Sony, Yahoo! in Marketing Deal (internet.com, July 31st)
Yahoo! has finally secured a large, multi-year deal with a traditional media to support cross-media marketing plays - and has done so while maintaining its cherished independence. Under the terms of the deal, Sony will promote Yahoo's online services through preferential placement on their electronic devices and ISP service, while Yahoo will leverage its incredible reach to promote Sony's products, while facilitating possible cross-media deals in the future.

Yahoo! Store to Support Commission Junction (internet.com, July 31st)
Inking a mutually-beneficial deal, Yahoo and CJ have teamed up to provide the several thousand Yahoo! Store owners with access to CJ's affiliate marketing services in an attempt to both increase the store operators' market reach, while granting them the ability to harness the benefits of an additional revenue stream.

Paid Search Engines Endure Advertising Slowdown (CyberAtlas, July 30th)
The ad slowdown has been brutal in its reach throughout a range of online markets, but one type of property has thus far been relatively unscathed are the paid-for-placement search engines, whose success is due to their effectiveness in serving the needs of both advertisers and consumers, while offering direct marketers predictive ROIs.

Alloy Gets to Dance With CosmoGIRL (internet.com, July 30th)
Teen-oriented direct marketer Alloy Online has attracted the account of CosmoGIRL magazine. It will act to maintain, market and sell advertising for CosmoGIRL's online properties.

Yahoo Testing Pop-up Advertising (CNET News.com, July 30th)
The NY Times and LA Times have done it. ESPN, AltaVista, MSNBC and Weather.com have done it. Now Yahoo!'s getting in on the act. That is, the web's leading independent portal is cautiously testing popunder advertising on their news and travel sites in order to gauge their effectiveness in boosting revenues, without turning visitors away.

New web Advertising Tool Gets Results, Draws Criticism (SF Gate, July 30th)
Though Microsoft wisely backed down on the proposed inclusion of its 'SmartTags' technology within IE6, which would have transformed keywords on third-party sites into hyperlinks pointing to advertisers' sites - for which Microsoft, not the publisher, would be compensated - a number of similar technologies have found their way into mainstream use by piggybacking on popular downloads, such as the KaZaa file trading software. While apparently effective, such a system is treading in dangerously murky legal territory insofar as intellectual property (and possibly even vandalism) is concerned.

WAA Adopts Standards for WAP, SMS and PDA Ads (MediaPost, July 30th)
After proposing the development of a series of voluntary standards to guide the emerging wireless advertising market last month, the Wireless Advertising Association today confirmed that the guidelines had been approved as industry standards after gaining unanimous approval from the group's members.

Search Engines Shift, Taking Money for Placement (eMarketer, July 30th)
In times of economic tightening, logic dictates that marketers will increase their focus on direct-marketing exploits that present predictable ROIs. As such, while branding-oriented banner and sponsorship ad buys are on the decline, revenue derived from paid search engine placement continues to build, as do the proportion of inventory search engines and portals are willing to devote to commercially-drivem listings.

Universal Using Animated Games to Market American Pie II (internet.com, July 27th)
Aiming to appeal to a young, net-savvy crowd, Universal has called on Mondo Media to produce a series of comical shorts and online games based on the upcoming teen release.

Real Media Founder Debuts Audience Measurement Firm (internet.com, July 27th)
The announcement earlier this year that the CEO and Chairman of online ad rep Real Media was jumping ship to lead an advertising technology startup came as a surprise to many, given the overlap between this firm's goals and those of his previous station. Well, this week Dave Morgan pulled the curtain aside to give advertisers and publishers a look at the 'audience management' (read: profiling) system that his startup, True Audience, has created. Whether or not the product gains ground will depend on its fundamental strenths and value proposition - since the market is already flooded by similar systems (the viability of some of which are to be challenged by class action suits early next year).

Ad Slowdown Continues (NY Times, July 27th)
Pessimism is certainly the flavor of the season in the greater advertising market, and while I don't like to propagate negativity, it's worth noting that many analysts and industry figures who had originally projected a recovery for Q4 2001 are now suggesting that ad spending may remain relatively flat well into 2002, or even 2003, when a gradual recovery is expected to commence. For more on lower spending as it affects cable and network television, read this additional NY Times article.

