Reloading bullets

Having returned from a short business trip in service of the day job, here's the backlog from my blogroll:

• We won't be the first hyper-local site in North Texas. That distinction goes to LocalNewsOnly. I was pointed there by good friend in PR/Marketing, who says that they're pretty widely read in NE Tarrant County.
• Contradictory forecasts about 2005 advertising: One (mostly) up; one (mostly) down.
• Vin Crosbie debunks the OPA survey showing content surpassing communication online.
• I'm hearing a lot of talk in the industry and from people I admire about traditional newspapers moving to readership as opposed to circulation for setting ad rates. Trade papers have been doing this for some time, and the common argument is that it's like broadcasters selling on reach. That all may be true, but I don't know that the marketplace is going to buy it as anything other than an attempt to get out from under the semi-watchful eye of ABC. I've been through ABC audits and readership studies, and for all its faults, ABC does provide something approximating a valid audit. There are too many ways to game a readership study. (I'll skip the pay-for-performance advertising model plug that you surely saw coming.) It's just trading one goofy model for another.
• And, while everyone else seems to be talking about BusinessWeek's article on blogs, what really gave me chills was the piece on marketers demanding online-level precision from their digital and analog advertising. Some of this sounds like it was stripped right out of our business plan (emphasis mine):

That's one reason companies are increasingly shifting their dollars from TV and print ads to the Net and direct marketing. They can get a swift and accurate measure of the impact of their efforts for a fraction of the cost of advertising in traditional media. DaimlerChrysler (DCX ), for example, is relying less on 30-second TV ads in favor of events where names, profiles, and addresses of prospects can be collected and tracked. It's also pushing direct marketing and online advertising where response rates are easily measured. "You better believe my money is chasing media and marketing outlets that can prove their return in hard data," says Jeff Bell, vice-president- Chrysler/Jeep marketing...

Indeed, the Holy Grail of measurement is to figure out the impact of traditional mass advertising, especially the 30-second TV commercial.

Can't help you with the TV spot, but how about your print campaign?