This was a very animated session which examined the landscape of new media, and touched on some very thought-provoking issues. The panelists were Greg Smith, Director of Media at Carat Interactive, Leslie Laredo of the Laredo Group, which provides courses in internet media, Arthur Chan of Palisades Interactive, an independent agency which does a lot of work with entertainment clients, and Rick Bruner, Director of Research at Doubleclick. Andrew Ianni, an interactive consultant formerly with AKQA, did a great job moderating this lively session.
Everyone agreed that the new media landscape has expanded significantly, and that it’s an exciting time to be in this business. Interactive has profoundly changed the definition of media and marketing, and it’s been developing so quickly that there are some real challenges. The top challenge, according to the panelists, has been finding good people and managing growth. Keeping on top of the constant change, and keeping track of new players and new developments is key.
read more...
The half-full Web Publisher’s forum was moderated by OPA President Michael Zimbalist. The panel included CBS Marketwatch Publisher Larry Kramer, Washingtonpost.com CEO & Publisher Caroline Little, New York Times Digital CEO Martin Nisenholtz and Weather Channel President Debora Wilson.
Zimbalist opened the session with an overview of market conditions and then questioned the publishers on how the current market is treating them. Marketwatch’s Kramer said his users have become more and more engaged in the site and that implementing behavioral targeting has provided an increase in value of each page of 3-4 times. Page design has been modified to lure users deeper into the site.
Washingtonpost.com’s Little explained 80 percent of site users are not local, necessitating page redesign to ensure visitors know they are on the site. Additionally, she is considering the launch of two separate homepages catering to the specific expectations of local users versus national users. Times Digital Nisenholtz said the site sees 13-14 million users per month each spending between 38 and 40 minutes on the site. He considers this “not acceptable” and is building out the back of the site with more content as well as adopting RSS feeds and syndication as methods of bringing additional users.
read more...
