October 29, 2009

Old Media Still Brings It

Not long ago I had seen a bit of an analysis on the results driven from exposure on blogs/digital versus print media. What’s interesting is that it was print media, newspapers and magazines, that drove companies the most business. Lucky Magazine brought far more traffic and sales than Daily Candy. Even when it came to overall prestige, all sales aside, it is still far more coveted to be in the Wall Street Journal than the Huffington Post. We’re in a time where media insists on murdering itself with the claims of how its legacy offerings (print) have no value and are shrinking in numbers. Yet, even the White House said it was traditional media that it leveraged during the Obama campaign. It makes you wonder — do old media brands still hold a lot of weight and influence in the world around them, moreso than people might say and think?

I can’t think of a blogger who wouldn’t love a paid, mainstream media gig. Lots of blogs do columns and content syndication deals with old media, including newspapers, with much fan fare. It’s not to say that digital sites don’t have their merit, but when it comes down to it, alot of companies would rather be in the New York Times or Lucky Magazine than even the top blogs in a category but more importantly, when they are they’re seeing bigger results. I’ve seen it first hand. It’s not to say that there isn’t value in digital media, of course. But, clearly it at least somewhat suggests that “old’ print media brands and newspapers still have pull and merit in the market. If that’s the case, could they still possibly survive and even thrive in as everything rapidly moves to digital? Of course. It’s only trendy for people to say print is completely blown out of the picture — it’s not. There are still plenty of signs like these above to say otherwise. All it would take is the right course. Notice so far, that’s not the one the industry is chosing to take.

7:56pm  |   URL: http://patriciahandschiegel.tumblr.com/post/227543861/old-media-still-brings-it
Comments (View)
October 27, 2009

This Makes Me Want To...

I don’t agree with virtually any part of this article. Not only is it a little disturbing that the author starts with referencing film, then media, then TV (which one is it? all?) but also, the insight shared in it doesn’t add up. The person interviewed sounds like he has an amazing background in his industry, but just because someone has spent ten years in file sharing doesn’t mean they can accurately forecast platform business and where it’s heading in relation to the internet. I have always wanted to help you figure out this internet thing, business, because I know some things about it that might help. But after reading this, I don’t know. Maybe you are suicidal and nobody can help.

8:10pm  |   URL: http://patriciahandschiegel.tumblr.com/post/225514178/this-makes-me-want-to
Comments (View)
October 25, 2009

The Soon To Be Most Coveted Thing On The Internet

There is nothing more valuable on a platform than the audience/customer/viewer/user/reader. Its all one in the same. The customer base is the foundation of pretty much the entire business world no matter where or what you’re selling. There is no business without the customer, and vice versa. You can imagine what a surprise it is, then, to see this play such an insignificant part in the strategy and focus of so many companies as it relates to doing business on the internet. I don’t think I can recall a single trade article across five industries that has referenced it in the past five years. I have never seen an article on how to build a customer base online. Yet, it’s really what makes sites like Facebook, Twitter, Bebo, Google, Amazon, Hulu, etc. a success. They’ve built a customer base. Many companies, however, are focusing on creating traffic instead. You can make money on traffic, of course. But, you can make a lot more on a customer base and that is why smart companies build them. If newspapers and print media were focused on doing so we would not see and hear of them dying but of their success. Plenty of internet companies have also failed for the same reason.

Right now, not many people in business have gotten to a place where they see things this way, but in the future, they will.

11:20pm  |   URL: http://patriciahandschiegel.tumblr.com/post/223577934/the-soon-to-be-most-coveted-thing-on-the-internet
October 24, 2009

So You Know...

Statistically, children are not safe in this country. 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 6 boys in America will be either raped or molested by an adult by their 18th birthday. I know of at least eight women who this has happened to as children, by everything from step fathers to brothers to teachers. In comparison, I have only known one person who has had cancer. That’s kind of a scary statistic. Currently in the media, there are more than a half dozen stories relating to child rapes, abductions and murders. Elizabeth Smart is testifying against her offender. Elizabeth Olten was killed in Missouri. Somer Thompson was recently abducted and found dead in Florida. Sandra Cantuu was kidnapped and murdered earlier this year in California. Jaycee Dugard was abucted at age 11 and held in captivity as an adult man’s sex slave until this year. An arrest was finally made in Jennifer Schuett’s case. She was abducted and raped at 8, surviving her throat being slit. Haleigh Cummings is still missing in Florida. Dakota Hughes, 11, was murdered in Oklahoma. At one point last year, I could recall something like seven news stories of little girls and boys being abducted, raped and found dead in a six month time span. Victims who survive a child sex offender, even if it is someone they know or trust, face a lifetime of emotional problems.

