Gothamist's Jake Dobkin writes a post questioning Jason Calcanis' Weblogs Inc. business model doubting Calcanis' ability to achieve his goal - publish 500 niche specific weblogs within the next two years. Dobkin looks at the Weblogs Inc. model from several points of view including scale, quality, finances and advertising and says things don't ad up. My take is a bit different.
While the Calcanis model is quite different than Nick Denton's Gawker Media, publisher of Gawker, Gizmodo, Defamer, Fleshbot and Wonkette, both have merit but both are portrayed very differently in the media. Nick Denton is the media darling. Calcanis is not. It's just the way it ended up. Denton gets press. Calcanis doesn't get much. It doesn't necessarily make one model better than another but it's natural to pick on the business that is "perceived" to be second tier. It's easy to snarkishly call Calcanis a Denton-wannabe when all he's trying to do is launch a business model. It's equally as easy to call Denton a fame seeker - which he most assuredly is not. Dramatizing matters further, there's the differences in voice and personality of the two publishers. When cat fights arise, Denton mostly stays quiet. Calcanis likes to debate. It's human nature to assume that one who likes to debate/fight/argue might have something to hide or something to prove rather than the majestic publisher who continually appears in the New York Times and hence, must, by nature of that appearance, be successful. Both are mis-perceptions. Both business models have a chance at success.
The Calcanis model will work just like the B to B publishing model will work. If you have trouble believing that, go to the library and look for a copy of the Business to Business SRDS - you'll find thousands of niche publications. Pick up the Consumer (Denton) SRDS and it's less than half the size. There's plenty of room for niche efforts as publishing moves to the web. There's also plenty of room for the Denton (Consumer) model. Just look at the public's salivation for all things Hilton, Spears, J-Lo, metrosexual, Wintour, Grove, etc.
Monetarily, the Gawker and Weblogs Inc. business models differ. Gawker pays a salary to its bloggers. Weblogs Inc. does a 50/50 revenue split with the blogger. Some critics of Calcanis say half of nothing is nothing. Critics of Denton say the market for snark is limited. The good thing about these two models is that there are two. We will be able to sit back and watch how each one succeeds or fails and we will, of course, comment profusely as it unfolds.
Rather than humbly address their shortcomings, a panel of newspaper executives at Thursday's ANA Print Advertising Forum in New York bristled at the thought the newspaper business is under threat. When challenge with declining circulation, Tribune Media Net President David Murphy responded, "No one likes to lose a customer. But advertising is a bundle of value. Audience size is one part of that." The number of readers may be just a part of the model but without any readers, there's no model.
Oddly supporting Murphy's statement, Mediaedge:cia Managing Partner John Miller said circulation is more important to local advertisers than national advertisers saying, "Circulation isn't a decision maker." Again, even for national advertisers, the number of readers is of some significant importance and using a statement like this as an excuse is demonstrative of desperation.
Consultant Barry Parr has written an interesting collection of posts on his MediaSavvy weblog entitle, "Why Can't A Newspaper Be More Like A Blog." Well worth the read.
Oh the pleasures of having your Mom ease your doody-induced diaper rash back in the day. Well now, thanks to Emjay Labs, makers of diaper rash cream Pinxav, you seniors can enjoy that same pleasure again although we don't think your Mom is going to apply it for you this time.
The makers of Pinxav, acknowledging the aging population and increase in diaper-wearing adults, has decided to scrounge up some marketing dollars to bring that baby-fresh feeling back to itchy seniors. Pinxav will market to nursing homes and place ads in older demo magazines and radio. Don't cry little 80 year old baby - help is on the way. Thanks to Adrants reader Charley Brough for this one.
After scouring the entire country for television stations that would accept it's "don't eat chicken ad," it found two takers in Peoria, IL. The spot, which shows images of chickens with beaks cut off and crowded into tight quarters, will air on WEEK, WMBD and WYZZ. Driving the point home, PETA Director of Vegan Campaigns Bruce Friedrich said, "If caring people give it a thought, they have to realize that animal abuse, environmental degradation, and sick consumers make the case for eating chicken corpses too tough to swallow."
They'll have to do more than advertise in Peoria to combat the lemming-like behavior of fat kids lining up at McDonald's doorway for their daily dose of Chicken McNuggets.
