Today we’re happy to announce a partnership with Dave Larson of Larson Enterprises as official sales representative for ZimmComm’s on-line publications and services, including Agwired.com, DomesticFuel.com, WorldDairyDiary.com and PrecisionPays.com.

Many of you know Dave and for those who don’t I recorded a conversation with him yesterday about our new deal. In it you can learn more about his background and what our plans are. Listen here:

After five years of growth, our company is now at the point where it makes sense to retain the services of an established media representative to market our products/services. Dave will help us more effectively serve our many clients in the agribusiness industry.

Larson Enterprises is a full service advertising, marketing and consulting firm located in West Des Moines, Iowa. Dave has over 25 years of advertising, marketing, public relations and public policy experience with both public and private sector clients including national and international trade associations in food safety, agriculture, recreation and legal fields.

“I am pleased to have the opportunity to assist ZimmComm in representing the targeted advertising, marketing and media opportunities provided through their network of sites,” says Larson. “This truly is a unique opportunity of future growth for advertisers in reaching their key target markets. As a part of this new opportunity we will be offering new packages and schedule opportunities for those reserving advertising placements prior to July 15.”

So if you’re looking for a great new media deal Dave is your man. You can contact him via email or 515-440-2810.

I still find so many in corporate communications who can’t wrap their mind around this concept. Granted there are a lot of control freaks out there who fear loss of the control they’ve enjoyed for so many years. It’s a mentality that says “I’ll build what I want them to see and give them the choices I want them to make.” But those days are coming to an end.

Today’s consumer (any kind, farmers included) not only want and demand freedom of choice but they’re just creating their own destinations and touch points. They’re leaving the old destination websites behind. I was prompted to write this after reading Steve Rubel’s post on Micropersuasion, “The End of the Destination Web Era.”

After years of erosion it now it appears the destination web era is drawing to a close. This a trend that digital thinkers like Om Malik have long noted. In fact, the numbers prove it.

In March the average American visited a mere 111 domains and 2,500 web pages, according to Nielsen Online. What’s worse, our attention across these pages is highly fragmented. The average time spent per page is a mere 56 seconds. Portals and search engines dominate, capturing approximately 12 of the 75 hours spent online in March. However, people-powered sites like Wikipedia, Facebook and YouTube are not far behind, snagging nearly 4.5 hours of our monthly attention.

He points to an article by ARAnet in conjunction with Opinion Research Corporation that talks about what you can do to break through the clutter. The answer doesn’t include fancy pop up ads.

Long-shunned pop-up ads remained the least favorable option for every audience segment, regardless of age, race, income, sex, region or size of household: 87% of respondents said they were not very likely or not at all likely to read and respond to them.

Their conclusion is that brand mentions in articles is one of the best ways to reach consumers. I would call that “meaningful content” that is posted into social networking locations and on highly search engine optimized websites (blogs). That’s why public relations folks are trying to figure out ways to present information to bloggers now. We’re not your ordinary msm journalists!

Do you get it? Are you willing to venture out into the online conversation or are you going to stay inside your “safe” online house and hope someone comes to visit?

For some reason mainstream media want to position blogs as something other than a communications tool that effectively reaches niche audiences, something they can’t do and don’t want to do. They’re all about reaching a huge mass audience and charging a fortune to advertisers to reach it even though the advertiser really only needs to reach a small segment of that audience. I think they’re jealous and scared to death of those of us who have figured out we don’t need them any more. Why should I pay huge sums of money to reach an audience I only need about 2% of? Why not invest in my own medium and reach my own customers/members? I’ll save money and have direct interaction with my audience. No more relying on some gatekeeper to deliver my message for me.

This WSJ article is so full of misinformation it’s ridiculous. Here’s another item that shows where this writer’s head is at, “It takes about 100,000 unique visitors a month to generate an income of $75,000 a year.” Say what? Can you over generalize any more? There are lots of examples of people with small audiences making very good money blogging. It’s not about how many but “who.” If I reach 100 people you want to reach then I have a valuable audience that you might be willing to pay me to get exposure to. It’s happening all over the place.

The id who wrote this article even refers to unions and bloggers working long hours of up to 60 hours a week. Must be a union member I would guess. The article also says that bloggers are overwhelmingly happy with their work but that may change if they lose work and don’t have unemployment insurance, yadda, yadda. I guess it’s hard for a non-motivated anti-entrepreneurial 8-5er to understand people who value their independence and who don’t need to rely on unions and the government to care for them.

Full time bloggers I know, me included, don’t want or need the safety net this reporter obviously relies on. I highly recommend starting a blog and with it your own business. It’s working for a lot of people. This article shows me why so many are no longer employed by newspapers today.

• 43% of Americans are aware of podcasts and 20% have listened to them
• Internet access from any location is now approaching 9 in 10 Americans
• Dial-up is down to less than 1 in 6 homes with internet access
• Growth of iPod/portable MP3 players continues in 35-64 age demo
• Digital radio audience continues to listen to AM/FM radio

Americans are increasingly enhancing their use of traditional media with new ways to control how, when and where they consume information and entertainment

Consumers say flexibility, control and variety drive their use of online and portable media options

There’s a lot of interesting facts and figures in the report. When it comes to online though, not much is said except to point to it as one of the factors contributing to the problem these companies are facing.

