Companies that were once content to fight in store aisles and on commercials are choosing a different route — formal grievances challenging their competitors’ claims.
Selected by peterhimler
-
NYT: Media and Advertising
-
Are Ads True? New Lawsuits Ask for Proof
21 Nov 2009 | 11:38 am -
An Unsteady Future for Broadcast
21 Nov 2009 | 6:53 amAnalysts and executives are wondering if the economic model of broadcast television, which is more heavily reliant on advertising than cable, is irreparably broken. -
New Leaders in Japan Seek to End Cozy Ties to Press Clubs
21 Nov 2009 | 12:36 amThe authorities are expanding access to journalists who don’t belong to cartel-like media groups that analysts say have produced a relatively spineless press. -
G.E. and Vivendi Halt Talks Over Stake in NBC
20 Nov 2009 | 10:47 pmThe sides appear to be at least $500 million apart on how to value NBC Universal, which G.E. is hoping to sell to Comcast, the big cable television company. -
Winfrey Bets on Her Future With Cable
20 Nov 2009 | 9:05 pmOprah Winfrey will end her daytime talk show in 2011 as she prepares to start a cable channel of her own.
-
Church of the Customer Blog
-
New company, new history
18 Nov 2009 | 1:14 amWhen Jackie Huba and I decided eight years ago to start a company, we envisioned it as a consulting firm that would help clients create customer evangelists. It was March 2001. We'd both just left the web development company we had worked at for three years. Online advertising was king then, but we wanted to explore why some brands experienced strong word of mouth while others didn't. We wanted to understand what fueled the evangelism, how it happened, and how could we help others do the same. We started with a website and an email newsletter in an era that could only be described as Before… -
Advertising without advertising
12 Nov 2009 | 12:16 pmSometimes a movie quote is the best way to capture what you're all about. -
Kicking out unwanted customers
30 Oct 2009 | 10:35 am"Don't talk during the movie or we will take your ass out." If you've been to an Alamo Drafthouse, the movie theater chain in Austin, Texas, then you've seen that semi-serious warning couched in a fun "public service announcement" before a movie showing. Theater founder Tim League knows that talkers mar the movie-watching experience for everyone else, and he does not tolerate them -- even if they punch the windshield of his car.See, Tim was a customer recently at one of his theaters. A nearby loud-talker was asked by a theater waiter to keep it down. The customer protested, loudly, demanding… -
Twitter: the killer app for customer service
22 Oct 2009 | 10:31 am"Hello, this is Sam Kaufman from the AT&T Internet Executive Office, and I am calling about your tweets."That's what I heard yesterday after posting a few tweets about my less-than-stellar customer service experience with an AT&T DSL technical support rep. The rep was trying to diagnose my DSL problems and after telling me to stay on the line for 10 minutes, he never returned after 30 minutes. I hung up. He never called back.With a few hours of my AT&T tweet, @ATTJohnathon, a customer care rep on Twitter contacted me, asking if he could help. I DM'ed him my account number as he… -
Fees are penalties. Always.
19 Oct 2009 | 1:24 pmIt's a wonder why some businesses can't grasp this. Consider the U.S. airlines last month: Southwest reported an 8.8% increase in revenue passenger miles. Its load factor, the percentage of seats that were filled, increased 11% from a year ago, to 74.7% — a big increase for a month in which schools reopen and summer vacation travels stop. JetBlue saw a 9.8% jump in passenger miles. Its load factor rose about 1% from the prior year, to 77.6%. Compare those numbers to other airlines. Delta: Down 5% on its mainline operation. It also cut capacity by 5%. American: Down 2.6% domestically. It cut…
-
AdPulp
-
Hipsters At War
20 Nov 2009 | 1:50 pmCANON - Freeze Tag from Saman Keshavarz on Vimeo. "This is an independent promo for CANON France, not commissioned," says writer/director, Saman Keshavarz. However, it's in the works to be (officially) released over the Web, he says.Special thanks to ProtoShare for sponsoring this month's RSS feed.One third of the cost in interactive development is in rework. ProtoShare helps developers engage stakeholders, gather feedback and iterate early. When you routinely reduce rework and eliminate headaches you’re able to produce a better experience, satisfy clients and increase profits. -
A Gap In Perspective
20 Nov 2009 | 9:30 amWhat's going on is 10 Vancouver-area Gap stores are offering consumers a credit on any merchandise that goes on sale within 45 days of their purchase. To promote this offer, Gap flipped the script and turned everything in its Robson Street store on its head. There's more information at MySprize.com. [via BrandFreak]Special thanks to ProtoShare for sponsoring this month's RSS feed.One third of the cost in interactive development is in rework. ProtoShare helps developers engage stakeholders, gather feedback and iterate early. When you routinely reduce rework and eliminate headaches you’re… -
Self-Promo Ad #7
19 Nov 2009 | 2:54 pmYesterday, I had a great talk over Skype with Bob Knorpp of The BeanCast and Cool Beans Group. Like me, Bob is a freelance copywriter and brand consultant, who is fighting for a foothold in the scree field of this economy. One of the things we touched on was the need to be better self-promoters, and by that we mean we need to be more obvious about our service offerings. Bob runs a popular podcast--Danny G. and I will be on again Sunday night--and one might think that clients and agencies would connect the dots and see that Bob's the guy to call when podcasting is the solution that's needed. -
Spotlight on NW Creative: Designers Don't Read by Austin Howe
19 Nov 2009 | 1:28 pmDesigners Don't Read by Austin Howe began as a series of weekly essays sent every Monday morning to top graphic designers. It's now a 208-page book from one of Portland's more well known "mad men." Howe and Mike Doherty launched the hybrid advertising agency AKA Advertising and Sass (where I showed my book to Doug Lowell in 1995). After selling the agency, Howe spent the next 8 years freelancing as a writer and creative director for firms like Wieden+Kennedy, Crispin Porter + Bogusky, TBWA\Chiat\Day and Deutsch. Here's a passage from the new book: Clients are tiring of agency self-interest. -
Jonah Bloom on The Rise of Media As A Marketing Service (A Favorite Topic Herein)
19 Nov 2009 | 9:19 am"We now have countless examples of the success of marketer as media owner," Bloom says. Then he kindly lists them. J&J's BabyCenter.com had 3.6 million views last month P&G's HomeMadeSimple.com and Pampers.com pulled in close to a million visitors P&G is launching its beauty mag, Rouge, to six million Americans next year Walmart with its money saving tips on YouTube Grey Goose with its entertainment division American Express with its small business blog network Mountain Dew's record label And the list goes on... If you would, please add to more examples of media as a marketing service to the…
-
PR, Social Media, and Marketing Mentor ?
-
2009 SNCR Excellence in New Communications Awards Submission Deadline Extended to Thursday, September 10th
Each year, the Society for New Communications Research presents the prestigious SNCR Excellence in New Communications Awards. The deadline for application submissions for this year's awards has been extended from September 7th to Thursday, September 10, 2009, to allow applicants who are away for Labor Day Weekend to finish and ... -
Some Social Media Humor for Summer Vacation…
Occasionally in social media training, some humor is called for, and The Onion Newsfeed video clip above takes on the big issue of search engine privacy rights—specifically, while using the ubiquitous Google—and gives us a tour of "Google's Opt-Out Privacy Village." And then, there's this HubSpot spoof on Twitter ... -
Web 1.0, 2.0, 3.0 — Where is the Web Going, and What is the Semantic Web?
Sometimes, the best way to learn about something is without using words. Here's a creative example of a video explaining the difference between Web 1.0 and 2.0, by the clever Not in Words producers: Now, back to words and some basic drawings, as we move on to Web 3.0 and beyond. ... -
Join us at NewComm Forum and Inbound Marketing Summit in San Francisco!
The 5th Annual New Communications Forum April 27th - 29th, 2009 The Marriott Hotel, San Francisco, California I just wanted you to know that there are still a few seats available for next week's NewComm Forum 2009. Don't miss this special opportunity to participate in a highly-interactive, exclusive gathering of the most notable ... -
Flutter
OK, I haven't posted here for a while, due to being SO busy, I've barely had time to eat, sleep or recuperate from one of those annoying seasonal colds that seems to drag on while you're doing everything else. So, even though social media is central to my work (the ...
-
Micro Persuasion
-
The Apple "Tablet" and Chrome OS are Meaningless - the Phone is the Future of Computing
19 Nov 2009 | 5:20 pmIf you're paying any attention to the techosphere today there are two stories dominating the headlines. Both involve non-shipping products. First, Google showed off the first demo of its Chrome OS. Download Squad does a nice job breaking it down.... "So what exactly is Chrome OS? It's an operating system based on a web browser called... Google Chrome. The idea is that you won't have to (or be able to) install a single application directly on your PC. Rather, all of your apps will be run from the web and all of your data will be stored in the cloud." Second, a mythical unicorn called the Apple… -
Ten Common Phrases That Could Soon Be History
17 Nov 2009 | 6:43 pmEarlier this week Oxford University Press declared "unfriend" its word of the year. This got me thinking... now that we are entering an era of media reforestation what common phrases could soon be history? Here's 10 that I came up with. You may disagree but I believe all of these have faded or will be gone soon. (All images are from Flickr via Creative Commons and are credited.) Permalink | Leave a comment » -
Google Fast Flip Nearing Launch?
15 Nov 2009 | 4:29 pmGoogle Fast Flip appears to be nearing a full integration into Google News. I wasn't able to replicate this in other browsers so right now this appears to just be a cookie test. Stories from Google Fast Flip started appearing at the bottom of my page - even when I logged out of my account. In addition, Google News searches now show links to Fast Flip results at the bottom of the page. This is visible to all users. Update 11/16/2009 - Chris from Google News notes in a comment below that this is indeed a test. Permalink | Leave a comment » -
Reviews Stripped from Google Search Options
15 Nov 2009 | 3:13 amI make heavy use of Google Search options in refining my queries. I was surprised this morning to see that the "reviews" option is now gone. This was one of the more handy features. Anyone have any insight here? Search Options before (image via Search Engine Land). Note under that "Reviews" is the last link under "All Results." And now today... Permalink | Leave a comment » -
The Next Big Trend? It's All About Curation
13 Nov 2009 | 1:02 pmFact: Information sources are exploding. More information will be created in 2009 than all prior years. Fact: Attention is finite. We're becoming media agnostic, but when we're interested in something we dig down into our interests. This is why I and others like Robert Scoble are really excited about digital curation. Facebook and Twitter lists are one level of curation. However, there are others. Posterous and Tumblr are fantastic platforms for soliciting contributions from groups of people around a shared interest. And they're platforms that will enable all of us to curate together. Here…
-
PR 2.0
-
The Social Media (R)evolution: Your Time is Now
20 Nov 2009 | 4:23 amSource: ShutterstockThe Future of the Social Web is here today and we’re learning that engagement is not a matter of if or when, but to what extent, how and what value can we deliver and derive from it. The Social Web is much more than a window into information and interaction, it is a completely transformative medium that is changing how we forge relationships, interact with one another, and distribute and discover information. In many ways, the online social revolution is reminiscent of the Industrial Revolution.Access to free and expansive media platforms and distribution channels has… -
On Twitter, What Are You Doing Was Always The Wrong Question
19 Nov 2009 | 10:18 pmWhat are you doing?Perhaps, Twitter asked the wrong question all along.In all honestly, who cares…it was really never about “what you were doing” that inspired your network to stay connected nor was it the siren for attracting new followers. We chose to follow you because you moved or encouraged us to do so – with every update.For many of the users on Twitter, the question that engendered a response and also also aroused a cultural movement was, “what are you doing?” It was a prompt that, for the most part, was taken quite literally. Its answer served as… -
On Twitter and Social Networks, Brands Benefit from Conversations
19 Nov 2009 | 4:40 amSource: ShutterstockA recent study revealed 20 percent of tweets published are actually invitations for product information, answers or responses from peers or directly by brand representatives. Now we learn that Twitter users are actively paying attention to brands on the popular information network.According to research conducted by Performics and ROI Research, about half of Twitter users who were introduced to a brand on Twitter were compelled to search for additional information.The companies studied the activity of 3,000 users of social networks in the U.S. Of those polled, 70% use… -
The Golden Triangle
18 Nov 2009 | 4:11 amSource: ShutterstockPrior to keynoting the PACA conference in Miami, Maria Kessler, president of the PACA Association, asked me if I had read a recent post by Fred Wilson entitled “The Golden Triangle.” We were deep in conversation as I was seeking an alternate title for my next book that identifies the divide between brands, information, and consumers and how we can, as social architects and engineers, build the bridges between people, contextual relationships, and technology. While “The Golden Triangle” isn’t a contender for the name of the next book, it did get me thinking.In… -
With Klout Comes Influence: How To Find Influencers on Twitter
17 Nov 2009 | 8:20 amThis is the uncut version of my latest post on TechCrunch…Measuring individual influence in Social Media is as coveted as it is elusive. While many tools claim to calculate authority, it is the definition of influence that requires clarification in order to grasp the relevance and differences of existing tools and services.For the sake keeping this discussion on track, let’s define influence. According to Merriam-Webster, influence is having the power or capacity to cause an effect.San Francisco-based Klout is no stranger to measuring influence on the Social Web. The company launched…
-
The Marketing Minute
-
A creativity whack for your head...and your iPhone!
19 Nov 2009 | 4:57 pmRoger von Oech is responsible for whacking me upside the head more times than I can count. 20+ years ago, he created a fantastic creativity tool called A Creative Whack Pack. It's an illustrated deck of 64 creative thinking strategies that will whack you out of habitual thought patterns and enable you to look at your life and actions in a fresh way. It's an awesome way to think different, to see something fresh and to get yourself unstuck. Well, it's 2009 and so of course Roger has created an iPhone/iTouch app for thiscreativity powerhouse. And...he's… -
You can put a dash of brand just about anywhere
15 Nov 2009 | 2:51 pmThere's nothing less interesting or more standard than a bar code, right? Not according to the people at Design Barcode, where the status quo is anything but!Check out these jazzed up bar codes. (click on the images to see a full-size image in a pop up window) Lest you think this is a new idea, apparently Rick Tharp was doing it (see his version) way back in 1986. (Hat tips to Beverly Koehn and Beth Wampler for sharing this Fast Company article on the bar code designs) -
Calling all art directors, designers and logo creators - win $250
13 Nov 2009 | 5:24 amI will try to make this brief. Last spring, I was approached by a company in the UK called Logo Inn who creates logos and identity packages online. They wanted to do a contest, demonstrating their services.So I did a series of posts on logo design and offered one organization a chance to win a free logo....as long as the entire process could unfold here on the blog, so we could all learn from it.The series looked like this:. We talked about 5 tips for designing a new logo Announced the contest and gave the rules Shared a creative brief, with questions you should ask yourself… -
Turn your sales letters into workhorses!
