Read A Paper Lately?

When was the last time you held a newspaper in your hands? I mean, held it to…read? I’m not talking about using a paper to blot us some spill in your garage, or to train the puppy, or to keep that spray paint from getting all over the place.

I’m guessing you haven’t really read a newspaper in the past two or three months. If so, you’re not alone. By most – if not all – measures – the U.S. newspaper business is dying. Except for a few major players, newspapers are bleeding money and ink all over.

The contrarian in this doomsday scenario is, most notably, The Wall Street Journal – which, by the way, has the very best newspaper app for Apple’s iPad (I wonder if the WSJ owner, media savvy Robert Murdoch, has any Apple stock?).  I’ll predict here that the WSJ will succeed, long-term, as an entity. They’ve leveraged their content all over the place, and even have the audacity to (gasp) charge customers to read their columnists and features.

Most of the print industry, though, will probably go under or just fade away slowly to irrelevance…IF it doesn’t take its cues from Mr. Murdoch and go digital.

Sample data points from a recent study the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development show the dire circumstances of the American newspaper business, especially when compared to other countries:

• Fewer than half of all adults in the United States regularly read newspapers in 2008, compared with 96 percent in Iceland.
• Advertising contributed 87 percent of newspapers’ revenues in the United States, compared with 53 percent in Germany, 50 percent in Britain and 35 percent in Japan.

In light of such stats, I wondered how much longer the industry can survive here in the U.S.

Some industry veterans are decidely pessimistic about the viability of newspapers. Here’s a site for laid off journalists to offer their “parting words” of wisdom about the biz. There’s even a website where you can donate to…

• advance the search for a support system for the kind of serious public interest reporting that our democracy requires, and that is now so threatened.

Wow.

These thoughts were prompted by some news reports, and also by my need to renew my subscription to…The Wall Street Journal. Yeah, the print edition. I am one of the few people I know of who still read a newspaper – an actual PAPER – every day.  Started this daily routine when I was about ten years-old. Not quite ready to stop reading a paper.

Are you?

The Glenn Beck Phenomena

A few years ago I read an article profiling the now uber-popular Glenn Beck. He said something that struck me, about his foray into television, books, magazines, live events, and a robust online presence, something to this effect:

Everything I’m doing (related to touring, writing, and television) is to support my radio program. The radio is how I connect with people’s hearts and minds.

Again, that’s not a direct quote but it captures his sense of the power of radio, in particular, to get a message out.  Rather than merely tapping into every media channel, Beck is using his media efforts to support and strengthen just one medium: his radio program.

Hold that thought for a moment and consider the following item. At one talk radio website it was recently suggested that Beck’s unique messaging is what really makes him special:

Beck’s own mega-success is driven by his special talent for conveying a unique personality and world view that resonates with a distinctive (and sizable) audience.  It’s not about having a TV show, radio program, book deal, newsletter, website and speaking gigs; it’s about — to paraphrase the cliche — having a very special take and being exceedingly good at sharing it via those channels.

While I think his personality and his style are compelling (or if you are a Beck-hater, I guess they are most irritating), it is Beck’s ability to really harness media – in pretty much every shape and form – effectively that has led to his wild success.

Look, an extremely talented person with no media exposure will not be well known. There are probably some great communicators out there that we’ve never heard of – and many we’ll never know. Talent alone won’t get you a huge following.

As we’ve seen, though, many people lacking in talent (can you say Snooki?) have gained popularity through their wise, or perhaps lucky, use of media channels.

So is it the personality and his/her talent, or the medium/media, that makes popularity and success possible? Obviously a combination of both! And while I like a lot of what I see in social media, and I’m a big fan of multi-media messaging, I’m still quite bullish on radio. It does what other media can’t – it typically talks 1:1 with its listeners, giving much more than information – it gives values, heart and passion. If you listen to Beck, that is what he is delivering to his radio audience. He does that somewhat on his television show and online. His live events, I’m told do connect emotionally with people. But the greatest audience for this heart (soul?) connect with people is through radio.

