Forbes CEO warns: Web publishers will take over

The chief executive office of economics site, Forbes.com, has warned web publishers will increasingly take over selling their own media. Jim Spanfeller also told delegates at Needham & Company's Internet and Digital Media conference automated adverts could devalue web content. He cautioned against the current trend to target networks, because "you're basically moving advertisers away from the content group, and that's inherently a bad idea", Online Media Daily reported him saying. Despite this, his company has itself launched a social network, in which users are rewarded for their ability to advise others and answer questions. The analysis of users' preferences and retrieval of web analytics could be easier with MySpace's announcement of its data portability initiative. Working with other networks, such as Yahoo!, e-Bay and Twitter, the social site has made it possible for users to create one portable identity.