IMKTG REPORT September 24 2001

opportunities monday, september 24th

hi everybody,

things are slowly returning to
normal. information on sept 11
is so abundant, i won't go into
anymore details. turns out we
may end up going to war after
all, b/c the US generated it's
own target, where there was
none b4 (opportunities, monday
sept 17th, 2001). this means
that the focus of spending will
shift to security, technology
engineering, etc. and guess what,
there are thousands of such
companies selling their stuff
which means that no matter what
you've heard about the state of
the marketing industry being it's
grimmest in years, forget it, b/c
these companies have to advertise
too.

********* al berrios travel *********

TRAVEL: it's not a good picture.
tourism at popular cities are down.
attendance at places like Disney
theme parks to Cancun are way
down. doesn't take a genius to
figure out, i know. airlines have
cut so many ppl, it's down right
scary. priceline, expedia say
bookings are down. analysts are
cutting estimates left and right.
companies are restricting employee
travel.

bottom line: however, amidst all
this, there's always a bright side
- travel industry advertisers are
still advertising. And with so many
less travelers to attract, they
have to fight harder for each one.

top
********* al berrios research *********

RESEARCH: so you type in bin laden in
any search engine and you get a million
results. that's not good enough for me,
so i'm guessing it wouldn't be for you
either. well, i used the internet for
a little research and came up with the
following: bin laden, #17 of 52 kids,
is rich w/an estimated $300M scattered
around a web of accounts all over asia
and europe. starting w/an $80 mill inheritance
from his construction fam fortune, it
grew w/investing. he's still in construction,
agriculture, hotels and finance, however
it's all about destroying america. his
operation is supposed extremely efficient,
and credible, recruiting experts in
IT and military defense. reports say, sept
11 may have cost bin laden $200,000.

bottom line: anyone can research online,
but it takes professional effort to find
useful data. retracing how i came about
all this information, i read an announce-
ment that the bin laden group is purchasing
Pakistan Airlines and their ownership of
hotels in NY. then i went to business.com
rather than google or yahoo to find info
on this group. and sure enough, tons of
reports about former employees testifying
about bin laden's network and company
after prior terrorist acts attributed to
bin laden. what amazes me the most is
what money can buy. and in the world of
greed for money, no one questions certain
transactions. well, as it turns out, the
bin laden group claims osama was cut off
in 1991, gaining no financial support from
them. further, the bin laden group was
placed on US watch for potentially being
responsible for financing terrorists acts.
this means that even if osama was still
connected, he couldn't use his money, b/c
US freezes any assets of companies that
use their money for terrorism. so how does
he pay 19 men to train to fly then kill
themselves? a complex, yet highly effective
web of charities, fund raisers, and legit
businesses. observers say osama is running
out of money, but when has this ever stopped
a politician from running for office, or a
charity from raising millions for it's causes?
openly, islamic and muslims everywhere
condemn september 11th acts. so, why did it
occur under the banner of islamic belief?
i tried to find, but everywhere, islamic
and muslim sites sites describing "jihad"
are down. what i did find are details of
what i believe to be simply a personal
grudge between an eccentric islamic zealot
and a country he has chosen to rally his
people against. going as far back as the
1998 US embassy bombings in Africa, also
double attacks, the bombing of the USS
Cole, and a 1997 CNN interview where he
warns he will kill US civilians, he warns
that the US will pay, & that his war is
just starting. i think that he feels the
US gets it's way too often, demanding this
and that and always getting it. well, he
wanted to prove that he can do whatever
he wants, wherever he wants w/o answering
the US. islamic belief is all about wor-
shipping God and living a cleansed life,
and the dirtiest place on earth for bin laden
is the United States.

top
********* al berrios media *********

MEDIA: i keep saying it, and it keeps
happening, subscription based content
publishing businesses are the way of
the future. turns out that altho ad
rev for lots of media companies is
down, publishers are reporting tripled
circulations, seeing titles fly off
shelves, and orders increased. many
are unsure how to proceed, especially
w/o ad money, nevertheless, ppl will
continue to pay for their fave content.

bottom line: if you're a content pub,
a key diversification strategy should
be subscription or pay-per-read based.
not b/c everyone's doing it, but b/c
it works. again, whenever something
happens, i urge patience. this report
doesn't mean that you should all create
or change your biz model to subscription
based, but it does mean that it's too
important to ignore any longer. for
a strategies on how to monetize your
content using a subscription based
or pay per read model, feel free to
contact me anytime.

top
********* al berrios stats *********

STATS: neilsen reports a 19% increase
in internet use by african americans.
wow. neilsen/netratings are clearly
masters of stating the obvious. when
VIACOM paid $3B for BET last year,
ppl were like, what the hell? and when
businessweek reported that hiphop,
which, whether you believe it or not,
is dominated by african american
artists, has it's own political action
committee on Capitol Hill, readers
were like, huh? well, it's obvious
that corp america & wall street are
not as finely tuned to the avg consumer
as they thought they were. currently,
there is a fierce tug of war over
spanish language media outlets, such
as Telemundo and Univision and even
radio outlets, since census figures
Hispanics now outnumber Blacks and
pose a juicy growth opportunity for
media congloms. so what does this
mean to you?

bottom line: advertisers and investors
alike are finally valuing media outlets
that attract african americans and latinos
at levels that they have always been
claiming they're worth. Univision claims
to be worth $11B, recently rebuffing a
measley $7B from VIACOM. so, if you know
your content reaches these demographics,
it's time to reassess your value in the
marketplace, b/c buddy, your assets are
worth more than you thought they were.