Saturday, August 15, 2009
New Site Launches by Union Street Media
The last site we would like to introduce is the new online face of Massy Quick Wealth Management and Investment Consulting. The Morristown, NJ based firm specializes in management of private funds for wealthy individuals and organizations. They work as fee-only peer investors, viewing each client’s portfolio through the eyes of the investor instead of as a commission-based service provider.
As always, we have been very busy here this summer at Union Street Media building and launching new sites for some great new clients.
We would like to welcome Harbor Light Realty to the Union Street Media family. Harbor Light is a seven-person office specializing in residential and investment properties in the Lake Sunapee Region of New Hampshire. Their new website is a great example of a real estate site that not only sells the agency’s expertize but really sells the market area.
We would like to welcome Harbor Light Realty to the Union Street Media family. Harbor Light is a seven-person office specializing in residential and investment properties in the Lake Sunapee Region of New Hampshire. Their new website is a great example of a real estate site that not only sells the agency’s expertize but really sells the market area.
As more people hear about our real estate sites, we find new clients coming from farther and farther afield. To serve this growing segment of our business, we are using third party IDX services and building great lead generation websites for people all over the country. In our last launch update, we featured a new WordPress real estate site for Lina Panza in Montclair New Jersey. This month we are pleased to add two more WordPress real estate clients to our ranks.
Granger Properties specializes in vacation and second homes in the Lake Tahoe area. In building their website, they wanted to really focus on the activities and lifestyle that the Lake Tahoe area offers. Please visit the site and see how Granger Properties can introduce you to living in Tahoe!
In the Washington D.C. area we have just launched a WordPress real estate site for Eve Thompson. Eve Thompson chose to focus her website on the internationally known town of Reston, Virgina. Reston was built to revolutionize post-World War II town planning, and has an incredibly unique and interesting character. Please join Eve and see all that Reston has to offer.
One of the things that we at Union Street Media most value about our clients is that they are constantly coming to us with new ideas and concepts that we can help them realize. A particularly fantastic idea that Burlington VT Real Estate Broker, Brian Boardman, brought to us recently was Agents Driving Hybrids. Brian had purchased a hybrid and realized that with all the miles that Realtors log, this was a chance to make a significant difference in the carbon footprint of the entire industry. Brian wanted to develop web-based resources that would help other Realtors and agents to make the switch to driving hybrids and thus Agents Driving Hybrids was born. Please visit the website and see what Brain is doing to make a difference.
We are very please to add these website to Union Street Media’s portfolio.
The Role Of Social Media: To Sell Or Not To Sell
One of the most common questions I get is about social media. In fact, it’s pretty hard to avoid. Everyone is talking about Facebook and Twitter not to mention logging on to these applications multiple times throughout the day. The real question is whether or not social media can be used to help your business. Can it really help build your brand or sell your products? My answer is ‘yes’ as long as you consider these guidelines.
Social media is all about building a dialog with like minded people or people who are in your target audience. Social media has impact when it is focused on the market you serve. If you are in shoes and you’re trying to build a following in the area of automotive, you are setting yourself up for failure.
Begin with a Social Media plan. Many people start using social media without a clear objective. You should always begin with a clear objective and by developing a plan to support social media activities on a regular basis. Decide if you can handle the burden of social media on your own or if you will require help from others.
Share what you know. Each of us has an area or discipline that we know something about. If you have a hobby, career, or area of interest, then focus on sharing what you know with others. By focusing your efforts on what you know best, your passion comes through and keeps others engaged. This creates more value for your followers and keeps them coming back.
Communicate on a consistent basis. One of the most important aspects of social media is having a dialog on a regular basis. You must commit some time to posting on social media related sites a few times per week. By staying in front of others on a regular basis, you make sure that the conversation continues to grow. The more you put in the more you’ll get back. Communicate often and consistently to be successful.
Invite others to join the conversation. Start a dialog around a topic or discussion. One way you can start meaningful discussion is by choosing a topic and taking a stand. By creating dialog that is on topic, you invite others to be part of the conversation. The more others participate the more engaging your content. This attracts new followers and others who want o participate on a regular basis.
Succeed by not selling. One of the biggest turn offs of social media is that a lot of people, businesses included, jump in and start selling. Just like the used car salesman, some individuals focus on selling without first creating value. This is one of the most important things you can do within the realm of social media. Start by creating a dialog and providing value to your followers. Once you do, they will want to use the products you’re using and try the services you recommend.
The area of social media is in full force. By developing a list of followers or fans, you can quickly improve the opportunity to build your brand. To sell your products however, you’ll have to create value for your followers. Don’t try to sell directly. You’re best bet is to mention products in a subtle way. This has more power than the direct approach when it comes to social media marketing. Followers can leave you quickly so don’t push your luck. Create value and they will return the favor.
About the Author:
Need help with your social media marketing? Begin with our SEO training and social media program. Check out our Internet marketing forum for more social media help.
Related Posts
links for 2008-08-31
There Is Nobody In The Lobby… Introduction to Social Media « Surface Burn ...
links for 2008-07-12
4TM Social Media Marketing » Top Ten Social Media Visualisation Toys Cool list of some tools...
links for 2008-07-09
The Seven Deadly Sins Of Social Media « OnlineMarketerBlog Nice roundups of 7 big companies ...
links for 2008-07-14
Search Engine Optimization And Social Media Marketing
Verizon Builds Value Add for FiOS Internet With Home Media/DVR Upgrades
The move to differentiate services through networked applications and enhanced DVR functions continues. Verizon announced the addition of two new free features for FiOS TV customers who also subscribe to FiOS Internet. “We’ve extended these advanced features to our DVR customers so hundreds of thousands more FiOS TV subscribers can enjoy more of the unique multimedia entertainment options afforded by a fiber-optic-powered home-entertainment network,” said Shawn Strickland, vice president of marketing for Verizon Telecom, in a news release.
