Tom Altman’s Wedia Conversation

I am associated with another blog…it’s called wediabuzz.  It’s a group of people from GFOC (the Gazette Family of Companies) whom I used to work with and now work for.  (I am a consultant doing work for them now.)

We had a mission to help them out and build a framework for podcasting - it was fun.  It is not as easy as some people make it out to be - I really enjoyed it and had a good time.  It really reminded me of my “days back in radio” where we do all sorts of crazy things.  I remember using the studio equipment to make and record prank phone calls to our friends…what a great time.

Anyway - I volunteered to edit the podcast.  Man is digital so much easier than analog.  We recorded the podcast using a super basic Logitech microphone and my laptop running Audacity.   It worked OK - but the levels were all messed up and we need to look at abetter microphone for next week.  It would be idea to have a separate mic for each person - but then you would really need a mixer board and then a 4/8 track recording and pretty soon you’ve got a couple grand wrapped up.  I’m kind of more like the minimalist with this stuff…or maybe a better term would be cheapskate

It wasn;t my first time editting audio - but the last time I did; I was using a razor blade, a reel to reel and some skinny blue tape to put it all back together with.  Now that was some work - now it’s all about the drag and drop, and man do I like me some drag and drop. “I tell ya - these kids don’t know how easy they have it!” 

Stay tuned for more!

More than likely, from “old media” like TV or newspaper.  But there was a surprising number of “new media” ways to get some of that information.

Mediashift posted a great article yesterday about this called “Iowa Caucuses Blanketed by Twitter, Blogs, Video“

That’s the hard lesson learned by veteran GOP political strategist Ed Rollins, who was repeatedly flummoxed in a Fox News interview with Chris Wallace, who hectored him about a conversation he had that was transcribed and sent to a TownHall.com blog by the one other person in the restaurant.

It still gets hard to leverage all of these items when the rubber hits the road - good stuff!

This is a great post from Publishing 2.0 called “Five Guiding Principles For The Transformation Of Media Companies” – I liked what they have…but I thought I would add my comments to it. Here we go:

Networks are the new distribution channels
Media used to be about controlling monopoly distribution channels. On the web, the network is the new distribution channel, and it can’t be controlled in the same way by a single media company. But there is huge power in networks. Just ask Google, the first media company to harness the network.

The most successful media companies will be those that learn to how build networks and harness network effects. This requires a mindset that completely contradicts traditional media business practices. Remember, Google doesn’t own the web. It doesn’t control the web. Google harnesses the power of the web by analyzing how websites link to each other.

Tom’s Comments:
Yes, yes and give me second helpings please. Wow – how accurate is that? I say again: “The most successful media companies will be those that learn to how build networks and harness network effects.” That may be the best sentence of the whole article.

People are more powerful than institutions
Media used to be about institutions — nameless, faceless brands. But on the web, people are empowered. Individuals matter more — but they matter most when connected as a network. Networks of individuals will transcended traditional media company and media brand divisions. (The last bit is a combo of principles #1 and #2)

The most successful media companies in 2008 will be those that empower and create networks of individuals — both outside and inside their corporate walls.

Tom’s Comments:
I like this as well. With an emphasis on the “empower and create networks of individuals — both outside and inside their corporate walls” I think media has to embrace this concept. We have to understand that this is global and mobile. Lots of people “get it”.

The best content comes from many sources
So many people use search engines on the web because they understand intuitively that search gives them access to ALL the content on the web. Most media companies are still limited on the web to delivering their own content. In the age of limited distribution channels, this made sense.

But on the web, where consumers can access any content from any source, and where high-quality content sources continue to proliferate (on top of all the garbage), media companies cannot serve consumers well just by delivering their own content.

The most success media companies will be those that offer consumers links to the best content on the web, not just their own content (and also those media companies that harness the “power of the link” — related to #1 and #2).

If media companies don’t do this, Google and other web-native aggregators will (and already do).

Tom’s Comments:
This is a close second as to best concept. Content does come from many sources and I think media companies are having a hard time figuring this out. Media needs to realize that we USED to be the information provider of choice…why? Because we were the only way to get some information.

Now, information has much more reach and flow. Anyone who has access to the internet can be a publisher. Take blogs, podcasts and numerous video sharing sites…people are the sources of content. This is about the relationship…not the content.

Search still rules
Search is currently the most powerful force on the web. Any media company that fails to embrace search, does so at their own peril. Search is, at least for now, the new newsstand.

