Harris To Shut Its Signage / DOOH Division?
Adrian J Cotterill, Editor-in-Chief
With their leader Denise MacDonnell on maternity leave, a perceived general lack of interest in the sector (witness the stand and people at #ISE2012 and at #dse2012) what should we make of the rumours flying around #dse2012 last week with regard Harris Broadcast?
If the lawsuit we flew home with (a direct result of our time in Lost Wages) is anything to go by (not from Harris or from Broadcast International by the way) we should simply ignore, as it seems that repeating rumours is not the done thing with certain corporations!
But to us, a rumour is a fact just waiting to be discovered and so it pains us to have to tell you that, if there is any truth in the rumours we heard at #dse2012, then Harris could well be shutting their Digital Out-Of-Home division very shortly.
We’ve written before that cutbacks in military and defence spending has meant that Harris have had to be and are being more careful with their expenditure and it’s hard to see how top level management can see their foray into digital signage or digital out of home a ‘success’.
The money (foolishly we think) ploughed into DDN’s 7-Eleven network is simply money down the drain and they have not picked up any other big networks to speak of.
The talk at #dse2012 of the division’s demise was however more fuelled by talk of all the CVs (resumes to some of our readers) on the streets. To be fair, the consultants who joined Harris with much fanfare (and those consultants who didn’t join but just ‘consulted’) were not the only ones who seemed to be using #dse2012 to look for a new job but as one person told us “they were the most obvious”.
March 14th, 2012 at 21:30 @937
Can anyone direct me to real industry site with real insight and knowledge? This might be the most bizarre and moronic article I’ve ever read. The entire digital signage industry is at the mercy of a pending pregnancy? I can’t believe anyone actually pays for an ad on this site (Personally, I move away from anyone with an ad on this site). Whoever is suing DOOH, I wish you the best of luck. NOTE – This is not from a supporter nor a detractor of Harris, just someone with a sane view of the industry (though, anyone in this industry should be thanking Harris for their commitment to this industry, without them a lot of you would be in trouble0. Beers on me the moment DOOH goes out of business – I heard a rumor from a stork. Unreal ….. That said, to Mrs. MacDonnell, the best with your delivery, we look forward to seeing you back at work.
March 14th, 2012 at 23:04 @002
Somebody got out of bed the wrong side this morning! 🙂
March 15th, 2012 at 00:29 @062
It appears that despite your disgust, you can’t look away FU. And you also seemed to stop reading after 10 words. Whether Harris stays in the game or not, the fact that there are C s on the street seems to provide evidence of change. I can’t think of anyone who owes a living to Harris, outside of their PR firm, Nielsen and DDN. If DailyDOOH provides opinion and the occasional juicy rumour in addition to the straight up reporting, that is not a reason to hate. Maybe you should defer judgement until the end result is clear. Or simply don’t read it if it fails to meet your standards. But then you wouldn’t know who to avoid, would you?
March 15th, 2012 at 10:05 @462
Poor FU is a tad distressed.He or she ignite and detonate ever so easily. The story is innuendo and salicious….. to be sure. Harris had a stand at ISE 2012 that was of similiar proportions to the Starship Enterprise. Oddly enough it was completely deserted most of the time I or my colleagues passed by. Big swinging mickey if they are closing, so what……The piece was interesting and makes a change from the anodyne PR pieces lauding the great and good of the nascent industry we work in. I fail to grasp the comment about bowing down and curtesying to Harris. What do we owe them? Nada , nothing, rien, nothing niente. They should have stuck to defence applications instead of meddling in DS…………….. And good luck to their GM for a smooth delivery!
March 30th, 2012 at 00:08 @047
The quality of reporting in this story is so piss poor and biased that even the writers for the London tabloids would be ashamed to have their names associated with it. If you don’t like Harris or DDN, man up and say so. To spread idle rumors and malicious speculation is contemptible and does nothing but hurt our industry.Irwin, AWeec