales were down so much from last year. Ugh!!! When you adjust for inflation, this year was about the same as last year! Inflation is 1.8 percentage points lower than last year's increase, so you have to add that to the percentage increase to get a similar comparison. On top of that, I can't remember any year when retailers weren't complaining about holiday season sales not being what they expected. Of course, Amazon broke records again, and that's why the MasterCard and Visa numbers are so important, because they include e-commerce.<br /><br />How did this slip away from me? A few months ago, VistaPrint announced it was working on some web site products for small business. <a href="http://www.vistaprint.com/vp/about/list_press_detail.aspx?pid=294">http://www.vistaprint.com/vp/about/list_press_detail.aspx?pid=294</a><br /><br />Then, today, this e-mail shows up:<br /><br /><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5013293842574457666" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 351px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 295px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" height="312" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAJyNXGuD1Ia6yIZ4jS3RKTN4GP_LTgGpnOAUpDo3TIoF_8Kk_bEOP9WH_Xtv0ysYmGW0_uXwfN4g_eM59ugxbk_CjAWoVi98JPOz1-KjaoahMOoqD8iFuepNgbMsQn6UDGEDm/s400/vistaprint.GIF" width="372" border="0" />Are these folks reading Dr. Joe? Seems like that :) What's next for them? I suspect it will be direct mail campaigns as is being marketed by InfoUSA <a href="http://www.zipmailusa.com/">http://www.zipmailusa.com/</a> and perhaps a business like <a href="http://www.constantcontact.com">www.constantcontact.com</a><br /><br />When you get a file and it has an unfamiliar file entension, sometimes operating systems can't detect what program should open them. Those mysterious extensions can be deciphered or narrowed-down at <a href="http://filext.com/">http://filext.com/</a><br />I ran across a floppy disk that had a ".pre" file on it. The site reminded me that it was a Lotus Freelance file. Gosh, it's been 12 years since I used Lotus Freelance? Amazing... and yet again, another great Lotus product left to die, just like my once-beloved word processor, Lotus Manuscript. Equally amazing is that the files (DOS) can still be downloaded <a href="http://www2.support.lotus.com/ftp/pub/desktop/Manuscript/">http://www2.support.lotus.com/ftp/pub/desktop/Manuscript/</a> . Lotus killed Manuscript and bought Ami from Samna Corporation, and it would later become WordPro (which had something akin to the "ribbon" that MSFT is making such a big deal about... except WordPro had it in 1995. Manuscript never made it to Windows. There are still features in there I miss.<br />Yes, there are others who lament the demise of Manuscript.<br /><a href="http://www.lionhrtpub.com/orms/orms-6-06/forum.html">http://www.lionhrtpub.com/orms/orms-6-06/forum.html</a><br /><em>Lotus Manuscript was a desktop computer tool way ahead of its time. It was the first desktop-based word processor that catered to the needs of technical documents. In an age when MS Word and Word Perfect were mere document-creating tools, Lotus Manuscript went beyond simplicity. It offered excellent technical word processing capability never before seen at the desktop computer level. The software was so far advanced ahead of its peers that it failed miserably in the market. Its demise after Version 2.0 in 1987 probably fueled the need for its competitors (Word and WordPerfect) to scramble to incorporate technical word processing capabilities... Some of the technically oriented functions offered by Manuscript in 1987 included Screen Capture, Keyboard Stroke Capture, Versatile Common-Language Thesaurus and Embedded Graphics. Most word-processing users of that era did not need those types of capabilities. So, the software mostly languished on the shelves of software stores. The software, however, found ready users among technical professionals — engineers, scientists and researchers. For the few years that it lasted, Manuscript was the word processor of choice for university professors in engineering and science. The technical orientation of the software made it complicated to learn and use. Even trainers cursed the software as they struggled to learn it well enough to teach it to others.</em><br />Lotus was a very sad story. They believed that IBM would have the stamina to stick with OS/2 against MSFT Windows, and they didn't. So Lotus Freelance, which was years ahead of Powerpoint, died from neglect, as did Lotus Organizer, which was killed by MSFT Outlook and Palm Pilots.DrJoeWebbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07775975475053235257noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11033020.post-150681568223669652006-12-20T16:45:00.000-05:002006-12-20T16:42:59.587-05:00Media Mix, Electronic Billboard, E-Paper, You Are a Fool and an Imbecile, and Other StuffDirect marketing agency/printer Wilde reports a small survey that print is more effective than the Internet. When you read it in more detail, it's a mix of media that they are using.