Category: News Corp.

Social Network Spying Machines

As we await the announcement form both MySpace and Facebook about their respective expanded profiling and and ad targeting plans, here’s a quote to ponder via this Reuters story (our emphasis): “MySpace said more than 50 advertisers have joined its HyperTargeting program, which mines the information on the social network’s member pages to determine their main interests and what kind of commercial messages they would respond to.

“It’s looking at what they say, what they do and what they say they do,” said Adam Bain, executive vice president of product and technology at Fox Interactive Media, the parent of MySpace within Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp.”

Read this, via Adweek. 11/5/07: “Analysts and agency executives say the moves to uncover what a News Corp. executive once called the “digital gold” of user-interest data and social connections could herald the evolution of behavioral targeting as the greatest advance in Internet advertising since Google perfected keyword-targeted search ads seven years ago.

“It changes everything,” said Michael Barrett, chief revenue officer at Fox Interactive Media, the News Corp. unit that includes MySpace. “Every form of targeting has been trying to get to what that individual is thinking about, passionate about and interested in. It defines the next generation of targeting.”

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European Commission & Privacy Authorities Should Investigate Behavioral Targeting & Privacy Threats

As US and EU policymakers and privacy advocates gather for a discussion of the 1998 EU Data Directive and the subsequent “safe harbor” deal with the U.S., it’s time the EU recognize that they are overlooking new threats from online marketing. Anyone who follows online advertising in Europe knows that advanced forms of targeted interactive marketing and data collection is being pioneered in places like the U.K. While the Article 29 Working Groups has, fortunately, expanded its investigation on related issues, esp. IP address retention, it’s time EU-based privacy officials cracked down on behavioral targeting [BT]. Here is an excerpt from a recent online marketing trade article that illustrates how quickly BT is now part of everyday life in the EU:

“Behavioural targeting has come a long way in the U.S. in the past four years, but the rapid growth across Europe (and even in South Africa), is proving that a technology can be seamlessly integrated at the local, national and international levels without batting an eye…A major advantage that the European market has parlayed into behavioural targeting success is the clear identification of which categories behavioural targeting responds to the most positively, and then the clear understanding of how to make those categories successful…So, where is behavioural targeting going next in Europe? Recently we have seen behavioural targeting successfully implemented in The Netherlands (with Telegraaf Media Groep), one of the largest media companies in Portugal (Cofina) is in implementation and a major publisher in the Scandinavian
market is about to implement the technology. This expansion out across Europe into new markets is a direct result of the success seen in the U.K. and other markets and shows that behavioural targeting is just hitting its stride.

From: The past, present and future of behavioural targeting. Jeremy Mason. imediaconnection. Oct. 9, 2007.

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Dow Jones Conflict Watch: Murdoch, WPP, China Broadband

Just for the record, we want to highlight this Telegraph (UK) story about ad giant WPP investing in China Broadband Capital Partners [via the ever vigilant folks at paidcontent.org]. Here’s an excerpt about Murdoch:
“Co-investors in the China Broadband fund include Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, which owns MySpace and holds a stake in the social networking site’s embryonic Chinese operation, and China Netcom, one of the country’s two major state-owned fixed-line operators. PCCW, the Hong Kong-based media group, is also an investor in the fund…China Broadband’s most significant investment to date was its acquisition of a stake in MySpace China, which has yet to be formally launched. A beta version of the site was unveiled in April, and News Corp has not disclosed any details about its performance.”

How can the good journalists at the WSJ and Dow Jones ever hope to really tackle the issues involving Murdoch’s holdings and relationships? They will try, but probably can’t sustain it in the long run. Let’s keep an eye, meanwhile, on News Corp, WPP and the China connection. The Chinese people have a lot at stake about who controls their media future, especially when it combines state control with hyper-commercialization.

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Murdoch’s MySpace expands data collection/ad targeting, including on whether users say they smoke, drink, religious beliefs, etc.

The powerful commercial forces shaping new media platforms like MySpace–so they can better reap big dollars from powerful brand advertisers– should raise user alarm bells. MySpace is going to [our italics] “leverage the data input by each MySpace user into their profile from a group of predefined menu choices (related to questions such as drinker, children, education, smoker, religion, college, employer, etc). Within the next year, MySpace will be able to target ads based on what users write and place on their Myspace page itself, such as what TV shows members like to watch or music they listen to. Aside from focusing on members’ login pages, the ad targeting will be used across all of the MySpace-programmed, “safe” advertising sections, such as the Music homepage and MySpaceTV.” That’s according to a 8/24 report from paidcontent.org

On August 17th, Coca Cola also paid $1 million to “have its logo splashed across the entire home page of the Fox Interactive Media social net for the entire day.”

