Chip Griffin: Pardon the Disruption

StartRocket Delayed; Cork & Knife Launches

Slight change of plans in the order of launches in the properties in the new media company I'm starting.  StartRocket, the site focused on web entrepreneurship East of the Rockies, had been slated to begin producing content this week.  However, I have opted to delay for a few weeks to address some logistical/infrastructure issues, as well as to try to line up additional contributors before going public.

While those things are getting sorted out, I decided to release the new media site that I had slotted to launch second, Cork & Knife.  This site is focused on the people that make a difference in your professional or amateur fine dining experience.  Chefs, sommeliers, bartenders, servers, authors, purveyors, winemakers, and even the food media will be profiled to help foodies and gourmets learn more about the philosophies and personalities that impact the food and wine.

So, check out Cork & Knife and let me know if you are interested in becoming a contributor to that site or especially to StartRocket. 

I'll keep you updated in this space on developments on both fronts.

Technorati Tags: StartRocket, Cork & Knife, food, wine, fine dining, foodie, gourmet, new media, New Media Cocktail, media convergence, niche media, startup, entrepreneur

The Power of Bad Service (A Tale of Weeks Without a Refrigerator)

Last week, my wife and I took our annual week away together.  It wasn't exactly as planned because one of my sons got a stomach virus just hours before we were to leave for the West Coast, so we had to wait to be sure everyone was OK before turning the children over to the grandparents for a week.  Ultimately we ended up with the better part of the week at a more local destination and had a good time anyway.

A week before we left, however, our refrigerator died.  Since it was a built-in Viking that came with the house when we bought it, we had to rely on Viking to refer us to an authorized repair company.  (Apparently most local appliance repair people won't touch these units because they are hard to fix.)

It took the repair people four days to even look at the refrigerator, and that was only after multiple calls and badgering.  Needless to say, telling the visiting grandparents that they would be without a refrigerator in the house while they watched two young boys for the week wasn't high on the list of things that my wife and I wanted to do.

Of course, when the day came it turned out to be some obscure part that was needed to make the repair and the repairman didn't have it with him on his truck.  Fortunately, they had the part in stock so it could be overnighted to him for installation.  Except that he was booked for the next 10 days and couldn't come back until then.  (By which time we would have gone on vacation and left the grandparents in a difficult position.)

So the repairman was slated to come today, our first day back.  But while we were on vacation, we received a voicemail and were told it would be Tuesday instead.  Today we got the call from the repair people telling us that the part had been sent to the original repairman but it would now be someone else coming.  And they have to figure out how to get the part to him. So it will be at least Wednesday and probably Thursday before we have any hope of having a working refrigerator.

And did I mention that the first guy concluded which part was needed by process of elimination only?  So it is possible that the new part won't even fix the problem.

The lesson here is that how a company deals with service issues is at least as important with how it creates and sells products.  While I live in New Hampshire, I don't exactly live in the boonies -- just minutes from the state capital.  The fact that a major appliance retailer like Viking can't work with repair people who can service dead refrigerators in a timely fashion is simply absurd.

Going nearly three weeks (and maybe more) without a refrigerator certainly makes me a whole lot less likely to go with Viking in the future. 

Technorati Tags: Viking, appliances, refrigerator, bad service, customer service

A Novel Way to Sponsor a Podcast

Popular marketing podcaster Joseph Jaffe of Across the Sound tossed out an idea on his show last weekend: if someone would buy him an iPhone, it would be worth a sponsorship of one of his upcoming shows.  Since we've had good luck sponsoring For Immediate Release with Shel Holtz and Neville Hobson as well as NewCommRoad with Bryan Person, I jumped at the chance. 

Jaffe now has an iPhone and CustomScoop will be sponsoring an upcoming episode.  Check out Jaffe Juice for more details on how this sponsorship came to be.

Technorati tags: Joseph Jaffe, Across the Sound, advertising, sponsorship, podcast, iPhone

How Many Different Directions Are Too Many?

I'm a serial entrepreneur at heart.  An idea guy.  An angel investor.  I love diving into new things.  I guess you could say I have Entrepreneur ADD.  I just can't help myself sometimes.  A constant in my life since 2000 has been CustomScoop. But I have had other companies that I have started and sold off (for modest amounts) or shut down.  I have helped other companies grow, some successfully and some less so.

In With the New...

And now I'm in a phase where I have several different ventures percolating.  A new media company featuring niche online properties relying on my theory of converged media that I described in The New Media Cocktail.  First out of the gate will be StartRocket, a web site focused on Internet entrepreneurship with an "East of the Rockies" perspective.  Then I have a fine dining property in the works called Cork & Knife (more on that to come in due course) that will likely exist under the same company banner.

But I also have an inkling for a couple of other companies that are more application oriented.  One is a quick, fun application that I think would have real potential viral appeal.  It would likely take off or not and wouldn't require a ton of work unless it does (but then could be all consuming to make sure it could handle the load).  Another application I'm musing about has more lasting appeal and would actually nicely complement some of the things that the new media company I'm starting will do.

...While Hanging on to the Old

Of course, I'm remaining as CEO of CustomScoop, too.  In fairness, though, years ago I got out of the day-to-day management of the company and I play more of a strategic role while serving as the public face of the company -- probably Chairman or possibly hyper-active Chairman is a more accurate depiction of my role.  And I still have this blog and my podcast (both of which have been suffering of late as I have been gearing up the new venture and writing an e-book).

Not to mention speaking engagements, conference commitments, serving as a columnist for Mass High Tech magazine, and writing numerous one-off articles for various publications.

So How Much is Too Much?

I'm fortunate in that I have a great team with me at CustomScoop that enables me to roam free.  I also have a solid team of business partners who help make these things possible through things like our angel investing outfit.  I have had the good luck to assemble thoughtful outside advisors who are always there to have their brains picked.  And, of course, an understanding family that tolerates seeing me on the road half the year and buried in work at home when I'm not in some hotel somewhere.