<br /><a href="http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20061218005592&newsLang=en">http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20061218005592&newsLang=en</a><br /><br />Who says cholesterol is bad? Not if it's used to create electronic billboards<br /><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/18/business/worldbusiness/18junk.html">http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/18/business/worldbusiness/18junk.html</a><br />The company is Maginx of Israel <a href="http://www.magink.com/index.php">http://www.magink.com/index.php</a><br /><br />e-paper story about Hearst newspapers interest in the technology<br /><a href="http://www.designnews.com/index.asp?layout=article&articleid=CA6399263">http://www.designnews.com/index.asp?layout=article&articleid=CA6399263</a><br /><br /><em>Time </em>magazine's selection of "You" as person of the year is not going over well. One of the better comments about the topic is called "The Blog Mob" with the subtitle "Written by fools to be read by imbeciles." The commentary was probably written before the <em>Time</em> selection but is consistent with some of the other comments I have read the past couple of days.<br /><a href="http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110009409">http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110009409</a><br /><em>The bloggers, for their part, produce minimal reportage. Instead, they ride along with the MSM like remora fish on the bellies of sharks, picking at the scraps... Most of them are pretty awful. Many, even some with large followings, are downright appalling... Every conceivable belief is on the scene, but the collective prose, by and large, is homogeneous: A tone of careless informality prevails; posts oscillate between the uselessly brief and the uselessly logorrheic; complexity and complication are eschewed; the humor is cringe-making, with irony present only in its conspicuous absence; arguments are solipsistic; writers traffic more in pronouncement than persuasion. </em><br />Yeah, what he said...<br /><br />Dell Computer has named former American Airlines CEO Donald Carty as their CFO. You'd think Carty's name would be mud. He's the guy who negotiated with the unions claiming poverty, then when the deal was signed gave huge bonuses to himself and upper execs. The outrage was so strong that he was forced to resign. Why would Dell even want him on their Board?<br /><a href="http://today.reuters.com/news/articleinvesting.aspx?view=CN&storyID=2006-12-19T222855Z_01_WNAS6068_RTRIDST_0_DELL-CFO-URGENT.XML&rpc=66&type=qcna">http://today.reuters.com/news/articleinvesting.aspx?view=CN&storyID=2006-12-19T222855Z_01_WNAS6068_RTRIDST_0_DELL-CFO-URGENT.XML&rpc=66&type=qcna</a><br /><br />This is not meant to pick on NAPL, because I've had my share of gaffes... On the web page that promotes a seminar about "decommoditizing the printing business", there is this sentence in the opening paragraph:<br /><em>NAPL members enjoy deep discounts on a wide array of events... </em><br /><a href="http://www.napl.org/news.events.aspx">http://www.napl.org/news.events.aspx</a><br />Ummmm... maybe attending a "decommoditizing the seminar business" seminar would help?<br />In today's world <em>everything</em> is a commodity, it seems, because of the near-perfect information that buyers have. But "commodity" has a real dictionary meaning, and it is constantly abused in common language. "Print is NOT a Commodity" was the posting on 5/11/2006 in <em>PrintForecast Perspective</em> and it's worth reading, if I may say so myself, based on the comments I received about it.<br /><a href="http://pfcperspective.blogspot.com/2006/05/surprise-print-is-not-commodity.html">http://pfcperspective.blogspot.com/2006/05/surprise-print-is-not-commodity.html</a><br /><br />A note to those for whom statins have had serious side effects, such as yours truly. My side effects led me to my low carb diet and karate. But the side effects are a sign that your liver may be sensitive to other things. The FDA today has asked for new warnings on products like Tylenol and other products that contain acetaminophen.<br /><a href="http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/NEWS/2006/NEW01533.html">http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/NEWS/2006/NEW01533.html</a><br />They are concerned about the combination of acetaminophen and alcohol, since both are metabolized in the liver. Because of my statin history, it was suggested that I not use acetaminophen, though there are no studies about the topic, just that if I had liver toxicity (with statins and niacin as well), it was probably wise to be judicious. As far as the warning about ibuprofen in the same release, that is less of an issue, especially if taken after eating something. At my age, taking karate with 20-year olds and 30-year olds, sometimes you just need what we 50-year olds call "vitamin I".DrJoeWebbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07775975475053235257noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11033020.post-53191367399172167872006-12-19T11:00:00.000-05:002006-12-19T11:01:10.178-05:00PPI Malarchy, Iraq's Economy, MSFT Hates Open SourceTalk about making a big deal out of nothing... the Producer Price Index went up and everyone is having apoplexy. Yet, when you look at the real data, which no one seems to do, on a year over year basis, the PPI is up 0.8%. Ugh!