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News this week from NJPA
July 1, 2009
NJPA Notes NJPA Notes is a weekly e-mail from the New Jersey Press Association. The format is simple and direct – a headline, an excerpt and a link – which allows you to scan the newsletter, read what you need and move on. Here are upcoming events and items of interest.
July 15 PressForward: Bold Strategies for Newspapers
July 29 PressForward: Bold Strategies for Newspapers
August 12 PressForward: Bold Strategies for Newspapers
August 26 PressForward: Bold Strategies for Newspapers
PressForward: Bold Internet Strategies for Newspapers New webinars are planned this summer, on new products and services that will help add online revenue. Details about next fall’s sessions on online sales will be coming in July. Each session is approximately one hour in length. These webinars are perfect for top management, marketing & sales managers, online managers & account executives. To offer these series about online opportunities for newspapers, NJPA has partnered with other press associations and Borrell Associates. Newspapers can sign up for one webinar at $75, or all four webinars in a series for $250. Using one phone connection and one computer with Internet connection at one site, an unlimited number of a newspaper’s employees may view the webinar. To register, go to
www.njpa.org and click on
the “PressForward” link. Here are the topics in the upcoming NEW PRODUCTS AND SERVICES Webinar Series: Social Networking: The New Content Model
Mobile: From Content to Ads
The Online Insert
Implementing and Selling Video Online
Download information and registration form at
www.njpa.org and click on Events.
4th Annual This event benefits NJPA’s former Communications Manager Missy Flynn, who is recovering from a brain aneurysm that occurred in 2003. Brian Wong, Missy’s significant other and sole caregiver, says “Her voice has returned to full strength and she is able to ride an exercise bike for more than an hour.” But her ongoing medical expenses and rehab sessions are not covered by medical insurance. The three parts of the Challenge reflect the triathlon events for which Missy was training when she was stricken:
Sponsorships, donations and participation are encouraged. For more information and to register: Missy Flynn Challenge
NJPA’s Digital Measurement Study of NJ
Newspaper Websites As traditional media companies turn to fresh
new ways to reach consumers and grow audiences online, we’re anxious to measure
the current pulse of New Jersey website users. NJPA has commissioned Belden
Interactive to conduct a 2009 Digital Measurement Study of participating
NJPA-member websites. We want this survey to be as valuable to you, our
customers, as it is to our association.
The link below will take you to a brief survey
that will take less than 5 minutes. It will give you an opportunity to identify
which areas you’d prefer us to measure when studying NJ’s newspaper websites and
give you an opportunity to suggest topics of interest for your business.
The Press Has a Healthy Future The other day, someone at a gym told me he was worried about the future of newspapers. He asked how long I thought he’d be able to enjoy one of his most cherished daily activities: sitting down with a cup of coffee and The Press of Atlantic City. “My day wouldn’t be complete if I couldn’t do that,” he said. I told him that there’s not much we can do about the coffee, but that The Press would be around for a very long time. We’re a strong, vibrant company, and we’ll continue to thrive in the future. There’s been no shortage of bad news about the media industry in recent years – especially about newspapers. Some very large newspapers are faltering under the weight of the bad economy and huge debts they ran up shortly before the lending bubble burst. We know the health of the newspaper industry is on the minds of our readers, advertisers and employees. I hear questions about the long-term stability of The Press after each new wave of bad media news. What is true for other newspapers and other media companies, however, isn’t necessarily true for us. Unlike the distressed newspaper companies you may have heard – or read – about, The Press has not borrowed beyond its means nor is it publicly traded. Our family ownership is as committed to the publishing division as it has been for the past 57 years. It’s true that the newspaper business today isn’t what it was two years ago. But, then, what business is? The federal government has acknowledged that we have been in a recession since December. 2007. But The Press – and most other newspapers – saw it coming before that. Employment, real estate and automotive advertising have always represented a significant portion of any newspaper’s overall revenue. As activity in those sectors declined and major retailers began filing bankruptcy or closing their doors, newspapers began to feel the pinch fairly quickly. Changes in the ways people get their news put additional pressure on businesses such as ours. When I started with The Press over 13 years ago as the director of advertising, some people told me that The Press had no competitors. I soon learned how wrong they were. A lot of things have changed since then. Today, of course, anyone with two thumbs and a cell phone can claim to be a Press competitor. What they can’t match are the quality and credibility of our information products. We are still the region’s strongest media company by any measure. We’ve had to make tough business decisions over the last few years, but we continue to invest in our news and Internet operations. We have long had the largest group of news gatherers in southern New Jersey, and we’re proud of the quality and credibility of the news we deliver to you throughout the day. Keith Dawn is publisher and chief operating officer of The Press of Atlantic City Media Group, and a member of NJPA’s board of directors. For the rest of the article: http://www.njpa.org/NJPA_Notes/The_Press_Has_a_Healthy_Future
