29 April 2009

Online video may challenge TV, but ads are another story

I have argued that "anytime,anywhere" video through the Internet is going to kill prime-time TV, but then, there is a key puzzle that is yet to be solved. What happens to advertising money?
Web is not quite TV when it comes to ad money--at least not yet.
Here is a report that says the jury is out on the Web as an advertising medium.

Remembering how newspapers were produced in the 1970s

I remember the time in the 1980s when I started out in a newspaper.

The ticker tapes, also known as teleprinters, made a loud noise

They were accompanied by the sound of clattering typewriters going tik-tak-tuk-tak and triiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing when the line changed.

Copies were edited by hand, with sub-editors using symbols that resembled today's software code.

They were composed in molten lead in a dingy room below, and laid out for proofing by men in blue uniforms.

We had to mind our steps as we moved down, and be careful not to let the black ink touch our shirts or the molten lead burn our hands

Proofreaders, many in thick glasses that served as career souveiners, matched copy with proofs.

One separate machinist operated a contraption that composed headlines.

Things have come a long way to Twitter!

Read this to get an idea of how things were then

22 April 2009

Media fragmentation story gets murkier

Accenture has come out with details on the sea change in media consumption. Here is the story.