I'm actually a huge fan of Dr Dobbs, been reading it since I was 10 and would go to a lot of trouble to track down issues. My disagreement isn't with the magazine, it is with the thesis that online media advertising is dying.
There isn't a single cite in this entire thread to back that claim up outside of the anecdotal examples. The numbers for online ad sales and media revenue are all growing. The fact that the numbers haven't propagated through to Google's results is further proof of that.
Edit: some stats. The IAB report for last quarter shows 6% quarterly growth:
So where is this reported decline? It doesn't show up in numbers anywhere. There are profitable and well-run media businesses with both low and premium content in all sectors. I understand the tendency to want to blame this on some meta trend, but it just isn't there and can't be backed up outside of stories and feelings.
There isn't a single cite in this entire thread to back that claim up outside of the anecdotal examples. The numbers for online ad sales and media revenue are all growing. The fact that the numbers haven't propagated through to Google's results is further proof of that.
Edit: some stats. The IAB report for last quarter shows 6% quarterly growth:
http://www.iab.net/about_the_iab/recent_press_releases/press...
Google ARPU for USA increased 7% last year:
http://www.statista.com/statistics/306570/google-annualized-...
Facebook ARPU is increasing 80% :
http://www.statista.com/statistics/234056/facebooks-average-...
Mobile ad growth up 83%:
http://www.wsj.com/articles/mobile-ad-spending-leaps-but-tra...
So where is this reported decline? It doesn't show up in numbers anywhere. There are profitable and well-run media businesses with both low and premium content in all sectors. I understand the tendency to want to blame this on some meta trend, but it just isn't there and can't be backed up outside of stories and feelings.