New Internet & MSM Page

April 25, 2006 by Liz Leave a Comment

Internet & Mainstream Media

Every little while a story will appear in the Mainstream Media about the Internet or Blogging that calls out to me. It calls either because it’s being touted as one thing when it’s another, or because it tells a story that invites analysis of a kind that I enjoy. They stories have tended to build on each other over time.

Internet and WiFi

April 25 Do You Trust Congress and AT&T to Run the Internet?

April 24 Net Neutrality Is in Jeopardy

March 18 Saving the NetÃ¢â¬âDoc Searls & Walter Cronkite

March 03 WhoÃ¢â¬â¢s Reading Your Comments?

February 19 Chicago Goes Wi-Fi . . . What Does that Mean to Business?

Mainstream Media

April 22 If HeÃ¢â¬â¢s a Pulitzer Winner, Call Me a Citizen Journalist

April 09 The HeadlineÃ¢â¬â¢s NOT the Story

March 15 WhoÃ¢â¬â¢s a Citizen Journalist?

March 15 Financial Times Debate OnÃ¢â¬âShould Old Media Embrace New?

March 12 Edelman Aces PR, NY Times Fails Research

March10 Tom Glocer DonÃ¢â¬â¢t Spin Stories to My Friends

March 07 Looking in the Right Direction Ã¢â¬â The MSM IsnÃ¢â¬â¢t. Are You?

March 06 Why MSM Are Afraid of BlogsÃ¢â¬âand Should Be

Blogs

March 03 Blogs: The New Black in Corporate Communication

February 28 Blogs ArenÃ¢â¬â¢t Mini-Websites. TheyÃ¢â¬â¢re Powerful Tools

If He’s a Pulitzer Winner, Call Me a Citizen Journalist

April 22, 2006 by Liz Leave a Comment

Busted

In every Greek Tragedy, the protagonist has a tragic flaw that causes his downfall. I don’t see a protagonist here. I see someone who never outgrew schoolyard.

Last night the LA Times suspended a Pulitzer Prize winner’s blog for something he did that any 7-year-child knows isn’t right.

His name is Michael Hiltzik, and he lied by pretending to be someone else.

He’s a journalist, and he lied in print. He wrote comments under pseudonyms–nice ones on his own blog and not so nice ones on blogs that had content that disagreed with the content on his. [Read more…]

The Headline’s NOT the Story

April 9, 2006 by Liz Leave a Comment

Newspapers Need to Change Metrics

For years, publishers have relied — often to their detriment — upon the metric of paid circulation. But circulation for the core product has been on a long, steady decline, causing some to suggest that print is on its way out.

The industry has touted the notion of readership — a metric that takes into account how many people read the paper whether they buy it or not — for years, but has often taken halfhearted steps toward giving it true legitimacy.

Then there’s the confounding, if promising, online angle. If you count Web traffic, newspapers are actually more popular than ever.
Jennifer Saba, associate editor, Editor and Publisher, Dispelling the Myth of Readership Decline

Surveys Say Move Online–Really?

I came across For Future Readers, Papers Should Look Online earlier this week. It was written by staff writer, Sara Kehaulani Goo, in the Washington Post. I read it and set it aside as not much, but it nagged at me. At first, I was puzzled. Why was the Washington Post writing about this? They were ahead of most at knowing where the readers are. This couldn’t be news to them or their readers. The piece itself didn’t offer much depth. It almost seemed to be filler.

The point of the article was that two surveys–one by the Newspaper Association of America and a second by marketing firm, Scarborough Research–point to the fact that 18-24 year-olds want news, but not newsprint. The point was supported by data and some compelling quotes. I’m guessing this one quote will be all over the Internet.

“People who are not necessarily engaged with the print product are increasingly using the newspaper Web site for news and information in their local market,” said Randy Bennett, senior vice president of audience and business development at the newspaper association. “Blogs, video and other multimedia content beyond what appears in the newspaper are all having an impact on usage of newspaper Web sites.”

Done But Not Over

This morning I decided to use the Washington Post article to inform an article I was writing on my personal business blog, Lizstrauss.com that came to be called WashingtonPost Now to Editor and Publisher Then. While I was doing further research, I found a more serious analysis of the newspaper readership issue written up last November by Jennifer Saba, associate editor of Editor and Publisher. Ms. Saba’s four page article not only cited and quoted the same sources, but laid out the challenges and the potential of what lies ahead for print newspapers. I finished my writing a short while ago, yet the Washington Post article was still in my head–puzzling me. I was done with what I had set out to do, but it seemed my job was not over yet.

