Stock Competition

My two stocks were Disney and Sirius XM.

I paid $51.5 per share and bought 194 shares of Disney.
I paid $2.64 per share and bought 3, 787 shares of Sirius XM.

Disney is now down to $49.31 per share, while Sirius is up to $2.80 a share.

Gain/Loss
Disney -$424.86
Sirius XM +$605.92

Total: $181.06

So Sirius was my best stock. Huh.

In 10 Years Time

When I am 34 I think we will have more advertising revenue coming in from the online segment, and paywalls will be a thing of the past. I think a larger percentage of news will be consumed on the web than today, with shorter stories. We will have more online ad companies to compete with Google ads. I also hope that computer systems are like Iron Man's.

Engaged to Engagement

I think if we are talking about internet audience measuring and engagement, one company to mention is Facebook.

Although Facebook's stock IPO has been unsatisfying, they have a great way of being able to monitor audience engagement. With 11 billion users and half visiting each day, it is interesting to compare those numbers to the 111 million people who watched this years Superbowl.

“Every day on Facebook, we have five Super Bowls, which means you can reach that many people,”-Sheryl Sandburg, Facebook's Operating Chief to CNBC.

The Super Bowl is known for having pricey ad slots because of the huge audience, but if we can now attract 5 times that amount EVERYDAY for cheaper slots, now that is evolution. 

That being said, audiences are evolving and now we know who to target for research--tablet users! IgnitionOne released research that showed people who used tablets spent 30% more time on a site and 20% higher engagement levels than PC users. 

(http://pymnts.com/news/businesswire-feed/2012/september/27/tablet-users-shown-to-be-most-engaged-and-valuable-for-online-advertisers-20120927005119/)

Mary's Stock Picks

So, I've decided to go with Disney and Sirius XM for the stock portfolio.

Disney

• Diluted earnings per share had a 31% increase from last year's third quarter earnings
• Increased in multiple segments including Media Networks, Parks and Resorts, Consumer Products and Interactive
• Also, Disney World is expanding, so right now the capital expenditures had an increase, but should have an increase if park capital due to the opening of Fantasyland. 

http://thewaltdisneycompany.com/sites/default/files/reports/q3-fy12-earnings.pdf
http://www.thestreet.com/story/11721879/1/walt-disney-co-stock-buy-recommendation-reiterated-dis.html

Sirius XM

• Strong earnings for the remainder of the year (good for our short term project)
• Unlike Pandora, Sirius XM does have its own content (Shows, etc)
• The PE Ratio is 4.8, good earnings growth

http://seekingalpha.com/article/896931-steady-growth-creates-buying-opportunity-for-sirius?source=yahoo

http://seekingalpha.com/article/897091-pandora-can-you-make-money-in-online-radio?source=yahoo

Agencies will dodge the "Googlanche"

I love a good fairytale. What Jeff Jarvis wrote was a fairytale, which would be titled "A World Without Advertising." Yes, I'm sure it would be all in good fun to not have any consequences to watching Youtube videos. If we took away the agency, and allow the client to advertise themselves, then we would be polluted with even more terrible advertising than we already have.  Pretty much all those terrible ads that make it were preceded by great creative works of art, that were cut by the client. I think that's the most frustrating/depressing thing about being a creative in advertising. School is great because you have that creative freedom. I see so many brilliant advertising, but most of it lies in the pages of Communication Arts or the ADDY'S.

Letting that creative freedom go to the customers? Eh, I don't think so. Yes, some really fun ads have been shown thanks to companies like Doritos, who hold a contest for consumers to create an ad, and have it aired during the Super Bowl. But of the thousands and thousands of entries, how many of those do you think are Super Bowl worthy? Not many. And I hate to tell Jarvis this, but a lot of people who enter that contest are advertising students! Companies love using advertising students, because their ideas are fresh, free, and they have not yet had to nurse their wounds inflicted on them by the client. Customers are the new ad agency, because they are budding advertisers. And when you think about it, customers have always been advertisers because of word of mouth.

Funny how Jarvis wanted to kick off agencies because of its lack of personalization, while predicting Google as the only advertiser of the future. I'd like to see a computer put together a great OOH (Out of Home) piece.

Wish list stalker

I have never read so much about financing in my life. I really don't have anything to respond to the readings by Picard, so I will talk about an article I just read.

Wanderful Media is a response to make sure advertisers don't leave newspapers all together. It brings the circular ads to the digital world. The website list its goal as:

"To help newspapers grab back some of the revenues that were lost as readership shifted from print to the Web. Smith says it is comparable to the way that big media companies teamed up to fund websites that digitized local classified ads that for cars and jobs."

Instead of ripping ads out of the sunday circular, readers will be able to make wish lists, which will connect to your phone and alert you when your close to the store with the special. Sounds to me kind of like Google Wallet's alert system. 

I talked in class about the risk of advertisers leaving newspapers because they can advertise cheaper and in an interactive fashion in different mediums. I think it is good for advertisers, but newspapers are not going to be able to charge them a ridiculous amount of money using a digital circular. 

