Cookies And Privacy In WSJ; WaPo Adding Paywall

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign-up here.

What They Know

The Wall Street Journal recaps the struggles over consumer privacy and data in a Saturday feature. Dataium, a Tennessee-based company whose marketing data targets the auto sector, is highlighted: “Dataium’s business involves providing general data about online car-shopping trends. But the company also enables dealers to see information about people in their customer database — in other words, people who have given the dealer their names and email addresses.” Read more (subscription). And, read the WSJ’s article on how Dataium tech works (subscription).

Busy Publicis

Publicis continued a mini-acquisition tear Friday with the purchase of two agencies in India. Delhii-based iStrat does e-commerce, rich media, SEO, and social. MarketGate is a marketing consultancy. Earlier in the week the holding company bought AR New York and did a global integration with IBM’s Smarter Commerce Initiative. More.

The Paywall Expands

The Washington Post is adding a paywall. WaPo’s Steven Mufson covers the news: “Post company executives have long believed that the newspaper needed to build a larger core audience of people who are frequent users of the Web site and therefore the most likely to subscribe. And they hoped that a large online audience would bring in more online advertising. But online advertising stalled late last year and early this year.” Read more.

Bearish On Ad Tech

Digiday looks at trends publishers are bearish on for 2013. A selection of execs responds, including Turner’s Walker Jacobs who says, “We do not partner with ad tech companies that want to focus on monetizing whatever crumbs are leftover. At Turner Digital, we focus our energy on developing marketing programs that deliver the greatest value to clients. That’s why you see us investing in new assets, like branded entertainment production capabilities with the Funny or Die property.” Read more.

I Need A Raise

On The Business Insider, former Wall Street analyst Henry Blodget turns in a compelling argument on how companies need to be investing internally. He says it begins with salary, “It is very much in companies’ self-interest to pay employees more. If companies pay their employees more, they’ll increase loyalty, reduce turnover, and get better employees. Over the long term, this should reduce training and hiring costs. By increasing customer satisfaction, it should also increase revenue. By paying their employees more, companies will also put more money in the hands of American consumers, who will then turn around and use it to buy products and services from American companies.” Read more.

Patent Wars

Large, technology companies continue to show great interest in buying patent portfolios to protect against patent lawsuits – among other reasons. Bloomberg reports that Apple and Google are bidding TOGETHER (along with Microsoft, perhaps) on a portfolio from Kodak to the tune of $500 million or so. Bloomberg writes, “Unlikely partnerships are typical in patent sales because they allow competitors to neutralize potential infringement litigation.” The patents are apparently related to digital imaging. Read it. And, TechCrunch says Google, Facebook and others are banding together to get rid of what they believe are illegitimate patent infringement lawsuits. Read that one.

Privacy