The REAL Story

I went back to the Washingtonpost.com article one more time to figure out what it was that was bothering me. Then I found it. It was a quote. This quote I suspect everyone will overlook. It’s the only new information in the article. It says volumes about how the MSM looks at the Internet. This quote is the real story. How I wish Ms. Kehaulani Goo had started her article here.

“But if you continue to grow 30 percent or more a year, within five years, for example, online classified revenue will equal what you’ll get from your print model,” [John] Morton [newspaper analyst] said. “My concern is how newspaper managers treat this online profit. If they treat it as ‘found’ money and don’t use it to shore up the economic model of the declining newsprint model, it’s going to spell bad news for newsrooms.”

Do You Hear It?

Mr. Morton is worried that the newpaper managers won’t take the online readership and profits seriously. He understands that they need it to make the economics of a 21st-century newspaper work. Why wouldn’t managers see the way he does? Do they know something he doesn’t? Do they have their heads in the sand? Perhaps they are preparing to teach citizen readers too.

God bless the mainstream media! They are so generous.

And here I thought I was the nice one.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

The “Got Milk?” Man, Chartreuse, & Liz Singing in Harmony

March 29, 2006 by Liz Leave a Comment

Where We Live and Breathe

Advertising has a responsibility to act like a thing that is going to be unavoidably in the environment, where we live and breathe. And we have a responsibility to make that work in such a way that it is welcomed and not scorned.

–Jeff Goodby, Goodby Silverstein & Partners, of “Got Milk?” fame as quoted in BusinessWeekonline, Advertising Advice from the “Got Milk” Man

When a guy knows what he’s talking about, almost everything he says is worth quoting. That’s how I felt reading BusinessWeekonline Managing Editor, David Kiley’s interview with Jeff Goodby, the guy behind such famous advertising as the “Got Milk?” slogan. I wished that Mr. Goodby was required reading for every designer that I ever met or would meet. But then all of the good ones already subscribe to what Jeff Goodby was saying.

Mr. Goodby was talking about how the audience gets to pick what’s good.

I suppose it’s crystal clear already that he and I agree completely, but that’s not what this article is about. This article is about a three-way conversation that’s been happening on three different subjects, in three different places, the same thing has been being said.

The “Got Milk?” Man, Chartreuse, and Liz

Jeff Goodby, Chartreuse, BETA, and Liz Strauss. What do we three have in common? A clear vision of how to reach and keep one. On three slightly different notes, we three each say things that sound a lot alike. Heck if we were on a street corner, we’d be doing some great harmony and collecting some serious cash.

Jeff Goodby said

Our job is to come up with more advertising that people actually seek out. It’s the same way with successful design. When you design something right, people don’t just accept it, they seek it out. And then they tell their friends about it or show it off.

Chartreuse said

Look at Overture (now Yahoo Search Marketing).

These are the most profitable advertising business models around, because consumers tell advertisers what theyÃ¢â¬â¢re looking for first, rather than advertisers telling consumers what they should buy and hoping for the best.

I said

Everett knew that being who you are is a bond with the community. It the basis on which all relationships are forged. Being any less and youÃ¢â¬â¢re only a bad facsimile of what you could be. Your personal brand can be the strongest advantage you bring to your business life.

Be brand YOU and youÃ¢â¬â¢re the only one. No one can compete with that.

Three separate takes on the same subject–Henry Ford you had a great idea, but your work is done. Rest in peace. The assembly line has lost its promise, and one-size-fits-all now fits no one.

Analysis–What Are We Saying?

Content is king, but the king reports to the Emperor. The Audience-Emperor knows damn well whether we’re wearing clothes and which designer made them too. We already decide what is relevant content to us and we tell advertisers by the way we use search engines. We already decide what ads work by the products we spend our money on. Jeff Goodby gets that, that’s why he respects us and voices a responsibility to keeping our environment filled with advertising we enjoy. He realizes he is one of us.

Advertising we seek out. There’s a concept–a simple wonder, a basic what if. The advertisers who get it will be the ones who are us, not the ones who think, “They versus us.”

Strategy–To Promote Your Business

None of us are partners in a fabulous San Francisco Advertising firm. Though I’d love to work for Mr. Goodby, I don’t suppose he’ll be offering me a job soon. I’m guessing you’re probably in the same place as I am. So how might we push this analysis into strategy for our brand and our businesses?