From time to time over the past decade I have realized that I was going in too many different directions at once and everything was suffering.  Ironically, sometimes it was only two things that had my attention.  At others, I have been able to juggle as many as five ventures simultaneously without too many ill effects.

I guess it's one of those things that you can only define when you see it -- and hope that you do see it before it is too late.  Many successful entrepreneurs juggle more than one serious thing at a time -- look at Kevin Rose with Digg and Pownce.  Or even Bill Gates with Microsoft and his foundation.  Obviously, the key is to define one's role appropriately, surround yourself with real talent, and avoid over-committing. 

It will be interesting to see if I succeed at that concept this time around.

Technorati tags: entrepreneur, team building, time management, angel investing, venture capital

The RSS Kool Aid is Great, but Don't Forget Email

Those of us who consume the social media Kool Aid think that RSS is where it's all at.  According to Google: "From your 267 subscriptions, over the last 30 days you read 11,381 items, starred 60 items, and shared 167 items."  And all of this is possible because of the wonders of RSS.  I am effortlessly able to receive and organize all of this information and digest it in a reasonable time.  It would be much harder to do this by email and impossible to do it by surfing to web sites.

But many of us must remember that we live inside a bubble.  Not one that's going to burst like that Internet economic one did in 2000, but one that sometimes prevents us from understanding the rest of the world.  This is a point I harp on -- partially to keep myself grounded but also because I see far too many people in the Web 2.0 space overlooking the fact that not everyone is like us.

This point was driven home solidly this week when I read the results of Rafat Ali's PaidContent survey of readers.  Below is the breakdown for how people consume the site's information, according to the survey:

E-mail newsletter: 42%
Paidcontent.org website: 34%
RSS Reader: 19%
Mobile Device: 4%

Three-quarters of those who read PaidContent's excellent news and information do so by very traditional means -- email and web site.  Less than 25 percent use more cutting edge tools like RSS or mobile devices.  And this isn't the New York Times we're talking about, but rather one of the leading blogs in the technology and media industry. 

So don't turn a blind eye toward email.  RSS is great, but email remains vital.

Technorati tags: RSS, feeds, email, marketing, subscriptions, blogging, Rafat Ali, PaidContent, survey, research, Google Reader

Looking for StartRocket Contributors

As I gear up for the launch of StartRocket on August 1, I'm trying to line up a stable of people who will contribute to the site by writing profiles of startups and covering events.  The pay will be modest, but the exposure and opportunity should help as well.  And, of course, if this takes off like I hope it will, then the pay will be better, the opportunities will improve, and who knows -- maybe it will even become a real company with stock options and everything!

If you're based East of the Rockies, have an interest in web entrepreneurship, and are handy with the pen or video camera, drop me a note and we can connect about your interests and how you might be able to contribute.  I'm most interested in steady contributors, but if you're only able to do an occasional contribution, feel free to shoot me your idea as well.

Be sure to let me know how you are interested in contributing, why you are interested, and point me to some links of previous blogging or videos for me to take a look.  My email address is chipgriffin@gmail.com.

Technorati tags: StartRocket, blogging, video, entrepreneur

Preview from StartRocket: WebInno 13 Side Dishes

As I have mentioned in this space previously, I will be launching a new media site called StartRocket on August 1.  It will feature text, audio, and video coverage of high-tech entrepreneurship -- especially East of the Rockies.

One of the great events taking place on the East Coast are the Web Innovators Group meetings run by David Beisel of Venrock.  Typically, 3 companies get to be the "main dishes" and present demos of their products to several hundred people.  In addition, 6 "side dishes" get to have tables and briefly describe for the audience what they're all about.

StartRocket will feature coverage of these events, among many others.  Earlier this week, WebInno 13 took place and most of that coverage will appear after StartRocket's launch.  But to give you a taste of what is to come, I produced a brief video that highlights the side dishes, as well as David's introduction at the event.

The companies mentioned on this video are: iZync, TeachAde, NextCat, CurbsideMD, and Frevvo.

Technorati Tags: David Beisel, Venrock, StartRocket, WebInno, WebInno13, TeachAde, NextCat, Praxeon, CurbsideMD, Frevvo, Zync, Wade Dyke, Jeff Pucci, Dennis Underwood, Ashish Deshpande, Brad Rosen, video

Heading to WebInno Tonight

Tonight I will be in Cambridge, MA at WebInno 13, the great get together for startups, entrepreneurs, investors, and the tech-fascinated organized by David Beisel.  Looks like there are nearly 400 people planning to attend -- amazing!

I like coming to these events to get to see what's going on and catch up with like-minded people.  But tonight I'm also attending as part of my efforts to set up StartRocket, my new media site focused on web entrepreneurship, especially east of the Rockies.

I'll be recording video of the demos and looking to connect with interesting people to interview for the site.  I'll be scouting companies to profile.  And, of course, I'll be looking to spread the word about StartRocket itself.

If you're in the Boston area, come on by.  It should be a great evening. 

Technorati Tags: David Beisel, StartRocket, Web Innovators Group, WebInno, entrepreneur, startup, venture capital, angel investing

The New Media Cocktail: Chapter 5 - The Power of Niches and Micro-niches

Below is a chapter from The New Media Cocktail e-book I released last week.  Over the course of this holiday week, I will be releasing excerpts of that e-book on this blog.  Feel free to download the e-book in its entirety, if you prefer. 

Wired magazine Editor Chris Anderson wrote an acclaimed article and subsequent book on the topic of the “Long Tail.” He argued succinctly: “Forget squeezing millions from a few megahits at the top of the charts. The future of entertainment is in the millions of niche markets at the shallow end of the bitstream.”

For those familiar with his work on the Long Tail, the example that probably sticks most in your mind is that of Amazon.com and how much of what it sells it sells in small quantities. Essentially, the Internet facilitates the presence of an audience for even the least-demanding niches.

