Below the Fray. Above the Fold?

Is it ironic that a lot of the conversations happening in media is about media? I'm not sure ...

From people stating that blogs are the new newspapers to Democracy dying because of newspapers' demise to people predicting/wishing for all major papers to become online-only to how newspapers need to engage their audience more and on and on and on, the fact is: Newspapers will never die. There will always be a newspaper on paper (until paper is too expensive and/or rare a resource. Then, maybe, back to papyrus?). Though publications continue to file for Chapter 11, cut staff, and even cut days, newspapers will be around for a very, very long time. That said; Newspapers need to change dramatically in order to thrive.

The Press is the Fourth Estate. Unfortunately for the many thousands of journalists and editors who have been victims of gross mismanagement and a complete ignorance to the wave of internet publications and the threat that all websites pose to newspapers, they are still very much one of the most instrumental pieces of our Democratic puzzle. If not for writers, we'd still be living in a pre-RegFD, pre-SarBox, pre-Enron, pre-WorldCom, pre-Walter Reed, pre-Watergate, pre-countless stories.

With the nature of this ubiquitous Web 2.0 world, some forget that mainstream media (TV, Print, Radio) are the main sources for stories on blogs and other social sites. Yes, some bloggers have broken many important stories (iPhone, RatherGate, Tim Russert's death, etc.) but they predominantly get their news the same way their parents did, from newspapers, albeit very often via RSS feeds and Google/Marketwatch Alerts.

I read newspapers but I’m not one of those fanatics that read papers because I love the feel of paper and ink on my fingertips. I read newspapers because that’s where the best and most thorough news is.

I don't often buy newspapers. When I do, I buy newspapers because I’m about to get on a plane or train or I just feel like looking at the Sunday circulars. Are newspaper sales being hurt due to people shopping less and looking at circulars less? Maybe.

More often than not, I just don't buy newspapers because I get them free during the week outside of the subway stops. By the time I get to work, I’m then able to filter through all my RSS feeds and find out what I need to know from those subscriptions, from twitter, or from other sources. For those people lucky enough to have access to Metro International's papers or AMNY, you don't need to buy a daily paper anymore. The best part about these papers is that they cater to the audience better than the New York Times, Daily News, NY Post, Newsday, etc.

These papers are made with commutes in mind. The average New Yorker's commute is 38.4 minutes, according to the U.S. Census (source 2 and 3). This is the longest commute time in the nation. What is worse, New Yorker's probably live closer to their place of employment than almost anyone else.

Despite it being the paper of record, the New York Times cannot be read in 40 minutes (none of the ‘major’ NYC papers can). Yet, this and all the other major dailies are the ones getting the big advertising dollars. I think that the ‘commuter papers’ should be the ones getting bigger ad dollars than many papers. They are being read in full, and for communications purposes, they’re actually being read by several people per paper (I’m not the only one that leaves it on the bus or subway, am I?).

News is now available everywhere… it’s available on your computer, it’s available on your blackberry or iPhone, on your Kindle, iTouch, Palm Pre, etc. However, the most convenient and simplest place to read all your news is in your hands in long form. Nothing beats a newspaper in ease of use, battery life or data plans. Nothing.

So, what is the future of the newspaper? The New York Times has consistently shrunk in size and in bredth over the last few years. Circulation for the NY Times was down nearly 4% last year. Major papers have been seeing enormous declines for a long time. The writing has been on the wall, yet no one has done much about it.

If the NY Times wants to regain the circulation numbers it had it has to do something drastic.

The future of the newspaper is free. While they should and could still charge for Sunday papers, weekday papers should be free and available to as many people as possible. This would increase the circulation numbers and will allow the company to sell ad space for a much higher price. Since the majority of classified ads (for all papers, but especially metropolitan papers) have gone online to Craig’s List and other online sites, the only revenue left to grow is advertising. The NY Times did sign a distribution agreement with Metro International for Classified Advertising distribution (though I haven’t seen the ads as being incredibly valuable).

The NY Times should buy out Metro International (they currently own 49%) completely and run briefs of all of their stories in it. Currently, it appears that Metro employs its own staff and piggybacks on news from the day before. The NYT briefs should all direct people to the website where the NY Times could double their ad dollars by having the eyeballs in both print and online.

The days of multiplying eyeballs by two and one-half are gone. There is no pass-through rate anymore. There’s hardly circulation like we were used to. The future of the paper is smaller and cheaper. Free, cheaper.

