“Advertisers spent a record $26 billion in the U.S. marketing their wares online last year, putting the Internet ahead of newspapers for the first time,” according to Billboard.
“The 15 percent year-over-year surge in online advertising put the Internet second to television as the leading medium for generating ad revenue.
“Television, which includes local, cable and broadcast spending, brought in $68.7 billion. Newspapers took in $22.8 billion.
“The data was released Wednesday in a 26-page report from the Interactive Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers.
“The report also compares the Internet’s 16-year-growth trajectory as an advertising medium to the early days of broadcast and cable TV. Even adjusting for inflation, the Internet has been more impressive.
“After the first 16 years of broadcast TV (beginning in 1949), the medium was raking in $16.1 billion in the U.S. Cable TV after its first 16 years (beginning in 1980) was generating $7.3 billion in ad revenue.”
“On Friday, the unemployment rate dropped to 8.8 percent, as businesses added jobs for the 13th straight month,” writes Dana Milbank in the Washington Post. “On Wednesday, Fox News announced that it was ending Glenn Beck’s daily cable-TV show.”
“These are not unrelated events.
“When Beck’s show made its debut on Fox News Channel in January 2009, the nation was in the throes of an economic collapse the likes of which had not been seen since the 1930s. Beck’s angry broadcasts about the nation’s imminent doom perfectly rode the wave of fear that had washed across the nation, and the relatively unknown entertainer suddenly had 3 million viewers a night — and tens of thousands answering his call to rally at the Lincoln Memorial.
“But as the recession began to ease, Beck’s apocalyptic forecasts and ominous conspiracies became less persuasive, and his audience began to drift away. Beck responded with a doubling-down that ultimately brought about his demise on Fox.”
Like many of you, I am caught in a world that is both digital and “analog.” I have a few books on an iPad that we share, but books sit on shelves all over the house.
One of them, out in the living room, is “Sandy Koufax: A Lefty’s Legacy.” Even if you don’t like sports, you should check it out.
And even if you’re a Giants fan, you should read it. It’s more relevant than ever in light of Barry Bonds’ felony conviction of obstruction of justice on Wednesday.
The book, by sports writer Jane Leavy, basically uses Koufax as a symbol for the transition of baseball from a game to an “industry” in the ’60s.
I never saw Koufax pitch, but my parents did: At Dodger Stadium, just after it opened. Koufax’s signing bonus was $4,000 (equating to tens of thousands nowadays but still peanuts by today’s standards).
With a rising fastball (which once broke a coach’s thumb), Koufax was first major league player to pitch four no hitters; the youngest player inducted into the Hall of Fame; and the first three-time Cy Young award winner.
But there’s more to his persona than baseball. Koufax stood up for his personal beliefs in deciding not to pitch Game 1 of the 1965 World Series because it fell on Yom Kipper, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar. It inadvertently made him a religious icon, underscoring the conflict between business pressures and personal beliefs, as the book discusses.
Nowadays baseball is big business, with “multi-gazillion” signing bonuses and contracts. Television plays a dominant role. It can cost more than $100 to go to the ballpark.
Nowhere is the excesses of this big business more visible than with Barry Bonds, Mark McGuire, Jose Canseco and others in the steroid scandal that enveloped a generation of players. It’s going to be a black mark in the history books of America’s favorite pastime.
Even if you’re a Giants fan, it’s worth thinking about the legacy left by Sandy Koufax.
“I suspect there will be some objections to Divine Spark’s program” to provide a free lunch for homeless people for seven days a week instead of five at the Nevada City Vet’s Hall, I warned this past weekend, knowing my town exceedingly well.
“No (fill in the blank) Sherlock!”
Amid a legion of residents and merchants who showed up to protest, the Nevada City Council on Wednesday unanimously rejected a request by Divine Spark to go ahead with its program.
In fact, they took steps that could lead to booting Divine Spark out of the Vet’s Hall all together — perhaps sending them to the Armory building instead. The city’s lease with the nonprofit for the homeless is going to be explored.
Neighbors protested about the “unintended consequences” of the lunches that had turned their neighborhood into “skid row,” as one agitated neighbor put it. They complained about smelly trash, loitering and people who felt unsafe. The resale value of homes was brought up in the discussion. They brought photographs of the offending parties along with them.
Divine Spark’s leader Thomas Streicher did not show up, and his replacement was accused of being a “front man.”
It was a raucous — and sometimes ugly — debate, with the “front man” for Divine Spark (a low-key fellow) bearing much of it. He just sat there and took copious notes.
This is only the latest example of the sanctity of neighborhoods coming under fire: Whether to ban B&B’s from residential neighborhoods also was discussed earlier in the night (an issue that met our local newspaper’s print deadline — this one didn’t). On that one, the Council kicked it back to the Planning Commission for further consideration. Then it will return to the Council.
As for previous examples, I recall issues of opening a hair salon in an “R1″ neighborhood. Or the ongoing one of the liquor store masquerading as a Chevron station in town that also creates some “unintended consequences” for the neighbors. What city council voted to approve that one? You see, many of us are guilty on this front, not just a few.
One issue that didn’t come up at last night’s meeting is that the odds of unintended consequences in your neighborhood go up markedly when you choose to buy a home that is next to a Vet’s Hall or more recently, a big parking lot. It’s a fact of life.
All told, I’m reminded that Robert Frost provided some sage advice back in 1914: “Good fences make good neighbors.” And that was the New England countryside, no less.