Microsoft's MSN Lowers Euro Ad Forecasts (eMarketer, July 27th)
Despite the slower ad market, and announcement's that Microsoft MSN Europe's earlier break-even projections have become unfeasible within the present environment, the unit's revenues grew close to 250% during the financial year ending June 30th, 2001. Growth is expected to slow, though remain strong in comparison to competing media, during the next 12 months.

Solving the Internet Giveaway Riddle (E-Commerce Times, July 27th)
Even within a slowing market, CBS-backed iWon has seen its revenues grow at least to the point at which it can viably afford to keep offering multi-million dollar cash prizes to its users. The reasons for this are a combination of the ability to sell inventory as part of a cross-media package, plus the valuable database of consumer information ammassed through the membership forms filled out in relation to the sweepstakes-based incentives.

Interep Snaps Up Winstar Interactive Media (internet.com, July 26th)
Saving the respected elite online ad representation firm from demise, the new media division of radio representation firm Interep will acquire Winstar Interactive from its embattled parent company. This move comes on the heels of Interep making significant investments in Cybereps, Perfect Circle Media and Burst!Media, suggesting that the firm is building itself into one of the few players ready to challenge DoubleClick's leadership in the online space.

You Gotta Believe (eMarketer, July 26th)
eMarketer's Jonathan Jackson questions the validity of the assumptions made by DoubleClick, IAB and others who revealed data a few days ago suggesting that 'bigger is better' in web advertising. Mr Jackson, while not doubting the impressive figures presented within these studies, notes that they fail to take into account consumer disdain at being forced to view traditional-media-style ads in the increasingly purpose-drive web. Read more from Internet.com as to how popup ads can backfire.

QWest, AOL Trade Ads for DSL Access (internet.com, July 26th)
2001 has been barter year for AOL. The giant has consistently leveraged excess ad inventory across its many media channels into obtaining hardware, infrastructure and other tangible assets without initial cash outlay. That's not a bad tradeoff within a market where ad space is hard to sell.

GoTo.com Breaks Even Before Charges (internet.com, July 25th)
Pay-for-placement firm FindWhat announced just over a week ago that it had posted a profitable quarter. Now, the market-leading pioneer iun the space has also released impressive figures, becoming one of the first major pure-play internet companies to reach break-even on a before-charges basis.

Why Audience Reach Means Very Little (australia.internet.com, July 25th)
Audience reach within regional nations such as Australia is amongst the highest in the developed world, with upwards of 50% internet penetration. Nevertheless, where hours of usage are down, and where effective advertising metrics have not been developed, advertisers have proven themselves unwilling to embrace the medium.

How to Reach the Six Different Types of Web Surfers (MarketingSherpa, July 25th)
Focusing on the context of rich-media online advertising, this article differentiates between six central groups of web users, with their differences based on how they interact with the medium, in order to highlight how best to reach each type - without upsetting the others.

iTV - This Time, Let's Get it Right (TurboAds, July 25th)
Rather than placing an excessive focus on hype and unrealistic expectations, proponents of iTV should take note of the dotcom fallout, and the associated self-reflection regarding metrics, broken promises and overly-optimistic projections, in order to avoid making the same mistakes, suggests Rebecah Lieb.

Potential Pitfalls for Do-it-Yourselfers (ClickZ, July 24th)
The email marketing environment can be dangerous territory for the newcomer, or the careless, and if not handled well in terms of both technology and ethics, could land a marketer in deep water. This article highlights some of the pitfalls that are most likely to tarnish one's reputation, while suggesting how best to handle the intricacies of this personal medium.

Can Everyone Win with CPAs? (NewMedia, July 24th)
Cost-per-action, also known as cost-per-acquisition, pricing models have long been a favorite of marketers due to the high level of security and measurability associated with the form, in which the advertiser pays only for tangible sales or leads generated. Publishers, on the other hand, have been resistant to embrace a payment model that puts the onus on the marketer to convert, lest the publisher be left with little reward for hosting a campaign. This article looks at the concerns of both parties, while suggesting some mutual objectives that could be pursued in order to make a CPA exchange beneficial to both the advertiser and publisher.

Universal, AOL Expand Promotional Deal (internet.com, July 24th)
In yet another high-profile partnership with a traditional media firm, AOL TW has beefed up its marketing alliance with Vivendi Universal, which will see Universal's movies promoted extensively throughout AOL's online and on-air properties.

