"...it isn't enough to be first. You also have to have the goods." Robert Scoble

Canard: First mover advantage. Catching up on Robert's blog I came across his comment about being there first. Have to agree with Robert. There are so many examples that vanquish this long standing myth. In consumer goods - Oreo (not the first cookie of its kind). Online - Google (not even close to one of the first search engines). Getting there first with "the goods", totally different matter.

Today's image, an ad by Hugh MacLeod for DDB.

Which reminds me, again, of Bill Bernbach..."If I gave any advice to anybody, it's to know his product inside out before he starts working. Your cleverness, your provocativeness and imagination and inventiveness must stem from knowledge of the product. I think the worst thing that's happening today is this juggling of a page of graphics - it's not hard for anybody to get ideas - the important thing is to recognize when the idea is good. You must have imagination, you must have inventiveness, but it must be disciplined. Everything you write, everything on a page, every word, every graphic symbol, every shadow, should further the message you're trying to convey. You know, you measure the success of any work of art by how well it's achieved its purpose. And anybody in advertising who doesn't say his purpose is to sell that piece of merchandise is a phony. And you must be as simple, and as swift, and as penetrating as possible. And it must stem from knowledge. And you must relate that knowledge to the consumers' needs...We in America are spending so darn much money for efficiency, to measure things, that we're achieving boredom like we've never achieved before. We're right about everything, but nobody looks...What you must do, by the most economical and creative means possible, is attract people and sell them. Now, this is difficult. This is sweat. This is working." Wise advice from the legendary genius William Bernbach.

They Came, Saw, Left: Couric Drops to Third (AP story via WaPo here)...

"Katie Couric led the "CBS Evening News" to its first weekly ratings win in more than five years, but her honeymoon may be short -- she slipped to third place on Monday."

Here's the race in total viewers (000) - Nightly 8,270 World 7,870 Evening 7,490. 25-54 (000) Nightly 2,720 World 2,590 Evening 2,550 - that's 170,000 viewers between first and third - a tight fight. Still making book Katie places in Nov.

Lots of chatter that Air America will seek protection under reorg/backruptcy.

The arc of media. As Gibbon once wrote about Roman war: "gradually improved into an art, and degraded into a trade"

Paul R. La Monica covers the Merrill Lynch Media & Entertainment conference...

"No one can accuse us of being off the radar," said Moonves. "We are alive and well and thriving on every front."

More 'Old media': We're not dead! via CNN Money here

Kurt Hanson makes the case for webcaster royalty rates, part one here - second in his series here. Important stuff. Bravo to Kurt!