New storytelling tools can change the game -- take a look at Thinglink

Look at the picture above. Good old captions can be dramatically converted into presentation-like points-- with fancy hyperlinks to enhance the dynamics. So a story can be made into a multi-dimensional narrative, enhancing the potential for journalists and storytellers

Exposing the expose - How media spin should be watched

So you think investigative journalism is cool? Or that a sting operation rocks?

The thing can be nasty and explode on your face - especially if you are not thorough. After Channel 7 -- the Australian TV channel -- "exposed" security flaws at the Commonwealth Games arrangements through a reporter's sting, its rival ABC exposed the expose by investigating the whole thing, and found it --in fact, proved it -- to be grossly dubious. Here is a brilliant video on the expose that exposed the expose.

Newspapers are out, online is not (yet) in. OECD ponders

The Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has conducted a study on the business of newspapers and the future of news in an evident response to declining advertising revenues in the backdrop of a relative unwillingness of readers to pay for online content.
I found it interesting that governments are thinking about helping newspapers--because they help democracy. So, after rejecting government support for ad cash, will newspapers and news gathering machines accept government patronage again? Interesting question.
I do think the world of news is going to be more varietous, as the report itself is suggesting. In fact, it already is. But revenues and money? Ah, we are still wondering where this is all going.

Awesome--you have to read this!

I don't usually gush, but this piece from Harvard Business Review's blog is a must-read for anyone interested in the Internet from the point of view of business, marketing, social media or strategy. Also offers brilliant insights for media people. I am not going to elaborate. Great food for thought.

The Journo Trap: Who reads your stories?

Imagine a world where there are no television rating points (TRPs) for news channels.

Imagine a world where there is no broad circulation or readership metric for newspapers or magazine.


Imagine a world where journalists cannot quite claim their stories drive the business -- or one in which they can do EXACTLY that!

We seem to be getting there. But on the Web

AOL has started a new experiment in which stories on the Web are measured for popularity and the traffic shared. It is the closest journo stories got to post-paid billing a la telecoms.

Is that good for journalists?
Yes, if you are really good, and cribbing that your organisation does not take note of you. Or for you to fine-tune your work.
No, if your stories are meaningful in a larger social sense or giving you some personal fulfillment, but held accountable to some scoreboard.
Transparency is a two-way sword, I tell you.

Content goes the service way

Content is King, yes.

Murdoch says it is the emperor. Yes.

But there is an interesting insight. Just as a still is not a moving picture, content is not about static stuff on the Net. Increasingly, it is a service.
Here is a fine piece on that.

Is social media a threat to journalism?

Here is a piece from Chris Cramer, a BBC and CNN veteran and current Reuters Global Editor, Multimedia, on what social media and "citizen journalism" means to the media. The bottomline: credibility and integrity matter, and profits follow.
I agree with a lot of what he says, having worked at Reuters-- with its commitment for some basic principles. But there is a chaotic universe out there and we need more innovations -in products, services and business models.

Content is King: And Confusion Is Clarity

I have been writing for years now about how online video, Internet streaming and mobile devices will cloud the media, but here is final proof on how confused and confusing the advertising industry and its feeder, market research, have become.
I don't even need to understand the details.
The simple fact is that confusion spells clarity.
Here is how.
For close to a century, we have been led by the thumb rules of the mass media

1. Channel leadership based on high capital costs
2. Television rating points (TRPs) based on prime-time
3. Hype based on a little bit of data and a lot of "relationships"
4. Brands based on broad recall

That era is over, with the Internet and online videos and iPods and all the elements of the Long Tail (including low-investment satellite broadcasts)

Is it any wonder that market researchers are groping in the dark? Stereotyping of the consumer is the illegitimate child of 20th Century mass marketing.
That is ending. Rejoice. Now I can have an old man in Mozambique listening to Britney Spears. And I can have a 20-year-old Peruvian teenager liking South Indian plantain leaf meals.

Online ad revenues zoom on....

Despite the recession, digital advertising is growing robustly--and in fact more so as advertisers find it sensible in getting the right bang for buck, says Zenith Optimedia. Here is a report.

Murdoch thinks newspapers will go digital --and won't be free on the Web

Rupert Murdoch should know -- it costs money to produce news and content. Why should newspapers give it for free--especially when the Web is what is putting them into trouble?
Here is the baron telling us how things should move--or the way he sees them moving.

End of Television --A lovely, inspired piece of writing

Please catch this lovely piece in New York's maverick blogazine, Gawker, on how online videos and help creative television writers circumvent the suffocating studio system.
Internet is revolutionising media, and I have written many times in the past about how TV is changing and will end as we have known it. But this piece makes it read like a fairy tale.

