To: baltsun@clark.net
Cc: online-news@marketplace.com
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On Wed, 28 Sep 1994 jvncnet!clark.net!baltsun@dowv wrote:

> >> > why this new medium will attract and use advertising.
 
> I'm not sure how we got from subject:virtual library to electronic
> advertising, but I think a historical note is in order here.
 
> When TV started in the 1940s, the conventional wisdom in news stories
> written by our predecessors was that TV was a cute technology but there was
> no way anyone could make a business out of it. And advertisers were not
> interested at all and wouldn't be. 

More appropriate would be the analogy of radio.  Radio started out as a
group of amateurs, chattering back and forth.  They sent morse code to
each other and just exchanged views.  When voice transmission evolved, the
conversations got more dense.  Soon radio operators were becoming a
reliable source of local news.  Eventually, the need for regulation and
band restrictions reserved areas for broadcasters, and areas for
dialogues.  Even the CB radio evolved into the ultimate "local news"
telling motorists the location of Speed Traps.  Talk radio became the
franchise for mass distribution of topical opinion.
 
> So what happened to change things?
> Let's look at local TV. It was originally a lot like C-SPAN is today. One
> camera sat and taped a City Council meeting.
Radio was even more boring.  Sometimes the broadcast was more like
dialogue about aunt mae's episode with the laundry.  A good story teller
might get into a fun dialogue for a whole hour.  Radio comedians had to
develop their skill in keeping people's attention without the use of
visuals.  You could imagine Fibber McGee's closet, but you couldn't see it.

 
> I believe we're in that first stage now with online news, interactive
> media, multimedia -- all of it. It doesn't really exist yet for
> advertisers. But it will.
We're actually in the second stage.  The "radio dialogues" of the usenet
news groups have begun to evolve into a whole series of commercial
services.  At the same time, new services (Mosaic was originally intended
as a "Personals" service, people kept uploading/downloading GIFs of each
other and anonymous ftp was "risky").

One of the important factors in commercialization is to watch the
"seedier" element.  Speeders created the market for the CB radio,
pornography created and established the market for the VCR, and the
"Personals" seems to be defining the market for the internet.
 
> I've found with all of this stuff, whether it's advertisers or reporters,
> describing it makes their eyes glaze over. Seeing makes all the difference.
> As more people see and use this new thing, advertisers will too, and

What may show up is a whole new breed of advertizing and advertiser.  Ad
"agencies" are already springing up to put people and companies "on the
web" complete with layout, prep, and server disk space.  Just send your
html address on your signature line.  They will be soon be calling
information providers offering to buy reference lines in carefully
targetted documents.

> they'll be more receptive. When The Sun produced Dining On Disk, I wanted
> at least one ad on it to show the full potential of this new thing we're
> all creating. The advertising staff, which has worked with me before, was
> willing but a little wary. Once they saw the prototype, they got very
> excited about it and started coming up with all kinds of ideas on their
> own, which we unfortunately didn't have time to do this time. I think we'll
> see a similar pattern in the online etc. industry.

The advertizing structure may be a bit different than the classical mass
media blitz of broadcast and print media.  Web advertizing can be added
with a simple html reference line.  Getting the right ad to the right
party may be the most challenging part of the production.  On the other
hand, while you may not get a great $/1000, you will get highly qualified
parties who may be prepared to move from ad to order within 3 to 5
viewings, simply because they see a similar interest.

> Sheila Dresser

	Rex Ballard
	(personal posting)




From jvncnet!marketplace.com!owner-online-news Mon Oct 10 13:28:38 1994