But the rise in the Web ’s news audience in 2008, even at legacy news sites, only added to the crisis in facing journalism.

By all appearances, the limited prospects for online advertising that supports news in 2008 became a settled issue. Even worse, little progress appeared to be made during the year in developing any new revenue models, the biggest challenge the news industry faces in its fight for survival.

New media options are now being invested in by large media companies but it may be too little too late, especially since they can’t seem to figure out a revenue model to support their huge overhead.

Ad Standards Define Industry Units and Organize Audience Reporting

Washington, DC — February 1, 2009 — The Association for Downloadable Media (ADM), which facilitates the monetization of episodic consumer-downloaded content, today announced a list of members who are in voluntary support of the first standards and guidelines agreed upon by the organization. This further advances the organization’s charter of creating a landscape favorable to the commercialization of web-delivered shows.

Both the ad standards and audience measurement guidelines were created by open committees, then offered for public comment, edited and ratified by the organization. Though many members have been following these formats as a standard practice of doing business, the member organizations are now organizing to publicly support these standards in an effort to create a scalable, organized market for advertisers to easily flight campaigns and become sponsors of episodic podcasts and vidcasts.

“Our members’ voluntary support of the ADM standards and guidelines provides structural integrity across separately-held ad networks, inventory pools and publisher assets, to create the scale needed to operate in today’s advertising marketplace,” says Chris MacDonald, Chairman of the Association for Downloadable Media.

Ad units that have been standardized include pre, mid and post roll insertions, product placement within shows, and host-endorsements among the twenty-five creative options outlined in the standards document. The measurement guidelines give each member company one of two reporting options, based on how their shows are hosted, either Native Server Measurement (NSM) or Third Party Measurement (TPM).

Now marketers can create ad units they can run in multiple podcast networks as well as in the shows of independent content producers to weave together a demographic and/or contextually targeted campaign. Further, audience metrics can be compared more easily and with confidence.

“With the emergence of each new digital media it’s vital to create standardized ad units and measurement. Now that downloadable media companies are adopting the ADM guidelines, ad agencies will include podcasts and vidcasts in their media recommendations as standardized units mean they can scale across multiple content producers to get the reach they need.” Susan MacDermid, SVP, Real Branding.”

List of the Member Companies Participating in the Standards:

The ADM is open to both corporate and individual producers of content as well as non-profits, advertising agencies and solutions providers in the portable media space. The following companies that have agreed to offer at least a portion of the ad units outlined in the standards document and to report their audience metrics through one of the two methods outlined in the guideline are listed below.

COMPANY / CONTACT
BackBeat Media / Dave Hamilton
Bare Feet Studios / Roxanne Darling
Burst Media / Rob Simon
Circle of Seven Productions Sheila English
Coverville / Brian Ibbott
Culinary Media Network Jennifer Iannolo
Culture Catch / Richard Burns
IndieFeed / Chris Macdonald
KCRW / Jennifer Ferro
Kiptronic / Dave Rowley
Modified Media / Doug Taylor
NPR / Bryan Moffett
Personal Life Media / Susan Bratton
Podcast.com (Treedia Labs) / Glenn Gaudet
Podtrac / Mark McCrery
Portage Media Solutions / Jeremiah Staes
PRI / Morgan Church
Quick and Dirty Tips / Richard Rhorer
Raw Voice / Angelo Mandato
Revision3 / Jim Louderback
Sciencepodcasters.org / Ginger Campbell
SkydiverGirls.tv / Karen KFC Blanchette
The Best Radio You Have Never Heard / Perry Bax
Volomedia / Jeff Karnes
Wizzard Media / Chris Macdonald
ZimmComm New Media / Chuck Zimmerman

About the ADM

The Association for Downloadable Media is focused on providing standards for advertising and audience measurement for episodic and downloadable media. The organization’s constituents include individual podcasters, media companies, publishers, syndication companies and distributors offering downloadable media, advertising agencies, marketers, technology suppliers, hardware and software manufacturers of portable media products and services, market research firms and audience and advertising effectiveness measurement companies. Through our volunteer membership, we provide leadership in and organization of advertising and audience measurement standards, research, education and advocacy to all those involved in portable media (Podcasts/ATOM/RSS media enclosures) across the Internet, iPods, MP3 players, mobile devices, P2P and other upcoming platforms.

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For more information, contact:

Susan Bratton
Personal Life Media
650-948-0500
susan at personallifemedia dot com

Phil Wilson
Association for Downloadable Media
612-743-7860
pwilson at downloadablemedia dot org

After attending J-School at the University of Missouri, David Brazeal worked as a radio reporter and wire service editor. Then the Internet lured him away from the newsroom. Now, he uses his experience to help clients communicate better with their customers and employees through a wide range of social media tools.

And you know who I am.