Native advertising - essentially ads designed to mimic editorial content - was a key theme at both the recent National Association of Newspaper's MediaXchange and Folio-produced Media Mash-Up. But though lucrative, this practice can undermine reader or viewer trust can have a long term incidious influence. Here are some examples of native advertising efforts good and bad, and some general rules to follow: more

Four mega-trends emerged from the ballrooms and hallways of the Key Executives Mega-conference last week. And all of them underscored the decline in marketing importance - or at least growth of the banner ad as a business model. While previous conferences focused on how to get a 60% sell-through, the most interesting speakers this year were more likely to refer to banner ads as interruptive, while pressing on to more interesting opportunities: more

Local media companies play to their strengths by selecting initiatives they are largely already staffed for and competent to execute. But this workable approach sometimes creates tactical thinking, rather than strategy. The first question when addressing a franchise opportunity - such as wedding services - is strategic. Here's how to ROI the opportunities. more

While 2012 saw more lay-offs and cutbacks, more companies also dove deeper into the digital space, aiming for a higher percentage of digital revenues. For these companies, we predict 2013 will be a transitional year. more

This year's Local Media Association's Ad Director's and publisher's conference focused on new revenue streams. Here are some of our take aways and observations: more

I was surprised to learn that McClatchy has partnered with ReachLocal to resell SEM in one of its markets. It turns out that the pesky competitor is also an inspiration. They do two things really well: SEM and campaign reporting. McClatchy gets the chance to offer these services while learning from a competitor. But what's even more interesting than the strange bedfellows is the future of the dashboard, where ReachLocal is leading the race to build a customer facing dashboard that merchants like to use, and McClatchy has jumped into the race with it's new dashboard developed in conjunction with TruMeasure. That future is mobile and it's coming soon. Here's sneak peek at the newest mobile dashboard for advertisers: more

Last week I sent out an email about a new case study the email subject line: Do you accept Pay-for-performance advertising? My intention was to inspire members to look further at this model, by showing how the Dallas Morning News cost-per-call and cost-per-sale programs will yeild an estimated $360,000 to $600,000 annually, in their first full year. The question was misinterpreted by most of you; I got a slew of responses (about 20) in which subscribers merely answered "No," "No "Not any more," "No thanks," and so on. more

After attending the RadioInk conference this week, I did an informal survey of "take aways" from the attendees. Most had great things to say about the key note from Nolan Bushnell - founder … more

We almost didn't promote one of this week's reports, "The best versus the rest," taken from a presentation at the Borrell 2012 Local Online Advertising Conference, because it restated some oof what appears to be "the obvious." However, I have gotten a number of phone calls in the last few weeks from mid-level execs at small and large companies, concerned that very top people in the company are still on the fence about shifting resources to digital as significantly or quickly as they feel is required to keep up. So we are promoting the report this week on what key initiatives five companies who lead in market share think are most important. A key element in all five "best" companies is that digital leadership at the very top levels is committed, evangelical and backing that commitment with attention and resources. more

Since this week we have a number of reports on mobile, i thought I'd share a few insights from the recent NAA conference. One of the most interesting slides at the recent 2012 NAA Conference is a map that shows the geographic location of mobile readers of the Denver Post. Apparently large numbers of folks are … more