trinetizen

InfoWorld: Life after print

(via IHT)

Philip Meyer, in his book The Vanishing Newspaper, predicts that the final copy of the final newspaper will appear on somebody’s doorstep one day in 2043.

For some, it's come sooner.

Can an 180,000-circulation, weekly magazine go web-only and still survive?

International Data Group, the world's largest publisher of technology newspapers and magazines, says it can be done.

InfoWorld, its flagship weekly turned web publication, is generating ad revenue of US$1.6 million a month with operating profit margins of 37 percent.

A year earlier, when it had both print and online versions, InfoWorld had operating losses of 3 percent on monthly revenue of US$1.5 million.

"The excellent thing, and good news, for publishers is that there is life after print - in fact, a better life after print," said Patrick McGovern, the founder and chairman of IDG.

Quote:

"Advertisers and readers of high-tech publications have moved online more swiftly than other audiences, so IDG may offer a glimpse of the future of publishing. Yet the transition only came after years of investment, upheaval and changes in its practice of journalism.

"The biggest single step and most striking sign of the company's online shift came a year ago, on April 2, 2007, when the last print edition of InfoWorld appeared and it became a web-only publication.

"There were nervous months after the switch, as the company awaited the reaction from advertisers and readers, but before long InfoWorld's web audience was growing and its business improved.

"In 2002, 86 percent of the revenue from IDG's publications, whose titles include Computerworld, InfoWorld, PC World, Macworld and CIO, came from print and 14 percent online.

"These days, 52 percent of the revenue comes from online ads, while 48 percent is from the print side.

"Last year, print and online publications accounted for 70 percent of IDG's US$3 billion in revenue, with the rest coming from its conference business and technology research firm, IDC.

"The giant technology publisher has not just stabilized its business, McGovern said, but is now growing around 10 percent annually - though a severe recession would surely dim its growth prospects this year.

"Throughout its network of 300 print titles and 450 Web sites in 85 countries, IDG has converted smaller titles to online only, but InfoWorld was the big one. More will come, company executives say, as print titles slip into the red and are left behind.

"But they emphasize that the print versions of some titles, like CIO, a glossy twice-monthly magazine, will likely be around for many years.

"CIO, for chief information officer, distributed free to senior technology managers, is solidly profitable and runs long pieces that detail the use of technology in corporations and government institutions.

"Yet even CIO has adopted what its managers call an "online first" business model. Three years ago, the editorial staff was divided into three people who worked on the website only, and the rest only on print.

"Today, there are no barriers. The total staff size, at 23, is one fewer than in 2005, but now most of them spend 80 percent of their time on the web, while a handful of writers spend 80 percent of their time on the long, centerpiece articles in the print magazine.

"But everyone writes for the web these days. 'It's only fair to people for their career development,' said Michael Friedenberg, the president of CIO. 'How can you say to anyone, in this environment, that they can only write in print and not online?'

"Yet as a web-only publication, InfoWorld is very different from the bygone print edition. Gone are the long pieces of more than 3,000 words, with anecdotes and narrative, examining how technology had transformed some company or industry. Instead, the key online is packaging information into 'digestible chunks,' typically of no more than a page of text or so, sometimes in lists of "10 things to do" to solve some technology problem in companies.

"The web also opens the door to offerings that are impossible in print like short animations that explain complex technologies, and an online petition urging Microsoft to keep selling the aging Windows XP operating system beyond its June cutoff date that has collected 160,000 signatures online.

"Without the physical limits of print, it becomes easier to explore topics more deeply on the Web. InfoWorld presents a stable of bloggers, including 19 freelance writers, who are authorities in niches including data protection, green technology, open-source software and cloud computing.

"Eric Knorr, the current editor in chief, says the goal with reporting and blogging is to create 'thought leadership and depth' in several subject areas online.

"Stewart Alsop, a journalist-turned-venture capitalist, was the editor in chief of InfoWorld in the 1990s, when the it was thick with ads and its editorial staff was at its peak. "Technology publishing just happens to be at the point of this whole transformation of media," Alsop said. 'What's happening at IDG is a fairly accurate map for every other publishing organization. Get over it, it's going to happen.' "

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Brits addicted to social networks

From Guardian's pda: the digital content blog:

It seems that Britons are more addicted to poking and tweeting and writing on each other's walls than anyone else in Europe.

