Seth Godin does have a knack for stating the obvious / rephrasing what is already well known. The fact that he makes a very good living out of it shows that a lot of people have a habit of unnecessarily complicating things. Like those incurious bankers in CitiBank and Merril Lynch. Now that people outside the rarefied circles of financial engineering are becoming belatedly curious about CDOs and other esoteric beasts, it seems the bankers don’t actually know where they’ve squirelled away their imaginary money.
Not to worry, interest rate cuts will sort out anything.
Toilet paper, after all, is also rather popular. Certainly everyone I know uses it. But I have yet to see ads on it.
He’s right, y’know. There’s a whole new rash of irrational exuberance about the revolutionary advertising prospects for Facebook and friends. It all sounds similar to the initial buzz around online advertising (long before AdWords) and the silly money charged for CPM banners. Prices justified because of the millions of eyeballs a big site could deliver. Then it became apparent that direct mail response rates were superb compared to the majority of banner click-through rates.
Valuations of social networking sites are based on subscriber numbers and the potential to generate revenue per subscriber. Highly-targetted advertising and affiliate sales seem to be the only plausible means to this end. Subscription numbers are this year’s eyeballs.
There are differences of course, such as the attempt to badge Facebook and others as platforms, rather than mere websites. That argument only goes so far, since Facebook’s current perceived advantage rests on the fact that it is a walled garden for user data (as evidenced by the Scoble debacle, which had nothing to do with privacy laws). The Beacon mis-step was anything but. If your competitive advantage vanishes when the walls come down, you’d better cash in whilst the walls are still up.
Ask mobile operators about that (see Vodafone Live!, Orange and how difficult operators and handset manufacturers made it for the average user to find their way out onto the wilds of the mobile Internet). The mobile operators still have control of the pipes, or enough of the pipes to charge for access. Facebook doesn’t have that luxury.
There seems to be a tendency to forget that, whether one approves or not, what media does is deliver audiences to advertisers. This is why Google creates lots of applications. It builds an audience. If the application can also gather consumer information all the better. A premium price can be charged to the advertiser based on the probability that the user may be somewhat disposed to view the ad. Simple as that.
I’ll be moving these ’serious’ posts to their own location soon
Reuters, the reigning back-to-back champ in this category, didn’t win but did come in second place by calling the Muttahida Quami Movement the “Muttonhead Quail Movement.”
Someone should definitely start a Muttonhead Quail Movement. Perhaps I should. I’ll spend the holiday season mulling over what its aims, aspirations and costume will be.
Edit: muttonhead.com is not available. Registered in 1999! Whoever owns it doesn’t seem to be using it for anything. Luckily muttonhead-quail.com is still available.
Some other flashes of journalistic and / or editorial brilliance -
Sunday Star-Times (New Zealand):
OUR STORY on the price of tomatoes last week misquoted Alistair Petrie, general manager of Turners and Growers. Discussing the price of tomatoes Petrie was talking about retail rate not retail rape. We apologise for the misunderstanding.
Los Angeles Times:
Mexico City newspaper: An article in Wednesday’s Calendar section about an English-language newspaper in Mexico City referred to the many U.S. ex-patriots who live there. It should have said expatriates.
The Guardian:
In a report about the Scottish elections, an editing error led to us wrongly suggesting that John Swinburne of the Scottish Senior Citizens’ Unity Party had been accused of allegedly causing a breach of the peace by running amok in a polling station with a golf club (Recrimination follows chaos over new Scots voting procedures, page 5, May 5). We apologise to Mr Swinburne for any embarrassment or distress caused.
The Miami Herald:
In an article on drug smuggling in Venezuela that began on Page 1A Monday, an incorrect photograph was used on Page 2A for jailed drug trafficking suspect Feris Farid Domínguez. The error occurred in the newsroom production process. The photo that was used was that of Leonel Fernández, president of the Dominican Republic. The Miami Herald regrets the error.
DO WE detect the hand of the mischievous spellchecker in the following apologetic note from the April issue of Contemporary Sociology? “In the January issue… in the review written by Elizabeth Gorman of The Work and Family Handbook: Multi-disciplinary perspectives and approaches, edited by Marcie Pitt-Catsouphes, Ellen Ernst Kossek and Stephen Sweet, the contributors’ last names should have been spelled ‘Karen Gareis’ instead of ‘Karen Agrees’, ‘Laura Beavais’ instead of ‘Laura Beavers’, and ‘Gerstel and Sarkisian’, not ‘Gretel and Sardinian’. We regret the errors.”
I had to save the best until last.
The Guardian:
We misspelled the word misspelled twice, as mispelled, in the Corrections and clarifications column on September 26, page 30.
It’s beenwellcoveredthatsomeIndependent News & Media staffers are fond of appropriating bits of writing they find on the ol’ Internet. I came across some other stuff they might be interested in. On the Internet.
Guardian - News reporting faces web challenge, warns New York Times editor. Key quote, ‘”The civic labour performed by journalists on the ground cannot be replicated by legions of bloggers sitting hunched over their computer screens,” Keller said.’ Civic labour indeed.
There are some good ones in here this year alright. Some highlights below.
#1 No Habeas Corpus for “Any Person”
The oldest human right defined in the history of English-speaking civilization is the right to challenge governmental power of arrest and detention through the use of habeas corpus laws, considered to be the most critical parts of the Magna Carta which was signed by King John in 1215.
Talk about rolling back the years.
#5 Human Traffic Builds US Embassy in Iraq
Video testimony related to this which went almost completely unreported.
#16 No Hard Evidence Connecting Bin Laden to 9/11
Rex Tomb, Chief of Investigative Publicity for the FBI responded, “The reason why 9/11 is not mentioned on Osama bin Laden’s Most Wanted page is because the FBI has no hard evidence connecting bin Laden to 9/11.” Tomb continued, “Bin Laden has not been formally charged in connection to 9/11.” Asked to explain the process, Tomb responded, “The FBI gathers evidence. Once evidence is gathered, it is turned over to the Department of Justice. The Department of Justice then decides whether it has enough evidence to present to a federal grand jury. In the case of the 1998 United States Embassies being bombed, bin Laden has been formally indicted and charged by a grand jury. He has not been formally indicted and charged in connection with 9/11 because the FBI has no hard evidence connecting bin Laden to 9/11.”
It would be a shame to have to go and put all that effort in to build a new bogeyman, and since this one ain’t broke …
Can’t say they aren’t working on a substitute though.
# 24 Media Misquotes Threat From Iran’s President
In May of 2006 President Ahmadinejad published an open letter to President Bush clearly asking for peace and the mutual respect of human rights. He warns that Western media, through contrived and deceptive information, has intensified the climate of fear that leads to attacks on innocent peoples. The letter was not reported in the US news media.
There is no theme, there is no cow level. Some links, occasional commentary, occasional song & dance. I'm in Dublin, Ireland, so current affairs may have a slant in that direction. Email me if you really need to.
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