Are Wireless Ad Standards Really Necessary? (M-Commerce Times, July 24th)
In an attempt to avoid the pitfalls that plagued the early adoption of web-based advertising, the Wireless Advertising Association has worked with industry players to establish a set of voluntary standards to govern the wireless ad sector. The value of these standards have come under question, though, by those who see them as excessively limiting.

Asia, UK Internet Ad Revenues to Rebound After 2001 Decline (internet.com, July 23rd)
Several studies are noting that while the US domestic market for online advertising is expected to remain stagnant for another year, the UK and Asian-Pacific markets are set to begin their slow growth in Q4 of this calendar year after setting the educational wheels in motion so as to attract a greater proportion of traditional direct and brand marketers to the interactive media.

The Inside Story of BMW's Cyber-Cinema Ads (AdvertisingAge, July 23rd)
BMW's sensational blend of advertising and entertainment in a series of star-studded short films shown exclusively online has been successful in building brand and creating buzz. This article describes what occurred behind-the-scenes in the planning, development and implementation of the campaign.

Why Aren't Your Emails Getting More Action? (ClickZ, July 23rd)
Bryan Eisenberg outlines some valuable tips aimed at helping to improve the conversion ratios seen through one's email marketing campaigns.

Sears Taps Gemstar for iTV Ads (internet.com, July 23rd)
In what is one of the first major advertising deals made within the pioneering realm of interactive television, consumer brand Sears has pursued a deal that will see its brand touted to users of Gemstar's interactive programming guide.

Making the Connection (ChannelSeven, July 23rd)
Joseph Jaffe highlights here one of the central indicators that growth in online ad spending is a given - that being the disparity between online media exposure (which accounts for about 10-12% of consumers' total media consumption) and online media spending (said to be 2-3% of total marketing expenditure). He also notes suggests that taking the strengths of the past (subscription models) and melding these with technological innovation (takeovers, streaming media, interstitials) is key to maximizing the value of one's online audience.

Pop-Up Web Ads Pose a Measurement Puzzle (NY Times, July 23rd)
Controversy continued to rage regarding the intrusive popunder advertising form, which loads a full webpage behind the active window. This particular part of the debate questions whether or not visitors attracted by popped visits should be included within the advertiser's traffic measurement ranking.

Studies Suggest Web Informs Offline Purchases (internet.com, July 20th)
Two seperate studies performed by NPD Group and Jupiter Media Metrix have confirmed that many consumers seek product information online before making offline purchases.

AdForce Pulls the Plug (internet.com, July 20th)
After failing to attract a last-minute suitor, former CMGI-owned online ad technology provider AdForce ceased operations on Friday. Fortunately for clients of 24/7 Media Europe, the company was able to successfully transition all publishers over to 24/7's Connect ad serving platform prior to the untimely shutdown.

X10: What Counts, Though You Might Not Like It (ClickZ, July 20th)
ClickZ' newest affiliate marketing expert breaks down the controversial X10 popunder campaign to its raw numbers in order to look at how, and why, the campaign has been both a branding and direct marketing success for the firm.

The Biggest Problem in Online Marketing (E-Commerce Guide, July 20th)
Having conducted a survey of marketing executives, Alexis Gutzman presents what are considered to be the biggest hurdles keeping online marketing from reaching its maximum potential.

What Pops Up Must Come Down (Wired News, July 20th)
The creators of ad blocker programs that are the bane of advertising-supported websites have reported that X10's popunder campaign has dramatically boosted the popularity of their products - products that now ship with modems. They say that you should keep your friends close - and your enemies closer - so read about what these vampiric opportunists are up to, and plan accordingly.

Survey: Internet, Wireless Ads Meeting Positive Consumer Reaction (internet.com, July 19th)
Results of a study conducted in Europe by Datamonitor have revealed that despite the doom-and-gloom surrounding the industry, and regardless of the negative connotations associated with aggressive campaigns such as the X10 popunder blitz, a majority of net users have responded positively and directly to online ads. The breadth of the study included a variety of media, seeing web advertising beating out mainstays such as radio, direct mail and outdoor advertising, and falling on-par with magazine placement.

A Flash in the Pan, or Sophisticated Flambé (ClickZ, July 19th)
Tom Hespos here ponders the success of the Jack Daniel's branding campaign run on Playboy.com (which consisted of a Hef-endorsed Flash introduction with no associated direct-marketing elements) in building positive association in the minds of Playboy.com's sophisticated male audience. He suggests that an online branding study revealing the extent to which the campaign increased the brand's value is key to seeing an increase in similar campaigns to boost the flagging online ad economy.

