In 1998 Bill Simmons was 28 yrs old, making $50 a week as a contributor to AOL's Digital City Boston. With one goal in mind, to make the welcome screen.
Several years later, dreams came tru for Mr. Simmons. Now working as the sports Guy on ESPN.com, with his column reaching about 1.4 million page views a month, his weekly podcasts have been downloaded 21 million times this year via iTunes, and his new book, "The Book of Basketball" reached No. 1 on The New York Times notification best-seller list last week.
Recieving one of the higher salaries among all sports columnist, it is well desereved, and a tribute to his outstanding work ethic and fascination with his subjects.
Sports writers are changing roles these days. No longer being the reporter who follows a team on the road, and masters the catchy lead paragraphs, followed by a word limited word article reviewing the game.
They are now couch potatoes who have favorite teams, but follow entire leagues by scanning four TVs when they are not surfing YouTube for highlight reels of impressing dunks or obsessing over their fantasy leauge picks, says Bill.
Noam Cohen, the author of this article, says Mr. Simmons may be the first sports writer to see the games purely from the view point of the fan, and a very modern, unsentimental fan at that.
Currently, I am not too educated on the topic of Mr. Simmons, never coming across his name untill this article. I plan on learning more about him and I may even start to follow his column on ESPN's website.
It would be nice reciving information from a totally unbiased reporter.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
A Magazine Promises Ads Will Register
I really don't think that a magazine can promise a guarantee to advertisers, that a reader will remember their ad in it's pages more than other competitive magazines.
President of The Week magazine, Steven Kotok is promising this to advertisers.
“This is a way they can say when they buy The Week, they know it’s money well spent, because we’re guaranteeing it will be among the most effective ads they purchase,” Mr. Kotok said.
This shows a sign of confidence, on behalf of Kotok's side. With The Week’s guarantee, the magazine is saying that not only will it ensure that someone sees an ad, but no matter how the ad looks or reads, and no matter the editorial focus of The Week and competitive magazines for a given issue, it will perform at the top.
I just don't understand how you can be so confident on getting across to your readers with such a guarantee that, if you do not succeed as planned, The Week will run free ad pages for the marketer until it gets to that benchmark. That's money coming out of their pocket. They must have something unique in store.
The Week will measure ad effectiveness by using the research service Vista, from Affinity. Vista will measure “recall” — whether consumers in its focus groups remember seeing a certain ad in the magazines where it runs.
I am curious to find out the outcome of this. I feel that The Week is getting into something they can't succeed in. They must have some more insights their not letting out.
President of The Week magazine, Steven Kotok is promising this to advertisers.
“This is a way they can say when they buy The Week, they know it’s money well spent, because we’re guaranteeing it will be among the most effective ads they purchase,” Mr. Kotok said.
This shows a sign of confidence, on behalf of Kotok's side. With The Week’s guarantee, the magazine is saying that not only will it ensure that someone sees an ad, but no matter how the ad looks or reads, and no matter the editorial focus of The Week and competitive magazines for a given issue, it will perform at the top.
I just don't understand how you can be so confident on getting across to your readers with such a guarantee that, if you do not succeed as planned, The Week will run free ad pages for the marketer until it gets to that benchmark. That's money coming out of their pocket. They must have something unique in store.
The Week will measure ad effectiveness by using the research service Vista, from Affinity. Vista will measure “recall” — whether consumers in its focus groups remember seeing a certain ad in the magazines where it runs.
I am curious to find out the outcome of this. I feel that The Week is getting into something they can't succeed in. They must have some more insights their not letting out.
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
DVR, Once TV’s Mortal Foe, Helps Ratings
When the DVR was introduced to the television industry, network executives were extremely timid at first. Worried that commercials would get cut out, and advertisers would loose interest in t.v. ad's.
Now days, networks have fallen in love with the former tormentor.
The reason is not simply that more households own DVRs, but they're helping some marginal shows become hits. It is also that more people seem content to sit through the commercials than networks once thought.
These factors combined mean DVR ratings now add significantly to live ratings and thus to ad revenue.
Against almost every expectation, nearly half of all people watching delayed shows are still slouching on their couches watching messages about movies, cars and beer.
Personally, If I have a show recorded, I will not sit through the commercials. It is a real convenience to me that I can fast forward the parts of live t.v. that I have no interest in.
Almost across the board, the gains for playback are growing. The best preseason estimate for the current season, said David F. Poltrack, the chief research officer for CBS, was about a 1 percent increase from playback over the live program for the networks combined. Instead, many are in the range of 7 to 12 percent, with some shows having increases of more than 20 percent when DVR ratings are added. The four networks together are averaging a 10 percent increase.
The supposedly struggling NBC drama “Heroes” jumped 22 percent, as did another apparently flagging drama, “Fringe” on Fox. And a new ABC drama, the appropriately named “Flash Forward,” looks even more like a hit than it did with its original rating because its rating increased 14 percent with playbacks.
I am a huge fan of the DVR. It allows me never to miss anything on t.v. that I want to see, regardless if I am away from the house or just watching another station.
Now days, networks have fallen in love with the former tormentor.
The reason is not simply that more households own DVRs, but they're helping some marginal shows become hits. It is also that more people seem content to sit through the commercials than networks once thought.
These factors combined mean DVR ratings now add significantly to live ratings and thus to ad revenue.
Against almost every expectation, nearly half of all people watching delayed shows are still slouching on their couches watching messages about movies, cars and beer.
Personally, If I have a show recorded, I will not sit through the commercials. It is a real convenience to me that I can fast forward the parts of live t.v. that I have no interest in.
Almost across the board, the gains for playback are growing. The best preseason estimate for the current season, said David F. Poltrack, the chief research officer for CBS, was about a 1 percent increase from playback over the live program for the networks combined. Instead, many are in the range of 7 to 12 percent, with some shows having increases of more than 20 percent when DVR ratings are added. The four networks together are averaging a 10 percent increase.
The supposedly struggling NBC drama “Heroes” jumped 22 percent, as did another apparently flagging drama, “Fringe” on Fox. And a new ABC drama, the appropriately named “Flash Forward,” looks even more like a hit than it did with its original rating because its rating increased 14 percent with playbacks.
I am a huge fan of the DVR. It allows me never to miss anything on t.v. that I want to see, regardless if I am away from the house or just watching another station.
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