The Jacobs Media Blog

I am beginning to believe that even if the economy rebounds in a significant way this year (and after yesterday’s drubbing on Wall Street??), America’s relationship with savings, deals, discounts, and coupons may be set in stone for a generation. Our Tech Surveys indicate that, in fact, most consumers are worried less about the economy […]

I am beginning to believe that even if the economy rebounds in a significant way this year (and after yesterday’s drubbing on Wall Street??), America’s relationship with savings, deals, discounts, and coupons may be set in stone for a generation. Our Tech Surveys indicate that, in fact, most consumers are worried less about the economy […]

In a business’ quest to excel, there’s often a tendency to focus on several segments of the target, from hard core fans to casual users.  But the “80:20 Rule” has always pointed to better results by gearing efforts toward the smaller part of the customer base that produces the greatest return. A couple of Decembers […]

Given all the exciting news in the world, as well as many of the stories rocking the radio and media sectors, MTV’s 30th anniversary may have gotten overshadowed. Part of the cause may be the changing ways in which MTV has evolved over the years.  From music and video tastemakers to producers of some of […]

In yesterday’s post, we talked about the growing pains that Pandora is enduring as they successfully build audience and platforms, while lagging behind in selling mobile advertising. While they may be growing listeners, they’re now measured by Wall Street, and those of us in radio know all about those pressures. Generating streaming income is challenging, […]

One of the more interesting and potentially compelling stories to come out of the Pandora Files this year has to do with a difficult topic for those folks – sales. Obviously, there’s incredible consumer interest in Pandora – especially on mobile devices where listening has surpassed usage on computers.  While the radio industry debates whether […]

This post will not make the many Spartan fans who work for Jacobs Media and jacAPPS too happy.  But too bad, because those rocket scientists at the University of Michigan have done it again. When you figure that Michigan Stadium a.k.a. “The Big House” probably sits empty for more than 100 days a year, how […]

Like many of you, I’m inundated by research, email advisories, push messages from Mashable, and a variety of other studies, lists, trends, and predictions. The best you can do is read as many as possible, sift through the best of the lot, and then do a lot of synthesis in an effort to learn more […]

The other day, the graph below starting making the rounds through my TweetDeck silos. It’s pretty impressive, right? But it didn’t take long for many web critics and pundits to jump all over Google+’s impressive ascension.  And in fact, comparisons to Facebook, in particular, aren’t fair.  Facebook has defined social networking, and it takes time […]

Today, thoughts on Apple's latest major offering from Jacobs Media's Mac-Geek-In-Residence, Ralph Cipolla, and why our laptops and desktops are “Goin’ Mobile.” Last week, we saw the much-anticipated release of Mac OS X Lion, Apple's latest iteration of the Mac operating system.  Now if you’re not an “Apple Person,” you might wonder what this could […]

Now the speculation about what Randy Michaels will do in Chicago and New York revolves around the call letters that have been selected for the old WKQX and WRXP. In Chicago, it will apparently be WWWN, and in New York City, WEMP.  So now the guesswork begins.  What do these call letters portend about possible format […]

Our resident Google+ fan, Lori Lewis, is back with an update about this new social media channel.  For those of you dabbling, it's a must-read:  When Google+ launched a few weeks ago, the company’s group product manager, Christian Oestlien, pointed out that they haven’t created Google+ pages for businesses — just yet: “For now we […]

True story. More than a decade ago, our company partnered with a couple of other smart players to launch a web-based advertising company called “Fastblast.”  It was a cool idea that involved geo-targeted ads on websites to drive traffic to radio station sites.  At the time, we also were pitching a global-based web company that […]

It was 11 years ago when then Silicon Alley Reporter’s Jason Calacanis, was invited to speak at our fifth Summit.  At the time, technology was most definitely in the air, some stations were streaming, many had websites, and there were abundant questions about where it was all going. In preparation for his address, Jason did a […]

We’re back from the 36th Annual Conclave, and Jacobs Media’s “Summer School” sessions.  For the second straight year, we put together solid “classes” that featured some great learning.  And thanks to the continued revival of Conclave, we presented our curriculum to an enthusiastically large crowd, eager to advance their education. It was a fun morning.  […]

A recent analysis of online sharing put together by ShareThis (of course) reveals that the act of moving content on the web from one person to another is bigger than the number of fans, friends, and followers you've amassed. Overall, sharing comprises 31% of site referral traffic.  And Facebook now accounts for 38% of all […]

Way back in 1999, Scott McNealy, the co-founder of Sun Microsystems, gave this amazing and prescient quote: "You have zero privacy anyway. Get over it." In today’s post, Jacobs Media’s resident social media maven, Lori Lewis, talks about how privacy and the web have only become more controversial during the past decade. Whether it’s online […]

Last week, our Lori Lewis put together a nice post about Google+ and what it may mean for all of us.  Despite Facebook's ability to totally permeate our lives, you have to give Google credit for trying to innovate with this new service. Facebook may very well respond to Google's newest stab at social media […]

The Pew Internet & American Life Project has just released their first standalone study about smartphone ownership.  I'll sum it up for you in two basic findings: People love their smartphones, and… …smartphone ownership crosses many demographic lines. So no matter whether you program, sell, or own radio stations, this phenomenon touches your business in […]