The New York Times writes about the increasing number of ads online that follow users from site to site.

The persistent "retargeting" takes advantage of tracking technology and is now a strategy for several companies in their campaigns that understand a first encounter with a product isn't necessarily the point of decision on a sale.

The relevant ads aren't merely related to categories users have followed. They're personalized to the point of serving ads about products or services someone has at one point perused. They follow someone around.

The response has been generally positive, the Times reports, although some feel stalked by products they didn't particularly want but had evaluated --- or were sharing a computer and didn't want others to know about what they were perusing.

Critics are also wondering about whether privacy is being breached and regulation needs to be introduced to moderate the phenomenon.

The Wall Street Journal extracted pretty much everything there is to extract from Eric Schmidt, the Google CEO, on the direction and challenges of media. Holman W. Jenkins Jr.'s extensive feature gives over much:

1. Google's focus is ensuring it doesn't lose its strangehold on Web advertising when searching is no longer as necessary.
2. It doesn't mind giving away the operating systems for Android --- if you get a billion people using a device, Schmidt notes, you can do something with it.
3. Brands will matter in the time ahead, which is good news for an otherwise lamentable situation for U.S. newspapers.
4. Targeted ads are the only way Schmidt sees salvation in what ails media economically.
5. Serendipity, that great surprise factor for the media consumer, now can be replicated electronically.

A new report from Borrell Associates indicates the growth of social network marketing will be ferocious in the years ahead. The question: Will it be properly applied?

This year about 11% of marketing spending will go to social networks. Borrell predicts that number will grow to one-third of such spending by 2015, representing $38 billion.

And the ratio of promotional spending compared to advertising spending across social networks will increase --- from about 1:3 today to about 1.75:1 by 2015. In other words, $1.75 in promotion will be spent for every dollar in advertising across social networks within five years, Borrell suggests.

Borrell notes, though, that it's difficult to measure the scope and effectiveness of such spending, and that firms use their social networks as a mass medium instead of one that needs targeting.

The annual media and entertainment report from PriceWaterhouseCoopers reveals more interesting dynamics in media consumption and revenue, principally in the growth of digital and in particular mobile.

In the U.S., the Internet will overtake newspapers as the second-largest advertising medium by 2014. In Canada, the media market itself will grow about 5% annually in the next five years, spurred by mobile.

Latin American, Asian and European markets will grow most rapidly, while North American markets will grow relatively slowly --- at a clip of about 3.9%. Overall the rate of growth is forecast at 4.2%, meaning global advertising of $498 billion U.S. by 2014. Interestingly, only the Internet and television will feature spending of more than $100 million on their media.

"Consumers are embracing new media experiences with staggering speed. The advancing digital transformation is driving audience fragmentation to a level not previously seen. However, the current wave of change is of a different magnitude from previous ones both in its speed and its simultaneous impact across all segments," PwC said in its release.

The report identifies three key trends:

1. The rising power of mobility. "The ability to consume and interact with content anywhere, anytime—and to share and discuss that content experience with other people via social networks—will become an increasingly integral part of people’s lives."

2. The increasing dominance of the Internet over all content consumption. "Using the Internet is now one of the great unifying experiences of the current era for consumers everywhere—and their expectation of Internet-style interactivity and access to content will continue to expand across media consumption in every segment."

3. The increasing readiness to pay for high-quality content. "Consumers are more willing to pay for content when accompanied by convenience and flexibility in usage, personalisation , and/or a differentiated experience that cannot be created elsewhere. Local relevance will also become important once again as an aspect of convenience and relevance."

It is a little regarded truism that the troubles for the newspaper industry in the United States are not necessarily mirrored elsewhere. Above the border, the Canadian business isn't in the same dire situation, for instance. Nor is it below the border, either, in Mexico.

While there are some European challenges, the New York Times today outlines how the situation in other countries isn't as problematic. NYT focuses on an Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) report on media in its 31 countries that demonstrates the challenges are rather small compared to those in the U.S. (A Canwest News Service report on it is here.)