11 Nov 2009 | 10:24 pmNeil Sawers, a 25+ year corporate writing veteran can show you how. In his new book, How to Write Proposals, Sales Letters and Reports, he spells it out in easy to understand, follow and learn examples and guidelines.But don't take my word for it. Listen to what the Midwest Book Review (one of the most respected reviewers out there) had to say:"Examples, recommendations of common tools to organize one’s thoughts, and a sprinkling of solid business advice fill out this superb, easy-to-use guidebook recommended for business writers of all skill and experience… -
5 ways to promote internal training and events
10 Nov 2009 | 11:18 amI had a meeting with a client this morning and one of the topics on the agenda was how could they better promote an internal training event that was optional for the employees.When I asked how they would normally promote it, they said...we'd make up a flier with all the information and attach it to an e-mail. We'd send it out to everyone. We might send it out a couple times or ask their supervisors to also send it out.There's nothing wrong with what they're doing. But, there's not enough right. You've got to toss a lot of messages and media into…
-
mediabistro.com: PRNewser
-
Sarah Palin's Twitter Problems
20 Nov 2009 | 1:22 pmSarah Palin again left us scratching our PR noggins this week. Fan or not, she's crushing it in terms "Going Rogue". So why did her people outright kill her sizable AKGovSarahPalin Twitter account and open SarahPalinUSA to promote the book? Are they people who run the 7-figure Facebook Fan page? The new feed has been languishing all week at between 24,000 to 25,000 followers. You can maintain a following with a simple Tweet announcement after simply changing one's screenname. We thought it had something to do with public offices or PACs needing to migrate to a personal brand for legal… -
Fort Wayne's PR Problem
20 Nov 2009 | 10:56 amThe city of Fort Wayne, Indiana (pop. 250,000) is handling public affairs more like a village of 50. Until this week, the city's image was handled by the same guy who owns and edits the weekly paper, and owns a PR firm. Public Information Director Vince Robinson stepped down from his city job this week, after he and his girlfriend filed protective orders against each other. The two allegedly brawled during two separate incidents in October. Robinson held the same position for the city in 2000-2001 under a different mayor, and started Diversity Media after leaving the first time. His company… -
Spin the Agencies of Record
20 Nov 2009 | 10:25 amAccount wins in this edition of Spin the Agencies of Record includes large online travel and flower sites, Greek drama for the troops, and an online tool for estate and will planning: Expedia.com flys with the HL Group as agency of record MWW's relationship with 1-800-FLOWERS blossoms to bring more Popcorn Factory, Fannie May and Cheryl&Co gift baskets to you and yours Dan Klores (DKC) goes Greek for the Theater of War, a production company contracted by the Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury to bring the plays of Sophocles to military audiences… -
Ogilvy PR Adds Digital Strategists
20 Nov 2009 | 10:18 amDigital Strategists Jackie Titus and Dan Schreibstein joined Ogilvy PR's 360° Digital Influence division today. Prior to joining Ogilvy PR. Titus consulted on corporate social responsibility (CSR) and environmental platforms for Unilever in the United States and worked with organizations including the National Park Foundation and Boys & Girls Club of America. Schreibstein will specialize in email marketing strategies. Previously, he headed email acquisition marketing for online financial publisher The Motley Fool. New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media. -
GOP Continues Social Media Push
20 Nov 2009 | 9:24 amHow much of a role did social media play in powering Barack Obama to the presidency? The topic is still being debated. Regardless, Republicans have upped their efforts in the social space, hiring new media managers and building social networks. The GOP has also formed a "New Media Caucus." Ryan Walker, chief of staff for Rep. Bob Latta (R-Ohio), a founding member of the New Media Caucus, told The Hill, "[Latta] saw a void in our own offices communication after the Obama campaign ...and we've been running with it ever since...It's been easier than I thought to get people on board." Of course,…
-
Digital Influence Mapping Project
-
WOMMA Looks at the FDA Social Media Hearings
14 Nov 2009 | 3:59 pmAfter the first day of FDA Hearings, WOMMA, Ogilvy and LiveWorld held a tweetup at Ogilvy with WOMMA's legal counsel, Tony DiResta. Tony guided WOMMA through our work that led to the recent FTC Guidelines on Endorsements and Testimonials. He's also author of the WOMMA Blog, DiResta the Law, where he shares on the legal side of social media and word of mouth marketing. He offers his own perspective on the first day and where he thinks this all may lead. After spending most of the two days there myself and [presenting to the FDA on the second day], I would say that all of his first day… -
WOMMA Presents at the FDA Social Media Hearings
14 Nov 2009 | 2:47 pmI attended most of the the two day FDA Hearings on use of the Internet and Social Media and was pleasantly surprised. The agenda was jam-packed. It was like speed-dating or some other rapid-fire challenge. While I was skeptical of the format and whether there would be substantive suggestions and ideas, both worked out well. Speaking on behalf of WOMMA, Melissa Davies (member company Nielsen) and I delivered two different "testimonies." WOMMA FDA Presentation November 2009View more documents from jbell99. I addressed questions 1 and 3 from the FDA docket. My goal was to share our recent… -
FDA Social Media Hearings Live
12 Nov 2009 | 5:42 amThe FDA "socal media" Hearings are going on all day today and tomorrow. Packed agenda - 60+ speakers including Ogilvy and WOMMA. You can watch it live here from the FDA. -
Join Us for a Post-FDA Tweetup in DC
8 Nov 2009 | 9:05 pmWOMMA and Ogilvy will be presenting at the FDA "Social Media" hearings this week in Washington DC. I will be speaking on behalf of WOMMA in my role as President of the Board. Rohit Bhargava will be presenting on behalf of Ogilvy in his role spearheading our Digital Health business. We have all been waiting for some time for the FDA to engage and start evolving their guidlines to address the changes wrought by social media. The 2-day hearings is just a start. And a ton of experts will speak over those two days. On Thursday night, November 12th, from 6:30pm - 8:30pm, WOMMA and… -
WOMMA to Present at FDA Hearings on Social Media
1 Nov 2009 | 9:01 pmOn Friday, November 12th, Melissa Davies, Research Director at Nielsen, and I will present on behalf of WOMMA during two sessions with the FDA. These are part of the long-awaited FDA foray into considering new guardrails for health products marketers in social media. Pharma, one of a few heavily regulated industries, has stepped cautiously into social media over the past few years. Still, pharam is not as paralyzed as some would suggest. Dose of Digital maintains a great list of pharma social media activities from Twitter to communities. WOMMA has just gone through a productive year…
-
Adrants
-
Pilgrims Get Sexy Makeover in Muscle Milk Thanksgiving Video
20 Nov 2009 | 12:12 pmTeachers, hide your students! The traditional Pilgrim is about to get a deliciously sexy makeover by Jason Reed for Muscle Milk. -
Canon Plays Digital Version of Freeze Tag
20 Nov 2009 | 11:11 amLikening action photography to a game of freeze tag, a group of people were given Canon cameras to use in a game of photographic freeze tag. -
If Honda's Choir Sung With Helium...
20 Nov 2009 | 10:56 am...it would be a terrible Alfa Romeo commercial. -
Your Blackberry Storm Will Kill You With Lightning
20 Nov 2009 | 10:37 amWe're not quite sure a brand would associate themselves with life-threatening lightning but McCann-Erikson New York has chosen to for Verizon's Blackberry Storm 2. -
Method Trashes Dow's Horny Scrubbing Bubbles
20 Nov 2009 | 9:35 amIn the most hilarious cleaning product commercial in recent memory, Method has some fun with Dow's Scrubbing Bubbles.
-
Being Peter Kim
-
Measuring your way to a good night's sleep
17 Nov 2009 | 4:17 amI've been spending the past month using the Zeo, a consumer electronics device that measures sleep patterns and provides sleep coaching guidance. Schneider Associates sent me the device (much appreciated). I had just read about Zeo in Delta's Sky Magazine and was curious - unfortunately, I don't sleep well on business trips, which gets to be a problem when you travel as much as I do. The Zeo stands as a proof point in the ongoing consumerization of technology. The only sleep studies I'm familiar with are ones from TV, where subjects spend the night in a lab hooked up to wires and… -
FourSquare and Social Business Design
11 Nov 2009 | 8:11 amJudging from the number of invites I'm getting for FourSquare these days, its slope of new users must be getting more vertical every day. (If you're not familiar with the service, read their overview.) After using FourSquare for a while, I've been thinking about its implications for business - and they're deeper than you might think, extending far beyond happy hours and local advertising opportunities. At initial consideration, this may seem ridiculous. I'm not going to tell you that FourSquare is the next Twitter - it's not. It's different. But just like so many people were initially… -
Using Twitter at scale
9 Nov 2009 | 8:45 amIn three short years, we've witnessed the evolution of Twitter from a way to exchange "inconsequential information between friends" to a business communication tool with a US$1 billion valuation. As Twitter's user base has grown into the millions, companies have followed their consumers onto the service and started participating in conversations. You're already familiar with companies like Comcast, JetBlue, and Best Buy, among the hundreds of companies with corporate Twitter accounts. But many of these companies are starting to face the scalability issue; a single person can manage the… -
Binary thinking
3 Nov 2009 | 6:03 amA couple months ago after Snow Leopard was released, I was speaking with a friend about base 2, base 10, and base n numbers in general. Over the past month, I've been thinking about the definition of Social Business Design and considering the range of reactions from supporters and detractors. All business discussions can be reduced to a single binary argument focusing on the bottom line. Does it improve profitability, yes or no? In practice, the range of decisions a manager must make consists of a multitude of choices better described by real options theory and system dynamics. To make a… -
A conversation with Gary Vaynerchuk
27 Oct 2009 | 6:01 amA couple weeks ago, I had a public, online conversation with Gary Vaynerchuk aka @garyvee. He’s on a PR blitz to promote the release of his new book “Crush It.” If you’re not familiar with Vaynerchuk, he’s a self-trained wine expert who has used social media, online video in particular, to drive exponential growth in his family's wine business. At the same time, he's built a kingpin personal brand, signing a seven-figure, ten-book deal in Spring 2009. Vaynerchuk stands as proof of how participating in one’s customer ecosystem leads to business success. To view the entire…
-
AdFreak
-
'Tis the season for 'sexist' U.K. commercials
20 Nov 2009 | 11:54 amConsidering how much advertising gets squeezed into the holiday season, life for the U.K.'s Advertising Standards Authority must be hell from October to mid-March. They're already fielding complaints about this Marks & Spencer's Christmas ad, whose final scene is supposedly "offensive and demeaning to women" because the actor, Philip Glenister, likes seeing hot girls in their underwear. Shocking that a guy in a bar could be so crass. As usual, the aggrieved come off like they've never watched TV before. This ad is juvenile, but hardly demeaning. Now GoDaddy, that was demeaning.—Posted… -
Polar bears more screwed than you thought
20 Nov 2009 | 11:13 amThe U.K. is on a roll with its climate-change PSAs. First, there were the dogs drowning in rising seas. Now, we get this gruesome spot from Mother (posted below) for PlaneStupid.com, in which polar bears fall from the sky to splattery deaths—to make some point about airplane emissions. "An average European flight produces over 400kg of greenhouse gases for every passenger … that's the weight of an adult polar bear," the spot says. There's plenty to find objectionable here—the nonsensical connection between that stat and the rain of bears, as well as the general airplane-skyscraper-death… -
Get naked, say the pervy scrubbing bubbles
20 Nov 2009 | 10:26 amWhat's really inside your household cleaning products? It could be a bunch of dirty-minded chemicals, who are all bright and bubbly and innocent in TV commercials but who indulge in debauchery off camera, hanging around long after cleaning time to watch you give your naked bod a good scrub in the shower. That's the warning in the video below from Droga5 and Method, the maker of environmentally friendly cleaning products. "When did clean become so dirty?" the company asks, and wants you to ask your elected officials. The goal is to require all cleaning products to list their ingredients on… -
Muscle Milk pilgrim sexing up Thanksgiving
20 Nov 2009 | 8:46 amConsidering how naughty Halloween has gotten, it was only a matter of time before someone took a crack at Thanksgiving. That someone is Muscle Milk, the athletic drink brand, which channels Justin Timberlake in this spoof hip-hop music video "Sexy Pilgrim" (posted below), courtesy of ad agency Pereira & O'Dell. It's fairly similar to the Smirnoff "Tea Partay" video from a couple years back. The clip is mildly entertaining, although I doubt many people will take Muscle Milk up on the download-the-song option at SexyPilgrim.com. (The coupon might do better.) Muscle Milk is pretty absent… -
Prostate cancer gets a proper street beating
20 Nov 2009 | 8:00 amTBWA\Chiat\Day goes the high-testosterone vigilante route in this pair of anti-prostate-cancer PSAs. The guy in the cancerous-mass suit looks like an alien from '70s Dr. Who or the grotesque but misunderstood Horta from Star Trek. Sure, it strikes the first blow in the spot above. But the thing was cornered by that gang of scruffy toughs with their "Movember" men's-health-month moustaches and was basically just defending itself. And the dudes are so ... unlikable. It's unfortunate when PSAs drum up sympathy for the diseases they're battling against. Contrast this approach with last month's…
-
Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim
-
Cup of Joe: How Not To Go Viral and Look Like an Idiot
21 Nov 2009 | 3:02 am(via) So, ever since I came back from Vegas, I have had a pretty bad head cold. But, I have been diligently applying my favorite remedy: Watching mindless YouTube videos! Seriously, it makes me feel better. I am not sure why, but I am sticking to it! One thing I have noticed is that the most popular videos have at least one of two things; authentic, original content, or very well polished and produced material. Basically, if the video has authentic, original content then it doesn’t really matter if it’s “put together” well, because the content alone will sell it. -
Closed Captioning Brought to You by YouTube
20 Nov 2009 | 11:40 amGoogle announced that closed captioning is coming to YouTube. Yeah, yeah, yeah, we know it was already there in many videos where the creators took the time to add the subtitles for the hearing- or speaker-impaired. But now, for selected participating partners (mainly universities), YouTube itself will be adding the captions. The captions will be machine generated and automatically timed to match the video (and still be readable, I hope). Just like any dictation program, I suppose, they’ll listen to the audio from the clips and transcribe it. Now, normally, you know I’d be in… -
Google Testing Permanent Sidebar
20 Nov 2009 | 10:46 amSearch Engine Land talks to Marissa Mayer about Google testing a new search interface among a select few users. The new interface uses a left-hand pane to display search options—but instead of being off by default, with a link to turn on the pane, the new search options will be on permanently, and Google will lose the top blue bar over its results. Other options, including results from other Google properties (Images, News, Maps, Books) will join the left-hand panel. Search Engine Land has screenshots of the news options test: Meanwhile, as a refresher, here’s the present Search… -
Woman Loses Benefits, In Part, Due to Facebook
20 Nov 2009 | 8:00 amSo I had to open my big mouth on my previous post today and say that Facebook is keeping its nose clean with regard to news as of late. I guess it still is despite this particular incident that happened to a woman living in our neighbor to the north, Canada. You remember Canada. The place where Facebook had to adhere to their privacy policies for threat of shutting them down? Well, I wonder how that privacy deal is working out because it looks like companies working on Canadian soil may need a lesson in privacy. The CBC reports A Quebec woman on long-term sick leave is fighting to have her… -
Where Marketing Pilgrim Leads, Google News Follows!