The Best Content is Between the Head and the Tail

But what of the area that lies somewhere between the “hits” and the lonely end of the tail? A sweet spot exists between those two ends of the tail where the interested audience is underserved by existing media but large enough to come together as a community of interest. The hits are purely lowest common denominator stuff – the sort of things you will find in USA Today, People Magazine, and CNN.

At the end of the tail, there simply isn’t enough interest to create a community – or a profitable media property – around. But given the ability of the web to drive down production costs and facilitate distribution, a real market exists for those underserved niches that can be drawn to a powerful niche-oriented, converged media property. Some of these niches may exist fairly naturally. In other cases, it may be a matter of combining a few elements from the end of the Long Tail into an intelligent combination that combines a measurable audience with focused content.

The Web Raises Expectations

When was the last time you used Google to find something – no matter how obscure – and came up with absolutely nothing? Sure, there have probably been times when you haven’t found precisely what you’re looking for, but I’m talking about coming up with a complete goose egg. The fact is, that simply doesn’t happen. There’s likely at least one piece of content for even the oddest of oddball topics.

For better or for worse, this simple fact raises the expectations of consumers that the information they seek will be available. In many niches, there remains great room for improvement in the quality of the offerings. Savvy entrepreneurs will identify these niches and take a combined media approach to serving them. By partnering with these niche audiences and working hard to serve their needs, content producers will find that the future is not about manufacturing stories about the big names, but rather in meeting the needs of the marvelous middle that so often fails to draw enough attention.

Niches vs. Micro-niches

The old media world has attempted to address niches through targeted magazines and newsletters. Card collectors, knitters, philatelists, network administrators, and others have found various trade or hobby publications focused on them. But few of these thrive and most struggle to survive. In the future, these niches will be better served by a more sustainable cost structure, as well as the economies involved in converging the medium and the producers.

More significantly, convergence will facilitate that rise of micro-niches, much smaller than those considered by traditional media in the past. It will now be possible to serve subsets of existing niches more profitably because shared content production, simpler and more cost-effective distribution, and combined marketing will make these new media forms viable.

No longer will baseball card collectors need to share column inches with football collectors. Small network admins and large corporate IT pros can each have their own publication. And stamp collectors can follow their own special interests, rather than a mass media approach.

The more focused the micro-niche, the better the value for consumers, producers, and advertisers.

The New Media Cocktail: Chapter 4 - Content and Applications Blend

Below is a chapter from The New Media Cocktail e-book I released last week.  Over the course of this holiday week, I will be releasing excerpts of that e-book on this blog.  Feel free to download the e-book in its entirety, if you prefer. 

The notion that media properties must be solely about neatly packaged content seems more antiquated by the day. It has often been said of Yahoo! that they can’t decide whether to be a search portal or a media company. Indeed, some argue that Google is becoming a media company. Just as the bright line between professional and citizen journalism, and among the different types of media, blurs, so too does the line between media and other content-oriented sites.

The media of the future is about content and information, regardless of whether it shows up in a neat little package or comes in the form of some type of application. Effectively, the media of the future can be thought of as niche information portals that provide a mixture of content and tools to satisfy the needs of the typical visitor.

What Applications Matter on a Content Site?

Any application that enhances the value of a site by providing additional information or tools for digesting the content could play a valuable role for the audience. Remember, it is all about the user’s experience. Any application that fits in this space would need to extend the value proposition and offer compelling reasons for the visitor to engage with it.

Imagine, for example, a site about fine dining that incorporates a directory or even a wiki focused on the chefs, sommeliers, and other personalities that make a difference in the restaurant industry. That would be a valuable addition to the site for gourmands as well as industry insiders. Yet it is an application with content that evolves over time – a living document if you will – rather than a package of several hundred words with a clear beginning, middle, and end.

Some Application Integration is Already Happening

Have you visited ESPN.com lately? Or virtually any major sports media website, for that matter. They all incorporate a variety of applications that supplement and complement their audio, video, and text. Whether you are looking for statistics or fantasy leagues, these media properties offer a wealth of applications to enhance the visitor’s experience and to make the site more “sticky” to encourage user loyalty.

Of course, it isn’t simply sports sites that have taken this approach. Many financial publications online marry together columns and stories about investment-related topics with databases of stock information, press releases, SEC filings, and other information valuable to the audience that frequents those destinations. Other applications may enable users to track their portfolio or receive instant news alerts about specific topics of interest or import. Again, it is all about offering the visitor the information she is looking for.

Better Integration in the Next Generation of Media

As content producers and audiences become more sophisticated, the level of application integration with content will improve. It will no longer be the largest, most well-funded media properties that integrate applications and content for the value of the user. In fact, even individual blogs have taken small steps in this direction by integrating things like Feedburner “FeedFlares” which incorporate the ability to take action related to a specific blog post without considerable effort by the consumer.

Increasingly, content producers will understand the value that complementary applications provide to an audience and as the technology becomes more easily adopted, consumers will have additional tools available to them to enhance their information experience.

Download The New Media Cocktail e-book in its entirety. 

The New Media Cocktail: Chapter 3 - User Content Meets Professional Journalism

Below is a chapter from The New Media Cocktail e-book I released last week.  Over the course of this holiday week, I will be releasing excerpts of that e-book on this blog.  Feel free to download the e-book in its entirety, if you prefer. 

The rise of user-generated content in recent years has been quite apparent. No longer are websites completely reliant on paid professionals to create all of the material disseminated to readers, listeners, and viewers. Instead, the audience itself serves as both contributor and consumer.

Sites like Wikipedia exist primarily because of the contributions of individual users who work hard to create informative content. Contributors seem to thrive on the satisfaction of sharing, while consumers obviously benefit from the vast treasure trove of information provided.

Users Help Aggregate Content

Users contribute significantly to the success of countless other web media properties as well. For instance, Digg derives virtually all of its value from the submissions of individual users who recommend content from around the web to highlight interesting stories and items. Although TechMeme uses a different method of aggregation, ultimately it depends on “user” content as well, in that it tracks the habits of individual bloggers to paint a picture of the hot stories in the technology community each day.