The Future Of Newspapers: Are micropayments the way out?

First came print advertising because people read newspapers.
Then came TV advertising, that took away some of those ads
Then came the era of advertising-supported content, as readers became more of "consumers" being targeted by advertisers who signed large cheques.
Then came the part about newspapers adjusting to the demands of advertisers, and addressing readers as "target segments"
That phase is still on now, but the Web is changing --or has changed things--all over again.
Classified ads have migrated to the Web.
Newspaper Websites are not really getting that much ads.
Digital ads are growing,but are they the way out?
How do we price content? Journalism is a costly business, involves travel and credibility -- and unbiased coverage that is under constant pressure from politicians or advertisers in some form or the other.
In the age of the Internet, the business has become more complicated. New York Times has its property on mortgage, and Chicago Tribune filed for bankruptcy.
So what is the future of the newspaper?
This article in Time magazine discusses it, and apparently bets on micropayments. Oh well, let us see how it all goes.

Online news gains in credibility, but not blogs: survey

There is food for thought...though the process is complex, people are increasingly valuing news from online sources. I think there is tremendous implication from this. Like "Indy" record labels in music, there could be "Indy" news labels soon--even if some of them are controversial, opinionated or biased.
Sadly, in the online world, it is not easy to prescribe to anyone what they should read, and people, I suspect, have a bias for a bias (of their kind) in news. However, there is a clear indication that blogs do not carry much credibility as news sources.
Here is the press release from TNS, on a survey that indicates the rise of online news.

OUR NEW DIGITAL FRIEND? WE NOW TRUST ONLINE NEWS AS MUCH AS WE TRUST TV NEWS AND RECOMMENDATIONS FROM FRIENDS

 
Blogs are least reliable among 13 easily accessible information sources

 

New Delhi/ India, December 11^th 2008 — We now trust the information we get from online news to the same degree as news information from TV and information / recommendations from friends. But we have a poor opinion of blogs, ranking them the least trustworthy way of understanding the world around us. These are some of the findings in a new study entitled Digital World, Digital Life, from global market insight group TNS.
 

Conducted in 16 countries, Digital World, Digital Life examines online behaviour and perspectives around the world. More than 27,000 survey participants were asked to select from 13 sources of information: online news, blogs, Wikipedia, company websites, trade website reviews, user forum reviews, product comparison sites, TV news, paid-for newspapers, free newspapers, company brochures, industry magazines and friends' recommendations. Respondents were asked to rate a variety of information sources on a scale of 1 (don't trust at all) to 10 (trust completely).
 

On a global basis, four out of ten of respondents (42%) highly trust* good old recommendations from friends. However, a roughly equal number highly trust TV news (41%), online news (40%) and newspapers (39%). Blogs are perceived as inherently less credible, taking the lowest score with only one in ten of respondents (10%) trusting this source. This is noticeably lower than even free newspapers (19%) and company brochures (18%). Other online sources fared well, such as product comparison websites (34%) and expert reviews on trade websites (31%)
 
* trust highly is based on respondents rating 8, 9 or 10 out of ten
 
There were quite marked variations in the levels of trust for particular countries. Chinese respondents were the most trusting of all nations on all but one of the information sources discussed. The exception in China is Wikipedia, with only around a quarter (26%) of Chinese respondents seeing Wikipedia as trustworthy. This is in comparison to respondents in Germany, where just over half (52%) say they trust the site. In Germany, Wikipedia scored the highest level of trust among all the 13 information sources identified in the survey.
 

Three countries – the US, France and Italy – now claim to trust online news more than they do TV news. In the US, the results were 38% trust online vs 33% for TV news, while for France the figures were 28% online vs 24% TV news. In Italy, around four of ten respondents (41%) trust online news and less than a quarter (24%) trust TV news.  Scandanavians surveyed by TNS have the highest level of trust of all in respect to online news, with around half of all respondents in Finland (54%), Sweden (50%), Norway (48%) and Denmark (48%) trusting this medium.
 

Other highlights include inherent trust in TV news in Finland (78%) and Sweden (59%), while in the UK a strong distrust of traditional newspapers stands out with only 23% saying they trust this information source, a much lower score than online news (40%).
 

Arno Hummerston, Managing Director, TNS Global Interactive, said: "It's interesting to note how credible online news has become with respondents ranking this roughly equal to TV news or recommendations from friends. The move of traditional media into the online space has ensured that the trust traditional media have long enjoyed has spread across online-only sources too.  But this is tempered by the lack of trust that surrounds blogs, with this online medium right at the bottom of the 13 information sources we identified.  With no real accountability (save for an invitation to post comments), offline engagement or demonstrable credibility, the subjectivity of this online medium ensures a uniform low score in our survey for trustworthiness."
 

