All Things Digital

Skip to main content.

MediaMemo

Friday, October 30, 2009

Bad News From the Washington Post: Ad Sales Slide Again

newspaperlessMany newspaper publishers say the ad sales slump has stopped, but not at Wapo: Both print and Web ad declines accelerated over the last quarter. Newsweek, meanwhile, saw its ad sales drop by half.

Read More »

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Whoops! Are Reports of the Ad Recovery Greatly Exaggerated?

sunshine-cloudHere’s the counterpoint to Publicis’s mildly optimistic take on the ad market yesterday: Rival ad-holding company Interpublic Group’s report, which is mildly pessimistic. But the takeaway is the same: If things get better, anyone who’s not Google won’t see much real sign of it until next year.

Read More »

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

NBC Grabs a High-Profile Blogger to Boost Its Local Site: Eater Co-Founder Ben Leventhal

leventhalNews for the foodie/NY blog scene: Ben Leventhal, co-founder of the influential Eater blog, is headed to GE’s NBC Universal, where he’ll oversee “lifestyle content” for NBC’s growing local Web unit.

Read More »

What Does the New York Times Really Know About Apple’s Tablet? “I Ain’t Sayin’,” Says Editor Bill Keller.

bill-kellerAll the news we can’t tell you about? Most publishers can’t even get Apple to acknowledge that it’s working on a tablet, but maybe the newspaper of record has more pull. In any event, its top editor is staying mostly mum.

Read More »

All The News We’ll Pay For: Why Newspapers’ Shrinking Circulation Isn’t All Bad

newspaperlessNo surprise that Americans are dropping their newspaper subscriptions, as a new batch of numbers from the Audit Bureau of Circulations showed yesterday. But before you file this under “death of newspapers,” something to ponder for a second: This might not be the worst news in the world.

Read More »

Friday, October 23, 2009

The New York Times Explains the Ad Market: Banks Bail, and So Does Hollywood. But Big Pharma Steps Up, and “Modest” Improvement Coming

light-tunnelThe publisher delivered a pleasant earnings surprise yesterday by cutting costs. Now it’s hoping for a revenue bump, if advertisers will play along.

Read More »

Thursday, October 22, 2009

New York Times Delivers Some Not Terrible News: Earnings, Ad Sales Better Than Expected

new-york-times-buildingThe New York Times announced plans to cut eight percent of its newsroom payroll this week, citing “economic thunderstorms,” which suggested that this morning’s earnings results were going to be particularly unpleasant. Surprise! They’re not that awful, at least by the diminished standards of the newspaper industry.

Read More »

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Rise of the Machines: Why Demand Media Is Worth More Than the New York Times

chaplin-modern-timesThe New York Times’s model for content creation, which revolves around well-paid professionals who rely on their experience and judgment, looks increasingly threatened. What does a new model look like? Perhaps one where a computer spits out assignments to day laborers who work furiously for low pay.

Read More »

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Ad Giant Publicis Tells Publishers to Throw Bodies at the Fake Web Ads Problem

the-sting-soundtrackLast month, the New York Times was attacked by hackers who bought fake Web ads from the publisher. And one of the world’s biggest ad companies says that won’t be the last assault. But the solution runs counter to industry trends.

Read More »

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

(Cautiously) Upbeat Ad News of the Day: (Some) Display Ads Improving

tunnelHere’s your daily dose of goodish news about the Web ad business, courtesy (again) of Mark Mahaney, who says display ads are perking up. Or at least some of them are.

Read More »

Friday, September 25, 2009

Another Ad You Can’t Ignore: The New York Times Serves Up Old News

clockwork-orangeWeb advertisers are trying hard to create ads you can’t look away from. But they can get a little too disruptive.

Read More »

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Gawker’s Nick Denton: I Paid Big Money for “McSteamy” Sex Tape

mcsteamyEarlier this year, Gawker Media’s Nick Denton announced that he was going to start paying for salacious clips, tips and other submissions, but that he hadn’t worked out the details. Looks like he figured it out: Denton says he paid the source who provided his blog network with the so-called “McSteamy” sex tapes that have earned him both a lot of traffic and a lawsuit.

Read More »

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Another Media Reporter Packs His Bags: Timesman Arango Headed to Iraq

060905Arango1VWDoesn’t anyone want to cover the media beat anymore? First, BusinessWeek’s super-sourced Jon Fine departs for a six-month globe-hopping sabbatical. Now the New York Times’s Tim Arango is leaving town as well: Instead of writing about moguls and mergers, he’ll be reporting from Iraq.

Read More »

Monday, September 21, 2009

The New York Times, Brought to You–Literally–by Twitter

new-york-times-buildingIt has been easy enough to be skeptical about Twitter’s influence and staying power–I do it all the time. But there’s no denying that Twitter has become a powerful driver of Web traffic.

Just ask the New York Times, which says Twitter is about to become one of the top 10 referral sources to the paper’s site.

Impressive. But what exactly does this mean?

Read More »

Newspapers’ Bad News Get Less Bad–But Not by Much

inflating-balloonIs the newspaper advertising slump about to end? Nope. But it’s continuing to get a little bit less awful.

A survey of some of the remaining analysts covering the industry, as well as people who actually work in it, concludes that Q3 ad revenue will be down 25 percent. Awful by any standard except those of this year: Q1 was down 28.3 percent and Q2 was 29 percent.

Read More »

Latest MediaMemo Videos

More Videos »

About Peter

Peter Kafka has been covering media and technology since 1997, when he joined the staff of Forbes magazine. Most recently, he has been the managing editor of the tech and media Web site, Silicon Alley Insider.

Read more »

Ethics Statement

Here is a statement of my ethics and coverage policies. It is more than most of you want to know, but, in the age of suspicion of the media, I am laying it all out.

Read more »