Just remember what we might call “The Beck Principle:” radio makes a great connection with a great audience possible.

Teens and Tweets

My 18 year-old tried it but quit, suggesting it just didn’t “do anything” for him. My 21 year-old totally shut his account down, saying he just didn’t see the point. Meanwhile, I keep plugging away at…Twitter. And recent data indicates we’re a rather normal family when it comes to tweeting.

According to a recent Pew Research Center, teens aren’t Twittering. Only 8% of teens utilize the microblogging site.

Teens DO use Facebook and other social sites, however. That same Pew report showed that 73% of young teens (ages 12 to 17) use Facebook.

Here’s a chart showing the frequency of online access by teens – nothing startling, but pretty interesting.

If you like numbers, data and trend projections, check out these twenty “mind-blowing” social media stats.

The short of all this: media messaging requires an awareness of where the intended audience is, what media they are using and where they congregate.

If “knowledge is power,” what do you know?

Media Business Changes: Publishing

With the iPad, Apple has signaled not only a new way we can access and consume our media, but they’ve also signaled a new way for media producers to monetize their products. Apple has done this before with music, and now they’re trying to do it with, of all things, book publishing.

Remember the day when you bought CDs? Whole “albums” with 10-12 songs on a disc? Hard to remember those days, I know. Apple revolutionized the purchase of music by offering $0.99 individual songs. No more buying a whole CD because you liked a song or two, and then being disappointed in the rest of the project. No more “concept albums” that wove a theme together through 10 different – but complimentary – songs. No, I just cherry-pick my favorites and pay $0.99 per tune.

They’re different, I know, music and books. And I’m not suggesting you’ll be able to grab the first and last chapters of a new novel at the iTunes Store for $0.99 each. No, there’s something else happening in the world of print (be that ink or e-ink).

When Apple announced the iPad, Steve Jobs indicated a new, strategic price plan for downloaded e-books. One with the publisher getting to set the price-point. One which gives great profit margins to the companies who find and produce the best-sellers. A pricing approach that affords the dying publishing world a breath of new life – if they can squeeze more margins out of their business model. Mr. Jobs negotiated with the major companies and – ta da! – found a price point that was appealing to them. And they, in turn, pushed back on Amazon (which has moved a lot of books at $9.99).You can bet that the publishers are feeling some new-found strength, and that there will be other changes coming.

So, look for other pricing deals to be made, and watch the other, existing e-book sellers to roll out a similar pricing tier for e-books. It could signal new life for the publishing world, one which gives them some new revenue potential. That bodes well for them, and for those of us who love books. It could breathe new life into an old-media giant that has been in need of some good news.

And we’ll have Apple to thank for it? Who’d have thunk it?

How Media Consumption Is Changing

With the introduction of the iPad, Apple is signaling a new phase in how the media world will work. There are certainly things about the new device that lack “wow” power, but there’s something going on here that signals where Apple is going, and why we should pay attention. Consumers, not manufacturing companies, are driving the media revolution, and this is yet another technology that will affect our media buying and consumption habits.

It is obvious that Sony’s eReader, Amazon’s Kindle, and now the B&N Nook all have their merits. They make it easy to carry a lot of books and to read multiple titles any time a person wants. They all have an ability to download various books, at various prices and in various formats.

To date, though, none of them does other media very well. You can’t listen to radio, surf the web or watch video on their E-Ink gray scale screens, nor would you want to. This is where the iPad will instantly make itself more appealing to many people. One device that does…one thing? Not gonna survive. These days, how many people have a cell phone that just makes calls? Or who has an MP3 player that just plays songs? So, by limiting their functionality to books, a dying medium (I hate typing that, but its a fact that fewer people are reading – and buying books, so let’s just live with it, okay?), the current offering of “readers” will find itself looking for an audience while mainstream culture goes with the flashy, color-screened, multi-functional iPad.