Be authentic, practical, and nice. Don’t promote your business on its glorious, high falutin’ intangible values. Do needs-benefits selling. Know me and what I need and show me how you provide it better, with more-invested, gentler service than the other guy ever could.
Make it fun to work with you. No matter what you’re involved in, it should be something that adds to the world of enjoyment. Fun is magnetic and always feels free. It’s hard enough to find these days. Jeff Goodby says it has to be simple and interesting to the consumer in the way the cowabduction spoof he did for Milk Producers was, if you want folks to seek it out. If you offer that kind of creativity to me, you can bet, I’ll not only seek it out, I’ll forgive the occasional slip.
Let me be who I am. Don’t try to change the way I do things. Trust that I know my needs better than you do. Show me how I can do what I already do more easily. That will win my loyalty. That will get me to talk about what a good relationship you have with your customers.
Let me be smarter than you are. and sweeter too. Chartreuse says, “Treat the smart girls like they are pretty and the pretty girls like they are smart.” Believe me, it works for boys too. That is the key to customer relationships and to building customer evangelists. That is the intangible value-added, making the customer the center of all you do.
Know the upside-down nature of the Internet. Understand that it will move out into the real-world environment, not the other way around. Make something so good that folks will seek you out to find it. We find what works well and stick with it. We will keep looking until the one worth sticking with is found.
Offer a product or a service that fills an actual need I have. I put this last on purpose. The changes in the world are happening so fast that needs are opening at an unprecedented rate of explosion. Some will close right back up again by getting filled or expiring. Think through the product or service you offer. Make certain it has staying power, be sure that I am willing and able to pay what it will cost you to make it available. Then add that you include the unique BIG IDEA of your brand so that I will only want YOU to do the work for me.

The power base has slowly shifted to the audience-consumer. A busines without customers is not a business. I have that tatooed where you cannot look.

More MSM Unhappiness

Until now control of the distribution channels and advertising markets, limited what the consumer could access, but with the WWW shopping mall, I can search the world over to find that little store that has the “just right” item I am looking for. I no longer need to settle for one-size fits all.

Chartreuse and I know this. We see it in our friends and ourselves. Smart advertisers, such as Jeff Goodby, are well aware of this too. Those who cannot see it–the telcos, Internet providers and the Mainstream Media–will fight to save the old world way of doing business. They want to keep those advertising dollars that Jeff Goodby sees turning into entertaining Internet websites that advertise as well as delight.

There is significant money involved and significant changes to life styles should Jeff Goodby’s vision of advertising–one that Chartreuse and I also see–become the future. Were I the Mainstream Media, I don’t think I would want to lose control.

Everyday the world gets smaller. At the moment, you and I get larger and more powerful. Some folks don’t like that idea.

Personally, I do.

It would be hard to break out into a chorus of “Blue Moon” under a streetlight in Chicago with Chartreuse and Jeff Goodby, if someone else were around telling us what to do.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Tom Glocer Don’t Spin Stories to My Friends

March 10, 2006 by Liz Leave a Comment

The Nice One

I was working for a privately-held publishing company for about 9 months. The company had been losing 10% a year for the past three years running. In the morning the Major Partner and Chief Financial Officer were coming to visit to hear our plan to turn the company around. I had been chosen to voice the plan.

That night at dinner, the Operations’ Director and close friend said to me over wine and dinner, “You know, the success of this company really depends on you.”

“You’re talking about our meeting tomorrow. That will be fine.” I said.

“No. I’m talking about the execution of the plan.”

“Elaborate.”

“You’re the only one who’s not jaded. You’re the nice one,” she said.

Why am I telling you this story?

So that I could say that my friend, Peg, said I am the nice one.

Reading the White Space?

Tom Glocer said some things to the Online Publishers in London. Almost everyone, except Scott Karp, Dave, a few others, and me, thinks he said good things. I wish I could agree with them. The truth is I can’t. I’m not sure he said anything at all that was good.

I commented on it earlier this week and was done. Then Tom Glocer said it again in this week’s Financial Times, which made more people–people smarter and nicer than me say that Tom is insightful.

I want to believe them. I just can’t. The editor in me knows better. It’s shouting out, “NO.” I worry that Tom is shaking their hands and smiling for the camera, while he’s checking their sleeves and planning his takeover.

I’m the nice one. I rarely go negative on anything. This situation is a problem for me.

Too many years in publishing has trained me to read the white space better than the words.

