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Posts Tagged ‘Leo Laporte’

Leo Laporte on Advertising to Smart People

October 4th, 2009

Founder of the TWiT Netcast Network (and my co-host at This Week in Google) Leo Laporte did a fantastic talk for the Online News Association last week about his path to starting TWiT. Laporte's goal is to create a live news channel for techies online: content for smart, devoted people who are conversant in this stuff, not the mainstream BS tech coverage you get on TV. There are several gems in this talk, especially for folks wondering about the economics of niche publishing online. My favorite, however, was this part. Leo says that back in the day, after explaining to a TV exec that it's worth targeting a small group of smart computer enthusiasts, the exec told him:

Advertisers don't believe it's worth advertising to smart people, because smart people don't pay attention to brand. Smart people make an actual choice, they can't be tricked or convinced. They research. So we can't sell ads to a network for smart people.

Then Leo said, "Suddenly television makes sense, doesn't it?" to a great big laugh.

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Google Wave, Bing, and the Future of Newspapers on TWiT · Had a blast yakking with Leo Laporte, Don Tapscott, Jeff Jarvis and his son Jake Jarvis on today's episode of This Week in Tech. We covered much ground, from gushing over/being cautious about Google Wave (first take the time to watch this, then read this), to the flailings of the newspaper industry (read this), to redesigning the goals and methods of the modern university (listen to what 17-year-old Jake has to say about that). This was my third TWiT, but it was the first one nerves didn't get the best of me--felt comfortable, chilled out, and quite chatty . Thanks to Leo and the rest of the fabulous panel for putting up with me. Here's the episode page; MP3 available for download. · May 31st, 2009, 2 comments

Sundry Appearances About the Interwho · Had a fun week flitting about various online outlets, and I wanted to share the carnage I left behind. Over at Harvard Business, I get all Stephen Covey on your ass and published a post on how to mitigate the urgent to focus on the important. The Blog Herald interviewed me about my transition from Lifehacker to Smarterware. Then Leo Laporte and Sarah Lane were very kind to me on this week's episode of the net@night podcast. I had so much fun chatting with Leo I agreed to get in on this Sunday's episode of This Week in Tech (TWiT) alongside Cory Doctorow of Boing Boing and Ryan Block formerly of Engadget. You can watch it live at 3PM Pacific time right here. Update: Here's the MP3 for download and listening. That is all. Have a great weekend! · February 20th, 2009, 4 comments