20 Nov 2009 | 6:52 amDid you know that Marketing Pilgrim is more awesome than Google? Seriously! I can prove it! Google has just announced that Google News is now more mobile friendly–meaning it will recognize that you’re viewing the site from your iPhone, Droid, etc, and serve you a page optimized for your phone. This new version provides the same richness and personalization on your phone as Google News provides on desktop. Our new homepage displays more stories, sources, and images while keeping a familiar look and feel. Also, you can now reach your favorite sections, discover new ones, find…
-
Strategic Public Relations
-
Fight Club 2.0: AdWeek’s Digital Hot List | Brian Morrissey Interview
9 Nov 2009 | 7:06 pmReading AdWeek’s “2009 Digital Hot List” it becomes clear we’re in store for a dynamic and competitive digital landscape in 2010. As the brands on the list fight for market share, it almost reads like a script for Fight Club 2.0. Brian Morrissey provided Strategic Public Relations his opinion on some of these brands and, in the process, some insight into the Hot List. 1) Social networks are comparable to a bar scene. There's always a hot bar everyone goes to until it gets old and they move onto the next hot bar. How long can Facebook hold onto their hot bar status that, in part, put… -
Fort Hood, Twitter and Real-Time News
5 Nov 2009 | 7:22 pmSocial media detailed a tragedy today. While I learned of the Fort Hood shootings earlier this afternoon, it was a late afternoon scan of Twitter that connected me to the real-time news source set up by The Austin American-Statesman. @fthoodshootings is an account quickly set up by the paper to create a dedicated line of real-time news around this sad and tragic story. In just a few hours the account already has more than 3,200 followers and is on more than 85 different lists as of publishing this post and climbing. Unfortunately it’s not the first bittersweet… -
Storytelling’s Link to Social Marketing Success | SummitUp 2009
20 Oct 2009 | 8:37 pmSummitUp brought together some of the best and brightest in Ohio's social media scene as well as industry luminaries like Chris Brogan and Bob Garfield. Fueled in no small part by the passion and determination of David E. Bowman, the event was a complete success and I was honored to kick it off with my keynote presentation. "What's Your Story?" details how the craft of storytelling can help us deal with the challenges social media creates. I consider these challenges a bit of a paradox as my slides and video will explain. But the very technology that is bringing us together with people from… -
Marketing Meets Augmented Reality
14 Oct 2009 | 10:53 amLike most marketers, augmented reality popped up on my radar when GE used it to unveil its Smart Grid technology.The ability to create a digital hologram is intriguing, but it always seems to be applied to sci-fi technology or futuristic plans. I’ve wondered how someone might put it to more practical use.Meijer*, a client of Empower MediaMarketing, answers my curiosity with the “Be Transformed in 3-D” promotion.Having Fun with MasksThe microsite allows you to try on four different masks – using a web cam and augmented reality. You can record a :30 second video message using a voice to… -
AMP, #PepsiFail and staying on brand
14 Oct 2009 | 6:03 amThere's been lots of discussion around the iPhone App "AMP UP Before You Score" from Pepsi's AMP Energy Drink. Let me see if I can sum it up. The Issue: The AMP app profiles 24 types of women, from "Cougar" and "Athlete" to "Out of Your League" and "Married." Each profile provides unfortunate content including pickup lines and other information to help the user "score." It also has a brag function which allows users to promote and share their efforts via email, Facebook or Twitter. The app states: "Get lucky? Add her to your Brag List. You can include a name, date and whatever details you…
-
Seth's Blog
-
Benefit of the doubt
21 Nov 2009 | 2:11 amIt's almost impossible to communicate something clearly and succinctly to everyone, all the time.So misunderstandings occur.We misunderstand a comment or a gesture or a policy or a contract.And then what happens?Well, if we're engaged with someone we like or trust, we give them the benefit of the doubt. We either assume that what they actually meant was the thing we expected from someone like them, or we ask about it.If we're engaged with a stranger or someone we don't trust, we assume the worst.The challenge, then, is to earn the benefit of the doubt. How many of your customers, prospects,… -
The amateur scientist (that's us)
20 Nov 2009 | 2:41 amMany people buy a car (probably their single biggest discretionary purchase) based on slamming a door, kicking a tire and judging the handshake of a salesperson.We choose a surgeon based on the carpeting in his office and a politician by his hair cut.During the first week of swine flu vaccines in New York, most parents (more than half!) chose to keep their kids out of the program.Interviewed parents said things like, "I'm not sure it's safe," and "I wanted to see if it affected other kids..."No mention of longitudinal studies or long-term side effects. No science at all, really, just rumors… -
Embracing lifetime value
19 Nov 2009 | 2:46 amIf you walk into a company-owned cell phone store to sign up for a contract, what are you worth?Given the huge gross margins at AT&T and Verizon and the standard two-year contract, I think it's easy to figure on more than $2000 in lifetime value.If you ran a business where a customer represented an additional $2,000 in profit, how would you staff? How long would you make someone wait? If staff costs $25 an hour, how long would that extra person take to pay off?Few businesses understand (really understand) just how much a customer is worth. Add to this the additional profit you get from a… -
Some books for November
18 Nov 2009 | 12:00 pmRandom thoughts from all over for those of us hungry for new ways to think. This month's list is here. The previous list was blogged in September. -
The reason they want you to fit in...
18 Nov 2009 | 2:03 amis that once you do, then they can ignore you.
-
PR-Squared
-
The Future of Movie Marketing
16 Nov 2009 | 8:58 amMy family recently spent a rainy Saturday morning watching upcoming movie trailers via the “Front Row” app that came bundled with our Mac. I wryly noted that they would likely only see 10% of the actual movies — which led me to wonder if Social Media could be better leveraged to make the maxim, “Hollywood’s business is America’s business” even more of a truism. After all, when it comes to marketing, Social Media’s power is derived from the ability for consumers and brands to directly interact. Yet when it comes to movies, it’s a more significant challenge: you’ve… -
The Future of Marketing
11 Nov 2009 | 6:05 amI hesitate to say that the Social Network Race is over – look at AOL, MySpace and Friendster, all of which used to dominate – but let’s face it, all of these former giants now pale compared to Facebook and Google (and Twitter, if we’re also measuring based on buzz). Unlike those early players, today’s winners are holding a much more winning hand. Google and Facebook are shooting arrows in the backs of those original pioneers. The reason Facebook and Google will be the long-term winners: it’s not just the fact that they have critical mass, but that that critical mass comes at a… -
Curating the Signal:Noise Ratio in the Social Graph
9 Nov 2009 | 4:00 amCharlene Li of the Altimeter Group is widely quoted as suggesting that, eventually, “Social Media will become like air,” i.e., it will be built-in to every aspect of our online lives. I don’t doubt this is true. Increasingly we will rely on the wisdom-of-crowds approach to decide on activities (“worth it to go to this movie?”), and purchases of all sizes and types (“experiences with this car model? with this restaurant? with this real estate agent? this plumber?”), etc. There are different gradations of support we will want from these crowds. For example, most folks will… -
4 Ways to Build Relationships with Web Content
6 Nov 2009 | 4:04 amThis is a guest post by Shannon Paul (find her on Twitter, too). A prolific online personality, in her “day job” Shannon is the communications manager for PEAK6 Online. On the PR/marketing side of the equation we know good products go unnoticed without proper promotion, but we’re often reluctant to make the same admission about content. If it makes you feel better, I’m not going to blame this problem on the proliferation of new channels of communication brought on by social media, etc. But, please know that great content does not market itself. Rather than going on… -
“Too Smart For Your Own Good?”
4 Nov 2009 | 4:03 amI’ve written more than once in the past about the need for marketers to avoid Shiny Object Syndrome and, more recently, to Think Organically when it comes to Social Media. Guess what? Not everybody reads my blog. As we have found ourselves increasingly competing not just against PR firms but against different types of marketing agencies, e.g., advertising, marcomm, branding, we have on occassion lost the bid because the Other Guys wowed the underinformed prospect with the snazziest aspects of Social Media. Will these happy-shiny approaches work? Likely not. But after you’ve spent a…
-
Poynter Online
-
When is Fort Hood Suspect's Faith Relevant in Media Coverage?
9 Nov 2009 | 1:20 pmOn Friday morning, Minhaj Hasan, editor-in-chief of The Muslim Linkin College Park, Md., checked local headlines on the shooting at Ft. Hood, Texas, that had taken the lives of 13. They rang all too familiar.A Washington Times' headline read: "Army: Suspect Said 'Allahu Akbar!' Before Shooting." Meanwhile, a Washington Post ran a story ran with the headline: "Suspect, Devout Muslim from Va., Wanted Army Discharge, Aunt Said." The story started out talking about how the suspect prayed every day at the Muslim Community Center in Silver Spring -- something that isn't all that unusual given that… -
Ex-Unity Pres.: NAHJ, NABJ, AAJA, NAJA Should Not Merge
21 Oct 2009 | 4:18 amWhen the National Association of Hispanic Journalists announced earlier this month that it had a $300,000 budget shortfall, people began tweeting the news and expressing concern over the group's financial woes. One NAHJ member, Mo Krochmal, tweeted that the shortfall is an indication that "at some point, minority journalists orgs are going to have to merge to save funds."But Rafael Olmeda, former Unity president who stepped down from his leadership role last week, disagrees. He tweeted a response to Krochmal, who he knows from NAHJ: "The minority journalism orgs do not need to merge any more… -
Outburst at Obama Prompts Discussion about Covering Cultural Divides
16 Oct 2009 | 10:21 amRemember before the Summer of 2009, when we were still living in post-racial America? Between the arrest of Harvard University's Henry Louis Gates Jr. in July, and Joe Wilson's "You Lie" comment during Obama's health care speech last month, it's tough to figure out how to have a productiveconversation about race, whether in the news media or in a classroom.Philip Rucker of The Washington Post illustrated this idea recently when traveling along the road that divides Wilson's (mostly white) district and Democratic Rep. James E. Clyburn's (mostly black) district. Rucker found that views on… -
Solo Operator of Native American Times Passes One-Year Mark
9 Sep 2009 | 3:55 pmWhen Lisa Snell left her job as a graphic artist in 2007, she didn't expect that a year later she would become the managing editor and owner of a Native American paper. The job demands almost 100 hours of Snell's week and requires her to juggle the roles of designer, writer, editor, online publisher and more -- all without getting paid. But Snell, who just celebrated her one-year anniversary at the paper, says the experience has been both personally and professionally gratifying. Publishing the paper, she said, has been a meaningful way to give back to the greater Native American community. -
What Does the Future of Diversity Look Like?
14 Aug 2009 | 8:51 amWhither goes diversity in the age of layoffs?Even in this season of conventions featuring journalists of color, the question seems overshadowed by the rising ranks of the unemployed. People who have spent decades advocating for justice, fairness and accuracy in U.S. newsrooms are preoccupied with cutting staffs, rethinking coverage, or knitting their own parachutes.And in the enterprising universe of dotcoms dotting the landscape of journalism's uncertain future, the spirit of diversity is taking a beating. So we're left to ponder a different question with new urgency: What does diversity…
-
Columbia Journalism Review
-
Friday Links: Smart Money, Rodney King, Dilution
20 Nov 2009 | 2:46 pmRemember that $500 million program for small businesses Goldman Sachs announced along with its apology earlier this week? It was splashed on C1 of The Wall Street Journal and A1 of The New York Times, which wrote that "the bank said Tuesday that it would spend $500 million — or about 3 percent of the $16.7 billion it... -
Bloomberg Finds the Fed on Bubble Watch
20 Nov 2009 | 2:31 pmBloomberg gets a nice scoop that the Federal Reserve is apparently worried about the new bubble it's inflating. Federal Reserve officials are stepping up scrutiny of the biggest U.S. banks to ensure the lenders can withstand a reversal of soaring global-asset prices, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Global stocks are up 71 percent from March. At... -
Comments of the Week
20 Nov 2009 | 2:25 pmEvery Friday, we excerpt some of the most insightful, articulate, interesting, and entertaining comments we receive each week. Think we’ve missed something? Well…comment! The Newest Trend: ‘Rogue’-ing Megan Garber’s decidedly defiant take on Sarah Palin’s “sexist” Newsweek cover generated a high volume of responses on everything from Palin’s reception in the media, to the evaluation of “sexism” in our... -
Greg Craig and Transparency
20 Nov 2009 | 1:43 pmTime’s Massimo Calabresi and Michael Weisskopf have a months long tick-tock chronicling the steps and missteps of soon-to-be-former White House Counsel Greg Craig. There’s too much good stuff in there to bother with a block quote. In essence, the article lays out how Craig, who thought that both the rule of law and Obama’s campaign rhetoric pointed... -
Well, It May Deserve an Award in Something
20 Nov 2009 | 11:12 amMemo to Sean Hannity, who is calling for James O’Keefe, Hannah Giles, and Andrew Breitbart to get a “journalism award” for their video sting of ACORN: Generally, when in possession of what one believes to be newsworthy information, the journalistic thing to do is get it out to the public—not attempt to blackmail the attorney general. <script src="http://video.foxnews.com/embed.js?id=11754444&w=400&h=249"...
-
NYT: Open
-
Behind the Code: Times APIs
4 Nov 2009 | 12:36 pmNYTimes.com developer Nick Thuesen recently chatted with the Yahoo Developer Network about his work with Times APIs, TimesPeople and more. -
First 5,000 Tags Released to the Linked Data Cloud
29 Oct 2009 | 1:07 pmToday we are pleased to announce the launch of http://data.nytimes.com and the release of 5,000 person name subject headings as Linked Open Data published under a Creative Commons 3.0 Attribution License. -
Yahoo Open Hack NYC
13 Oct 2009 | 1:02 pmYahoo's Open Hack Day NYC has come and gone. I'm happy to say it was one of the best "hack" conferences I've ever attended. -
YQL + NYT = Easy Times APIs
7 Oct 2009 | 10:56 amNow you can access Times APIs with Yahoo Query Language. -
Show Me the Code: NYT Trender
29 Sep 2009 | 11:25 amThis is the first in a series of posts featuring demo applications that will help you learn how to use Times APIs. We'll look at NYT Trender, which showcases the Times Article Search API.