Copyright protection is a focal point in some countries, particularly as their media shift more resources to digital, but the overall economic picture isn't bleak.

Which raises a question: Are media in other countries being led around by American prescriptions for problems they do not have? And another question: Are those problems merely delayed? Or: Are they simply the problems of American media?

The Economist this week outlines the economic revival of the printed newspaper, noting that many of the factors that created strife in the sector --- newsprint, advertising declines, for example --- are no longer such menaces.

It is, as The Economist notes in a headline, a "strange survival."

The newspaper is getting smaller and thus leaner, delegating anything outside its core mandate to news services --- in effect, metropolitian newspapers are becoming city papers.

In certain countries, the paper is thriving. In emerging markets there has never been any kind of a crisis. Even in America, the dual revenue stream of advertising and subscription will help ease the transition to digital and ensure the newspaper keeps its afloat.

"That emphasis on giving readers what they want to read, as opposed to what lofty notions of civic responsibility suggest they ought to read, is part of a global trend. Newspapers are becoming more distinctive and customer-focused. Rather than trying to bring the world to as many readers as possible, they are carving out niches," it writes.

The newspaper's survival is by no means assured, The Economist concludes. Young people don't seem willing to pay for news.

"But the recession brought out an impressive and unexpected ability to adapt. If newspapers can keep that up in better times, they may be able to contemplate more than mere survival."

A PriceWaterhouseCoopers forecast issued today says advertising levels will only in 2015 recover to their 2007 levels. By that time, China will have surpassed Japan as the world's second-largest media market and more than 30% of advertising will be in the digital sphere.

The report asserts the recession accelerated the transformation of the advertising business to digital. It says the United States and Canada were hit hardest by this change and will be slowest to rebound. Worldwide, advertising declined 11.8% last year.

It predicts 3.9% compound growth in North American advertising but stronger growth in Europe (4.6%), in Asia (6.4%) and Latin America (8.8%).

One other observation in the report: Consumers are shifting loyalty away from Internet and mobile phone providers and to the smartphone and tablet devices themselves.

In his latest post on Reflections of a Newsosaur, Alan Mutter explores a recent theme of Yahoo's ambition in the news space.

As he sees it, the $100-million-plus purchase last month of Associated Content and its 380,000 creators is another step toward the development of local news operations that --- coupled with Yahoo's sophisticated ad network and rich user database --- pose a real challenge to the newspaper.

"Assuming the fare produced by Associated Content is sufficiently respectable to attract and retain substantial audiences, then Yahoo’s ability to deliver targeted ads – combined with its overwhelming market presence on the web – will give it significant advantages against the incumbent newspapers operating in most markets," Mutter writes.

It will be important, then, for newspapers to be part of Yahoo's advertising network, Mutter surmises.

Don't chase large audiences. Go for a focused one.

Engage who you have. Don't just blanket them.

And know your place in the media landscape. Stop trying to be everything.

Those are summarized views of the head of the Trinity Mirror digital group in the United Kingdom, Matt Kelly, as his firm makes the transition.

Where once there were two streams of revenue, now there are 28. There are niche digital products for the football fan, for celebrity gossip, and others are in the works.

Kelly says the advertiser wants an engaged audience, not a massive disengaged one. He laments distinguished media lumbering after the big crowd. Tackling smaller crowds can yield larger revenue.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt said he'd been waiting a long time for today's announcement. He brought CEOs from Sony, Best Buy, Logitech and others to the stage to announce Google TV.

What is it? We don't really know yet, although its aim is to marry the Web and the television set. It's clearly Google's effort to wrest a large piece of the television advertising pie.

Here's what it seems to be: A marriage of platforms to permit universal search of television and Internet video, an intiative to make television a development tool, and an olive branch to Flash (arguably the best delivery of Web video to the screen, and most recently shunned by Apple, who will be Google TV's principal competitor). 

Sony will unveil it in an HDTV later this year and Logitech will deliver the search box.