… to paraphrase the quotation below. Thanks to danah boyd for the inspiration.
(click on image to see larger version)
Thanks to Mark Pesce for the recommendation to the Essentials journalist, Nick Galvin.
Oh, and Fiona Morris had a version of the photo taken with cats. The cat versions were funnier. Behind the scenes: when the photo as taken, we were actually looking at http://icanhascheezburger.com/ for the LOL inspiration.
Cameron Reilly’s recent Podcast “Ex-Gloria Jean’s Franchisees Speak Out†is investigative journalism in the raw.
Further evidence that non “Mainstream Media†can do deep investigative journalism. TPN goes into the same orbit as Crikey.com.au in my book.
The story has been going along for some months and shows Cameron’s desire to find out the story to a greater depth than newspapers.
It will be interesting to see if Gloria Jeans (or at least the parent organisation of the franchise) replies to this, and asks to be interviewed by G’Day world. Or better yet, Cameron asks the organisation for a response.
Well done, Cameron.
Blue Day means a clear day. I could see the sky. After leaving a dark and rainy Sydney, 4degC Melbourne was a rude surprise.
Up at 4:00am. A cat wandered out, stretched and looked at me quizzically seemingly asking : “WTF?”
After checking the online world, my new residence, drive off to the airport. Megan’s battery is stuffed. Oh well, time to jump in the other MINI (Scarlett) and off.
Virgin Blue to Melbourne left only 10 minutes late due to Melbourne being fogged in. The in-flight magazine “Voyeur” has a one-page article on Social Networking. LOL. It’s mainstream now.
There are two reasons for being in Melbourne: PR Summit run by Frocomm. I am a panelist along with Marilyn Chalkley, Manager, CSIRO Media Liaison and Andrew Parsons, Director, Production and Digital Communications, Department of Immigration and Citizenship. My title merely said “Professional Geek”
(for those watching my Twitter: here is the real Air guitar Youtube: Dr Richard Helmer’s Every wanna be rocker’s dream come true)
The session prior to the panel was by Abigail Thomas from the ABC. Abigail talked about ABC’s SecondLife island.
So, the panel was interesting. There is a big gap of experience and understanding of the “online native” world. Just podcasting a Press Release will not cut it for Podcasters and Bloggers. Creating a SecondLife island will cost, and attract 3 dogs and maybe a man (as much as I technically love SecondLife, we have yet to see the future)
My opinion on this in a forthcoming post.
Interestingly, the recent experience of Cameron Reilly, Twitterarti (including myself, I admit) and Telstra was mentioned in almost passing. Dr Hugh Bradlow from Telstra’s response is an excellent step into the conversation.
Had a break-chat with Gabriella Stern, Senior Editor from Dow Jones Newswires Singapore. Chat was about Journalism in this new online world we find ourselves. Enron, Stock Option Repricing and all sorts of discussion around blogging and journalists. After watching the PBS documentary, Newswar, it was enlightening. One part of our discussion related to the “mainstream media” and bloggers working together.
On the subject of the famous (The Bulletin famous) Cameron.
So, I have a few hours to kill. Twitter-friend Andrew Barnett was in the Melbourne CBD. After consulting a map of Melbourne streets, I navigated my way to Starbucks on the corner of Bourke and Queen street. Twitter’d to all that I was there, ready for anything.
Anything happened. Cameron Reilly popped in for a few moments. Later, Froosh and Andrew Barnett popped in for a chat on life, universe, weddings, parties and anything.
Upon returning to the impromptu Twitter meetup, Cameron derided me for my choice of corporate-coffee and insisted we move to Nick’s on Little Bourke Street. Let me say, it’s my new Melbourne food joint of choice. We are joined by new Twitter-friend, Garth.
So, off we trot to Nick’s.
Cameron interviews us all on Twitter: questions related to how it has changed our blogging; general Twitter stories and if corporations should “adopt” Twitter.
My opinion on this in a forthcoming post. Same post as above as the topic inter-connects.