Read a book? Sure, anyone can carry around a small tablet-sized screen on which to read – all these devices can do that. That’s easy.

Carry around a business book AND a “guilty pleasure” fiction, too? Yep, the “readers” can do that.

Read the local “newspaper” while I listen to some classical music I downloaded? No, can’t do that on the “readers.” They do text really well, but not much else.

Interrupt my reading so I can check e-Bay for that item I was bidding on? No, sorry, the “readers” can’t do that. You’ll need to have a better tablet for online use – these things are for…reading.

Finish that video I started online last night before I begin studying my textbook for that upcoming quiz? Don’t think Sony can help me do that with their “reader” (despite the fact that Sony makes some gorgeous televisions these days).

Take a break from my book to in order a photo book of pictures from my trip – so it is waiting for me when I return from this trip? Um, I’ll need something more than a “reader.”

I’ll admit that these are all nice, hypothetical examples of how the “reader” will want to be replaced by something more. They don’t necessarily describe your life and how you operate – yet.

By making the iPad a multi-media device, Apple has tapped into where many of us are at – living in a fast-paced, media-saturated world. Apple is correctly seeing that if you  do one thing really well, you’ll likely be obsolete very soon (this is why the iPhone is so popular. It does many things well. Not everything perfectly, but it has enough of the capabilities that I want, and delivers them well, so that I’m finding it hard to imagine life without such a smart “phone.”).

The truth is, we want more more more from our technology, and we want to do do do things anytime, all the time. Apple may have made a big mistake here, that is possible. My guess, though, is that in a few years the iPad, and its various permutations and the inevitable competitors, will change how we do books – and every other media, too.

iTablet’s “Wow Factor”

Like many other techies, I’m really interested in the expected announcement about the Apple iTablet, or iPad, or iWhatever.

There’s great speculation about the size and capabilities of the new device, which I’d anticipate to be a game-changer for portable computing. Just as the iPod changed our music listening habits, and the iPhone changed the way we access our media, the folks at Apple must surely have an intent for how the iTablet should change…something. But what?

Here’s an intriguing look at how the iTablet could reinvigorate (resuscitate?) printed media…and forever changing how we “read” magazines and newspapers. What do you think? If the iTab – and other similar devices – can deliver something like this, would you want one?

UPDATE: Link to some specs and sales projections (10 million in the first year?!).

Radio: A Strong Buy

Radio is strong.

I’m not just saying that because I’m biased.

According to recent research,

• Broadcast radio reaches over 79% of all U.S. adults daily, who listen on average for over two hours daily.

And it isn’t just for an “older generation:”

• Even among younger adults (18-34 years old), radio reached more than 79% of the population –  with an average listening time of more than one and a half hours each day.

When I’ve run advertising campaigns, I’ve always included radio in the mix. There’s no reason to change, either. Smart money goes into smart radio buys. Use radio well, and it delivers exceptional results!

More encouraging data about radio here (see the report titled, “How U.S. Adults Use Radio and Other Forms of Audio from the Council for Research Excellence Video Consumer Mapping Study”).

How NOT To Communicate Your Message

Unfortunately, even good communicators can resort to poor patterns and cheap shots. We should expect better than this from the administration. Engagement with enemies can be helpful, as John Nichols suggests, and I hope that someone at the White House will heed Mr. Nichols’ advice.

Reaching Gen Y

Here’s a thoughtful, engaging conversation about how to reach Gen Y – what they value, how they relate to the messenger AND the message. Takes about 20 minutes, and the interview begins around the 3:20 mark. The stats alone make it worth your while, although there’s much more here.

The WiMax Experiment Continues

News suggests Clearwire’s WiMax technology, dubbed 4G by some, is about to undergo some intense testing. A new WiMax footprint included main offices of both Google and Intel, both backers of the effort to bring high speed, wireless service to the masses.

I like the concept, especially as it can really benefit mobile web use, but wonder if the testing and roll-out will take too long. Could it be that a new, faster-and-better service will enter into the marketplace before WiMax grabs hold?