It's Time for a Revenue Revolution

Dan Pacheco
6:25 PM | bio | Comments: 0

In Chicago this week, I had a conversation with fellow News Challenge winner David Cohn (creator of the very cool Spot Us community-funded reporting system) that got me thinking. David is skeptical of relying too much on advertising to fund journalism. He has various reasons for this which he can explain much better than I, and he has some good points. One thing that we can both agree on 100% is that advertising that is not fair and honest is incompatible with the goals of journalism. But where we don't completely understand each other yet is over the idea of... continued...

Topics: Marketing, Philosophy
Tagged: digital revenue, newspaper business models, printcasting, spot us, village soup

How a Hyperlocal Site Can Sway Elections

G. Patton Hughes
12:15 AM | bio | Comments: 0

Every political campaign, whether local, state or national, is a battle of competing narratives. The role of the media in general - this includes editorial, advertising and in the case of hyperlocal news/social sites conversation - is to serve as vehicles for the competing narratives. Candidates attach themselves to these narratives and voters choose. The conversation on Paulding.com, a hyperlocal media site, was decisive in the local primary election in July 15th with the site being credited as being a key influence in the landslide victories of three candidates that rejected incumbents, including a well-funded two-term incumbent commission chairman who... continued...

Topics: Government & Politics, Marketing, Participation
Tagged: hyperlocal media, paulding.com, politics

Virtual Voting: Finding Our Audience Where They Roam

Liz Nord
1:18 PM | bio | Comments: 0

Now that we are several months into the project, we thought we had conquered, or at least tackled, most forms of new media. Our Street Teamers’ work appears regularly on mobile video carriers, a mobile wap site, several websites, and on-air via MTV’s broadcast networks. Then, a few weeks back, I was approached by an MTV colleague about a whole new area of distribution that, I have to admit, I had hardly considered before: THE VIRTUAL WORLD. I’m talking about something right outta web 3.0: a 3-D, interactive, virtual reality experience where one can have a “second life” via their avatar persona—a walking, talking, digital version of their better selves--online. continued...

Topics: Games & Virtual Worlds, Marketing, Mobile
Tagged: citizen journalism, election, mobile, mtv, street team '08, virtual world

What Gets Talked About Most on Idea Lab

Paul Lamb
12:28 PM | bio | Comments: 2

Rather than trying to talk about what is being talked about and covered most on this blog, here's another way of representing it: The above is a "word cloud" created on Wordle, a tool that sorts through text on a webpage, blog, or document and spits out a visual representation giving prominence to the most frequently appearing (source) words. Not surprising that words such as "news" are large and prominent on IdeaLab, but look at the size of "data" and such words as "can" and "will".BTW, it appears that Wordle only indexes current discussion, a kind of snapshot in time,... continued...

Topics: Marketing, Participation, Technology
Tagged: idea lab, visual representation, visualization, word cloud, wordle

Hyperlocal Media Meets Negative Campaigning

G. Patton Hughes
12:31 PM | bio | Comments: 0

If all politics are local, then hyperlocal media of sorts should be in tall cotton when it comes to local politics. No so and not now; rather hyperlocal media is at best a big thorn in the side of the key group that determines where the big buck political money goes. That key group is the political consultant. This group controls spending for most big-dollar local races such as state house, senate, commission chairman and sheriff in most mid-size to large counties in the nation. Today a serious candidate for commission chairman in Paulding County will spend upwards of $100,000... continued...

Topics: Government & Politics, Marketing, Participation, Philosophy
Tagged: hyperlocal, local politics

Still Seeking Coders Interested in Journalism

Rich Gordon
10:43 PM | bio | Comments: 13

It's now been almost exactly a year since we announced (thanks to a Knight News Challenge grant) that programmer-developers could earn full scholarships to study journalism in the master's program at the Medill School at Northwestern University. We've got plenty of scholarship money still available -- but we have not been overwhelmed with applications. Here's where we stand: Two scholarship winners are now almost midway through their Medill studies. A third candidate will enroll next month. And we still have the equivalent of six full scholarships yet to award. From the beginning, I've felt that this project's biggest challenge would... continued...

