iMedia: Jaffe Juice: Arrogance and Enlightenment

Joseph Jaffe is detecting a gradual, but pervasive, return of the fin de siecle arrogance witnessed just before the last great online bubble popping. Which isn't entirely a bad thing, as he points out it can also lead to confidence, passion and even the willingness to risk some innovation. But at the same time, Jaffe says that he's not seeing the same sort of big idea creativity once present in the industry.

…the pool of big ideas seems to have dried up. I don't know about you, but Ford buying space on the big three portals just does not do it for me. This kind of investment was long overdue, but save occasional mentions in the press, has not exactly released the airbags of change.

One reason online buyers and sellers may appear arrogant today comes from the I-told-you-so looks they have now that their traditional media brethren are suffering through performance, accountability and metrics issues that the online media tend to handle better. Nobody likes a smartypants, but at least they appear to keep buying her inventory.