Times Co. Reportedly Sets Bid Deadline for
Globe The New York Times Co., through its investment banker, has asked potential buyers of The Boston Globe to submit preliminary bids by July 8, according to people briefed on the sale process. … They described the preliminary bids as nonbinding, stressing that the step was still early in the sales process. Following the preliminary bids would come more intense due diligence by those who indicate serious potential interest, said these people, who did not want to be named because they aren’t authorized to speak about the process. The Times Co. wants to sell the Globe as part of a package that includes the Worcester Telegram & Gazette, another paper the Times Co. owns. The letter, according the people, details that the buyer would need to assume the papers’ $59 million in pension liabilities — $51 million for the Globe and $8 million for the T&G. The Times Co. bought the Globe for $1.1 billion in 1993 and the T&G in 2000 for $295 million. The T&G is the largest daily in central Massachusetts. … The solicitation comes as members of the Boston Newspaper Guild, the Globe’s largest union, are weighing a tentative agreement with management that would give the company $10 million in cost savings by cutting wages and other benefits while also eliminating lifetime job guarantees for about 170 union members. The concessions would presumably make it easier for the Times Co. to sell the paper. A ratification vote by the Guild, which represents nearly 700 editorial, advertising, and business employees, has been scheduled for July 20. Other Globe unions — representing press operators, mailers, and delivery truck drivers — have ratified another $10 million in concessions. For the rest of the article: http://www.boston.com/business/ticker/2009/06/times_co_report_2.html
Online Ad Lessons Learned: Creativity and
Content Matter At this point, I don’t need to lament anymore the ailments of the print-newspaper industry. It’s a well-chronicled and covered story. It’s a tough time for the newspaper industry. As digital-media choices continue to grow and technology allows for better audience targeting, the need for mass-market advertising vehicles, such as print newspapers, continues to wane. However – and this is important – the need for quality journalism doesn’t. And the need for advertisers to reach consumers in highly trusted journalistic environments doesn’t either. … Today, marketing executives I speak with, who have collectively spent billions in online advertising, recognize certain truths:
The movement taking place at the brand level is to place higher-quality creative in higher-quality and trusted media environments on the web. It is in this movement the sun begins to shine for the newspaper industry and traditional branded media companies in general. … The reality is creativity matters. Brands matter. And the environment in which those ads and brands appear matters as much as the first two. It hasn’t changed; it just took billions of dollars and a decade of declining performance on the web for the industry to recognize this. … Great creative placed in high-quality editorial environments has been a lovely marriage for more than a century and, although it has gone through some tough times in the past decade, it’s here to stay. Only this time it will be in a digital format. For the rest of the article: http://adage.com/mediaworks/article?article_id=137523
Special Report:
When The Item of Sumter, S.C., dropped its
Monday print edition in April, it wasn’t a simple matter of posting that day’s
news on its Web site. Managing Editor Chip Chase also had to move Monday’s
comics and other feature columns online, too, and publish Monday’s obituaries
and police reports in the Tuesday print edition — requiring twice the usual
space for those items. … He also had to realign the Item’s enterprise stories
and packages so that they no longer begin or end on a Monday. Although one of the biggest challenges for papers that have dropped days is balancing the Web and print, those editors are becoming more convinced that print-devoted readers will stick around even when fewer editions are available and stories get published days after a news event. … …The Caulkins Media Group of Levittown, Pa.,
[which] includes three papers — The Intelligencer of Doylestown, Pa.; the Bucks
County Courier Times of Levittown; and the Burlington County Times of
Willingboro, N.J. — all of which dropped Saturday editions in January. Executive
Editor Pat Walker, who oversees all three papers, says the change really
affected coverage of Friday news: “Saturday was one of our newsiest [editions],
one of the strongest papers of the week. Things wrap up and resolve in court on
Fridays, there’s high school sports coverage, and other things. Jury verdicts
come in on Friday, and that has been something we consistently scratch our heads
about.” For the rest of the article: http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003986759&utm_source=contactology&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=E-Newsletter_-+062509+Sub_6_24_2009
