There’s a pissing match today among several InterWebs iconoclasts about Comscore’s traffic counting methods and business models. Actually, to be more accurate, it’s a bunch of bitch-slapping about unrelated issues, but web traffic is the jumping-off point.
You can read it for yourself — be sure to follow the comment thread too, in which all the principals rebut. (Or, as one commenter deems it, “three poodles fighting over a piece of raw meat”).
But for me, the whole thing is sad because it reminds me of another “scandal” almost six years ago now. Several newspaper chains had been caught overstating their circulation. There was all sorts of hand-wringing over it, but in the midst of the mea culpas, I read one simple line in a column by Ed Wasserman that changed my way of thinking and in large part led me to create The Daily You as a major feature of Pegasus News:
“Still, there is an absurdity to the whole scam. Counting copies is a dopey way to gauge impact. The explosion of information channels necessarily means erosion of audience share held by dominant media. There is still nothing that can rivet the attention of a community the way its daily paper does.”
If I’ve had a little extra bliss in recent weeks, it’s because I finally feel like I’ve mastered control of the ridiculous amounts of information I choose to and not to ingest on a daily basis. I Tweeted about it a while back and instantly got numerous responses from folks wanting to know the secret. I said:
16 yr working, 15 yr InterWebs/email, 7 yr smartphone, 5 yr RSS, 3 yr social networks – finally have info mgmt system that works for me.
First, some context. On average, I:
Read and react to more than a thousand emails a week
Send more than 300 emails a week
Subscribe to a couple hundred RSS feeds, for around 400 posts per day
9:30 am – 10:00 am Personalization and Local Personalization has been synonymous with “local” from day one—in theory. Recently, several cutting edge platforms make the tie more of a reality. We’ll get deep insight into how to make personalization/local work from two of the industry’s leading thinkers and doers—Internet media pioneer Neil Budde, the founding publisher of WSJ.com and leader of Yahoo News, and Mike Orren, the founder of Pegasus News. Neil Budde, President and Chief Product Officer, DailyMe Mike Orren, Founder and President, Pegasus News
Funny related story: We at Pegasus News have a flagship technology called “The Daily You.” The first conference I went to after we launched that, I randomly wound up sitting next to Eduardo Hauser, the founder of DailyMe. That was my first proof that this local behavioral thing had gone mainstream.
Also, as a speaker, it turns out I can offer you (my dear friend and loyal reader) a $200 registration discount for the conference. Just click the banner below to download the coupon:
ILM is consistently the best industry conference I attend. It’s no BS; the moderators don’t pull punches; and everybody in the room is a decision-maker who is doing something interesting. Hope to see you there.
I went on a mini-rant on Twitter last week that I thought I’d synthesize / clarify here: The media is ridiculously obsessed with identifying trends, particularly when those trends relate to media.
So every time someone sneezes, there are a flurry of trend stories opining that everyone will sneeze soon, presumably with the same intensity and viscosity as the sneezer immediately prior.
It’s not just in the hyperlocal media space, though: It can be music websites; search engines; sellers of 12th century Tahitian antiquities — if a start-up in the space is born, dies, sells or raises a nickel of capital, a trend is born. Read the rest of this entry »
A few weeks ago, I had one of my periodic head-explosions over Journalist-types poncing about over how hard civil and substantive comment is to maintain on news sites. This is a topic that really frustrates me, because I think it’s really easy. And for any of the other myriad mistakes we may have made at PegNews, this is one thing that I think we’ve gotten right.
The artist, Dyna Moe, started doing the illustrations after doing a Christmas card for a friend in the cast of the show. I discovered her illustrations via a fansite towards the end of Season 1. We started looking forward to them every Monday during season two; quietly thrilled for her as she met the show creators when star Jon Hamm was on SNL ; and are now ecstatic to see her creations turned into the instantly-popular “Mad Men Yourself” tool on the show’s official website.