<br /><br />The PPI is an index, and November 2006 was 159.7. In August, the reading was 162.1. So, since then the PPI has dropped by -1.5%. Seven of the previous 10 months were <em>higher</em> than November's 159.7.<br /><br />It's just another reminder of these headlines that you'll never see because they won't sell papers and won't get people to tune into the 11pm news:<br /><ul><li>No Inflation</li><li>Full Employment</li><li>Wages Up</li><li>Household Weath Rising</li><li>Britney Spears Renounces Her Past</li></ul>All of them are true except the last one. And that would be a big story because the newspapers would consider it to be bad news. Because if it was true, they'd actually have to do some real journalism.<br /><br />Iraq's economy is booming! Starting from nothing creates high growth rates, but it shows that even a smidgen of economic freedom can go a long way.<br /><a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16241340/site/newsweek/" eudora="AUTOURL">http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16241340/site/newsweek/</a><br /><br />Microsoft identifies open source software as a significant business threat<br /><a href="http://www.microsoft.com/msft/reports/ar06/staticversion/10k_fr_bus_07.html">http://www.microsoft.com/msft/reports/ar06/staticversion/10k_fr_bus_07.html</a><br /><em>Our business model has been based upon customers paying a fee to license software that we developed and distributed. </em><br />Very few people realize this, but when you buy WIndows or Office, you technically do not own it, and MSFT has every intent of reminding you of that as often as possible with Vista and Office 2007.<br /><em>Under this license-based software model, software developers bear the costs of converting original ideas into software products through investments in research and development, offsetting these costs with the revenue received from the distribution of their products. We believe the license-based software model has had substantial benefits for users of software, allowing them to rely on our expertise and the expertise of other software developers that have powerful incentives to develop innovative software that is useful, reliable, andcompatible with other software and hardware. </em><br />Then why does my computer crash or software lock up so often? Is that a feature?<br /><em>In recent years certain “open source” software business models have evolved into a growing challenge to our license-based software model. Open source commonly refers to software whose source code is subject to a license allowing it to be modified, combined with other software and redistributed, subject to restrictions set forth in the license. A number of commercial firms compete with us using an open source business model by modifying and then distributing open source software to end users at nominal cost and earning revenue on complementary services and products. These firms do not have to bear the full costs of research and development for the software. </em><br />Liar liar pants on fire. OpenOffice is a good example. Sun Microsystems has put big money behind OOo, and in return, gets to sell it as StarOffice. They have R&D costs. Just because they found a unique way to get more out of them, last I heard, was called "innovation."<br /><em>A prominent example of open source software is the Linux operating system. While we believe our products provide customers with significant advantages in security and productivity, and generally have a lower total cost of ownership than open source software, the popularization of the open source software model continues to pose a significant challenge to our business model, including continuing efforts by proponents of open source software to convince governments worldwide to mandate the use of open source software in their purchase and deployment of software products. To the extent open source software gains increasing market acceptance, sales of our products may decline, we may have to reduce the prices we charge for our products, and revenue and operating margins may consequently decline.</em><br />Consumers have not really seen reduced prices unless they buy MSFT software as part of a new computer, where the OEM licenses are comparatively cheap. But there, there is no competition for that market. Just try to buy a Linux computer from a major PC manufacturer. You have to go to one of the small custom builders to get that. A consumer building a computer on their own will end up paying $700-800 for Vista and Office2007, often more than the components they will use to build a decent computer itself.