A series of short posts with the latest facts about our digital economy and lives. Use them for your presentations, blogs, homework or trivia nights.

• The average YouTube user spends 15 minutes a day on the website, compared with 5 hours that the average TV viewer spends in front of the box. Source: The Economist

• Over 8 million tablet computers are expected to be sold in 2010. Source: The Economist

• The iPhone App Store boasts 85,000 applications and a total of more than 2 billion downloads. Source: The Economist

• Fewer than 1% of LinkedIn’s 50 million members worldwide actually pay for the service, compared with around 10% of Viadeo’s and 18% of Xing’s.  Source: The Economist

• Apple accounts for 69% of online music sales – and 35% of all music sales (more than Wal-mart) – in America. Source: The Economist

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Internet advertising has overtaken press in USA

A PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) report issued yesterday in the USA claims that the internet is poised to overtake newspapers as the second largest U.S. advertising medium by revenue behind television.

This is a significant moment in advertising as traditional media have steadily been overtaken by the Internet in less than 20 years. How long until Internet advertising rolls past Television? And here in Australia, how long until the Internet becomes the number two advertising medium?

Here is the story in full from The Australian….

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Popularity: 8%

For decades governments of western nations have granted permission for media licenses but also regulated the general nature of media content, deciding what can and can’t be offered to the public.

The Internet has been the one form of media that seemed to escape regulation. The ease of content creation and distribution online has allowed the Internet to become the most lawless media, with our own common sense and decency being the main filters.

Clearly this unregulated and uncensored media has been a concern to governments around the world. Strict nations, such as Iran and China, with a history of cracking down on free speech have imposed strong filters to prevent their people from accessing material not deemed acceptable, but recently it seems that countries usually associated with free speech are now getting into the act.

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Popularity: 8%

Social media is like golf

Last night at the New Institute meeting in Newcastle we had a great discussion about the benefits of social media in various walks of life. During the Q&A session at the end of the night came some questions about how people conduct themselves online and the potential risks.

The discussion prompted me to compare social media to golf.

My father has been a passionate golfer most of his life and has begun many a business deal on the golf course. He has told me repeatedly that golf provides a great insight into a person’s character. On the golf-course a person’s manners, etiquette, honesty and temperament are quickly revealed. He says the way a potential business partner conducts himself in a round of golf gives him an idea of how they will conduct themselves in business, and whether he wants to do business with them.

The same can be said about social media. The way people conduct themselves online provides a great insight into the person.

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Popularity: 9%

A series of short posts with the latest facts about our digital economy and lives. Use them for your presentations, blogs, homework or trivia nights.

• Two-thirds of Chinese households with internet connections have bought an everyday item online in the past 6 months. Source: The Economist

• Five months after it was launched, users of Blippy – a Twitter-like service that broadcasts what people buy – share $1.5 million in transactions every week. Source: Washington Post

• The data management industry is estimated to be worth more than $100 billion and growing at almost 10% a year, roughly twice as fast as the software business as a whole. Source: The Economist

• Users share more than 25 billion pieces of information with Facebook each month. Source: Time

• Two-thirds of Chinese households with internet connections have bought an everyday item online in the past 6 months. Source: The Economist

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Breakfast announcer Brent Bultitude has resigned suddenly from Newcastle radio station 2HD. He has been Breakfast announcer on the Bill Caralis owned station since late 2009 when he replaced Luke Grant who was dismissed in controversial circumstances.

Bultitude has only been on air for one radio survey in the Breakfast slot, falling to 4th place behind ABC1233. Word is that he walked out last Thursday and said he wouldn’t be coming back.

Richard King is currently filling the Breakfast slot on 2HD. Ironically, King was also controversially dismissed just before Christmas in 2008.

Update: 3/6/10

Yesterday in the Newcastle Herald 2HD management denied that Brent Bultitude had resigned. Station manager Guy Ashford said “Bultitude was on leave to pursue business interests, as he had done in the past, and was welcome back when ready.” Does anyone believe this?

Update 4/6/10

Both Jocks Journal and RadioInfo have reported that Brent Bultitude has resigned, despite denials in the Newcastle Herald by Guy Ashford. Of course, given the history of announcers being dismissed and then returning to air when the station has no other alternatives, there is always a possibility Bultitude will be back at 2HD again.

Update 28/6/10

I have removed a series of comments from this post for legal reasons. This is not something I take lightly but some comments have made serious allegations about employees of 2HD and many of the responses have been equally sensitive. This website is intended to be a commentary on media and media management (and marketing), not a forum for personal battles. Everyone is welcome to comment on the topics here but once it gets personal and potentially slanderous I am compelled to moderate. I hope everyone understands and appreciates this.

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Are we heading towards total media convergence?

I was showing someone through the new Wired Magazine iPad application yesterday and while she was marveling at the animations, video, audio and general interactivity she made the comment, “Its not really a magazine anymore.”

And in a way she’s right. It seems that with increasing broadband speeds and new media delivery devices such as smart phones and tablet computers that host an array of apps, we are heading towards total media convergence.

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Popularity: 4%

A series of short posts with the latest facts about our digital economy and lives. Use them for your presentations, blogs, homework or trivia nights.

• 27.3 million tweets are recorded on Twitter per day (November, 2009). Source: Pingdom

• Nokia’s share of industry profits fell from 64% in 2007 to 32% in 2009. Source: The Economist

• Revenue for Mozilla, the maker of Firefox, topped $78 million in 2008 – against expenses of just under $50 million. Source: Slate

• The average Internet user in the US watches 182 online videos in a month. Source: Pingdom

• Around 5 million e-readers are expected to have been sold in 2009. Source: The Economist

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Up until now I have never really thought about LinkedIn as an inbound marketing tool. As a business owner, not someone considering a new career anytime soon, I have been a fairly passive member of LinkedIn. However after attending Social Media Club Sydney’s presentation last night I think I might have to take a fresh look at it as it may actually be a valuable inbound marketing tool for corporate marketers.

Michael Field, a Sydney-based marketing consultant, was second speaker for the night, outlining how LinkedIn is an amazing inbound marketing tool for his business and his biggest source of enquiries. Suddenly I was very interested in LinkedIn.

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Seven months after ABC’s Media Watch program claimed that Bill Caralis was “cynically dudding his regional listeners” for not meeting their local content obligations under the Broadcasting Services Act, the media watchdog ACMA has agreed after releasing the findings of its investigation of the network.

In a ACMA report into 2HC Coffs Harbour, 2EL Orange and 2PM Kempsey, they were found to have failed to meet the minimum three hours requirement.

2HC and 2PM were found to have broadcast approximately five minutes of local content respectively on September 8 – the sample business day ACMA used in its investigation – while 2EL broadcast approximately 46 minutes.

The Bill Caralis owned stations have been ordered to report periodically to the AMCA detailing how they are meeting their local content requirements and to implement training for employees so as to meet broadcast requirements.

Read the full ACMA release here

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