LinkedIn and NY Times distro alliance

I like this - makes sense and gives Linked In a good way to generate distribution but in a relevant, valuable way.

A deal like this locally could be done with a Crikey/Business Spectator - or a Plugger - or even Fairfax. Makes total sense

Techcrunch post - http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/07/21/nytimes-to-customize-headlines-for-linkedin-users/

Could work for a Last FM with Music content too.

More performance mumbles from the AU players

According to this article Fairfax Digital have approached some of the other large players about setting up a remnant inventory pool between these players (FD, News, ninemsn, Yahoo!) to try and defend their turf against other remnant inventory sellers such as Max and DGM.

Jack Matthews has a tough dilemma - having his cake and eating it too.

Taken from http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23307005-7582,00.html ""Performance is a big strategic challenge for us," Mr Matthews said. "We are looking at whether we will be running a performance network ourselves. One of our concerns is that we do want to make sure we maintain our premium inventory." "

Matthews has claimed the talks are more about the large players coming together to try and spruke the values of premium inventory. To be honest, this seems more sensible.

With the Internet truly global and users having access to millions of sites - not to mention Google playing a huge role in what sites get traffic given the importance of search, you really have to wonder what a network like this would achieve despite diluting the value these networks have tried to protect and actively promote in the past 18 months. There is more reach to be had via the countless networks that sell blind buys across the Internet.

I often wonder whether performance can ever be something that increases yield over time given it's remnant, unsold, generally untargeted and most importantly completely irrelevant to the page content. Don't get me wrong, 'performance' has its place but is it going to offer sustainable growth and long term advantage for publishers? Are there more short term dollars in moving publishers Google AdSense ads closer to the fold? At least these have a connection to page content.

The hysteria around performance is definitely interesting in 08. Is MARKET/client need driving it or PUBLISHER revenue want at any mid to long term cost ... is it the publishers scrambling for revenue as the online display growth starts to slow and search makes more inroads into the big dollar agency clients? This performance approach seems very immediate term - and in terms of the users you have to wonder whether over time there will be pressure to place more ads on pages ... to push more revenue per PI ... and whether users will desert and move to cleaner pastures ... just like they did with search 7-8 years ago when millions embraced Google.

Is Performance making a comeback?

It appeared in 07 many of the larger publishers were moving away from performance deals - ie pay per click/action.

From 04-06 these sorts of arrangements were popular amongst agencies and clients - especially in traditional DM/response categories such as finance.

However last year the main publishers seemed to move away from them - focusing more on higher yield CPM placements and looking to monetise their networks in a smarter fashion.

It appears in 08 there is a big emphasis on performance again. News Digital have released a self-optimising performance product, as have Platform Nine. Drive PM are in aggressively in market, as are AdConion, with packages available across networks and rumour has it Fairfax has a product in development as well. On top of this you have the smaller guys - 3Di, DGM, Max, Response Directive etc all pushing cpc/cpa activity.

You have to wonder why the tables have turned so quickly - why publishers who last year were all about talking up the high value of their users and the primative nature of performance have now changed their tune. Could it have anything to do with the overall market for display growing at a rate lower than many anticipated/forecast and performance being looked to as the revenue saviour? Whatever it is, I think the big player performance push will work against them in the medium to long term as it will decrease the worth of their networks. Nothing does a better job of ruining your $80CPM premium area than some irrelavant, untargeted finance clutter.

Interestingly enough - the only network not looking to push performance heavily appears to be ninemsn - who were pioneers in the area.

Fairfax and News cosy up in the digital auto space

Fairfax will sell News Limited's Carsguide dealer listings moving forward.

http://www.newsdigitalmedia.com.au/inc/docs/mediareleases/carsguide%20distribution%20deal%2029-1-08.pdf

This doesn't really mean anything for anyone who isn't a car dealer, but is very interesting as it sees two traditional rivals join forces in what is an incredibly competitive space (that both are being flogged in by carsales).

The spin is that this will offer an enhanced service for Carsguide's users ... but you have to wonder why News would hand over dealer sales to Fairfax unless it solved a deeper problem.