Future

Bloggers Foiling NY TimesSelect? (posted by Brad Bowers)

Recently, New York Times (NYT.com) launched its TimesSelect program in an effort to boost revenues by charging users for some content that was formerly free (especially access to favorite Op-Ed columnists such as Maureen Dowd, Thomas L. Friedman, Bob Herbert, Paul Krugman and more).

However, bloggers (who have often promoted and rallied behind these Op-Eds) have quickly taken to posting links to either full versions of these articles (which apparently sometimes appear on other news sites due to their business arrangement with the NYT) or actually cut and paste the full article on their blog.

In fact, since going live with TimesSelect, the names of most of the various NYT Op-Ed authors have appeared on the front page of Technorati as "Top Searches This Hour".  A quick follow-through of these links makes it easy for one who is so inclined to read these pieces for free, and effectively side-step one of the big selling points of TimesSelect.

Beyond this, the majority of the reactions I've read in the Blogosphere have been negative (no suprise really).  For example, One blogger said:

"If anything, I think that this is an understatement. Maybe TimesSelect is a solid business model - but everyone I know who reads the NYT online is extremely cheesed, me included."

It remains to be seen how this attempt to monetize formerly free content will play out.  Jay Rosen has his theories and PaidContent.org interviewed Scott Heekin-Cenedy (President & GM, The New York Times) who told them:

"This is a new product in many respects, a bundling of very significant value...our research very strongly supports willingness to pay far beyond what we're charging. ... This is very much grounded in our brand strategy and our brand research."

With such a massive sea of free content available on the web, and with bloggers making it easy to continue read some of the content that NYT has hoped will attract subscribers to TimesSelect, it will be interesting to see how this plays out.

Certainly the NYT deliberated for a long time on this move and determined that even if they lose some readers due to this move, that if  they are able to convert enough users to paid subscribers, this will be a winning situation for them and help them better monetize their content.  However, no matter how much advance-deliberation is given, or research done, these types of experiments can only really be proved as successes or failures once they are in the market and users vote with their eyes and wallets.

Technology Allowing Consumers to Ignore Mainstream Media (posted by Brad Bowers)

Forrester Research today reported that "10% of consumers read blogs at least once a week, compared with 5% a year ago. Really Simple Syndication feeds (RSS) are used by 6%, compared to 2% in 2004," and that technology is making it easier to ignore mainstream media advertising.

Instead they posit that consumers are using Web logs, mobile messaging, comparison shopping Web sites, and word-of-mouth to make buying decisions.

I think that this gives marketers even more reason to "join the conversation" and embrace blogging and other ways of interacting with users in a new way.  Simply using traditional methods of marketing and PR is not going to cut it any longer. As Internet consumption continues to grow, and as blogs, podcasts, and other citizen media outlets continue to evolve and add users at a very rapid clip, smart marketers will embrace these changes (vs. being fearful of them) and find new ways to interact with their consumers, in a much more open and honest manner, which will be a refreshing change.

Number of Blogs Continues to Grow (posted by Brad Bowers)

Duncan Riley at The Blog Herald is reporting that the number of worldwide blogs is now over 70 million.  He cites China at over 5 million blogs.

Further, Dave Sifty of Technorati has recently reported that they are tracking 900,000 new posts per day and 80,000 new blogs being created daily.

SixApart Spell Check (posted by Brad Bowers)

I find it a bit odd that SixApart's spell checking tool does not have the word "blogger" as part of its approved words.

Jarvis Details Dell Woes (posted by Brad Bowers)

If you read my post about my troubles with my new Dell DJ and the Yahoo! Unlimited Music service, you'll know I've recently dealt with some Dell-related issues recently.

This is nothing in comparison to what Jeff Jarvis has been dealing with in regards to his Dell notebook.

Jeff is right on about how Dell has failed to follow "the conversation" online, and identify a major influencer (Jeff) and his issues, and work to resolve them in an open and transparent manner.  Had they done so, they quite likely would have changed a negative situation (Jeff's bashing) to a positive one (him and his users being impressed that Dell is engaged in the conversation and also responsive to customer issues.)

In the new era of Citizen Journalism, the onus is on companies, such as Dell, to get a better understanding of what is going on in places like the Blogosphere, and have a plan to interact with consumers (especially influential ones) in order to nip problems in the bud.

This is just another saga, of a lost opportuinty for a company who has not yet grasped the new reality of every consumer having a platform to be heard by the masses.  Perhaps we have not heard the end of this story and Dell will still suprise us...

Heeeeeere's VLogging (posted by Brad Bowers)

Vlogging (essentially Video Blogging) is another area of "micro-publishing" that is rapidly taking off.  Here is a good example of a Vlog, done by Mary Hodder at the recent Supernova conference.

With the proliferation of digital cameras and cell phones with video capture/playback features, it's easy to see why more and more people will begin to express themselves via this new creative medium.  Here's an example also of how this will play into the "citizen journalism" movement, as well as how it's already being applied in the mainstream media.

Will Marketers "Join the Conversation" (posted by Brad Bowers)

A good article this morning in "The Independent" (UK) about the growing importance of the voices in the Blogosphere and how "conversations about every conceivable subject take place. And as the quantity and quality of these conversations grows, so does the blogosphere's influence beyond the internet, including the commercial sector."

This is proving to be true with more and more examples all of the time, such as the Kryptonite example cited in the article, and marketers should be seriously considering how to be a part of this conversation.  We're working now with our client Dan Gillmor, and his new site Bayosphere, to begin offering marketers some very integrated opportuinties to "join the conversation" with the Bayosphere audience.

I believe that we'll begin to see more and more publishers/bloggers begin to offer forward-thinking marketers new opportunities to interact with current/potential consumers, and this will help break down the wall between these groups.  It will allow marketers to be seen as more human, and also let them demonstrate that they actually care about what their consumers think (what a novel concept).  This is an exciting new paradigm that potentially holds a lot of promise to change the way marketers and consumers interact.