I went to my husband–we never agree on unimportant things. Without preamble, I asked him to read the Financial Times article. He responded the same way that I did. “Who does this guy think he is?” That’s saying something. My husband is not involved in the media or in blogging.

The Underlying Premises

Now that I’m sure that there’s a problem. I’ll lay out the basic premises before I begin. There are some things that most people, I think, aren’t considering and as the story moves on those basic facts are becoming less and less prominent. However, I find them to be very important to remember when considering Mr. Glocer’s words.

Premise 1: This Wasn’t Just Any Guy Talking

Tom Glocer is the CEO of Reuters. He didn’t get there by saying frivolous things in print. The words that he said were first said in a speech to the Online Publishers Association in London. This wasn’t some off the cuff conversation with a friend. I have no doubt that the words were carefully crafted, both what was said and what wasn’t.

Premise 2: He’s Talking ABOUT Bloggers Not TO Us

The speech that was written up in Financial Times as “Comments” was directed at the Mainstream Media not at what Mr. Glocer calls “not just bloggers Ã¢â¬â it is citizen journalists armed with their 1.3 megapixel camera phones, people “mashing” together music and images to create new music videos, kids making their own movies and posting them on sites such as Stupidvideos.com or MySpace.com.” Bloggers and citizen journalists are not being spoken to, they are being spoken about.

The Analysis

Part of my job all of these years has been learning to read what people aren’t saying as much as what they are. Editors use this information to coach authors to make sure that their message says what they mean it to. What follows is point by point what Tom said and how this editor would respond to him about the unwritten subtext.

Point 1: What Has Changed

It is important to understand what has changed. Bloggers, after all, have always been a part of history Ã¢â¬â read Daniel Defoe, Samuel Pepys or James Boswell. The same is true for citizen journalists: just check out first-hand accounts of any big historical event. The difference now is the scale of distribution and the ability to search. Because of this, we in the media industry face a profound challenge, as significant and transformational as Internet 1.0. So how should we respond to and control content fragmentation in this era of two-way flow?

Editorial notes:
1. It sounds as if you are saying “We can no longer ignore that bloggers are here to stay. They are, in fact, gaining ground.”

2. It appears that you are trying to show you respect bloggers by tying it to great men in history. However, this doesn’t work given your earlier definition of people mashing music and StupidVideos.com. In fact, it’s more likely that fans of Daniel Defoe et.al. should be insulted to be grouped into your aforementioned definition of blogger.

3. An operative phrase here is “we in the media face a profound challenge.” This phrase is excluding in nature, particularly since it is followed by the question of how the media should control things.

Point 2: Seeder of Clouds

. . . media companies need to be Ã¢â¬Åseeders of clouds”?. To have access to high-value new content, we need to attract a community around us. To achieve that we have to produce high-quality content ourselves, then display it and let people interact with it. If you attract an audience to your content and build a brand, people will want to join your community. This is as true for traditional “letters to the editor” as for MySpace.com.

Editorial notes:
1. It appears you are saying “Only the media can provide quality content. If we don’t get a community around us soon and hold onto it we will become irrelevent.”

2. Operative phrase: “let people interact with it.” Let us? Allows us to? Let implies control. Invite would have been a better word.

3. Operative example here is MySpace.com Why choose what’s primarily a teen hangout as an example rather than something mainstream readers might easily relate to, such as TomPeters.com or Slacker Manager? This seems to continue the stereotype that blogs are online journals–unorganized, undocumented information, and therefore “less than” mainstream media.

Point 3: Provider of Tools

. . . we need to be Ã¢â¬Åthe provider of tools”?. This means promoting open standards and interoperability, which will allow a diverse set of consumer-creators to combine disparate types of content.

Editorial notes:
1. You appear to be saying “If we don’t open the doors to new ideas, they will EXCLUDE US.”

2. Provider of tools? This is total spin, using big words to cover it. Bloggers already have the tools that they need–bloggers are teaching corporate how to use them not the other way around.

Point 4: Filter and Editor

. . . we must improve on our skills as the Ã¢â¬Åfilter and editor”?. Media have always had these functions. The world will always need editing: consumers place value in others making decisions about what is good and what is not.

Editorial notes:
1. False premise–media has NOT always been filter and editor.

2. Unstated assumption–the audience wants the mainstream media to choose for them. This is not spin. This is just a faulty and telling premise on the part of media.

This is proof that Mr. Glocer DOES NOT as they say “get it.”

