Comments on: Chunky marketing and the Wall Street Journal http://cultureby.com/2006/07/chunky_marketin.html This Blog Sits At the Intersection of Anthropology and Economics Thu, 17 May 2012 21:10:32 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Tom Asacker http://cultureby.com/2006/07/chunky_marketin.html/comment-page-1#comment-4235 Tom Asacker Fri, 28 Jul 2006 20:19:14 +0000 http://localhost/wp_culture/?p=652#comment-4235 Isn't "mass culture" redundant? ;) And isn't that the true debate, whether or not it does - and will always - exist as a defining marketplace force? Isn’t “mass culture” redundant? ;) And isn’t that the true debate, whether or not it does – and will always – exist as a defining marketplace force?

]]> By: Brad Berens http://cultureby.com/2006/07/chunky_marketin.html/comment-page-1#comment-4234 Brad Berens Fri, 28 Jul 2006 09:56:55 +0000 http://localhost/wp_culture/?p=652#comment-4234 Hi Grant, You're giving your readers only half the story here. Nicholas Carr over at his blog has been following this and exchanged emails with Gomes. You linked to Anderson's reply but didn't digest it-- and you're one of the people with the training and perspective who could be doing this. I'm honestly on the fence, having difficulty judging among the Gomes/Carr/Anderson voices... the truth, as always, is probably in the middle. I'm eager to read both Chris' book (read the original article a while back) and Benkler's "Wealth of Networks" to see where this is going. If I were backed into a corner, I'd say that The Long Tail is a creditable phenomenon, but that it's not going to be a real powerhouse economically for a while, if ever. With INEXPENSIVE media, like websites and digital downloads, the tail will come into play more than with expensive media. And, 10 or 20 years from now when mass media has lost still more fat, I'll be curious to see how things have changed. We still have far too many people who grew up with mass culture and have M*A*S*H* and The Love Boat and Cheers and other such water cooler TV in their brains as common references for what DeSousa calls "paradigm scenarios" to have changed. Did you catch the Hollywood news that ICM is buying BWCS? The big media conglomerate agency is absorbing the boutique literary agency. At a moment when the internetintelligentsia keeps crying that the mass culture king is dead, a lot of big media is investing in ever bigger media. Here's Carr's post: http://www.roughtype.com/archives/2006/07/lee_gomes_respo.php Best, Brad Berens www.imediaconnection.com Hi Grant,
You’re giving your readers only half the story here. Nicholas Carr over at his blog has been following this and exchanged emails with Gomes. You linked to Anderson’s reply but didn’t digest it– and you’re one of the people with the training and perspective who could be doing this. I’m honestly on the fence, having difficulty judging among the Gomes/Carr/Anderson voices… the truth, as always, is probably in the middle. I’m eager to read both Chris’ book (read the original article a while back) and Benkler’s “Wealth of Networks” to see where this is going. If I were backed into a corner, I’d say that The Long Tail is a creditable phenomenon, but that it’s not going to be a real powerhouse economically for a while, if ever. With INEXPENSIVE media, like websites and digital downloads, the tail will come into play more than with expensive media. And, 10 or 20 years from now when mass media has lost still more fat, I’ll be curious to see how things have changed. We still have far too many people who grew up with mass culture and have M*A*S*H* and The Love Boat and Cheers and other such water cooler TV in their brains as common references for what DeSousa calls “paradigm scenarios” to have changed. Did you catch the Hollywood news that ICM is buying BWCS? The big media conglomerate agency is absorbing the boutique literary agency. At a moment when the internetintelligentsia keeps crying that the mass culture king is dead, a lot of big media is investing in ever bigger media.
Here’s Carr’s post:
http://www.roughtype.com/archives/2006/07/lee_gomes_respo.php

Best,

Brad Berens
http://www.imediaconnection.com

]]> By: Matt Cline http://cultureby.com/2006/07/chunky_marketin.html/comment-page-1#comment-4233 Matt Cline Fri, 28 Jul 2006 09:04:01 +0000 http://localhost/wp_culture/?p=652#comment-4233 Chris Anderson responded here: http://www.longtail.com/the_long_tail/2006/07/factchecking_my.html Money quote: "I'm actually quite an admirer of Gomes' work and he certainly did do a lot of research for this piece. But he started off with the wrong end of the stick (looking at the market in percentage terms, which doesn't work because the definition of "head" keeps changing) and sadly wouldn't let it go." Chris Anderson responded here:
http://www.longtail.com/the_long_tail/2006/07/factchecking_my.html

Money quote:
“I’m actually quite an admirer of Gomes’ work and he certainly did do a lot of research for this piece. But he started off with the wrong end of the stick (looking at the market in percentage terms, which doesn’t work because the definition of “head” keeps changing) and sadly wouldn’t let it go.”

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