Research Brief: According to a recent report by The Media Audit, in the past three years, the average U.S. adult has nearly doubled their daily use of the Internet as the average U.S. adult spent 2.1 hours per day online in 2006, compared to 3.8 hours in 2008, an 81% increase over three years. As a result, the Internet now represents 32.5% of the typical “media day” for all U.S. adults when compared to daily exposure to newspaper, radio, TV and outdoor advertising. Even those who are considered heavy newspaper readers spend about as much time online today as the typical U.S. adult. According to the report, heavy newspaper readers, those who spend more than an hour per day reading, currently spend 3.7 hours per day online. In 2006 the Internet represented only 18.4% of a heavy newspaper reader’s “media day,” but today it represents 28.4%. The report further reveals that seven daily newspapers have achieved a net unduplicated reach of 80% or more when the past 30-day website visitor figure is combined with the past month print readership figure. Among these newspapers are the:
For the rest of the article: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=108379
Starbucks Continues Food Push with
Overhauled Menu Items Starbucks is unveiling a raft of new products tomorrow that represents the largest food launch in the company’s history. The chain is staying with its tactic of long-form newspaper ads in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and USA Today to support this push. For the rest of the article: http://adage.com/article?article_id=137656
YouTube Launches Reporters’ Center to Foster
Citizen Journalism YouTube may be best known for entertaining,
offbeat videos that go viral, but for many people, the video-sharing site has
been their window into the unrest in Iran – especially after international
journalists were kicked out. The site has just unveiled a new effort to improve
and promote videos that are newsworthy: the Reporters’ Center. YouTube also wants people to upload videos with
their own tips and experiences covering the news. The site will filter out
irrelevant content and spam and has created playlists to group similar content,
but doesn’t plan to vet the content otherwise.
Verve to Power Newspaper Mobile Sites Mobile developer Verve Wireless Thursday announced agreements with newspaper publishers including Media News Group, A.H. Belo Corp., Hearst Corp. and Cox Newspapers to create mobile sites for newspapers including The Denver Post, The Dallas Morning News and Palm Beach Post. Through the partnerships, Verve will also create versions of newspapers’ mobile sites geared to the iPhone’s, and provide mobile video delivery across other popular smartphones including the BlackBerry. To date, the Encinitas, Calif.-based company has developed mobile sites for 450 local media properties that also include radio and TV stations nationwide. The new deals could more than double that total. The mobile expansion reflects the high hopes the battered newspaper industry has for adding new revenue streams by delivering content via handheld devices. In particular, newspapers are expecting mobile to be a more suitable platform for charging for content than the Web, where access to news sites is generally free. For the rest of the article: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=108666
The News Business: Putting a Price on News As newspaper bosses watch readers, and advertisers, rush to the Web, two questions have ricocheted around the industry. Should newspapers try and save themselves on the Web by charging readers to access articles they currently get for free? Or should publishers simply use technology to sell more expensive ads? It’s looking like publishers will soon have the tools to try out both tactics. Alan Mutter, a former editor of the San Francisco Chronicle and technology consultant, is proposing an online registration service that would track Web users as they read articles on a plethora of publishers’ sites. The new venture, called ViewPass, will compile personal data profiles comprised of demographic information and reading histories. Publishers could use that data, Mutter says, to sell expensive hyper-targeted advertisements. A second plan focusing on growing paid online subscriptions is being backed by The Wall Street Journal’s former publisher Gordon Crovitz, media entrepreneur Steve Brill and Leo Hindery, the former head of Tele-Communications, Inc. Dubbed Journalism Online, the venture would provide a mechanism for charging readers for full access to Web sites, single articles or packages of related content. Under the plan, consumers could use Journalism Online to buy full access to a newspaper’s Web site or buy access to articles about a specific subject–like real estate, college football or consumer technology–produced by an array of publishers. For the rest of the article: http://www.forbes.com/2009/06/12/mutter-crovitz-brill-business-media-news.htmlcx
To Build Display, Yahoo Joins Self-Serve Ad