Synthesis

Editors know that the words and examples writers and speakers choose show how they think. Mr. Glocer, you use words of control and superiority. Your examples reinforce that view. This speech has voice of congeniality, but the subtext is a defensive posture. You speak as if you are strong, but your words betray weakness.

The paragraphs that follow those that I quoted go on to say how the professionals should work with the amateurs. That leaves me wondering how you define those two words. Corporate job, you are one and no corporate job, you’re the other?

As any four-year-old might say, “Mr. G., I’m sorry, but you’re not a dictionary. YOU DON’T GET TO PICK.”

A blogger is an entrepreneur by definition. That’s why the corporate rules aren’t working.

Some Folks DO Get It

Some in the “Mainstream Media” do “get it.” They are learning not teaching, and there are plenty in my neighborhood. OnMilwaukee is a thriving online magazine that boasts major advertising accounts. The suburban newspaper, The Chicago Herald has recently started Beep, a blog Network for 21- to 34-year-old professional. The Chicago Tribune has Metromix that’s Tribune Interactive–both print and online.

The idea is to let go of what you think should be in favor of making content that readers find relevant.

Got that Mr. Glocer? . . . I thought not.

Call me. Let’s talk. I promise I won’t call you an amateur.

I’m the nice one.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Explore the Magic Middle with Authority

February 14, 2006 by Liz Leave a Comment

David Sifry posted The State of the Blogosphere–Part 2 at the Technorati Weblog today. Part 2 focuses on how information is handled both in the mainstream media and in the blogosphere.

Once again Sifry provides information and analysis that will serve you in your online business and in your personal life. Everyone who wants an understanding of the state of the national media should read this. Businesses should be keeping an eye on the data Mr. Sifry has to offer, particularly businesses that spend advertising dollars. Bloggers should pay attention because opportunities are replete. But bloggers be prepared. It will require creative bloggers that can recraft this information into persuasive messages to help businesses understand that the world is becoming an economy of knowledge and that the base of that knowledge is moving as we speak.

MSM, the Long Tail, and the Top 100

David Sifry discusses the Mainstream Media stalwarts in relation to the Long Tail Blogs telling the story with his usual graphic detail. He also speaks to the Top 100, and the network effect that seems to hold the same blogs in those 100 positions. He points out, that despite the network effect, new blogs have moved in and out.

The Magic Middle

Sifry also spends time defining a group he calls the Magic Middle–bloggers who are in niche publishing with 20-100 other sites linking to them–as sometimes radically changing the economics of trade publishing with their interesting, topical, and influential blogs. These are the blogs that people like you and I read and write. We might well know them better than Mr. Sifry does.

Technorati Explore

The first new feature David Sifry describes is Technorati Explore. I have to say, I’m not clear on how it works. I’ll let him explain it.

The idea is to use the bloggers that know the most about an area or topic to help spot the interesting trends that may never hit the “A-list”. We call this new section Explore, and we’ve seeded it with some of the most interesting topics that we could find. But one of the nice things about Explore is that there are no gatekeepers, and that anyone who writes interesting topical blog posts can get included simply by tagging his blog and tagging his posts.

Sounds great doesn’t it? The post says much more about it. I tried it out tonight . . . I’m still not sure how it works.

What’s Authority?

The second new feature Sifry introduced is Authority Filtering. A new green slide allows you to tune your searches to adjust your results to only those with a lot of authority. Authority is calculated on number of links.

Why You Should Read This Post?

I hardly told you half of what’s in it. Here’s just a few notes–a taste–from the summary.

Blogging and Mainstream Media continue to share attention in blogger’s and reader’s minds, but bloggers are climbing higher on the “big head” of the attention curve, with some bloggers getting more attention than sites including Forbes, PBS, MTV, and the CBC.

Bloggers are changing the economics of the trade magazine space, with strong entries covering WiFi, Gadgets, Internet, Photography, Music, and other nice topic areas, making it easier to thrive, even on less aggregate traffic.

The Magic Middle is the 155,000 or so weblogs that have garnered between 20 and 1,000 inbound links. It is a realm of topical authority and significant posting and conversation within the blogosphere.

I sit in the Magic Middle. Tagged with Authority–if the sliding scale works the way it’s supposed to. The MSMedia is losing ground and hardly has a clue. The blogosphere is growing faster than most folks can contemplate how to make something of it. The information is here. The future is around the corner.

What will you do?

–ME “Liz” Strauss