TUESDAY'S LINKS: Online Ads That Follow You, Film Critics Losing Influence, Media Companies Losing Youth?

By: E&P Staff In today's links, a New York Times article examines how advertisers (including the Times itself) use online behavioral analysis to track and target users, and film critics are finding that their opinions are increasingly irrelevant to the media-saturated public.


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Advertisers Trace Paths Users Leave on Internet
New York Times: ?Search behavior is the closest thing we have to a window onto people?s intent,? said Jeff Marshall, a senior vice president of Starcom IP, an advertising agency. ?When people are gathering information to make a choice, that means they are often going to spend money.? Many Internet users have no idea that records of their actions are being collected and used. They might find out about these practices only if they read the fine print of Web site privacy policies. But AOL?s release of search data has already led some privacy advocates and legislators to call for new limits on how Web sites and advertisers keep and use information about online behavior.


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Critics' Voices Become a Whisper
Los Angeles Times: Old-school critics get little sympathy from their Internet brethren. Entertainment Weekly founder Jeff Jarvis, who writes the provocative BuzzMachine media blog, recently suggested that newspapers get rid of their critics, allowing their readers to share their opinions instead. "If I launched Entertainment Weekly today, I hope I'd have the sense not to propose starting a magazine by hiring a bunch of critics." It's no secret that critics have lost influence in recent years. A recent Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll found that among 18- to 24-year-olds, only 3% said reviews were the most important factor in their movie-going decision making. Older audiences still look to critics for guidance, especially with the smaller, more ambitious studio specialty films. But during the summer months, with studios wooing audiences with $40 million worth of marketing propaganda, critics appear especially overwhelmed, if not irrelevant.


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Arkansas Newspaper Publishes Despite Fire
The Pine Bluff Commercial: With their computers, files and printing press lost to a fire, newspaper staff worked from home or a temporary office in Marion; they worked past midnight on a day they usually have off; and although a bit late, The Evening Times was delivered Monday. "It's not real pretty but it's a paper," said editor Mike Bowie.


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Newspaper Carrier Helps Ailing Man
Bismark Tribune: Not getting his morning paper on time turned out to be the best thing that could have happened to Max Hildebrand on Monday. A Tribune employee who brought Hildebrand his paper later in the day than usual noticed the Bismarck man was slumped over in his vehicle, his legs hanging out into the street. Rachael Weigel, who redelivers papers to customers who didn't get theirs, called police after she approached Hildebrand's car and saw he wasn't breathing.


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Citizen Journalism Filling Local News Void
Jon Friedman on Marketwatch: Far from agonizing about The State of Journalism Today, Merrill Brown sees lots of opportunities for ordinary citizens to shake up local news. "This is a new opportunity for citizens to rethink local news because of the continuing deterioration of the print side of the business," said Brown, 54, the founder of the MMB Media consultants. Brown was recently named National Editorial Director of News for the 21st Century, a part of the Carnegie-Knight Initiative on the Future of Journalism Education.


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Media Companies Losing Youth?
Marketwatch: The digital natives are restless. British youth who have grown up with the internet aren't happy with traditional media. They are cutting their use of television and radio and spending more time online visiting social networking sites like MySpace and blogs. When they do watch TV or listen to radio, they split their viewing among numerous digital stations. And they increasingly skip ads entirely through the use of digital video recorders. The data also show that the elders are joining in the rebellion, albeit at a slower pace. So how are media groups -- and financial groups -- planning to pacify the natives?