Mark Cuban is right. This is why we take every opportunity in this blog to point out that newspapers and magazines need to stop giving away their content for free in the hopes that web traffic will magically result in revenue. It is not working and never will. There is too much online inventory for print pubs to ever realize a premium for their online products. The only ones benefiting are search engines and they make enough money without being subsidized by print.

Full story here

Excerpt from AdWeek:

Content aggregators and search engines are vampires, and newspapers are the chesty blondes who fall victim to their charms -- and ultimately get bitten.

That's the basic assessment of the traditional media business' approach to the Internet, according to Mark Cuban. During a keynote address today at the AlwaysOn OnMedia NYC 2010 Conference, the HDNet president/CEO and famed provocateur called for newspapers and magazines to fight back against sites that link to their content.

"Everybody wants to take your content," said the Dallas Mavericks owner before a room full of media executives gathered at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in New York. That's not going to change, "unless you put a stake through their gosh darn hearts."

Cuban particularly called out Google as a Web giant that continues to reap benefits off of the valuable content that traditional media companies produce. "Google is a vampire, and you run scared," he said. "There is no reason to be indexed in Google."

For too long, Cuban said, newspaper and magazines have viewed traffic to their Web sites the same way that stores view customers coming through the door -- and have been fearful of turning down any opportunity for more traffic. Yet, he said, readers who find headlines via Google rarely convert to traffic, and publishers have a hard time monetizing that traffic. "You haven't gotten anything back except that you've turned into zombies," Cuban said.

Plus, in his mind, Google reaps the branding benefit of that content when consumers access it through a search or through Google News. "Whose brand do you think [users] have in their minds?" he asked.

 

 From YahooNews. Full story here

LIVONIA, Mich. – News Corp. subsidiary News America Marketing has agreed to pay rival Valassis Communications Inc. $500 million to settle antitrust charges.

Valassis, a marketing company that provides direct mail and coupons, said the deal settles lawsuits it filed in several states against News America Marketing. Among them is a jury decision in Michigan circuit court last July that awarded Valassis $300 million in damages. News America was appealing that ruling.

Valassis accused News America of threatening customers with price hikes for not offering exclusivity in marketing deals.

Meanwhile, News America argued that Valassis tried to force higher marketing rates by publicly announcing price changes.

In a statement Saturday, News Corp. said it did not want to risk presenting the case to a jury in Michigan federal court, where it was scheduled for trial Tuesday. Citing unspecified concerns over the venue in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan Chief Operating Officer Chase Carey said News Corp. decided "it was in the best interests of the company and its stockholders to agree to a settlement."

Valassis said the deal also includes a 10-year shared mail distribution agreement with News America.

Before you get too excited about this report from MediaPost, read the very last paragraph. Full story here Bargain Hunters Start With Newspaper and Magazine Ads

by Jack Loechner, 2 hours ago

According to a recent Adweek Media/ Harris Poll, 23% of adult Americans believe that newspaper and magazine advertisements are where they can find the best bargains. 18% believe online advertisements are most likely to help them find the best bargains. 10% say direct mail and 12% catalogs, 11% television commercials, and just 2% say radio. And, 34% of Americans believe the type of ad makes no difference when they are looking for the best bargain. When looking for the best bargains, different age groups have different ideas of where to look: 18-34 year olds are more likely to say online ads (22%) and television commercials (17%) are the best places to go 35-44 year olds go online (26%) 24% of those 44-54 and 33% of those 55 and older say newspaper and magazine advertisements those are media most likely to help them find the best bargain Advertising Most Likely to Help Find Bargain - Age (Base: All U.S. adults; % of Category Respondents)   Age   Total 18-34 35-44 45-54 55+ Newspaper/Magazine advertisements 23% 15% 16% 24% 33% Online advertisements 18 22 26 17 12 Direct mail and catalogs 12 13 13 14 10 Television commercials 11 17 12 8 7 Radio 2 2 3 < .5 1 None- the type of ad makes no difference 34 31 31 36 36 Source: Harris Polls, January 2010 Among the genders, women are more likely than men to say newspaper and magazine advertisements, and direct mail and catalogs are more likely to help them find a bargain. Men, on the other hand, are more likely to say online advertisements are more likely to help them find a bargain. There is also an interesting educational difference in the media people believe can help them find the best bargains: One-quarter of those with a high school education or less say newspaper and magazine advertisements are more likely to help them find a bargain, compared to 20% of those with at least a college degree. 29% with at least a college degree believe online advertisements are more likely to help them find a bargain compared to 12% of those with a high school education or less Advertising Most Likely to Help Find Bargain - Gender & Education (Base: All U.S. adults; % of Category Respondents)     Gender Education   Total Men Women HS or less Some college College grad Newspaper/Magazine advertisements 23% 22% 24% 25% 23% 20% Online advertisements 18 21 16 12 18 29 Direct mail and catalogs 12 11 14 12 12 12 Television commercials 11 12 10 12 12 8 Radio 2 2 1 3 1 1 None- the type of ad makes no difference 34 32 35 36 33 31 Source: Harris Polls, January 2010 The report concludes that, while newspaper ads are still slightly ahead of others among all adults when it comes to bargain hunting, online is not far behind. And, online ads lead newspaper and magazine ads, as a source of information about bargains, among younger, better educated consumers, who are much more attractive to most advertisers.