FiOS Media Manager enables DVR users to transfer and play videos, photos or music from their PCs to their TV and personal entertainment systems. The service mimics a home media server of sorts, allowing Internet and PC derived content to be viewed and interacted with on a television screen. The second new feature enables subscribers to remotely manage their DVRs via any Internet-enabled cell phone. Features include the ability to review, change or add recording requests, delete recorded programs, browse and search TV and video-on-demand listing, and set panel controls, as well as take advantage of other personalized viewing options. Both features were previously available only to FiOS TV Home Media DVR subscribers.
A high stakes game of digital one-upsmanship is taking place as telecompetitors, in a bid to attract new and retain existing subscribers across the digital media spectrum, increasingly turn and open up their network platforms to third-party software application developers to differentiate their products and services. We’re seeing the development of a new ‘app’ culture being applied to broadband and video mediums, in much the same way that it is transforming the wireless business. Granted, wireless is way ahead, but this app trend is beginning to take hold in wireline as well.
FiOS Media Manager enables DVR users to transfer and play videos, photos or music from their PCs to their TV and personal entertainment systems. The service mimics a home media server of sorts, allowing Internet and PC derived content to be viewed and interacted with on a television screen. The second new feature enables subscribers to remotely manage their DVRs via any Internet-enabled cell phone. Features include the ability to review, change or add recording requests, delete recorded programs, browse and search TV and video-on-demand listing, and set panel controls, as well as take advantage of other personalized viewing options. Both features were previously available only to FiOS TV Home Media DVR subscribers.
A high stakes game of digital one-upsmanship is taking place as telecompetitors, in a bid to attract new and retain existing subscribers across the digital media spectrum, increasingly turn and open up their network platforms to third-party software application developers to differentiate their products and services. We’re seeing the development of a new ‘app’ culture being applied to broadband and video mediums, in much the same way that it is transforming the wireless business. Granted, wireless is way ahead, but this app trend is beginning to take hold in wireline as well.
Portable Internet Media Tablets
The World Wide Web has created on big global family. It has become an important medium through which we communicate, work and stay in touch with family and friends. It has brought a revolution in the way we live and work.
Some of the traditional applications that have made the Internet such a popular medium are email, on line shopping, messaging and searching. However, with the advent of Broadband Internet and high speed connections it has also become possible for us to view and listen to streaming audio and video. With high speed connections it is much easier to download large video and audio files from the Internet and play the files back at leisure. As a result online entertainment has also become a popular Internet application.
With the increase in Internet speeds and technology a number of devices have been developed that can be used to surf the Internet anywhere, anytime. We can now use portable gadgets to surf the Internet, check our email and download music and video content. An Internet media tablet is one such device. As the name suggest an Internet media tablet is a PMP (Portable Media Player) and a means to download digital media content.
If you are a music buff and like to stay in touch with your family and friends when on the move, then an Internet media tablet is a must have. These devices are much smaller than laptops and are more convenient to carry around. One such device that you should check out is the Archos 5. With an astonishing 160 GB storage, you can store up to an estimated 40000 songs, 2.5 million pictures and 145 movies. All of that bundled into a very slick gadget that is great on looks.
Internet tablets have a number of other features that make them worth the investment. These devices can be connected to plasma or an LCD TV with an HDMI cable. You can even record your favorite TV programs on Internet tablets. It is a great travel companion with which you can check your email, browse the web, stay in touch with family, download and listen to music and much more.
« Don’t Just Rely on the Google and MSN Toolbars For Popups and Spyware Protection!
Finest Bluetooth Accessory Is A Bluetooth Earbud
The Netherlands: digital media hub
Although I am not a chauvinist, I want to share some insights about the Netherlands and why Dutch companies are influential, even though we are a tiny country.
Dutch people speak two, three, sometimes four or even five languages. We are a very open society and we have always been internationally oriented, both culturally and trade-wise. We are are open to do business with anyone. As long as you pay
We tend do do things lean and mean: innovative, efficient to the bone, so we can be competitive, even though salaries and taxes are higher than in most other countries.
We happen to sit on top op the world’s largest internet hub: the Amsterdam Internet Exchange. Many gigabits per second of global Internet traffic flow through the Netherlands.
With over 80% we have the highest broadband penetration in the world. Fast broadband! Average households get 4 to 20Mbps. Early adopters get up to 100Mbps broadband. Broadband consumption is extremely high. The 2008 Olympics live streams were watched (per capita) 10x as much in the Dutch market compared to the U.S. market.
Next to the USA and the UK, the Netherlands are number three in content formats and export. Endemol and Eyeworks (we work for both) are famous for their shows like Deal or no Deal, Starmaker, Extreme Makeover and hundreds other global broadcasted formats. The Hilversum Media Park is the largest media hub in the world, where broadcasters, studios, producers, and hundreds facilitating companies are located.
Dutch people watch a lot of international TV (or international shows, subtitled on Dutch TV) and we read a lot of international websites. We are used a lot for content pilots. If it works here, it may work somewhere else too. Big Brother for instance. (horrible show btw but very successful).
Digital Media Hub
Forget wooden shoes, windmills and tulips. Similar to the Rotterdam Harbour (the largest harbour in the world), the Netherlands are a significant accelerator for digital media services.
To improve partnering, form better value chains and do more international export, Dutch companies teamed up in the Dutch Media Hub.
The Digital Media Hub was officially launched in July 2009 by the State Secretary of Economic Affairs, who specifically mentioned Jet Stream as one of the key examples of successful, innovative, exporting companies in the digital media industry. I couldn’t agree more!