E-Cards as Branding Vehicles (MediaPost, July 19th)
Just as the 'Advergaming' concept is beginning to take advantage of both the interactive and viral qualities of the net, online greeting provider SharedGreetings has begun offering branded cards to companies such as Nestle that encourage users to spread subtle branding messages themselves, by attaching them to compelling pieces of entertainment.

Study: Companies Missing Out on Viral Marketing Benefits (internet.com, July 19th)
Consumer loyalty and word-of-mouth (or mouse) promotion have always been highly valued in theory, but a recent study performed by Jupiter Media Metrix has found that although 45 percent of consumers chose to visit certain ecommerce sites based on word-of-mouth recommendations, only 7 percent of such firms have made efforts to track email pass-along rates - ignoring a quantifiable measure of viral promotion.

Are Clicks Through? (eMarketer, July 19th)
With MarketWatch removing CTRs from its reports to clients, and the IAB holding the stance that it's time that online advertising went back-to-basics and measured the success of a campaign with similar metrics employed in traditional media, the value of the direct-response aspect of a banner ad - the 'click' - is being downplayed.

Ad Falloff Bites Into NYTD Revenue (internet.com, July 19th)
Major web publisher New York Times Digital has reported a dramatic decrease in second quarter revenues in comparison to those received during the same period a year previous. The 12 percent reduction in pocket change has been credited to the lagging online ad market.

LifeMinders Finds Buyer (internet.com, July 19th)
Just months after announcing that it had begun actively seeking a buyer, in response to an admission that the company may never turn a profit alone, direct email marketer LifeMinders has found a saviour in acquisition-hungry Cross Media Marketing. The deal, valued at $68.1 million will see shares change hands at $2.43 a piece (a 72 percent premium over Wednesday's close), and will provide Cross Media with control of LifeMinders' remaining $50 million in cash reserves.

CoolSavings, ePrize Link Up (internet.com, July 19th)
Desperately attempting to plug its cash burn and increase its attractiveness to traditional advertisers, emarketer CoolSavings has hooked up with ePrize in a partnership that will provide both firms with a substantially increased share of the largely successful online sweepstakes/direct marketing market.

Online Advertising Leaders Release Groundbreaking Brand Research Findings (NET-ADS, July 18th)
Four individual studies carried out by the Interactive Advertising Bureau, DoubleClick, MSN and CNET Networks have painted a promising image of the effectiveness of banners, Interactive Marketing Units (IMUs) and interstitials in conveying and reinforcing brand messages.

New Line Wants to be Lord of the Rings (CNET News.com, July 18th)
Following in the footsteps of Universal and Warner Brothers, who have launched massive interactive marketing campaigns this year to push their blockbusters to the wired audience, New Line is set to unveil an immersive role-playing experience to take place over the mobile internet, with the goal of promoting its upcoming release of the Lord of the Rings movie.

Web Influences Offline Purchases, Especially Among Teens (CyberAtlas, July 18th)
A recent branding/comsumer behaviour study carried out by the NPD Group that revealed to what extent exposure to marketers' messages online (whether through email, banners, mini-sites or corporate catalogs) directly affects offline purchasing behaviour. Most notably, the study revealed that although the teenage demographic accounts fow few purchases made online, due to the inaccessibility of credit cards within that group, 29 percent of teenaged web users research goods online before making offline purchases.

I-Marketing Interview: Compaq Computer (E-Commerce Times, July 18th)
Interesting, amidst all the talk from publishers about the insignificance of the CTR as a measure of a campaign's success, even advertisers have grown to believe this to be the case. This interview gives an interesting insight into Compaq's media buying behaviour, and which on which real-world metrics they rely in defining whether or not a campaign has succeeded.

AOL Time Warner Feels Little Pain From Ad Sector Woes (internet.com, July 18th)
Seeing its online ad revenues slipping just two percent this quarter, the media behemoth has called its cross-media selling efforts a success. The company has also touted its ability and willingness to incorporate branding messages within content as key to its continued strength in making online sales.

AOL, Samsung Strike Technology, Marketing Deal (internet.com, July 17th)
Along the lines of the deal struck between AOL and HP last month that saw the media giant trade advertising favors for expensive server hardware, AOL has again leveraged its excess advertising inventory as barter currency in a deal that will see Samsung manufacture AOL TW's new interactive TV units.