Topics: Education, Marketing, Technology
Tagged: marketing, medill, programmer-journalist, promotion, scholarship

Can Newspaper Classifieds Be Saved?

J.D. Lasica
9:23 PM | bio | Comments: 1

Steve Outing -- who's been trying to prod the newspaper industry to embrace its digital multidirectional future for the past decade -- asked me what the future holds for newspaper classifieds. He's behind the site ReinventingClassifieds.com, an initiative aimed at bringing experts together to revive newspaper classifieds by finding a new business model that's relevant in the Internet age. I left the Sacramento Bee 12 years ago to work at various Internet startups, and the contrast between newspaper culture and tech startup culture couldn't be more stark. If newspapers are to revitalize their revenue streams in the online medium,... continued...

Topics: Best Practices, Marketing
Tagged: advertising, classifieds, newspapers

Newspapers Suffer from Marketing Myopia Online

G. Patton Hughes
6:00 PM | bio | Comments: 0

I've attended a few conferences and it appears to me that most folks in journalism hate advertising. Maybe that comes from seeing the last eight inches of their story end up on the composing room floor to make room for another two column by four-inch ad or just distrust of business. I wouldn't hazard a guess. Regardless, it would seem some journalistic purists are using the current situation to seek wholly different business forms to fund journalism in general. While the national practice of the craft has been benefited by foundations, the idea that anything approaching hyperlocal can be funded... continued...

Topics: Best Practices, Marketing, Philosophy, Technology
Tagged: best practices, internet, marketing, myopia, newspapers

Newspapers Struggling Online, Not Just in Print

Paul Grabowicz
6:32 PM | bio | Comments: 3

As disturbing as the recent numbers on declining print circulation and plunging advertising revenue at newspapers have been, less attention has been paid to ominous signs of a slow-down on the online side as well: - Most newspaper chains reported online revenue growth in single or low double digits this quarter, compared with growth rates of 15-20% or more a year ago. - The amount of time the average visitor spent at most newspaper web sites declined in February compared with a year ago, according to an Editor & Publisher report on Nielsen Online data. E&P reported similar data for... continued...

Topics: Financial, Marketing
Tagged: advertising, audience, newspapers, online readership

Finding a Good Domain Name

Dan Gillmor
1:23 PM | bio | Comments: 2

Are all the good Internet domain names already owned by someone? No -- only the obvious ones are taken. Every new enterprise, whether for-profit or not-for-profit, needs a domain name -- the identifier that shows up in a brower's address field. For example, the MediaShift Idea Lab blog lives inside the Public Broadcasting Service's pbs.org domain. The absolutely perfect name for your new project or company, or at least the simplest one, may well be owned by someone else. In fact, it probably is. The odds are definitely slim that you'll get a domain name that a random person would... continued...

Topics: Education, Marketing
Tagged: arizona state university, domain name, knight center, makewords, nameboy, startupmedia

Hyperlocal Sites Can Deliver More Than Display Ads

G. Patton Hughes
9:22 PM | bio | Comments: 2

Mark Glaser, our host on Mediashift, asked: " ... is there something (hyper-local news sites) can offer the businesses beyond just a display ad or a place in an online directory? Is there a more creative partnership they might have, where reader/contributors could give the business honest feedback on the site -- positive and negative? Paulding.com, for those who are aware, is based on a simple message board shtick. We have a front page with news but the majority of the action - some 2200 posts a day - occur within the forums. These posts are typically viewed by members... continued...

Topics: Best Practices, Financial, Marketing, Participation, Philosophy
Tagged: business, hyperlocal, memberships, social news

How Can Ads Support Community News?

Mark Glaser
9:13 PM | bio | Comments: 3

I'm going to be posting weekly questions here on Idea Lab to spark discussion by the various authors, as well as our community of readers. This week I'd like to follow up on the recent theme of new business models for local news sites. Many small hyper-local community sites start up with Google AdSense ads and other automated, quick ways of bringing in a small revenue stream. Eventually, though, they need to make more money than that, and must turn to local businesses to advertise. But it's difficult to entice small businesses online, as they are more likely to employ... continued...