I see this as a textbook example of how the new New Media should work: A fan / friend starts creating an homage to a brand. That brand does not sue or discourage the fan doing unofficial work, even though she might be making a few paltry bucks. Nor does it jump in and try to co-opt, compete or take over. It lets the homage play out. Once it becomes clear that the homage is successful and additive to the brand, it embraces that homage. It then hires the fan / friend to extend that homage in an official way that is true to the brand and the artist.
It appears that when you climb to the top of the mountain of media enlightenment, you’re likely to find a teenage boy from England. Whether you find nirvana or fools gold depends on which young man you find.
I know I tend to spend all my rant power on broken media models, but I’ve had reason lately to ponder the relationship between PR and advertising.
PR people wonder why there’s sometimes resentment towards them from media folk — I don’t think it is actually because of anything PR professionals do per se, but rather because of the utter disconnect between most businesses public relations and advertising. And I don’t think it is generally front-of-mind for most media companies because of the church-state separation. But as someone who lives in both worlds, I’ve found myself seething lately over repeated scenarios like this: Read the rest of this entry »
Live long and prosper by pretending not to be Bruce Greenwood?
I dragged my sainted wife to the new Star Trek flick on Friday and as usual, she found the secret hidden gem that no one else ever would.
In the morass of explosions and makeup, she was initially confused over the actor-character match-ups between Sarek (Ben Cross) and Captain Pike (Bruce Greenwood). Now neither looks much like the other, but that’s precisely what lays at the root of the strange (dis)connection. Read the rest of this entry »
If you don't know what this is, quit bitching about the death of print news.
As the long-predicted mediapocalypse finally takes hold, I find my annoyance level with the deathbed histrionics of many in the field — especially the journalists bemoaning their lost birthrights, way of life, etc. — rising. Here’s but one example from a movie critic suffering from the “when you’re being run over by a lorry, everything looks like a lorry” syndrome. Perhaps I spend too much time gazing into the media mirror, but the sheer volume and pathos of these pieces is on my last nerve.
Part of that is because it’s hard to feel sorry for the pig who built his house out of straw and got belligerent when one of his brothers tried to bring him some bricks. But a lot of it is because people in this trade (myself included) tend to succumb to the notion that because we are the storytellers, our stories are inherently the most interesting and important.
But as the dirges drone on; as the golden remembrance of things that didn’t really pass but we’d like to think did dominate the media — and they will for the next couple years — I find myself indignant that these muses of misery were largely silent when other members of our industry suffered the same fate. Read the rest of this entry »
I’ve been using my Xbox 360 as a media server in our house, but there have always been a few things that made it seem inferior. Based on buzz from folks I trust I’d played with alpha-software Boxee on my Mac a bit to see if it could be an alternative. Last week, Lifehacker ran a piece on using Boxee on an Apple TV. I’d thought for a while about building my own Linux machine to run Boxee, but I found myself at the mall last weekend, and consequently in the Apple store. Having not yet contributed to the Steve Jobs medical fund, I found myself ogling the Apple TV, which I’d originally eschewed in favor of the Xbox. But dammned if Boxee didn’t make it sound more viable; and damned if we didn’t have a big TV in the bedroom that would benefit from the Xbox. Read the rest of this entry »
I’m seeing an unhappy, but perhaps necessary trend in business relationships of late, one that may well be born of our troubling economic times. I can ’splain best with an example:
Last year, Google approached my company about becoming an “Authorized Adwords Reseller.” The courtship, ramp-up and launch process was high-touch. We had lots of conference calls with lots of people. We had regular email correspondence with the support team– all real people with real names. Our business manager went to Mountain View for live training.
This week, we were unceremoniously dumped from the program via a canned email with no human being’s signature on it. I did get a response to my reply of complaint, but it came from the nameless, faceless, phone numberless “Google AdWords Reseller Team.” Read the rest of this entry »
Note: I’ve recently become a fan of the blogStuff Journalists Like, a different twist on the style of blog started byStuff White People Like. I submitted the following piece to them, and after more than a week of complete radio silence (during which they posted several other items), I inquired and got a polite response that they didn’t think it fit their vibe. So, I inflict it on you here:
#66: The Chinese Wall
“The Chinese Wall” is a construct by which journalists have long convinced themselves (and only themselves) that they are immune to the vagaries of advertising and corporate management. Referring to the Great Wall of China, it gives a sense of complete separation with the added bonus of sounding vaguely culturally insensitive when uttered in the patois of a crusty Lou Grant figure. It also avoids the even more problematic and provincial “church and state” analogy also used to describe the same phenomenon. Read the rest of this entry »
The old rule: You can’t cover something in which you are personally involved. The new rule: Tell your readers how you are involved and how that’s shaped your reporting.
