B2B Memes

AUGUST 10, 2012

But whenever he explains AdVoice, the Forbes approach to mixing editorial contributions from advertisers with more traditional editorial, I start feeling queasy. Where I get uneasy with content marketing, though, is when it starts to look more like advertising. But is transparency an adequate defense?

Advertorials 100

Advertorials Disintermediation Content Marketing Advertising Agencies 100

B2B Memes

JUNE 13, 2011

Commercial, for-profit publishing is really a process of generating one form of currency—attention—and converting it into another—money—via advertising or subscriptions. The old “profit centers,” advertising sales and subscriptions, aren’t very good at the conversion process anymore. They’re pretty good at that.

Advertisements 100

Advertisements Advertising B2B Sales Cost 100

B2B Memes

MARCH 2, 2011

As she explains, pure content businesses like magazines are just one of three types of media options for advertisers. But now that advertisers no longer need publishers for distribution, what’s left to offer them? Though at first it might seem odd to say that businesses built on content don’t value it, she has a point.

Word of Mouth 100

Word of Mouth Content Distribution Demographics 100

B2B Memes

OCTOBER 19, 2010

In a speech last June , he argued that editors should get involved in all sides of a business, even if that meant selling advertising. Realistically, the average editor is probably the last person you would want to sell advertising. Taking advertising orders is one thing, but actively selling is quite another.

Ethics 100

Ethics Transparency Blogger Advertisements 100

B2B Memes

OCTOBER 28, 2011

These results, according to Readex sales director Steve Blom, “help publishers prove to advertisers—whose own ideas regarding usage may be terribly wrong—that professionals haven’t replaced one media form with another.”. That doesn’t mean advertisers shouldn’t keep advertising—the numbers of print readers are still substantial.

Buzz 100

Buzz Comparison Custom Publishing Newsletter 100

B2B Memes

JUNE 21, 2010

As the media content marketers produce get more and more sophisticated, advertising and even paid subscriptions will likely become viable revenue streams. On one end is the pure publishing model, in which all revenues come from advertising and subscriptions. It’s trendy for content marketers to say that we’re all publishers.

Content Marketing 100

Content Marketing Content Blogger Lead Ranking 100

B2B Memes

DECEMBER 6, 2011

With a few exceptions, such as CMO.com , he says, “content marketing has turned out to be nothing more than a slightly cooler, slightly hipper form of marcomm and advertising.” Legacy publishers are telling advertisers that journalists will create content marketing for them. Marketers claim to be journalists.

Content Marketing 100

Content Marketing Ethics Content Vendors 100

B2B Memes

MARCH 12, 2010

But it has more to do with the influence of advertisers. As advertising has become harder to sell over the years, B2B publishers have added increasing amounts of commodity content to their print versions to hook advertisers. That’s partly due to the prevalence of service journalism in B2B.

Demand 100

Demand Advertorials Media Content 100

B2B Memes

JULY 1, 2010

Hold on, it says “ADVERTISEMENT” above the photo. As explained in detail on Charles Apple’s blog , what I mistook for a real newspaper was in fact a four-page advertising wrap. Oh, this whole thing is just an ad for Universal Studio’s new King Kong attraction. Unseemly expletive. In other words, an advertorial.

Advertorials 100

Advertorials Ethics Transparency Trust Marketing 100

B2B Memes

OCTOBER 5, 2012

Via the Media Briefing , this thought-provoking if rambling takedown of publishers’ unwarranted faith in content : “Once upon a time content in this industry was the reworked press releases that kept the advertising apart on the printed page. It was never valuable and it isn’t now.

Content 100

Content Press Conference Demand 100

B2B Memes

OCTOBER 5, 2012

Via the Media Briefing , this thought-provoking if rambling takedown of publishers’ unwarranted faith in content : “Once upon a time content in this industry was the reworked press releases that kept the advertising apart on the printed page. It was never valuable and it isn’t now.

Content 100

Content Press Conference Demand 100

B2B Memes

APRIL 16, 2012

Links to the first few years of posts were hard to find, and when you did, they were encrusted with spam advertisements. But as I noted, trying to dig through those archives was nearly as arduous as excavating Troy. A year and a half later, thanks to son Jake Jarvis, the archives have been restored.

CAN-SPAM 100

CAN-SPAM Sample Advertisements Advertising 100

B2B Memes

APRIL 20, 2012

” but in the actual reading of books, in the actual discussion of text, in the actual pursuit of thoughts and conclusions not predetermined by newspaper policy or the interests of the advertising department. Journalism has always been about selling things.

