The closing panel at the ILM:09 conference was a dialog between Peter Krasilovsky, program director of Marketplaces, and two seasoned luminaries from the world of journalism: Geneva Overholser, director, School of Journalism, USC Annenberg School of Communication. She is also…
In a wide-ranging interview this afternoon at ILM:09, ILM Program Director and conference chair Matt Booth tried several times to pin the Yelp COO, Geoff Donaker to the mat. But the unflappable and diplomatic Donaker just wasn’t going to go…
An otherwise obscure article caught my eye this afternoon. The Wall Street Journal reported that “Paranormal Activity,” a small independent movie made on the microscopic budget of $15,000, is experiencing roaring success commercially ($7 million gross last weekend) due to…
With all the attention focused on the needs and behaviors of SMBs, what about the national channel? (Let’s not forget that national accounts represent roughly 15 percent of total industry revenues in the U.S.) Moderated by conference chair Charles Laughlin,…
Are IYPs and online publishers doing as much as they can to promote SEO on behalf of their SMB customers? This and related issues were discussed in the “SEO Success Strategies for IYPs” panel at DMS ’09 this afternoon. Led…
The New York Times juxtaposes conflicting views on the outlook for media spending and the recovery of the ad industry in “The Outlook is Murky for Media Advertising." On one side of the debate are analysts like UBS' Matthieu Coppet,…
According to a new report from the multi-platform Australian directory, information and publishing giant Sensis, more than 95 percent of SMBs in Australia are connected to the Internet, and 57 percent have a business Web site. By the way, this…
OK, I confess. I watched "30 Rock" last Thursday. About midway through the program, I caught a 30-second spot for ServiceMagic. This was the first network TV spot I've seen for ServiceMagic (although once I started looking around online, I…
LB2 Group announced the acquisition of Ketchum Directory Advertising from the ad agency behemoth Omnicom Group. LB2 Group Directory Services (a member of the European Association of Directory Publishers) is an agency "specializing in international placement of Yellow Page advertisements…
Local Insight Regatta Holdings announced the consolidation of its two principal operating subsidiaries, Local Insight Yellow Pages and The Berry Co. The consolidation was accomplished by merging Local Insight Yellow Pages, Inc. into The Berry Co. LLC. The tagline for…
Neat article in today's Wall Street Journal about spending on e-mail (and similar communication) for constituent outreach by members of the House of Representatives. The article says that in the first nine months of the fiscal year, members spent a…
In a June 2 article in The Wall Street Journal, summarizing interviews at the recent 'D' Conference in Carlsbad, CA, cable and media mogul John Malone talked to Walt Mossberg about monetization and pricing models in the new era of…
Thought your online searching habits had settled into a predictable routine? Well, think again. We’re on the verge of another big upheaval in search technology and options. Item: Google has put its new browser, Chrome, on the fast track to…
A recent article in The Wall Street Journal, “Marketing Tools Stretch Ad Dollars,” exemplifies our thinking about the evolution of the ad market. The article details how Chrysler Corp. uses fresh data on the performance of its TV commercials to…
Good news on structural assistance for small business -- two days in a row? Can this be? Yesterday, I reported on the possible thawing in the secondary market for a popular type of SBA loans to SMBs. Today, the news,…
Small business has suffered at least as much as large business in the great credit crunch. Recently, however, there are signs of improvement specifically in the credit market for small business, as reported in today’s Wall Street Journal. In the…
I had the pleasure of attending an excellent mini-conference yesterday on Digital Media Thought Leadership. The organizers were the prolific “emerging technology connection” SDForum and the venerable VC firm Sierra Ventures. (The key commercial sponsor was the law firm Nixon…
One of the disadvantages of being the "most respected analyst firm" is that other people (including otherwise knowledgeable pundits) are wont to misquote you, use your comments out of context, or simply draw erroneous conclusions. Although we were flattered to…
I saw several more articles over the weekend on how small businesses are using social network sites like Facebook and MySpace for marketing. This triggered a couple of thoughts… There’s a whole a ‘shadow network’ of business marketers (B2C and…
As reported in the San Francisco Chronicle, a new report by consultants Sageworks reports that amid the economic gloom, some industries are actually doing pretty well. These industries, with their sales growth rates for the past year, include accounting and…
