The traditional measurement to charge for advertising --- the cost per thousand reader/viewer/user --- remains much in place for digital media. But Shelby Bonnie, the founder of CNET and the CEO of Whiskey Media, thinks it's time to chuck it out.
"The CPM has done more to stunt innovation and drag down quality products than any single thing on the Internet," he writes for TechCrunch.
Among his criticisms: Bad ads attached to bad content, all impressions valued equally, campaigns structured through media buys and requests for proposals instead of creative ideas.
He believes the solution lies in aligning metrics with what people want and he proposes a range of options --- the main one being killing the CPM.