MediaPost | Diane Mermigas: On Media

Amazon's Bezos Fires Up Mobile Success

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 16:37:06 -0500

Once again, Jeff Bezos is looking like the smartest guy in the room. He can teach just about every company in any industry a few things about innovating for, connecting with and monetizing connected consumers.

Companies Must Capitalize More On Social, Mobile To Drive Revs

Fri, 02 Dec 2011 17:11:00 -0500

Initial indications that mobile e-commerce is driving holiday spending growth should be a wake-up call not only to retailers and traditional media, but to social networks and other new media players that consider themselves edgy.

Retailers Miss Opportunity To Reach Shoppers With Social, Mobile Commerce

Sat, 19 Nov 2011 11:09:00 -0500

The accelerated momentum in e-commerce, social mobile and daily deals will energize holiday sales, which officially launch on Black Friday.This emerging status quo will continue to reshape the retail and marketing experience. While consumers charge ahead, marketers and retailers generally are not positioning themselves to take advantage of the phenomenon.

Big 4 TV Nets Wane As Google, Facebook Command Ad Dollars

Fri, 11 Nov 2011 09:26:00 -0500

Television advertising at more than $65 billion annually may seem impervious to erosion by interactive digital forces, but it's just a matter of time before widespread consumer adoption translates into sizable shifts in marketer spending.

Yahoo Dismantling -- The Only Solution

Tue, 08 Nov 2011 09:28:00 -0500

There is only one way to solve Yahoo's problems, and that's by dismantling the company. It is the reverse of the value creation often promised and seldom realized in mergers. It is the inevitable end to a company that has failed to proactively respond to major trends like interactive social mobility. On the heels of ousting its unpopular CEO Carol Bartz and putting itself on the sale block, Yahoo is unleashing a bevy of new mobile devices, apps and newfangled features to play catch-up. While it is sure to stimulate some activity, the efforts are likely too little, too late.

Apple, Google Focus On Streaming Video

Mon, 31 Oct 2011 11:55:42 -0400

It appears Apple and Google are picking up where Netflix left off, before its Qwikster debacle, to advance universal interface for television by integrating all forms of streaming and static video.

Media Companies Need To Capitalize On Social, Interactive Realities

Mon, 17 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0400

The paid content quandary grows more interesting and steps closer to resolution with every new development from industry change agents, such as Amazon, Apple, Netflix and major content providers NBC Universal, Time Warner and News Corp.

Steve Jobs Tribute: Go Forth and Innovate

Fri, 07 Oct 2011 13:43:00 -0400

The most fitting tribute a grieving world can make to the late Steve Jobs is to assure and secure a business environment committed to the standard of innovation embodied by Apple's founding chairman.

Kindle Strategy Fires Amazon's Future

Fri, 30 Sep 2011 16:55:27 -0400

Opportunity abounds for marketers and content providers that get this: Amazon is leveraging the Kindle Fire and its treasure trove of media offerings as a means to a much greater end than competing with Apple's iPad.

Facebook-Netflix Chasm: Leverage Change To Create Value

Fri, 23 Sep 2011 16:51:16 -0400

The meteoric advance of Facebook and the precipitous fall of Netflix this past week were a consequence of the same three tenets of success in a volatile business market: use social connections as a means to a greater end, make change to create value, and respect consumer behavior.

Apple's Innovations Reinvent Company, Raise Bar For Future

Fri, 12 Aug 2011 12:38:54 -0400

The long-anticipated rise of Apple stock to the top of all publicly traded company valuations, during the most volatile week in Wall Street history, reminds business it has much to learn from the company that Jobs built.

HTML5 Program Promises To Be Game Changer

Fri, 29 Jul 2011 14:27:03 -0400

Just as the massive adoption of Apple's iPad and powerful apps has threatened Google's open-source Web stranglehold, the just-emerging HTML5 program language will change the media landscape for producers and marketers.

TV Needs Bolder Initiatives: The Right To Fail

Fri, 22 Jul 2011 15:36:14 -0400

Television's program development system remains largely devoid of core incubator creativity, where cost-effective risk and failure can render something new.

News Corp.'s Scandal: How Much Is the Business of News?

Fri, 15 Jul 2011 18:56:07 -0400

News Corp.'s intense focus throughout the hacking scandal is on salvaging the Murdoch empire and a second pass at acquiring the 61% of BSkyB it doesn't own. The tattered Fifth Estate is being treated like mere collateral damage.

Facebook's Future: Apps, Video Will Generate Billions

Fri, 08 Jul 2011 15:03:25 -0400

Facebook's Skype deal exemplifies new apps and strategic alliances aimed at using the social network to create a marketing and entertainment video-sharing economy worth billions.