Fray … Today Yahoo rolls out the first version of its self-serve ad product, My Display Ads, a bid to win over local advertisers and convert search advertisers to display. Yahoo isn’t the first to offer self-service display; Google, MySpace and Facebook have all rolled out similar self-serve display ad systems. AOL’s Ad.com is developing its own self-serve system that new CEO Tim Armstrong wants pushed out the door. But with its scale and premium display properties, Yahoo is applying some heat to this space, as it hopes to convert search advertisers – or businesses that haven’t done any online advertising – to display. … Yahoo partnered with Seattle-based start-up AdReady, which provides creative tools for advertisers to develop their own ads, a bit like what Spot Runner tried to do for the local TV market. Advertisers can pick creative off the shelf from more than 800 display ad templates – including dancing cellphones, ads proclaiming “Amazing Values” or countdown clocks – or bring their own. Ads can be purchased on a cost-per-thousand impression basis or as part of a cost-per-click auction. The ad inventory fed into the system includes both Yahoo-owned and network properties through Yahoo’s Right Media exchange. For the rest of the article: http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=137471
Google Tries Hand at Targeting Consumers
with Good Credit Google has been testing the ability to lay consumer FICO scores on top of its Google Content Network to identify people with good credit. The strategy will enable the search engine to help advertisers target a specific type of consumer through display and text ads, according to Masha Korsunsky, Google’s senior industry marketing manager, financial services. The project is one of two initiatives that Google recently explored to help advertisers reach “credit-worthy consumers” online. For both projects, Google partnered with Compete and the research firm’s 2 million U.S. consumers who opt into these types of projects. “Let’s say we have an advertiser who wants to reach consumers with a high FICO score who applied for mortgages in the first quarter,” Korsunsky says. “We can provide the advertiser with a list of Web sites on our Google content network that index against this segment.” Korsunsky says Google’s Content Network can reach 70% of credit card applicants with a high FICO score, 87% of mortgage applicants with a high FICO score, and 90% of the people who visit small business sites who have a high FICO score. For the rest of the article: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=108789
37 Sites Ready To Implement OPA’s Bigger,
Badder Ad Formats The Online Publishers Association announced Tuesday that 37 of its members, whose sites reach 68% of the total U.S. Internet audience, have begun offering the three new larger new ad units the group unveiled in March. Several – including The New York Times, CNN and MSNBC.com – are already running, or will soon launch, campaigns for brands such as Bank of America and Mercedes-Benz. The rollout follows the OPA’s announcement of the new ad formats three months ago as part of an effort to encourage better ad creative and highlight the Internet’s potential as a brand advertising medium. The three jumbo-sized ad units are: • The Fixed Panel (336 wide x 700 tall), which
remains in view as a user scrolls up or down the page. Patrick Frend, senior vice president of client engagement for the Mercedes account at Razorfish, said … “Being able to own advertising on the page through one effective ad unit instead of multiple smaller ad units allows us to create a more luxurious experience appropriate for a leading brand like Mercedes-Benz.” … For publishers, it will hopefully also lead to a bigger payoff in keeping or garnering lucrative sponsorship ad deals. For the rest of the article: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=108864
Six Rules for Brand Revitalization Brands do not die natural deaths. However, brands can be murdered through mismanagement. Some brands are beyond hope – but others can be revitalized. Of course, it’s not easy. But it is well worth the effort. We at Arcature developed the following principles and practices over the years while working with a variety of clients in a variety of businesses. … For a brand to be successfully revitalized, everyone needs to be on the same page. Then they must follow the six rules of brand revitalization listed here. This “Plan to Win,” as we call it, is built around the eight P’s: purpose, promise, people, product, place, price, promotion and performance. Rule 1: Refocus the organization Rule 2: Restore brand relevance Rule 3: Reinvent the brand experience People come first. Building employee commitment to the new direction, employee confidence, and organizational and employee capabilities are critical factors that influence future success. … Product is the next P. Products and services are the tangible evidence of the truth of the promise. When we redefine the promise, product and service renovation and innovation are imperative. … The place is the face of the brand. Whether a store, a website, a retail display, a kiosk or wherever the “place” may be, the experience must be consistent with the intended brand direction. … Price comes next. … Overemphasis on deals and discounts builds deal loyalty rather real loyalty. Promotion comes next. … Rule 4: Reinforce a results culture Rule 5: Rebuild brand trust Rule 6: Realize global alignment For the rest of the article: http://adage.com/cmostrategy/article?article_id=137647
