Digital publishing news for July 16, 2013
All this hype about native ads gave us a chuckle in yesterday’s weekly Mequoda editorial meeting.
In case everybody’s forgotten, native ads aren’t new, a fad, or even advertising’s hottest thing. Remember advertorials? Magazines have been selling and publishing them for decades! Digiday’s interpretation of the native ad trend made me laugh, saying the name switch is like “putting lipstick on the advertorial pig.” Some would disagree because the ads are supposed to replace traditional online advertising (banner ads, etc.), but Ad Week editor Mike Shields tweeted early on, saying “we’ve had ‘sponsored sections’ since 90s. Ditching banners is what’s revolutionary.”
In any case, with new names comes new attention. Ad Week reports:”As far back as 1967, the FTC has given notice to ads that have resembled editorial content, and over the years it has tried to keep apace with the new digital offerings. It has updated endorsement and online ad guidelines (called dot-com disclosures) to take into account new digital platforms and formats.”
Specifically, the guidelines say, “Regardless of context, consumers should be able to tell what’s an advertising pitch, whether it’s an advertorial, an infomercial, word-of-mouth marketing or native advertising.”
Personally, I’d love to see how the FTC expects word-of-mouth marketing labeled as such. Since, y’know, it’s word of mouth. Cue the robot voice.
Yahoo deleted a bunch of emails from your list
If you have a savvy and helpful email provider like we do, you probably got an email announcement recently letting you know that it’s probably a good idea to purge any inactive Yahoo accounts from your list.
According to WhatCounts, effective yesterday the 15th, “Yahoo! will be deactivating all email accounts which have not logged in within the past 12 months. These deactivated addresses will hard bounce, and these bounces will negatively impact sender reputations.”
WhatCounts recommends removing “all Yahoo! addresses which have been in your database for at least one year, and which have also not engaged with your email – meaning an open and / or a click – within the past 12 months. Failure to do so may result in a significant negative impact upon your email marketing program.”
We cleaned up our lists and those of our clients yesterday. Have you?
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Advertisers want to track the untracked
The Interactive Advertising Bureau has given the Worldwide Web Consortium a proposal to review, having to do with the “Do Not Track” standards that allow people to privatize their information on the web.
According to Ad Week, “The proposal would alter the way analytics firms, marketers and others that track web surfers would have to react when they encounter a Do Not Track signal, letting them continue collecting and using behavioral data. In exchange, the industry would agree to strip that data of certain information it may keep otherwise. If a user with Do Not Track enabled visits Cars.com, for example, the proposal would let third parties peg him as interested in cars but not as a visitor to that particular site. Stricter Do Not Track standards being considered would let Cars.com tag visitors to its own site but prevent third parties from dropping cookies on those visitors.”
PCWorld ceases to print
PCWorld is the newest addition to the digital-only publishing world. After 30 years of printing, their current August issue will be their last on paper. According to Folio, “There are 339,000 print subscribers, per the title’s AAM audit report, and if they want it, they’ll need to register online to receive the digital version of the title.”