Digital Media Jobs
- Director, User Experience
Subcategories:
Ontario
Job Category
Testing & Usability
Job Title or Project
Director, User Experience
Job Type
Full-Time Permanent
Description
Director, User ExperienceTorontoThe Director of User Experience (UX) is a key leadership, strategic, and creative role in our organization. The UX Director leads a UX leadership team in total comprising >20 staff, with specialists in Information Architecture, web design, CSS/HTML design and Javascript. The Director will be expected to act as both a contributor on the team as well as mentor, leader and coach. The Director is expected to work collaboratively in an ever changing environment with the ability to constantly set and challenge priorities.KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:•Communicate and create overall User Experience vision by defining the direction and goals for the group; be accountable for the design quality of all user experience projects.•Provide management and coaching for the team responsible for user experience design, front-end development, and ongoing maintenance for our properties•Provide leadership and mentorship for the UX team and create and foster an environment of excellence. •Advocate for the user and evangelize best practices in usability at all level of the our organization, with staff, cross-functionally, and with the senior leadership team •Collaborate with others in Product Management, Editorial, Marketing, and Tech to develop new products and enhancements. •Work with the leadership team to improve processes and tools to increase product quality & efficiency•Lead the creation and conception of innovative user interface design solutions.•Direct team efforts by coordinating tasks and project assignments.•Improve and evolve team processes and methodologies and establish best practices. •Evangelize user-centered design principles to individuals and groups throughout the organization.QUALIFICATIONS:This is a management position requiring significant direct management experience. You must specifically have experience leading user interface design teams.Education:Bachelor's or Master's degree in design related discipline: Graphic Design, Information Design, Interaction Design, Product Design; Journalism, English or Communications; Marketing.Experience:At least 3 years of experience leading/managing user interface design teams, with the ability to inspire, lead, challenge and motivate a creative team. Candidate will have at least 8 years total interaction design experience including in-depth knowledge of user interface design principles, human factors, user-centered design processes, interaction design guidelines, usability methodologies, industry standards and trends, platform standards, software development processes, and prototype design. Experience with Agile Scrum a plus.Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:We’re looking for candidates with a passion for customer focus and innovation and ability to inspire and motivate others. You must have strong knowledge of the capabilities and limitations of modern front-end technologies and approaches (XHTML/CSS, ActionScript, JavaScript, AJAX, DHTML, Flex, etc.) and the curiosity to tinker. We are committed to diversity and equal opportunity for all people.
Digital Media Services – Time To Go 2.0 Already…
Considering you’re only paying for indexing and access to other people’s computers which do all the actual hosting, paying for anything less than a membership that allows unlimited downloads is a rip off. I’m talking, of course, to people who don’t currently survive on the pirate’s budget. You probably have friends, family or even a booty call that still relies on paying for individual downloads. For whatever their reason, they don’t want to download content the easy way, but what if there was a way that they could pay for membership access that allowed them unlimited, secure, fast downloads, even if they are a total computer newb! Now, what if I told you that there there is a way!
Instant death will be the rule for any service that relies heavily upon it’s community to operate and does not offer unlimited access! (Yes, I have to quote myself because I don’t see anybody else saying these things yet, but please do!)
That’s right! There has been a very cost effective way of providing access to digital media just laying around waiting to be turned into a legitimate, profiting business model and nobody has done it yet! Hard to believe, I know. Most of us have heard that GGF has it’s sights set on acquiring thepiratebay.org, but we don’t really know for sure whether even (should they close the deal) they will offer an unlimited access type of business model. Instant death will be the rule for any service that relies heavily upon it’s community to operate and does not offer unlimited access!
Fact: Pricing per content, as if it is a retail product is, bogus because digital content is not a retail product. Data is not a product. Access to data can be sold as long as the customer either must rely on you to access that data OR you offer better quality, speed, convenience, protocol, sense of security for newbs, organization, up time, selection, support, advertising, artist incentives & compensation, uploader incentives & compensation, guaranteed seeding, etc. than the competition.
Protip: Keeping people reliant on the industry for access is rarely an option anymore. It is a waste of time and finances to attempt this time and again, only to fail. In this scenario, you would do best to harness your customer as a more efficient distribution resource and adjust pricing to reflect the actual service you offer the customer vs. the service your customer is now offering you and the other customers.
Industry, if you are trying to sway people from the pirate community to use your service, then your biggest competitors are free torrent sites. Yes, yes… we all know how you’re going to shut down all the torrent sites
and the entire world will be owned by an evil empire of mom suing rights holders *snickers*. In the meantime, you may want to begin asking your (I’m sure very expensive) idea people “what can be offered that is so much better than torrent sites that some would prefer to buy membership access to our torrent site instead?”If you’re fishing for the non-pirate market, however, then you may be pleased the competition is hardly relevant right now. It’s wide open because the biggest players in the industry are scared of digital sales. Either because they still believe they are selling retail products or because they’re crapping their pants petrified while more people continue to realize that this isn’t the case. People can now have, and want, more for less. Industry, it’s time to clinch that sphincter and serve them something other than crap. Strap on those Depends and get to it!
It is a community based service which relies on the community, so you had better keep the community satisfied, because businesses only exist as long as they can fill their customers needs. You may want to take special note in the fact that the customer can and will survive without filling your needs. But there’s nothing wrong with a bit of entrepreneurial incentive to keep the industry innovative and evolving (and ultimately, living), hey ol’ chap?
Bottom line: The first company to establish themselves as a site that allows unlimited access to up to date content is going to instantly take over the digital media market by having a huge advantages over business competitors.