-
PBS: MediaShift
-
4 Minute Roundup: Media Company Layoffs; Omidyar Startup
20 Nov 2009 | 3:49 pmHere's the latest 4MR audio report from MediaShift. In this week's edition, I look at the deep layoffs that are planned at AOL, the AP and BusinessWeek. In the case of AOL, the company plans to shed one-third of its workforce, or 2,500 staffers. eBay founder Pierre Omidyar announced plans to launch a news startup in Hawaii that will combine citizen journalism with professional reporting to cover local civic issues. I asked Just One Question to Bayosphere founder Dan Gillmor about Omidyar's venture. Check it out: 4mrbareaudio112009.mp3 Background music is "What the World Needs" by the The… -
5Across: Social Media Marketing 101
19 Nov 2009 | 2:41 pmThere's a new series of demands being made in company meetings everywhere: "What is our social media strategy? What are we doing on Facebook and Twitter? I want followers and fans, and I want them now!" But before companies large and small -- as well as non-profits and charities -- jump into social media, they need to take a deep breath and think about it. What are their goals? What kind of return on investment will they get? Even though it's free to set up fan pages and feeds, there's a time investment that may or may not pay off. On this episode of 5Across, I convened a group of social… -
Profiles in Courage: Social Media Editors at Big Media Outlets
19 Nov 2009 | 10:00 amDuring a recent trip to see an editor I work with at The Globe and Mail, a national newspaper in Canada, I passed by the newspaper's cafeteria. My editor looked in and pointed at a man who was sitting with his back to us. "There's Mathew Ingram, doing his office hours," he told me. Ingram is the Globe and Mail's communities editor, a job he took on after being a technology reporter, columnist and blogger for the paper. My editor explained that Ingram's "office hours" consist of him making himself available in the cafeteria so that anyone can come see him and talk about Twitter, user comments,… -
The Shutdown of UWIRE and the Implications for College Media
18 Nov 2009 | 12:04 pmLast month, UWIRE.com, an edited college media newswire, mysteriously vanished from the Internet. "UWIRE, a popular service that aggregated articles from student newspapers across the country, promoting student journalism both within higher education and to the outside world, has disappeared," wrote Simmi Aujla for the Chronicle of Higher Education earlier this month. Today, visitors to the site receive an error message, and the people running the service have had little to say publicly. As a result, there has been intense speculation about the site, along with complaints from student editors… -
Young Political Candidates Confronted by Digital Past on Facebook
17 Nov 2009 | 12:42 pmLast spring Emanuel Pleitez, 26, ran for California's 32nd Congressional seat in a special election to replace Hilda Solis, the new secretary of labor. During the campaign, one of Pleitez's opponents, California State Sen. Gil Cedillo, discovered photos from Pleitez's Facebook profile that showed Pleitez hanging around with various women at parties. The Cedillo campaign used the photos as the basis for a mailer that was sent to homes in the district. The mailer presented Pleitez as a partier, drinker and womanizer, among other smears. Pleitez admits the negative attack probably cost him some…
-
Editor and Publisher
-
Joe the Plumber Hits Media Coverage, Tells 'E&P' He Hopes Palin Does Not Run in 2012
20 Nov 2009 | 4:00 pmIn a wide-ranging interview with former E&P reproter Charles Geraci, Wurzelbacher also shared his thoughts on Sarah Palin (he hopes she doesn't run for president in 2012), Palin's references to him in her new book, and the charge that he has capitalized off the publicity that has come with being Joe the Plumber. -
'E&P' on Twitter: Here's How to Hit the Tweet Spot!
20 Nov 2009 | 4:00 pmHot trend at Twitter. -
NYT Co. Board Amends Bylaws to Ensure Transparency in Shareholder Nominations
19 Nov 2009 | 4:00 pmThe board of directors at the New York Times Co. has amended its bylaws regarding the nominations of directors, according a Nov. 19 Securities and Exchange Commission filing. -
40 Years Ago Today: Photos of My Lai First Appeared But Photographer Often Forgotten
19 Nov 2009 | 4:00 pmHelped turn a war. -
McClatchy Launches Digital Editions on the Kindle
19 Nov 2009 | 4:00 pmThe McClatchy Co. announced today -- on Facebook -- that five of its papers are now available on the Kindle: The Sacramento (Calif.) Bee, The Charlotte (N.C.) Observer, the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram in Texas, the Anchorage Daily News in Alaska and the News & Observer in Raleigh, N.C.
-
Journerdism
-
Copy Editor's Lament (The Layoff Song) [Music video]
20 Nov 2009 | 11:12 amChris Ave, the genius behind the Politifact Song, has a new video for his song, "Copy Editor's Lament." Check out the all-star dance scene. -
Official Google Blog: Automatic captions in YouTube
19 Nov 2009 | 9:57 am"Since we first announced captions in Google Video and YouTube, we've introduced multiple caption tracks, improved search functionality and even automatic translation. Each of these features has had great personal significance to me, not only because I helped to design them, but also because I'm deaf. Today, I'm in Washington, D.C. to announce what I consider the most important and exciting milestone yet: machine-generated automatic captions. Since the original launch of captions in our products, we’ve been happy to see growth in the number of captioned videos on our… -
YouTube Direct Gives News Orgs A Way To Accept User-Submitted Videos
16 Nov 2009 | 9:46 pm"Today, YouTube is launching a new application that looks to make this easy for all media organizations. Dubbed YouTube Direct, the new open source application will allow news orgs to integrate a video upload tool directly into their sites, where they can accept and review user uploaded footage. The new tool will allow news organizations to screen video uploads as they come in, and use the best clips for their broadcasts and on their websites. Of course, news organizations will still be responsible for actually curating the content to ensure that it’s accurate, which is a task that will… -
Let’s Reinvent the Game Story
16 Nov 2009 | 9:24 pm“The new fan experience involves Twitter and YouTube and has made the game story even more obsolete than it was five years ago,” says Jason McIntyre, founder of the blog The Big Lead. “I usually hunker down for the NFL on Sunday or College Football on Saturdays with the TV on two games and the computer by my side. Twitter is open. If you want to toss ESPN 360 into the mix, you can follow so many games at once it can become dizzying. The last thing you want to do is wake up the next morning and read a reaction to games and events that happened 12 hours ago.” -
Hulu's backers bicker as Web video soars
16 Nov 2009 | 6:48 pm"Dasari said Web video's growth is being stifled by the lack of content available at Hulu and other sites. For example, there are only a handful of feature films available at Hulu. Crackle.com, Sony Pictures' Web service, only posts a fraction of its vast library of films on the Internet, but there's not another studio even offering that. So what? What does it mean if the studios hobble Hulu? Consumers have watched TV for over half a century. They can still go back there. Right? Big Champagne CEO Eric Garland, whose company tracks traffic on peer-to-peer sites--where most…
-
MediaShift Idea Lab
-
SochiReporter Launches with Time Machine, Wiki Guidebook
20 Nov 2009 | 10:20 amI'm proud to say that SochiReporter, my Knight-funded project, launched on October 27. This was a very important day for me, and for our team. In the days before the launch, I didn't sleep a wink. But this is natural. The less you sleep, the less you want. I was very excited about the launch, and did my best to convey how cool and innovative SochiReporter is to the journalists and students that gathered on launch day in the hall of one of the best schools in Sochi. Generating Content We have been working on this project for a long time, but we started generating content a few months back. At… -
Citizen Media Law Project Gives Free Legal Help to Online Publishers
19 Nov 2009 | 7:55 amI am delighted to announce the public launch of the Berkman Center's Online Media Legal Network (OMLN), a new pro bono initiative that connects lawyers and law school clinics from across the country with online journalists and digital media creators who need legal help. Lawyers participating in OMLN will provide qualifying online publishers with pro bono and reduced fee legal assistance on a broad range of legal issues, including business formation and governance, copyright licensing and fair use, employment and freelancer agreements, access to government information, pre-publication review… -
4th Programmer-Journalist Scholarship Winner Learns to 'Think Like a Journalist'
18 Nov 2009 | 2:20 pmManya Gupta, a software engineer for telecommunications companies in her native India, is the fourth winner of a Knight News Challenge "programmer-journalist" scholarship. She's now in her second quarter studying journalism at the Medill School at Northwestern University. She blogs occasionally at http://manya-myvoice.blogspot.com/. Learn some more about Manya from the following edited Q&A. Tell us about your background. I am from India. I received a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from JSS Academy of Technical Education in Noida, Uttar Pradesh.. While working on projects I… -
Why it Matters that Pierre Omidyar is Launching a News Startup
18 Nov 2009 | 11:45 amPierre Omidyar, founder of eBay, is launching a for-profit news startup in Hawaii, where he and his family live. This is important news, and not just because he's involved. A few months ago Pierre and Randy Ching founded Peer News. Their first project was a Twitter-related experiment called Ginx, which didn't get critical mass and is being closed. Now they've announced Peer News' more important move -- a project aimed at creating the kind of local journalism that brings accountability and value to a community. Pierre, in a note on the company blog, says he and his team are launching -- they… -
Gearing up Citizen Journalism in Grahamstown, South Africa
16 Nov 2009 | 6:01 amLow literacy environments, and multi-lingual areas, like Grahamstown, South Africa, face particular challenges when it comes to encouraging citizen journalism. More than 80 percent of the population speaks English as a second language. While most people are able to speak and understand English, writing is not always a comfortable experience (and some are unable to read or write). That's partly why we've launched Izwi Labahlali (The Voice Of The Citizens), Grahamstown's first radio show with content that's largely produced and presented by citizen journalists and transmitted mainly in…
-
Romenesko
-
Poynter's Times Publishing Co. sells Governing magazine to company big on Scientology
20 Nov 2009 | 2:15 pmSt. Petersburg Times | The Hollywood Reporter e.Republic was chosen from among six bidders for the magazine. Several of the principals of the California media company are members of the Church of Scientology, and the St. Petersburg Times has been running stories critical of the church. "It's a business deal," says Times Publishing veep Andrew Corty. "We didn't want to exclude anybody because of their personal or religious beliefs." || Related. > Sacramento News & Review: "Executives at e.Republic are so close to Scientology that they don't understand where the [company] 'training' ends and… -
Publisher apologizes for screaming at college football coach for not playing his son enough
20 Nov 2009 | 1:15 pmTimes West Virginian Times West Virginian publisher Andrew Kniceley (left) used his newspaper to apologize for yelling at a football coach because his son played only three plays in a game. "I regret any embarrassment or discomfort that I have caused FSU [Fairmont State University], my newspaper and my family -- especially my son Josh," writes the publisher, who is also chairman of the FSU board. -
What alternative media need to do to survive
20 Nov 2009 | 12:46 pmThe Kojo Nnamdi Listen to Thursday's WAMU discussion of the state of alternative media. The guests: Mark Jurkowitz of the Project for Excellence in Journalism; former Washington Blade editor Kevin Naff; Richard Karpel of the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies; and Washington City Paper editor Erik Wemple. -
Brill's Journalism Online pitch has changed over time
20 Nov 2009 | 12:25 pmNieman Journalism Lab | Poynter Online One of the tweaks that Zachary Seward has noticed: Steve Brill used to use the term "wall" to describe subscription content, but he's now abandoned that language. "We're not putting up any kind of a paywall," he's been saying. || Earlier Brill interview with Steve Myers. -
How do you review a medical-marijuana dispensary? Pretty much the way you would a restaurant
20 Nov 2009 | 11:46 amWestword That's the approach William Breathes takes. He describes the decor ("like that hippie kid's hangout in high school -- complete with a boom box and thrift-store furniture"); the service ("employees didn't seem particularly interested in ... even helping me"); and what he ordered ("I'd settled on a gram of hash and two grams of herb"). The only thing missing is the number of stars he'd give the place. > Earlier: Over 200 apply to be Westword's pot critic
-
SteveOuting.com
-
Kachingle beta goes live (Kachingle me, please!)
15 Nov 2009 | 11:54 amOne of my strongest interests this year has been news and content business models, and how to pay for content that’s given away free online. As a blogger (and my professional interest as a writer, researcher, and consultant on news business models), I’m especially interested in the wave of new solutions for websites and blogs to attract money from volunteer contributors. This weekend, Kachingle, one of the first of this new wave of voluntary-pay solutions I heard and started writing about in early 2009, debuted its service in beta. (Disclaimer.) I’m excited to finally see… -
A better Newsday.com model
10 Nov 2009 | 1:12 pmI’ve been getting some pushback on my previous blog item about Newsday’s decision to put up a subscription wall to its website content except for Newsday print subscribers and subscribers of Optimum Online cable/Internet service (same ownership). This actually is a good business model for Newsday because of its unique position, though it probably could not be duplicated elsewhere, the critics suggest. Sorry, I don’t buy it. Consider this: Instead of a “no trespassing, freeloaders!” subscription wall, what if Newsday.com had instead come up with a special Newsday… -
Newsday’s pay wall: From bad to worse
9 Nov 2009 | 8:29 pmWhat’s wrong with this webpage I encountered the other day? Besides the lack of wisdom of a general-interest newspaper (Newsday) putting a pay wall on its website for non-unique content (my opinion, shared by many other media experts), the worse part is that Newsday.com is leaving money behind. Double-dumb. Here’s my experience: I saw a Twitter post linking to this article; clicked through. Got to Newsday.com teaser page with intro to story and a link to “VIDEO: See the Droid in action.” Video seemed interesting, so I clicked. Got to the page above, which gave me ONLY… -
Why I think ‘block level’ news, data is important
6 Nov 2009 | 9:22 pmEarlier today Howard Weaver tweeted the following, which I can’t answer in 140 characters (!) so I’ll respond here. … “Why do people (@steveouting et al) keep saying ‘block level’ info is best premium opportunity? Seems *most* likely to be citizen generated.” –@howardweaver I don’t recall saying it’s the “best” premium online content opportunity, though I think it’s important. Why? Because I don’t know what’s going on with my neighbors, other than the ones I know or who are friends. No business, media,… -
So what exactly is newspaper web ‘premium’ content? Please tell me
5 Nov 2009 | 9:12 amSo, it appears that we’ve passed the point within the newspaper industry of utter panic and all the publishers will not be colluding (ahem… I mean cooperating) to put most of their websites’ content behind pay walls. At least that CEO/publisher-group insanity is over — I hope. Image: istockphoto.com Instead, the meme within the industry is something I’ve long supported: Let’s keep most of our news content online free, so that we don’t lose advertisers and high reader numbers, and maintain our “googlejuice,” but let’s create more…
-
Journalism.org:
-
Minority Journalists Want Strong Net Neutrality Rules
20 Nov 2009 | 5:34 am -
Cable News Ratings: Palin Interview Boosts 'Hannity' Ratings
20 Nov 2009 | 5:33 am -
Report: Growth Stalls at Top News Sites in October
20 Nov 2009 | 5:28 am -
'NYT' To Launch Chicago 'Report' on Friday -- Working with Cooperative
20 Nov 2009 | 5:27 am -
UPDATE: AP Layoff Count Hits 90, Meets Goal
20 Nov 2009 | 5:26 am
-
Lost Remote
-
"The highlight for me was seeing the founder and editor of West Seattle Blog, Tracy Record,..."