Interesting blog (Reflections of a Newsosaur) on how newspapers can capitalize on the expected popularity of the IPad. Full story here

Excerpt: 

How media can profit from new iPad

While it may be difficult for Apple’s new iPad to live up to the hype that accompanied its release today, there can be no doubt that this slick new device has raised the bar for interactive content delivery.

Unfortunately, as discussed previously here, most media companies already are late in developing editorial and advertising strategies to meet this new challenge.

 Significantly, publishers and broadcasters should be single-mindedly focused on finding ways to charge (checklist at left) for all the exciting new content, services and advertising opportunities that will be enabled by the ’Pad and the imitators that follow.

 

Meredith and Hearst are taking two of their online properties to print. As web-based advertising becomes more and more fractured will this be a growing trend?

From Mediaweek. Read full story here

Excerpt from the story-

Is reverse publishing becoming a growing trend for magazines? Normally, magazines launch Web sites from print brands. But Hearst is going in the opposite direction with the launch of Light & Delish, a bookazine based on content from Delish, a food site it launched in 2008 with MSN.

Meredith, meanwhile, is moving forward with a magazine it tested last year based on Mixing Bowl, an online social network it built around food. Meredith published a second issue of Mixing Bowl.com magazine last week and plans to do another this year while exploring other such affinity-based titles.

In Hearst’s case, Light & Delish will hit stores Feb. 2 with a distribution of 300,000. Priced at a $9.99 cover price, the bookazine is meant to be consumer driven, although it will carry three paid ads from Kraft, which was a launch sponsor of Delish.

Light & Delish is one of several bookazines the company plans to create this year as it looks for low-cost ways to serve up new revenue. Hearst published three bookazines in 2009, based on Good Housekeeping and Country Living, and expects to do at least four this year based on its existing magazines and Web-only brands, which include RealBeauty.com, RealAge.com and Kaboodle.com. Hearst also hopes to turn Light & Delish into a series.

At a time when it’s hard to whip up excitement for magazine advertising, it’s fitting that Hearst sees print as a way to feed its online growth rather than the other way around. Just a year after launch, Delish ranked No. 9 among food sites with 3.6 million unique visitors in December 2009, per Nielsen Online, and the company is eager to fuel that growth.

Meanwhile, Hearst saw double-digit ad-page declines last year across its magazines like O, the Oprah Magazine; Harper’s Bazaar; and Cosmopolitan. The bookazine also is seen as a way to promote Hearst’s other brands like Good Housekeeping and Country Living, where many of the publication’s recipes come from.

Really interesting story in the Las Vegas Review-Journal on the Las Vegas Sun and lasvegassun.com and how the website impacted the paper.

A tale of two newsrooms

A 2005 deal turned the Las Vegas Sun and lasvegassun.com into two laboratories: One creating journalism, and the other, profits. When the latter failed, both blew up

Full story by Amy Kingsley here