Articles of the Day
Classmates.com Parent Updates IPO Prospectus - The parent of pioneering social networking site Classmates.com has filed an updated prospectus indicating that it plans to raise up to $144 million in an initial public offering. Classmates Media, the social networking arm of United Online which also includes loyalty marketing service MyPoints.com, plans to sell 12 million shares priced at $10 to $12 each.
Online Shopping Up 22% On Black Friday - Despite the threat of recession and reduced holiday sales, online retailers enjoyed spending and traffic gains over last year on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving known for heavy shopping.Online buying on Black Friday increased 22% over 2006 to $531 million, according to Web measurement firm comScore, with sales of video games and consoles nearly tripling.
Study: Consumer Brands Drop The Ball When It Comes To Online Transactions - Despite the feature-rich, brand-positive experience that top consumer brands like Mercedes, Colgate-Palmolive and IBM strive to create, their Web sites dropped the ball when it came to purchases and other transactions, according to a study by Blast Radius.
FCC Urged to Subsidize Broadband Access In Rural Areas - In a move aimed at making high-speed Internet service more widely available, a government advisory board is urging the Federal Communications Commission in a report to devote $300 million to subsidizing broadband access in rural areas. The report has drawn a lukewarm reception from some consumer advocates who say they’re pleased that the government wants to improve broadband availability, but that far more than $300 million is needed.
Google Upgrades Checkout Offerings, Adds Perks - Launched in late June 2006, Google Checkout is an electronic payment system that aims to simplify the online shopping experience — letting users create a single account for purchases on multiple sites. Shoppers can keep track of their purchases, retailer contact info and shipping status, as the system creates a purchase history log.
Online Advertising Continues to Bolster Newspapers - Preliminary estimates from the Newspaper Association of America show that advertising expenditures for newspaper Web sites increased by 21.1 percent to $773 million in the third quarter versus the same period a year ago. This is the fourteenth consecutive quarter of double digit growth for online newspaper advertising since 2004. The continued year-over-year gains have demonstrated the importance of newspaper Web site advertising, which now accounts for 7.1 percent of total newspaper ad spending, compared to 5.4 percent in last year’s third quarter.
Retail Adapts to Digital Movie Rentals - Blockbuster is focusing on its retail stores and turning attention away from its online movie service, according to an analyst call this month reported by Reuters. As part of the announcement, the company said it would decrease advertising for the next six months. The announcements come at a time of change in home entertainment. US digital movie download spending will reach $846 million in 2011, eMarketer projects.
Google To Launch Service That Stores Users’ Data - In an effort to turn up the heat with its battle with Microsoft, Google plans to launch a service that lets users store on its computers essentially all of the files they might keep on their personal-computer hard drives: word-processing documents, digital music, video clips and images. Some storage space would be available for free and users would pay for additional room. Google will likely face matters such as privacy matters and copyright issues before this service takes flight.
NBC Offers Interactive Ads - NBC Universal will begin offering nteractive advertising services and subscribe to a ratings service from TiVo, the companies said on Tuesday. The agreement covers GE’s 14 networks — including NBC, Telemundo and Bravo — as well as its 10 NBC-owned TV stations.
Forget Facebook. Search Ads Are the Revolution - Facebook unleashed SocialAds this month, calling it the beginning of a revolutionary, hundred-year era in advertising that will see the end of untargeted messages in mass media. If the revolution is upon us, allow me to submit the lowly search ad as the true revolutionary. For unlike social ads and most other types of advertising, search is something people want rather than something that gets in the way.
Looking to Extend Online Reach? Try a Vertical Ad Network - Rule No. 1 in the transition from traditional to digital media company: Being an offline powerhouse doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll be blessed with online scale. That’s why many of those players are turning to vertical ad networks. Publishers and TV networks such as Martha Stewart, The Washington Post, The Guardian and Lifetime all are selling audiences they didn’t actually attract. They are doing so through partnerships with companies such as Adify, which provides the technology to create vertical ad networks, and Glam Media, which already boasts a massive women-focused network.