DoubleClick Launches Ad Campaign (internet.com, July 16th)
On the heels of a desperate ad campaign launched by competitor 24/7 Media, market-leading interactive advertising firm DoubleClick has planned a large trade-oriented campaign that will promote the company's product and service offerings to an audience who may be aware of only one or two aspects of the company's range.

Seattle Company Takes Online Selling to Next Level (Seattle P-I, July 14th)
A VC-funded startup is placing its bets on the streaming media market, by producing 60-second infomercials and video-based banner creatives that have, according to the company's internal tests, reportdly produced post-click conversion ratios far in advance of what traditional banner ads generally deliver.

Study: Clicks Less Effective Than Views (internet.com, July 13th)
Though questionable as a result of its source having a vested interest in this discovery, CPM-focused online ad rep Engage has found that users who click on an ad are less valuable to a marketer than those who convert after having merely seen the same ad message.

Universal Taps Rich Media for Jurassic Park III (internet.com, July 13th)
In yet another aggressive advertising push made by the event-marketing experts, Hollywood, Universal Pictures is incorporating wireless, advergaming and 'takeover' channels to promote the latest instalment in the studio's blockbuster dinosaur series.

Name That Show (ClickZ, July 13th)
Tag Tillinghast looks at the differences between media buying patterns on traditional media, with particular attention paid to TV, and digital media. He finds that in this largely experimental, and depressed, period, the late-night-TV buyers are making the biggest impact in online advertising, while the big brand players are quizically avoiding the cheap buys presently available.

AdForce Near Asset Sale, Complete Shutdown (internet.com, July 13th)
Doubt has been placed on a deal that was proposed as the saviour of ad technology company AdForce, which CMGI dumped last month. If the deal does not go through, AdForce's servers could be shut down as soon as in one week, which is when the company's operating cash is expected to expire. This does not bode well for the likes of 24/7 Media and Ad Pepper, whose client transitions to replacement systems are still weeks away from completion.

Levi's Internet Film Panders Pants (internet.com, July 13th)
Following in the footsteps of the pioneering, and successful, multimedia campaign launched by BMW earlier this year that featured the car in a series of short films created by star movie makers, part of Levi's "Lost" campaign features a star-studded online movie, which was created to lure customers into an interactive adventure that offers to dish out prizes to a few lucky participants.

Online Advertising: It's Just the Beginning (Business Week, July 12th)
They say that every cloud has a silver lining, and if you look beyond the media's stormy portrayal of the year in online advertising, it's clear to see that where there have been failures, there have also been several innovative campaigns that have seen marketers take full advantage of the medium's strengths to great success. This article is filled with positive stories about how blue-chips and dotcoms alike have thought outside-the-box to create exciting interactive advertising formats.

24/7 Media Hurries to Roll out European Server (internet.com, July 12th)
Hurting both by the closure of CMGI's AdForce last month, and its own receipt of a delisting notification from the Nasdaq, 24/7 Media has scrambled to implement its own ad serving technology within its European unit before the plug is pulled on the AdForce servers. If present progress is anything to go by, it does indeed seem that the company will be able to complete the transition in time, though it's unclear as to how the rushed effort will affect the network's performance and the company's plans to sell off its European arm.

The Killer Ad Machine Arrives (Forbes.com, July 12th)
AOL Time Warner touted the future of cross-platform advertising during the company's merger. Now, the benefits of such horizonal reach are indeed flowing through to AOL and similar multi-media properties, who are attracting huge proportions of branded companies' marketing budgets to distribute throughout their various units.

Dot-com Shakeout Nearing Bottom (CBS MarketWatch, July 12th)
This article notes how the market is responding to net-related stocks at present, and how this reflects upon the current state of online advertising.

Branding With a Human Face (eMarketer, July 12th)
As eMarketer reports, brand-building is the second greatest reason for why company's advertise online (behind driving traffic). Making the branding experience more immersive is essential is raising one's ROI. This article ponders whether a technology developed by lifeFX, which features digital human-like avatars/sales assistants, can be beneficial in acheiving this.

Studies Point to Branding Effects of Online Media (internet.com, July 11th)
Proving that CTRs and post-click conversion tracking undervalues the positive effects of an online advertising campaign, two seperate studies have proven that the banner form is effective in delivering branding messages and generating recall that results in sales down the track.

