Editor’s media picks – 3/30

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Best worst ad ethics 2012 goes to City Paper

Another year, another City Paper Best Of issue, and another sketchy ad placement. The picture above. You can see the small text that says it’s an advertisement, but here’s the thing—if you’re skimming the page, you assume that Wonderland won “D.C.’s Best Bar and Grill” and just paid for an ad to trumpet that… More via DCPorcupine

Google Customer Survey questions are an offbeat alternative to a paywall
By Andrew Beaujon

Speaking at the Guardian’s Open Weekend event, Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger asked readers what they’d be willing to give in exchange for the paper’s journalism: money, time or data.

Rusbridger, do I ever have an economic model to throw out at your next chat. Google Customer Surveys are these odd wee questions that interrupt articles at sites that employ them. You tell the box what you like about movie theaters, for example, and then you can read about someone accused of making bomb threats to local schools… More via Poynter.org

Maxim minimized. Big layoffs hit men’s mag Web and editorial staff
Josh Constine

The Internet killed the magazine star. There’s been a major round of layoffs at Maxim magazine. Senior Editor Seth Porges is at least one employee who got the axe, according to our sources and confirmed by a recent update to his Twitter bio that now lists him as “EX-MAXIM”… More via TechCrunch.com

Time Inc. dominates in Twitter followers
By Ioanna Opidee

With use of social media reaching near ubiquity among the U.S. population, its importance to publishers cannot be overstated. Twitter, specifically, has emerged as one of the most important platforms in the space, which has resulted in magazine publishers scrambling to up their number of followers… More via Foliomag.com

The true promise of social media drowned out by self-promotion
By Phil Johnson

In the past five years, social media has changed the world. It has redefined the press, contributed to geo-political revolutions and certainly turned the advertising industry on its head. It has altered the way we communicate with our families. With a few keystrokes we can reconnect with distant elementary school friends and lost lovers.

It has brought tremendous utility for business people. With platforms like LinkedIn, we’re never more than a few steps away from networking with anyone in the business world, whether they want to or not. I can’t imagine giving up the immediacy and the instantaneous access that I get to trending news and public opinion through Twitter… More via Ad Age

Katrina M Mendolera

Katrina Mendolera took the helm of inVocus as editor in chief in 2009, and has been running the site ever since. But she’s been a media observer since she joined Vocus as a senior media researcher for newspaper content in 2007. Prior to that, Katrina worked in daily and weekly newspapers. She holds a master’s degree in journalism from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University. Email: krandall(at)vocus.com.