Social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace reached 9.6 million users in the UK in 2007, according to a new report from Datamonitor. This puts it ahead of bigger countries, including France with 8.9 million and Germany with 8.6 million. Spain is in fourth place with just 2.9 million.

The UK user base is forecast to almost triple to 27.1 million by 2012. For Europe overall, the user base is forecast to rise from 41.7 million now to 107.4 million over the next four years.

Datamonitor explains the UK's dominance on the fact that British consumers are quick to adopt new technology and many of the networks were initially only available in English.

Is it plausible that 27.1 million Britons - half the population - will be using social networking sites by 2012? This represents a 23% compound annual growth rate over the five years from 2007.

By 2012 social networking is likely to be far more integrated into everything we do online. But given that not everyone in the country is online and the current high growth rates are likely to slow, it does seem extraordinarily high.

The report also notes that so far, using social networking sites for marketing campaigns has yielded mixed results, partly because advertisers are uncertain about how to do it.

The personal information available on the sites is a rich vein for advertisers to mine in creating targeted campaigns - but they also need to be careful not to overstep the bounds and invade users' privacy. However, I'm sure they'll figure this out eventually.

Journalism in six words

From Meranda Writes:

Doing more with less since 1690.
We’ll always have Paris … or Britney.
It’s how I change the world.
Get it right, write it tight.
They’ll miss us when we’re gone.
Feed the watchdog, euthanize the lapdog.
Who, what, when, where, why, Web.
Facts, schmacts … how is my hair?
Dirty commie latte-sipping liberal scum.
Please stop griping, now start typing.
We’re sorry about all the trees.
No news is not good news.
How many inches is the truth?
Seek the truth, not the money.
We don’t make this shit up.
Dead wood floats. So can we.
A journalist’s work is never done.
History’s first version, updated every minute.
It beats working for a living.
Speak truth to power, or else.
But this IS my day job!
Mainstream media: We’re your grandfather’s blog.
Filling the space between the ads.

Meranda's:

Been there. Done that. Rinse. Repeat.
Every day something new to learn.
Speak up or hold your peace.
Who’s watching your government?
Nothing is worth more than today.
Tomorrow this will be forgotten.
I couldn’t make this stuff up.
As read about on Romenesko.
Blogs: Repurposing real journalism since 1997.

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When brands hire bloggers

(from Techdirt and WSJ)

Quote:

"The Wall Street Journal has an article focusing on a blog set up by Miller Brewing Company called Brew Blog. The blog isn't used as a blog about what's going on at Miller Brewing. Instead, Miller hired an experienced reporter, James Arndorfer, 37, and told him to just cover the beer industry as if he were a beat reporter.

"In other words, it's reporting news -- and even breaking stories on the competition.

"In fact, it revealed that main rival Anheuser-Busch was planning a new brew called Budweiser American Ale even before A-B was able to make the announcement itself, forcing the trade publications to scramble to cover the scoop.

"This is certainly a recognition of how content is advertising. The blog clearly isn't 'advertorial.' It's full-on reporting about the industry, in a way that's interesting and relevant to those in the industry.

" 'They are trying to aggressively go around the gatekeepers in newsrooms and the trade press,' says Stephen Quigley, an associate professor of public relations at Boston University. 'It's something you couldn't do five years ago, before the proliferation of blogs.'

"What may be even more interesting, though, is what the article says about journalism. In an age in which journalists are whining that their jobs are disappearing, here's yet another example of where suddenly there are new types of jobs for journalists appearing every day. But, even more interesting, is a quote at the end of the article highlighted by David Card. It's from Harry Schuhmacher, the editor and publisher of a fee-based trade publication on the beer industry:

" 'I tell Miller you're subsidizing a free publication, and it hurts the trade press,' he says. 'But they don't care.'...Mr. Schuhmacher adds that he writes fewer positive pieces about Miller than he once did because he knows Brew Blog will always publish the same stories.

"Think about this for a bit. People complain that when you have a company-sponsored publication it will inevitably be biased -- but the sponsorship of that site is totally open and in the clear.

"The site's content stands for itself. Yet, at the same time, a supposedly 'objective' traditional journalist is admitting that he writes fewer stories about Miller because he's upset that it's competing with his own publication.

"From that, it would certainly seem like the Brew Blog is a lot more credible (it's biases are out in the open), while this fee-based trade pub admits that story choices are sometimes based on personal vendettas."