Old Media and New Media Converge

Traditional media organizations have even begun to solicit contributions from “citizen journalists” to incorporate into their existing coverage. A new newspaper was recently launched in Massachusetts called Boston Now. That publication incorporates blog posts in the print edition distributed citywide. In effect, convergence is being practiced wholeheartedly there, with the print and web properties serving almost seamlessly as extensions of each other and blending professional and citizen journalism.

While Boston Now may be at the leading edge of this movement in terms of its focus on convergence, plenty of other news outlets employ lesser versions of the same practice. Many TV stations now solicit photos and video from audience members in order to augment the coverage being provided on-the-air. These prove especially useful in breaking news situations, like the Virginia Tech massacre where we saw cell phone video footage in a near endless-loop or in the case of natural disasters like floods where it may be impractical for a media outlet to capture the best pictures of the damage in a timely fashion without assistance from the public.

The progress in this area goes beyond breaking news. Recently, BusinessWeek picked up a photo posted on Flickr by blogger and social media evangelist Josh Hallett. Apparently an editor discovered it through a Google image search and felt that it would add to a story about new AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson.

Segregation Must End

Despite these advances, too often there remains a firm segregation between user-generated content and professional journalism. In the future, the blending will increase, perhaps to the extent that in the best cases it may be hard to see a bright line. That is not to say that they will become one and the same – that’s simply not possible. There will always be distinctions between what amateurs and professionals do, and there will always be a place for both. But as media properties do a better job of incorporating the two, it will no longer be that one has to go to one section to find professional copy and another to find user submissions.

Ultimately, sound editorial judgment makes the experience most valuable for information consumers. A solid editor can choose from the best user-generated content and professional journalism to enhance the flow of quality information to readers, listeners, and viewers. Why not provide users with the best possible information, regardless of who created it?

The Role of Professional Editing

Good editing can also help overcome some of the shortcomings of aggregation sites like Digg and TechMeme. While both do an admirable job of accomplishing their objectives without the intervention of editors, both could likely improve the value proposition offered to visitors by layering professional editing on top of their algorithms. Ensuring that the content provided always meets the highest standards and expectations of the audience can still be best accomplished by human editors, rather than simple voting or other aggregation algorithms.

The Topix Example

Recently, the local news search/aggregator Topix decided to change the focus of their site from software-selected content to human editors and citizen journalism.

The homepage will become a hub of citizen-generated news (more Netscape.com-like in implementation than Digg), with easy-to-use tools for users to blog/vote stories onto the main and section pages.

Much like before, the site’s focus is on zip-code based local news. Anyone can now submit local news for any U.S. zip code through the site or through mobiles. Participants can also become editors of the local pages.

This example very much demonstrates the convergence between technology, citizen journalism, and professional (or semi-professional) editing.

Download The New Media Cocktail e-book in its entirety. 

Congrats to Shel Holtz and Neville Hobson

Their leading public relations industry podcast, For Immediate Release, has just struck a sponsorship agreement with Ragan Communications.  I couldn't be more pleased for Shel and Neville and for the FIR community.

The deal includes promotion of the FIR podcast by Ragan, which makes it somewhat unique as sponsorship models go.  Hopefully this will help to expand the already considerable audience that FIR enjoys.

As a sponsor of the podcast for the past 7 months or so (hard to believe it has been that long), my own company, CustomScoop, has seen the value that this show creates.  I enjoy being a regular contributor to the show as well as a sponsor, and I look forward to Ragan's participation in the community.

Neville writes today on his own blog about the significance:

We’ve said it before many times - FIR is all about community.

Since we began FIR in January 2005, we have made listeners a constituent element of each H&H Report. Our network of correspondents - Lee Hopkins in Australia; Dan York in Vermont, USA; David Phillips in the UK; and occasionally, Eric Schwartzman in Los Angeles and Sallie Goetsch in the SF Bay area - are constituent elements of what FIR is.

We see our sponsors as constituent elements of the community, too. Now Ragan joins our current sponsor CustomScoop whose CEO Chip Griffin personifies what sponsor-as-community-member really is all about with the Media Monitoring Minute segment in each show.

Kudos to Shel and Neville for creating such a valuable resource for the PR and marketing community interested in the intersection of technology and communications. 

Technorati Tags: For Immediate Release, podcasting, podcast sponsorship, advertising, Ragan Communications, Mark Ragan, Shel Holtz, Neville Hobson, public relations, marketing, marcom, communications

The New Media Cocktail: Chapter 2 - Convergence of Text, Audio, and Video

Below is a chapter from The New Media Cocktail e-book I released last week.  Over the course of this holiday week, I will be releasing excerpts of that e-book on this blog.  Feel free to download the e-book in its entirety, if you prefer. 

The web has already begun to break down the barriers erected by previous communication media. In the age of newspapers, television, and radio, each was limited by technology to communicate in a single manner with an audience. Today, the Internet enables content producers to combine the various media into one powerful communications platform.

The line between newspapers and TV blurs more every day.  Heck, we may as well include radio in the mix.  The new media universe on the web allows all forms of old media to encroach on each other's territory.  The Wall Street Journal and other papers provide audio and video coverage on their websites (like Walt Mossberg's column, for example).  MSNBC, CNN, ABC News, and the other networks all provide text coverage on their web sites.  And radio stations provide text as well, while the others offer podcasts or other audio-only content.

Recognizing this, Mark Cuban calls for old school media to acknowledge reality and seek out more formal convergence.

Riddle me this Batman: Rupert Murdoch has figured out that Print and TV can be combined to be a vertical news organization and is willing to pay 5 billion dollars to do it. Why has no one else realized the value of combining big news brands and organizations ?

Why isn't a CBS News merging their news department with a NY Times and rebranding itself as the 6pm NY Times News ? Or with Time Magazine News ? Or NBC News and ???