Aggregators 100

Aggregators Advertisements Advertising B2B Marketing 100

B2B Memes

JULY 5, 2012

The discussion is frustratingly fractured and incomplete (it’s Twitter, after all), but it will give you a good sense of the issues that keep trade editors up at night: Preventing undue influence by advertisers (given the nature of B2B publishing, this topic was front and center). Dealing with insufficient staffing and hiring.

Ethics 100

Ethics B2B Press Twitter 100

B2B Memes

JUNE 28, 2010

All cannot be forgiven by just waving your hand over a piece of advertising posed as real content and saying, “paid,&# “sponsored&# or “advertising&# on it.”. Without specifying what it takes to get there, Joel says that credibility is the ultimate goal, and that’s much harder to achieve than transparency.

Ethics 100

Ethics Transparency PR Advertising Mediums 100

B2B Memes

NOVEMBER 24, 2011

It’s their job to write, the readers’ to read, and the advertisers’ to pay for it all. In this view, journalism is a complex product that can only be produced by trained career journalists who are paid for their work. But in the social media era, roles and responsibilities are not so clear-cut.

Media 100

Media User-Generated Content Social Media Training 100

B2B Memes

SEPTEMBER 29, 2011

For B2B journalists, the most promising options appear to be either small-scale startups where they share both the risks and rewards, or content marketing groups within those companies formerly known as advertisers. Though I hope they can, trade publishers may not be able to find a way out of this dilemma.

Ethics 100

Ethics Startups B2B Sales Paid Search Agency 100

B2B Memes

JULY 13, 2010

Sadly, as advertising has gotten scarcer, editorial standards have gotten laxer, resulting in such over-the-top quotes as—really, I did not make this up—“the outstanding part quality produced is outstanding—just awesome.”).

Ethics 100

Ethics PR Press Fulfillment 100

B2B Memes

OCTOBER 29, 2010

With the exploding popularity of mobile form factors, whether phone or tablet, that approach to design will change: “There simply isn’t room for 15 related story links, a most-read panel, and 100 ways to share an article on the screen of a smartphone or small tablet—not to mention advertising.

Design 100

Design Peer-to-peer Mobile Advertising Tagging 100

B2B Memes

MARCH 11, 2011

I’m also careful so it doesn’t look like I’m promoting advertisers/manufacturers. If I tweet something from the magazine’s account that is from an advertiser/manufacturer I make sure it provides value to my readers first—just like print B2B. As I mentioned, I use RD+B Twitter for straight reporting—little opinion.

Ethics 100

Ethics Social Media Media B2B 100

B2B Memes

MAY 13, 2010

What makes this meaningful is the fact that IDG is in essence recognizing the irrelevance of its own media vehicles, at least for some of its potential advertisers. But it appears that they will be offering a wide range of content strategy consulting, content creation, and software tools.

Content Marketing 100

Content Marketing Content Press Custom Publishing 100

B2B Memes

MAY 11, 2010

Instead, companies that used to be advertisers go to the audience directly, in essence becoming publishers themselves. First, it means that journalists don’t recognize the challenge that content marketing poses to their traditional livelihoods. But the confusion is also a problem for the discipline of content marketing.

PR 100

PR Content Fulfillment Public Relations 100

B2B Memes

JUNE 30, 2010

This was, after all, the 1960s, the zenith of corporate marketing and advertising (think Mad Men ). The movie holds out hope for alcoholics through the intercession of Alcoholics Anonymous. It offers no similar shot at redemption for corporate PR. PR was about controlling the message, not addressing the truth.

PR 100

PR Public Relations Ethics Transparency 100

B2B Memes

MAY 26, 2010

His “freemium” model includes free e-books and audiobooks, donations, a print-on-demand (POD) paperback, a premium hardcover edition, advertisements, and a commission fee for a new short story. Since this is a self-published project, Doctorow wants to keep expenses to a minimum, and that means no outlay for proofreading or copyediting.

Blogger 100

Blogger Lead Ranking Social Media Tagging 100

B2B Memes

SEPTEMBER 9, 2010

Do you expect either advertising or subscriptions to play a role? However, as the business progresses there will be a greater emphasis on subscription content, advertising and lead generation, training, reports, and consultancy. Is that a significant part of the strategy?