This is not a bad thing. The only bad thing is that our kids won’t know what “Above the Fold” means …

Is This The End Of Twitter?

Usually, by the time a fad or emerging technology goes mainstream it's the sign that it's no longer a fad, emerging, or cool. We have seen Twitter rise as an astronomical success ... despite all the Fail Whales and identi.ca's. Twitter will be around for a while. It's not dying. It may just be that it will become less useful if the users continue down the same track. It will, eventually, become way to noisy for the major voices (Chris Brogan, Robert Scoble, Guy Kawasaki, etc.) to follow everyone that follows them. It's just untenable. Despite all the tools that allow you to group your friends and maintain conversations, Twitter wasn't built well enough to truly show the evolution of a conversation ... certainly not as well as FriendFeed.

One other ironic thing is the way that traditional media has grasped onto this '2.0' technology. As we can see from this compilation, there are hundreds of reporters on Twitter. If only they were this fervent about blogs when they were in their infancy ... maybe we wouldn't be saying goodbye to our local news and hello to hyperlocal news.







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Is Second Life Getting a Second Wind?

In boardrooms across the country, screenshots of twitter still evoke chuckles every once in a while. I still play the word association game when it seems appropriate (What's the first word that comes to mind when I say "Twitter?"). While I still hear the words noisy, chaos and waste of time, it does not elicit anywhere near the reaction that Second Life does.

Over the weekend CNBC covered, in great detail, the business of Second Life and the growth it has allegedly seen since September (a 30% increase in user transactions). While many people have their doubts about the 'world,' the business model, and the statistics, what is astounding is the resurgence and apparent need Second Life has cultivated due to the economic conditions (who do I owe a nickel to for saying that phrase?). Trying to think of an analogy for this situation is somewhat futile, but fun nonetheless. It's kind of like going back to Friendster because the lines are shorter ... no, It's kind of like going back to MySpace because the new TOC at Facebook impinge on your social liberties. No. It's like going back to the BBSs because you can only afford to use the web over your 14.4 baud modem. Maybe.

Regardless, I think this resurgence in Second Life is more of a last gasp than a Second Wind. Second Life is doomed (and has always been doomed for the mainstram) to fail because it fosters fantasy and caters to people trying to obfuscate from their real persona. Social Media is succeeding because it allows people to connect, engage, participate and affect. While Second Life does meet these curt criterion, Social Media, generally, exists to build the brand and network of real people. And though you can't argue with the business being done on Second Life and the fortunes being spent there, you can still make fun of it (if you wish). After all, the internet is serious business.

Yes, we will see a short uptick in the use of Second Life for Corporate Events, Trade Shows and other business uses. But I don't think anyone that's not a Furry is Long on Second Life.


UPDATE: Reuters closes bureau in Second Life today!

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The Best SEO? A Well-Written Press Release

When you write a press release, your first objective should always be: Get your message out and across to your key audiences. Now, due to the growing desire for optimized press releases, many people want their press release to be keyword rich documents which guarantee results on search engines. The 'new' audience is search engines. There is, however, a double-edged sword when it comes to keywords that people need to be aware of.

Every one of our clients wants to be on the first page of search results under the keywords closely associated with their industry and vertical. Obviously our clients want to, and should, appear on the first page of results with their company names, product names, executive names, etc. They should also be concerned about what else appears on that page. Are there blog posts on the first page? Videos on YouTube? Images? After all, people are far more likely to click on search results that have a thumbnail than results that don’t. Additionally, it can take a lot more ‘work’ to get some blog posts off the first page than to get your content on the first page …

We know that press releases drive traffic, spread messages and sell products… they also, however, play a major role in online reputation management. Press Releases can push down negative coverage of your company, competitor’s websites and other sites that don’t fit with your message.

Not every keyword is a word you should be fighting for… not every word is possible for you to own online. Whether it is “cell phone,” “office products,” “semiconductor,” or “asthma,” these words are already owned and are very difficult to penetrate (ask me how!)… these are words you should target with AdWords. That said, you can also fight the fight by including those phrases consistently in your messaging and placing them in very visible parts of your release (headline, subheadline, first graph, anchor text, etc.).

So, which words do you target with your press release? This is where tools like Google.com/trends and Blogpulse.com come in handy … even sites like delicious and reddit can be used to determine the folksonomy of your organization. “How are our consumers defining our company?” “Are we a company that makes sneakers for running or sneakers for jogging?” "Do more people associate my brand with data storage or cloud computing?"

