MarketerBlog

Time Shifting: Going Nonlinear with New Media

Chris Schroeder’s editorial in the March 2006 issue of Media Magazine is a call to action to traditional media companies. Chris knows a thing or two about the subject, having taken Washington Post/Newsweek Interactive to a leadership position among national news sites during his tenure as CEO there. He’s often had to bridge the gap from traditional media old-think to innovation.

Chris makes the case that traditional media falls prey to linear thinking when it develops new ideas. As is true in many industries, they conveniently try to view the world in some form of directed evolution, moving logically from one media format to the next. He suggests that they reverse their thinking. He challenges them to reinvent their businesses by shifting time.

 “Because if you try a thought experiment with me and shift time -- the ultimate linear measurement -- a few questions will lead you to common-sense conclusions. And in answering these questions, you won't just think about "evolving" the old way of doing business, but about reinventing it.”

By starting with the premise that the current on-demand, digital environment is the norm, traditional media companies can begin to think in terms of future innovations, versus trying to protect legacy infrastructure with modest alterations to current businesses.

Rupert Murdoch made an even bolder statement in his speech this week to a group of old media old-liners.

 "Societies or companies that expect a glorious past to shield them from the forces of change driven by advancing technology will fail and fall," he warned. "That applies as much to my own, the media industry, as to every other business on the planet."

Murdoch acknowledges the new generation of media consumers who demand what they want, when they want it. And he takes the point even further, to the responsibilities of media in democratic society.

 "Never has the flow of information and ideas, of hard news and reasoned comment, been more important. The force of our democratic beliefs is a key weapon in the war against religious fanaticism and the terrorism it breeds."

News Corp has long had an interest in online media, having started an ill-fated joint venture with MCI as early as 1995. Their recent acquisition of MySpace indicates a better understanding of the dynamics of the medium and its potential for the future.

While I agree with both gentlemen, I would extend the point a step further. Media companies – and marketers in general – need to stop assuming the “us versus them” mentality of creating products and services for “target audiences”. Social networking, open source technologies and broadband have combined to create an environment where active, engaged users can interact directly with each other.  Whether it’s creating videos and posting them to YouTube or blogging political opinions or selling cars to each other, the so-called long tail can now effectively (and efficiently) interact.

The challenge for media companies is to understand the dynamics of these conversations and leverage them. As media companies are quick to point out, there will always be a role for professional journalism. But news organizations must better understand the power of citizen journalists and discover ways to harness their participation in the process. Only when media companies learn how to collaborate with their audiences and users, will they reap the benefits of the digital, on-demand, attention economy.

 
Technorati Tags:

Edgeio, Marketing, Media, Rupert Murdoch, Social Networking, YouTube, Web2.0

Sprawl-Mart Blogs: The Post Heard ‘Round the Blogosphere

The blogosphere exploded with commentary yesterday after the New York Times reported that Wal-Mart is conducting a blog-relations campaign via its PR firm, Edelman. There is a good deal of thoughtful analysis on the story, ranging from Jeff Jarvis’ reality check to bloggers that this has been going on for a long time with the mainstream media, to Robert Scoble’s strident response that he would publicly “out” any Microsoft employee he found following this practice. Cymfony’s Peter Kim went as far showing this as an example of how not to blog.  And of course it put Steve Rubel in the uncomfortable position of balancing the roles of corporate-apologist and voice of the blogosphere.

What’s interesting about this story is not the specific Wal-Mart situation itself, but its implications. As one of the world’s largest companies and (perhaps the largest retailer) whatever Wal-Mart does has considerable impact. They can single-handedly affect Levi’s profitability or the popularity of a new CD with a single stroke of their discount pen. What’s intriguing is that this story raised the issue to national attention, both in the mainstream media and the blogosphere.  It forces us to examine the question of transparency and authenticity in corporate blog relations. 

Dan Gillmor makes the point that this is an old problem, which has become more complicated with the growing popularity of the blogosphere. 

“Most of all, though, it’s worth noting that people involved with stories, or their paid personnel, constantly talk with pro journalists Now they talk with interested bloggers and others in the “new media” world. It’s part of the influencing and journalism processes, but it’s getting larger and to some degree messier.”

PR professionals are used to shaping the message and trying to influence opinion. The blogosphere is a rascally independent creature that wants to have its own varied and often self-contradictory point-of-view. Consumers are weary and wary of being marketed to. They don’t want to adopt brands, they want to engage with each other on topics of interest to them. Somehow, marketers need to balance these conflicting objectives and assets, and create strategic ways to authentically engage in conversations with their prospects and customers. Marketers need to listen first; then act. And when the take action, they need to be prepared for reaction. The new world of Web 2.0 marketing is more akin to customer relations than brand management. Pete Blackshaw of Nielsen BuzzMetrics put it nicely in his comment on BuzzMachine’s post: 

“What does seem clear (and transparent) is that consumers are more demanding and attentive than ever before, and carry far higher expectations about just about anything we say or share; disclose or don’t disclose. This is a very important debate, and it should be continued.”

Amen to that!

 

Technorati Tags:

 

Blogging, Journalism, Marketing 2.0, Media, Public Relations, Wal-Mart, Web2.0

More Group Hugs from Old Media to New Media

It turns out that news, like politics, is local.  Or at least that’s the way some of the largest news media organizations see it when it comes to coexisting with new media. 