Streaming Media 101: Part One (TurboAds, July 11th)
Sharing many similarities with the traditional media with which old-world marketing firms are so familiar, there's little doubt that streaming media will see solid growth over coming years, with marketers employing both intra-stream ads, and stand-alone 'infomercials'. This article is the first in a series that hopes to give you an understanding of the technology, and terminology, behind streaming media. Continue with Part II here.

Yahoo Tops Street Estimates (internet.com, July 11th)
Slightly nudging past estimates from Blodget (see below) and the Street, Yahoo reported revenues of $182 million for the quarter. And while the company did note that it expects several more sluggish quarters in online advertising, its mid to long-term outlook is bullish, with the online-only company expecting to ride a wave of revenues as traditional marketers invest in its huge audience.

Yahoo Shares Down After Ad Report (AdWeek, July 11th)
Revisionistic comments made by internet stock analyst Henry Blodget just hours before Yahoo's 2nd quarter earnings report drove the stock down sharply. Mr Blodget noted that his pervious estimates regarding the company's expected ad revenues may have been high. The downgrading came in the wake of reports from other advertising-dependent companies, who experienced lower-than-expected quarters.

The Lessons of the X10 (ClickZ, July 11th)
Campaigns featuring increasingly intrusive ad units, such as X10's wide-reaching popunders, are a sign of the excessive commoditization of online metrics in an environment in which supply invariably exceeds demand.

Mulling Reins on Net Campaigns (Wired News, July 11th)
Concerned about the mis-use of electoral funds in the realm of new media advertising, a bill has been presented to the US House of Representatives that aims to regulate how campaign funds may be used in placing online campaigns.

DoubleClick: Web Ad Market Improving (CNET, July 10th)
Speaking to analysts at a conference call on Tuesday, DoubleClick has expressed that they don't expect to see a significant uptick in the online advertising market later this year. Where previously it was predicted that the market would begin its recovery Q4 2001, a flat market is now expected to continue until mid-late 2002.

DoubleClick Woes Linger (CNNfn, July 10th)
With DoubleClick confirming in April that it expects its Q2 revenues for this year to drop below analysts' initial expectations, Wall Street revisions see the firm registering a loss of 8 cents/share, which is down from the same period a year prior as DoubleClick struggles to overcome a slowdown in its media division.

IAB Elects New Board (internet.com, July 10th)
The online advertising industry's largest trade group has announced its newly-elected board of directors, which sees several new entrants from sectors outside the realms of the web, indicating the growing importance of interactive TV, wireless and similar emerging markets. All new board members are noted within this article.

Instant Branding (ClickZ, July 10th)
The evolution of digital technology and wide-reaching interactive mediums such as mobile telephony/SMS, the internet and iTV turns traditional notions of marketing on their head. This article notes the present and future ability for marketers to plan and launch campaigns within days, hours, or even minutes - where these would generally have taken several months to book and run in the past.

Alloy Announces Acquisition of CASS Communications (NET-ADS, July 9th)
Youth-centric publisher Alloy Online has made an aggressive move to expand its product line and client list through the acquisition of an offline media buyer known for its synergy with the Y-gen demographic.

It Finally Clicks: Web Ads Can Work (National Post Online, July 9th)
Though a bit later than expected, evidence is emerging that reveals an increasing number of blue-chip advertisers are finally, and eagerly, opening their wallets in an attempt to reach new prospects and/or reinforce brand associations online.

Industry Players Seek to Distance Themselves From Click-Throughs (internet.com, July 9th)
CBS MarketWatch, who has revealed its solid commitment to pushing innovation in online advertising this year, has once again made a dramatic tactic leadership move that it hopes will reduce marketers' over-excessive focus on weak metrics such as click-through ratios, and instead voew online ads for their strength as branding tools. As such, they have stopped reporting CTRs to their advertisers - except in those cases where the advertiser explicitly requests this information. Read more on this issue, as well as commentary as to whether or not MarketWatch's decision was valid, within this E-Commerce Times commentary or this CNET article.

Yahoo! Makes an Attitude Adjustment (CNET News.com, July 9th)
Once defined in media circles as an arrogant, self-serving player, the ad-dependent Yahoo, whose revenues have been threatened by an extended slowdown in online ad spending, has experienced an image makeover. The new, kinder Yahoo is being well received by ad buyers, who are finally being presented with the opportunity to experiment with alternative ad forms, while increasing their ROIs with closely-monitored and maintained campaign runs.

