Mediaboss Marketing

By Jane Genova - March 15, 2012 | Tickers: BKS, CHRS, JCP, JWN | 0 Comments

Jane is a member of The Motley Fool Blog Network -- entries represent the personal opinions of our bloggers and are not formally edited.

No surprise, Barnes & Nobles (NYSE: BKS) stock pricehas beenrising since it hired a tech-savvy chief financial officer. Former cable television finance big Michael Huseby will lead the book chain into its digital future. When announced Monday, the stock, which had nose-dived 7.5% in 2012, rose 1.6% to $13.61. On Tuesday, it closed at $14.38. Not only is Huseby expected to unlock Nooks value, but he's also the guy in charge of how resources are allocated. Down the road, shareholders might well anticipatesome M&A to help push the company ahead of competitors Amazon and Apple, possibly the introduction of more and more devices, and maybe shuttering a lot of the brick and mortar that outside oflarge metro areas.

Barnes & Noble is not the only company to receive a thumbs-up by thestock marketbecause of a digital move. The other parts of retail which got smart earlyabout digital and didnt get complacent also have been darlings among analysts. At the top of the list are:

Last August, the L2 Digital IQ Index for specialty retailers ranked all three as Genius in their digital competence.Check out that term "Digital IQ" in the Index. Remember how, since the mid 1990s, Emotional IQ has been such a key factor in assessing human capital for hiring and promotions? High Digital IQ, or unusual mastery of leveraging digital,seemstobea keypart of what analysts look at indetermining the value of a retail organization.

But measuring Digital IQ entails more thansizing up theecommerce facilitated by the retailer's website. Bright colors. Two daily deals.Coupons downloaded to mobile.Free shipping. Nice, but ecommerce 1.0. In essence,high Digital IQ isabout how competent retailers have become in accommodating customer preferences continually being made possible by technology.According to L2Think Tank, 79% of those with smartphones use them for shopping. In the aisles they can scan barcodes and find out the prices at nearby competitors.So what is being done to keep shoppers from leaving the store without buying?Can brand loyalty as established by the three geniusesdo the trick?

Nordstrom pulls out all the stops on that front. For example, THE NEW YORK TIMES reports, ithas devices positioned around the brick and mortar so that sales associates can electronically check out customers wherever they are. Those who want an e-receipt instead of a paper one get it. Eventually it will probably be possible for customers to check out right in the dressing room. No more gathering up the clothes and hunting for a cash register. That will not onlyadd to convenience, butit saves time, the most valuable commodity in shoppers' lives.

Digital IQ also figures into how retail monetizes its social networks such as Facebook. Very few have made them actual platforms for transacting sales.Other aspects involve that pre-digital ingredient creativity onlyfocusing it on technology. Charming Shoppes (NASDAQ: CHRS) added a new wrinkle to the familiar website feature which allows shoppers to mix and match clothes and accessories. Now shoppers can, as with Google+, have their friendshang outonline with them and give their opinions about the selections.

But what about retailers not aggressively developing digital competence? To analysts that could be a sign, maybe even on a subconscious level,of something off or missing. That creates or adds touncertainty. No analyst likes uncertainty. Take J.C. Penney (NYSE: JCP)for example.When Apple and Target veteran Ron Johnson became chief executive officer, the stock rose to 43.18. Its now at 37.63 and is bound to go lower, warn the shorts like Shmulik Karpf, an economist at the Tel-Aviv Stock Exchange. Some have cut EPS estimates from those early February days of about 50-cents to 2-cents for 1Q and 2Q.

Most of Johnsons focus, at least inwhat he's telling investors and the media,has been on pricing reforms. The one digital piece which made news was his ending the high-profile ecommerce partnership CLAD with ESQUIRE.The fashions featured were cool, the antithesis of what J.C. Penney had become known as: dowdy. The current jcpenney.com website lacks excitement.Just on digital, Macy's could eatPenney's lunch and dinner.

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Retail + Digital = Higher Stock Price

12-03-2012 13:51 Sponsored by Lexar In this Event Space presentation Jeff Cable gives information on how event photographers can make more money and have more fun at their work. He shares many of his trade secrets to help you learn better photography and better marketing skills to build your photography business. Over the last 6 years, Jeff has developed a unique approach when shooting Bar / Bat Mitzvahs, weddings and other events. Jeff Cable Photography http://www.jeffcable.com Lexar Media's Digital Photography Tips dp.lexar.com

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How to Photograph Events and Make Money Doing It - Video

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwire -03/13/12)- Entertainment and sporting events seeking a new way to make money can now stream their event live on the Internet and use a paywall to sell digital tickets to their fans. Eventstream, a Toronto based startup, provides a full-service live streaming solution for events to increase their profits and exposure from a worldwide viewing audience. Eventstream's service rivals the quality of television broadcasting and is not governed by the CRTC or bound by other licensing restrictions. This freedom is exactly what event promoters are looking for and provides a welcomed change to the high cost, rigid standards, and limited markets of traditional event broadcasting.