Media 100

Media Lead Ranking B2B Thought Leadership Verticals 100

B2B Memes

SEPTEMBER 22, 2010

Tomorrow’s companies will build empires based on the value that they deliver to their users and advertisers every day, not on their ability to finance and manage scarce bandwidth or expensive printing presses or exclusive distribution networks.”. “No Future of news: Insider Dave Morgan touts new media.

Social Media 100

Social Media Work Management Media Bandwidth 100

B2B Memes

JANUARY 27, 2011

Readers and advertisers alike loved it because it fulfilled an essential need: the discovery of new materials, components, and services. Though now and then it did cover some new, breakthrough technology, the bulk of it was pure, boring commodity content. Yet through most the 1990s, it prospered.

Demand 100

Demand Media Content Fulfillment 100

B2B Memes

OCTOBER 4, 2012

Last month, I wrote about how Atlantic Media’s new online publication, Quartz , offers business-to-business publishers a new advertising model to consider. Gideon Lichfield. Since then I’ve been thinking a lot about another new model Quartz embodies, this time involving its content.

Lead Ranking 100

Lead Ranking B2B Cross-Selling Act-On 100

B2B Memes

OCTOBER 4, 2012

Last month, I wrote about how Atlantic Media’s new online publication, Quartz , offers business-to-business publishers a new advertising model to consider. Gideon Lichfield. Since then I’ve been thinking a lot about another new model Quartz embodies, this time involving its content.

Lead Ranking 100

Lead Ranking B2B Cross-Selling Act-On 100

B2B Memes

MAY 6, 2011

In my days overseeing a large editorial group for a B2B publisher, my counterpart in sales was fond of telling me that advertisers found our editors arrogant. They are as nice as anyone else, but if they do their jobs right, they will often rub people the wrong way. They weren’t, and he knew it.

Ethics 100

Ethics Content B2B Sales User-Generated Content 100

B2B Memes

MARCH 9, 2011

For that reason, he’s now including “a modest amount” of advertising in his sidebar. Fed up with many shady web sites stealing his copy and, presumably, making money on it, he wants to make his own direct money from the site. In addition, he’s vowed to share any revenue from the site with four frequent guest bloggers.

Social Media 100

Social Media RSS Media Wikipedia 100

B2B Memes

DECEMBER 15, 2011

Many traditional journalistic enterprises are very concerned with doing content that sells copies and catches eyeballs for advertisers than truly informing the public, which is part of the pain I think Paul describes so well. Jay Rosen, who I do not always agree with, makes some particularly salient points on this very issue.).

Brand Identity 100

Brand Identity Branding Eloqua Custom Publishing 100

B2B Memes

OCTOBER 8, 2010

And within those industries, you should be connecting with both readers and advertisers. At the very least, you should be networking with at least two groups: other journalists and media people, and one or more of the industries you cover. Be a blogger. In addition to using networking tools, you should also be blogging.

Social Media 100

Social Media Media Lead Ranking Blogger 100

B2B Memes

OCTOBER 19, 2012

In practice, trade reportage often doesn’t match audience needs, often favors advertisers, and often, to be honest, just plain sucks. Similarly, trade publishers put too much emphasis on original analysis and reporting. This sounds like sacrilege, I know. But let’s face it.

Aggregators 100

Aggregators B2B Content Analysis 100

B2B Memes

DECEMBER 8, 2011

The old “journalism is a great way to sell advertising” model is in pieces online, and there still aren’t enough experiments that result in hard data about what journalism is actually good at achieving that makes money. What do you think are the most pressing new-media issues facing journalists today?

CMS Development 100

CMS Development Peer-to-peer Lead Ranking Press 100

B2B Memes

SEPTEMBER 30, 2011

In it, the magazine editor described a frustrating planning meeting with his counterparts in advertising sales. As the old advertising model that powered trade magazines for so many decades withers away, it’s getting harder and harder to sell independent, reader-oriented content. Where does that leave us? It beats me.

Marketing Proposals 100

Marketing Proposals Custom Publishing B2B Sales Inbound Marketing 100

B2B Memes

OCTOBER 21, 2011

Just as it has muddled the distinction between professional and personal, and between home life and work life, just as it has confusingly merged the roles of reader, advertiser, and publisher, so it has blurred the traditional line between trade and consumer publishing. It hasn’t so much erased the differences as smudged them.

B to B 100

B to B Media B2B Ethics 100