Archive for June, 2009
Is your digital ID in order?
Posted by jareetz in Social Media on June 23rd, 2009
For years - before anyone even thought about their digital identity - wise image-builders counseled clients to take stock of your digital footprint, search your name and see what you get, be cautious about what you post.
It still applies, but oh, haven’t we moved so much farther along.
Even for those without keen digital skills, it is now amazingly simple to build a personal identity (good or bad) - via your Facebook page, your Twitter activity, LinkedIn, blogs and other digital extensions.
Try this experiment: step back and take a look at friends’ content feeds flowing into your Facebook page, maybe over the next 12-hour period. Imagine those same friends in a room, talking, visiting, killing time. You’d pretty much get the same info, right?
Just as people work to make a good impression with a group of strangers, so it happens on Facebook, and social networking in general. Never mind if the person asking for info on hiking trails in the Swiss Alps really wants that info, or just wants everyone to know he’s going. As in realtime, so it is in digital.
What Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and others make so easy is the ability to send a message about who you are, what you care about, why you matter.
At the end of the day, most people people want to make a good impression, establish a smart and savvy identity. And just like any successful effort, it’s not all about one item. It’s the sum total: what you present to friends (and customers); how you’re perceived; who you are, online and in the real world. Don’t neglect one over the other.
The need for speed
Posted by jareetz in Industry, Newspapers, Radio, Television on June 18th, 2009
What’s your school of thought when it comes to publishing systems - newspapers, radio, TV, whatever - and speed to market? Make it perfect, dot every i, cross every t…spend a couple years. Or get a good one in quickly and grow it, as needs grow?
Okay, you’re thinking this is not exciting, and why do I care? But you’re wrong. Almost everything digital revolves around a “publishing system” of sorts. You’ve got a thought for your Facebook page, but you have to publish it, so how it functions, the interface, the speed, the ease of use make all the difference. Same for this blog. Same for Twitter. Slow and cumbersome, you waste time, and perhaps don’t use as often as you would otherwise.
Same stands for the media and publishing system decisions. Only it’s almost a life or death call now, since so many companies teeter on the edge financially, and finding cash to buy systems, and reinvent their operations, and pay the bills, too, is a challenge these days.
It also has everything to do with how a media company organizes itself for this century, not the last. Is the staff (now, much smaller than two years ago) integrated into publishing to all devices, all output methods, or it it split apart, one little group doing this, another doing that? A bunch of separate fiefdoms. Is everyone focused on the content, or the publishing system?
There are already almost too many minefields to navigate. Doesn’t it seem logical - regardless of the name brand - to work to integrate widely across the editorial team, do it right, but know that you keep building it and growing the system as needs change.
But whatever happens, do it quickly. As the industry reinvents, there’s a true need for speed, flexibility and ease of use. It’s simple.
A year from now …
Posted by jareetz in Digital, Industry, Newspapers, Radio, Television on June 16th, 2009
…. will today’s dirge on “the death of newspapers as we know them” be replaced by “the death of radio as we know it,” and “the death of TV as we know it”?
Probably not so directly said - because TV and radio won’t provide as much “ink” to their financial woes as newspapers have in the last 24 months. But it is clearly reinvention time - not to mention redefinition time - for all mass media, not just newspapers.
There’s a decent case to make that TV and radio today are where newspapers were just a few years ago: fretting about the future, but believing and hoping the bottom wouldn’t drop out.
Newspapers had an extra hit to push them along: an over-the-cliff national economy, plus some investments that turned sour.
But all three - newspapers, radio and TV - face the same reality of dramatically changing reader/viewer habits. Newspapers just got a head start, but it’s a good bet many TV and radio companies will follow the same path.
Consider:
1. In smaller radio markets - below the top 50 -ad revenue fell 6.6 percent last year, but around 9 percent in larger markets. Sounds like a repeat of the minimally consoling conversations in newspaper board rooms two years ago that at least the smaller papers are doing okay.
2. With hundreds of channels in place today, and Internet distribution of content just starting to take hold in a big way, what does the future hold for local television stations? Pretty good bet that sorting this out will be as complicating, or moreso, than sorting out today’s newspaper issues.
The good news is TV and radio execs can study newspapers’ attempts to dig out, and reinvent.
But reinvention needs to get started, or it will be a very large hole - as newspaper companies can attest.
First step: think of each TV, radio and newspaper as an information and content business. Not a print or broadcast business.
And those remaining companies that view digital as a nice marketing tool or side business best review the focus, and seize the opportunity. Before others in their market do.
More later.
Welcome…
Consider this an intro to a new media blog, one that will hopefully go a bit behind the daily headlines, provide some perspective on the issues roiling around today, and perhaps a bit of outlook for the future. Plus a look at what is and what is not working as everyone tries a hand at experimentation and innovation, seeking answers to the issues confronting the industry.
The author is John Reetz, a former editor and reporter, who has spent the last decade on the digital side of the business.
Stay tuned for more to come.