Such news follows last week’s report from the Wall Street Journal on Facebook’s plans to expand the role of advertising and targeted marketing as well. Much more work needs to be done to create social networks where marketing is done responsibly in terms of privacy, environmental sustainability, and with the focus on revenues serving community interests.

Meanwhile, the Federal Trade Commission should open up an investigation. It’s additional evidence that the agency has to swiftly act to protect consumers, including youth. The upcoming town hall on online marketing and data collection–done in response to a complaint filed by this blogger’s group and USPIRG–is insufficient. What will it take for the FTC to be proactive in this area? Congress should hold hearings on how well the agency is truly addressing the ever-growing threats to online privacy from interactive marketing, including its impact on the public health.

PS: Just a reminder about what a former Fox Interactive president said about MySpace, according to trade reports: the “digital gold inside of MySpace wasn’t the number of users, but the information they’re providing, structured and unstructured data” …

PPS: More on what to expect from profile-based targeting via MySpace [excerpt from 8/7/07 Mike Barrett interview] :”By October or November we’ll have broken these 11 segments into 100 segments. So you can target people who are not just interested in beauty, but makeup. Or people not just interested in travel, but safari travel. Being able to break down the segments even more finely will add more value to marketers.”

Social Relationship data collection and targeting [via imediaconnection]: “Conventional wisdom says that MySpace and Facebook are powerful because of their massive reach and addictive usage. While true, they are in fact even more powerful because they are able to add significant layers of data to make their advertising more relevant. Indeed, very few properties other than social networks collect the various layers of data necessary to provide true relevance. Social networks have the potential to serve advertisements based on a user’s age, sex, interest, relationship data, and with some modifications, they could add the rest of the data as well.”

The imediaconnection piece says that social network marketers can define relationship data by asking itself: “What do we know about the user’s friends that can enable us to better target the advertising.”

Yesterday, the FTC sent out a release announcing its November town meeting on online advertising and privacy. The hearing is in response to the formal complaint my group Center for Digital Democracy and the USPIRG filed last November.

It’s clear that the FTC is fearful of really tackling the privacy and consumer-manipulation problems intrinsic to the online ad field. Behavioral targeting, which we also address in our complaint, is just the tip of the proverbial data collection and target marketing iceberg. Policymakers at the FTC, the Congress, and state A-G’s must do a better job in addressing this problem. Chapter seven of my book covers the topic, along with recommendations. As we noted in our statement yesterday, CDD has given the staff at the FTC a ton of material since November, further making the case for immediate federal safeguards. There is so much at stake regarding the future of our (global) democratic culture and its relationship to online marketing. We hope others will join with us and raise the larger societal issues, in addition to the specific online ad marketplace concerns.

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Ad Age’s Perceptive Piece on Murdoch and WSJ Future

We think this point by Matthew Creamer deserves a highlight:

“A News Corp.-owned Wall Street Journal begs a question: In a world where the attention of consumers and hence advertisers is divided among video games, “American Idol” and LOLCats, can a business built solely to deliver news — especially long, serious articles about complicated topics — remain independent and successful? … The nation’s leading purveyor of business information, still an agenda-setter for the planet’s biggest economy, becomes a cog in a vertically integrated, multinational creator and distributor of entertainment, a machine engineered to pump out synergies such as “The Simpsons” movie or, more scarily, that aborted O.J. Simpson extravaganza, rather than Pulitzers… Sure, Mr. Murdoch will pump capital into the paper, allowing it to build out its international operation, but some are predicting that one effect of that bulking up could be to further his business goals, especially in China. And Journal reportage, now a means to the purist end of watchdogging the business community, will be called upon also to add more grist to that massive multimedia content mill, in the form of the Fox Business Network — which is already being positioned as more pro-business than CNBC, absurd as that sounds.”

from: “Stand-Alone News Brands Are Doomed.” Matthew Creamer. Advertising Age. Aug 6, 2007 [sub may be required]

As Murdoch-run WSJ Plans to compete with NYT, FCC Must Review its status as “national” newspaper

We have urged several FCC commissioners to support a review of the Wall Street Journal and its relationship to the New York City DMA. We believe that News Corp.’s plans to have the Journal compete with the New York Times, among other factors, require serious scrutiny by the commission. The broadcast-newspaper cross-ownership safeguard, we suggest, may apply in this case.