19 Nov 2009 | 4:44 pm“The highlight for me was seeing the founder and editor of West Seattle Blog, Tracy Record, positioned on stage next to msnbc.com president Charlie Tillinghast. Two years ago, who would have believed that a neighborhood news site would warrant the same consideration as one of the giants in the online news world.” - Mark Briggs blogging about a local panel at the MIT Enterprise Forum in Seattle. -
Twitter lights up its geolocation API: It’s here, but it...
19 Nov 2009 | 4:16 pmTwitter lights up its geolocation API: It’s here, but it only works 1) if you turn on geotagging in your account settings on Twitter.com and 2) you’re using a Twitter mobile application with the geolocation feature, like Foursquare. Both these factors will combine to make this a rather specialized use case, but as Twitter says, “These are only the beginning.” -
Fox Sports launching local sites, too: Joining the ranks of ESPN...
19 Nov 2009 | 3:58 pmFox Sports launching local sites, too: Joining the ranks of ESPN and Comcast, Fox Sports is quietly rolling out a network of a dozen local/regional sports sites, like FoxSportsArizona.com. In less than a year, local sports has suddenly become an incredibly competitive field, with local media feeling the squeeze from both national players and the sports leagues themselves. -
AOL hiring journalists, laying off just about everyone else
19 Nov 2009 | 2:22 pmAOL hiring journalists, laying off just about everyone else: AOL announced today that it’s planning to lay off 2,500 employees — about a third of its staff — but the company is still hiring journalists in a plan to beef up original content. That’s a change. -
"What’s happening?"
19 Nov 2009 | 12:10 pm“What’s happening?” - What Twitter now asks you, instead of “What are you going?” — a subtle change to try to encourage more newsy Tweets. “People are witnessing accidents, organizing events, sharing links, breaking news, reporting stuff their dad says, and so much more,” explains co-founder Biz Stone.
-
Online Journalism Blog
-
Google Latitude’s Location History provides more opportunities for mobile journalism
21 Nov 2009 | 12:03 amThis was originally published in Poynter’s E-Media Tidbits last week Google Latitude – a service that allows people to see where you are – has launched 2 new services – Location History and Location Alerts - that provide some interesting potential for mobile journalism. Location History (shown above) allows you to “store, view, and manage your past Latitude locations. You can visualize your history on Google Maps and Earth or play back a recent trip in order.” There are obvious possibilities here for then editing a map with editorial information – if… -
Presentation: Law for bloggers and journalists (UK)
20 Nov 2009 | 4:23 amYesterday I hosted a session on law for my MA Online Journalism students, which I thought I would embed below. Some background: I teach all my sessions in a coffee shop in central Birmingham – anyone can drop in. This week I specifically invited local bloggers, and so the shape of the presentation was very much flavoured by contributions from The Lichfield Blog’s Philip John; Nick Booth from Podnosh and BeVocal; Talk About Local’s Nicky Getgood; Hannah Waldram of the Bournville Village Blog; Gavin Wray, Matthew Mark, and Mike Rawlins of Stoke’s Pits N Pots. The… -
What if a newspaper was designed using principles of user experience design?
20 Nov 2009 | 2:23 amWhat if a newspaper was designed using principles of web user experience design*? That’s the question that design agency Information Architects asked themselves when they put together a pitch for Swiss newspaper Tages-Anzeiger. They lost the pitch, but the blog post about their ideas is fascinating reading for anyone interested in usability and reinventing the print package for a multiplatform world. Their innovations included making the text scannable with blue text for key words (see above), high contrast, and being limited to two fonts. They cleaned up the logo (optimising it,… -
The fall of a news site: the Spanish case of Soitu.es
20 Nov 2009 | 1:28 amLike in the music or art fields, we, the Spanish-speaking people, allways look to the Anglo-American world to see what the new trends and innovation about digital journalism are (and laugh when Rupert Murdoch opens his mouth). But now we can show our own example of a news site that tried to survive in this ecosystem and… died. But it’s all about trial and error! I’m talking about Soitu.es, which closed its highly-regarded doors after 22 months of life. Of course, its demise had a strong impact in the blogosphere, its increasing traffic more than 10% in the last month. This… -
2 videos: How social media changed the journalist’s day; and making money from content
19 Nov 2009 | 1:48 pmHere are 2 very interesting videos from a recent talk by Karl Schneider, Head of editorial development at B2B publisher Reed Business Information, at UCA Farnham. In the first Schneider takes a look at how the typical journalist’s day has changed – I particularly like the concept of previously only ‘20%’ of a journalist’s activity being visible, and 80% invisible, but that equation being reversed with the arrival of collaborative social media. The journalist’s day from Stop.Frame on Vimeo. In the second video Schneider likens online publishing to…
-
CyberJournalist.net
-
Man discovers cellphones after 18 years
Moments after he walked out of Sing Sing prison on Friday after serving 18 years for a crime that a judge ruled he did not commit, Fernando Bermudez Jr. was handed a cellphone so he could speak with one of his lawyers. It was the first time he had held one. “It almost seemed like a [...] -
YouTube launches YouTube Direct for media publishers
YouTube today launched YouTube Direct, a new tool that allows media organizations to request, review and rebroadcast YouTube clips directly from YouTube users. Launch partners for YouTube Direct include ABC News, the Huffington Post, NPR, Politico, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Washington Post, and WHDH-TV/WLVI-TV in Boston. More about the launch here. -
Discovery launches science news Web site – washingtonpost.com
Discovery has launched a new Web site dedicated to reporting science and technology news. (via washingtonpost.com) -
Live stream: “Journalism & the New Media Ecology: Who Will Pay the Messengers?
“Journalism & the New Media Ecology: Who Will Pay the Messengers?” is a conference at Yale this weekend. You can follow the conference via live video stream here. The Twitter hashtag is #kmedia. -
Top 50 Journalism Blogs
Journalism Journeyman names the Top 50 Journalism Blogs. Thanks for including CyberJournalist.net!
-
blog maverick
-
Google, Murdoch, Madoff
13 Nov 2009 | 2:58 pmHows that for a title. Just thought it would be a fun day to rehash some old posts that made me look a little prescient Today the feds arrested 2 programmers that worked for Madoff. I wrote this in January: Jan 18th 2009 10:11AM Im taking a flyer here, but if they were to put me on the case, the first people I would talk to are the software developers. Somewhere along the line there was a software program written or modified that allowed Madoff to enter the numbers he made up, who they were paying out cash to and would print the checks and statements. Its very unlikely that it was off… -
Rupert Murdoch and Google Part 2
10 Nov 2009 | 1:05 pmIm going to simplify this as much as possible. I probably should have just included this in the first post. Here are the best and worst cases of Newscorp opting out of the Google Index 1. Best Case: They opt out and see an increase in revenues and commitment to their sites because people choose to go directly to their sites. For those sites behind a paywall, they generate more revenue than when the site was free. Other sites notice their success and copy Newscorp, choosing to opt out of the Google index. The opt out choice turns out to be the better business move for any and all sites… -
Rupert Murdoch to Block Google = Smart = Twitter has changed it all.
9 Nov 2009 | 8:40 amRupert Murdoch has said that his Newscorp sites are going to block Google indexes. Of course, all the netizens freak out when this happens. Which I love. I love to tweak all the internet information must be free bigots. They get so damn religious about information on the net that they lose what little objectivity and awareness of the real world they had in the first place. First a little enlightenment for all of you that think Murdoch is making a mistake. This is not 1999, nor is it 2004, nor is it 2006, nor is it 2008. The calendar is about to turn to 2010. What worked and made sense… -
Adding Facebook and Twitter Followers – A Little One on One ?
6 Nov 2009 | 8:39 amI was thinking of ideas on how to add twitter and/or facebook fan page followers. I dont have a real need to have to do so. I was just curious about ways to do so. Think of it as one of those things my minds wanders off to while Im working out. One thing that poppedup as what I thought was a decent idea was the idea of rewarding those who refer and/or generate followers to my pages on twitter (@mcuban), or on FAcebook (/markcuban) a unique page where they were the only person approved to have access and for some period of time, they would have exclusive access for questions and answers. So… -
Keyboards, Phones and NetBooks
6 Nov 2009 | 8:23 amSome people wondered why I stayed with my Sidekick despite still not getting my contacts back and all the troubles the network had. The answer is easy. They keyboard is so above any beyond any other phone, I can type a good 50 words per minute on it. (Its amazing how fast my thumbs are on this thing) Which in turn allows me to answer emails quickly and accurately. I dont lose any productivity when Im on my Sidekick compared to sitting in front of my desktop or full sized laptop. To me, thats money in the bank. Thats not to say I never stray and try new phones and alternatives. I do. …
-
Media: Greenslade | guardian.co.uk
-
Roy Greenslade: James Murdoch sees TV, not papers, as key to future
20 Nov 2009 | 5:31 amJames Murdoch's speech to investors in Barcelona yesterday revealed the direction that News Corporation plans to take in the coming years. His key quote:In the business of ideas, which is the business that we are in, we do think journalism plays a role, and we do think there are business models there that will make a lot of sense, albeit perhaps not at the scale of some of our broadcasting businesses and other entertainment businesses.Is it going to be as big a role? No. Structurally, television is vastly more profitable and a big opportunity.First, notice that he views "ideas" as the… -
Roy Greenslade: South African newspapers suffer circulation falls
20 Nov 2009 | 4:00 amDaily and weekly newspapers in South Africa have just suffered some of the worst circulation figures in living memory. With the exceptions of the Afrikaans daily Die Son and the Zulu daily Isolezwe, all titles reported third-quarter year-on-year losses.Witwatersrand j-school professor Anton Harber said the country's newspapers are showing the strain experienced by papers elsewhere in the world. "It has hit dailies, weeklies and weekend papers, serious broadsheets and racy tabloids, English, Afrikaans and Zulu," he said "No sector has been spared. It is not huge, but it is strikingly… -
Roy Greenslade: Cumberland News keeps its head above water to report flooding
20 Nov 2009 | 3:25 amThe Cumberland News and its sister papers are rising (please forgive pun) to the occasion today in their online reportage of the floods in Cockermouth. Its live webchat service, Cumbria under water, is keeping everyone informed about developments with minute-by-minute updates from readers, police and reporters.It also provides links to video clips uploaded to Youtube, such as this view of the River Kent at Kendal, another that shows the flooding in Keswick, and the one above that shows the high street in Cockermouth.Now staff at the CN group's Times & Star are engaged in producing a special… -
Roy Greenslade: Why Twitter is not to blame for creating storms
20 Nov 2009 | 3:07 amJoanna Geary, web development editor for The Times and one of the most thoughtful of journalistic bloggers, has an interesting take on Twitter storm controversies.Stimulated by Stephen Fry's defence of his own so-called influence during the Jan Moir episode, Geary raises a couple of pertinent points.Her second is about libel, but I'm dealing here only with her first. This is what she wrote:If a newspaper with a circulation twice the size of The Times (or 3.5 times the size of The Guardian) joined a campaign (even it it was late in the day), how much influence would you credit them with having… -
Roy Greenslade: Michael Heath picks up a well-deserved award
20 Nov 2009 | 2:32 amCongratulations to Michael Heath, who last night won a lifetime achievement award at the Cartoon Art Trust awards. It is well deserved. Throughout his lengthy career, which stretches back to the early 1950s, he has been entertaining newspaper and magazine readers with brilliantly funny cartoons.His success stems from combining the twin talents of fine artistry with great gag-writing, and his output has always been phenomenal. His work can regularly be seen in the Mail on Sunday, Private Eye, Sunday Times and The Spectator (where he has been cartoon editor since 1991). You can see a sample of…
-
Beat the Press
-
CNN Money Takes Strong Editorial Stand on the Budget in News Section
20 Nov 2009 | 11:22 amCNN Money decided to highlight the fact that when the debt increases, interest payments will rise. While those familiar with basic arithmetic probably already understood this fact, CNN Money decided that this is big news. To make this fact more newsworthy, CNN Money decided to say some things that were untrue and some that were meaningless. In the untrue category we get the shocking fact in the subhead that: " the interest Americans will have to pay to keep the country running over the next decade will reach unheard of levels." Actually, those of us old enough to remember back to the 90s have… -
The People Who Missed an $8 Trillion Housing Bubble and Thought Iceland's Economy Was Thriving Oppose Auditing the Fed
20 Nov 2009 | 3:26 amThat is what Alan Blinder tells us in a Washington Post column today. Blinder tells us that the vast majority of academic economists and people in the financial industry oppose efforts to make the Fed more accountable to Congress. (He also bizarrely asserts that "very, very few" people support more congressional control of the Fed. This would seem to be inconsistent with the support for the Paul-Grayson bill to audit the Fed.) Blinder tells us why more congressional input into monetary policy would be a bad thing. He notes that the Fed will start to raise interest rates at some point when the… -
Good NYT Piece on Effort to Bankrupt the FHA
20 Nov 2009 | 3:12 amThe NYT has an excellent piece on how the increase in FHA mortgage limits have made it a subsidy program for relatively affluent families, speculators, and frauds. --Dean Baker -
David Brooks Has Not Noticed the Recession
20 Nov 2009 | 2:59 amDavid Brooks pronounces the government's bailout of Wall Street a huge success. This is an interesting assessment. It is true that the financial sector profits are at a record high as a share of all corporate profits and the financial sector has reached a new record share of private sector income, and the industry stands to pay record bonuses this year, but these may not be the best measures of success to people other than Mr. Brooks. There is little doubt that if the government gives enough money to the Wall Street banks that they can stay afloat and prosper, as they have shown. However most… -
TARP Money Cannot Be Used to Pay Down the Debt!