Mini Media Mavens already realize this convergence is occurring and they're taking advantage of it.  Think of all the podcasters and vidcasters who also blog.  The likes of Robert Scoble, Jeff Jarvis, Mike Arrington, and others are establishing their own media empires that blend text, audio, and video into a cohesive platform.

Old media is doing so, but slowly and reluctantly.  Cuban's suggestion has been adopted in small measure by traditional players, but slowly with more of a "dip the toe in the water" feel.  Newspapers, for instance, have arrangements with TV where they contribute content.  The Boston Globe, for example, co-brands some shows on the New England Sports Network and supplies reporters as on-air personalities.  Similarly, the Washington Post and MSNBC have an arrangement where the Post contributes to the network and its website.

Mark's thoughts come at the same time as the blogosphere is abuzz about the significant layoffs at the San Francisco Chronicle.  It's not at all clear that convergence would help here (from afar it feels like bad business decisions got it to the point it is at), but it underscores the ongoing difficulties as traditional media try to evolve and adjust to the new media world.

Cynthia Brumfield at IP & Democracy thinks that newspapers should take their cues from the likes of those I noted above and argues:

in these days when Om Malik, Rafat Ali and Mike Arrington can whip up profitable web-based publishing empires seemingly overnight (not really overnight in the case of Om and Rafat), why can’t newspapers do the same thing? Or at least try to leverage the journalistic talent already on the payroll to forge new territories instead of letting that talent go?

If big traditional media outlets on television, radio, and in print were to take these lessons to heart, they would be able to evolve more rapidly.  More importantly, however, they must learn not simply to follow the lead of the Mini Media Mavens, but to find ways to innovate on their own in order to return to the leadership spots they once held on the American media landscape.

Letting the User Choose

Among the “old media” some have begun to show an understanding for this new reality. For instance, ABCnews.com starts to demonstrate what is already happening in their recently re-launched web site. The front page includes a list of headlines with markers indicating the variety of content available for each story. Depending on timeliness and availability of alternate media formats, the user can select how to consume the information. But there’s more to it than that.

The audience should have consumption choices, but part of it should be an editorial decision on how best to communicate information. The web enables content producers to make choices that were previously unavailable. The fact that column inches and broadcast minutes have effectively become unlimited in the online environment permits publishing lengthy original source documents, unedited or lightly edited interviews, and other forms of information that consumers may find valuable but which previously were impractical to share. But even so-called “bite size content” can come in the form that makes the most sense.

The Right Medium for the Message

Take, for example, Walt Mossberg’s weekly technology column in the Wall Street Journal. He frequently reviews gadgets for the newspaper. And while his text is compelling and informative, he also produces a brief video published on the Journal’s web site that does a much better job in conveying his points about the hardware or software he is reviewing. By combining his spoken word with the visual imagery, the audience has a much better understanding of the product and its plusses and minuses.

And that’s the future of online media: applying the correct medium for the message being conveyed. Artificial silos make no sense in a world where intelligent choices can be made. Even today there are blogs and webcasts that persist in the notion that they must be one or the other (including my own blog and podcast in some circumstances). In the future, smart content producers will take advantage of convergence even on the individual level to offer consumers a richer, more powerful, and more informative experience.

Making the Medium Choice

Marketer Mitch Joel talked earlier this year on his podcast, Six Pixels of Separation, about the difference between audio and video podcasts.  Shortly thereafter, I heard John Furrier of PodTech talking about the same topic on a podcast with Heather Green of BusinessWeek. 

In a blog post, I examined the question of how to choose the correct medium for the message. What follows is an updated excerpt of that post.

Relative Value.  John Furrier made an interesting point when he said that he felt that there was a difference in the viral nature of various forms of social media vs. their engagement level.  He said that video and blogs are more viral than podcasts, but that podcasts result in higher engagement than blogs and video has higher engagement than either.  On the other hand, blogs are best at SEO (search engine optimization) value. 

Web video has the potential to be more mainstream than podcasts and potentially even blogs, and numerous recent projects back this up.  Consumers will be more willing to embrace this medium than the other two because it has a greater potential to be fun and engaging.  Podcasts are likely to remain more of a niche tool -- though a valuable one because of their power to connect with an influential audience.  And blogs will continue to gain traction, though they lack some of the entertainment potential of video.

Format Differences.  Mitch Joel and others have pointed out that it is much harder to watch video than listen to a podcast.  The number of opportunities to watch are smaller than the number to listen.  In addition, video and blogs require greater attention from the audience, in most cases, whereas podcasts are more passive and support other simultaneous activity by the listener.

This suggests that podcasts can be longer than video and blogs must be kept relatively brief.  To overcome those time/length limitations, they would need to be truly exceptional -- even indispensable -- content.

Monetization Potential.  Furrier thought that podcasts would be the most difficult to monetize, with video being easier because advertisers like to be able to show their products.  It is an argument that makes sense, though monetizing video still hasn't proven to be a wildly successful endeavor, but that day is coming.  Blogs have certainly demonstrated some ability to be monetized and that trend will likely continue.

Conclusion.  Different forms of media serve different purposes.  Content creators should make sure that they deploy the correct medium for the goal they wish to achieve.

Download The New Media Cocktail e-book in its entirety. 

Michael Moore Parody Shows Power of Video

Regular readers know that I strongly believe that one should use the right medium for the message you are communicating.  That is after all one of the huge underlying themes of The New Media Cocktail.

My friend Doug Simon demonstrates this aptly on his video blog with a very entertaining parody of Michael Moore.  Now, Doug and I don't agree on politics, but the video clearly communicates his message: that he's a big fan of Michael Moore, but feels that Moore's actions helped elect George Bush in 2000.

It's worth watching regardless of your politics.  At a minimum you should be entertained, and hopefully you will agree that the medium was perfect for this message.