Topics: Financial, Marketing
Tagged: advertising, business models, community news, hyper-local news

The Case for Local Ownership of Newspapers

G. Patton Hughes
7:58 PM | bio | Comments: 2

Beating the street looking for a job in journalism is not a pleasant thought these days. As the firing of editors at places like the LA Times over newsroom staff cuts demonstrates, out-of-work journalists are totally divorced from the decision making that affects their lives. This is because the big decisions in this industry are being made by corporate management types whose primary goal in life is a seven figure bonus. These titans of industry are not just in the media companies; they are also in advertising and marketing. That the opinions of a few carry such weight is simply... continued...

Topics: Financial, Marketing, Participation, Philosophy
Tagged: business models, local newspapers, local ownership, publishers

Markets Fail News

Benjamin Melançon
8:12 AM | bio | Comments: 3

Thanks to Chris O'Brien's challenge, serious talk of business models for journalism have come to the IdeaLab blog. Let's pause a moment for an overarching view. Turn off the bright lights and stare into the empty studio. Markets - selling and buying at prices set by supply and demand - don't work for news and information. Valuable news is a public good. All right, if you care about journalism, you already believed that. But news is also a public good in the sense economists use the term: once one person comes into possession of it, everybody can have it. Expensive... continued...

Topics: Financial, Marketing
Tagged: economics, idea, incentive, information, markets, news, propaganda, subsidy

Dealing with Privacy Issues in Hyper-Local Media

G. Patton Hughes
12:11 PM | bio | Comments: 1

Chances are you'll be getting a notice regarding changes in privacy policies from the various web sites from hgtv.com (Home and Garden) to myspace and other publishers and advertising related businesses associated with the Internet Advertising Bureau. These changes in privacy policies are the result of a new marketing approach endorsed by the Internet Advertising Bureau establishing tighter integration of data collected by media sites with databases of advertisers and others who serve ads to the public on the Internet. Members of the IAB are a who's who in the Internet industry including Google, Yahoo!, double-click, AOL, the NYTimes, Cox... continued...

Topics: Legal Issues, Marketing, Philosophy
Tagged: data mining, hyperlocal, IAB, privacy

What Did You Call Me?

Benjamin Melançon
6:56 AM | bio | Comments: 5

Marketing guru Seth Godin urges companies to start calling "potential customers" and "targets" instead citizens. He means this term to be inclusive of those who have a relationship with the marketer and those who do not and to bring about a mental shift toward respect and humility. Nice to know that journalists are ahead of the marketers on this. Every self-respecting journalist I know cringes a little when some business-side person at a conference calls readers/viewers/listeners consumers. Indeed, many of us have lept over readers/viewers/listeners to pay "the people formerly known as the audience" a great mark of respect (from... continued...

Topics: Marketing, Participation, Philosophy
Tagged: citizen journalism, name, the people formerly known as the audience

Wearing Your Media on Your Sleeve

Paul Lamb
11:53 AM | bio | Comments: 0

Some really interesting experimentation is being done with "wearable media" these days. Wearable media is simply clothing or other accessories that allow for the transmission or display of digital information. Some examples... Wearable Resistance a dress adorned with LED that can be programmed to depict images or text. Check out some of the other work being done by Dutch artist collective De Geuzen, "a foundation for multi-visual research". The Internet of Things: The University of Washington is conducting an experiment to understand the next step in social networking by connecting objects and people in a wireless, monitored network. Beginning in... continued...

Topics: Audio/Visual, Games & Virtual Worlds, Marketing, Mobile, Technology
Tagged: computing, Hug Shirt, LED, mobile, online gaming, RFID, sensor technology, social networking, wearable media

Why I Love Forums -- and Not Blogs

G. Patton Hughes
1:22 AM | bio | Comments: 4

I have an admission to make. I really don't like blogs. They are not conversational and they don't build a community. I love forums because they are conversational and with a little nurturing, they can blossom into a full-blown on-line community. This is true whether the common interests are cars, collectibles or a geographic community. Another reason I love forums is that, unlike a blog, I could have stopped writing at the end of the last paragraph. On an active forum that assertion would have been enough to effectively start a conversation that possibly would be just as informative as... continued...