<br />Buying software except for the most narrow of specialty applications is starting to become dumb.DrJoeWebbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07775975475053235257noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11033020.post-2837274367743142502006-12-18T18:16:00.000-05:002006-12-18T18:17:01.008-05:00You are the Person of the Year; Online Retail Up; Santa Cookie Document; Reynolds Explains IncomeThink the Internet's role in life hasn't changed? Then you'll hate <em>Time</em> magazine's person of the year cover story<br /><em>Reuters </em><a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061217/tc_nm/time_dc">http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061217/tc_nm/time_dc</a><br /><em>Time </em><a href="http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1569514,00.html">http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1569514,00.html</a><br />Information consumers are in charge, and they use the 'net in more and different ways than before. It there ever was a time to understand what marketing is, it's now. "We're in the publishing business" used to mean print, always. "We're in the content-creation business" doesn't even capture the sea change. I still think of publishing today as the content deployment business.<br /><br />Online retail sales are very strong<br /><a href="http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/technology/2006-12-17-online-retail-usat_x.htm">http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/technology/2006-12-17-online-retail-usat_x.htm</a><br /><br />How radio broadcasters are coping with the Internet<br /><a href="http://www.radioandrecords.com/radiomonitor/news/business/top_news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003522664">http://www.radioandrecords.com/radiomonitor/news/business/top_news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003522664</a><br /><br />Skype founders using their money on Internet TV<br /><a href="http://news.com.com/Skype+founders+to+launch+Web+TV+service/2100-1038_3-6144389.html">http://news.com.com/Skype+founders+to+launch+Web+TV+service/2100-1038_3-6144389.html</a><br />This will undermine broadcasters, of course, and open up significant new markets for micro audiences and microsegmentation of markets<br /><br />Essential legal document if you are leaving any cookies for Santa<br /><a href="http://www.consumerfreedom.com/downloads/pro/docs/061217_christmas.pdf">http://www.consumerfreedom.com/downloads/pro/docs/061217_christmas.pdf</a><br /><br />Commentator Rich Lowery talks about Lou Dobbs<br /><a href="http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2006/12/the_apocalyptic_centrism_of_lo.html">http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2006/12/the_apocalyptic_centrism_of_lo.html</a><br /><em>"Ninety-six percent of our clothing is imported. This nation cannot even clothe itself." But if we literally couldn't clothe ourselves, we'd be naked. Dobbs' line is like saying we can't feed ourselves because we buy groceries from supermarkets. Textiles inherently are not an advanced, high-paid industry, and it is no wonder that an economic superpower doesn't do a lot of textile production. Would Dobbs prefer that more of us were hunched over sewing machines rather than employed in industries like software development, financial services, law, accounting, biotech and pharmaceuticals?</em><br />It's a reminder of the <em>Wall Street Journal </em>article "We Think, They Sweat" <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB110376349870907921.html?mod=opinion_main_commentaries">http://online.wsj.com/article/SB110376349870907921.html?mod=opinion_main_commentaries</a><br /><br />And Lou Dobbs won't want to read Alan Reynold's analysis of income data<br /><a href="http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110009398">http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110009398</a><br />Biggest problem? Not including transfer payments to low income earners. I do remember back in 1995 that the four most common and simultaneously provided programs together for families was the equivalent of a $40,000 taxable income. I have not seen any data that make the adjustment for taxation to determine what the equivalent income would be for a wage earner in 2006.<br />There was an excellent book a few years ago about this called "Myths of Rich and Poor" cited in Thomas Sowell's 2/8/06 column <a href="http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/sowell020806.asp">http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/sowell020806.asp</a><br />The book does a worldwide comparison of economies and populations, and is more fascinating that one would think.DrJoeWebbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07775975475053235257noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11033020.post-80971508718099805932006-12-15T16:41:00.000-05:002006-12-15T16:41:55.036-05:00Profit windfalls, Statistical Abstract, Lou & Mises, OpenOffice resourceProfits as a percentage of sales:<br />Microsoft 28.5%<br />Adobe 26.6%<br />Goldman Sachs 23.1%<br />Exxon 11.5%<br />So let me get this straight... we want to have a windfall profits tax on.... Exxon?<br /><br />The Commerce Department has published the 2007 U.S. Statistical Abstract, one of the most fascinating documents for data geeks ever produced. It's got something for everyone, and has lots of international data. Sections are downloadable as PDFs.