MediaShift

Thought Leader Q&A

Harold Evans Sees Bright Future for Print-on-Demand Newspapers

by Mark Glaser

Evans is the editor-at-large for The Week magazine. He has written numerous books, but his most recent is called "My Paper Chase," a fascinating memoir covering his early years as a cub reporter, copy editor and eventually editor and publisher over decades of distinguished work. He connects what happened in those early years to the changes wrought by technology and the Internet, and what he sees as he watches his wife, Tina Brown, co-found and manage The Daily Beast.

• October 29, 2009
• 1 comment

Thought Leader Q&A

Daylife, Getty Give Aggregation Tools to Publishers (for a Price)

by Mark Glaser

Upendra Shardanand re-focused Daylife from being a platform as well as destination site, putting the platform first and letting the site fall further into the background. Recently, Getty Images announced a partnership and $4 million investment in Daylife, with plans to sell Daylife services to its clients, including the SmartGalleries tool for showcasing photos online. Getty joins previous Daylife investors the New York Times Co., Craigslist's Craig Newmark and TechCrunch's Michael Arrington.

• September 24, 2009
• 1 comment

Thought Leader Q&A

Magazines Need to Embrace Multimedia Storytelling in Digital Age

by Mark Glaser

This is one in an occasional series on MediaShift where I discuss issues in-depth with thought leaders in online media. The format has changed to give you a profile of the person, as well as more of our dialogue -- including audio clips. If you have suggestions for future Q&As or want to participate yourself, drop me a line...

• August 27, 2009
• 7 comments

Thought Leader Q&A

Edelman's Steve Rubel Switches from Blog to Lifestream

by Mark Glaser

I spoke with Rubel a couple months ago when he was visiting San Francisco for the Ad:tech conference. We met at B Restaurant near Moscone Center and I interviewed him with my Flip camera. We talked about his balancing act as a blogger/journalist/PR person, how PR is shifting with the advent of social media, and what lessons Edelman and Edelman's client Wal-Mart have learned from previous missteps online.

• July 2, 2009
• 3 comments

Thought Leader Q&A

How Tech Publisher IDG Grows Revenues During Recession

by Mark Glaser

Patrick McGovern, IDG: "[At InfoWorld.com] our audience numbers and frequency of visits soared. Even though we gave up 40% of revenues from stopping print, we actually had 10% more revenue growth absolutely. The online revenue didn't only make up for the missing print revenue, but we actually had absolute growth."

• April 16, 2009
• 2 comments

Thought Leader Q&A

BlogTalkRadio Lets Anyone (Including the Pentagon) Start Talk Shows

by Mark Glaser

BlogTalkRadio CEO Alan Levy: "Three or four months into doing this, we started broadcasting live from Afghanistan, with an embed there named Scott Kesterson. Every Friday morning he would be live from Kabul or from Kandahar, and people could listen in and ask him questions. And the soldiers were listening to what was going on...Now, the Pentagon has a network on BlogTalkRadio. Now you know the medium has arrived when the Pentagon is embracing it."

• March 11, 2009
• No comments

Thought Leader Q&A

Productivity Guru Gina Trapani Balances Blogging, Coding, Community

by Mark Glaser

This is one in an occasional series on MediaShift where I discuss issues in-depth with thought leaders in online media. The format has changed to give you a profile of the person, as well as more of our dialogue -- including audio clips. If you have suggestions for future Q&As or want to participate yourself, drop me a line via...

• February 25, 2009
• No comments

Thought Leader Q&A

Rufus Griscom Mixes High, Low Brow on Babble Parenting Site

by Mark Glaser

Rufus Griscom: "Online content, if it's not user-aggregated or user-generated, is seen as rather old and creaky. But I would argue that there are lots of shades of gray. All of the online content sites are becoming a hybrid of user-aggregated, user-generated and edited content, because feedback and citizen journalism and ratings and suggestions are becoming part of these sites."

• February 5, 2009
• 2 comments

Thought Leader Q&A

Nettwerk CEO Terry McBride Puts Fans in Charge of Bands

by Mark Glaser

The people formerly known as the audience (TPFKATA) are doing more than just fact-checking newspaper stories, time-shifting TV shows and capturing breaking news on their cameraphones. They are also helping run their favorite bands, designing and voting on concert T-shirts, mixing studio albums and even voting on which cities should be included in a band's tour. At the vanguard of...

