Average U.S. household credit card debt: $8,000

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Seth Godin observes there are more than 3 million millionaires in the U.S. (8 million if you count real estate). In the same post, he says the average household has $8,000 in credit card debt.

I clearly remember when there was no such thing as a consumer credit card. You paid for the things you purchased with cash or a personal check. Perhaps that’s why I have never failed to pay my credit card bill. As soon as the bill came in, I paid it off. Period. And that was true when I was living on small town DJ money back in the early 70’s.

I consider myself fortunate that I come from a time and place where you paid your bills and you paid them promptly. (And if you feel the need to email to tell me I’m an insensitive prick, please attach a scan of our credit card bill. We’ll go over it together.)

I’m just saying… the way we view debt has changed. For good reasons or bad.

“Advertising will go poof”

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Does it do me (as an advertiser) any good to force someone to watch or listen to a commercial for my product or service, if they don’t want to? I can argue that my commercial is what paid for the free TV show they’re watching so it’s only fair that they watch it. Doesn’t matter. If the ad is about something I don’t care about (most of them)…Tivo fast-forward.

If you can find a way to show me ONLY the ads I care about, I’ll probably watch them. But Dave Winer says the end of advertising (as we know it) lies at the end of that road:

“When they finish the process of better and better targeted advertising, that’s when the whole idea of advertising will go poof, will disappear. If it’s perfectly targeted, it isn’t advertising, it’s information. Information is welcome, advertising is offensive. Who wants to pay to create information that’s discarded? Who wants to pay to be a nuisance? Wouldn’t it be better to pay to get the information to the people who want it? Are you afraid no one wants your information? Then maybe you’d better do some research and make a product that people actually want to know about.”

I think what Winer is saying is that once you get the right information…about the right product (specifically for me)… you won’t HAVE to pay someone to put it in front of me. I will already have made that happen or have facilitated it. I WANT to know more about your product/service. At that point, it’s no longer advertising.

The point he’s trying to make is a subtle one and hard to grasp if you’ve grown up bombarded by radio and TV ads. For better or worse, we won’t have to wait long to find out if he’s right.

Google makes ad deal with XM

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“In its biggest offline media play to date, online search giant Google this morning announced plans to begin extending the reach of its online search advertisers to the nation’s largest satellite radio service, XM Satellite Radio. The deal is the latest development in Google’s push to expand beyond the Internet into the traditional media marketplace, and follows a series of tests with print media and radio outlets.”

— Media Daily News [Thanks, XM Ben]

State radio networks

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I spotted this in the monthly newsletter of StateNets (formerly the National Association of State Radio Networks): The Tennessee Radio Network has 66 full time (?) affiliates and only 11 have websites.

Of all the surveys and data and research I’ve read, this simple fact, unscientific as it is, speaks volumes to me about the radio business in 2006. If every one of your advertisers (okay, most of them) has some kind of online presence…why wouldn’t you?

In the same issue, Tom Dobrez –the head sales guy for the association– writes about “The New Media Blitz”:

“…we are all starting to feel its impact. A trip to 3 major markets in the last few weeks confirms the low level of respect radio is garnering from the nation’s major marketers. It’s just not hip. Its not now its so yesterday. The onslaughts have come from everywhere. First it was satellite radio, then Ipod and internet now its product placements etc. … It will be near impossible to get any media decision makers attention with spots only. The old way we sell it are GONE!”

Here’s my advice to my old StateNets buddies: Go down to the basement…set the Time Machine for 2000…and call me when you get there.

References available upon request

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My buddy Morris left the radio news game this spring. After 30+ years. Tried his hand at the newspaper business but that didn’t work out. He says he wants to try something online. Blogging, podcasting, etc. I think he knows it will be a tough row to hoe (as momma used to say) but he sounds very positive. In his latest email he observed there just weren’t that many “serious news operations” (he was referring to radio, I believe) in Missouri.

News GuyMorris’ situation raises a good question. If you’re a radio news reporter, and you had to go out and find another job tomorrow, where would you look? Another radio station? Group ownership has reduced the competition (and need?) for your services. The local newspaper? They’ve got their own problems. A traditional fall-back has been PR for some company/association/department. But I always wondered if that wasn’t based on the notion that you could get all of your radio news buddies to run your press releases. On the other hand, I was in a room full of PR folks back in January so the jobs seem to be there.

Radio reporters have what seem to be some very marketable skills. They can do interviews. They can write stories. They can read well aloud. So, where do they go when it’s time to go?

Podcasting with GarageBand 3

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Podcasting with GarageBand 3That’s the tile of a video training CD from lynda.com. The instructor, Scott Bourne, is really good. GarageBand a piece of Apple software most noted for making music but the latest upgrade includes some nice podcasting features. I have access to very good recording and editing hardware and software but I’d like to see what I can produce on the MacBook. The two CD set runs about $50 bucks but I think it’s worth it. I confess I got hooked by working through the first few lessons on the lynda.com website. I think it was at the end of Lesson #3 that I realized I’d have to subscribe or buy the CD to get more. By then I was hooked. Well done lynda.com. Let me get through the two CD’s and I’ll put something together, post it here and you can judge for yourself if the training is any good. [Amazon]

Web Content Strategist

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For the past 6 or 7 years, I have been working with our company’s websites. Sometimes that means designing from scratch. Sometimes we outsource the design and/or development and I manage the project. I support usesrs –internal and clients– on various content managment tools. And a bunch of other stuff. And from the beginning, I’ve struggled with a title for this position.

Some of our folks introduce me as “web guru.” Hate that. Implies a level of mystical knowledge I will never posses. Same for “webmaster.” I’m not even the master of my domain.

I’ve used Online Editor and that’s not bad. Funky Web Monkey and Pile-Drivin’ Digital Daddy are fun but I’m really not funky nor a driver of pile. I fall back on “Web Guy” (Web Boy wasn’t working) from time to time.

Today, I spotted this title: Web Content Strategist. “Strategist” seems a bit grand but I do think a lot about what we’re doing and where we’re going with our growing number of websites. So, maybe.