WORDS FLY AS THE BATTLE HEATS UP

IN THE FEUD BETWEEN GOOGLE AND NEWSPAPERS 

Les Hinton, Chief Executive of Dow Jones let loose an angry barrage while addressing the annual Entertainment and Media Outlook conference sponsored by PricewaterhouseCoopers. He chastised Google, labeling it a “digital vampire sucking the blood “of newspapers. Interestingly he laid some of the blame on newspapers too by adding the industry “gave Google’s fangs a great place to bite.” 

Hinton, who also doubles as the Publisher of the Wall Street Journal, strongly opposes the practice of giving away news content free, as the majority of his print competitors are currently doing in their digital editions. The Journal has been a relatively successful pioneer in charging for content, while most print publishers just sit by and complain that Google is making money from content that they produce. 

Frequently chiding fellow publishers about their reluctance to charge for content, Hinton told the audience that his company was designing a program to help newspapers develop a profitable approach to digital exposure. 

At about the same time, Steve Balmer, CEO at Microsoft, predicted that “All content consumed will be digital, (but) we can debate if that may be in one, two, five or ten years.” He chastised print publishers for not at least beginning to generate revenue from their online content.

Speaking at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival, Balmer stated, “Google’s search site makes money.” Then he asked, “Past Google, is there a publisher with an ad-funded or fee-based model that has made lots of money? No!” 

Time is fleeting, and unfortunately publishers still wrangle over how to cope with the inevitable. I’m not sure Balmer is completely right. There probably still will remain a handful of print editions for lovers of newsprint like me. But any successful publisher producing both will have to find a profitable balance between on and offline editions. It certainly can be done.

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AOL ANNOUNCES PLANS TO LAUNCH

ITS OWN ONLINE POLITICAL NEWS SITE 

A fascinating experiment is underway that will test a unique concept of offering traditional news commentary in a digital format. While details are still to come, apparently  AOL’s new site Politicsdaily.com will emphasize commentary, not breaking news, at least at its start. However, Marty Moe, senior VP of AOL’s Media Glow division, left the door open to a possible breaking news beat for later editions. 

Moe told The Wrap.com that the new site would be “polypartisan.”  If Melinda Henneberger, who has been chosen as its editor, is an example, the site will become “a quality news site,” as she has promised. The former New York Times staffer summed up the site as having “zero aggregation, original content, that pays writers a living wage and that pays bloggers.” 

With a background at Newsweek and Slate, Henneberger should be able to make good on her promise of producing quality writing far different from the ten-second news cycle. Her aim is to attract an audience that “wants do thoughtful analysis pieces that are heavily reported.” 

Cheers to AOL if it makes good on its promise. This will be a major improvement over the sketchy and compromised news that appears intermingled with endless inches of commercial ads on its second-rate news segment today.

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WHO SAYS E-MAIL HAS LOST ITS EFFECTIVENESS?

REPORTS INDICATE KEEPING YOUR MAIL LIST ACTIVE MAKE GREAT SENSE 

The doom and gloom “crepehangers” who for years have predicted the demise of e-mail at the hands of social networking were stopped in their tracks by two recent reports that were published by eMarketer. That was great news for authors who regularly build their mailing lists and use the tool to attract book sales. 

During this past holiday season e-mail played a major role in retail promotions, with an average of 14.6 mailings per customer during the peak month of December, according to a report by

Smith-Harmon. 

A second study reported that 57% of consumers have a more positive impression of companies they buy from when they receive e-mails; 40% stated that a follow-up e-mail prompted them to make additional purchases, a report by Epsilon and ROI Research states. 

That sends a key message to authors in this recessionary period. Keep building those mailing lists and keep sending informative, interesting  e-mails to your potential buyers regularly. 

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ARE BOOMERS SOMEWHAT INTERNET-SHY? 

Marketing Charts reports an interesting phenomenon that merits the attention of every author who promote his/her books on the Web. Results of a study by ThirdAge/JWTBoom, Baby Boomers are reluctant to participate in some of the Internet’s most popular activities. 

While 96% of them use e-mail regularly and 80% use broadband on their home computers, only 22% participate in social networking on sites like My Space or Facebook. Of the 53% that do not, half stated the reason is their concerns about privacy and sharing their personal information. 

Boomers are also a bit wary of advertising that appears on the Web unless it is placed by a source or a brand they know and trust. Nonetheless, 93% have read a print article about a web site and have visited the site. Looks as though cross-promoting often reaches these potential buyers. E-mail too has been relatively effective with 75% of respondents claiming they have clicked through after receiving an e-mail about a product. 

I was particularly surprised to discover that of the Boomers surveyed 67% showed little or no interest in writing blogs. 55% felt the same way about listening to podcasts or other prerecorded audio. All of this seems rather remarkable when you consider that the Web has wooed so many people away from newspapers and from other printed matter as a primary source for news and other information. 

At an estimated 78 million, this is a huge market, and obviously we all have to pay special attention to designing promotional programs on the Web that will reach the Boomer generation. We can’t rely on some of the most generally accepted vehicles.