A very thoughtful, calm and reasoned excerpt from Al Gore’s new book, The Assault of Reason. Read it. The content is important and the writing is superb.
Category: Uncategorized
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Old Media vs New Media: A kick in the derriere
I’ll admit I’m no Einstein when it comes to math. Heck, I work with words for a living. Give me letters over numbers any day.
Which means there’s a better-than-good chance that what I’m about to say has no basis in reality: Richard Parsons, the head of old media establishment Time Warner, is quoted this morning saying “The notion that the new kids on the block have taken over is a false notion.” He’s, of course, referring to Google and YouTube.
I can’t decide whether this is a quote of desperation or one of denial. Heck, it’s probably a bit of both.
The reality is that, for the most part, old media really is on life support. By old media, I mean those that haven’t adapted to the evolution their customers have made toward interactivity, openness and community. The old media need only look so far as Redmond and the losing battle Microsoft is waging against open source software to see how this plays out.
Which brings me back to my remedial math skills. Could Google/YouTube just make this whole old media vs new media issue a moot point by going all Gordon Gecko on Parsons’s derrière?
Old media turns combative against new media | Technology | Internet | Reuters
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The 4 Most Powerful Blog Posts on the Web
Every once in awhile you come across a post on a blog that stops you dead in your tracks. In all of my years monitoring the news and blogs for clients, four posts have had that power over me. Two of them are heartbreaking. One is a “Field of Dreams” tribute. And one I saw today is just plain brilliant.
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Luddites Be Damned!
There are those who think the pervasiveness of technology in our lives is a bad thing. There are others — a camp which I freely admit to falling into — who believe that being always-on, always-connected is a good thing.
This really hit home for me today while I was walking through the Moscone Center in San Francisco where the JavaOne conference is being held. The organizers had set up a quasi lounge area, complete with a big screen to watch the conference keynotes, as well as the requisite multi-colored bean bag chairs. Nearly 90% of those sitting and watching the keynotes had their laptops open (Note: a *vast* majority of the laptops at the show were Powerbooks.). Some were catching up on work, some were blogging what they heard in the keynotes, others were surfing Web sites or catching up on personal e-mail.
And since when is producing, learning or communicating such a bad thing?
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R.I.P.: Tom Poston
A sad day in comedy: Emmy-award-winning actor and Bob Newhart sidekick Tom Poston died.
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Psych 101
I have to think they saw this coming:
Philadelphia authorities have closed at least 16 storefront fortune-tellers.
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The Press Release: Time Not Well Spent
The fine folks over at the Marketing Profs Daily blog have an informative post today listing six telltale signs a company’s press release is full of BS (or, as Opie & Anthony would phrase it, “Bravo Sierra.” Look it up in the Brady Bunch encyclopedia if you need to).
The list is spot-on. Too often, companies waste enormous amounts of energy and budget spinning their wheels to get a press release onto PR Newswire or BusinessWire. The press release — whether in its traditional form or its Web 2.x form — is a lazy pro’s PR tactic (although I think the ideas behind the new media releases have some merit, not as releases, but for story support). Press releases don’t drive coverage. I’d go so far as to claim that they hinder it. The time spent in approvals and re-writes is time better spent on the phone or in conversation with the media (and, yes, I count bloggers and other new media influencers in this bucket).
So, what’s a company to do once it realizes the ineffectiveness of its releases? Some ideas:
- Build out the story beyond the “Company x announced today…”
- Interview one of the people behind the news. Capture the interview and post it as a podcast or videocast. Offer that person up to reporters. Personalize the news.
- Uncover customers and other third-parties that can talk to the impact your news has on your industry (afterall, your news does have impact, correct?).
- Find something provocative in the issues your announcement addresses and write an equally provocative blog post or byline on it.
I’m sure there are others. Feel free to chime in with yours in the comment section.
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Must-See Photography: James Nachtwey
I love photography. I’ve had a couple of images published (many, many years ago). I’ve had some that were good enough to frame and display on the walls of my home. And, despite being an eternal optimist, I know I will never be able to be the photographer James Nachtwey is. His images are haunting and powerful. So powerful is his work, that he was recently awarded a prestigious TED Prize. Well-deserved…and well worth taking time to soak in his photography.
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The British Are Coming! The British Are Coming! (Let’s Hope!)
Yesterday I posted about the decline of American broadcast journalism, singling out Katie Couric’s journalistic skill in reading words on a screen. Today, Jeff Jarvis over at BuzzMachine has an interesting post highlighting comments from the director general of the BBC on the death of the news presenter (i.e., celebrities like Couric).
Over the past year or so, I’ve started to rely on the BBC — on the web and on XM Radio — as the reasoned journalistic voice on global and political topics. Now, I’m sure they aren’t perfect, but its reporting, its tone, its balance and its objectivity give it credibility that the once-watched network news shows no longer deliver (I chose “shows” because the 5, 10 and 11pm newscasts have long since crossed the line from journalism to entertainment and advertising vehicles).
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Murder Inc.: City of Brotherly Hate
Bruce Springsteen sings a haunting song about the demise of once-great Asbury Park called “My City of Ruins.” He might as well have been writing about the city across the Delaware River: Philadelphia.
This weekend, 11 more people were murdered on the streets of Philadelphia, bringing the total number of people killed so far in 2007 to 127. At this pace, Philly is on track to overtake Camden (just across the river) as the country’s murder capital.
I’ve lived in the suburbs of Philly for about four years now. I’ve gone to Philly for concerts, for dinner, to see art exhibits. I’ve seen some of the good that this once-great city can offer. However, all the rock stars, Superbowl and World Series rings, restaurants or world-renowned artists don’t overcome the murder rap that Philly is increasingly becoming known for.
This is more than a crime problem for Mayor John Street. It is now a PR and economic crisis. Philly was on the way to a resurrection. It is time for Street, his police force and his PR counselors to act swiftly and overwhelmingly to put an end to the violence and restore confidence in Philadelpia.
Mike Maney 