A lot of agencies, influencers and clients talk about tags within a release and using anchor text to add Google Juice. To say it plainly and loudly, the best thing you can do with your release for search is to write a relevant release for those keywords you are targeting. Of the thousands of sites PR Newswire distributes to, only ours will be the one that hosts your tags and ‘keywords.’ While we put up a good fight with Yahoo and Marketwatch, very often those are the sites that are going to appear higher in search engine results within the first few days and weeks. They, however, purge their data after 30, 60, or 90 days. This is where SEO really helps.

These are all issues that an agency or corporations needs to address in their goals.

If I made you even more confused, I apologize and extend the opportunity for a personal discussion at your convenience.

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Live Blogging Is Dead (How Else Am I Supposed to Title This?)

Live Tweeting has replaced Live Blogging, if it wasn't already obvious. I can't remember if it was the latest Jobs MacWorld Keynote where it became apparent (because Twitter was much faster than MacRumors) or if was during one of the 25+ debates this past election season ... all I do know is that Twitter has replaced blogs for instant information. It has ceased to be a microblogging platform. Twitter has become a macro-messaging dashboard.

Whether it is finding out the new relationship between SalesForce and FaceBook, the trade of Allen Iverson, or the untimely death of Tim Russert, information is being learned on Twitter more than any other medium. For it to make it to Twitter, it very often has to be broken by a (hopefully reputable) source first ... but once that link exists, the chances of it going viral (assuming it deserves to go viral) is greater. Is Twitter even faster than Digg now? That answer is definitely YES.

While I wasn't the biggest advocate of Twitter for a while, this particular use of the platform is transformative.

As many of you know, I do a lot of presentations for agencies, corporations and industry events. Recently I have been playing a word association game with Twitter while presenting. I ask the audience, "What's the first word that comes to mind when I say 'Twitter.'"

I started doing this because I had a very surprising experience at an agency. There is a small firm in downtown NYC that pretty much exploded in laughter when I pulled up the screenshot of twitter. So we went around the room and asked everyone what they thought? The words that were thrown out were: ridiculous, crazy, boring, waste of time, bird, etc. I don't remember anyone in those events saying journalist, influencers, instant messaging, conversation, etc.

I'd love to be able to do it now, but due to time I'll have to save my, "Why Twitter is Important" post for later and just point you towards HubSpot's solid tome.

UPDATE: The untimely and unfortunate death of Barack Obama's grandmother was spread on Twitter only seconds after it was broken on MSNBC and beat Reuters, CNN, Marketwatch, etc. to the news. It also beat Digg by a mile. I'm very saddened by the news and hope it doesn't come across as callous.

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All This Fuss Over A Can?

Can you believe there are hundreds of people arguing (including Seth Godin) about whether or not Pepsi should have redesigned their can? Even worse, people are lambasting the company for reaching out to influential bloggers ... GASP!

If you aren't familiar with the idea, they sent influential bloggers all of their cans dating back to the stone age. How they actually delivered the cans is brilliant. Read Peter Shankman's post on it ... (Yes, they did ask for addresses. Otherwise, that would be creepy.)

So why, when you go to Chris Brogan's post, is there outrage in the comments over how much this endeavor must have cost?

Are you serious? This endeavor, in total, probably cost less than one ad buy on television talking about the new logo. Moreover, they didn't even have to talk about it ... this strategy enabled us, or You, to talk about it. This is the way brands should communicate. The problem is, when you do talk about it ... you completely miss the point.

Darryl Parker compiled a list of people who received the 'gift basket.'

One of things that I think PR people and agencies should really think about moving forward wit h a program like this is: What kind of pickup did it get?

Sure, this got posted in many of the most influential blogs online. But it seems mostly only in the PR, Marketing and Communications field. This is the one issue I have with outreach programs like this, the Nikon D80 Campaign, Virtual Thirst, and, less so, the Acer Ferrari program. All of these programs got a lot of views and had a lot of conversation around it online. However, with the exception of the latter, they were in sites surrounding the PR, Ad, and Marketing communities. The programs that do the best, or will do best in the future, are the ones that reach out to the community at large ... the 'regular folks' that aren't in the biz.

Regardless, I love the new design and am very proud of Bonin and his team over at Pepsi for what is a new approach to blogger outreach ... one that ethically guaranteed pickup, unlike so many of the precedents.

If you like, go to FriendFeed and participate in the conversation at the Pepsi Cooler.

(Photo Source)

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A New Friend

For a Friday night ...