It is cheaper for an online business to have P2P/customer based distribution than rely solely on dedicated servers (although, some would be needed. You can’t allow zero seeds if people are paying).Fact: Cost of distribution went down significantly, thanks to P2P. If that cost deduction is not being passed down to the customers, then service rates are being kept artificially higher than they need to be and this will only push customers away as the market becomes aware of this. How long do you have until the market becomes aware of this? I suppose it’s safe to say that you have until average every day normal guys start complaining about in in their blogs- OH MY GOD IT’S TIME!!!
Anyone in the USA should be able to tell you first hand that industries and economies based on artificial value will eventually bust. I don’t care if it’s comics, housing, tulip bulbs, Enron stocks or digital media. That will only fly for so long before someone *ahem* calls bullshit and the whole thing folds like a stack of cards.
Allow me to break the situation down into utmost simplicity:1. Consumers may now have (and want) low cost, unlimited access to any media ever put into digital form offered as a legitimate and reliable business service.2. Consumers don’t have it yet, despite the technology being readily available for years. Any consumer can see that unlimited access to data blows pay per download out of the water. It is fully a possibility. What are you waiting for? Someone else to do it? Someone will.3. The only reason this model isn’t available is because digital media companies currently only offer old or limited access to a limited variety of content (usually pay per DL). That’s fine, if a business wants to use that old model, but tell me what kind of United States of America isn’t going to allow another business to compete by offering better service if it is well within their means to do so. All on the basis that it is not fair for an outdated business model? Oh, digital media industry… Capitalism is set dead against you here. You only swim against the current for so long until you drown.
Speaking of what is “not fair” (a term I’m not a huge fan of btw), allowing artificial economies to continue blowing up until they collapse and once again the common person with good intentions who only wanted to “support the artist” will end up paying for it. Guess what? Unlimited access services can be made to benefit artists and rights holders too. Perhaps even beyond what the current services have to offer them. All potential for doing this is being wasted for as long as these services aren’t allowed to conceptualize and gestate. Years of progress and development in the digital market have already been lost. Time waits for no man! Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. O_O
For the digital industry’s sake, I hope they have such services in place because the pirate movement is their greatest competitor now and they currently have no legitimate competition. The longer the industry waits to compete, the more people are going to join the pirate movement because what is available for free is currently far superior to what is for sale. Laws are not enough to quell hundreds of millions of voters/consumers (and growing) from using the free competition. The more attempts made to block people or prevent access, the greater the amount of people seeking to bypass this censorship will be.
The number of pirates grows out of a demand and the necessity to meet those demands that is not being offered by the legitimate market. We are not a dwindling community. We are taking over your governments. Your customers continue to join our ranks. Soon your governments will be us. Soon your customers will be us. Get on board or eat our dust!
For those consumers who are sick of waiting for the industry to pull their thumbs out of each others asses and offer fair service, well, all I have say to you is welcome aboard.
Have you seen our uTorrent tutorial btw?Disclaimer: This tut is intended to be used only for educating yourself about legitimately supplementing what the industry does not currently offer you!
Lifetime Digital Media signs with King.com
Womens' digital entertainment specialist Lifetime Digital Media has signed a deal with King.com, that will see the latter provide co-branded online games to Lifetime’s flagship digital destination, myLifetime.com.
Womens' digital entertainment specialist Lifetime Digital Media has signed a deal with King.com, that will see the latter provide co-branded online games to Lifetime’s flagship digital destination, myLifetime.com.Starting later this month, the new partnership will enable Lifetime’s digital audience to play King.com’s games, which are currently enjoyed by 17.5 million players – most of whom who are apparently women.“Partnering with King.com allows us to engage and entertain Lifetime Digital’s audience in even more compelling ways, and will ensure we continue providing our consumers with the very best game experiences online,” said Clayton Rose, Senior Vice President, Digital Properties at Lifetime Networks. “We are delighted to be working with Lifetime Digital, as there are unparalleled synergies between both of our audiences, which will provide many opportunities,” said Robert Norton, managing director of King.com North America.
“With the leading women’s entertainment brand and the leading provider of online skill games for women joining forces, there are now even more ways for the Lifetime audience to connect, play and share. This partnership is further proof that King is seen as the partner of choice for the world’s leading entertainment companies.”
The various Lifetime Digital Media websites already offer hundred's of female-targetted games. Bolstered by King.com's offering, the group will now rank among the top 25 online casual gaming destinations in several key metrics, it claims.
New Digital Media Brands Focus on Curatorial Experience
In a digital world where the audiences for media content are fragmenting and advertising spends are declining, some media brands are unfortunately dying. That’s what recently happened to R&B / Hip Hop leader Vibe Magazine.
Does that mean magazines or the companion web sites for those music publications are any less relevant in today’s environment? Of course not!
But imagine you were just starting a music oriented publishing brand today - starting with a physical magazine would not necessarily be the best vehicle to introduce your content to an audience.
So how are new media brands being built in a digital age?
(Since this blog post first published - we have now learned that the Vibe Magazine brand will relaunch as a digital publishing outfit - read - http://bit.ly/viberelaunch at Wall Street Journal. And that makes sense and speaks to the rest of this post. Read on ...)
Following in the post I examine a recently built media brand that found success with its audience: the Swedish based music site Discobelle.net. The site now attracts about 75,000 unique visitors and registers about 250,000 page views on a monthly basis. As Bjorn Jeffery, one of the co-founders points out, “our blog isn’t really tailored to generate major page views, and that’s not the metric we use to sell our ads.” Point taken, and granted Discobelle.net is not a major magazine publisher. Regardless there are some key takeaways in Discobelle’s path to building a modest and very engaged and targeted media audience.
