Category Archives: Thinking Aloud

July 23, 2008 · 8:22 pm

The Town Crier

Way back when, I suspect that no one much cared what was going on in Washington (and I suppose there are a great number of folks who feel that way now, but this is NOT a political blog!).  The things they cared about were what was going on in their own backyard and maybe the backyards a town or two over.  Media – basically the newspaper – was inherently local since in general news didn’t travel fast enough to make it timely for the daily or even weekly paper.

Fast forward a couple of hundred years.  The Times printed a story today about how newspapers are cutting their national and world reportage to focus on local.

Half of all papers said they had increased the amount of state and local news they published, especially “hyper-local” community news…the shrunken newsrooms have taken on added duties in feeding their Web sites, like producing subsites covering specific towns or neighborhoods, or posting articles in the morning and updating them throughout the day.

Given that a story in Moscow is on the web and known in NY within minutes (maybe sooner if Twitter was ever up and working), I’m not sure why this is a bad thing.  World and national news has sort of become a commodity.  Good local reporting is rare and there aren’t enough people in any town doing it.   Any brand needs to distinguish itself in some manner and regurgitating the same AP story as every other news outlet isn’t doing that.  Frankly, besides the Times, Journal, and a few other major papers, there isn’t a whole lot of original content happening outside of the metro desk.

So why do the news guys seem upset about this?  If I’m them, I get to the head of the line in my town before the radio, TV, and local web guys get there first.

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July 22, 2008 · 10:25 pm

Keeping Current

When I was at the NHL, occasionally someone would ask me “what is the hardest part of your job?”  I think they were expecting I’d say something about the hours or balancing the demands of the 30 clubs and the various league departments, but that really wasn’t the hardest part.  Nope.  The most difficult thing then, and now, is staying current.  With all of the change that occurs on a daily basis in the world of digital media, I find that I spend, in 5-10 minute bursts, several hours a day doing nothing but reading newsletters, blogs, and web sites (not to mention several daily newspapers – you remember them) and trade magazines.

I’m sure many of you use an RSS reader of some sort to help get through the volume of things you read regularly.  I use Google Reader and I looked at the “trends” tab this evening.  Over the last 30 days, I’ve received around 14,250 items from my list of 66 subscribed sites.  Of those, I read 2,116, roughly 70 a day.  Of course, not many items come through on Saturday and Sunday so the total is really closer to 100 a day.  Those are the ones I read in depth – I had to look at every headline and decide if the in-depth look was warranted.  Obviously many of these items led to my reading other sites to which I don’t subscribe so they’re not in the previous numbers.

All that so when a client asks about trends or some new technology, I don’t stand there with my mouth agape.  Frankly, I feel like the more you do know, the more realize how much more there IS to know.  As I wrote before, it’s really OK not to know – uncertainty makes me want to chase down answers which is how I learn – but MAN!  The information deluge is overwhelming my mental levees sometimes.

Staying current is the most important thing one can do, whether a consultant, an executive, or just a citizen.  While I know folks who don’t like to let the facts get in the way of a good story, the reality is that most great decisions are made because someone gathered as much information as possible and did an excellent job of synthesizing it to draw a conclusion.  There are times when one doesn’t have much to go on and that’s when the value of experience really pays off.  But when it comes to information, particularly in rapidly changing times, the more the merrier!

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July 21, 2008 · 10:45 pm

You can fool some of the people…

I get the whole iPhone mystique, really I do.  I have an iTouch and the software and elegance of the interface is remarkable.  However, at some point the limitations of this device (closed ecosystem, expensive to own, etc.) are going to catch up.  No company, not even one as great at design and implementation as is Apple, gets a pass from consumers and the marketplace.

If WiMax was fully deployed and a mini-notebook or cloud computer could handle voice communications neatly via Skype, etc, how do we feel about the demands of the iPhone, both fiscal and emotional?  The web has become a pretty open place – why does it seem as if lot of folks are rushing out to spend big bucks on something that restricts that freedom?

All of us have awakened saying “never again” after taking a physical, financial, and emotional inventory following a glorious night out.  I’m willing to bet that when these multiyear agreements with AT&T are up, a lot of folks are going to take an Alka Seltzer and move on.

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