19 Nov 2009 | 2:49 amArghhhhhhh! TARP is a loan program, not a spending program. Let's explain the difference so that even a Washington Post editor can understand it. A loan is expected to be paid back. When Congress appropriates money for a loan, it does not add to the deficit. The government lends out money, but it owns a loan that it expects to be paid back. The only cost to the government is either any subsidy implicit in the loan or the losses on loans that are not repaid. The Congressional Budget Office expected the bulk of the TARP money to be repaid, therefore it was never scored as spending. Only the…
-
Reportr.net
-
Video: Gina Trapani makes sense of Google Wave
20 Nov 2009 | 6:54 pmI have a Google Wave account though I haven’t had the time to investigate its potential. At first glance, Google Wave can be bewildering, but it does seem to offer a strong platform for collaboration and could be a valuable tool for journalism. Gina Trapani wrote the Complete Guide to Google Wave and sums it up in this keynote at the Web 2.0 Expo in New York. (Via Tris Hussey) -
links for 2009-11-20
20 Nov 2009 | 4:10 pmThe BBC and Public Space [Thinking Faith - the online journal of the British Jesuits] BBC director general Mark Thompson: Public space is not-for-profit space, not by accident but by design. It exists not to make money but to serve the public and it is accountable to them. (tags: BBC Murdoch, media, public sphere, space) -
BBC News website adds SEO friendly headlines
19 Nov 2009 | 8:01 pmThe BBC has made changes to its news website to make its headlines more SEO friendly. The headlines appearing on index pages are short and concise as usual, but clicking through to the story reveals a longer headline with search keywords. For example, the index headline on the story on Google’s Chrome browser is “Google previews operating system”, which lacks search keywords. But click on the story page, the headline becomes “Google previews Chrome open source operating system.” And the report on the Fort Hood killings has an index headline of “Killings… -
Tom Rosenstiel on the future of journalism
19 Nov 2009 | 9:38 amDirector of the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism, Tom Rosenstiel, on the future of journalism at Minnesota Public Radio. He talks about the potential to produce better journalism now then ever before. His concerns: the unbundling of content and the challenge of monetising civic news. (Via Project for Excellence in Journalism) -
YouTube Direct to channel citizen journalism to news outlets
17 Nov 2009 | 9:24 amWith the launch of YouTube Direct, YouTube is positioning itself as a key intermediary between the media and the public. YouTube Direct is described as “a new tool that allows media organizations to request, review and rebroadcast YouTube clips directly from YouTube users.” Or as Mashable put it, “YouTube is letting anyone launch their own iReport-type site.” Several news organisations are already using the service: ABC News, the Huffington Post, NPR, Politico, the San Francisco Chronicle and the Washington Post. It clearly provides a way for media organisations to collect,…
-
PRSA Tactics and The Strategist Online
-
Connecting public relations performance with business outcomes
19 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pmThe need for the PR profession to deliver value and drive positive return-on-investment has never been greater. While the current environment presents challenges to all forms of business activity, it underscores public relations’ most ubiquitous challenges: proving PR value and connecting PR performance with business outcomes. To find solutions, practitioners must take initiative and build understanding using proven results, replicable methods and a reliable body of knowledge. -
How public relations elevates brand value
19 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pmThe challenges of today’s economic environment present an ideal scenario for the PR profession to rise to the challenge. Public relations should deliver the authenticity and distinctiveness that can elevate a brand, bridging the trust gap in ways that advertising cannot. -
More companies reading employee e-mails, even as some courts say they have no right
19 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pmE-mail communication, privacy issues -
Key steps to effective executive communications
19 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pmWhile working with C-suite and senior-level executives over the years, I’ve encountered plenty of style and personality differences, as well as varying degrees of business priorities and cultural concerns. However, one consistent theme I’ve found is that executives crave to be understood and allowed to “shine.” If you can facilitate that for the executives you support, you can become an integral member of their inner circle. -
Why public relations is a main course at Denny’s
19 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pmNelson Marchioli, who has been with Denny’s for eight years and is a 30-year veteran of the restaurant industry, speaks with The Strategist from the Denny’s headquarters in Spartanburg, S.C., about reaching customers via social media, the company’s continued diversity efforts and leading during a recession.
-
PUBLIC RELATIONS NEWS - Google News
-
New Goldman Sachs, Buffett PR Gambit: Give $500 Million To Small Businesses - In These Times
20 Nov 2009 | 6:50 pmguardian.co.ukNew Goldman Sachs, Buffett PR Gambit: Give $500 Million To Small BusinessesIn These TimesJohn D. Rockefeller gave out dimes to little kids to burnish his image, helping launch the modern PR industry. Andrew Carnegie started a Is Goldman's Charitable Gesture Enough?New York TimesGoldman Goes for BrokeCityfileGoldman's extreme makeover: If bank has heart, it should forgo state, city New York Daily NewsTaipan Publishing Group -Smartmoney.com -The Daily Dealall 267 news articles » -
Mean Queen of Wrestling Inks New PR Deal - NewsBlaze
20 Nov 2009 | 3:08 pmMean Queen of Wrestling Inks New PR DealNewsBlazeEclectic Media Productions, one of the fastest-growing and most aggressive public relations companies in the country, has announced the signing of and more » -
Provacative PR hosts tea-tasting and poetry event - The Daily Titan
20 Nov 2009 | 1:31 pmProvacative PR hosts tea-tasting and poetry eventThe Daily TitanThe event will be hosted by Provocative PR, a group of public relations students at Cal State Fullerton. “The event will focus on famous poet Jane Austen -
High-profile PR man steps into hotel fight - The San Francisco Examiner
20 Nov 2009 | 12:03 pmHigh-profile PR man steps into hotel fightThe San Francisco ExaminerWell-known public relations guru Sam Singer has been hired to represent the Hotel Council of San Francisco during the ongoing hotel labor dispute, and more » -
MMI Public Relations Wins 2009 International Davey Award - PRLog.Org (press release)
20 Nov 2009 | 6:56 amMMI Public Relations Wins 2009 International Davey AwardPRLog.Org (press release)“To be recognized with an award that specializes in small businesses is a wonderful tribute to our hard work and dedication to public relations.”and more »
-
Latest articles from PRWeek US News
-
Planned Parenthood prepares to fight 'Stupak amendment'
20 Nov 2009 | 9:20 amWASHINGTON: Planned Parenthood is using media relations and its network of supporters to reinforce to policymakers that the organization opposes an amendment in one of the healthcare bills that would limit coverage for abortions. -
MWW expands work with 1-800-Flowers.com
20 Nov 2009 | 9:00 amNEW YORK: 1-800-Flowers.com expanded its relationship with AOR MWW Group by hiring the firm to lead holiday PR for three of the company's other brands: The Popcorn Factory, Fannie May, and Cheryl&Co. -
Executor's Resource hires Impact Comms
20 Nov 2009 | 8:30 amLOUISVILLE, CO: Executor's Resource hired Impact Communications to expand its PR program and consumer outreach. -
Leading newspapers jockey to claim top circulation
20 Nov 2009 | 7:03 amMCLEAN, VA: As the bad news in the newspaper industry continues, circulation numbers have become a source of pride - and contention - for some outlets. -
Survey: CMOs still lagging on social media
20 Nov 2009 | 6:00 amNEW YORK: Social media is not a top priority in marketing budgets, according to new study by The CMO Club and Hill & Knowlton.
-
Media Bullseye
-
Virtually Changing Shopping
20 Nov 2009 | 12:13 pmVirtually Changing Shopping by Wayne Kurtzman Remember hanging at the mall with your friends for four days, only to end up with six items for the holidays? Well, the music isn't the only thing that has changed. And you should see what is changing in the world of online shopping.While too many people seem genuinely excited about the return of the Officemax ElfYourself program (where you can make an elf of yourself), ecommerce is quietly changing by leaps, bounds and "points."Growth continues for Stardoll.com, Kohl's cartoon-like site targeted for girls 7-17. Self-described as a "virtual… -
Is there more to social media than what you ate for lunch?
20 Nov 2009 | 11:58 amOld Media, New Tricks Is there more to social media than what you ate for lunch? by Robert Quigley When I worked as a copy editor on the editorial board at the Austin American-Statesman a few years back, a member of the board needed to fill a gap in his editorial with a key fact that could only be found in the Texas government records. After finding his fact with about 30 seconds of searching around a government site, he mused that pre-Internet, those types of searches by a journalist killed an entire afternoon. "Sometimes the Internet actually saves you time," he quipped, a bit amused. The… -
The Revolution of Infinite Information
12 Nov 2009 | 1:22 pmThe Revolution of Infinite Information by Wayne Kurtzman Google CEO Eric Schmidt recently was concerned that most people have not come to grips with the emerging information revolution. His concern is that many people haven't thought how even simple day-to-day tasks are due for a disruptive change. Carried by Boston's WBUR radio [full story and video], Schmidt spoke about Google and the future of the Internet. The talk was part of a memorial for Michael Hammer, an MIT computer science professor who died last September."To understand what we [Google] are doing, think about a world of an… -
Augmented Reality: When Real Isn't Enough
5 Nov 2009 | 12:36 pmAugmented Reality: When Real Isn't Enough by Wayne Kurtzman I wait for the gasp during my social media presentations when I talk about augmented reality, or "AR." You don't know about AR? Simply put, AR is literally a new layer of reality provided by your mobile phone. In the not too distant future, phones without AR abilities might as well have big 'ole rotary dials and copper wire hanging off them.Imagine taking your smart phone and looking at an object through the camera on the phone. Instead of snapping a photo, your camera returns detailed information about the object you are viewing. -
Twitter lists: Steal, Hoard, and Make People Feel Bad; Or, The Best Twitter Feature Ever
4 Nov 2009 | 11:39 amNew Tools, Old Rules Twitter lists: Steal, Hoard, and Make People Feel Bad; Or, The Best Twitter Feature Ever by Doug Haslam I love how the unveiling of Twitter lists has put some people in a tizzy. From Chris Brogan worrying that lists make people feel left out to Robert Scoble overreacting to Brogan's post and Justin Kownacki being his very readably grumpy self in the middle, there has been no shortage of thumb-sucking over lists. I have a take on Twitter Lists. You didn't ask for it, but here it is--in list form: The Beta experience was weird and mysterious. I got into Lists early, but had…
-
Trevor Cook
-
The passing of Studs Terkel
20 Nov 2009 | 12:17 pmOriginally posted 1 November 2008I am a very big fan of Studs Terkel I devoured many of his books when I was young. Not only was he a fantastic oral historian with a real empathy with everyday Americans and a tremendous ability to bring them alive on paper but Terkel was also a great expert on the blues of Chicago, in particular, the incomparable Mahalia Jackson and Big Bill Broonzy. For me Terkel represented the best in American life. The NY Times has a great obit:Studs Terkel, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author whose searching interviews with ordinary Americans helped establish oral history… -
Book review: Who really won the 2007 election?
20 Nov 2009 | 12:06 pmOriginally posted 7 January 2009Christine Jackman, “Inside Kevin 07″, Melbourne University Press, 2008.Kathie Muir, “Worth Fighting For: Inside the your rights at work campaign”, UNSW Press, 2008.There were two campaigns against the Howard Government in the run-up to the last election: the ALP campaign and the ACTU campaign.These books complement each other insomuch as they provide ‘insider’ accounts of these interlocking but in many ways separate and differing campaigns. Much of the content of each book is based on interviews with participants and both books suffer a bit from… -
Celebrating Darwin online
20 Nov 2009 | 12:03 pmOriginally posted 9 JanuaryNext month will mark the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth, the man who had perhaps the greatest idea of all time.This week, Melvyn Bragg is doing a four part special series(”Darwin: The Genius of Evolution”) of his excellent BBC Radio 4 program “In our Time” on Darwin which you can download and listen to on your pod.Even more stunning are the video podcasts of the 10 lecture course Stanford University (”Darwin’s legacy”) presented at the end of last year (September through December), featuring some of the world’s foremost experts… -
Loving those blues podcasts
20 Nov 2009 | 12:01 pmOriginally posted 12 JanuaryI got hooked on the blues back in the late sixties when I discovered my white heroes (eg Jimi Hendrix, Cream, Johhny Winter) had some very cool black heroes (e.g. Robert Johnson,Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon, John Lee Hooker). In fact, I think John Lee Hooker might just be the coolest guy ever. One brief story. When as an old man, and recently ‘re-discovered’ and enjoying chart success, a reporter asked him, eagerly, whether he ever felt the urge to go back home to Missisippi. Hooker repled with a simple “No”, without feeling any need for explanation… -
Change doesn't always mean happiness
20 Nov 2009 | 11:57 amOne of my favourite authors is John McGahern. In his Memoir, McGahern writes (p80):I take the belief that the best of life is life lived quietly, where change is imperceptible, where nothing happens but our calm journey through the day, where change is imperceptible and the precious life is everything.You could hardly imagine a viewpoint more at odds with the ethos of our time. We live in a world (especially the virtual world) where people crave change, celebrate the new and try to cram as many experiences into each day as possible.What McGahern is pointing out though, I think, is that…
-
Wired PR Works
-
Content as Jewelry – Making it Sparkle
19 Nov 2009 | 8:08 amConfession: I love jewelry that sparkles – preferably a lot. To make stones sparkle, they have to be cut to catch light. To be attractive, they need to be shaped. (...) [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]] -
Writing: What Grade is Yours in?
17 Nov 2009 | 8:43 pmI’m working on a writing project. This one needs to be more mainstream. So, I tested it out for grade level and readability. (...) [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]] -
Social Networking Personality Advice for Authentic Bobcats
15 Nov 2009 | 9:19 pmOnline you can be anyone you want to be. Not that you should, but you can. (...) [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]] -
Ten Branding Methods: Butterflies and Rainbows Optional
12 Nov 2009 | 5:48 pmButterflies used to be my visual brand. Why? Because I like photographing them and with the tagline “Marketing Transformations,” I though they were a natural fit. (...) [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]] -
Personal Branding and DNA
5 Nov 2009 | 7:18 amGary Vaynerchuk is coming to Chicago tonight! I’ll be there. Because it’s Gary V Day in Chicago, I’m sharing this post from October 9, 2008 with 20 tips and a video. Enjoy! (...) [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
-
PerkettPRsuasion - The PerkettPR Blog
-
Persuasive Picks for the week of 09/16/09 – Focus on Social Media Guidelines and Policies
20 Nov 2009 | 7:44 amHey B2B marketers: It’s okay to have fun! Marketing strategist and author, David Meerman Scott reminds companies that B2B marketing still means communicating with people and doesn’t need to be boring. What makes a blog successful? Brazen Careerist, Penelope Trunk shares stories of blogging success straight from her own experiences. Create social media guidelines to engage your customer This post from Daniel Burrus on TechJournalSouth.com is one in a series containing advice on creating social media guidelines. This pick zeros in on the importance of establishing clear and consistent… -
Please Join Us – PerkettPR’s Virtual Clothing Drive to Benefit Rosie’s Place
19 Nov 2009 | 9:38 am2009 has unarguably been a year of many ups and downs, not only here in New England, but across the globe. In Massachusetts alone, we have witnessed the unemployment rate rise as high as 9.3% (October 2009) and my guess is that we all know at least one person who has been laid off this past year or been adversely affected by the struggling economy. As the holidays approach this year, I asked myself and my employees “What can we do as an organization to help others who are less fortunate than us?” We may gripe about changes we’ve faced, but focusing on others who are facing even more… -
Global Entrepreneurship Week – How Are You Helping Tomorrow’s Leaders?
18 Nov 2009 | 11:32 amThis week has been dubbed “Global Entrepreneurship Week” by the Kauffman Foundation, the world’s leading foundation for entrepreneurship, and Make Your Mark, the UK’s campaign to give young people the confidence, skills and ambition to make their ideas happen. Their goal is to connect young people everywhere through local, national and global activities designed to help them explore their potential as self-starters and innovators. One of the things I’ve been most inspired by in social media lately is the ability to connect with and help out students in the PR… -
Persuasive Picks for the week of 11/09/09
13 Nov 2009 | 9:29 amCoping With Social Media Burnout Have you reached the point of social media burnout? For some, committing to and keeping up with, social media engagement can be overwhelming. CIO.com’s Kristin Burnham contributes this guest post on the topic to the San Francisco Chronicle. Study: Social Media, Mobile Set to Impact Holidays in Big Way Retailers might get a little extra business from social media communities this holiday season. Christopher Heine from Clickz.com cites some interesting facts from a recent study by Deloitte. Your Social Media Content Must Be Valuable Content might be king, but… -
Can You Afford Not to Demand Excellence?
