Each day, we’ll list the five stories from around the Web that Digiday’s editors think deserve the most attention.
Twitter Wants to be Facebook? Mashable’s Adam Ostrow takes to CNN to make his case that Twitter’s gunning to replace Facebook as a primary social network. Ostrow’s evidence: Twitter recently added photo and video sharing. Now Twitter has maintained it’s an “information network.” Its executives have taken to defining its mission: “to instantly connect people to the information most important to them.” That would make it an information network, not really a social network. Ostrow is having none of it, arguing that by adding photo and video sharing, the most popular activities on social networks, Twitter is declaring itself a social network. (The company wasn’t convinced, as one of its reps took to, naturally, Twitter to tweak Ostrow’s thesis.) These arguments rarely get very far — or matter much in the long run. For a long time, bloggers engaged in spirited debates over Google’s contention it wasn’t a media company, despite a business that relied on advertising for nearly all its revenue. Whether Google is a tech or media company, though, isn’t the most important. Likewise, for Twitter it’s more important that it come up with ways of turning all that attention into revenue. Advertisers continue to be frustrated by the difficulty of running large-scale campaigns on Twitter. CNN
Facebook’s Saturation Point. Everyone wants to find kinks in Facebook’s armor. It’s clearly not a fad that’s going to fade away like MySpace. But there are natural limits to how big Facebook can get. Inside Facebook crunches Facebook’s member numbers, culling them through Facebook’s self-service ad platform and finds that Facebook’s growth has stagnated in North America. Inside Facebook tracks a 6 million-member decline, which seems high. There’s little doubt Facebook’s member growth will slow. There’s the law of big numbers to consider. Broadband penetration growth has also stagnated. If people don’t have broadband by now, they’re probably not going to have it ever. The more important number for Facebook is user-engagement numbers. That continues to be sky high, with the average U.S. user spending an astounding four hours a month on the service. Inside Facebook
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‘Death by a thousand paper cuts’: Publishers fret over alternative ID overload hurting site performance
Publishers lack the data to know which IDs they can afford not to support and are worried a surplus of IDs can slow page-load speeds and lower sites' search rankings.
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Member ExclusiveMedia Buying Briefing: Separating agency progress from posturing around carbon reduction and sustainability
Could it be that the media world is finally taking concrete steps toward decarbonization — or will many of the efforts underway become the butt of a joke (or worse, the focus of an upcoming John Oliver segment)?
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How The Independent is getting brands on board to advertise against breaking news
Advertisers are skittish about breaking news, but The Independent's Blair Tapper is trying to humanize the programmatic funnel to keep them spending during a tumultuous news cycle.
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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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Overheard at Dmexco 2022
Ad tech's jamboree in Germany is back IRL after two years with dissenting voices striking a note of caution.
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Member ExclusiveDigiday+ Research: What are publishers’ priorities heading into Q4?
Digiday asked publisher professionals what their business priorities will be in the next six months, as economic uncertainty persists and Q4 rapidly approaches.
