Someone Didn't Get The Memo

The new chairman of the MPA wants to end rate base guarantees. Interesting. Especially since the ad industry is moving toward more accountability and not less.

Every time a magazine fails to make rate base, they come into my office claiming that their audience hasn't declined, citing higher Reader Per Copy numbers. Ninety percent of the time, that argument is total bullcrap, and 100% of the time, we're demanding makegoods.

So am I to take it that magazines should move completely to audience-based measurement, so that there's even LESS accountability in the mix than there currently is? Nice try.

A Shout Out (And Some Constructive Criticism) From Doc

Doc Searls has some terrific Online Spin-related feedback for me in a post on his blog. First off, let me make the usual caveats. I'm just a contributing writer for Mediapost, so I have a bit less control over how the message is presented than I might like. That said, The Online Spin and the Spin Board are both things that me and the Mediaposters came up with several years back, so I do bear a bit of responsibility here.

Doc suggests a couple things:

First, get the Powers That Be at MediaPost to take down the annoying registration wall.

Preaching to the choir, Doc. And that registration wall has caused a good number of problems for folks who read my columns as they get passed around via e-mail and want to respond on the Spin Board. They can't do that without registering. And that probably stifles discussion, to say nothing of how it affects search results and the ability of interested folks to find us. I'll lob a suggestion at some of the Mediaposters and see what they say about it.

Second, syndicate the newsletters on the Web and not just via email. I see no RSS feature for OnlineSPIN.

This isn't the first time Mediapost has been accused of failing to practice what it preaches. It's a bit frustrating sometimes to give advice to marketing professionals in columns and it appears as if I'm not even following my own advice. We've had people post to the Spin Board, saying things like 'isn't it ironic that you wrote a column telling me not to do this, but then you turn around and do it yourself...'

I haven't suggested a feed (much less a series of feeds) to Mediapost, but then again, I'm just a contributing writer. But Mediapost needs to turn around and realize that most of their competitors are offering their columns, content categories and other information via RSS. I get information from iMediaConnection, MarketingVox, AdRants and many other marketing/advertising-related publishers this way.

So again, I'll lob the suggestion up to Ken Fadner and the rest of the Mediaposters and hopefully, they'll implement that feature.

Third (this is old advice, but it bears repeating), drop the old-media jargon: "consumers", "consuming" and "content", for example.

Yep. I'm trying to wean myself off the consumer-speak. The difficulty is that The Online Spin reaches tens of thousands of people in the online marketing and advertising industries and that's the language they speak. But I hear ya loud and clear.

Thanks for the constructive criticism, Doc. You're a guy I respect and admire, so thanks for the shout out.

New DRM Strategy

Over a Chinese food lunch, I solved all of the Digital Rights Management woes of all online research companies who release information online (eMarketer, Jupiter, Forrester, etc.). Here's the gist of it: 1) Completely fabricate 50% of your releases. ("Mobile Devices Reach 15.7% of U.S. Adult Population," "Google Unknown Brand to 74% of Internet-Connected Men," etc.) 2) Release all reports to the Internet-At-Large 3) Announce that a certain percentage of reports on your site have been pulled out of your ass. 4) Simultaneously announce that a subscription entitles you to know which reports are real and which are fake.

You'll note that this takes care of the problem of what levels of detail need to be released to potential customers in order to give them enough of a "flavor" to actually PURCHASE the research. You can give them the whole thing! Except that they don't know whether it's fake or not...

This strategy also has the added benefit of creating situations in which freeloading agencies and marketers will base entire presentations and marketing plans on erroneous intelligence, which will result in funny stories for industry insiders to mull over at the bar after work. ("Did you hear Burger King executed a mobile campaign against seniors?" or "I heard OMD lost the McDonald's business after recommending a CRM program for Filet-O-Fish enthusiasts...")

Rain Sucks

So everything is pretty much underwater here in lovely NYC. Long Island is no better. Riverhead (10 minutes east of Wading River) is the record-holder, with nearly 7.5" of rain in the past 48 hours. Getting around is a pain, with subway/train delays and not a single cab to be found. And it doesn't help that I'm getting glares from certain people regarding my choice in umbrellas.

Here's the dealy-o. Several years ago, I went on a cruise with About.com to Halifax and back. While in Halifax, Denise Siedner, Coleen Kuehn and I got caught in the rain, so we ran into this gift shop. The only umbrellas they had were red and white and had Canadian maple leafs on them. So we bought them. Later, I chucked this umbrella in my car and it served as my emergency umbrella for when I'd leave the house without one.

Sure enough, years later, I needed this umbrella and ended up bringing it into the city with me. And it's totally weird how some people think that carrying a Canada-branded umbrella is some sort of political statement. If looks could kill... Let's just say I was reminded of this post from a while back.

On top of all the difficulties getting around, Eric is in flood hell. His basement got flooded and his sump pump quit. So he was out of the office for a few hours yesterday while he tracked down a new pump. This morning, his hot water heater started acting up.

At any moment, we're expecting that huge "Day After Tomorrow" tidal wave to overwhelm us.