8 posts and columns on Mediaweek

News Byte

Massive Isn't: Microsoft Reportedly Shuttering In-Game Ad Unit

in Media on October 8, 2010 at 12:39 pm PT

In 2006, Microsoft paid more than $200 million for Massive, a start-up that inserted advertising directly into video games. Now it’s shutting the whole thing down, says Mike Shields at MediaWeek. Shields says Massive had three problems: 1) the market for in-game ads never got nearly as big as predicted 2) Electronic Arts, which represented a big chunk of the revenue Massive did have, brought its business in-house and 3) Microsoft’s Xbox unit never bought into the deal in the first place.

Condé Cuts Continue: 15 at Digital, More to Come

in Media on October 9, 2009 at 5:30 am PT

Condé Nast, which shuttered four magazines this week, said it won’t be cutting any more titles. But that won’t be the last of its cuts: The publisher is looking to cut costs by roughly 25 percent at all the magazines it publishes, likely leading to layoffs in many cases. Today’s example doesn’t come from a magazine per se, but from the company’s digital group, which let go of “more than” 15 people, Expect more to come from Condé, and from other publishers, in coming weeks.
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Are Network TV Ad Sales Terrible? Or Just Bad? And When Will We Know?

in Media on August 10, 2009 at 7:52 am PT

As predicted, TV ad sales are down. And as predicted, TV networks are hoping they come back sometime in the next year, along with the economy. In the meantime, what do cheap TV ad prices do for Web video sales?
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