<br /><a href="http://www.census.gov/prod/www/statistical-abstract.html">http://www.census.gov/prod/www/statistical-abstract.html</a><br /><br />Good article titled "Lou Dobbs Thinks You're a Fool" on the Mises economics site.<br /><a href="http://www.mises.org/story/2407">http://www.mises.org/story/2407</a> <br /><br />If you're using OpenOffice, there is a downloadable free manual now available<br /><a href="http://documentation.openoffice.org/manuals/oooauthors2/index.html">http://documentation.openoffice.org/manuals/oooauthors2/index.html</a>DrJoeWebbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07775975475053235257noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11033020.post-20509159715875197212006-12-14T16:08:00.000-05:002006-12-14T16:08:54.666-05:00Profits, Excel, Traditional Media, and How Inflation Distorts the Movies!A discussion of printing industry profits is the latest "Data-to-Go" release, available at the e-store<br /><a href="http://drjoe.stores.yahoo.net/prinshandpr.html">http://drjoe.stores.yahoo.net/prinshandpr.html</a><br /><br />Got a note on my blog the other day about the Excel bug, suggesting I try online spreadsheet program EditGrid <a href="http://www.editgrid.com/home">http://www.editgrid.com/home</a> It failed the test as well. For those who want the latest "score" or who want to try the spreadsheet again, I have uploaded it to <a class="content_bigger" href="http://download.yousendit.com/F1B2CB416BF827CF">http://download.yousendit.com/F1B2CB416BF827CF</a> where it will be available until 12/26/06. Lotus 1-2-3 passed. In total, 14 spreadsheet programs were tested and only 9 passed. The final tally:<br />602PC Suite = PASSED<br />Ability Office = FAILED<br />EditGrid online spreadsheet =PASSED<br />Evermore Office spreadsheet = FAILED<br />GNUmeric open source spreadsheet = FAILED<br />goBeProductive Suite = PASSED<br />Google online spreadsheet = PASSED<br />Lotus 1-2-3 = PASSED<br />OpenOffice/StarOffice = PASSED<br />Softmaker Planmaker = FAILED<br />Thinkfree online spreadsheet = PASSED<br />WordPerfect Office Quattro Pro = PASSED<br />Zoho online spreadsheet = PASSED<br /><br />Good B2BOnline article about how traditional media still lead among consumers<br /><a href="http://btobonline.com/article.cms?articleId=30166">http://btobonline.com/article.cms?articleId=30166</a><br /><em>According to the survey of more than 300 online shoppers, more “traditional” holiday gift-idea sources such as window shopping (46%) and catalogs (45%) still beat Web sites (32%), online advertisements (15%) and e-mails (14%). Going directly to the source (for instance, asking the recipient what they would like) (67%) is what most survey takers planned to do. “What really surprised me is that this was an online sample—these are people who are doing their buying online,” said Scott Bailey, exec VP-strategy at Targetbase. “I expected that they would prefer online, but they don’t.” ... Bailey said that catalogs are on the rise, but changing drastically. “These aren’t the 1,000-page Sears behemoths anymore,” he said. “They’re kind of sexy now.” He said that L.L. Bean’s catalog has a mountain-climbing story in it that’s written by a company employee. If the reader wants more information on the climb, they are directed to the Web site. “They’ve achieved the goal,” Bailey said. “The Web site is where the purchases take place. It doesn’t matter how people get there. Catalogs aren’t out of vogue; they simply serve a different role than they used to.”... To Bailey, the lesson to direct marketers from the survey is that “the old channels don’t get thrown away,” he said. “No matter how many new channels get created, they all need to be integrated and used.”<br /></em><br />I've always wondered what the differentiation is between online print businesses. One may be the kinds of files that they accept. According to the Kim Komando computer newsletter..."<a href="http://www.lulu.com/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Lulu</a>, <a href="http://www.iuniverse.com/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">iUniverse</a> and <a href="http://www.cafepress.com/cp/info/help/learn_book_settingup.aspx" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Cafepress</a> are three print-on-demand services that can create your book. Lulu and iUniverse accept Word files. Cafepress requires a PDF file. Prices vary, depending on the number of pages and the binding selected." Last I checked, Blurb.com did not accept Word files.<br /><br />Funny headline on a computer site re: MSFT Vista<br />"Vista won't be worth buying until after the first 500MB service pack"<br /><br />Inflation distorts our perceptions about all types of historic events. One of my favorites is movie hype about how much a certain picture did over a weekend and whether or not it was a record first weekend, etc. etc. This page lists the top movies on an inflation adjusted basis and puts many things in perspective.