interesting comments by two of the biggest newspaper owners in the states. online is the big threat but:

“We have to get paid for it,” Singleton said. “We either have to come together as an industry or partner with Google or Yahoo or whomever. If we don’t get paid for it, we aren’t going to continue to be able to produce it.”

what about an adsense-style advertising model? given the increased coverage the internet offers, surely newspapers can follow in the footsteps of the wily online marketers who have funded content through the PPC networks?

on a more upbeat not, this week have read rumours that newspapers are looking into alternative delivery mediums, such as electronic paper. having a wafer thin flat-screen that can hook up to an ipod or other data storage device (or wireless access??) could finally answer the dream of many a commuter.

combined spending on the three new advertising channels rose by 198% in 2005 to a total of $20.4 million.

More info.

Again those guys at e-Consultancy come up with some great information on online PR - why it is so much more than just gaining coverage in online journals, and what you should be doing to monitor it.

Read it here.

as i try and get a grip on the google adwords program, i read one man’s fight with the google monolith as he appears to have triggered some sort of clickfraud detection filter on the google adsense program he’s running. that’s the story the times ran in its blog section.

funny then at the very bottom of the story you find a strident blue box listing a bunch of adsense links with the heading ‘ads by google’.

no comment from the people that published the story on how well the adsense program is working for them. would this not have made for a more complete ‘well-rounded’ story?

i hope the blogging revolution will help shake up some of the inherent contradictions in big media.

Internet Marketing:Strategy, Implementation and Practice is a comprehensive guide to how organisations can use the Internet to support their marketing activities and covers all aspects of Internet marketing - situation analysis, strategy development and implementation.

Some 78 percent of manufacturing companies plan to increase spending on their corporate websites, 60 percent will increase spending on email marketing and 48 percent will do so for search engine marketing, according to a study by SVM E-Business Solutions, writes BtoB Online. The survey found that 52 percent of respondents consider their website their most powerful marketing tool.

Some stats:

The Chinese access the Internet from home (68.5%), at work (38%), Internet cafes (25.3%) and via phones (2%), according to the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC). And what are they doing once they are online? The top fifteen most frequently used services, according to the CNNIC’s 16th Statistical Survey Report on the Internet Development in China, July 2005 are as follows:

Email                    91%
News                    79%
Search engine               65%
Browsing               57%
Music                    46%
Instant messaging          45%
BBS                    41%
Film/TV                      38%
School/classmate BBS            29%
File uploads/downloads            26%
Games                    23%
Chatroom               21%
Shopping               20%
Personal Websites          17%
Banking                      14%

A word to the wise: Before beginning any marketing campaign, familiarize yourself with the local Internet players. Don’t assume that Google’s dominance transfers to China, because it doesn’t. The key local players include (links to all below):

   o Baidu –The number one search engine in China, according to Alexa, and Google’s main competitor. The NASDAQ listed company went public nine months ago.

   o Sina, NetEase, Sohu– Top tier portals (and NASDAQ listed) that deliver online games, advertising, and mobile value added services (MVAS).

   o China.com, Tom.com, and Allyes.com – Recognized brands in China with niche markets. China.com, for example, serves Chinese professionals.

   o QQ/Tencent – Also known at “2Q,” QQ delivers online messaging services.

   o Alibaba – The company assumed responsibility for Yahoo! China in 2005 and who runs the successful Chinese auction site (and eBay competitor) TaoBao and escrow payment service Alipay.

aparently it might already be the case. conservative estimates pin china’s internet population at around 111 million.

mm, time to start learning a new language.