Colin's Corner

Bloggers are rock bands without record contracts

In this WIRED article Pat Kenealy, the CEO of International Data Group discusses a web revenue model that moves towards paid content - using TV as the analogy, noting how it moved from a free broadcast model in the fifties to a paid cable / satellite environment.  Pat argues that that proper implementation of micro-transactions will enable a gated content model.

As online publishers, we have become much too reliant on advertising revenue streams, a move towards paid, premium, high quality content will be very welcome.

However I guess with the acquisition of mySpace by News Corp - many independent bands are now associated with a major media label !

mySpace acquired by News Corp

The WSJ reported (registration required) that Rupert Murdoch's News Corp is to acquire the parent company of mySpace, Intermix Media for about $580 million in cash. Although Intermix has over 30 web sites, mySpace, the social networking site which is heavily focused on music is the best known.It has become a key music destination, with more than 350,000 bands and artists – including REM, the Black Eyed Peas and Weezer – having used the site to launch new albums and enable users to sample and share songs. According the the Intermix web site, quoting Media Metrix, the  network of sites reaches over 16 million users a month. The company will be rolled into the newly formed Fox Interactive Media. FIM will coordinate content on Web sites including Fox Sports.com and Fox News.com, as well as sites for Fox television stations.

Ross Levinsohn, senior vice president of Fox Sports Interactive Media, was named president of the new Los Angeles-based division and Bert Solivan, vice president of news information at Foxnews.com, was named executive vice president of Fox Interactive Media.

The establishment of FIM follows Murdoch's recent speech where he identified the need for the media industry, to find new ways to reach the next generation of news and entertainment consumers.

Net Rage - A study of Blogs and Usability

According to Catalyst Group Design as far a mainstream users are concerned , web sites have a lot more work to do to convince people about the value of blogs. As for RSS/XML it's about time that we all found a better way to describe RSS than as a light weight XML content syndication format !

From June 29th through July 1st, 2005, Catalyst Group Design conducted usability testing in New York City, NY in order to gather qualitative feedback regarding mainstream internet users’ ability to understand and use blogs.  Chosen as a testing platform was one of BusinessWeek’s seven recently launched blogs, a personal finance destination called “Well Spent”

The findings: Even assuming mainstream interest, current blog design standards – at least in terms of navigation, nomenclature and taxonomy – are a barrier to consumer acceptance. In fact, the design of most blogs can incite “net rage”

The participants surveyed felt that blogs were a good or interesting development – with almost everyone saying that they would consider visiting blogs in the future. However, almost everyone also felt that there was not enough assistance on the site to allow them to take advantage of what was offered.

RSS is arguably the core of what makes a blog a blog. Being able to review dozens – or more – of posts as they update in real time is central to the value that blogs can provide. Unfortunately, the presentation of both the concept and the mechanics of RSS failed utterly with test participants. And in fact, even the basic idea of RSS ran afoul of users’ fear of unwanted costs and spam.

The report is available here and well worth a read.

The threat of disintermediation

Writing for AdAdge, (it is ironic given some of the points in the article that the site requires you to register), John Battelle, founder and chairman of Federated Media has an excellent perspective on the potential impact of disintermediation on mainstream publishers.

Print and online publishers fear disintermediation by the consumer-driven technologies of blogs, syndication and search. TV networks fear disintermediation by the rapid uptake of digital video recorders and Internet-based video.

But the truth is, the products that are threatened by disintermediation are not imperiled because of technology; they are imperiled because they are based on models that offer less value to the customer than competing alternatives. 

What we have grown to call disintermediation is, at the end of the day, simply the cold reality of someone doing our job better than we are. If you sense the cold breath of “disintermediation” on your back, more likely than not a bunch of upstarts are delivering your business’ core value proposition for less cost and in a better fashion than you are.

As John succinctly points out, publishers and marketers are in the communications business.

Publishers are born connectors, they bring like-minded people together. They are also conversationalists of the first order. They foster the interaction between the three key parties in commercial media: the audience, the author/creator and the marketer. This facilitation is still very much needed.  Figure out a way to be part of the conversation, and you will always prosper.

I could not agree more. IDG brands have focused communities, trusted original content and the ability to facilitate communications and conversation

   We’ve always regarded ourselves as trusted providers of information services but now we also need to recognize that some of the most valuable information comes from outside our traditional content generation mechanism , from our users.

   We need to be about the creation of strong branded communities where people converse together and share experiences and look for advice and information.

   We need to focus not only on the distribution of information, but also, and more importantly, on allowing the community to share information while providing the opportunity to interact with editors and vendors.

  As publishers, we need to view ourselves as managers of content, delivering the right content and tools to our users when and where they want to consume the information

If we don't provide our communities with the ability to communicate we will lose them and only have ourselves to blame