TheWayoftheWeb

Content and Digital Marketing Specialists

newspapers

On newspapers, advertisers and social media

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Russell Davies has a great post on ‘newspapers and all that‘ which looks at the current debate on the future of newspapers and asks where the advertisers/media planners are hiding during the discussion.

As he outlines the reasons why they’re not particularly active in the debate, it echoed my own thoughts – not just on newspapers and magazines, but also about social media. Consumers have jumped all over social media/social networking (175 million+ on Facebook, 133 million+ blogs, Twitter growing fast, Wikipedia essential etc), and celebrities, direct sale companies and media businesses are all getting there pretty quickly – but it’s all being slowed by the reluctance of the majority of advertisers and media planners to adapt to new ways of working, new measurements and new metrics.

Slow Down .......You Clown!!

Which means the people that will spend money, and the routes to them are evolving quicker than the money which will fund it, and that situation is the slowest one to change.

Some late night linkage…

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Just to end off the day, here’s some stuff that caught my eye from my Google Shared Items page.

Interesting interview on Venturebeat with futurist Paul Staffo. It’s about the 40th Anniversary of Doug Engelbart’s demonstration fo the first computer mouse (among other revolutionary ideas). And it’s got some great quotable ideas:

For instance, on why the mouse has lasted 40 years: ‘I hadn’t thought about it. There is an intrinsic conservatism behind our media devices. They last a lot longer than we think they ever will, once they are accepted.’

Or on what visionaries should do today: Someone like Doug would be working on exactly what he was working on in the 1960s. He didn’t set out to invent a mouse or a display for editing. His goal was to augment human intellect in the service of giving human beings tools that were the equal of the growing challenges humans were facing.

And it turns out Doug Engelbart is still pursuing his goal today with the Doug Engelbart Institute.

From Gigom came the news: Brits get broadband bill of rights. It’s from Ofcom, and although it’s only a basic code, at least it’s a start. Now can someone please find a way to get cheap 20Mb+ broadband to every house in the UK, for an incredibly low cost so we can kickstart innovation and industry for the coming 100 years?

Tim Windsor references Martin Langeveld in writing about how ‘What it means to transform to a Digital Enterprise‘ – specifically if you’ve been putting daily news on dead trees for a while.

And in the midst of rolling out Google Friend Connect, a redesign for Youtube, a redesign for Google Reader, cutting back on data center investment, and killing Lively, it’s good to see someone is still pursuing the important things at Google. Such as tracking the eternal battle between pirates and ninjas.

My favourite piece of data?

Top Queries of 2008 related to “Ninjas Are…”

  1. ninjas are there
  2. ninjas are everywhere
  3. ninjas are better
  4. ninjas are awesome
  5. ninjas are sexy

Oh, and I don’t think I’ve done my usual cross promotion – my first report on the response to using Magpie advertising on my Twitter accounts is online over at www.140char.com, along with a review and interview with the man behind Twilert – a monitoring service for Twitter similar to Google Alerts.

Probably the worst article on Twitter in the world…

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Since the tragic events in Mumbai, there has been a lot of coverage of the role of Twitter in breaking news, with both advocates and critics referring to the speed of microblogging in providing updates but raising some questions about validity and honesty.

But to be fair, Mainstream Media (MSM) has been increasingly paying attention to Twitter over the last few months:

There are plenty more examples around, so it’s almost incredible that a mainstream UK publication can still create something quite so inept:

Is Twitter the new Facebook?

You can hear millions screaming in pain as they collectively answer ThisisLondon – ‘No, you buffoon’.

12 negative comments have already been posted, including mine. Sadly they edited out the link to www.140char.com, and others have had comments edited, with no public acknowledgement. Tech journalist Kate Bevan (@katebevan) has also been expressing her disapointment on Twitter, and having her comments edited. Also got negative comments from Amanda Rose (@amandita), who has researched Twitter extensively for academia (including interviewing yours truly!).