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BBC: Multi-platform newsroom

Press Gazette reports on the structure of the converged newsroom:

"In the short term, he said, most journalists working in the BBC newsroom will continue to work primarily in the media that they have traditionally worked. Over time, producers will increasingly work across television, radio and online as staff are put through a training programme.

"A centralised Media Wire desk now monitors audio and video feeds and passes stories on to the most appropriate outlets, and assignments will be controlled from a centralised planning desk.

"Each desk will have a web conversion producer often drawn from the previous online operation, who will be responsible for extending stories originally produced for broadcast platforms online.

"In addition, one senior editor will serve as the overall multimedia editor for the day, responsible for coordinating the needs of different media, allocating resources, taking legal advice and resolving any conflicts."

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Blogs are now mainstream media

Conclusions of Universal McCann's Wave 3 survey of 17,000 active internet users in 29 countries, aged 16-54 (via BizCommunity.com):

1. SOCIAL MEDIA is a global phenomenon happening in all markets regardless of wider economic, social and cultural development. If you are online you are using social media.

2. ASIAN MARKETS are leading in terms of participation, creating more content than any other region.

3. VIDEO clips are the quickest growing platform, up from 31% penetration in Wave 1 to 83% in Wave 3; 57% have joined a Social Network, making it the number one platform for creating and sharing content; 55% of users have uploaded photos; 22% of users have uploaded videos.

4. The WIDGET economy is real: 23% of social network users have installed an application; 18% of bloggers have installed applications in their blog templates.

5. BLOGS are a mainstream media worldwide and as a collective, rival any traditional media: 73% have read a blog. The blogsphere is becoming increasingly participatory, there are now 184 million bloggers worldwide. The number one thing to blog about is personal life and family.

6. CHINA has the largest blogging community in the world with 42 million bloggers - more than the US and Western Europe combined.

7. Social media impacts your BRAND's reputation: 34% post opinions about products and brands on their blog; 36% think more positively about companies that have blogs.

MORE.

For the full report, download PDF, 3.98MB

Dell, Starbucks: Crowdsourcing ideas

Jeff Jarvis looks at Dell and Starbucks in setting up brainstorm forums to solicit ideas from customers. (via Guardian)

"When Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz returned to his company to put it back on track - as Dell had done a year before - the two chiefs compared notes. Now the coffee empire has opened its version of Dell's IdeaStorm at MyStarbucksIdea...

"The Starbucks discussion is fascinating. Various caffeinated customers in a hurry suggested that they could encode their standing orders and credit on to cards so they could wave them like London's tube/bus Oyster cards upon entering, putting their order in and charging them automatically, which would allow them to skip (and shorten) the line. Others suggested separate lines for simple orders of brewed coffee. What the customers were really telling the company was that the length of its lines is a problem. But note well that they didn't complain about this. Instead, they came up with solutions. It's a sign of the gift economy online. Customers are willing to help. They want to be partners.

"The top suggestion at MyStarbucksIdea as I write this - with 53,000 votes and 600 comments - is loftier: to bring cafe society to the cafes. "Use the power of media and wireless new media in particular to foster a sense of conversation about the arts, current events, etc," one customer proposed. An enthused commenter responded: "Great conversation will also renew the image of Starbucks as being not only a coffee community but also a global community where humanist ideas and great artists, writers, comedians etc could also attract a lot of people and turn Starbucks into a cultural, humanist hub!" Sounds like the Guardian, with extra froth.

"I would love to see this platform for mutual engagement also taken to government. I'm not suggesting we transform parliament into an online forum. But why shouldn't constituents share their good ideas and use the organising power of the internet to gather movements around them? When I blogged this thought, Salesforce's Benioff chimed in, calling it a 'killer idea' but cautioning: 'Salesforce Ideas is a democracy, as the saying goes, red in tooth and claw. But you have to invest in a conversation - it's not going to work unless there's a real back-and-forth.'

"The prime minister's office, working with MySociety, has made a start on such a digital democracy at petitions.pm.gov.uk, where citizens have submitted more than 29,000 petitions since 2006 (half rejected as duplicates or for legal and other issues), drawing signatures from about four million people.

"But the real question for companies and institutions is how willing they are to let their constituents into the process of doing their jobs. Can customers help design products? Can citizens write legislation? Can readers suggest stories newspapers should cover?"