Background
‘Belle’ was actually a dance music theme night at a Swedish night club. Then the founders of the ‘Belle’ night decided to build an online guide to night clubs in Sweden, and the URL they nabbed for the guide actually turned out to be a lengthened name - ‘Discobelle’. From there, the founders decided to add audio content to their initial web site, including exclusive mixes from the world’s top DJs. The site was a success especially because of the special DJ mixes they posted. Discobelle quickly turned from a night club guide into a global hub for some the most cutting edge music on the web. Now Discobelle is more than just a web site, it’s a well regarded music content brand.
Lessons Learned
The founders of Discobelle.net, Niklas Mijdema, Martin Andersson, and Bjorn Jeffery discuss how the site and the brand grew in a video interview that follows in the post. I summarized some of the key messages from the Discobelle founders case you don’t have time to watch it.
I think the video speaks volumes about how websites that curate quality content can quickly grow their own media brand. And when I say “brand”, Discobelle is more than just an audio blog. The Discobelle founders occasionally tour as DJ’s and now have their own music compilation of tunes it put together from songs featured on the site, plus other exclusives.
The Discobelle compilation is available as a CD or an online stream over at ScionAV.com.
(Side note - Yes, I said Scion - it’s the auto maker Toyota Scion. Toyota’s Scion brand offers a myriad of sponsored entertainment web sites with music and culture offerings. The Scion sites are great examples of branded entertainment. I blogged about the Scion site and other branded entertainment offerings in a previous post linked here.)
Key takeaways from the video interview following, regarding media brand building
Exclusivity, and letting the artist speak directly - A big part of Discobelle’s success is due to its direct relationships with artists. These relationships allow Discobelle access to never before heard songs from popular artists and exclusive artist videos. Discobelle also does a good job in letting the artists tell their stories directly through the posts.
Agility, and ‘Curatorial’ over ‘Editorial’ - Another part of Discobelle’s formula is to make sure they are the first to the web with new songs that could be potential hits. We’ve all read for instance how the multi platform media brand TMZ heated up internet traffic through it’s agility in covering the Michael Jackson news (related story - how TMZ innovates with its online content).
With its music content, Discobelle operates in a ‘agile’ mode very similar to TMZ.com.The founders of Discobelle realized early on, that to be first to the web with quality content, they have to discard lengthy editorial reviews of the music. Discobelle fans appreciate the site for it’s ability to curate a ton of a quality content on a daily or hourly basis versus offering reviews which would take much longer to get to the web.
International Audiences around Specific Content - Interest in niche or specific content types knows no international bounds. Discobelle launched in Sweden but has a global audience because its music content appeals to a particular type of music fan you can find just as easily in the U.S. or the U.K. Also Discobelle posts its content in English.
Element of surprise - Offer posts your readers may not be expecting.
Here’s the full interview with the founders of Discobelle.net
Related - Interesting Digital Ventures of Magazine Publishers and Resources
Ok I admit it - I may have unfairly started this article by citing the demise of Vibe Magazine to set up the Discobelle interview. It was only a plot device, I promise
So let’s back up a bit. I still enjoy my physically published music magazine titles. Interestingly enough, many of them offer full Adobe PDF versions of their publications for download. Two examples are The Fader and XLR8R. And these titles I read include multi platform content for sure - whether its magazine branded real world events or fully featured web sites with video and music offerings.
Does your favorite magazine do something interesting or engaging with digital media? Let us know what you are enjoying online with your favorite mag titles below in the comments section.
A great place to catch up with all of the digital ventures of the magazine industry is the Magazine Publisher Association (MPA).
MPA Overview of 2009 Digital Ventures of Major Magazine Publications:
http://www.magazine.org/digital/14321.aspx
The MPA also offers a daily digest of the latest digital efforts of magazines:
http://www.magazine.org/news/mpa-daily-news-roundup.aspx
PaidContent.org news stories on magazine publishers:
http://bit.ly/publication_news_on_PaidContentdotorg
Mediaweek coverage of the magazine industry:
http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/news/magazines-newspapers/index.jsp
The SEC's new media (and new-media) rules
I had not heard or read much about the SEC's new media rules until I saw a little squib on the newspaper video group pointing to this short story from Birmingham via AP via Biloxi (ain't the Web great?).Ah, leave it to college and professional sports (there's a difference?) to put the hammer down and nicely spotlight some really persnickety issues and realities that are staring a lot of TV and newspaper sports departments in the face.According to the AP, "It only allows TV stations to show highlights for 72 hours after a game ends. The policy also prohibits the media from posting video from practices and news conferences online." And reporters have to sign the contract - or no look-see.So let's see, at a time when newsrooms seemingly everywhere are rushing to create destination sites for various teams' fans, and when video is a major part of those efforts - the SEC just said, in essence, "screw you."The SEC is open in what it wants -- to drive traffic to SEC and affiliate sites. And it has every right to be as draconian as it can get away with.*Spare the anguished freedom of the press cries. So far, at least, the law seems to generally side with the idea that when teams or other groups form private associations, they get wide latitude to control the goods, even if the games, concerts, etc., are on public property or use other public facilities -- and even when government is spending questionable amounts of money providing traffic control and security.So if we are to believe the memes that the Web is becoming more and more telegenic, and the SEC intends to strangle the video baby for all but its own and affiliated sites, what does that tell us?
Well, first, of course, it opens the debate on priorities. Is pro (and that includes most major college) sports really worth covering in a time of shrinking resources? Or should we put the resources into those sports (or other) areas that,for many reporters are not especially glamorous but are truly woven into the community's fabric (high school, rec leagues, club leagues, non-traditional sports). Yes, yes. I know lots of places do lots of good things with high schools, for instance (though take a look around -- that generally applies only to the "major" sports), but this is still a baseline question that needs discussion. Oh, you'll never answer it to everyone's satisfaction, but it gives an excuse to quaff a few beers to get lubricated for some of the tougher stuff ahead.