Do a Google News search on “child molester” and you’ll see the problem. They’re coaches, firefighters, dads, uncles, brothers, sometimes women — and they’re everywhere. 300,000 computers have been found trading child pornography in the U.S. The biggest perpetrator was a soccer dad who was active in the community and well respected — and drugging, raping and videotaping his daughter and her friends at night while his wife slept upstairs. There are 400,000 registered sex offenders in this country, a very large majority guilty of child offenses. More than 150 registered sex offenders lived in a few mile radius of Somer Thompson’s home in Florida. A half dozen live in walking distance from the school near my house — several are less than three blocks away. I live near some of the most prestigious stores in the city. This is supposed to be a relatively safe area.

In 2007, I met Erin Runnion of The Joyful Child organization as I held a charity auction of my wardrobe to benefit her work. Erin’s daughter Samantha was five years old and playing in her front yard, with a relative in ear shot, when a child sex offender abducted her. She was found raped and murdered a few days later. DNA from her tears were found on the door of his car. I will never forget how it felt to be in that room at Joyful Child for as long as I live. There was something in Erin’s eyes I pray I never see again. I’m an aunt to eight kids under the age of 12. Every year that they get older, I think “thank God, they are still safe.” I could not imagine if one of them went missing, like 8 year old Jessica Lumsford who was kidnapped from her home, raped for three days by an adult man, then told to get inside of two garbage bags because she’d be taken home, only to be buried alive instead. I can’t imagine how scared she must have been. Based on the statistics, this could happen to any child at anytime, anywhere.

It took two years and massive effort to pass the Protect Our Children Act, which gives money to law enforcement to do something about the 300,000 people viewing child pornography. In comparison, parents fought harder and gave more money to prevent gays from marrying. If we heard about these things happening to children in another country, we would say that country is unsafe and barbaric. I know its hard for people to care about all the problems that go on in society and I know that it’s very hard to know how to create the power to change it. But this can’t possibly be okay in our country any longer. Mommy bloggers have such a powerful influence and platform — if not to fight, then to help raise awareness for parents. Technology has incredible potential to find missing kids — had the right technology been in place many say Samantha Runnion would have been found in a matter of hours. Instead, she was found dead.

Whether or not you have kids, we should all care about stopping this problem. Spread the word.

6:10pm  |   URL: http://patriciahandschiegel.tumblr.com/post/222296251/so-you-know
(No. OF NOTES: 1)
  
October 21, 2009

Here's The Answer, TV Business

I attended a panel at Digital Hollywood after mine yesterday. At the end, the moderator asked the speakers where they thought the internet was heading, what was next for TV, etc. Nobody could answer this definitively. So, I will.

I post a lot about what the internet is and what it’s here to do so I will skip the long explanation about how it’s a information and distribution platform that was created to replace the other information and distribution platforms in our society, and get right to it. In the past, the internet was not able to deliver TV shows well. It is because to do so, it needs a lot of speed and compression. In 2004, this changed. That is why people kept hearing about the potential for internet television but it never materialized. The internet wasn’t ready. Now, it is.

First, there is a very big difference between watching television shows online and watching web video. Unfortunately, these are lumped together in most studies, and therefore, misleading. The actual number of people watching TV shows online is very, very small. This will inevitably change, particularly if the right devices are created. Kind of like how Kindle has helped move people to reading books digitally. It is important for TV business to understand is that watching TV over the internet will have little to do with the computer, and everything to do with devices of all types. Mainly, television sets that look and feel EXACTLY like our current TV sets, only instead of shows being pumped in by broadcast it will be broadband. The experience for the viewer will (or should) be mostly the same. Second to this, other devices can and will be used to watch TV — tablets, handhelds (aka smart phones), etc. The internet was designed to do this from the get go — in really geeky terms this is called “DEVICE AGNOSTIC,” meaning you can access the internet via all kinds of things. Even furry stuffed animals if someone’s so inclined to make them.

More than likely, the new development of tablet PCs currently taking place will usher in the internet-based TV boom versus internet-based TV sets. It doesn’t have to be this way but TV set manufacturers aren’t moving to do it. I would say this will take place between one and three years, depending on how well device makers can help users adapt and adopt once their products hit the market, and what kind of relationships they can create with networks. What must be avoided is automatically assuming that users will not pay for content, that they’ll only pay small amounts, that you need to use the “trialware” (aka, freemium) model, etc. People are trained to do and accept things — TV business MUST understand this, and train its audience accordingly. It should also NOT be made a long tail play — do not screw yourselves by thinking users will only pay for individual shows, etc. TV business is at the start of its market’s disruption and has time and room to make the right decisions. It won’t always be this way. Given this, it would be wise for the industry to start really looking at how to make that move as quick and painless as possible, and lead the users not the other way around. There’ll need to be some thought into how people will access shows and how to migrate networks’ existing audiences — and again, there should not be any assumptions. Chances are, it’ll be exactly as they do now: By going to your channel. Only now your channel is going to be sitting on the internet platform versus broadcast TV. Same world, different platform. I would say that we will see the full migration to internet-based television within five years, eliminating the broadcast TV platform nearly entirely.