We shall see. 
http://upstart.bizjournals.com/companies/media/2012/09/25/wanderful-media-reinvents-the-circular.html

Journalism not dead, in cardiac arrest

I hate to repeat myself, but I feel like the case study brought up a point from a week ago. Journalism is facing challenges because of the lack of innovation. Clinging to the past can not be a permanent solution. As a profession that is becoming obsolete because anyone can do it, journalist need to try to think creatively to save their profession.

What I didn't understand in Stepp's article was the NYT's cut out TV listings, and how he saw this as a bad thing. Now, I consider myself a pretty intelligent person, but I had no idea people still looked at that page. With things like DirectTV, your cable provider and the internet, one would think people wouldn't need TV listings in their newspaper. But when I think about it, everything in a newspaper could be found on the internet--and updated more often at that!

What's not dead is the story-telling gift of journalist. I agree with Stepp about putting more things in papers that actually make them unique and is exclusive to the paper. Bringing in more opinion pieces could increase reaction leading to interaction, especially if newspapers focused more on local happenings. Throw in some investigative reporting and we could really turn this industry around.

Is journalism dead? Well, that depends on how you define journalism. Is it a profession or merely an act? I think it is obvious that the old ways of journalism have died, and if journalist want to save their profession, then they need to take some initiative. If they have no faith in their industry, then so will no one else, including advertisers. Advertising makes up most of a newspaper's revenue, but who wants to advertise in a dying medium while they could advertise for cheaper and in color on a different medium like the internet.

Journalism isn't dead, just needs a shock to the chest.

Attributes of an eventer

One of the theories I found interesting was the Attribute Theory. It is true that it is the attributes of the products more than the products themselves. In the book they mentioned how Apple was the leader in computer sales, until Windows '95 came out, rivaling Apple's easy system. They were able to improve and offer newer attributes with their colorful '98 iMac. And let me tell you, that candy colored iMac is what changed me forever. My dad had always bought me HP laptops, but when I first saw the '98 iMac, I knew I had to have it. I had never seen a computer like it. For my birthday I received a green iMac and have never left the Apple brand. As a designer, the Apple operating system keeps on improving on their attributes, which is why I stick with their brand.

Two weekends ago I went to visit North Carolina, Virginia and Maryland. I participate in a sport called Eventing and have my goals set on competing in the Olympics one day, and flew north to find my next horse. While some people would say 'a horse is a horse' that is not true when you are looking for an athlete. There are so many attributes you have to look for when you are looking for an eventer. They need to be a good mover, brave, a nice and tidy jumper, they need to have speed and good confirmation. It is all these attributes that I have had to consider before purchasing. But to blend in with the ways of human nature, there is a natural feeling when you get on the horse meant for you. It doesn't matter to me if the horse has perfect confirmation, if I get on and I don't feel that connection, then I'll pass. It is in our nature as a rider to want that strong connection with a horse. Maybe our indian ancestors wanted that same connection with their horses. Maybe it's why our ancestors of war always wanted the strongest horses to be their partner in battle.

Here is an interesting read about some politically incorrect truths of human nature.

Innovation Dead in Journalism?

It's true. When you think about really cool things that are happening in the journalism world, your brain is not rushed with hundreds of ideas that make you say "wow, now that is something." Instead, to me personally, the word journalism is getting to be on par with 'bland.' I received my bachelor's degree in journalism, and had that same thought way back then.

The NYT article 'Innovation in Journalism Goes Begging for Support', shows a website called Homicide Watch DC, which tracked every murder in Washington. Meant to fill in the missing murder content which local papers like the Washington Post miss. It got all kinds of press, going from 500 page views per month to 300,000 views. Although its viewership increased, the site gained no kind of financial backers, and had to reach out to Kickstarter for donations.

So why the lack of innovation in journalsim? In this digital age, it seems imperative for journalist especially to be open to constantly evolving and changing. A group of foundations wrote an open letter to journalism schools. Kind of interested in how you feel about this letter since most of you are in the journalism program. View letter here.

Innovation in Journalism Goes Begging for Support

Human Behavior: The most complex science of all

"The social sciences are largely hokum."-Sheldon Cooper, The Big Bang Theory

Like the New York Time's article stated, social sciences tend to be looked down upon by scientist in more clear cut fields, like Physics or Biology. The latter fields follow the scientific method to see if a hypothesis is found true or rejected. As a member of the advertising field, we find ourselves using social sciences a lot because measuring the successfulness of a campaign can be difficult, especially with social marketing. The Truth anti-smoking campaign won a lot of awards, and the numbers show a decrease in the amount of teen smokers. However, at the same time the price of cigarettes increased by more than half. Was it the great campaigns that swayed smokers, or the cost in product? 

That being said, I do agree that social sciences are not really science, but observations that still have their purpose in research. Human behaviors are so complex, it could even be said that social sciences should be considered a more complex science than the "hard" sciences. 

Here's a good article by a psychology professor