New Media, Old Media? It is all convergence

In the end, it is all media....


New, old media good for each other, Huffington says

State of the Blogosphere-A cheat sheet

Here is an interesting insight into the blogosphere, from Mediapost, looking at Technorati

Wednesday, November 26, 2008 Blogs And Mainstream Media Intersect According to Technorati's State of the Blogosphere 2008 report, the majority of bloggers surveyed currently have advertising on their blogs. Among those with advertising, the mean annual investment in their blog is $1,800. The mean annual revenue is $6,000 with $75K+ in revenue for those with 100,000 or more unique visitors per month. There have been a number of studies aimed at understanding the size of the Blogosphere, says the report, yielding disparate estimates, but all studies agree that blogs are a global phenomenon that has hit the mainstream. Reports in 2008 include these estimates: comScore MediaMetrix reports: (August 2008) Blogs... 77.7 million unique visitors in the US Facebook... 41.0 million MySpace... 75.1 million Total internet audience... 188.9 million eMarketer says: (May 2008) 94.1 million US blog readers in 2007 (50% of Internet users) 22.6 million US bloggers in 2007 (12% of Internet users) Universal McCann finds: (March 2008) 184 million world wide have started a blog 346 million world wide read blogs 77% of active Internet users read blogs Wikipedia defines the Blogosphere as the collective community of all blogs. interconnected and socially networked. While discussions in the Blogosphere have been used by the media as a gauge of public opinion, Technorati isolates the Active Blogosphere as the ecosystem of interconnected communities of bloggers and readers at the convergence of journalism and conversation. But, says the study, as the Blogosphere grows in size and influence, the lines between what is a blog and what is a mainstream media site become less clear. Larger blogs are taking on more characteristics of mainstream sites and mainstream sites are incorporating styles and formats from the Blogosphere. In fact, 95% of the top 100 US newspapers have reporter blogs. Technorati tracked blogs in 81 languages in June 2008, and bloggers from 66 countries across six continents, finding that Bloggers have been at it an average of three years and are collectively creating close to one million posts every day. Blogs have representation in top-10 web site lists across all key categories, and have become integral to the media ecosystem. The key findings included such things as: Personal, professional, and corporate bloggers all have differing goals and cover an average of five topics within each blog They use five different techniques to drive traffic to their blog. They're using an average of seven publishing tools on their blog and four distinct metrics for measuring success Bloggers ae receiving speaking or publishing opportunities, career advancement, and personal satisfaction Bloggers are using self serve tools for search, display, and affiliate advertising, and are increasingly turning to ad and blog networks. Four in five bloggers post brand or product reviews, with 37% posting them frequently 90% of bloggers say they post about the brands, music, movies and books that they love (or hate) Company information or gossip and everyday retail experiences are fodder for the majority of bloggers One-third of bloggers have been approached to be brand advocates Global Snapshot of Bloggers   U.S. Bloggers European Bloggers Asian Bloggers Male 57% 73% 73% Age          18-34 years old 42% 48% 73%    35+ 58% 52% 27% Single 26% 31% 57% Employed full-time 56% 53% 45% Household income >$75,000 51% 34% 9% College graduate 74% 67% 69% Average blogging tenure (months) 35 33 30 Median Annual Investment $80 $15 $30 Median Annual Revenue $200 $200 $120 % Blogs with advertising 52% 50% 60% Average Monthly Unique Visitors 18,000 24,000 26,000 Technorati, State of the Blogosphere, October 2008   Segment Snapshot of Bloggers   Personal Corporate Professional With Advertising No Advertising Male 64% 70% 72% 66% 66% Age              18-34 years old 52% 45% 48% 53% 45%    35+ 48% 55% 52% 47% 55% Single 36% 24% 31% 34% 34% Employed full-time 52% 51% 55% 49% 56% Household income>$75k 37% 49% 42% 40% 37% College graduate 70% 74% 74% 69% 72% Average blogging tenure (months) 35 35 38 35 33 Median Annual Investment $100 $200 $150 $100 0 Median Annual Revenue $120 $250 $300 $200 0 % Blogs with Advertising 53% 64% 59% 100% 0% Average Monthly Unique Visitors 12,000 39,000 44,000 46,000 4,000 Technorati, State of the Blogosphere, October 2008   Global Bloggers by Gender   Female Male Personal Blog 83% 76% Professional Blog 38% 50% Age        18-24 years old 9% 15%    25+ 91% 85% Single 29% 36% Employed full-time 44% 56% Median Annual Investment $30 $60 Median Annual Revenue $100 $200 % Blogs with advertising 53% 54% Sell Through a Blog ad Network* 16% 7% Have Affiliate ads* 41% 32% Have Contextual ads* 61% 73% Technorati, State of the Blogosphere, October 2008  (*Among those with advertising on their blogs) In 2004 when Technorati started, says the report, the typical reaction to the word 'blog' was 'huh?' Today... the blog has forever changed the way publishing works... anyone can be a publisher. The issue is no longer distribution, it's relevance.

