What's the Problem with Digital Advertising?

Why have so many companies emerged despite consolidation among Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo? It's simple. CPC and CPM pays pennies per thousand to affiliates.

Traditional publishers want $10 to $100 eCPM. So do new publishers.

March 16, 2008 8:46 PM

What's This Fascination with Ad Networks? (Or, the Online Media Business Will Be About Brands First, Technology Second)

I know how the folks who no longer work at AOL, Yahoo, or MSN feel about this question. They're all brand people. And it's entirely clear how the Google-chasers have answered that question: They've collectively spent billions of dollars amassing "access to inventory" and "ad platforms" in single-minded competition with Google...

I see the logic in why AOL, MSN and Yahoo are chasing the ad network dream. They have a ton of inventory. Most of it is making money at very low CPMs - as low as 50 cents on average. If they can drive that CPM to 75 cents through an ad network strategy, their margins go way up, and they all come out looking like heroes...

And I have to tell you, neither the publishers nor the brand marketers believe that a magical ad platform will somehow address their needs online. Sure, brand marketers will spend 5-15% of their budget on lower-CPM "pray and spray" DR and awareness campaigns. And sure, publishers are happy - thrilled! - to see algorithms drive up their backfill or remnant inventory CPMs. But none of them believe that ad networks provide the same kind of engagement and brand building opportunities that a simple two-page spread or 30-second spot does in the offline world.

A blogger organization in the future?

Is it time for bloggers to have a Bloggers Guild, much like the Writers Guild of America? The National Writers Union has voted unionizing bloggers as a priority item.

With blogging being so popular now, most bloggers believe they are worth more than $5 per post standard, which was apparently set by pioneering blog networks such as Weblogs, Inc. and Gawker Media. Bloggers now want a big salary with benefits and stock options. Essentially, bloggers want to be full time bloggers and still be able to pay their bills.

A new ad network by Blogger & Podcaster could be the first step toward blogger organization. They plan on providing non-exclusive health care for long tail blogger members.

Those against a blogger organization argue that blogging is still a new development and isn't ready for a unionized workforce and that organizing would undermine the premise that "anything goes" in the blogosphere.

Also, a professional guild to represent professional bloggers raises the questions of: what exactly distinguishes a "professional blogger" from a hobbyist? And if a bloggers guild is created, what would distinguish a professional blogger from a journalist?

Source: Read Write Web through Journerdism

Ed: Freelance investigative journalism traditionally pays hundreds to low thousands per feature.