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  • Kantar Media: Ad Spending Continues to Grow in 2011

    Ad spending continues to go up. The so-called "advertising recovery" started at the beginning of 2010, and each quarter since then has brought significant increases in overall ad spending. Kantar Media reports that spending in the first quarter of 2011 increased 4.4%--growth, yes, but not the same growth rate that other recent quarters brought: The big drivers in the first quarter growth were cable television and Internet advertising. From the report: Within the television sector, sports programming drove a sizable shift of ad dollars from broadcast networks to cable networks. Cable TV expenditures surged 31.9 percent, propelled by the expansion of NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament coverage onto Turner networks and a consolidation of major college football bowl games at ESPN. Network TV ad spending declined 10.4 percent due to the absence of Winter Olympics and college bowl games. Syndication TV expenditures advanced 16.5 percent, reflecting more hours of monitored programming and larger allocations from consumer packaged goods marketers. Spot TV, with its biennial business cycle tied to Olympics and political advertising in even-numbered years, saw ad spending fall by 1.2 percent. Internet display expenditures increased 14.6 percent in the first quarter, benefitting from strong demand by automotive, media and travel advertisers. Outdoor (+12.5 percent) was paced by healthy increases from the local service, education and financial service categories. Bringing up the rear, radio ad spending was up 3.4 percent. Newspaper spending, meanwhile, dropped 1.1 percent over the first quarter of 2010. Read the report here .

  • IBISWorld Names 10 U.S. Industries Headed Toward Extinction

    In a special report for IBISWorld , Toon Van Beeck names ten industries that are in decline. Economic recovery will not help these industries, according to Van Beeck. IBISWorld has identified some 200 industries that are in decline, but these ten are "on the verge of extinction": Van Beeck: The DVD, Game and Video Rental and Newspaper Publishing industries may be obvious, but there are many others that some are unaware of. Furthermore, each and every one of these industries has been impacted by one of more of the three detrimental industry factors, including external competition, advances in technology and industry stagnation. It should also be noted that while these industries all have negative numbers, it does not mean that the players that operate within them are also on the brink of death. Industry operators that protect their strengths in certain market segments, focus on niche opportunities and capitalize on the dwindling number of competitors often reap the strongest rewards of sole operation, market survival and profitability. An example of this trend is Berkshire Hathaway, which holds a prominent position in one of the top dying industries: Mills. Read the special report here . (h/t Phil Izzo of the WSJ)

  • Top 100 Podcasts from Small Business Trends

    Small Business Trends has compiled their annual list of the top 100 small business podcasts. It is a long list, and 100 entries can be overwhelming, but at least they break it down by topic. Some of the hot topics on the list: Leadership and Management Marketing and Sales Operating a Small Business Startups and Starting a Business Small Business Technology Check out the list and start listening here .

  • Lessons in Entrepreneurial Resolve: Pandora's Tim Westergren

    After a decade of trying to stay afloat, Pandora --the internet radio service--had its first profitable quarter at the end of 2009. Nobody was happier with the news than the company's founder, Tim Westergren , who knew he had a good idea, and one that could make money, but his resolve was tested again and again. New York Times writer Claire Cain Miller profiles the rise of Pandora, and she writes how, from the company's start in 1999, funding was an ever-present issue: By the end of 2001, he had 50 employees and no money. Every two weeks, he held all-hands meetings to beg people to work, unpaid, for another two weeks. That went on for two years. Meanwhile, he appealed to venture capitalists, charged up 11 credit cards and considered a company trip to Reno to gamble for more money. The dot-com bubble had burst, and shell-shocked investors were not interested in a company that relied on people, who required salaries and health insurance, instead of computers. In March 2004, he made his 348th pitch seeking backers. Larry Marcus, a venture capitalist at Walden Venture Capital and a musician, decided to lead a $9 million investment. “The pitch that he gave wasn’t that interesting,” Mr. Marcus said. “But what was incredibly interesting was Tim himself. We could tell he was an entrepreneur who wasn’t going to fail.” Read How Pandora Slipped Past the Junkyard here . If you haven't spent time using Pandora, and have no idea what a "musical genome" is, this Jefferson Graham interview with Tim Westergren, for USA Today online, will help. And Westergren explains how the iPhone came along at just the right time for Pandora:

  • Google's Cohen: Aggregation Sites Good for Media Businesses

    Josh Cohen , Senior Business Product Manager for Google, estimates that the Google News site sends "about a billion clicks" to news sources per month. Seems like a good deal for news sites. But remember Rupert Murdoch's claims back in November that Google and other news aggregators steal content from his newspapers? Cohen doesn't see it that way, and thinks Google, through Google News and Google Reader provide an important service to both consumers and news providers (old and new): Cohen tackles Rupert Murdoch's criticisms directly in the full interview from Big Think. Watch it here .

  • Innosight's Mark Johnson on 'Business Model Innovation'

    Mark Johnson , chairman of Innosight , says that companies in fields like energy and media are facing major changes in their environment that will force them to change the way they do business. And he is calling for them to revamp their business models--what he terms "business model innovation." It is not enough, he says, to tinker, or restructure how products are delivered and marketed. When your business faces major disruption, you have to change the way you do business. Here is Johnson speaking with Harvard Business Publishing about his new book, Seizing the White Space: Business Model Innovation for Growth and Renewal:

  • Visualization: the Shifting Media Landscape and Consumer Behavior

    The Economist held a Media Convergence Forum in October to explore the changing relationship between consumers and commerce in the digital age. Here's how the organizers described the purpose of the forum on their website: The surge of new technologies and social media innovations in today's environment is significantly altering the future media landscape for marketers. Consumer behaviour is changing and the way marketers reach their audience must also change. Marketers are searching for new ways to not only reach their customers, but to understand them, to peer inside their minds. As the level of consumer understanding increases, so can the knowledge of how best to reach them. However the plethora of tools at a marketers disposal is not easy to navigate and real learning comes from a real understanding of the future of media convergence. Interesting and compelling, to be sure. But they also had Karl Fisch, Scott McLeod, and Jeff Brenman put together a video/data visualization of the changing landscape, and it really captures your attention. Titled Did You Know 4.0: The Media Landscape , it presents, in less than 5 minutes, the current shifts in how consumers and businesses are interacting through digital media. And while much of the focus is on news media and advertising, the core issues connect to just about all facets of commerce in the digital age: (Hat tip to Chelsey Hoffman, University of Michigan)

  • Print Media's Struggles May Be Turning Off Potential Journalism Students

    With the frequent attention paid to the demise of newspaper and magazine revenue ( here and elsewhere ), it is perhaps not surprising to note that students may be less interested in the field of communications...at least at one school. The Daily Collegian, a Penn State student newspaper, reports that freshman enrollment in Penn State's College of Communications is down 17%. Pamela Monk, a senior journalism lecturer at Penn State, said all the hysteria associated with communications-related careers may have impacted students' decision not to enroll. As the number of print publications going out of business continues to rise, Monk said it is important the college offer classes in convergence and multimedia journalism. "All they hear is journalism is in flux," Monk said. "People are thinking that there might be fewer jobs." Perry said although the state of the economy will always be of concern to students and their families, he is confident enrollment in the college will eventually spike back up. Read the full article here .