The old rule: You must present all sides of a story, being fair to each. The new rule: Report the truth and debunk the lies.
The old rule: There must be a wall between advertising and editorial. The new rule: Sell ads into ad space and report news in editorial space. And make sure to show the reader the difference.
Ever seen something that you so thoroughly knew was game changing that you couldn’t even effectively articulate how? Because the language actually changed with the innovation?
As best as I can tell, this just started today. When I clicked on a link posted by one of my friends (hey Chip!), the resulting page, which was on a Wordpress blog, looked like this:
Click for larger image
A couple notable items:
The banner at the top is unobtrusive enough not to be annoying, but gives the option of bringing the conversation back to Facebook, where you’re more likely to know people and follow along — generating more FB pageviews.
The URL on the page is a FB URL. I wonder how much havoc this creates with the visited site’s traffic logs?
The banner stays until you hit the x or type a new URL. I’d like to see it go away after a couple clicks.
We’ll implement something inspired by this for Our Little Business shortly after the holidays. We do a lot of linkout stories where people return to us for conversation and I think this encourages that without being too obtrusive.
I’m usually leery when sales managers recommend reading — it’s typically brainless, feel-good plucky crap designed to motivate the unmotivated. So when our last sales manager pointed me at the Monday Morning Memo by Roy H. Williams, a self-styled “Wizard of Ads,” my eyes almost rolled out of my head.
If you become a regular reader, don’t miss the “rabbit hole,” which is an Easter Egg hidden in every issue. Click on the lead photo (and each subsequent one that appears) and you’ll be taken down some other, unrelated road. This week’s, for instance, is a series of thoughts, photos and videos on Audrey Hepburn.
I never thought I’d find a truly literate writer focused on sales, but Roy’s the real deal. You’re cheating yourself if your don’t sign up for his weekly email or subscribe to his podcast.
Whether you’re an Apple fanboy (like me) or a hater, you had to enjoy the skewering delivered by The Simpsons last night. It was some of the sharper satire we’ve seen out of the show in a while. (See video clips after the jump).
But for all the merriment rampant in Apple’s Mac/PC ad campaigns, Steve Jobs isn’t known for his sense of humor on such matters. Especially when the first ad of the first commercial break was for the Macbook… Read the rest of this entry »
Great piece on 60 Minutes last night about cheating from insiders on online poker sites. What really struck me was that the bulk of the investigative lifting was done by aggrieved gamblers (who also happened to be attorneys). The point is that they piled through tons of documents and spreadsheets to prove the pattern and isolate the likely culprits. And even though the gamblers weren’t so-called unbiased Journalists, 60 Minutes and The Washington Postteamed up to follow up on their research and go ask the bad guys and their de facto accomplices tough questions… Read the rest of this entry »
Oh my god! They killed user reviews! You bastards!
I’m in my hotel after the day has wrapped at the always-excellent ILM08 and feeling like the guy in the sci-fi film whose calculations indicate the asteroid is about to hit while the rest of the rubes are blissfully ignorant.
I’m shocked its not all over the Interwebs already, so I guess I’ll be the first to say it. More than any other day since their founding, today Google quietly, nearly silently, took an action that will, for better or worse, change the media world… Read the rest of this entry »
Andy Rooney is my least favorite commentator anywhere, ever. Generally, his senile ramblings at the end of 60 Minutes bring me to apoplexy. But this week’s paean to newspapers was just sad.
To think that a discussion of the woes of newspapers today remotely calls for a comparison to television is beyond clueless, even for Rooney. Read the rest of this entry »
Ted Turner has been a longtime hero of mine — It was an article he wrote about the media business that was the last push to leave a safe, lucrative publishing job to start a local media business.