The most successful media companies will be those that harness the power of search. The New York Times made perhaps the most striking acknowledgment of this reality by basing the decision to kill TimesSelect on the need to increase search traffic by exposing all of their content to search engines.

Tom’s Comments:
This is my only point of contention. I don’t think search is king. I think community is king. I would bet most people do not find a lions share of their content consumption via search…I think they find it from others recommendations.

This would backup my “community is king” statement. People want to do what the cool kids are doing. It’s our nature.

Advertising must create value
Google turned search advertising into the most profitable media business on the web by following the basic principle that advertising must create value for consumers. Search advertising is so powerful because the ads are relevant and USEFUL.

The most successful new advertising models will be those that create huge value for consumers, not those that manipulate users or violate their privacy (i.e. be like Google, not Facebook)

Tom’s Comments:
This is pretty good. And as far as facebook is concerned…wow. If you have not been part of that – you need to check it out. They ads on facebook are a train wreck. If this doesn’t kill them, Google’s open social may.

So we shall see - thank you Scott for sparking my interests on this one!

The newspaper industry (or at least some of it) is changing. There are some interesting ideas being tested in a few markets which incorporate the tried and true methods of news gathering and the new concepts of new media and social networking. (Found from a link off Rob Curley’s blog.)

Maybe a beat reporter could do a way better job if there was a “live” social network connected to the beat, made up of people who know the territory the beat covers, and want the reporting on that beat to be better.

Wow - that is very cool. So these people are going to actually talk to real people and see what they think? From a Rethinking the Mercury News article.

The idea NewAssignment.Net’s founder, Jay Rosen, and editor, David Cohn, are trying to test is simple: Maybe a beat reporter could do a way better job if there was a “live” social network connected to the beat, made up of people who know the territory the beat covers, and want the reporting on that beat to be better.

Another post from MediaShift explains it like this:

Just as the L.A. Times had its Spring Street Project to figure out its future, the Mercury News now has its Rethink project, complete with committees and community outreach to figure out how to “blow up” the newspaper. All employees at the newspaper were involved in the effort to go out into the community and see how real people were using media. Now, there’s a public blog explaining their rethinking in minute detail.

The company I work for is also trying to “figure it all out”.  It is called the Gazette Family of Companies - or as we affectionately call it GFOC.  We are starting by separating the content creation from the product management. So we’re hiring for a new position called “VP of Content” who will be working on:

Developing a new business unit to solicit, create, and store in a searchable manner all content and information used in multiple broadcast, online and print products.

We’re excited about the possibilities in the media industry. It seems like we have all the right parts - we just have never gotten them working together as a finely tuned machine.

So if you know of someone who wants to bridge the gap from traditional media to new media - please send them our way - and tell them Tom sent you! :)

This whole WGA strike is interesting. I honestly don’t have a real opinion either way - I do think it is important to make sure everyone is getting paid fairly - and I think that comes down to the type of contract you have with your business partners and it appears that is what they are fighting about.

That said…what I have to say is not about the strike. It is very interesting to listen and hear what these writers say about new media and internet content. You can tell some of them clearly get it - and some do not. But one this is very clear - it is definitely all about the money at this point.

Near the end of this video - the guy says we’ve had trouble getting our message out and we’re glad to see You-Tube is covering us! Dude, You-Tube isn’t “covering” anyone…they are a platform, a method in which videos can be released to the world - not an organization.

It appears “The Office” people are more in tune (maybe why they are leveraging YouTube), more pissed off and cynical at this point.

Not surprising - the Daily Show writers seem to get new media too. But do all of these writers have pent up anger - WOW?

It just really makes you wonder if it is time for the writers to take matters into their own hands. This is a great post called “Screenwriters, DIY!” which hints as this strike as an opportunity.

In the mid 90s, during a strike against The San Francisco Examiner, a bunch of staff writers and editors abandoned the newspaper to start up their own “web magazine.”

…

As the WGA strike moves into its second week, it’s hard not to see a similar opportunity: What’s to stop WGA writers…from doing a similar thing with YouTube?…Or perhaps even better, come up with a Net-driven revenue model and leave the dinosaur conglomerates of Hollywood behind?

It just would be nice to see the strike promote the innovation of new media - instead of the continuing to buy into the “dinosaur conglomerates” methods of exploiting the”intranets”.

It’s the first ever - Blog World Expo in Las Vegas Nov. 8 and 9 - and I am attending.

I’m looking forward to the interaction with these new media people - and getting the low down on the latest in video blogging (vlogging) and podcasting.  I’ll try to put the highlights here soon.