• December 11, 2008
• 32 comments

Thought Leader Q&A

Should Newspapers Become Online Ad Brokers for Local Businesses?

by Mark Glaser

Desperate times call for desperate measures, and that's where the newspaper business is right now. With profits slashed, unending layoffs, and online ad growth slowing, newspapers have to be open to new ideas that will help them deal with a media shift like no other. Last week I looked at the concept of crowdfunding, with people paying journalists directly for...

• November 20, 2008
• 16 comments

Thought Leader Q&A

Current TV's 'SuperNews' Comedy Gauges Success on Web Views

by Mark Glaser

I live about 7 minutes' drive from the headquarters of Al Gore's innovative Current TV in San Francisco, yet my cable system, Astound, still doesn't carry the channel. So when I was visiting my parents last summer in St. Louis, I made a point of checking it out. The first thing I saw was a cartoon spoof of social networking...

• October 29, 2008
• 3 comments

Thought Leader Q&A

Gannett Pushes for More Tech Hires, Data Centers, Niche Sites

by Mark Glaser

These are dark days for newspaper companies in the U.S. There are layoffs in print newsrooms, classified ad revenues are dwindling, and readership is shrinking. To combat these trends, Gannett introduced a bold initiative in 2006 to remake its 85 daily newspaper newsrooms into "Information Centers," making the web the primary platform for 24-hour news, with more video, databases, maps...

• October 10, 2008
• 6 comments

Thought Leader Q&A

Locative Media Project Aims to Collect Stories of Atlanta

by Mark Glaser

The technology and journalism fields have long been dominated by men, especially in the upper management of big companies. But the J-Lab and McCormick Foundation want to shine the light on new ideas from women who work at mainstream media outlets but want to start something up on the side. That's why they started giving out grants in their...

• August 13, 2008
• No comments

Thought Leader Q&A

Young Newspaper Journalists Could Flee Because of Slow Pace of Change

by Mark Glaser

As the layoffs and buyouts pile up in U.S. the newspaper industry, and Romenesko becomes a daily wake, there is one other troubling problem: Young journalists are less willing to stay at newspapers because the papers are so slow to change their culture.

• July 23, 2008
• 14 comments

Thought Leader Q&A

Charles Lewis Tries to Solve -- Not Bemoan -- State of Investigative Journalism

by Mark Glaser

The state of investigative journalism in America is in its five-alarm fire phase, with newspaper staffs being severely pared down, and TV news going for flash and celebrity. But Charles Lewis, the godfather of non-profit investigative journalism as founder and former director of the Center for Public Integrity, would rather put out the fire than simply yell "fire!"

• June 18, 2008
• 4 comments

Thought Leader Q&A

NPR Considers Convergence for Next Generation of Radio Reporters

by Mark Glaser

The younger generation will be our future leaders. We hear that a lot in politics, but it also applies to media companies wondering who will be leading them into a digital future. National Public Radio has two programs -- Next Generation Radio (NextGen) and Intern Edition -- aimed at training young folks to do quality radio reporting the NPR...

• May 7, 2008
• 2 comments

Thought Leader Q&A

Public Documents + Shoe Leather Reporting = The Smoking Gun's Staying Power

by Mark Glaser

In a world of social network widgets, videoblogs and Web 2.0 gewgaws, sometimes it's the simple things that work best. That's the lesson of Web 1.0 startup The Smoking Gun, a simply designed site that relies on public documents and criminal mugshots to bring in boatloads of traffic. If a prominent politician or celebrity has run afoul of the...

• April 23, 2008
• 3 comments

Thought Leader Q&A

Front Porch Forum Makes Friends & Neighbors, But Can It Make Money?

by Mark Glaser

We are a society that lives more and more in our technology-induced bubbles. When we go outside, we wear an iPod; we talk on cell phones while driving. In urban areas, we might never meet our neighbors unless there's a fire or earthquake. But can technology also help bring us together in our physical communities, and help us get...

• April 2, 2008
• 7 comments