The history and future of this list

From: Cliff Kurtzman <moderator_at_o-a.com>
Date: Tue 02 May 2006 11:20:44 -0500

Adam Audette asked me to write up a history of this discussion list
for an article he is doing on the earliest online marketing
discussion forums from the mid-1990s, and I thought I would share
some of my thoughts with our list members as well. June 14th, 2006
will mark the tenth anniversary of the date on which we began
operating the list.

The Online Advertising Discussion List (http://www.o-a.com) was
started on March 26, 1996 by Kevin Fadden of InterEdge. I first found
out about the list from a posting on HTMARCOM that was forwarded to
me by Marilyn Jones (who is now a professor of marketing at Bond
University in Australia). I had the pleasure of having Marilyn visit
me in Houston just over a week ago, and she remains a list member to
this day.

The first issue of the list is at:
http://www.o-a.com/archive/interedge/0001.html

and all the archives can be accessed from:
http://www.o-a.com/archives.html

Kevin Fadden ran the list until May 29, 1996. There were about 600
subscribers at that time. InterEdge decided to shut down its
operations and Kevin started looking for someone to take over the
list. There were 20 parties that expressed interest in running it,
and Tenagra (the online marketing company I founded in 1994) made the
best offer and purchased the archives of the list and the rights to
continue operating it. It was my first M&A deal, and the transaction
was for under $500 (hard to believe, but true). While the costs of
operating the list (a few thousand dollars a year in out-of-pocket
expenses along with staff salaries and travel expenses) have not been
trivial, the list has generated many hundreds of thousands of dollars
in sponsorship revenue over the past 10 years, not to mention
considerable business referrals and conference speaking
opportunities, so I consider the acquisition to have been a true
success!

On June 14, 1996, Tenagra started operating the list, and it ran the
forum until the end of 2002, at which time I transferred the list's
operations to ADASTRO. George Williams moderated the list for Tenagra
for a period of time in 1999, and then Donna Stryk took over
moderating the list until early 2001. I've been moderating it since
that time. Subscriber levels topped out at close to 30,000 during the
peak of the Internet boom, and then declined substantially after
April 2000.

The period from 2001 through 2003 was a trying time for the list as
it was for the online advertising industry as a whole. If it were not
from support from two key sponsors, Claria and WebTrends, the list
would probably not still be around today. 2005 saw continued
improvement in activity and subscriber levels as well as
sponsorships, with key industry influencers joining the list again.
Posting activity in 2006 however has slowed.

Current subscriber levels are at around 3750. The list archives are
estimated to encompass more than 13,000 postings. The site garners
steady traffic as a top organic Google search result for the phrase
"online advertising" and the web-accessible portion of the archives
serve as a search magnet for those looking for information on that
topic and the players in the industry. Our conference calendar
(http://www.o-a.com/conferences.html) is the definitive interactive
industry conference listing, our conference coverage reports are
widely read, and our Interactive Industry M&A deal listing
(http://www.o-a.com/acquisitions.html) is likewise the definitive
industry reference in its category.

My sense is that the email discussion forum format has become rather
antiquated in light of the more collaborative environments made
feasible by Web 2.0. I see a substantial opportunity for o-a.com to
build upon its legacy and be revitalized and expanded as a central
resource for the online advertising industry, particularly for
user-generated content related to interactive marketing. I have
lately been exploring these ideas with others that are interested in
playing a leadership role in helping make that transition come about,
and ideas from members of this list are welcome as well.


--Cliff

Clifford R. Kurtzman
CEO | Moderator
ADASTRO Incorporated | The Online Advertising Discussion List
http://www.adastro.com | http://www.o-a.com
(281) 480-6300




Received on Tue May 02 2006 - 11:20:44 CDT