Technorati Tags: Michael Moore, Sicko, George Bush, Karl Rove, Doug Simon, online video, viral video, The New Media Cocktail, Al Gore, politics, 2000 election

Book Review: How to Do Everything with Podcasting by Shel Holtz and Neville Hobson

My friends Shel Holtz and Neville Hobson of the For Immediate Release podcast have written a stellar new book that will appeal to anyone interested in podcasting.  Aspiring podcasters will find a solid how-to manual.  Current podcasters will discover tips and tricks they may have overlooked.  And the curious will get a great understanding of what podcasts are, how they are created, and what their value is.

How to Do Everything with Podcasting contains over 300 pages of goodness.  Shel and Neville use a great mixture of text and visual aids to help communicate their message.  The tone is simple but not condescending.  Broken into chunks, this book also serves as a great reference (and I suspect it will get dog-eared on my shelf as I keep going back to it).

The book contains five main sections:

• Get Started With Podcasting. Here you learn what podcasting is, how to listen, and where to find interesting podcasts.  All the basics one should understand before seriously contemplating creating a podcast.
• Produce Your First Podcast.  I suspect this will be the most appealing portion of the book for most readers.  It includes all of the information you need from a hardware, software, and distribution perspective to get started.  It meets a range of budgets, from a very simple $20 setup to options to spend hundreds of dollars or more.  Shel and Neville explain scary terms like "compression" and "normalization" and explain what they are and how they can improve the quality of your podcast if you choose.
• Refining Your Podcast.  Here's where this book really sets itself apart from others in the market.  Shel and Neville are communicators, first and foremost.  Many podcasting books come at the topic from an audio background, but these two start with the substance.  In this section, you learn to determine the objectives for your podcast, understand your audience and what it wants, and how to incorporate format choices that meet these needs.  Ultimately, the authors make the point that podcasting is a tool, not an end in itself.  Determine what you want to accomplish, and then decide if a podcast is the right medium.
• Make Money with Your Podcast.  While admitting up-front that profitability is unlikely to be the foremost goal for most readers, the authors do a nice job of identifying potential revenue streams for those who may be interested.  Featured are less obvious ideas that many may overlook, including merchandising, to go along with typical advertising and sponsorship scenarios.
• Use a Podcast As a Business Communication Tool. Again, they're communicators so this section builds upon the foundation set in the third section on objectives.  Shel and Neville outline clear ideas on how a podcast could be used in a business setting, including for building reputation, marketing, internal communications, customer dialogue, and more.  They even include an explanation of when you shouldn't use podcasting as a tool.

There weren't many misses that I noticed, but one did jump out at me. There's no mention that I can recall about a software tool called the Levelator which is an invaluable tool for beginning podcasters to improve the audio quality of their podcast for free.  I'm pretty sure they plug it in their workshops, so I'm not sure why it missed the cut in the book.

And one other thing: it would have been nice if the publisher could have come up with some different graphics between sections.  They simply repeat the cover art, so by the end of the book it gets really old! :)

Of course, there's much more to the book than what I've been able to describe here, so I encourage you to check it out for yourself.

In addition, the book's companion web site includes additional resources, including a video demonstration by Shel of one of the more complicated techniques described in the book.

Technorati Tags: How to Do Everything with Podcasting, podcast, Shel Holtz, Neville Hobson, For Immediate Release, podcasting, book review, business books

Disruptive Dialogue Podcast 14: The New Media Cocktail and StartRocket

The latest episode of the Disruptive Dialogue podcast is now available.  This one was recorded in Bow, NH and is 20:24.  You can download this podcast as an MP3 or subscribe to the RSS feed to make sure you never miss an episode.

Topics:

• The New Media Cocktail
• StartRocket

To Comment:

• Leave your comments here
• Call the Disruptive Dialogue comment line: (617) 273-CHIP / (2447)
• Email me your comments in MP3 format (no more than 2 minutes and 5 MB, please)

The New Media Cocktail: Chapter 1 - The Rules of the Media Game are Changing

Below is a chapter from The New Media Cocktail e-book I released last week.  Over the course of this holiday week, I will be releasing excerpts of that e-book on this blog.  Feel free to download the e-book in its entirety, if you prefer.  This first chapter was based on a recent blog post so it may look familiar to regular readers.  A few modifications have been made, but the gist is the same.

It’s not your father’s media anymore. Technology and information choices are radically altering the landscape and existing and future media must adapt and innovate to thrive. What follows are ten key principles that will shape the next generation media environment and set the table where the New Media Cocktail will be stirred.

1. Publishers are Broadcasters and Broadcasters are Publishers.

Media convergence has arrived. Newspapers are producing audio and video. TV and radio are producing print copy. Media outlets no longer find themselves constrained to one specific medium. Technology permits all media outlets to compete on each other's turf.

2. Column Inches and Broadcast Minutes are No Longer Limited.

It used to be that print reporters would see stories dropped because there weren't enough available column inches to print the article. TV and radio journalists would get squeezed out because an hour only has 60 minutes no matter how you slice it. Today, the web enables all media to publish and produce unlimited content. This is a blessing and curse because it means a lot more high quality material makes it into the public arena, but it is harder to kill low-quality stuff without telling the journalist that directly.

3. The Audience Can be a Partner in Content Creation.

When breaking news hits, the audience now contributes. Media outlets openly solicit still and video footage from cell phones or other portable devices for disasters and tragedies. Remember the student whose cell phone video footage made it on CNN in a seemingly endless loop after the Virginia Tech shooting? Local stations do the same thing for pictures of floods and other natural disasters. Even the print media has gotten into this game.

4. The Media Now Competes with Its Own Audience.

The rise of blogs, podcasts, and online video now mean that media outlets are competing with their own audiences. Anybody can create a podcast that competes with NPR, a blog that competes with the Washington Post, or a video site that competes with CNN. Everyone can be a broadcaster and publisher, at low cost and with minimal effort.

5. Old Advertising/Revenue Models Will Be Replaced.

You can't put a 30-second pre-roll ad on every two-minute news story. Nobody sticks around to watch post-roll. Podcasts aren't radio, so the same ad structure doesn't work. Full-page display advertising? Not on a newspaper website! And classified advertising hasn't simply migrated to the web, the whole nature of it has changed. Where's the line between classifieds and eBay auctions? Between Craigslist and a yard sale? Similarly, despite ESPN's efforts, ISPs aren't typically going to pay to carry content. And subscription revenue models will need to be revamped to recognize the shifting landscape.