"Event promoters need a way to retain control over their content and the revenue it generates" says Michael Dawson, president of Eventstream. "We give them the control back, and enable them to reach a worldwide market without the syndication boundaries of television".

Eventstream's service enables events to stream real-time high definition video directly to their website. The mobile and tablet enabled video player implements live chat and polling social features and can be shared across social networks like Facebook. The in-player paywall allows promoters to set the individual ticket price to watch their event and provides a detailed analytics report on viewers behavior. Also offered is mobile LTE Internet allowing HD streaming to take place wherever cell service is available. Eventstream's service is now available, and was successfully used to stream the 2011 We Day celebration in Winnipeg to more than 15,000 people around the world. For more information on the service, please visit the company's website at http://eventstream.ca.

About Eventstream

Eventstream is a full service live streaming and webcasting company producing multi-camera online broadcasts for worldwide distribution. The company, located in Toronto, focuses on sporting and entertainment events and specializes in digital ticket sales, and social media integration.

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New Live Streaming Service Lets Sports and Entertainment Events Double Their Revenue Using Digital Tickets

ISSAQUAH, Wash. & MEMPHIS, Tenn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Syncronex, a leading provider of technology solutions to the publishing industry, and The Commercial Appeal, Memphis, the most visited and most read publications in the Mid-South, announce The Commercial Appeal (CA) successful deployment of Syncronex's syncAccess authentication and pay meter solution for all of the publisher's digital products.

"With syncAccess weve been able to deliver a custom digital pay model across all CA applications and websites," said Joe Pepe, President and Publisher for CA Media. "Integration with our back-end systems for authentication was seamless and we have full ownership of our subscribers.No other company was able to offer such a complete solution."

syncAccess is a fully customizable, cloud-based authentication and pay meter solution. For The Memphis Commercial Appeal, Syncronex:

syncAccess has been designed and built from the ground up for newspaper publishers - specifically to work with a publisher's existing infrastructure.

"In addition to increasing Sunday circulation, we've seen a monthly increase in digital revenue from the beginning of the syncAccess implementation," continued Mr. Pepe. "Ultimately, the cost of waiting to implement syncAccess and our mobile applications was far higher than just implementing them."

"Working with CA has been an incredible experience," said Mike Pirello, President of Syncronex. "Their vision for a connected print and digital experience and their willingness to stop at nothing to maximize their customer's experience has set a new standard for integrated news offerings. It's an honor for Syncronex and syncAccess to have been selected as an integral part of this groundbreaking solution."

To learn more about syncAccess and read a case study about the CA implementation, please visit syncronex.com.

About The Commercial Appeal

The Commercial Appeal is a one-stop resource for delivery of news, information and advertising to a broad audience in Memphis and the Mid-South. We publish numerous products across many platforms every day including The Commercial Appeal and commercialappeal.com, two of the most used news sites in the area.

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The Commercial Appeal Leverages Syncronex syncAccess Authentication and Pay Meter Solution for Digital Offerings

By Andrea Shalal-Esa

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Europe's leading space company, Astrium, is "generally interested" in acquiring one of two U.S. digital imagery providers, GeoEye Inc (GEOY.O) or DigitalGlobe Inc (DGI.N), and would look carefully at a deal if the price was affordable, a top Astrium executive told Reuters on Tuesday.

Evert Dudok, chief executive of Astrium Satellites, said the company's parent, Europe's EADS (EAD.PA), was actively looking for takeover targets in the United States, and either of the two companies would be a good fit with Astrium, which is ranked No. 3 -- behind them -- in the geospatial information market.

"We are generally interested, but we have to really see whether that makes any sense," Dudok told Reuters after a panel at the Satellite 2012 conference. "Should such an occasion arise at a price that is affordable, one would certainly look at it."

Dudok's comments came after Sean O'Keefe, chief executive of EADS North America, underscored the company's determination to pump up its U.S. revenues through acquisitions, alliances or mergers, especially in the services and satellites sectors.

Dudok noted that Astrium last year acquired Vizada, a Paris-based satellite communications firm, and was building a strong geo-information business that provides earth observation, radar and other data to customers around the world.

He said both GeoEye and DigitalGlobe did a great deal of work for the U.S. government, which could make an acquisition by the European company more difficult, but he said an acquisition in that area would allow Astrium to streamline market approaches and combine databases for expanded commercial sales.

GeoEye and DigitalGlobe shares have come under pressure in recent weeks amid reports that the U.S. government plans to halve or significantly scale back its expected procurement of $7.3 billion in digital imagery over the next decade.

GeoEye shares closed up $2.54, or 13 percent, at $22.34 on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange on Tuesday after a conference call with top executives on the company's 2011 earnings.

That is up from a year low of $17.98, but still well below a 52-week high of $42.38.

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EADS' Astrium interested in U.S. digital imagery firms