Have you started selling political advertising for the 2014 mid-term elections? The most savvy media organizations are already in the field making contacts to pre-sell political campaigns and take advantage of historic spending levels. more

Recently I sat in on a sales call from Yext - and watched it go irreversibly south. Here's what happened. more

Welcome to 2014. While everyone is back at the gym, I thought this might be a time to set the stage for managing your media business this year with a fitness metaphor. more

Advertiser churn - the number of advertisers who do not continue with your company - is notoriously difficult to track.  Are they just "taking a break" or "seasonal" as the sales rep contends? more

Whether or not to sell Google AdWords was hardly a question at the 2013 Digital Agency Summit, produced by BIA/Kelsey and LocalMedia Association. The majority of media leaders speaking in the digital services space voted "Yes, but... " Here are the cons: Margins are thin - the least of any digital service, and most of them are have thin margins to begin with. Plus media executives don't like the idea of training merchants to advertise somewherelse. But don't count out selling Google AdWords just yet. Even leaders like Chris Lee, President of Deseret Digital, consider Google AdWords "foundational." more

How many local business websites fit on the head of the pin? That is, metaphorically, the first page of Google? Answer: None. This theory, posed by Trevor Sumner, president and co-founder of LocalVox Media, at the 2013 Digital Agency summit caught our attention. So we decided to take a good look. It's an important question: Most searchers (70 to 90% depending on the survey) prefer to select a merchant from the results that show up on the first page and a full 43% click on the first listing (also depending on the survey, of course). We searched a few categories in St. Petersburg, Florida, a medium size city of about 500,000 people with a healthy small business community, to see what happened. more

The most successful agencies were on hand to share their experiences at the 2013 Digital Agency Summit, produced by BIA/Kelsey and the Local Media Association. Here's a round-up of ten top "take aways" attendees noted at the end of the two days. more

Local media companies that dominate their markets and attract millions in advertising dollars often hit a creative block when it comes to marketing their own company. This is true even for their fastest growing revenue stream - sales of digital products and services - that needs marketing the most. This may seem counter-intuitive, but it's also true. Here are seven reasons why media fail here - and one dirt simple solution to get a handle on B2B marketing in 2014. more

At the National Association of Broadcaster's conference, a vast array of drones for sale were surrounded by curious onlookers in radio and tv management. Maybe not for purely business reasons. Let's face it, they fly a lot like remote controlled miniature planes that people operate above one hill at my favorite park every weekend. Rachel Maddow flew one on her show. When not killing people, drones are fun. But can they really be useful for covering local news? more