6. Archives are Valuable.

In the old days, the only people who cared about newspaper morgues and tape libraries were researchers, librarians, and other hard-core information professionals. Today, search engines can help open these archives up to a public hungry for information. Looking at old articles no longer requires microfiche or a subscription to a legacy research service. Digging up old video doesn't need to involve a call to a service that fetches a dusty videotape and copies it. Archives can be a source for ongoing traffic -- and thus revenue -- to media outlets.

7. Niches Have Increasing Value.

The old media paradigm precluded effective niche publications. A truly focused niche would likely have too few potential subscribers to justify a magazine. Certainly a radio or TV show would be unlikely to be devoted to these niches. But highly-targeted niches have real value for audiences, content creators, and marketers and can be exploited effectively in the new media world. Consumers increasingly want to see just the slice of information they're interested in. Generic national, international, business, and entertainment news increasingly becomes a boring commodity.

8. Unedited Content is Becoming More Common.

Stories are going online in print, audio, or video with less and less editing. As news cycles disappear and are replaced by the world of instant information, credible journalists are posting to blogs and producing audio and video so quickly that editing would be impractical. Content producers must therefore trust their content creators to make sound editorial judgment by themselves on the fly.

9. News Cycles are Dead. Information is Instantaneous.

In the Edward R. Murrow/Walter Cronkite/David Brinkley era, news cycles lasted 24 hours until the next nightly newscast came on the air. Twenty-four hour cable news networks began to shrink the news cycle and Web 1.0 brought it down to mere hours. Today, the news cycle is dead. Information transmits instantaneously and responses often come before the news is completely made. In politics, a presidential debate doesn't even conclude anymore before detailed responses, rebuttals, attacks, and supplemental information has been made public. The "official" pundits have yet to offer their views on TV before the new media space has rendered judgment of their own.

10. Choices, Choices, and More Choices.

For those who thought that cable television ushered in an age of too many choices for consumers, welcome to the Media 2.0 world. There are now more information choices than there are products in a Wal-Mart Supercenter. (A Supercenter has about 116,000 different products on sale.) Even someone interested in a niche as focused as bacon can find 1,050 blogs tagged for that subject, according to Technorati's directory. (I'm sure that list has a lot of fat in it, but there's lots of meat as well -- OK, I couldn't help myself.)

Download The New Media Cocktail e-book in its entirety. 

Coming August 1: StartRocket

I'm launching a new venture.  Let me tell you about StartRocket and why I'm doing it.

Lots of great web entrepreneurship happens in Silicon Valley.  There are tons of successful companies, aspiring startups, ambitious entrepreneurs, and savvy investors.  Most tech conferences are easy to get to, just a short car or plane ride away.  High-tech journalists abound.  Bloggers?  Can you really drive down the road or walk the streets of San Francisco without running into one?

After Bubble 1.0, however, the level of attention paid to East Coast web entrepreneurship diminished.  Gone were the NYC conferences and publications.  Silicon Alley Reporter disappeared.  The Javits Center in New York was no longer the home to the massive Internet World conference.  And those of us back East find ourselves forced to trek cross-country for many interesting conferences.   We have far fewer parties and networking events to attend.

These aren’t complaints, and it's not all bad.  Indeed, in some respects it signals what I think is a natural tendency of those of us on this side of the country.  Certainly up where I live in New England there's a reluctance to be flashy or toot one's own horn.  But sometimes it's necessary.

A Thriving Web World Exists Outside of the Bay Area

Great things are happening outside of Silicon Valley.  Chicago-based FeedBurner was recently acquired by Google.  CBS picked up New York’s WallStrip.  The innovative incubator/investment fund Y Combinator has had great initial success, as well, though it straddles the coasts with operations in Cambridge, MA as well as out West. 

VC David Beisel operates a successful every-other-month-or-so event known as the Web Innovators Group that hosts huge gatherings of entrepreneurs to sample startup activity in the Boston/Cambridge area.  Frank Gruber, Eric Olson, Nick O’Neill and others introduced TechCocktail to the Washington, DC community recently and it was a great success from what I understand.  And that very event started in Chicago, not on the Left Coast.

Brad Feld seems to be at the hub of the activity in Colorado, where he is involved with TechStars (similar to Y Combinator)  and is working with Eric Norlin to start what should be a great tech conference away from the West Cost in defrag which will take place this December in Denver. Fred Wilson champions the startup community in New York City, just recently hosting a Facebook developers meetup.  Also based in New York, Greg Galant has done a nice job interviewing entrepreneurs for his Venture Voice podcast, though he does seem to do so with less frequency than he used to, and I'm sure many miss it.

Obviously there's much more, but you get the idea.

Non-SV Entrepreneurs Aren't Ignored, But...

Despite all of this activity -- and perhaps in part because of it -- there remains a void.  Mike Arrington has always seemed to make a real effort to cover non-Silicon Valley startups, and as his team has expanded, they’ve done a pretty nice job of it.  (Disclosure: TechCrunch profiled CustomScoop when the blog was still a newborn.)  Robert Scoble of PodTech interviews and videotapes demos from some companies not on the West Coast, but for the most part he covers that which is close to home, and that’s understandable.  TechCrunch and the ScobleShow (as well as others, of course) provide great opportunities for exposure for web entrepreneurs.  StartRocket is inspired by those two but will complement, not compete with, their efforts.

Here's Where StartRocket Comes In

There’s really no substitute for “local” coverage of local talent.    This media site will focus on web entrepreneurship outside of Silicon Valley, and especially East of the Rockies.  It won't ignore innovation in California, it will just be more of an East Coast/Midwest perspective on the industry.

