CIQ Headlines for May 15, 2007

CIQ Headlines

DJ Value Is in Online Potential—(Bloomberg) The price Murdoch is offering for Dow Jones surpasses even Google’s valuation as a relative measure of projected earnings. According to this article, making the deal highly likely to go through. It’s a simple equation of content and distribution channel. “Content is king sounds logical, but if you can’t distribute it, it’s worthless. The Wall Street Journal has the ability to produce content, but they don’t have anywhere near the global distribution that Rupert Murdoch has.”  CIQ: We have only one quibble. Content is actually queen.

Holding Companies Buy into Digital—(Ad Age) Some of the big advertising holding companies are aggressively buying up digital assets (Publicis’ acquisition of Digitas for $1.3 billion) and others are like WPP are “meaningful but not significant.” But with Google aggressively moving into advertising, the laggards may have to catch up quickly. CIQ: We feel that traditional agencies like traditional print companies really struggle to understand and master the online medium.

Web 2.0 Efforts Compromise Good Design—(BBC News) Usability Guru Jakob Nielsen says in the rush to capitalize on Web 2.0 buzz, marketers are making “glossy but useless” sites dotted with personalization tools but ignoring best practices on the web. CIQ: We agree. It seems like a perennial problem on the web. Marketers want to cash in on the latest hype and agencies dutifully serve it up to them.