10 Nov 2009 | 11:38 amI recently had a conversation with an industry colleague who works on the client side. During that conversation, which took place at a marketing conference, he shared with me his experience at a certain other interactive conference last year: “One awesome week-long party paid for by my company. No real business takes place in terms of ROI. I can’t wait to go back.” Huh? With that mentality, no wonder marketing is often the first line item when companies are facing budget cuts. But wait a minute – aren’t you responsible for ensuring excellence for your company…
-
PR 2.0
-
The Social Media (R)evolution: Your Time is Now
20 Nov 2009 | 4:23 amSource: ShutterstockThe Future of the Social Web is here today and we’re learning that engagement is not a matter of if or when, but to what extent, how and what value can we deliver and derive from it. The Social Web is much more than a window into information and interaction, it is a completely transformative medium that is changing how we forge relationships, interact with one another, and distribute and discover information. In many ways, the online social revolution is reminiscent of the Industrial Revolution.Access to free and expansive media platforms and distribution channels has… -
On Twitter, What Are You Doing Was Always The Wrong Question
19 Nov 2009 | 10:18 pmWhat are you doing?Perhaps, Twitter asked the wrong question all along.In all honestly, who cares…it was really never about “what you were doing” that inspired your network to stay connected nor was it the siren for attracting new followers. We chose to follow you because you moved or encouraged us to do so – with every update.For many of the users on Twitter, the question that engendered a response and also also aroused a cultural movement was, “what are you doing?” It was a prompt that, for the most part, was taken quite literally. Its answer served as… -
On Twitter and Social Networks, Brands Benefit from Conversations
19 Nov 2009 | 4:40 amSource: ShutterstockA recent study revealed 20 percent of tweets published are actually invitations for product information, answers or responses from peers or directly by brand representatives. Now we learn that Twitter users are actively paying attention to brands on the popular information network.According to research conducted by Performics and ROI Research, about half of Twitter users who were introduced to a brand on Twitter were compelled to search for additional information.The companies studied the activity of 3,000 users of social networks in the U.S. Of those polled, 70% use… -
The Golden Triangle
18 Nov 2009 | 4:11 amSource: ShutterstockPrior to keynoting the PACA conference in Miami, Maria Kessler, president of the PACA Association, asked me if I had read a recent post by Fred Wilson entitled “The Golden Triangle.” We were deep in conversation as I was seeking an alternate title for my next book that identifies the divide between brands, information, and consumers and how we can, as social architects and engineers, build the bridges between people, contextual relationships, and technology. While “The Golden Triangle” isn’t a contender for the name of the next book, it did get me thinking.In… -
With Klout Comes Influence: How To Find Influencers on Twitter
17 Nov 2009 | 8:20 amThis is the uncut version of my latest post on TechCrunch…Measuring individual influence in Social Media is as coveted as it is elusive. While many tools claim to calculate authority, it is the definition of influence that requires clarification in order to grasp the relevance and differences of existing tools and services.For the sake keeping this discussion on track, let’s define influence. According to Merriam-Webster, influence is having the power or capacity to cause an effect.San Francisco-based Klout is no stranger to measuring influence on the Social Web. The company launched…
-
Pogue's Posts
-
A $25 App Phone? That's Crazy Talk.
19 Nov 2009 | 10:16 amThis week, Palm released a follow up to the Pre, a cheaper, thinner, lesser phone called the Pixi. The official price is $100 with a two-year Sprint contract, but Amazon is selling the thing for - are you sitting down? - $25. -
Crowdsourcing Comedy on Amazon Reviews
17 Nov 2009 | 8:07 amSome unexpected humor can be found in the reviews of the world's largest online retailer. -
It's Q & A With DP!
13 Nov 2009 | 11:14 amWhy I use URL shorteners-even when not on Twitter. -
Verizon: How Much Do You Charge Now?
12 Nov 2009 | 9:29 amVerizon's cellphones are designed in such a way that you can almost never avoid getting $1.99 charge on the bill for its mobile Web services, even if you immediately cancel the action. -
Fun With Google's Auto-Suggestion Feature
12 Nov 2009 | 8:06 amStart a phrase in a Google and who knows how the search engine will complete it?
-
ReadWriteWeb
-
Weekly Wrapup: Google Chrome OS, Obama's Twitter, Blogging Statistics, And More...
21 Nov 2009 | 5:00 amIn this edition of the Weekly Wrapup - our newsletter summarizing the top stories of the week - we report on President Obama's (non)-use of Twitter, take a look at the past decade in the media industry, review the latest statistics about blogging, question if Oxford Dictionary should've chosen "unfriend" as its word of the year, and more. We also check in on our two main channels: ReadWriteEnterprise (devoted to 'enterprise 2.0' trends and products) and ReadWriteStart (dedicated to profiling startups and entrepreneurs). Sponsor Subscribe to Weekly Wrapup You can subscribe to the… -
3 Great Light Blogging Tools Compared
20 Nov 2009 | 4:35 pmOnce the service for those serious enough to pay for the privilege to post, TypePad recently released a free "Micro" service. The company made the decision to offer a free product realizing the demand for a platform more formal than Twitter and less formal than Wordpress or Typepad's original product. ReadWriteWeb compared TypePad's Micro against 2 other leading light blogging tools. Below are our thoughts: Sponsor TypePad Micro: In addition to being able to blog via email, iPhone app, "Blog It" bookmarklet and the general WYSIWYG dashboard, this tool also allows users to cross post to… -
An iPhone Visualization App That Syncs with the Cloud
20 Nov 2009 | 3:50 pmRoambi announced a pro version of its iPhone application this week that syncs with Salesforce.com and other cloud-based services or on-premsie sales environments. It's a visualization application, providing mobile workers with a pretty cool way to see sales information. Integration is by far one of the most significant trends we are seeing in the enterprise space. It's a wave, really, marked this week by Salesforce.com and its move to turn the Force.com development platform into a service that makes all of its applications social. Sponsor A good example of this trend are small companies like… -
8tracks to Launch Playback API and Developer Program
20 Nov 2009 | 12:00 pmIt appears that the time for freemium music services in the US has passed. Earlier this week streaming music site Imeem sold to MySpace for under $10 million dollars while laying off a large number of staff. For a company with all four major record labels signed, more than 15 million uniques a month and well over 5 million tracks in its catalogue, it came as a sobering blow to the industry. While many companies move to a subscription model, 8tracks continues to forge along in what some describe as a convenient loophole. As of this weekend the company is publicly launching its API for Boston's… -
Memento: Protocol-Based Time Travel for the Web
20 Nov 2009 | 11:45 amThe Web constantly changes and evolves. That, of course, is what makes the Internet so exciting, but it also means that finding older versions of a website is hard. The current push towards the real-time web is making this problem even more apparent. Memento, a project based at Old Dominion University, wants to make it easier to access older versions of a web page without having to go to the Internet Archive. To do this, the project is using a relatively obscure feature of the hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP). Sponsor The Memento project wants to give browsers a 'time-travel' mode.
-
Techmeme
-
Boycott Microsoft Bing (Nicholas Kristof/Nicholas D. Kristof)
21 Nov 2009 | 9:10 amNicholas Kristof / Nicholas D. Kristof: Boycott Microsoft Bing — Critics have accused President Obama of kowtowing to Chinese leaders, by failing to meet dissidents, toning down his criticisms and delaying a meeting with the Dalai Lama. On balance, I think that criticism is premature: Confrontation doesn't help with China and can hurt … -
Gmail Creator Thinks Email Will Last Forever. And Hasn't Tried Google Wave. (MG Siegler/TechCrunch)
21 Nov 2009 | 7:55 amMG Siegler / TechCrunch: Gmail Creator Thinks Email Will Last Forever. And Hasn't Tried Google Wave. — “Email is not going to disappear. Possibly ever. Until the robots kill us all.” - Paul Buchheit, creator of Gmail, co-founder of FriendFeed, currently doing vague infrastructure things at Facebook. -
Google Chrome OS available as free VMWare download (update: first impressions) (Vladislav Savov/Engadget)
20 Nov 2009 | 2:05 pmVladislav Savov / Engadget: Google Chrome OS available as free VMWare download (update: first impressions) — Seriously, how awesome have the past few hours been? Engadget turns the design stakes up to 11, Google finally dishes the dirt on Chrome OS, and now you can even download the forthcoming software to have a fiddle with yourself. -
Hot Potato Organizes The Stream Around What's Really Happening Now (Erick Schonfeld/TechCrunch)
20 Nov 2009 | 2:00 pmErick Schonfeld / TechCrunch: Hot Potato Organizes The Stream Around What's Really Happening Now — Yesterday, Twitter changed its organizing question from “What Are You Doing?” to “What's Happening?” But if you want to know what's really happening now, check out Hot Potato, a startup launching right now at our Realtime CrunchUp. -
YouTube pulls a Hulu - yanking API access from Popcorn Hour ... (Richard Lawler/Engadget)
20 Nov 2009 | 1:55 pmRichard Lawler / Engadget: YouTube pulls a Hulu — yanking API access from Popcorn Hour (Update: Google responds) — Hope you weren't enjoying watching YouTube on the television screen via Popcorn Hour and other set-top boxes, as they have been given notice by the newly 1080p and network TV-friendly website that they are no longer welcome to access its content.
-
TechCrunch
-
Saturday Giveaway: Kodak 5250 All-In-One Printer, Just For You
21 Nov 2009 | 10:31 amGood afternoon, readers! What does Santa have in his bag for you today? Interestingly enough, he was unable to bring his bag because this printer is far too big for it. We present, for your inspection, the Kodak 5250 all-in-one: a scanning, printing, faxing, photofinishing machine that can best the big boys in the printer race. Best of all, the 5250 has built-in WiFi so you can stick the printer on your network and print from any computer in the house. Take a look at Kodak's 5250 product page and then click through to figure out how to win. -
TechCrunch Readers: God is Your Co-Pilot, and Stuff that Piggy Bank
21 Nov 2009 | 7:45 amWhen pitching to VC’s, entrepreneurs hype the heck out of their ideas, years of experience and management teams. But I’ve never heard of anyone touting their luck or connection to God. After reading the posts on TechCrunch, one could easily get the impression that God doesn’t play much of role in Silicon Valley. But ask any successful entrepreneur in private what made them successful, and you might just hear a different story. In a research project my team just completed, the majority of 549 company founders told us that their most important success factor, after “experience” and… -
Uh-Oh: Gameloft Moves Away From Android Development
21 Nov 2009 | 7:33 amThe sudden surge in interest in Android (largely due to all of the hype surrounding the Droid) has caused a lot of developers to reconsider the platform. Atleast one major development house, however, isn't impressed. Earlier today, Alexandre de Rochefort, Finance Director of Gameloft, told an investor conference that the company had "significantly cut [their] investment in Android platform, just like ... many others". Gameloft is one of the largest mobile games companies around, having pulled in roughly $132 million in the last three quarters alone. While there are plenty of fish in the… -
Google Wave iPhone App Hits The App Store … Temporarily
21 Nov 2009 | 6:46 amDo a search for Google Wave on the App Store from your iPhone or desktop client, and you’ll see an application called just that pop up, ready to be installed as soon as you fork over $0.99 (or €0.79 in my case). One caveat: it’s not built, authorized or in any way endorsed by Google. Spotted by Stuart Dredge over at Mobile Entertainment, the unofficial Google Wave iPhone app seemingly slipped past Apple’s usually and notoriously rigorous quality assurance and trademark compliance team and made its way to the App Store (iTunes link – up to you to decide if this is… -
London VC: European Startups Need To Work Much Harder
21 Nov 2009 | 4:50 amThis is our third guest post written by a London-based VC. To allow them to speak plainly without jeopardising their fund or their career in the small village that is the London VC scene, I'm allowing them to post anonymously. FYI, LondonVC is a genuine VC and TechCrunch Europe has met them face to face. One of the biggest challenges for any investor (regardless of the stage/type of investment they target) and founders alike is hiring great talent. In early stage investing the team may be the single criteria upon which an investment decision is based (considering how many times when that's…
-
Truemors
-
Laptop Steering Wheel Desk: A Three Wolf Moon That Can Kill You
20 Nov 2009 | 8:50 amAmazon.com is selling a laptop steering wheel desk. I'm not making this up: a laptop steering wheel desk. A desk. You mount. On your steering wheel. In your car. So you can do stuff other than driving while you...read more -
Twitter Adds Geotagging: We Can See Where You're Wasting Time
19 Nov 2009 | 3:12 pmTwitter has added a geotagging API, so you can tell people where you're tweeting from. This is currently available via your settings page in your Twitter account. Geolocation is opt-in, so don't worry: your boss...read more -
Twilight Tweets: New Moon Social Media Deluge
18 Nov 2009 | 2:15 pmAs the whole (teen) world gets ready for the premiere of New Moon, social media trends have transformed, werewolf-like, into an out-of-control viral marketing monster. Just look at this graph, showing mentions of...read more -
Microsoft Attempts Viral Video and Fails
17 Nov 2009 | 11:08 amSo we're supposed to believe that someone just happened to walk into the Microsoft store in Mission Viejo, California, juuust as the staff happened to break into a choreographed dance routine? Sorry. We don't...read more -
Youtube Direct: Get Other People To Do Your Video Work
17 Nov 2009 | 10:16 amYoutube is launching Youtube Direct, which is a contribution and curation tool for news organizations seeking public contributions for video footage. The upside is that you can shamelessly solicit the public for...read more
-
Mashable!