<br /><a href="http://www.boxofficemojo.com/alltime/adjusted.htm">http://www.boxofficemojo.com/alltime/adjusted.htm</a><br /><em>Titanic</em> is considered the biggest grossing movie of all time, at $600 million. Sorry, it's actually #6, with less than half the revenue of <em>Gone With the Wind. </em>Also ahead of it are <em>Star Wars, The Sound of Music, The Ten Commandments, </em>and <em>E.T. </em>Last year's top movie, <em>Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Man's Chest</em> is #44 on the list.DrJoeWebbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07775975475053235257noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11033020.post-61276344530574906112006-12-12T13:31:00.000-05:002008-12-10T21:06:09.413-05:00Profits Improve; MSFT Exec Wants a Mac, Musicians Behind the CurvePrinting profits were a lot better in 3Q-06, but are still not up to historical levels. The good August and September helped out tremendously. It was mainly a cost change, however. Non-production employees are down -6.5%, which means that printers have been cutting overhead. The net number is that there are 12,000 fewer non-production jobs, and 3,000 more production workers. The number of production employees stayed the same. It works out that for each employee cut, profits went up $116,000. Basically, the reduced costs of salaries and benefits went straight to the bottom line, which makes me wonder how much of the increased sales the industry had actually had improved margins. The cost of goods sold part of the income statement may have been about the same, but the expenses below that look like they were the reason for the improved bottom line.<br /><br /><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5007705309270305042" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 589px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 375px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" height="345" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvp9O-IBMBqsX-5YBrjalO0SaZ8DirN8g5d6i0FUbhCT-H5xuSrr4FYUoZsLmC48qOiIUo8jJi7gmqaGNwfyeRl66fTkZNTAwe0xbwPKMQI8DiKjxR2DelayurOO8jUWLTKxUj/s400/profits+121206.GIF" width="536" border="0" /><br />The four-quarter moving annualized total of inflation-adjusted industry profits is now $4.59 billion. The profits for the quarter itself were $1.27 billion, highest since Q3-2004 when it was $1.36 billion. The profits before interest and taxes were 5.7%, highest since Q3-2003, when it was 6%. This is the best industry profits performance in three years, and the data are slowly getting better and better. We are still about 1/3 of what profits were in 2000. This is a minor rise, but it's a good rise. Expect more cost cutting ahead, often from consolidation. We're in the right direction, finally<br /><br /><br />Article in ComputerWorld how MSFT development officer says that he would buy a Mac.<br /><a href="http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9005873&intsrc=hm_list">http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9005873&intsrc=hm_list</a><br />I'm not buying a Mac because I'm an Ubuntu man!<br /><br />The headline was "<span class="t">Musicians Oppose Media Consolidation" so I figured I had to read this. Talk about being behind the curve! The complaint is about so many stations sounding alike as you drive along for miles and miles. This is coming at a time when radio properties are going up for sale because their future does look pretty bleak. They're attacked by streaming media, commercial free satellite radio, iPods, all kinds of recorded music, and any variety of things. The Internet is making location meaningless. Radio was a local medium. Its high maintenance costs led it to carrying national programming, which in turn, led it to consider local presence except for drive time as a real revenue problem. The companies may be consolidating, but the sources of content are clearly not, and radio is not the place to be.</span><br /><a href="http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/061211/fcc_media_ownership.html?.v=1">http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/061211/fcc_media_ownership.html?.v=1</a><br />The musicians doing the most complaining in this article are country-western artists. I always loved David Allen Coe's perfect country song, and the lyrics can be found here:<br /><a href="http://www.singulartists.com/artist_d/david_allen_coe_lyrics/you_never_even_called_me_by_my_name_lyrics.html">http://www.singulartists.com/artist_d/david_allen_coe_lyrics/you_never_even_called_me_by_my_name_lyrics.html</a><br />The key verse is<br />WELL, I WAS DRUNK THE DAY MY MOM GOT OUT OF PRISON<br />AND I WENT TO PICK HER UP IN THE RAIN<br />BUT BEFORE I COULD GET TO THE STATION IN MY PICKUP TRUCK<br />SHE GOT RUN NED OVER BY A DAMNED OLD TRAIN<br /><br />There's the old joke about playing country music backwards: you get your house back, your girlfriend or spouse returns, and you get sober again.<br />The big "villain" has been ClearChannel, which was just sold to some private equity investors and will be partially dismantled. The economics of the industry changed and they weren't ready.<br /><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/16/AR2006111600537.html">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/16/AR2006111600537.html</a>DrJoeWebbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07775975475053235257noreply@blogger.com0