As the Journal reported on August 1, 2007:

“Just as vulnerable could be the New York Times, published by New York Times Co., and Pearson PLC’s Financial Times. In a May letter to Dow Jones’s controlling shareholders, the Bancroft family, Mr. Murdoch said he would want Dow Jones properties to “reach a broader domestic audience by expanding the content base.” He emphasized yesterday he “would not want to step back from any of the business coverage” but he would “like to add more general news,” repeating comments about plans to expand the Journal’s Washington bureau. He said that to accomplish his goal there “could be another four pages a day” for news coverage. A person with knowledge of his plans said Mr. Murdoch believes more general news and political coverage would make the Journal a stronger rival to the New York Times, which has a bigger share of consumer advertising.”

Ad Age reported [listen to Nat Ives video] that News Corp. is even considering adding sports news to the Journal, as it competes “head-to-head” with the Times.

As for calls for a national cross-ownership safeguard, we point to the recommendations in our new book which describe a new model for measuring media diversity in the digital era. But if new safeguards are to be enacted, foremost should be policies supporting sustainable community and national services that provide for both diverse expression–and news gathering/reporting–in the digital and multi-platform interactive era. In other words, we should be focused on adding what is missing and will still be ignored by the mainstream. They haven’t got it right so far–and won’t in the future.
Source for Wall Street J. quote: “Deal Will Test a Media Titan’s Instincts:
Rupert Murdoch’s Long-Sought Purchase
Of Dow Jones Could Change Business Journalism”
By MARTIN PEERS, SUZANNE VRANICA and STEPHANIE KANG
August 1, 2007; Page B1

Bancroft Family: Take the $ and Journalism Be Damned

While we know there are so reasons why the majority of the Bancroft family would agree to a takeover by Murdoch (the share price premium, it’s the market at work, etc.), the truth is that they have now stained the family name and legacy. Whenever the name Bancroft is mentioned, it will evoke already well-to-do individuals who have abandoned the public trust for narrow private gain.

Our thoughts are with the dedicated and serious journalism minded employees of Dow Jones. There’s life after Rupert–but it won’t be at the Wall Street Journal.

Bancroft Family: Don’t Let Your Legacy–and Your Heirs– Be the Undermining of U.S. Journalism

We know money is important–and Mr. Murdoch has put a lot of it on the table. We also know that such funds will make the lives of the family and their future generations even more comfortable. But we call on the family to consider its historic role here. It has helped shepherd a publication with a important journalistic culture–one where many of their employees have embraced a mission essential to our democracy. We need serious-minded journalists more than ever–and Dow Jones has many. The Wall Street Journal can play a leading role over the next decade helping the U.S. address so many crucial issues related to the fate of the Republic, such as the environment, health care, public & private accountability. Mr. Murdoch has shown that independent and serious-minded journalism isn’t what he’s about. All you have to do is turn on Fox News. Is that the legacy you wish to leave?

I hope you confound the cynics who believe that everyone is for sale in our society, and make a statement that concern about democracy is more important.

Google Buys More Lobbyists and Influence

excerpt from Washington Post: “…Google went on a hiring spree and now has 12 lobbyists and lobbying-related professionals on staff here — more than double the size of the standard corporate lobbying office — and is continuing to add people. Its in-house talent includes such veteran government insiders as communications director Robert Boorstin, a speechwriter and foreign policy adviser in the Clinton White House, and Jamie Brown, a White House lobbyist under President Bush.

Google has also hired some heavyweight outside help to lobby, including the Podesta Group, led by Democrat Anthony T. Podesta, and the law firm King & Spalding, led by former Republican senators Daniel R. Coats (Ind.) and Connie Mack (Fla.). To help steer through regulatory approvals in its proposed acquisition of DoubleClick, an online advertising company, Google recently retained the law firm Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck.”

from: “Learning from Microsoft’s Error, Microsoft Builds a Lobbying Engine. Jeffrey H. Birnbaum. June 20, 2007

PS: And that’s before Johanna Shelton, former aide to Rep. John Dingell and FCC Commissioner Adelstein, starts working for Google on Monday!