Taxi, Jetstar, Sydney, Home. Cat looks at me completely refreshed. I write this blog with the cat asleep. Oh for the cat’s life.
Melbourne was beautifally blue today. Cat missed that.
At the Hill and Knowlton “Surviving and thriving in the next decade – Technology Publishing” Breakfast Bytes this morning, a group of eminent panelists in picture above, from the left:
The theme from the morning’s panel and Q&A is that “there will be a mixture of online and print” and that “online and print” readers are treated as different readers by the big-names. My perspective as a corporate online/citizen journalist is slightly different.
Like the quintessential investigative journalists: Woodward and Bernstein learnt: follow the money. In the above listing of panelists, notice where their stated investment is going. It’s online.
From a traditional publisher’s perspective, the business is about employing journalists to gather hidden facts, connect, analyse and write stories. People buy the paper (atoms) to read the stories and maybe their eyeballs will stray onto an advertisement. The marketing groups of companies buy these positions on the paper in the hope that the right eyeballs are enthralled by the product and/or service – and buy the product. The core of a publisher’s job is managing the compelling content such that a specific audience is created that advertisers value.
The web is no different, except that anyone can be a publisher, and outsource the revenue side (advertising) to Microsoft or Google. Large publishers, such as Fairfax, are unhappy that their expensive infrastructure is subverted online: Peter Roberts mentioned twice that Google made $200 million in Australia without investing in the content-side.
Peter Roberts also commented on one of his competitors, Alan Kohler’s Eureka Report, having only an online mechanism but successful business model. My perspective is that Alan’s business is successful as he is seen as a respected and independent entity within Australia’s financial community. Alan Kohler is a trusted brand.
The Gadget Guy, Peter Blasina’s question near the end summarised the morning for me: What does the future really look like? Each of the represented panelist’s organisations (maybe with the exception of cnet) have their business strategies weighted toward print, and the brand-value that print brings.
Peter Blasina comes at this with credibility as a true multi-channel brand and personality: print, online and TV – and surmised that the coming generation will change the face of the print publisher’s world. And they know it.
The future for publishers is where the eyeballs are. And eyeballs are not going to be in print, it is going to be online. Eyeballs stay longer where this is trusted value, and most importantly where there is a community. Reading a magazine is an almost high-latency feedback medium; where two-way interaction is slow if attempted at all.
Demographics of the eyeballs are changing to more online: younger readers being digitally native and older generations having more time to explore online; with more females than males desiring a community and interaction rather than passive acceptance; high bandwidth connection to permit TV, Radio and Print being equal online mediums.
Whilst I have no research to back this up, I am going to state it here. A common refrain from print publishers is that “Radio did not replace newspapers, and TV did not replace radio” as their backwards looking perspective on why online will not replace these old media. My argument is that the internet can replace the media styles: with web pages, podcasts and vidcasts. As Rupert Murdoch is quoted as saying: “Big media no longer controls the conversation”
James Tuckerman knows his readers, and I think has a plan to create value in Anthill’s community. He understands the emotional connection that he has with his readership. James also stated there are “population lumps” at birth-years of 1949, 1974 and 1985. According to the ABS, there is another population lump in the 2005-7 range too. My suggestion is to watch Anthill as a publisher. They are starting a conversation with their community.
A Question about SecondLife, the current “craze” in Australia potentially due to a visit in meatspace by a Linden Labs persona, resulted in Tony Sarno saying that “many PBL management have visited SecondLife”. I fear it is because of the gambling dens rather than the community aspect. About 20% of the audience of largely PR and technology industry attendees had logged into SecondLife, of which most had logged in once.
So, in industry parlance, what is the tip-on for online? It’s the community. Community is the new Brand.
The document containing links of interesting video stuff is also online..Had an interesting experience in mid-November: I was interviewed on live TV. CNBC Asia has a program called “e”; Keith Liu anchors this program that is broadcast from Singapore. Trial by fire … no room for mistakes. I think I lost 5 years off the end of my life!