<b>American Demographics sold to Crain:</b> <a href=”http://www.paidcontent.org/pc/arch/2004_11_15.shtml#011366″>Rafat Ali is reporting</a> that American Demographics has been sold to Crain and will merge with <a href=”http://www.adage.com”>Advertising Age</a>. Of course, this is the same American Demographics that Primedia said it was <i>not</i> selling a few months back. If I was at the other place I’m supposed to be, rather than at <i>this</i> place I’m supposed to be, I could ask the parties involved for details. On Friday, Folio: (who should know) was reporting <a href=”http://www.foliomag.com/This_Issue.this_issue+M54724202f6e.0.html”>this</a> about AD.

Blog search aid: Tara Calishain (ResearchBuzz) notes that Feedster now has an interface at http://blogs.feedster.com/ that restricts your search to just Weblogs.

Power of print? I guess it’s only appropriate, since I blogged my confusion of an old medium trying to replicate itself in a new medium, that I point to this story in USA Today about eBay sending out a few million catalogs.

Quote:

“This is a next major step for us,” says Michael Dearing, eBay’s general merchandising manager. If the catalog catches on with customers, eBay will consider publishing catalogs throughout the year, he says. Catalogs are being sent to eBay customers who are representative of its 125 million users, Dearing says. The magazine-size catalog lists more than 100 products in 10 categories, including jewelry and watches, computers and electronics, toys and hard-to-find gifts such as autographed copies of former president Bill Clinton’s book, My Life. Items are listed with photos and an average selling price. Shoppers are directed to a Web site, http://www.ebay.com/catalog, to make purchases. The catalog is part of a multipronged marketing strategy by eBay. Like more-traditional retailers, it is offering a catalog to augment its Web site.

I could argue that eBay is not trying to replicate itself in print, rather is promoting itself in a new way, and therefore is not like the “digital version” strategy. But frankly, I don’t have the time now.

Nashville blogvention? Okay, the idea which Robert Cox first originated in April, that Nashville would make a good location for a gathering of bloggers, is being suggested again by Bill Hobbs. I think it’s a dandy idea that I’ll be happy to support if the A-List blogger in our state will lend his support and endorsement.

Convinced yet? I’ve been on record for quite a while (and here) as being cynical skeptical about the prospects of an approach that tries to replicate an old medium in a new medium (Mcluhan-alert). Therefore, it is with a grain of salt I take the “research” reported today by MediaPost.

Quote:

Digital print media distributor NewsStand Inc. is seeing its user base evolve from early adopters to more mainstream readers, according to the results of an updated study conducted by Nielsen-NetRatings. NewsStand is one of a handful of companies that offer digital versions of magazine and newspaper print editions, which are downloaded by readers to be viewed on their personal computers. Readers flip through “pages” of these titles in a similar fashion to reading their print counterparts.

I completely understand the desire on the part of publishers to be able to have the ads that appear in their “digital version” be credited in the same way they are in the print version. My dubious response to digital versions has more to do with my being a reader than as a publisher. I’ve tried for three years (I’ve even had executives of these companies call me with long explanations after my previous blog posts) but I still just don’t get it.