Should we launch an all-out assault on the legality of private or quasi-private associations being able to use public facilities but restrict access? OK, if they can, should we seek to require that they effectively "rent" the facility and pay the cost of all government-funded support services?
So if you can't use video, can you use stills and audio? (You'll probably be busted on that, too, if the sponsoring organization decides you're sucking traffic from its site.)
Which leaves us with what? The intrepid scribe (a general term for all reporters, please)? But where does that leave the scribes. All due respect, but much of sports reporting, like the staged events it leads up to, is staged itself. The obligatory and lightly revealing after-game or midweek news conferences, the after-practice sessions, the precleared meetings with players.
Look, I did it from time to time for AP. No, I don't claim to be a veteran sports reporter, but I did it enough and supervised others who had to do it that I know the trenches. Yes, there is good stuff being done out there, but even more so on sports (and lord knows, it can get bad on the "government" side too) we tend to suck the teat of the hand that feeds us (no letters, please; I meant to write it that way).So the intrepid sports editor facing that nest of fanlings he or she desperately wants to attract away from the more established fan sites (ones that tend to have gotten the idea of online social communities early) is left with what? Reporting? OMG.Because now, no matter how good your reporter is, in fact the better she is, the more she's likely to piss off someone in the home office. Go find a DVD of "The Paper," for instance, and watch how Penn State's sports department ostracizes a reporter who takes it on her own initiative to actually go get a story instead of waiting to have it handed to her or have it "cleared." ("We don't do things that way" (not an exact quote, but close) is the pompous pronouncement she says she got from the SID's office.)So, at a time when staffs have been cut sharply -- even in sports -- and now that you don't have the eye candy, do you leave your staffing as is and hope he, she or they come up with the occasional nugget and can outwrite the hell out of the competition? (The Don Quixote approach.)Do you assign another staffer as the sacrificial lamb, throwing caution (and deference to the SID) to the wind and use that person to go track the stories and those players and coaches down outside their protective cocoons? The reporter doing this is likely to have limited shelf life before he or she is effectively cut off, so you'll probably have to rotate people through -- and of course, there's always the chance the offended parties could cut your whole organization off.In short, in an era when there is all this talk about pay for content, we have here a budding petri dish in which to examine this idea of value. How do you react and what really is your value proposition when your main source politely tells you to get lost and take your tinsel with you? Oh, and when what's left is being done in decent measure by many of your competitors?Sports, and the legal ability to take control of the event-related news, just highlights these challenges in an online world. Don't get too smug, Mr. or Ms. City Hall or Statehouse reporter. Yeah, the pols can't throw you out or keep you from recording. But they can ignore you, and they increasingly are with blogs, Facebook, digital governance initiatives, etc. But we're the only ones who can go beyond that surface feed of the City Council meeting and make it make sense, put it in some context, you say? OK, do it, but just like on the sports beat, too often we remain tightly tied to the hands that feed us. (Go tally up sometime the amount coming from press releases, government reports, police blotters, etc.)"But no one loves us anymore, and they should, because we do this vital public service," goes the cry. Reality check -- most of them, and that includes the public, never loved us. They tolerated us because we were the only or one of the few games in town. But now, in the digital age, when everyone is a publisher and getting that eye candy and finding that other "unique" content is more important than ever, your suppliers are cutting you off. How will you respond?Leave it to sports - and the SEC, it's greed on full display - to nicely frame things.---*The AP reports that SEC spokesman Charles Bloom "said changes could be made to the 72-hour window, the ban of online video and the definition of an event that currently includes practices and news conferences. He said the league had received complaints from 35-40 news outlets."
All Over The Media Map.
As usually happens when we don't update for a few days, items are piling up in the OMW Warehouse. That's odd, since we didn't know we actually owned a warehouse...CHOPPER DOWN: No, that's not a literal use of the phrase, thank goodness.But in the Cleveland TV news wars, OMW hears that yet another station has decided to abandon its aerial news firepower...leaving the sighting of a TV news helicopter as a rare event in Northeast Ohio.The latest grounding is of Local TV Fox affiliate WJW/8's SkyFox HD.OMW hears that "Fox 8" did not renew its leasing contract for the helicopter, which expired last week, and that veteran helicopter reporter Pat Brady is out as well.We don't know the business arrangement 1oo%, but we believe she's part of the company operating the helicopter for WJW. Of course, Ms. Brady was a long-time part of Baron Aviation, though we know if that extended to the current form of the company leasting out the copters.We believe the exit of "SkyFox HD" leaves just one semi-regularly operating helicopter in Cleveland TV news - the one used by a certain alleged CBS affiliate broadcasting from the basement of the Reserve Square building in downtown Cleveland.But even the Shaker Heights/Lorain TV Empire does not use its (presumably leased) copter on a regular basis these days. More often than not, its traffic reporter is sporting his jumpsuit standing on the station's news set in that aforementioned basement. Its use of the helicopter is described by most as "very occasional".As for the market's other two major news operations, we