Just a little piece of media history for us all to observe and be aware of…….

The NY Times for the first time in their glorious history yesterday sold and printed a front page colour display advertisement.

“The first such ad, appearing Monday in color, was bought by CBS. The ad, two-and-a-half inches high, lies horizontally across the bottom of the front page, below the news articles and a brief summary of some articles in the paper. In a statement, the paper said such ads would be placed “below the fold” — that is, on the lower half of the page.” (Read more here)

“The company recently reported that in November, revenue from continuing operations fell 13.9 percent from November 2007; from January through November, it was down 7.6 percent. Advertising revenue at The New York Times Media Group, declined 21.2 percent in November from the same month in 2007.”

As South Africans this is no big deal. We have had ads on the front page since the 80’s.  Sunday Times etc have enjoyed hansom revenues from these positions in the past- first from tobacco guys and then the cellphone operators.

But this move by the “Grey Lady” - an affectionate term used by some for the NY Times has succumbed - which signals a new era.  An era of media blood-letting and deadly competition. An era that began a few years ago but is now beginning to physically manifest in the lives of media workers.

This historical move also reminded me of a quote by Koos Bekker, Visionary and CEO at Naspers in a Moneyweb Interview in April 2008:

“”The quality newspaper in a broadband market like the US is shot; they are dead,” Bekker said. “You can buy the whole of the New York Times today for $2,5bn. We can buy it. We are not interested.” (Read the full interview here)

If you work in the media, strap up and get ready for a crazy ride. Our industry has never been so volatile and unpredictable. - but very exciting depending how you look at it.

Good luck for 2009!

Here’s something for all bloggers out there to participate in.

Comes to me from my old right-hand man Alistair Fairweather (aka) the blogfather at 24.com.

The survey is brought to you by 24, Afrigator and Amatomu - so a nice co-lab guys. Nice to see everyone playing nice.

Anyway it’s a good chance for you to contribute to supplying info that can make the industry better and there are also prizes to be won.

I would never ask you to do something I would not, so I have

taken the survey and it is relatively painless : )

Check it out and enter here:

What an awesome trip it has been hanging out in Palo Alto for the past few days in geek mecca. A magical place where geeks are rockstars and tech is humming.

I met Max Levchin, the guy who started Paypal and Slide and James Hong, who started “Hot or Not” and a ton of other powerful minds and VC’s - truly inspirational.

On the trip also did some cool visits:

Facebook

Even got a pic of the Facebook fridge : ) Free food all the time. And we thought Developers needed beer to produce fast.

Guitar Hero

The ultimate highlight was to watch Charles Huang  the founder and creator of Guitar Hero at RedOctane Games demoing the latest version of the game which has not been released yet. It was phenominal. And to hear the fairytale story was even cooler. What a down to earth guy. He took huge risks, could not get funding and then hit the jackpot. Version 3 did a Billion dollars sales. Nice. Read here

EA Games

EA games was spectacular but their sexy high-end campus was a major contrast to the more Homely environment at RedOctane which I preferred. But there were shit-hot demos of some new games on the best screen you have ever seen. That’s me on the EA sports basketball court which they actually use to report to shareholders. Different.

Stanford University

The geek, web entrepreneur sausage machine. They just keep coming. The campus is very impressive.
In another life I would have loved to study there. It occurred to me that on some campuses the Sporty guys get the girls. Here I think it’s the techno-wizards. Who would have thought that all the technical innovation comes down to sex!

So - it was an awesome excursion and also fantastic to meet the guys from all our businesses around the world. I bonded most with the Polish guys - who seem to like to smoke : )

And of course I got an iphone 3g - which is sick!

Off to bed. I have to catch a flight back to SA in 4 hours.

Entelligence Limited today filed a formal complaint against Google South Africa with the Competition Commission of South Africa for abuse of dominance in terms of Section S8(d)(i) of the Competition Act 89 of 1998, which prohibits a firm from “requiring or inducing a supplier or customer to not deal with a competitor.  Read the release here

As a part of the OPA exco I’m putting this announcement out. It’s an initiative from our side to promote and celebrate awesome online
creative across a few disciplines.

Release:

The Online Publishers Association, South Africa’s independent representative body for online publishers, in association with Lowe Bull, announces the launch of The Bookmarks…….

The Bookmarks is an award engineered to benchmark the best in creative digital media, whilst educating and encouraging South African agencies, designers and clients as to the benefits and possibilities inherent in online advertising.

Fernando Romano, the internationally renowned Executive Creative Director for JWT London, has been secured as one of the judges for this year’s inaugural awards. Fernando has won numerous Cyber Lions as well as the illustrious Lion Grand Prix from Cannes and her impressive international experience in digital advertising, combined with her illustrious experience in Brazil, The United States and most recently, the United Kingdom, gives her a unique and authoritative perspective.

Categories for The Bookmarks include; Best Site, Best Microsite, Best Online Advertising, Best Media Plan, Best Execution of Mobile Advertising, and an individual award for the Greatest Contribution to Online Media.

The Bookmarks will provide a platform to promote digital media in South Africa, further integrating it into the general marketing mix, whilst creating a better understanding of digital media within our general society.

For more information contact Theresa Vitale at 011 454 3534, or email her on tvitale@opa.org.za

It takes a big man to admit this but finally I have to come clean.

YES - I tried to recruit Bolton Deventer.

That’s what you get for being out of the loop. An innocent mistake. I read his blog, liked what he had to say. Thought there was some talent there and did what I usually do in that situation - engage.

I was really sad when his bereaved wife sent me a message saying he was dead. I even wished her “long life” in the Jewish tradition and spent a while contemplating what happens to your digital life when your real one is gone.

It even inspired me to a business idea where you could hold someones usernames and passwords so that if they passed on it could all be magically erased at the click of a button.

Some might say that it is cool to be digitally immortal and live on in cyberspace but you have to admit it is pretty macarbe to think that you could be six feet under and some corporate dude is postng  comments on your blog and thinking you are a loser when you do not respond.

Maybe we need a cool out of office plugin for Wordpress. Something like “I am dead. Please call again in another life.”

Boy was I relieved quite quickly after when I discovered he was only digitally deceased

Jokes on me : )