Rupert Murdoch - Media Needs To Reinvent Up In Here

CNET NEWS reports that Mr. Murdoch is accusing the media of digging themselves into a hole.

The media mogul accuses some traditional media leadership of "complacency and condescension." It is his opinion that newspapers are NOT going to become obsolete. Instead it's the "...editors, reporters, and proprietors who are forgetting a newspaper's most precious asset: the bond with its readers..."

With more and more content available online, I am having a hard time agreeing with his assessment but he does make some interesting arguments.

"It used to be that a handful of editors could decide what was news-and what was not. They acted as sort of demigods. If they ran a story, it became news. If they ignored an event, it never happened. Today editors are losing this power. The Internet, for example, provides access to thousands of new sources that cover things an editor might ignore. And if you aren't satisfied with that, you can start up your own blog and cover and comment on the news yourself. Journalists like to think of themselves as watchdogs, but they haven't always responded well when the public calls them to account."

He reinforced this by citing the famous Dan Rather incident when bloggers assassinated the story of Bush's National Guard service in 2004.

Rupert refers to "A recent American study reported that many editors and reporters simply do not trust their readers to make good decisions. Let's be clear about what this means. This is a polite way of saying that these editors and reporters think their readers are too stupid to think for themselves."

All that being said, I still think that even if you removed all the "offending people", we will still see declines in circulation and ad revenue. If Murdoch was sitting here in my office, I would tell him he is underestimating the power of online news and the increasing potential return for online advertising.

"Murdoch said newspapers can still count on circulation gains if papers provide readers with news they can trust." He added they will also need to embrace technology advances like RSS feeds and targeted e-mails. The challenge, according to Murdoch, will be to use a newspaper's brand while allowing readers to personalize the news for themselves-and then deliver it in the ways that they want."

RSS feeds, customized home pages, email? Hello? Is this thing on? This is already happening. This is exactly why 8-track tapes the printed form of the newspaper is soon going to be a memory.

 

The Power Of Blogging

Everyone knows that blogging will give you super powers. I am not talking about "Wonder Twin powers activate" type powers. I am talking about the power to say what's on your mind and have a potential audience that reaches exponentially further than other no-cost publishing mediums.

Sure if you want to write a book or do something like start a magazine, you could potentially impact just as many people but it's going to cost you. What most of us don't know is that some bloggers actually have significant power. It all depends on who you are connected with or what you are connected to. What if you had the ability to effect the stock price of a major, publicly held company? Well, one industrious 18 year old did.

On his blog, this youngster fabbed up a story about Apple CEO, Steve Jobs, having a heart attack. Now normally you wouldn't think much about it. But as it turns out, the post was picked up by a CNN staffer and reported it as fact. Immediately, Apple's stock went down as much as 5.4%. The SEC began an investigation into the incident and to date, they have not been able to find any trading records that show benefit from artificially causing the stock to drop. You can bet the kid almost soiled himself when the cops came to his door and wanted to "ask him a few questions."

Another blog story about a non-existent $800 Apple laptop was picked up by the New York times. This hot little news tid-bit peaked investor interests thinking that Apple was going to be delving into the low-price laptop market. Some analysts even made up charts predicting Apple's increased market share. The result was a big spike in Apple's share price. Once Apple unveiled their new laptop lineup with prices starting at $1299, the hoax was realized and the information sent Apple's share price plummeting.

CNN Money reports that Apple, "...which had gained a record-breaking 13% on Monday and opened higher Tuesday morning, was down more than 5% by the time Jobs finished his presentation"

2 times in the last couple of months, a blogger has caused a major alteration in a publicly traded company's share price. Are these stories of how powerful bloggers have become or stories about the prevalence of sloppy journalism? And why is the market so volatile that unfounded claims by an 18 year old blogger can create so much havoc? What are your thoughts?

Oh, and did you hear that GM is introducing a new SUV that is powered by some new energy source? I think something was said about dilithium crystals? That should bolster their share price a bit.

