It’s hard to tell exactly from the ComScore figures but it does not look good so far for Mr Murdoch. However, it is still relatively new and the changes did come into play over the summer months so the industry will wait longer before making any judgements.

Follow the link below to read the full article.

Times loses 1.2 million readers – Brand Republic News.

Local business reviews are a new kind of social media, in which customers review their experiences with brands over the internet. Business directories such as Yelp, Citysearch, and Yellowpages.com allow for customers to post what they think of the businesses that they have dealt with.

These reviews are seen by the customers who visit such sites, and can serve to gauge the public opinion people have of your brand. The ability of customers to do this has caused the business world to react in many different ways, ranging all the way from ignoring it altogether to overreacting and becoming paranoid. The important thing about this type of social media is that it is transparent. It cannot be altered or removed by the businesses that are being reviewed.

These reviews are important because they affect your brand reputation, they allow you to get feedback from your customers, and they get your brand in the search engines. Because of this, as much as is possible, businesses should respond to the negative reviews to the extent that they can. In many cases this can cause the customer to become a bigger fan of your business than if they hadn’t experienced any problems to begin with, which has a tremendous effect on word of mouth regarding your brand.

One way to do this is through the use of several programs that allow you to track these reviews, such as Cymfony, Trackur, and Marchex. In addition to responding to negative reviews, you can also use these tools to publicly thank people who have given you heartfelt, five-star, positive reviews.

In her article on iMediaConnection, which I strongly recommend reading, she makes it very clear how and why businesses need to re-evaluate their approach to data.

The new email list-building rules – iMediaConnection.com.

It’s never nice to think that after a lot of hard work to acquire new email addresses, a company should offer customers a chance to simply opt-out. But that is exactly what they will do if you start sending them emails. Worse, if they don’t un-subscribe as they should and keep getting more, they actually start to resent the business.

It’s always better to bite the bullet sooner rather than later and get a quality database, rather than just a quantity one.

With the news that Swiftcover.com has entered the in-game advertising world, does this mean we are going to see more mainstream advertisers do the same?

The article refers to Nielsen stats that show 72% of gamers recall seeing in-game ads. With such high recall rates of a target audience that is hard to reach, this could provide an interesting avenue for advertisers.

Unlike books and magazines, which have never really taken off in the digital world, hard news has been very well received. Reading a novel is an experience to be savored; reading the news is just the absorption of information.

Books will probably never die because the experience of settling down and reading one makes it worth it. But newspapers are merely a delivery format of information. What the iPad and other similar devices have done is create a whole new format which fits nicely with the modern generation. A generation that would rather gets its information digitally than in print.

Regardless of what the delivery format is however, newspaper publishers can’t escape the most critical issue: content. The reason many mainstream publishers are losing subscribers is because consumers are no longer interested in their content. By contrast, the “alternate media” is booming because they are providing what people want. At the end of the day the newspaper industry may change format, but survival depends on figuring out what readers want and giving it to them. iPad or otherwise.

However, such attempts have been largely pedestrian, with Google using techniques, models and aesthetics similar to their online advertising program, and Microsoft utilizing a more direct-marketing approach to connect businesses with customers through their proprietary mobile platform, “Toast.” The iAd is by far the most innovative mobile marketing strategy, and only time will tell if it pans out for Apple.

It operates using a hybrid of PPC and PPV payment options, and is designed to allow advertisers to seamlessly integrate their promotions with existing iPhone, iPod, or iPad apps. This creates an environment in which advertisements must operate fluidly within applications, making them more like interactive games. This is a far cry from the static calls-to-action that we are used to from advertisements. The more interactive and fun an ad is to engage with, the more effective it will be. iAd could be a game changer indeed, not only for mobile marketing but for marketing as a whole.

In order for iAd to work, however, it will have to get beyond allegations that it is anticompetitive, currently being reviewed by the FTC. Companies that also make mobile hardware and operating systems are barred from gathering information on which iAd promotions are most effective, which some argue severely limits many mobile tech companies. Despite this hiccup, the hype surrounding Apple’s iAd represents another step from static to interactive advertising, a marketing model far more suitable, some would argue, for mobile use.