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No, this isn’t a post about cars, Ford Motor Company, or Detroit. It’s about leadership, confidence, and testosterone. A recent profile of Vanguard CEO Bill McNabb in USA Today was an eye-opener. McNabb took over as Vanguard’s chief in ’08.  Two weeks later, Lehman Brothers went belly up, and McNabb was faced with a fork-in-the-road […]

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October is a wonderful month – the color changes here in the Midwest, along with the baseball playoffs and World Series, college and pro football, and of course the start of the NHL season. It’s also the time when many public radio stations are actively involved in “pledge” – the incessant fundraising that keeps them […]

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In my travels and conference calls, many of the same questions continue to crop up: (Fill in your format of choice below) How’s the format trending?  How is it working in other PPM markets? What’s the performance difference between diary and PPM? What’s the gender composition of the format? Which age group(s) is most important? […]

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Jay Philpott from The Arch in St. Louis, a passionate radio pro, wrote me this note the other day, and I thought you might appreciate reading our exchange: Hi, Fred, I was discussing Bob Rivers' (pictured) departure from KZOK with a friend of mine, it's really a sad thing and forced me to accept what […]

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Maybe you’ve read about a new search enhancement from Google – or perhaps you’ve used it and maybe didn’t realize what was happening. Google Instant begins to predict what you’re searching for, suggesting search possibilities even before you’re done typing. This has obvious implications on the art and science of managing and manipulating search, especially […]

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A number of Jacobs Media clients over the years have heard me make the “X-Men” reference about our professional staff. My theory has always been to hire strong pros with skill sets different from mine – and from each other’s – in order to create and grow a powerful and effective team.  In much the […]

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First, thanks to the great SRO crowd we had at “The Radio Show” for our collaboration presentation with Arbitron – “Goin’ Mobile.”  I know we hyped it a lot, but I think the feedback has already told us that this initiative cut through and made an impression. Paul Jacobs was present for every interview, and […]

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I had another one of those “aha moments” in radio late last month.  Paul and I were invited to speak at the PRPD conference by our friend, Arthur Cohen. That’s the acronym for Public Radio Program Directors. Yup, an entire three-day conference devoted to issues that impact programmers and station brands.  And attendance was fabulous […]

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This morning’s post features guest blogger, Paul Jacobs, fresh from trips to Dallas for the Borrell Local Mobile Advertising Conference, PRPD in Denver, as well as “The Radio Show” in D.C.  Here’s his perspective on monetizing mobile: Last week I attended the Borrell Local Mobile Advertising Conference in Dallas, an event that no one could […]

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There’s been some controversy over a New York Newsday TV commercial about that newspaper’s iPad app.    <EMAIL RECIPIENTS: CLICK HERE TO VIEW NEWSDAY IPAD APP COMMERCIAL> The rumor is that Apple has apparently expressed discontent with its product being destroyed in front of millions of eyes.  Maybe in Cupertino, that's a big deal, but it […]

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It’s already been a busy week for us here at Jacobs Media.  This morning, we’ll be debuting “Goin’ Mobile,” the ethnographic study we designed and put together with Arbitron.  We’re looking forward to seeing many of you in the audience at “The Radio Show.” Earlier in the week, Paul participated in a mobile panel with […]

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Reinvention is always a challenge, especially for traditional “we’ve always done it that way” institutions. That probably describes the Television Bureau of Advertising, an organization founded in the early 1950’s that is trying to rebrand itself and simultaneously, re-establish its value to both TV stations and advertisers. Step one is to start using the same […]

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While reading The New York Times last weekend, I ran across the story about Jeff Zucker leaving NBC – in the “Business Day” section.  And it caught me because Zucker is the guy who’s been at NBC since he was 26 years-old, produced the Today show, and was a big force behind the network’s success […]

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Today, our favorite search engine, Google, turns 12.  You knew something big was obviously happening when that oddly named web tool became a verb, as in “to Google something” or to tell someone, “I Googled you.” A lot has happened in the last twelve years as it pertains to search, aside from the way the […]

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A charitable donation of $100 million dollars makes headlines. And in fact, something so gigantically generous might just be able to overshadow the negative publicity generated by a new movie. Or perhaps that’s what skeptics are postulating about Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s decision to gift the Newark school districts with more money than any of […]

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As companies and brands grapple with “best practices” for social media, a new Direct Marketing Association and COLLOQUY study sheds some light on the challenge. They surveyed 369 marketing objectives to determine their social media goals.  The bottom line is that for new product acquisition – or new cumers – devices like Facebook and Twitter […]

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No brand is immune to deterioration and erosion, even including the biggest spenders imaginable. In this case, Budweiser. Anheuser-Busch has suffered in recent years, and the culprit is the under-30s.  Just like in radio, when a product like beer or mass entertainment becomes less cool to younger consumers, there are problems. How far has Bud […]

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It seems like the debate about whether the economy and the media world are in a state of recovery may never end.  But for most owners, general managers, and sales managers, we hear a reassuring sense that the worst is over and better days are ahead. But amidst this more positive news is the concern […]

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There is no shortage of articles and alerts filled with this week’s research data about smartphones. This stuff makes us “smarter,” but also comes off a lot like the contradictory nutrition information we’re pummeled by.  One week, coffee is good for you; the next week, it causes strokes.  (“I’ll have a grande latte with light […]

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Last week, Inside Radio ran a provocative story speculating about how fewer and fewer radio stations are benefitting from the expanding American appetite for news. While news consumption is actually increasing among the population, fewer are turning to radio for news and information.  There are exceptions – and the IR piece singles out the massively […]

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