Google is teaming with Martin Sorrell's WPP Group to conduct new primary research to understand how advertising works on both digital and traditional media outlets. The $4.6 million initiative will fund three years of research, including projects with such think tanks as the Harvard Business School, MIT, and Stanford University.
Advertiser Perceptions Inc., which conducts semi-annual surveys of top advertiser and agency executives, is releasing the first in a series of bi-monthly polls tracking the confidence top ad execs have in spending budgets across the major media. The first in this new series of Advertiser Optimism Reports indicates that the ad industry continues to have a great deal of optimism for online media. But it also shows it is waning fast, dropping at a faster rate than any other major medium.
While their ranks continue to grow, the share of Hispanic adults online still trails the total share of U.S. adults now surfing the Web, according to a report released by Scarborough Research.
Thanks to strong broadband adoption rates, however, Hispanic Web users now constitute "avid downloaders of digital content," according to Scarborough's findings.
When times are tough, marketing is among the first to be have their budget and staff cut. Here, MarketingProfs provides some insight on what CMOs can do to keep their department off of the chopping block.
Want to know what stories reporters will be calling you about next—before the phone rings? Want to send a pitch that reporters will actually read and respond to? Want to get the experts at your hospital out in front of the press when a national health story breaks? All you have to do is think like a journalist.
Or, more to the point, read like one.
Where do reporters get their ideas? Why, from other reporters, of course. That's not to say that reporters just recycle the same old stories—that's why they loathe bulk e-mail press releases. The good ones, anyway, want to find a fresh angle and make the story their own. And that's where you come in. Help them write a story that stands out from the rest and they will return your phone calls and e-mails. Start by trolling the same places that reporters do for story ideas.
National publications: The big newspapers, magazines, and online outlets have the resources to really dig into stories. They're more likely to have a dedicated staff of healthcare reporters. Reporters at smaller outlets will often tweak national stories for their own audiences.
What you can do: Help a reporter supply the local or regional angle to a national story.
Niche publications: Business publications or those that focus on one topic (such as healthcare leadership) often identify trends well in advance of the mainstream media. And reporters love trends.
What you can do: Help a reporter identify an emerging issue before everyone else does.
Medical journals: Reporters love a good study—especially if they can tell their audience that a little red wine and a daily dose of dark chocolate are good for you. But many journal articles are dense and easy to misinterpret or oversimplify—and subscriptions to all those journals are expensive.
What you can do: Help reporters explain research to their audience in plain—and accurate—language.
Entertainment shows: OK, it feels a little creepy, but if a celebrity is diagnosed with a disease or dies unexpectedly from an accident or other causes, the media is going to be all over that.
What you can do: Help reporters find experts (your physicians, of course) to interview for those stories. Warning: Tact and timing are important here. Don't do this.
Trade publications and associations: There are several journalism groups out there that regularly publish issue briefs, tips, and story ideas specifically for healthcare reporters. The Association of Health Care Journalists, for example, recently published an article criticizing the methodology of hospital quality ratings. That's the kind of story reporters will latch onto.
What you can do: Help them understand that there are many different sides to such complicated issues and explain how your organization is working to improve quality.
Consumer healthcare publications:Consumer Reports, for example, publishes a supplement called "On Health." The most recent cover story was titled "Smarter hip and knee repair" and has a jolting subhead: "New artificial joints can last longer—but are also oversold." Not exactly the kind of news your ortho service line director wants to hear.
What you can do: Help reporters understand complex medical procedures and educate their audience about when it's time to see a doctor.
Go-to sources to help you become a go-to source Stay ahead of the news and keep track of what reporters are writing and reading about with these sources (some require a registration or subscription):
The Association of Health Care Journalists publishes examples of healthcare coverage from around the U.S., story ideas for reporters, and briefs on issues such as covering health reform and Obama's proposed budget, making sense of hospital quality reports, and information about what quality measures can be found online.
Journalistics blog: Want to know what reporters really think of you? If you can stand a little snark, you'll get some good tips about how to work well with reporters—or, more importantly, what drives them crazy. Recent posts include discussions of CAN-SPAM compliant PR pitches and, coincidentally, a story about where reporters get story ideas.
Where do you think I got the idea for this column?
It is one of the most contentious healthcare proposals President Obama has floated: offer a federal, Medicare-like insurance plan to anyone, and let commercial insurers offer their private health plans alongside it. But the insurance industry and others wary of too much government intervention vehemently oppose the idea. They say the heavy hand of the government will eventually push out the private insurers, leaving the government option as the only option.
The health insurance industry announced that it is willing to end the practice of charging higher premiums to sick people if Congress adopted a comprehensive plan requiring all Americans to carry insurance. Insurers remain staunchly opposed to creation of a government-run health insurance plan, but the industry's willingness to change its rate-setting practices could make it easier for Congress to reach a consensus on legislation to overhaul healthcare.
The Maryland Senate narrowly killed Gov. Martin O'Malley's proposal to crack down on Medicaid fraud after doctors, hospitals, and the pharmaceutical industry had intensely opposed the bill. The plan to root out false claims was defeated by one vote with no debate in the Senate, after a behind-the-scenes lobbying effort that aligned many of the state's most powerful healthcare interests.
Eight days after Connecticut Gov. M. Jodi Rell said the state could not afford plans for a merger of the UConn Health Center and Hartford Hospital, University of Connecticut officials fired back, questioning the analysis Rell relied on and saying that the state cannot afford to pass up the proposal. The proposal, which UConn leaders said would save the financially troubled Health Center, calls for building a $475 million hospital to replace the aging John Dempsey Hospital. The plan is projected to cost the state $605 million over the next 10 years.
When Loren J. Borud, MD, began his first case at about 8 a.m., an operating room nurse noticed he looked tired and wobbly. She was so concerned that she suggested Borud postpone his next patient. Borud said he had been up all night working on a book, but he kept operating, starting a second case, during which he briefly fell asleep, according to a report from Massachusetts investigators. These findings are part of a report in which state Department of Public Health investigators found that Boston-based Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center provided poor care to Borud's second patient that day. They also faulted the hospital's response to Borud's apparent impairment.