 

Myspace or Yours.

In a new survey from Future Labratory, close to half of 18- to 24-year olds prefer spending 15 minutes of free time on social networking sites instead of watching TV, reading, talking on the phone or playing video games.

Web Pro News reports, "The survey found that women usually spent more time on social networking sites than men, and that the sites were increasingly being used to make money. Fourteen percent of users had made money from social networking sites selling T-shirts, artwork, and jewelry. Looking for romantic relationships and finding friendship were named as other uses for the sites.

This new generation of connected users are figuring out how to use these sites to explore new levels of creativity and develop new ways of doing business online."

I have run across several examples of blogs that tell you how to make money on Facebook or other social sites. Evidently there is software and other ways to amass a huge friends list and market to them as a way of driving traffic to other sites or affiliate links. I have both a MySpace account AND a FaceBook page. I set them up just to understand what they were all about. I guess it was a matter of continuing ED for me.

The main benefit that I have seen from both my Facebook and MySpace pages is that I have been able to receive countless, spammy or inappropriate friend requests. Granted I don't check them that often but I do see where the it could be time consuming. Now for me, Entrecard, StumbleUpon, MyBlogLog and BlogCatalog suck much more time from my coffers. I think I am going to have to do a better budgeting of time when I am engaged in my social media endeavors.

As I was looking through my stats the other day I noticed a new site that I had never heard of before. It's called SiteHoppin and I have received little bit of traffic so far this month. Anyone hear of it or participate in it? What social type sites are you participating in?

 

The Debates on YouTube

Article contributed by
guest blogger Jen Williams; media
consultant and marketing professional.

If there’s ever been a time to stop using the term “new media,” it’s today. When YouTube becomes a format for presidential debates, one can hardly continue to distinguish the Internet from mainstream media.

Long a tool for spreading political propaganda, garnishing financial support for candidates and “getting out the vote,” the Internet has now been elevated to the status of representing democratic government in its truest form. By giving not only a voice, but also a face, to the voting public, it’s allowed them direct access to candidates in an unprecedented way.

I’ll agree with all the news pundits in their assessment that the format of Tuesday’s debate on CNN was really all that was new about it. The candidates themselves didn’t say much that was unexpected or different from anything they’ve been saying recently. Whether they’re simply attempting to establish consistency or they intentionally avoided anything earth-shattering, it was probably a wise move. The format itself is what made Tuesday’s debate historical, and anything that was said will be overshadowed by that fact alone.

The Republicans might benefit, therefore, for getting their shot at the same format second, because the novelty will have worn off a bit and people might actually pay more attention to what they say, as opposed to how the questions are delivered. It will be interesting to see if they, like their Democratic counterparts, receive questions from rock-singing constituents and snowmen.

Regardless, while those of us who work in media might have known that the terms “mainstream” and “new” media became archaic long ago, the rest of the world can no longer deny it.

 

Digital DNA on Your Photos?

Did you know that a photo you take with your digital camera can be traced back to you? Apparently the person that leaked the new Harry Potter Manuscript didn't know. A few days before the release of the New Harry Potter book, you could get a bit torrent of the book on the Internet. This clearly violated several copyright laws and the person, who laboriously photographed each page, is now being sought.

The Times Online says that, "Every image that is taken on a digital camera contains Exif data, which holds information about the picture such as zoom, contrast, focus and 'distance to subject' measurements. It is typically used for 'trouble-shooting', so an owner can ascertain why a picture may not have worked, but it also enables a court, for instance, to establish whether a picture has been digitally altered."

"The Exif data is like the picture's DNA; you can't switch it off. Every image has it. Some software can be used to strip or edit the information, but you can't edit every field..."

This information brings a new dimension to social media. If you email or post an incriminating photo of someone or something on your MySpace, FaceBook or other social media site, beware, you run risk or getting caught.

Interesting information for sure. Just in case you didn't already know; "Big Brother" is always watching.

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