As a new media guy, I suppose it’s heresy to say that I find some of the en vogue (or at least formerly en vogue) services to be utterly ridiculous. Twitter’s one example (but that’s another post).
I tried really hard to see Second Life as something more than a timesuck for gullible ex-dungeonmasters and marketing consultants with enough disposable time and income that they don’t mind slow, jerky, crashing animations of their alter-fauxegos. But I’ve come up empty. I mean at least WOW gives you the entertaiment value of killing stuff.
This is my personal bastion of blather unrelated to my business, including but not limited to: family pictures, cool gadgets, music, pop culture and moderate media punditry unrelated to Dallas / Fort Worth. If I haven't posted lately, it means I'm busy on the day job. You can follow me more frequently on Twitter. More details and contact info here.
RT @cyberjournalist: This is too funny: People search for "Bing" on Google.com and now Google Is Bing’s 4th Largest Referring Source htt ... [mikeorren]
Anna Nicole's life being turned into an opera by the Royal Opera House in Britain. /via @hughhefner Coupla horsemen o'pocalypse just loosed [mikeorren]
@dallasprogress Should note one reason am happily married is that I didn't try to trick out my bookshelf to impress. Gotta be who you is :-) [mikeorren]
Switching it over to AM, searching for a truer sound. Can’t recall the call letters. Steel guitar and settle down, catching an all-night station somewhere in Louisiana — It sounds like 1963, but for now it sounds like heaven.
May the wind take your troubles away. May the wind take your troubles away. Both feet on the floor, two hands on the wheel, may the wind take your troubles away. — Jay Farrar
Best of…
Banjo, The Best Dog Ever™
There’s an old saying that “I wish I could be half the man my dog thinks I am.” That’s a good one. But someday, I also hope to become half the man my dog was.
The Wedding Toast I encounter far too many people in this world who are dead behind the eyes — Houston isn’t one of them. He is a real man in the greatest sense, and his powers of perception and his constant search for what is real and genuine in a fast-food world will continue to enrich both your lives.
Why I think the economy is even scarier than I thought Pegasus News: "Square Pegs" 10/9/08 Peter is at the door. He's broke and pissed and Paul is off on one last exotic resort junket before he goes into court-ordered rehab.
Search, data and the responsibilities of news orgs Pegasus News: "Square Pegs" 6/16/08 Technology is allowing us do things that seemed a pipedream three years ago. Along the way, we need to reflect on the downsides of the upside.
Why I love local Pegasus News: "Square Pegs" 1/27/08 ...if local is a sentence, lock me up and throw away the key
The State of Journalism Duke Magazine 9/10/07
[Kevin] Sack might be surprised to see our database of every candidate, official, and contributor in our region-something the newspaper does not provide. He might be appalled to learn that mere citizens reported on elections in towns that journalists eschew. When we cover mundane things, we get hundreds of responses and thousands of eyeballs-partly because of technologies Sack fears, delivering unique and wanted information to each individual.
Mud starts flying in Dallas District 9 Council race Pegasus News 4/21/07
When we put up our political database, we certainly hoped to generate thoughtful discussion and debate about local elections. We didn't expect to become a battlefield of leaked information, mis-information and confusing whodunits.
Lessons from the launchOnline Journalism Review 1/17/07
...we launched a prototype entertainment site; won an EPpy award; nearly fell to pieces; and made more mistakes than we can count -- But we’ve learned some invaluable lessons about local digital media along the way. Here’s a sampling of some of the things that we think we know now.
“Chelsea” offers a secret to my FB friends. We look up your FB pages during jury selection. Just sayin…
business, comments, journalism, news, notthatfreakinhard
Commentary on comment
In Bidness, Media on August 13, 2009Patrick Thornton of BeatBlogging.org was doing a good job of bringing in best practices in a Twitter conversation that turned into a great article on Poynter today. As part of that, I sent him a lengthy missive on our comment practices that was way too much to fit in a roundup piece. So, for posterity, I thought I’d share it here: Read the rest of this entry »