Don’t Lose Faith in the Click The Internet has long been the place where advertising models go to die, but one measurable – the click – is still very much alive and kicking. As Mark Twain once said, “The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.” What we’re experiencing now is, rather, an evolution of sorts – online advertising is being pulled further and further away from demographics and readership rates and closer to intent-based targeting. Advertisers want just one result from their hard-earned ad spends: conversions. While the cost-per-action model has hovered on the edge of viability for years now, Google and the PPC [pay-per-click] movement have revolutionized the targeting of Internet surfers by serving ads based on intent. Why would an advertiser for a major car company care if his or her ads were showing to males in the 18-35 demographic, when they can be shown to people who have actually gone out of their way to search for “2009 SUV”? It is for this reason that advertisers pay more for search engine ads than publisher ads. From a publisher’s point of view, it’s this level of intent-based targeting that has been missing from website advertising networks. Contextual ads were a good start, and have been more or less successful, but the ads are still based on the entirety of a site’s content rather than what individual visitors really want and are actively searching for. The two statistics that are any publisher’s lifeblood – clickthrough rate and click value – both drastically improve with better targeting, as readers see more relevance in the ads served and advertisers see better conversion results, making them willing to pay more. The banner ad is essentially obsolete for one very good reason: advertisers saw terrible returns on investment as online readers became numb to the irrelevant, garish splashes of color and Photoshop graphics inserted clunkily into their favorite sites. … Now, we’re seeing contextual ads following a similar path. Advertisers will still buy them, but without the element of user intent, the conversion rates are significantly lower than search engine ads, with the amount advertisers are willing to pay per click lowered to match. This is why in order to continue earning from a website, publishers have to be able to target their readers’ intent as effectively as search engines can. Whether that is targeting the search terms of individuals who come to a site via search engine, or another method, it is the next necessary evolution of advertising on Web sites. So yes, the click is still valuable, and publishers shouldn’t lose faith in it. However, the old tried-and-true methods of broad contextual advertising are no longer quite so true; target individuals, discern and serve ads to intent, give people exactly what they’re looking for in both an ad and an article, and advertisers will happily send you money. For the rest of the article: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=108889
Microsoft to Create ‘Office Suite’ for
Advertising Microsoft has long built enterprise software solutions for myriad industries: retail, health care, sales. But now it has its eye on advertising. The software company and Mediabrands, the media division of Interpublic Group of Cos. that counts Microsoft as a major ad client, are collaborating to build a software system that marketers can use to track everything from search advertising and e-mail newsletters to CRM systems to TV buys in one place. The logic is that too many of the tools used today to analyze and execute those various marketing functions don’t “talk” with one another, which creates inefficiencies and clouds decision-making. Microsoft’s goal is to create a single platform to do so. … Microsoft and Mediabrands are calling the software platform the Media Operations Management System – and they’re certainly not underselling what they envision the final product to be. The announcement touts it as “intended to reinvent the way media is planned, purchased, measured, reported and optimized.” For the rest of the article: http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=137497
Iran’s Use of Deep Packet Inspection Spurs
New Call Against ‘Virtual Wiretap’ The current events in Iran have spurred digital rights advocates to renew calls for Congress to investigate deep packet inspection technology. This morning, groups including the Open Internet Coalition, Free Press, Public Knowledge and the ACLU wrote to Congress to ask for hearings about how U.S. companies are using deep packet inspection, or “virtual wiretap” technology. For the last two weeks, protesters in Iran have been organizing on Twitter, posting videos on YouTube and otherwise self-publishing online, using the Web to work around the government’s control over traditional media. But the Iranian government apparently has been using deep packet inspection technology – supplied by European telecoms, according to The Wall Street Journal – to monitor and potentially thwart protesters. In the U.S., some Internet service providers have been using deep packet inspection to monitor Web activity and serve targeted ads, or to control the flow of traffic. While ISPs obviously aren’t trying to squelch political unrest, civil rights advocates still say it’s problematic for companies to spy on users. For the rest of the article: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=108880
Services for Dennis Hall The funeral service for Dennis Hall, son of Art and Pat Hall of the Cape May County Herald Times, was held on June 24 in Converse, La. A memorial service will be held in New Jersey on Sunday, July 12, 2009, at 2 p.m. at the Middle Township Elementary #2, Pacific Avenue, Cape May Court House. This is the meeting place of The Lighthouse Church. It will be an informal service; casual attire is encouraged. Directions to the church: http://www.tlccma.org/directions.html Letters of condolence may be sent to:
Send us news about your newspaper for NJPA Notes and InPrint. Please email the information to Catherine Langley at clangley@njpa.org. Photos welcome!