The February issue of Red Herring has an article on the new rules of engagement between old and new media.  Newspapers in particular are taking at hit at the hands of citizen journalism and person-to-person classifieds like Digg and Craigslist.  At first the old school journalists stuck their collective heads in the sand and decried the importance of these newcomers.  Now they’ve passed into the second stage, from denial to acquisition.  The large media companies realize that these new media outlets are an opportunity to engage readers in multi-dimensional relationships, and therefore to increase revenue.  And with 2005 revenue increases like 54.5% for Knight Ridder Digital, the strategy is hard to question. 

The article goes on to make the critical point that it’s not just about the revenue, it’s also about keeping and growing their audiences.  The largest chunk of online readers is the 35 – 44-year-old group, an important demographic for nearly every marketer.  As these active consumers adopt new media habits (from podcasts to blogs) the industry needs to follow suit.

But last week’s Yahoo story is a cautionary note to all of the old media gang looking to get into this new business.  Lesson learned?  You can’t just shoe-horn the old ideas onto the new media.   You need to adapt your thinking, your strategies as well as your technologies to the rapidly changing Web 2.0 environment.  And be prepared for some bumps in the road.  Just ask Jim Brady at the WashingtonPost.com about his problems with the ombudsman column in January. 

Change isn’t easy, especially when you have to redirect large, mature, old-line organizations.  However, if Knight Ridder and the New York Times are any indication, it’s the promise of a new world of news media choices, one built by and for consumers.

Technorati Tags:

Media, Journalism, Web2.0, Yahoo!

Blogs Are Dead, Long Live Blogs

Sometimes it’s fun to watch the contradictory conversations that circle between “old” or “mainstream” media and “new” media. Their positions are self-serving but instructive. 

Today’s MediaPost (registration required) features an editorial about the virtues of including blogs in market research and PR strategies. While acknowledging the potential downside of digital lynch mobs, the article makes the point that these highly engaged consumers can also serve as terrific brand advocates. The piece underscores the premise that effective “blog relations” is founded on authentic engagement with the audience, and that it’s more akin to customer service than PR. 

On the other hand, today’s editorial page of the Chicago Tribune (registration required) includes an article about the relative ineffectiveness (and irrelevancy) of the blogosphere. It cites as proof a recent Gallup  poll which said that only 9% of Internet users regularly read blogs, and that blogging was last among online activities. (Somehow they missed countless other studies on the subject, including a Pew study from early 2005 which reported that 8 million American adults created blogs; and that in 2004 blog readership jumped 58%, representing 27% of Internet users.) The Tribune article concludes that blogs have a disproportionate influence on media, but virtually no one else. 

Now we all know that research can be flogged to prove nearly any point. The interesting question is why so many old media warhorses are so threatened by the idea of consumer generated media. Heaven forbid that they’d actually have readers so interested that they start a debate. 

Of course there are flaws in today’s incarnation of blogs and consumer generated media. And yes, there are many self-referential conversations, particularly among technologists and politicians. But at 28m blogs and growing, they aren’t going away anytime soon. The self-expression Pandora has been unleashed from the box. Savvy journalists and marketers will learn how best to engage, and, even better, provide a counterpoint of reasoned thought in these conversations. 

Technorati Tags:

 

Blogging, Citizen Journalism, Marketing, Media, Newspapers

The Future of Newspapers: Will We Read Everything Online?

There were several intriguing posts in the past few days which orbited around the question of the evolution of newspapers and print media. Jeff Jarvis commented on the Newspaper Association of America’s upcoming $50m campaign designed to show advertisers the value of newspapers. According to Rafat Ali this exceeds the $40m campaign planned by the Magazine Publishers of America. The campaign addresses how readers are engaged with not just the newspaper itself, but with websites, niche publications, and even podcasts. But while newspapers are anxious to prove their online chops, it seems they aren’t eager to share the wealth. According to Steve Rubel a scant few of the top 100 daily newspapers in the United States have RSS feeds that stream the full contents of the print edition. 

Each of these writers concludes that the industry isn’t forward thinking enough and/or isn’t thinking strategically. The bottom line: newspapers need to get with the program or find themselves extinct. Steve Rubel goes so far as to make the prediction that in ten years news will be delivered automatically each day, not by the paper boy, but via wirelessly enabled e-paper devices that are easy to read, powered by RSS. 

I wholeheartedly embrace the myriad changes brought about by the various disruptive Internet technologies. I’m a big believer in the democratization of information and the potent combination of citizen journalism with real-time user interaction. From the perspective of media and advertising this brings substantive and welcome changes. That said, I question whether we’re going to enter a Jetson’s-style media consumption model anytime in the near future. 

When it comes to anything longer than a paragraph or two, I want to read it on paper. I need that physical interaction in order to fully absorb the content. And I suspect I’m not alone. While many of us may glance through headlines on a monitor, we also print out longer articles – or wait until we get the paper version. 

So the question is what will readers want? Yes they want customized content on-demand. Yes they want access to it anytime, anywhere. But how would they design the experience? And how will the news and print media industries respond? 

Technorati Tags: 

Blogging, Citizen Journalism, RSS, Newspapers