Facebook Poised To Drive Social Marketing, e-Commerce

Fri, 01 Jul 2011 16:35:30 -0400

Facebook is quickly moving to leverage its more than 600 million global active users (70% are outside the U.S.), 50 million active mobile users and $85 billion private-market value. It's geared up to drive social marketing and commerce.

Innovative Delivery Could Make Olympics Pay

Fri, 17 Jun 2011 17:09:13 -0400

Comcast wisely used a page from NBC's playbook and agreed to pay up for another decade of exclusive Olympic Game rights. But the real test will be whether the new controlling owner of NBC Universal can leverage one of television's remaining great live events as a platform for innovation -- not just marketing.

Is Groupon An Overvalued One-Trick Pony?

Fri, 10 Jun 2011 17:32:34 -0400

The moment Groupon goes public later this year, it becomes a takeover target -- it can't happen too soon, given the latest turn of events. The daily deal wonder has effectively created a booming industry from scratch -- at a time when financially withering consumers are showing renewed reluctance to spend.

Online Show Streams Undercut Retrans Fee Necessity

Fri, 03 Jun 2011 15:58:17 -0400

Just when network and local broadcasters are getting comfortable with the notion that hefty retransmission fees are a solid second revenue stream, new technology comes along to undercut their sustainability.

HBO Poised To Reinvent Itself -- Again

Tue, 31 May 2011 07:15:29 -0400

How much of the new market economics HBO can attract and how much of its core business it can grow is a matter of response and timing. It reflects the quandary confronting so many other legacy companies caught in the digital shift.

Broadcast Networks: Survival Means Mastering Multi-Rev Streams

Fri, 20 May 2011 15:11:22 -0400

The broadcast networks will become less viable for their general branded scheduled platforms and more for their TV studios. That new dynamic could ultimately give the broadcast network companies an edge over their cable rivals.

Microsoft's Skype Deal May Be Emperor's New Clothes

Fri, 13 May 2011 10:55:59 -0400

All the fuss over Microsoft's $8.5 billion acquisition of Skype from analysts and media misses some big issues which make the deal's outcome anything but a sure bet. The most pointed question: How long it will take the software giant to destroy Skype's unique value proposition?

The New Media World Is Driven By C-Scape

Fri, 06 May 2011 14:39:23 -0400

Without new rules of play, media and marketing companies can get hurt in these transforming times. The four Cs -- consumers, content, curation and convergence -- provide an orderly way to examine the chaotic reinvention of all things media.

Data Security Breaches Will Lead To Costly Boondoggles

Fri, 29 Apr 2011 17:36:53 -0400

Even as interactive technology has made media and communications more useful, it is overshadowed by the great data skullduggery. That some of the most powerful, wealthy companies on Earth can't devise more efficient and secure data in the digital age is not only a crime, but a missed opportunity.

Ad-dependent TV Under Fire

Fri, 22 Apr 2011 12:59:35 -0400

Advertising-dependent television may have dodged one bullet this year only to be crippled later by an intensifying barrage of economic and tech threats, that will alter its fragile status quo. Online and mobile will siphon off ad revs from trad media.

Can Google Afford To Make Mistakes?

Fri, 15 Apr 2011 16:38:10 -0400

The browbeating Google is getting from shortsighted investors for increased capital investment in social media (where it's behind), online advertising (which it commands) and cloud servers (to meet exploding demand) is a bad sign.

Local TV Should Issue Social Ad Memo

Fri, 08 Apr 2011 17:19:16 -0400

The latest ad spending numbers point to new vulnerability in TV station's life's blood. Broadcasters can't inch their way into the digital age -- they must push a strong social media agenda.

Media Giants: Don't Resist Digital, Embrace

Fri, 01 Apr 2011 13:14:07 -0400

The growing rift between content providers and mainstream distributors from Time Warner Cable to Amazon and Apple, which are protecting their turf by connecting with mobile consumers in new ways, is beginning to resemble an existential play.

Media Cos: Put Your Egos Aside, Think Like Users

Fri, 25 Mar 2011 17:50:25 -0400

To get the digital dollars, media companies must learn to view connectivity through consumers' eyes: It's all about personal relevance.

Comcast Could Begin To Unlock NBCU Value With Theme Parks

Fri, 18 Mar 2011 14:42:09 -0400

Comcast's challenge to unlock the value of non-core or declining assets has been thrown into high gear by The Blackstone Group's move to sell its 50% interest in Universal Orlando or flip full ownership of the theme parks and resort to a third party.