A Media Guy Asks: Why Do They Hate Us? There’s no question media people think highly of themselves. We tend to be well-educated and worldly, and we consider ourselves worthy to help shape what the entire country reads, watches, and listens to. But what’s equally clear is that the general public does not hold us in such esteem. On the Internet, articles about the demise of traditional news media are commonly greeted with glee and schadenfreude. And it’s not just the online cranks. The Pew Research Center recently found that most Americans feel that the press is biased and inaccurate, and large percentages even said it was “immoral” and “hurts democracy.” So to borrow a phrase that became a media refrain in 2001: why do they hate us? … I’ve tried to outline the major complaints and assess their validity on a scale from 1 to 10 (1 = lay off, we’re doing the best we can; 10 = you’re right, we’re the scum of the earth and we all deserve to lose our jobs). They hate us because: 1. We’re too liberal … 2. We’re too conservative … 3. We screw up People have high expectations of the media. We’re supposed to expose wrongdoing in business and government, stay on top of every trend, and get the facts right the first time, every time. It’s a tall order, and we often come up short. … 4. We couldn’t keep up with the digital revolution … 5. We are total narcissists … 6. We focus too much on fluff … 7. They think they could do a better job … 8. They’re jealous … 9. What we do matters too much to be left to us hacks There’s a reason the press is referred to as the Fourth Estate. Even as its critics dismiss the mainstream media as irrelevant, most of them surely realize deep down that it has an enormous impact, and that is why they care enough to muster such hatred. For the rest of the article: http://www.vanityfair.com/online/culture/2009/06/23/a-media-guy-asks-why-do-they-hate-us.html
Letter From Europe PARIS — If you are reading this, I am doing my job. Roughly speaking, that is the compact that has underpinned the ties that bind those who write the news to those who read it. But as the world hurtles into a digital era, other questions intrude: if you are reading this on paper printed with ink, are we both dinosaurs; and, if you are (still) reading this on your laptop, or P.D.A., or mobile phone, who is paying for it? … A recent survey asked the question: If you had to rely on a single source of news, what would it be? More than half replied “the Internet.” Newspapers and radio news got 10 percent each. Maybe that reflects the wide perception that information on the Internet is free. But news — reliable, checked-out, best-we-can-get news — certainly does not come cheap, still less free. That is why there is a need for a new compact. Even now, the simple transaction of buying a newspaper creates the bedrock of a relationship between reader and writer — a fistful of small change in return for a trove of articles, crosswords, analysis, columns, news, features, photographs, sport, culture, even the funnies. But it is more than that. The cover price of a newspaper acknowledges that news has a value and a price worth paying. Yet that idea sometimes seems remote to a Web-savvy generation brought up to believe that their laptops offer a portal to a cost-free universe. The challenge for business strategists is to earn serious money from digital news in the way, for example, that the music industry has found ways of selling songs. But it is hard to see how any business model can work unless the reader accepts some basic premises: news is vital to democratic society; it is the oxygen of freedom, the basis of critical decisions; and news costs money. Newspapers — old-fashioned, ink-on-dead-tree newspapers — offer the scrutiny that politicians, bankers and diplomats try to obfuscate. … News gathering takes time, energy, courage, people, humility, creativity and layers of editorial oversight to guarantee the authenticity of the final product. For all the human flaws of those who gather, edit, check and analyze it, news allows people to judge for themselves whether the people they voted into office merit their trust and their tax dollars. As the Twitter revolution has shown, the ascendancy of new methods of spreading the news — a kind of digital, high-speed word-of-mouth — reinforces the need for assembling it, sifting it and trying to make sense of it. For the rest of the article: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/27/world/europe/27iht-letter.html?_r=2&ref=world&pagewanted=all
It’s Time for a Movement Toward ‘Slow
Marketing’ Are we overdue for a “slow-marketing” movement? After all, the “slow foods” movement is making real headway, and there’s the much-needed “slow-parenting” movement. Why should marketing be exempt? Here’s the rub: Speed is good, and change is gospel, but we might be moving too darn fast and making too many dumb or shortsighted moves along the way. That fuels cynicism, which is not what we need in an environment of increasingly empowered consumers, eroded trust and greater regulatory scrutiny. We might all benefit from slowing down, deepening our conversations – rather than skimming at superficial levels a mile a minute – and re-embracing (please forgive me) some of the “boring basics”: putting consumers first, listening, providing service, working sustainably, teaching, relationship building and operating ethically. … The social-media feeding frenzy puts a premium on responding to all conversation. You don’t need to respond to everything. Take a step back before diving in. In some cases, not engaging is the best form of engagement. For the rest of the article: http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=137644 ___________ If you are an member of the New Jersey Press Association and would like to receive our NJPA Notes weekly newsletter, click here: Subscribe to NJPA Notes Thank you. Privacy Policy: NJPA does not sell or share this distribution list or the names and email addresses on it.
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Happy 4th of July