-
GrandCentral Website Shuts Down Next Month: Download Your Data and Contacts
21 Nov 2009 | 9:26 amGoogle has already transitioned GrandCentral users over to Google Voice, and now comes the final step in that move: Google is shuttering the GrandCentral website and telling users to download any old messages and contacts they have on that site. The GrandCentral site will be closed on the last day of the year – December 31st – and a further reminder will be sent before that date. In a mail to users today, the company advised: The GrandCentral website is shutting down – GrandCentral is now Google Voice. Dear GrandCentral User: We’re writing to let you know that we will… -
Tila Tequila Continues Her Ustream Video Meltdown [LIVE VIDEO]
21 Nov 2009 | 1:19 amSocial media is a double-edged sword. Due to its unfiltered nature, it can be a powerful promotional tool. However, it can also publicly expose our problems. Former reality TV star Tila Tequila is an unfortunate but prime example. Some backstory: Tila Tequila is one of the most popular artists on MySpace, was the subject of an MTV reality show, and most recently filed assault charges against San Diego Chargers linebacker Shawne Merriman, which were subsequently dropped. Fastforward to Wednesday, November 18th. That night, Tila had a very public meltdown on her Ustream page. She waved around a… -
UNDERDOG: Google Android Smashes Apple iPhone in Reader Vote
20 Nov 2009 | 9:20 pmWe’ve been matching up popular web services, applications and mobile apps against each other in heated one-on-one battles here in our weekly Faceoff Series. Last week Microsoft Office bested Google Docs in a head to head race for the title of office suite champion. This week we turned our attention to a rather timely battle being waged on the mobile front, between Apple’s still wildly-selling iPhone platform and Google’s slower to boil Android mobile operating system. Apparently the latter has been gaining some ground, resulting in our first unexpected upset victory in the… -
Fido Factor Finds Dog-Friendly Places in Your City
20 Nov 2009 | 7:31 pmThis post is part of Mashable’s Spark of Genius series, which highlights a unique feature of startups. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here. The series is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark. Name: Fido Factor Quick Pitch: Fido Factor is a dog-specific local search and review site and iPhone app built for dog owners. It’s a “Yelp for dogs.” Genius Idea: We dog owners love our canines: it’s really that simple. We raise them, feed them, play with them, sleep with them, and fall in love with them. We want to… -
Droid Does: A Price Drop
20 Nov 2009 | 4:04 pmWhen it was released earlier this month, the retail price for the Motorola Droid was $200 for new activations on Verizon. Although Verizon is staying firm with that price point for now, it appears that some of its retailers are not. Specifically, Amazon and Dell have both cut prices on the smartphone to $150 and $120, respectively. The news comes just one day after news broke of price cuts by online retailers on other devices not named iPhone: the Palm Pre and Pixi. Of course, the device cost shouldn’t really play a huge role in consumer’s decision given the total costs of ownership for…
-
NYT > Technology
-
Driven to Distraction: High-Tech Baby Sitters Get Drivers Off Phone
21 Nov 2009 | 10:54 amWhich is safer: technology that disables a cellphone in a moving car, or that makes the conversation completely hands-free? -
Hacked E-Mail Is New Fodder for Climate Dispute
21 Nov 2009 | 8:31 amPrivate messages hacked from a British university are causing a stir among global warming skeptics. -
For the Volt, How’s Life After 40 (Miles)?
21 Nov 2009 | 12:26 amA reporter test-drove a Chevrolet Volt to see how it performed after its electric power supply was depleted. -
BigDeal Puts a New Spin on 'Entertainment Shopping'
20 Nov 2009 | 4:37 pmBigDeal, a new venture-backed "entertainment auction" site, takes on Swoopo.com by saying there is no way to lose. -
A Look at California's New TV Energy Rules
20 Nov 2009 | 4:02 pmWhile it will be a challenge, TV manufacturers believe that they'll be able to meet new California standards for HDTV power consumption.
-
GigaOM
-
Google’s Past Failures Offer Perspective on Chrome OS Release
21 Nov 2009 | 11:00 amThe Internet is abuzz over Google’s release of the open-source version of its Chrome OS, and for good reason. It’s free, which will save hardware manufacturers licensing fees, and it appears ideally suited for the netbooks that have become such a hot item for the mobile crowd (GigaOM Pro, sub. required). But Chrome is not without its detractors, and it’s worth remembering that Google isn’t King Midas — in fact, there’s a substantial list of Google products and services that have flopped, floundered or simply disappeared into the ether. Here are a few of the… -
Why Are Tech Layoffs Rising in a Recovery?
21 Nov 2009 | 9:00 amThe brutal economic downturn that’s being called “The Great Recession” is, at least in a technical sense, over. Online advertising and IT spending are inching back up, and many tech companies have seen their stock prices more than double from the lows reached in March. Even if it’s not the most robust of recoveries, it’ll do. So why are tech companies suddenly slashing jobs again? The past couple of months have brought a renewed surge in job cuts at technology companies, including many that were undergoing second or third rounds of layoffs. Take AOL: It laid off 700 workers… -
Android This Week: ARM Alliance Formed; Droids Fix Themselves?
21 Nov 2009 | 6:00 amAndroid is like a snowball rolling downhill — it won’t be long before it’s moving too fast for anything to stop it. That movement is surely going to spread from the smartphone sector, where Android has its roots, to that of smartbooks. Knowing this, ARM and the Android folks have put their heads together and formed the Solution Center for Android Alliance. The sole aim of the group, which was unveiled this week, is to help make it easier to put Android on ARM-based devices, of which smartbooks are the emerging choice. The group of 35 companies will pool resources and make… -
Green Computing Needs a Data Center Whisperer
20 Nov 2009 | 5:05 pmAs compute demand increases, demand for power in data centers is soaring. To help IT professionals halt the spread of watt-consuming servers, the industry needs to develop software that can communicate the ways in which the various layers of the data center perform and interact. They need a binary version of Cesar Millan — a data center whisperer. Speaking at a panel held Wednesday night in Austin, Texas, several folks from the large server shops and a distinguished engineer who runs a data center for IBM spoke about the challenges of keeping power consumption down in a world where… -
Thanks to Our GigaOM Sponsors!
20 Nov 2009 | 5:00 pmWe’d like to say thanks to this week’s GigaOM sponsors: PEER 1: Fully Scalable Hosting Solutions Concentric: Hosted IT Services Mozy: Simple, Automatic, Secure Online Backup SoftLayer: SoftLayer delivers on-demand virtual data center services and solutions. Salesforce: Force.com Cloud Platform PayPal: Innovate 09 – The Intersection of Ideas and Money
-
Technology Review Feed - Tech Review Top Stories
-
Blog - Oars 'n' Others
20 Nov 2009 | 9:10 pmThe best of the rest from the physics arXiv this week: -
Blog - Mathematician Solves Rowing Boat "Wiggle" Problem
19 Nov 2009 | 9:10 pmA mathematician has discovered two entirely new arrangements of rowers in a racing eight in which the rowing forces cancel to make the boat wiggle-free. -
Blog - How to Spur U.S. Renewable Energy
19 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pmIndustry experts weigh in at a conference in Washington, DC. -
A New Route to Cellulosic Biofuels
19 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pmZeaChem's pilot plant will make ethanol using termite microbes. -
Self-Policing Cloud Computing
19 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pmIBM security tool searches for and destroys malicious code in the cloud.
-
O'Reilly Digital Media
-
CarTunes
Green Technologies and Interactive Audio are two fields not generally considered related, but a new trend may change that: "Generated Sounds for Electric Vehicles", aka "EV Audio", aka "CarTunes". When I first heard that "electric cars are so quiet, manufacturers want them to make noise", I had a strong memory flashback to 1995, when I was contracted to produce my first ringtone (Fur Elise for Sprint PCS). At the time, I thought "mobile phone plays melody when it rings" was the stupidest idea I'd ever heard of; now, it's a multi-billion dollar industry. If you think audio personalization of… -
Four short links: 18 November 2009 - Web Time Travel, UK Map Data Liberation, Streetview Mashups, 3D Retail
Mapsicle -- Is an open source Javascript library to create mashups and application on Google Streetview, from NZ developers Project X. It has been released by Google as part of the Maps Utility library. This and more in today's Four Short Links. -
The iPhone: Tricorder Version 1.0?
The iPhone, in addition to revolutionizing how people thought about mobile phone user interfaces, also was one of the first devices to offer a suite of sensors measuring everything from the visual environment to position to acceleration, all in a package that could fit in your shirt pocket. On December 3rd, O'Reilly will be offering a one-day online edition of the Where 2.0 conference, focusing on the iPhone sensors, and what you can do with them. -
The War For the Web
It is becoming clear to me that we are heading into a bloody period of competition that could be extremely unfriendly to the interoperable web as we know it today. If you've followed my thinking about Web 2.0 from the beginning, you know that I believe we are engaged in a long term project to build an internet operating system. I've outlined a few of the ways that big players like Facebook, Apple, and News Corp are potentially breaking the "small pieces loosely joined" model of the Internet. But perhaps most threatening of all are the natural monopolies created by Web 2.0 network effects. -
What's Hot in O'Reilly Answers - iPhone, HTML/CSS/JavaScript, MS Project
How to support older versions of the iPhone SDK HTML/CSS/JavaScript or Objective-C/Cocoa for iPhone app development? How to Work with Roman Numerals in Perl How to calibrate the iPhone Accelerometer for optimal use When can I try MS Project 2010? Share knowledge, ask questions on O'Reilly Answers today.
-
MediaPost
-
Daily Online Examiner: Feds Drop Appeal In MySpace Suicide Case
20 Nov 2009 | 3:00 pmThe federal government today dropped its appeal in the MySpace suicide case, ending its efforts to prosecute Lori Drew for her role in an online hoax tied to the death of 13-year-old Megan Meier. -
Daily Online Examiner:
20 Nov 2009 | 3:00 pm -
Around the Net In Online Marketing: Google Going From CPMs To CPGs?
20 Nov 2009 | 2:15 pm -
Around the Net In Online Marketing: Chrome OS Gets Harsh Reviews
20 Nov 2009 | 2:15 pm -
Around the Net In Online Marketing: Twitter Bows Geo-Location API
20 Nov 2009 | 2:15 pm
-
MediaMemo by Peter Kafka
-
Another (Loud, Fuzzy) Peek at Wired's Tablet Edition
21 Nov 2009 | 7:16 amWhat will Conde Nast magazines look like once they show up on tablet computers made by Apple (AAPL) , Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) and others? Conde has a demo video it has been showing to advertisers, employees, and plenty of other people, including me. It gives you a pretty good overview of what the publisher and Adobe (ADBE), who is building the software to produce and view the magazines, have in mind. But it’s turned down my request to show the clip to my readers. That doesn’t mean you can’t see it, though. If you’re in New York City, you can troop down to the… -
YouTube Says Popcorn Hour Is Over
20 Nov 2009 | 12:53 pmWant to watch YouTube on your TV? There are plenty of devices and services that let you do that, with more on the way. But starting next month, at least one gadget is getting its YouTube feed shut down. Syabas Technology, which makes a line of set-top boxes called “Popcorn Hour,” says Google’s (GOOG) video site has told it to remove YouTube content beginning December 2. This one is a straight he said/he said: Syabas, via a blog post from COO Alex Limberis, says it has an agreement to use YouTube’s clips, but that YouTube had changed the terms of the agreement recently. -
Why Broadcast TV Won't Miss Oprah
20 Nov 2009 | 9:38 amYou can debate whether Oprah Winfrey’s plans to shut down her broadcast show–in 2011–and move to cable constitutes “news.” Ditto for what it means for the culture. But what do Oprah’s plans mean for the TV business? Not that much, argues JP Morgan (JPM) analyst Michael Meltz. Short version of his note published this morning: It’s not bad for OWN, the cable network Oprah co-owns with Discovery (DISCA). But it’s also not terrible for CBS (CBS) and Disney’s (DIS) ABC, the two broadcasters currently in the “Oprah” business. -
Consumers: We Don't Absolutely Hate Mobile Ads
20 Nov 2009 | 5:58 amHere’s your half-empty/half-full stat for the day: Four in 10 consumers don’t want to see ads on their phones. Is that good or bad for the nascent mobile ad business? Call me Professor Positive if you must, but I don’t think that’s terrible: It means that 60 percent of phone users are okay with ads. And I suspect the number will be higher once the ads move from the theoretical/novelty realm into something you see whenever you use your phone or in exchange for getting something of value. (And yes, I understand that a vocal minority absolutely hates advertising of all… -
Can Adobe and Apple Play Nicely When–And If–The Tablet Shows Up?
19 Nov 2009 | 3:33 pmBrief-ish follow-up to yesterday’s story about Condé Nast’s plan to create tablet-friendly editions of its magazines with the help of Adobe: As many readers noted, one big problem–potentially–with the plan is that Adobe (ADBE) and Apple (AAPL) generally don’t play well together. And in the case of Apple’s iPhone, they don’t play at all: Adobe’s flash platform doesn’t work in the iPhone, which is why many video sites, which depend on flash, don’t work well on the gadget. So what if this happens again with Apple’s tablet,…
-
The Flack
-
Web 2.0 Expo in NY
21 Nov 2009 | 11:10 amI finally had a chance to attend one of O'Reilly Media's Web 2.0 Expos (as opposed to "the more exclusive" Web 2.0 Summit) this morning at New York's Javits Center -->.I choose to audit the panel called "Real-Time Marketing: Operationalizing the Use of Social Media," which featured SM luminaries Jennifer Zeszut (Scout Labs) who moderated, Peter Kim (Dachis Group), James M. Smith (Disney Online), Randy Ksar (Motorola), Aaron Dignan (Undercurrent), Valeria Maltoni (SunGard Availability Services), and Shiv Singh (Razorfish). Here are some select tweets: @conversationage (Maltoni): Social media… -
Do Gen Y'ers Hold the Keys to Social Media?
20 Nov 2009 | 7:05 pmI promise. This is my last report for a while from the field of social media dreams. Today, I had the pleasure of participating in PR Camp New York. The use of the word "camp" in a social media context probably has its origins from the pod(casting) camps made popular when podcasting had what was then considered Twitter status. Dan Greenfield came in from Atlanta to preside over the confab at the 92Y in Tribeca. And in spite of a surplus of social media gatherings this particular fall season, today's event drew a diverse mix of more than 100 PR peeps and marketers from the agency, non-profit… -
The PRfect Match
18 Nov 2009 | 4:32 pmAs one of the 74 percent of Americans who reads "a printed or online newspaper" at least once a week, I couldn't help but notice the full-page ad that broke in the "Money and Investing" section of Friday's Wall Street Journal, and again today.It was a "house-ad" from Dow Jones that amazingly targets...the PR professional. Yes, the lowly PR professional.Frankly, I had very mixed feelings about this ad that touted Dow Jones' alleged "new" approach to media targeting. From its news release: "For communications professionals, the increasingly fragmented media landscape adds to the challenge of… -
#PRWeekNext
12 Nov 2009 | 2:40 pmMust be the season for PR conferences. Yesterday I attended PRWeek's Next Conference at New York's Waldorf Astoria and was glad to see yet another great turn-out.This followed our PCNY media event this week, which sold out, the PRSA Int'l Conference, which drew thousands, and the Council of PR Firms' Critical Issues Forum that also played to a full house. Could it be that the economic tides have finally turned as Council president Kathy Cripps suggested yesterday?After arriving, I took my assigned seat at the digital video-themed breakfast table, deftly hosted by Weber Shandwick's VP, Social… -
Arianna Preps PR Peeps
10 Nov 2009 | 2:17 pmI just returned from the annual PRSA confab in San Diego where thousands gathered to hear what's what in the PR biz.I would have liked to have lingered another day (SD is such a fab city), but today PCNY held its own confab in NY where 160 PR pros heard producers for GMA, Nightline, The Takeaway, Dr. Oz and Beet.TV share what's what in the broadcast biz.Back to sunny San Diego. PRSA's powers-that-be had the acuity to invite the namesake of the world's top-ranked blog to address the SRO PR crowd. Ms. Huffington offered her deeply accented (think Eva Gabor), but very clear perspectives on the…