7 From Seven - Featuring Ted Prince (ChannelSeven, July 9th)
Head of rich-media startup Amicada, Ted Prince is mentally probed here by the Channelseven team regarding the cashed video niche that his company is hoping to capitalize upon in bringing standard TV ads to the web. While it has yet to be seen how ads from a passive medium will be received by a purpose-driven audience, but with giant marketer Unilever on his side, this company could see some success.

eYada Signs Off (internet.com, July 9th)
Proving that the banner market that is not the only online ad form suffering this year, net-based talk radio station eYada announced today that they would be shutting down their company due to lower-than-expected ad sales.

New Brands Advertising Online (MediaPost, July 9th)
EValiant Media Research has released a series of figures that chart the number of new products and services to be promoted via banner ads this year. The research shows that while there has been some volatility evident this year, the growth has been relatively consistent, suggesting that an increasing number of advertisers are making moves to incorporate an online element into their marketing plans.

eBay's Second Affiliate Program (ClickZ, July 6th)
This article details the processes through which online success story eBay has leveraged its affiliate programs (managed through ClickTrade and CJ) to rapidly and inexpensively build the registered user bases of both the eBay auction site and discount e-tailer Half.com.

Chinadotcom Expands Ad Representation to TV (internet.com, July 5th)
With the success of AOL TW and other cross-media players in the spotlight of interactive publishers and ad reps the world over, due to the strength provided by diverse sales, Chinadotcom has formed an alliance with a significant Asian television network to leverage the strengths of both teams through the buyer's market.

MSNBC's Brown on the State of the Industry (Inside.com, July 5th)
Stating that "The industry has never lived through a downturn like this...", MSNBC's Editor in Chief, Merrill Brown discusses the state of online content, distribution and revenue models.

Hef Joins Online Advertising Party (internet.com, July 5th)
Playboy's lively figurehead, Hugh Hefner, is to participate in the creation of a 15-second 'forced' Flash ad that is to promote the Jack Daniels whiskey brand to all who enter Playboy.com. The ad incorporates cookies so as to appear just once/visitor/session, and complements the existing subscription-based model that guards the bulk of Playboy's content. The experimental branding campaign is set to run for one month.

For Online Advertisers, the Key is How Long, Not How Many (australia.internet.com, July 4th)
Analysts of online bevavioural data have found that while some nations, such as Australia, have achieved very high rates of internet penetration, the time that those users actually spend engaged online is key to their moneary value in the eyes of advertisers.

ValueClick to Acquire Mediaplex (NET-ADS, July 3rd)
Just days ago, we reported that ad technology firm MediaPlex had made a deal to acquire the US arm of Internetad's online advertising business. Yesterday, this move was compounded through the announcement that ValueClick had committed to acquiring MediaPlex in full. Such aggressive consolidation is indicative of a market that has continued to struggle during a spending slowdown that has hit the interactive medium harder than any other.

Coca-Cola, 24/7 Media Europe Tout Banners' Branding Impact (internet.com, July 3rd)
The results of a study undertaken by Coca-Cola Netherlands, 24/7 Media Europe, Universal Interactive and researcher Pro Active International have revealed that carefully designed and targeted banners can, contrary to widely-held skepticism, prove very effective in building and reinforcing brand messages and associations.

Analyzing Cash Burn Rates (EmailInvestor, July 3rd)
This fantastic article presents a brief history of online advertising, while highlighting how much cash each major publicly-traded player in the business still has lying in the bank, along with how many quarters this cash represents in terms of burn.

Assessing the Ad Economy at Midyear (AdvertisingAge, July 2nd)
With several media companies declaring 2001 a never-ran year in terms of ad spending, all indications are pointing to a recovery that is not to occur until next year.

Report: Internet Ads Are Getting More Attention (NY Times, July 2nd)
The folding of interactive-only online ad agency units into the arms of their traditional parent companies, combined with the rising popularity of larger ineractive advertising units, such as popunders, recs, skyscrapers and shoshkeles, are pushing a resurgence in interest in the online advertising market.

Getting Creative with Wireless Ads (ChannelSeven, July 2nd)
This article outlines the specifications defined by the Wireless Advertising Association (WAA) in an attempt to provide a very practical view of how to plan, design and implement a campaign to run on cell phones or PDA devices.