The Promise of Mesh Businesses: For all the hype around social media, some of the most interesting new businesses don’t use sharing just for commercial messages and customer service but as a core part of their businesses. Think of Netflix, Zipcar and other “mesh businesses” chronicled by Lisa Gansky. One interesting new entrant into the shar-and-share-alike model is Artsicle, a service that lets people rent art for a month. That allows people to have a $5,000 painting for a month at $50. This is an exciting area because it fits perfectly with an era that seems destined to be less about consumption and more about finding new ways to fit a consumer economy to a time when resources are more scarce. Inc
Web Publishers Looking East: It’s comforting to think that somewhere out there in the world has figured out the dilemma publishers face in converting to digital business models. Paywalls are the holy grail. That’s why it would be a lovely story if the answer to publisher problems could be found in Slovakia, where publishers banded together to charge for content. It’s been a success, as Ad Age tells it. But the lessons here are few. For one, U.S. publishers trying such a stunt would quickly run afould of anti-competitive practices and price-fixing laws. For another, Slovakia is a tiny, tiny market — home to just 2.5 million Web users. It’s easy to create scarcity, the real holy grail of traditional publishing models, in a tiny market like that. Not so easy in a market the size of the U.S., which has 214 million Internet users. Ad Age
Hulu’s Dance Card: Hulu’s suitors are the big unknown. Kara Swisher at All Things D has details on Hulu’s exploration of a sale. She reports Hulu has already met with Microsoft, while other meetings are lined up with Yahoo, Verizon, AT&T, Amazon and, of course, Google. It’s an interesting cast of characters. If Swisher’s report is accurate, it’s pretty clear Hulu wants a sale. The question is which partner will be palatable to Hulu owners Comcast, Disney, Comcast and Providence Equity Partners. It’s particularly sticky since Hulu is apparently pitching itself as a cable threat. I’m not sure Comcast would be so crazy about that. All Things D
Twitter at $7B?: At this point, there’s hardly a number for a hot Internet company that would cause people to bat an eye. Twitter is reported by the WSJ raising hundreds of millions in financial backing at a valuation of $7 billion. Who know what figures are used to jusitify this. The company is forecast by eMarketer to produce just $150 million in revenue this year. WSJ
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Inside the NFL’s youth-focused social strategy
As part of the NFL Content Creator Network, which expands the features of youth-focused platforms, the league is engaging with fans in new, innovative ways through games, technologies, or just through creative social media engagement through a variety of creative tools and platforms. Creators are targeted within strategic verticals such as fashion, gaming, wellness, and music, as well as those from TikTok, SnapChat, Twitter, and Instagram focusing on humor, food, art, animals, or football-related content on and off the field
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Publishers test personalizing newsletters with varying degrees of success
Publishers are testing personalizing newsletter content based on readers’ interests - but it doesn't always work.
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Indie agency Known beats out incumbents to land AMC Networks’ media business
In essence, Known is helping AMC Networks become more of a direct-to-consumer client as the programmer expands into more streaming options on top of its linear foothold.
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Sponsored<strong>How marketers are responding to shoppers’ wants this holiday season</strong>
Matthew Tilley, executive director, marketing, Vericast With the holidays right around the corner, the economy may force some consumers to adjust their plans and stretch their dollars even further. While some shoppers may rein in their spending, others will still go all out despite a cloudy economic outlook. Given the current economic climate, consumers are […]
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How agencies adapt as bots evolve
Social media bots may represent just a sliver of an app's total users, but it turns out they may be generating more content than we were previously aware. The challenge is separating the good ones from the bad.
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Publishers feel the crunch of cookieless browsers like Apple’s Safari
Bid enrichment provides publishers the means of sprucing up their cookieless impressions to improve their value in advertisers’ eyes.