I’m not sure it’s worth the energy to deconstruct all the disasters yet again, so here’s my brief comments:

  • Badly researched, angled and written.
  • It’s 140 characters on Twitter, not 160.
  • Barack and Britney are manned by PR people, unlike real celebs ranging from Stephen Fry to Shaquille O’Neal.
  • The latest figures show about 5 million users per month.
  • The ‘brevity breeds banality’ issue has been debated, disproved and forgotten for months – brevity can lead to impact or banality depending on the person and content.
  • Twitter started becoming a news source with events like the UK, LA and Chinese earthquakes, and LA forest fires.
  • The ‘gimmick’ isn’t following people – the ‘gimmick’ is interacting with people via the reply functionality.

And there’s more. From the article:

‘after several false starts (“Error on page!”) I manage to log on to MoodyShell’s feed. “I hate it when I burn the roof of my mouth and then it starts to peel. Ew!” she says. Fascinating. Another click, and I am officially “following” her. It feels queasy and wrong.’

No wonder it feels wrong, when @nickcurtis hasn’t managed to follow anyone, and has only managed a solitary tweet. You’d also think if you’re posting something about Twitter, it might be worth popping back to check the response? Maybe it would make for a better article?

Maybe someone should point him to the appropriate Twitter search. Or just pointed him to all the similar articles from 18 months ago that were at least defensible by the fact that it was a new service with an initial familiarity hump to get other – everyone struggles with Twitter the first time they log in, and it’s only when they return and start following and using @replies it becomes an essential tool for research,interaction,news gathering, customer service and more.

Newspapers can do the web if they want to…

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I’d just finished reading a very good post by my colleague Dave Cushman on the death spiral of newspapers and how to avoid extinction in the online world. I think he’s totally on the money about the two key missed opportunities of the print industry (Missing the quality advantage and missing the R&D advantage), and I agree there’s a slim but closing doorway of opportunity for those brave enough to make the change in the face of falling profits and a global credit crunch.

And in a wonderful bit of coincidence, my RSS feeds pulled in Mindy McAdams moments later, pointing to the winners of the Society of News Design multimedia design competition.

Both of the Gold Awards (See full details of all winners) went to the New York Times for two pieces which really demonstrate the power of online reporting and design, and the advantage a different thought process can bring.

The Crane Collapse in Manhattan shows brilliantly how animation and design can really add to the understanding of an event unfolded, particularly for anyone not familiar with how cranes work. Meanwhile Climbing Kilimanjaro is beautifully simple, using graphics and video for a personal account with a real personal touch.

The lesson isn’t that online journalism has to always include amazing graphics and design (but they help!). The lesson is that a different approach and understanding of the online world leads to a huge amount of success. Something which some of my colleagues have started utilising with great results, and something which is the norm amongst the most popular content sites (newspapers, blogs, and anything else) on the web.

I want great writing. I want great images. I want great video. I want great conversations. But I only want any of those things when they’re relevant to me and the need I have at that moment.

A Monday Microblog catch-up…

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I know Friday is the traditional day for a round-up post, but so much happens in the microblogosphere on a daily basis, and Monday gives some nice alliteration:

Twitter stats on Outbound UK SMS usage

  • Zygotweet and tweetSMS plan to offer Twitter via SMS in the UK (Via Twitterholics)
  • Useful and interesting list and stats for newspapers on Twitter (Well, American ones!).
  • Jaiku got hit by a power failure at the data center provider for their web servers earlier today, but is back online.
  • Plurk has had some minor design and usability upgrades.
  • Pownce has integrated FireEagle, which means all your uploads and messages can now be automatically geo-tagged with your location.
  • Tumblr now allows you to search within Tumblelogs.
  • And Seesmic has a new and improved search function, and threaded player. The improvements to the player make it more and more a mini-application for your website and blog, which now lets you: -start a new conversation straight from where you are without having to leave the site, -reply to any video in private and not only in public. -post to twitter the link from your reply.

So not too much has happened!

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