MediaFlect

… or at least social. Got an email from Oxygen network today asking me to join their campaign to try to protect women’s rights in Iraq. It’s also a big graphic in key positioning on the homepage.

I’m intrigued that a TV network known more for entertainment, talk and lifestyle programming would use its mailing list to solicit support for a flashpoint issue like this.

Hard to believe that any newspaper executive whose bread and butter is classified advertising wouldn’t know of Craiglist, but as this piece from Editor and Publisher notes, “As late as November 2004, a large number of executives admitted they had never heard of Craigslist.”

It notes some innovative ideas for classifieds online to help newspapers compete: pictures in classified ads, pictures that scroll across a paper’s Website homepage, ways to parse searches for ads so a product like a car that match with specific needs such as family. But it’s also true that any of these ideas are basically technological tweaks, and ones that anyone — Craig or someone like him — can mimic without a lot of trouble. The issue is more than anything mindset and a willingness to constantly improve and innovate and figure out what the local, or national, community want.

I have heard from a number of consultants and executives that many newspaper execs they meet still seem to be in denial about the Web, about people under the age of 35 using digital media in high proportions to print, about the need to learn new means of distribution and dissemination. I’m not saying someone whose job is to get out a newspaper should be an expert in Web technologies. But they really should understand where their competition is coming from and where their next generation of consumers resides.

Former ABCNEWS.com colleague Adam Glenn and Amy Gahran have formed a company, iReporter, to teach citizens to be journalists. Interesting idea and one of those “why didn’t I think of that” obvious niches. Most media types spend our time wondering how journalists are coping with citizen journalists. Now Adam and Amy are offering to train citizens in, I guess, the basics of the 5Ws, 1H.

Curiously, though, this post says that professional journalists are not ordinary citizens. Well, maybe not, but from what I know of First Amendment law, it’s dangerous for journalists — who don’t want to have to have certification or licensing to practice the craft — to claim they’re somehow special. In other words, there’s a lot a professional journalists knows that imbues his/her work based on years of experience and training. But it’s important to not get too ihgh-fallutin in thinking we really are special. I always thought we were just citizens who are the eyes and ears for others, and that perhaps our megaphones were bigger.

Jupiter Research analyst Eric Peterson (a wonderfully outspoken guy) has written a report on how advanced users treat cookies that consultant Jeff Mignon on his blog (in French) says shows the most sophisticated, and perhaps most desirable users are the most likely to block cookies. Not surprising that the smartest people — who are also probably highest income, ready to purchase things, etc — would make themselves hardest to reach. And now we have the proof.

The never-ending battle between marketers and consumers continues.

Used to be if The New York Times noticed it, then it was news. Not sure that’s true for a couple of items in today’s media business section (which gets linked to from everywhere every Monday — who’m I to break the trend? In one piece, AP chief Tom Curley shows that it’s, as I’ve been told within the halls of the AP building, no longer a no-no to mention concepts like “revenue” for the not-for-profit membership cooperative. But Curley’s been saying talking about the new AP initiatives for months. PaidContent does notice a few tidbits that may be new-ish.

The other piece starts like this: “The trouble with blogging is that bloggers are forced to think and compose at their desks.” Hello? I’ve posted to blogs
- From a laptop on WiFi
- From a Blackberry or Treo
- Via email, when the blog is set up to receive that way.

The story then goes on to talk about a new celular phone provider alliance to do moblogging. Hello? Moblogging is news? I guess the deal is news, kinda. in a one-sentence roundup kind of way: it’s the first deal with a major cellphone service, in this case Verizon, to do moblogging. I guess that’ s news, that a big guy is placing a bet….

Went to the OPA breakfast this ayem at the Reuters building in NY and was pleasantly surprised to see a lot of my favorite media people there, and a good study from Northwestern’s Media Management Center presented (more on that later).

On our chairs was a copy of The Wall Street Journal “compliments of Dow Jones Online”. They’re a sponsor of this OPA roadshow presentation touring a number of U.S. cities. I can’t help but wonder what effect giving the print organ really does in a forum like this. What is “Dow Jones Online”? I already subscribe to (and am happy with) WSJ.com, which I can get through my various devices (though it’s difficult on my Blackberry), aggregate with other publications in e-mail or RSS feeds, and I don’t have to carry the paper around all day. Is giving the paper away, especially sponsored by Dow Jones Online, effective for an online group like this? I suppose if Dow Jones Online comes to my company for sponsorship, that might help a little. And I’m happy for the free paper, and their free sponsorship of the event. But …

My bliss will come when Dow Jones and everyone else makes it possible for my handheld to get their RSS feeds – no, my RSS feeds, a slice and dice of everything I want – on my various devices. So I can get choice headlines from every publication or service, all aggregated and waiting for me, all in my breast pocket that I can read online or off. All for one low-low (or free) price. Like the cable TV model, but I get to choose the channels, and the delivery mechanism.

Am I the only one who, watching the NBA Finals on TV, looks at the WNBA ads and thinks: Gee they’ve gotten better but it’s not the level of these men’s games. I guess if you’re going to run WNBA commercials, during basketball makes sense … on the other hand, the program itself shows that the programming they’re advertising isn’t quite up to the level of the program on which they’re advertising.