It’s more than a blog.  The future of online media involves the dismantling of artificial silos that segregate text, audio, and video.  StartRocket will use the right medium for the content being delivered.  In addition, the plan calls to roll out applications related to the editorial mission (details to come in due course).

StartRocket isn’t about me or any one person.  It’s about information.  I will continue to maintain my own blog and podcast that provides a venue for me to share my opinion, discuss my vision for the future, and other topics.  Indeed, I expect that soon I will not be the only voice sharing information at StartRocket.

Some of the things you can expect to see at StartRocket in the future include:

• entrepreneur interviews,
• company profiles,
• conference coverage,
• VC and angel information,
• product demos, and more. 

It will be a gradual evolution.  StartRocket itself is a startup activity and will follow the same evolutionary path of any startup.

Here's Where You Come In

To make this launch successful, I need to ask you to do a few things:

1. Sign up to be notified when the site launches,  
2. Tell your friends about StartRocket, and
3. Email me with ideas for companies to profile and other story tips and ideas.

Together, we can make this project a success and shine a brighter spotlight on "outside the Valley" web entrepreneurship.

Technorati tags: startups, entrepreneur, TechCrunch, ScobleShow, Robert Scoble, Mike Arrington, new media cocktail, media, online video, online news, web 2.0, high-tech startup, venture capital, angel investing, seed stage, seed funding, bootstrapping

The Social Media Board Game

Clearly Doug Haslam has too much time on his hands. He came up with a fun little board game about social media. It's largely about the efforts of those of us at the bleeding edge of this space to fight for beta invites, links, and allegedly "cool" stuff. Great for us navel gazers! :)

The New Media Cocktail: Introduction

Below is the introduction to The New Media Cocktail e-book I released last week.  Over the course of this holiday week, I will be releasing excerpts of that e-book on this blog.  Feel free to download the e-book in its entirety, if you prefer.

I’m a media and information junkie. I consume gobs of content every day, most of it online now. I watch video, listen to podcasts, and read blogs and traditional media online. I subscribe to RSS feeds and email newsletters. I surf web sites to find serendipitous information. I devour magazines.

This is not new. As a kid, I would stay up late into the night reading and listening to AM talk radio (at least when the Boston Red Sox weren’t playing on the West Coast). I’d catch a few hours of sleep, get up and listen to AM newsradio and read the newspaper before heading off to school. Upon arriving home, I would read the afternoon paper and watch the evening news. Once my parents got cable, I added CNN and C-SPAN.

As a college graduate, I began the day with four morning newspapers plus CNN and C-SPAN. When I worked on Capitol Hill, I was fortunate enough to have access to the raw AP feed – talk about a fire hose of information!

Later in my career, the web came into being. I could now read news from around the nation, and especially from back home in New England so I could stay on top of Boston sports and New Hampshire news. I remember the feeling of glee I had in the mid-1990s when I could watch cable news streams on my computer at work (before the cable networks realized the bandwidth of the era was too expensive to sustain that model).

Regular readers of my blog and listeners to my podcast understand that I’m very interested in the future of media. OK, obsessed is more like it, but that’s what happens to junkies. Since the start of this year, and perhaps a bit before that, I have spent a considerable amount of time thinking about what the media of the future looks like and what the business implications are.

Put simply: the rules of media are changing. It’s an exciting time to be looking at the media space. After spending countless hours reading and thinking about media, I concluded that the handwriting is on the wall for two compelling trends to emerge:

• Convergence
• Niches

I started writing a blog post about this topic to explain what I have been telling friends and colleagues for some time now. And then it spiraled out of control. Instead of a simple blog post, I wound up with an e-book. I have tried to keep it short, but I wanted to share my prediction for the future of media as clearly as I could.

Of course, not one of us knows for certain what the future holds, but here’s my vision. I welcome your feedback because ultimately, like any good libation, the New Media Cocktail should generate conversation.

The New Media Cocktail

As the rules of media continue to change, a New Media Cocktail will emerge containing two powerful spirits: convergence and niches. The silos of text, audio, and video will cease to be separate and instead will unite as each is deployed on a story-by-story basis. Professional journalism and user-generated content will become intermingled. Content and applications will combine to create powerful information tools for consumers and businesses alike. And all of these powerful tools will be centered on niches, a potent organization of people with similar interests.

The American Heritage Dictionary says that to converge is to “to tend toward or achieve union or a common conclusion or result.” That’s precisely what the New Media Cocktail will contain – different things coming together to make a better whole. Think of it as you would a margarita: many people don’t like tequila or lime juice alone, but combine it together with other ingredients and you have a tasty concoction.

That’s precisely what will happen as old and new media alike recognize the trend towards convergence and begin to better meet the needs of information consumers. By following this principle and seeking to better serve niche audiences, content producers will thrive and prosper.

The Coming Tectonic Shift

Changes of significant magnitude in the media landscape have happened before. The printing press, telegraph, radio, television, cable and satellite TV, and the early World Wide Web have all had game-changing impacts. In that respect, the changing horizon should come neither as a surprise nor be overly troubling to the old media barons.

But the coming media earthquake will register a solid 9.0 on the Richter scale. Like most earthquakes in this country, the current infrastructure can largely handle it and the media creators, distributors, and audience will come out unscathed – shaken, perhaps, but unharmed. Those old media barons who fail to heed the warning and reinforce their aging structures with the best technology available today, may indeed crumble, however. In their place will rise gleaming new structures designed to better serve the needs of their owners and visitors.

The chart below demonstrates the tectonic shift occurring in the current media environment in terms of the percentage of American households taking advantage of the technology. The adoption of computers and the Internet are quickly converging on cable television. As we continue to approach a saturation point, the convergence of the various forms of media will become not only viable, but inevitable.

The New Media Cocktail examines the steps toward convergence and niche media already taking place, while also looking ahead to what the future will look like when these trends develop more fully. By understanding the underlying principles and looking ahead to the future, the appeal of this concoction will become obvious.

Download The New Media Cocktail e-book in its entirety.  Next up: Chapter 1 - The Rules of the Media Game Are Changing.