believe both Gannett NBC affiliate WKYC/3 and Scripps ABC affiliate WEWS/5 have basically grounded their copters for some time.All of this started due to economic conditions.Helicopters can sometimes provide a decided advantage to a newsroom in covering breaking news.We noted here that when Cleveland TV newsrooms were faced with two major breaking news stories at the exact same time, WKYC was able to use its helicopter to cover one of the stories from the air - a train derailment in Painesville - while devoting just about everyone in the building to cover the SuccessTech school shooting incident literally across the street from WKYC's 13th and Lakeside studios.But when local newsrooms started laying off staff every other week, or announcing furloughs or other cuts, spending money on a helicopter took a very quick back seat.And back when gas prices were nudging up into the stratosphere...well, fuel costs for one of those things make your own fill-ups look amazingly inexpensive. Even now, after prices nudged down into the "merely expensive" category, it's still costly to fuel a helicopter.The days of helicopter-covered TV news seem assigned to history now, particularly in non-major markets....and in the future, stations are more likely to turn to viewer cell phone video to reach places they used to reach by air...SPEAKING OF PAINESVILLE: It's been on for a while, but OMW hasn't yet noted it.A new non-commercial radio station has become Northeast Ohio's second Spanish-language radio outlet.WHWN/88.3 Painesville "La Nueva Mia" signed on a month or two back, with a transmitter site putting out 700 watts (Class A) on the southern edge of Painesville.The station is owned by La Cadena Mundial Hispana, Inc. (Hispanic World Network), which itself is fully owned by one Nelson Cintron, Jr..News junkies in the Cleveland area...no, your ears are not perking up for no reason.Cintron (as far as we can determine from extensive research) is the former Cleveland City Council member who mounted a campaign to recall the man who replaced him as a ward councilman, as a result of a previous election.But it's not the politics at play here. Cintron has a history in Spanish-language media in Cleveland, so he's no stranger to the work he's now doing out of WHWN.He's apparently also showed up in a thread about the station on Radio-Info.com's Cleveland board.WHWN puts out a pretty good signal.On a recent trip in the I-271 corridor in Cuyahoga County, we got a listenable signal out of "La Nueva Mia" from just north of the 271/Chagrin interchange all the way to just past Ashtabula. (Well, "listenable" aside from the fact that your Primary Editorial Voice[tm] doesn't speak Spanish.)But that's led to some grumbling by fans of the area's other station on 88.3, Baldwin-Wallace College's WBWC Berea "The Sting".The presence of WHWN has effectively cut off any listenership that WBWC had east of I-77, and there's flutter affecting it from the new Painesville outlet as close to Berea as Brooklyn.There are some questioning that, and we don't know enough about the engineering to tell if that's to be expected.But it seems possible that any East Side coverage WBWC had before was basically by default, since there was no 88.3 operation in the eastern suburbs to interfere.WBWC, as noted, is licensed to Berea...home of Baldwin-Wallace.Its 4,000 watt class A signal is somewhat directional, in part to protect stations like first-adjacent WZIP/88.1 at the University of Akron.A quick look at its FCC FM Service Area Map shows the primary WBWC signal area does not reach places like Parma, Seven Hills or Cleveland itself. But we're sure "The Sting" had listeners over there...before WHWN took to the airwaves.Assuming all is up to snuff and legal with "La Nueva Mia"'s new operation, the only way WBWC would be able to regain those listeners is to move to a new frequency...and we're pretty sure that after all the shuffling in the non-comm band in Northeast Ohio over the years, there probably isn't much more room to move.The other (legal) Spanish-language radio operation in Northeast Ohio is another non-comm, WNZN/89.1 Lorain, which rimshots its own city of license from a transmitter site in Berlin Heights...AND A NOTE: We are starting to "go long" here, so we have some other items for later...including that long-promised story of the retirement of a long-time Cleveland TV personality, written by one of our regular readers...
Major League Baseball’s All-Star media cattle drive.
The day before the MLB All-Star Game in St. Louis at Busch Stadium, I was sent to the Riverfront Hyatt Regency hotel in downtown St. Louis to cover the myriad of press conferences that lead up to the big game. First, there was the press conference where they brought out the two managers and starting pitchers and talked about the starting lineup. Next was the one of much anticipation: the National league player availability conference in which this year’s All-Stars sat at individual tables in a large room and the various media organizations got the chance to have at them one by one.
As you can guess, there was an extraordinary amount of international media there. (I counted at least 25 members of the Japanese press alone). Outside the closed doors of the room there was a press buildup of camera operators, television correspondents, radio producers, boom microphone operators and their sound engineers, pen-and-pad scribblers and still photographers like me. The crowd was densely packed and in close company, I thought; so much so that I was close enough to hear a conversation among one news crew comparing this event to last year’s in New York City: “This crowd in St. Louis is nothing compared to last year in New York. This is not nearly as bad. You needed to know karate moves ancd may have needed to kick some butt just to get your own space there,” one of them said. But to me, it was frenzied enough. But in a good way.
I don’t mind a crowd. I never have. So to me it was quite exhilarating to be in the mix when the doors opened and the race was on.
Tags: All-Star, busch stadium, Christian Gooden, Major League Baseball, pdallstar, post-dispatch, Riverfront Hyatt Regency, st. louis, st. louis cardinals
Big surprise: Big media wants to make bigger profits from the Internet.