Topics: Best Practices, Financial, Marketing
Tagged: blogs, forums, hyperlocal, start-up advice

When our Phones Do the Social Networking

Paul Lamb
11:14 AM | bio | Comments: 1

One of the more interesting mobile media trends we may see more of this year is mobile social networking. Simply put, that means the ability for one person to connect with another via a mobile phone or other device while on the go. Think of your cell phone saying "hello" to another cell phone within a certain geographic proximity, based on identified shared interests on publicly available profiles. Typically one must sign up for or opt in to a service designed for this purpose, set up a profile, and make one's cell phone available via wireless technologies like GPS or... continued...

Topics: Marketing, Mobile, Participation, Technology
Tagged: Dodgeball, location, locative media, Meetro, mobile media, MOSOSO, social networking, Twitter

It's The Sales Stupid!

G. Patton Hughes
2:10 AM | bio | Comments: 0

It is the sales stupid! No it is not ... it is the network (Check the companion entry It is the network stupid) that determines if you attract a viable audience that generates monetize-able journalism ... I.e. journalism that attracts a salable audience. My belief has always been that sales will come when you have a viable audience. I'm here to report that it does even when you're barely competent at sales. Yep, I've had sales ... although any reasonable businessperson would say that sales I've generated so far are lackluster. The secret of good sales is a good salesperson... continued...

Topics: Best Practices, Financial, Marketing
Tagged: national advertising sources, revenue, sales

My, What a Pretty Face[book]

Geoff Dougherty
9:33 PM | bio | Comments: 2

I've been ignoring Facebook for as long as I can. And most other social networking applications, too. I already get several dozen e-mails a day. Add to that a dozen or so phone calls, voice mails and letters, and I begin feeling like I need to be less networked, not more. But I finally sat down and looked at what the site has done with its publicly available APIs -- programming features that let web developers like me build stuff on Facebook. Yes, it is cool. Cooler than I'd imagined. It took me about three hours to slap together the... continued...

Topics: Marketing, Participation, Technology
Tagged: facebook, social networking, web development

Advertising and Information Asymmetry Online

Benjamin Melançon
2:01 AM | bio | Comments: 0

Mark Andrejevic: Living through the '90s, there was this euphoric set of predictions about the empowering and democratizing capacity of the new medium. I read that against what the current political and economic situation looks like today. [...] What concerns me is the way in which the celebration of the potential so quickly slides into a claim that this potential is being actualized. An interview with the author of iSpy: Surveillance and Power in the Interactive Era. Well worth the read. As long as the funding model for journalism is advertising-based, these issues will frame our work and - in... continued...

Topics: Financial, Government & Politics, Marketing
Tagged: advertising, privacy, security

"Now" Trumps "Me" by Putting Us All in the Newsroom

G. Patton Hughes
1:25 PM | bio | Comments: 2

This scene took place at the Journalism that Matters conference in DC and it relates to one of those little epiphanies we all wish we experienced more often. It was in one of the breakout sessions at the conference where the future of the media was being discussed. There was one of the blindingly bright twenty-something man of Asian descent that seems destined to get $20 million in backing from an equally inscrutable venture capitalist. When he spoke, people listened and it is a vision of the future we've all heard. The narrative is that we'll all have our little... continued...

Topics: Marketing, Philosophy
Tagged: community, hyperlocal, newsroom

Baristanet Book Club Launches with Jay McInerney

Lisa Williams
12:16 PM | bio | Comments: 3

Debbie Galant of Baristanet has launched the Baristanet Book Club, opening with an author interview conducted by Jay McInerney: So, why is Jay McInerney writing for Baristanet? It starts with the precipitous decline in book reviewing by mainstream media, a trend documented here and much fretted about by authors, reviewers, and publishers. As an author, I knew about this. But who thought I could be part of the solution? Well, Paul Bogaards, a Glen Ridge resident, avid Baristanet reader and executive at Knopf, did. In mid-September, he invited me to a lunch with representatives from the Association of American Publishers... continued...

Topics: Audio/Visual, Best Practices, Financial, Marketing, Participation
Tagged: baristanet, book reviews, hyperlocal, knopf, video