eMarketer cuts its social net forecast

Not many headlines have caught my eye so far this morning, but this one did: "eMarketer Trims Social Network Ad Forecast." The report, by senior analyst Debra Aho Williamson, says that social network advertising should only grow by 55 percent this year, down from an earlier estimate of 70 percent. That shouldn't have anyone crying in their virtual beer, but lest you think the problem is the economy, think again. The report cites the difficulties that marketers have in implementing and tracking social media campaigns. In the limited world view from my home office, I think this is a stumbling block that is going to take at least a few years to get over.

Googling Mike Chapman, the new 'Adweek' editor

Like most Adweek watchers, I did a little Googling last night to figure out who Mike Chapman, the new editor, is. Not that I was expecting that I'd know who the new editor was beforehand—most of the usual suspects that I've been in touch with weren't interested in the job—which can be read either way. Either it's a good thing that Adweek went fishing outside of the usual pond, or they've gone so far afield—by not hiring someone with a strict journalism background, but what appears to be a data guy—that the whole enterprise is going to turn into a bunch of long-winded analyst reports and charts. If you remember Adweek as the magazine of breaking news and lengthy features by reporters who could actually write, that would be not so good, but we won't really know what this all means until it happens. OK, here's what I found:

—His bio on eMarketer (scroll down a bit).
—A panel he's set to moderate at Digital Hollywood in a couple of weeks.
—The announcement about him going to eMarketer from The Economist in 2005.
—A summary of a 2006 report he did about podcasting. You can buy the full report for only $695.
—What appears to be his bio as a member of the team at a Web 2.0 company called Simpatico Networks.

Couldn't find him on Facebook, but with a name like Mike Chapman, might be hard to find. (Trust me, as Cathy Taylor, I know).