How fitting: the copyright-obsessed Associated Press has written a story about News Corporation's plans to charge for access to its websites:
Visitors to the Web sites of newspapers owned by News Corp. will have to start coughing up fees to read the news within the next year, Chairman Rupert Murdoch said.It's risky for the company because a pay barrier could drive away Web traffic - and with it, advertising revenue."You don't want to be the first guy to put up a big pay wall when all other roads to content are open," said Ken Doctor, a media analyst with Outsell Inc.Yet it is a move many news outlets will closely watch as they, too, consider charging users as the decline in print ad revenue far outpaces the growth of online ad dollars.Good luck with that plan, Rupert. TimesSelect worked out so well for those other guys, didn't it? Let's hope they put subscription gates on the Fox Noise website so that its traffic will decrease.There's nothing that Murdoch's News Corporation publishes that is really worth reading, except perhaps the business coverage in the Wall Street Journal, but there are alternatives even to that, like Bloomberg.Here's a hint to media execs: Especially in this economy, expecting that people are going to willingly pony up cash to visit ad-infested news websites that sport mediocre content is not a smart assumption. Rather, it's a great way to drive away users who will end up at other sites, bolstering their readership and subsequently the ad revenue too. The Internet is an open medium; the barrier to entry is low. People have other choices besides traditional media for their news. Hyperlocal neighborhood blogs are a fine example. Then there are social networks, a way for people to freely exchange information. Twitter and Facebook may run more ads in the future, but they won't charge for access. As for the Associated Press, they arrogantly seem to think that there is no such thing as fair use. They have announced the introduction of a new scheme that they think will make it possible for them to find out who is using their content and where (and not just entire articles, mind you, but keywords and snippets) so that they can demand payment for it. They already have a website set up to collect voluntary payment from unwitting Americans who don't understand their fair use rights. This website will gladly charge you a fee for any sentence or phrase you put in it. If all of this sounds pretty stupid, that's because it is. The great minds who run the Associated Press seem to think their scheme is going to be enforced by a special "microformat". From their announcement:
The microformat will essentially encapsulate AP and member content in an informational “wrapper” that includes a digital permissions framework that lets publishers specify how their content is to be used online and which also supplies the critical information needed to track and monitor its usage.Whoever wrote this announcement for the Associated Press has no idea how the Internet works and probably couldn't explain what HTML stands for if they were asked. It's actually rather hilarious. That's because what is described in that paragraph above - a "digital permissions framework" for news - is impossible to implement. Text published on the Internet cannot be forcibly contained in some mythical "wrapper" that contains a web beacon or tracking code. Any text that can be seen can be copied and pasted by a user to their heart's content, sans "wrapper". But here's where things get really funny: the technology the Associated Press claims it will be using to "wrap" its content is actually just an open standard that's in development which allows content creators to put copyleft tags on their content!
hNews is funded by major foundations, and all of its tools and specs will be released as open-source software.In what way does this scheme "wrap" and "protect" the news? It doesn't; it simply marks it up, and adding tags expressing a content creator's wishes on reuse has no bearing on someone's rights under US copyright law. What it does do is provide organizations that use hNews a way to release more rights than are granted under copyright—in essence, a sort of "Creative Commons" news license. In fact, hNews' "rights field" uses ccREL, the Creative Commons Rights Expression Language.Incidentally, because I copied and pasted a few paragraphs above, the AP apparently believes that NPI owes them money. They have a history of making such threats to online publishers. Well, they won't be getting a dime from us. United States copyright law allows excerpting of their articles under its fair use provisions. The Associated Press is sorely mistaken if they think they can obviate United States copyright law with their own silly edicts.Fortunately, not all big media companies are copyright and profit obsessed: Thomson Reuters Vice President for Media, Chris Ahearn had the good sense on Tuesday to urge the Associated Press to "stop whining." Well, now we know there's at least one executive out there who gets the Internet.
You've already seen the player hands-on; the final reveal for the Zune HD was how well it handled when docked on a high-def TV. As you can see in this video, it blows away anything else in its class.
I was trying to figure out what it was about the Zune HD's TV interface that I was enjoying so much, and then I realized: Unlike every other device of its size and capacity, this thing is a true portable media center. It's not as fast as a fully fledged PC running Windows Media Center, but it is zippy as hell for a pocketable, portable player.
Zune HD goes dark when it's docked, like you see in the gallery. This isn't like an iPod—once docked, it's invisible, the power behind what you watch or listen to. The remote is the key. I bopped around, browsing music, scanning for radio stations (that HD has a few meanings, including an HD radio receiver, so you can see the "what's playing" data and everything) and even watching a short full-screen video on this 60-inch Samsung. The demo Zune only had the one video—I can't wait to see what it's like to fill a 32GB one with great movies and TV episodes.
The only noticeable thing missing from the interface was any online connectivity—you can't download movies to a Zune without a PC anyway, but docked, I am not even sure you can stream music (as you can when carrying a Zune in a Wi-Fi environment). More on that when we review it, naturally.
As we showed you months ago, the player itself takes the PMP user interface to a new level. When you select something, all the screen elements move at different vectors, creating at times a 3D effect, as you can catch up close in the video below. (Pardon the glare, but that's one hazard—for better or worse, it's a shiny shiny screen.)
I don't want to say more—this is not a review, and I won't be the reviewer when we do pass judgment—but let me say that, as someone who's never been terribly excited by past Zunes, this one took me pleasantly by surprise.
I was trying to figure out what it was about the Zune HD's TV interface that I was enjoying so much, and then I realized: Unlike every other device of its size and capacity, this thing is a true portable media center. It's not as fast as a fully fledged PC running Windows Media Center, but it is zippy as hell for a pocketable, portable player.
Zune HD goes dark when it's docked, like you see in the gallery. This isn't like an iPod—once docked, it's invisible, the power behind what you watch or listen to. The remote is the key. I bopped around, browsing music, scanning for radio stations (that HD has a few meanings, including an HD radio receiver, so you can see the "what's playing" data and everything) and even watching a short full-screen video on this 60-inch Samsung. The demo Zune only had the one video—I can't wait to see what it's like to fill a 32GB one with great movies and TV episodes.
The only noticeable thing missing from the interface was any online connectivity—you can't download movies to a Zune without a PC anyway, but docked, I am not even sure you can stream music (as you can when carrying a Zune in a Wi-Fi environment). More on that when we review it, naturally.
As we showed you months ago, the player itself takes the PMP user interface to a new level. When you select something, all the screen elements move at different vectors, creating at times a 3D effect, as you can catch up close in the video below. (Pardon the glare, but that's one hazard—for better or worse, it's a shiny shiny screen.)
I don't want to say more—this is not a review, and I won't be the reviewer when we do pass judgment—but let me say that, as someone who's never been terribly excited by past Zunes, this one took me pleasantly by surprise.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
