Hey a-slate;good afternoon...
Thanks for the vote of confidence. A couple of observations:
(1) The business circle you speak of as being somewhat small actually includes the hottest newspapers from Seattle to Miami. It's a big, big, world, with people with seriously great content, loyal website readers, etc: in short, the perfect medium for potential web advertisers. In fact, the audiences on these 200 sites is probably better quality than YHOO's not inferior...If YHOO's eyeballs are doubling, so are those on these sights...
(2 You speak of YHOO having a much broader reach than these "niche businesses" but I can assure you there are as many advertisers who prefer niche businesses as want broad ones. And as far as broad-based ones, Marlboro, SONY, Sprint, etc. all advertise with us -- spending millions in our papers -- but can't be bothered with advertising on our web sites. Why? Simple. It doesn't work. It doesn't work for us, and it doesn't work for YHOO...
3) Wanna read something scary, a-slate? Check out the 1/18 issue of Advertising Age; I'm sure they have a web-site, but I'm holding the paper in my hand. (Marion, if you're there, maybe you can find the link; you're the best at that). Anyway, a front-page story by Kurt Maddox and Chuck Ross announced that Procter and Gamble has announced a $5 CPm, take it or leave it, rate it will pay for any and all Web buys. Consider that the Web average is $36 CPM. Consider that P&G's "revolt" might be followed by other Fortune 500 companies. Then consider the implications for YHOO. I don't know what business you're in, slate, but if your clients suddenly told you your product was worth to them only one-seventh of what you were selling it for, you know what creek you'd be up, right?
(4) As for % revenues derived from revenue, YHOO does get 30% of its revenues from sign-up fees from listed websites, or at least it used to; my information may be dated at this point. But this income is peanuts (We paid $150 for our pubs, for example, lifetime), and all projections that I'm awareof for YHOO going forward are based on huge growth in advertising revenues.
I dunno, a-slate. I dunno. Just trying to apply a little common sense here, not fight a moral crusade like some bears...
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