Monthly Archives: May 2016

May 19, 2016 · 10:51 am

Publisher : Cavete

Sometimes I look at what’s going on in publishing as if someone was whispering the Springsteen lyric in management’s ear:

Those romantic young boys, they’re callin’ through the window
Hey, Spanish Johnny, you want to make a little easy money tonight?

The easy money comes from native advertising, particularly the kind that’s plug and play. Just as in the song, however, there isn’t any easy money that comes without strings attached and some research from Penn State found out just what those strings entail.

The research team found that when content was identified as native advertising, readers held a lower opinion of the media outlet it was published in. However, the reputation of the company being promoted was not affected…“We all have the idea that the news media should be objective and neutral…that’s how it works,” Wu said. “But people may see the media and companies working together to deceive us…so they change their perception toward the media more dramatically. On the other hand, people see that the company is just doing what it’s supposed to, promoting itself.”

The speaker in the quote above is the PhD student who conducted the study. While I certainly understand the importance of revenue generation in an increasingly competitive and difficult marketplace, I also understand the value of a publisher’s reputation. That reputation, like all of ours, takes a long time to establish but can be shattered rather quickly. The loss of trust is fatal for any brand and particularly so for an information service.

Maybe it’s called “native content” or maybe it’s actually identified as “sponsored content” or a “promoted post.”  Either way, it’s generally not immediately identifiable as being from a source different from the main news or information the publisher puts out.  I think most of us dislike being enticed to read something under false pretenses, and part of the decision to invest time in reading involves the quality of the content which is predicated on the source.  When we’re deceived, we’re unhappy, and when we’re unhappy, we don’t return.

Publishers need to beware.  There is no easy money to be made unless you’re in it for the short term and are reputation-agnostic.  Are you?

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May 18, 2016 · 11:38 am

Crappy jobs

One summer when I was in college I found myself without gainful employment. I had spent many other summers as a camp counselor but I had decided not to spend 8 weeks locked in a bunk with a slew of six-year-olds and hadn’t really found anything to do that didn’t require an investment of cash (like an ice cream truck route). All the “good” jobs were taken, and while a buddy and I were offering our services out to paint houses, I really needed to do something to generate cash. That’s how I ended up with a crappy job for which I am still thankful.

My crappy job involved going door to door selling encyclopedias. I’m not kidding. For the younger readers out there, printed encyclopedias were pretty popular (think analog Wikipedia) nearly half a century ago. Every day I would drive my car into some neighborhood and walk the streets knocking on doors. The case I carried was not light, even to my younger, in-shape self. I got rejected nearly every time, at least when someone was nice enough to actually open the door, hear my spiel, and not threaten me with a dog. I also made a few bucks in the process, but calling it a crappy job is an understatement.

I learned a tremendous amount from my crappy job. First and foremost, I learned patience and what is commonly called sticktoitiveness.  I didn’t quit; well, at least not until my painting partner convinced someone to let us paint their house, which was 8 weeks into the summer.  I learned cold-calling and how to qualify leads.  I learned not to fear speaking to strangers. I learned that, just as is baseball, it’s possible to fail 6 times out of 10 and still be an all-star. Most importantly, I gained perspective.  Nearly any other job seemed great by comparison, and I could mentally return to knocking on doors any time things got bad at some subsequent job.

Many years later, “tell me about the worst job you ever had” became one of my standard interview questions.  I looked for people who had a crappy job at some point and we always talked about why it sucked and what they learned. I always leaned toward candidates who had done the worst jobs.

What crappy job have you had? How did it change you?

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Filed under Growing up, Helpful Hints, Thinking Aloud

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May 16, 2016 · 10:15 am

The Buying Opportunity

A large investor sold a big block of Apple shares this morning and that was a big enough deal that it made my news stream. He feels that the stock is overvalued and that Apple is having some product issues as well as being too dependent on China. It’s on the heels of Carl Ichan dumping his huge stake in the company a couple of weeks ago. That could be although it’s not really our topic this morning. Instead, think about how the stock market works. You can’t sell a stock unless someone wishes to purchase it from you (or the company decides to buy back its own shares). The real question at that point is price, although there are other factors at play as well.

When I got out of college I was fortunate enough to have an older friend who was a very smart investor. He told me to read the Graham and Dodd classic book called Security Analysis and to live by what the book said when it came to investing. As it turns out, Warren Buffett was giving out the same advice (he’s done pretty well by its principles, wouldn’t you say?). I have this on my mind because I spend a lot of time consulting with start-up companies, most of whom are out trying to raise investment. Graham differentiated between investment and speculation, the former “promises safety of principal and an adequate return. Operations not meeting these requirements are speculative.” Part of what I work on with these companies is helping them become the former – good investments – and not speculative, although it’s fair to say that most start-ups contain some elements of speculation since they don’t really have long track records.

Back to Apple.  No one would consider Apple a speculative investment and yet someone who is supposed to be sophisticated in the ways of the market has determined that it no longer meets his valuation and that this was the time to sell before the value declined further. Another investor decided that the price is low enough to purchase shares worth over a $1 billion. That’s our point today.  First, whatever we do in business must be able to be seen through the lens of value.  Second, we shouldn’t allow one person’s assessment of the value – expressed as what they’re willing to pay for your product or service – be thought of as gospel.  For every seller – every person who thinks you’re overpriced – there is probably a buyer – someone who sees the value in what you’re doing as well as the upside at the same price.  That applies not just to buying a stake in your company but in purchasing your products or services  as well.  Make sense?

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