Murdoch sees newspapers evolving -- not dead

Rupert Murdoch is brilliant as ever.
I like the simplicity with which he brings out the strategy he pursues. Mr. Murdoch says newspapers are not dead, and with a subtle sense of humour (which I suspect may not be his own -- but then I could be wrong) shows how the Internet could be an opportunity for newspapers.
And more important, he lays down the limits of bloggers. Now, I have spoken a lot about micropublishing, nanopublishing and blogging in separate lights, and this kind of confirms my views.
Murdoch made his views known in an industry address. Here is the story.

When it is your NGO, and our content...

What happens when one of the country's biggest firebrand social-environmental activists is accused of copyright violation? Sunita Narain is in a spot because her organisation seems to have merrily used content from Mint newspaper without permission.
Here is what the managing editor says in his blog.

Takes me back to that old expression of mine: Loser Generated Content.

Anybody who thinks content is free or should be, is a saint (which I think I am not), or making good money elsewhere and treats knowledge as charity.
It's time quality content producers become aware of their rights.

The Me Video: Musings on business journalism

In my long journalistic career, I usually have been on the side asking questions, not on the one giving (or pretending to give) answers. But there are exceptions in these strange times.
I was interviewed -- sort of -- last week, by a most interesting blog called Murali Listening.
I was on a visit to Chennai, and ended up as a guest in the office D. Murali, who is Deputy Editor at The Hindu Business Line. Murali, I am told, has one guest a day, to whom he shoots gentle but probing questions and records the responses on his Nokia N73. Believe me, over a period of time he has built quite a collection of stuff under "Food For Thought", and the blog runs like a TV channel.
I was fodder for his cannonball run, and fielded questions on business journalism.
I should have smiled more, but then, these are difficult times and those were difficult questions.
Here is the video link.

And then, I must add that Murali's blog is another proof on how theme-based blogs can blaze a new trail in the media.

Wow! Can micropayments rescue folks from Loser Generated Content?

DEMO: Bringing Micropayments to User-Generated Content

via GigaOM by Stacey Higginbotham on 9/8/08

As a business journalist, I have to confess that I love it when money starts changing hands. I can get excited about all sorts of new and upcoming technology, but until people can find ways to create real value and get paid, it's kind of hard to take seriously, like the 25-year-old married to your 60-year-old boss. So that's why two startups launching at DEMO caught my eye.

Photrade is a platform on which photographers can post pics and track their use across the web. As part of that tracking, they can set fees for their photos and/or control which sites can use them. If the photo has been taken from the Photrade site, licenses can be revoked and updated at will. There are a few problems with this model, such as convincing people to use it in the first place — both to put quality images on it and pay for said images — but it's a step in the right direction.

The other is MixMatchMusic, which not only enables online musical collaboration between artists and but payment for such collaborations. The service takes a recorded track of music, analyzes it and suggests other music on the site that might compliment it. Musicians can use this to collaborate remotely, or meet musicians whose work they like. They can also create entire songs on the site and list them for download or commercial use. If someone buys the music, musicians get 85 percent of the revenue. Again, the site will have to get both buyers and sellers to particpate.

We hear plenty about all the people willing to work solely for their 15 minutes of fame on the web, and so far most efforts to help people cash in on their 15 minutes have fallen flat, but it's good to see startups trying hard to address this problem. Maybe users will start taking them up on the solutions.

Death of the 30-second (prime-time) commercial?

Now I am right, now I am not.

I was only a month ago wondering if I had spent three years predicting the end of prime-time (as we know it) to eat my words.

Then I thought that live TV will stay with a prime-time kind of feel (I still do).

Now I think could still be right either way. Anything that is recordable need not necessarily be watched live, and hence, the bulk of entertainment programmes will fall into this category.
For instance, now, viewers switch between channels when there is an ad on --while advertisers have to struggle to keep them viewing. With digital video recorders and time-shifted TV programmes, people will concentrate more on the content, with flexibility of viewing more than ever before.
Read this story on the death of the 30-second commercial for more on what things are headed for.