Each day we provide a roundup of five stories from around the Web that our editors read and found noteworthy. Follow us on Twitter for updates throughout the day @digiday.
Advertising’s Talent Shortage: The ad world has a supply-demand imbalance. Basically it has far too many people trained in the old ad world and far too few in the new data-fueled world. The New York Times revisits an issue Digiday has covered in the past. The challenge for the ad world is that it can’t just retrain its existing workforce. Many of them are in jobs that aren’t coming back. The new workforce — quants, analysts, engineers — will come from outside its ranks. It is also less likely to be drawn to the liberal arts world of advertising. There’s the problem. NYT — Brian Morrissey @bmorrissey
Damning with Faint Praise: While not actually adding to the cacaphony of criticism being piled on Groupon these days, the chair of Chinese Internet company Tencent Holdings, which partners with the daily deals giant in a Chinese coupon company, was circumspect about the future of the joint venture that operates the webiste Gaopeng.com. Tencent’s chair, Pony Ma, suggested that the company has not found success in China because the “China market is totally different from the U.S. or other markets.” The lukewarm response will certainly give investors considering the company’s IPO additional pause. Wall Street Journal- Anne Sherber @annesherber
Ubuntu Throws its Hat in the Mobile OS Ring: The mobile ad industry continues to struggle with standardization issues, not least around the range of operating systems currently on the market. Though Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android are the focus of the majority of advertisers and ad vendors, there’s also BlackBerry OS and Windows Phone 7 to consider, for example. Potentially complicating matters further, Ubuntu Linux developer Canonical has announced it too plans to play in mobile and intends to launch a version of its OS for smartphones, tablets and TVs to directly compete with the likes of iOS and Android. ZDNet — Jack Marshall @JackMarshall
— Carla Rover @carlarover