Sixty-seven percent of marketers surveyed by The Association of National Advertisers (ANA) indicate that newspapers and magazines could do a better job of selling itself against other media, especially television. These and other findings from the ANA survey were released today during the organization?s annual Print Advertising Forum at The Plaza hotel in New York.
The ANA survey also identified what marketers feel are the greatest threats to newspapers and magazines. The top three included: the Internet as an alternative source of information, the decline of audience and circulation numbers, and the overall clutter of advertising.
"These findings echo recently published data that indicate television advertising is not very effective for certain types of brands," said Bob Liodice, President and CEO of the ANA. "Taken together, they demonstrate there?s a clear opportunity for newspapers and magazines to deliver more effective metrics to better understand print audiences, readership and its impact on ROI."
The research also revealed that 52% of respondents believe their overall advertising budgets will increase this year. Drilling down further, 42% of respondents felt they would be increasing their magazine advertising budgets, while 22% will be decreasing spending in the area of newspaper advertising.
In addition, the ANA survey revealed that:
- 66% of marketers disagree/strongly disagree that there should be an upfront market for print advertising, but:
- 59% agree/strongly agree that early commitment of budgets should be rewarded with more favorable pricing.
- 50% of marketers agree/strongly agree that indecency is just as much a problem for print advertising as it is for broadcast
- 57% of marketers agree or strongly agree that product placement/branded entertainment is an opportunity for advertisers in print
Spoof-Boy Max is at it again. As a follow up to his "Truth" drug campaign spoof, Max has, again, enlisted his friends to, this time, portray devilish, anti-vegetarian plant murderers for a spoof ad campaign sponsored by the ficticious Society For The Protection of Plants. With the headlines, "Murderer," "Tree Killer," "Grass Murderer," "Cannibal" and "Weed Murderers," the campaign uses "graphic" photography to illustrate the horrific treatment plants get all in the name of vegetarianism.
�sk w�ppling from Adland writes about a contest Coke held to solicit scaffold billboard ideas to promote the Euro 2004 Portugal Football (Soccer to us losers in the U.S.) tournament. With the simple creative brief directive "Create a scaffolding ad that with focus on Coca Cola, will surprise and draw attention to Coke's engagement in Portugal 2004," some outstanding creative was developed. You can see the winning billboard here and the runners up here.
Former football player and current FOX TV NFL Sunday analyst has signed a three year deal with Chevrolet to be the car manufacturers spokesman. The deal includes Long's "Howie Long's Tough Guys" TV special which Chevrolet will sponsor for one year.
Jumping on the viral marcomm blog hippy-trip, Oxygen Network has launched a cute little blog written by the mysterious "Jane" to promote it's twenty-something girl power show "Good Girls Don't." Laced with cutsey phrases like "wow, am I sick. woke up with the sorest throat ever ? as if a golf ball is lodged on the left side" and "OMG, saturday night we spent five hours trying to find a club that�s SO cool it has no name, no address, and no phone number," blogger Jane tries to clue us in to the oh-so-dramatic life of what "20-somethings really say, think, and do."
Now if Jane, like a real blogger, would use permalinks, we might actually be able to give some linky-love to her witty repartee.
 Ad Guru Dan Wieden Apparently to maintain the advertising "hip-cool" thing and make things interesting, Wieden + Kennedy President Dan Wieden asks college students in an advertising workshop he teaches at the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication to do challenging and off beat things to build confidence. This year, he's asked one student to strip down and go streaking, asked another straight student to convince his parents he's gay and asked yet another to create a commotion in a mall just to attract a crowd.
So let's get this straight. He's asked a student to break the law. Another, to lie. And another to make a fool of himself. Gee, sounds a lot like advertising. And it's all under the guise of building character, overcoming fears and preparing for the challenges one might face in business.
Predictabley, college administrators have been taken by Wieden's guru status and gush profusely about the benefits of this questionable means of education. "I think there's an ongoing process here," said UO SOJC Dean Tim Gleason. "I think Dan has presented them with a rather interesting challenge."
Perhaps it would be worth considering preparing students in a way that would help alter the world's perception of the ad industry - currently equal to that of car dealers and dial-a-lawyers.
UPDATE: Gleason eats crow: "It is clear that some students found themselves in a position that resulted in behaviors that are inconsistent with the mission, ethics, values and vision of the School of Journalism and Communication and the University of Oregon. For that, I express my deepest regret and accept full responsibility."
Dan, care to comment?
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