The internet is a platform, like TV, print, telephone, etc. and platform business rules apply. Failing to see this and moving accordingly will kill your industry. For TV business, there is still time.

6:19am  |   URL: http://patriciahandschiegel.tumblr.com/post/219044873/heres-the-answer-tv-business
FILED UNDER: digital hollywood 

I'll Be Speaking At MIT's Futures Of Entertainment

I’ll be speaking at the Massachusettes Institute of Technology’s “Futures of Entertainment 4” conference next month in Boston. I’m on the “From Franchising to Co-Creation” panel on Friday, November 20. We’ll be talking about the business challenges of creating transmedia projects. Super exciting! If you’re in Boston, come say hi!

3:34am  |   URL: http://patriciahandschiegel.tumblr.com/post/218959494/ill-be-speaking-at-mits-futures-of-entertainment
October 20, 2009
Pregame before the panel at Digital Hollywood today with Meghan

Pregame before the panel at Digital Hollywood today with Meghan

8:08pm  |   URL: http://patriciahandschiegel.tumblr.com/post/218700140/pregame-before-the-panel-at-digital-hollywood
FILED UNDER: digital hollywood 
As Meg says, Louboutins mean business (at Digital Hollywood today)

As Meg says, Louboutins mean business (at Digital Hollywood today)

8:07pm  |   URL: http://patriciahandschiegel.tumblr.com/post/218698977/as-meg-says-louboutins-mean-business-at-digital
FILED UNDER: christian louboutin digital hollywood 

What I Had To Say At Digital Hollywood Today

I spent the day at the Digital Hollywood conference in Santa Monica today, where I was a speaker on a panel about content creation and business for the Writer’s Guild. The panel was stacked with such amazing people, including The Guild web series creator and amazing talent/business girl Felicia Day, Prom Queen/Big Fantastic’s Doug Cheney and many others from both the traditional and digital side of TV. I come into markets from the perspective of internet telecom and platform business, with content production and creation second and synergistic to it. I’m working on figuring out the way to get video off The Flip to my Mac. I’ll upload to YouTube in a bit and link it here.

8:04pm  |   URL: http://patriciahandschiegel.tumblr.com/post/218696443/what-i-had-to-say-at-digital-hollywood-today
FILED UNDER: digital hollywood 
October 18, 2009

Let Me Break It Down For You, Magazines and Newspapers

Print media is a platform. Platforms were and continue to be created for one of two reasons: Either to distribute information or enable communication. Go past the immediate idea of what print media is and you’ll understand that ultimately it was created to inform people. This means insignificant things like Jon and Kate’s relationship issues that nobody cares about, and important things like what to do if a bomb goes off in your city. The latter is what the government, etc. had in mind when they created your platform. When it’s not being used for something important, it’s free to entertain society (or in today’s world, make many look and act stupid). Enter the internet. It too is a platform. Same purpose, same reason for being here. Why it is better for distributing information than print media? Because if something happened — a disaster, attack, etc. — in a city, print media would more than likely be either limited or completely unable to distribute information. People would be either limited or unable to access it. The government of a society would have an issue with this, of course (or it should). The internet solves this. It would reroute itself around any disaster by its own design and important information society needs to know would reach society so that people can act. Not even television can do this. This is why the internet platform is here.

If there were a disaster, the internet would maintain a society’s ability to communicate and distribute information. This is why it will replace the majority of PRINTED information. It is very important for you, media business, to understand that there is nothing — and I do mean nothing — you can do to stop this. Your choice is either adapt, or go out of business. By the looks of your market, you’re picking option #2. That’s too bad. You could actually be benefiting enormously. The internet reduces your overhead printing costs. It can enable you to reach a larger audience. It requires less manpower, further lowering your overhead. You alone made the decision to give away your content for free online, under the false idea that somehow people wouldn’t pay for it. You failed to realize that success online solely and squarely depends on the ability to build an audience, and sold yourself out to aggregators under the false idea it’d drive you traffic. Had you seen the internet for what it was, and what it was ultimately going to do, you wouldn’t have made such foolish decisions. Imagine the outcome if you hadn’t.

So what can you do now? Time is running out for you to make a move, that’s for certain. Whereas in the past, the internet wasn’t ready to take over our entire communications and information distribution platforms. Today, it is. The only thing that holds it back is the ignorance (lack of understanding) of those who make decisions across all markets. You don’t have to be one of them. In fact, you’re better off — what will be will be regardless of them. First, your focus must shift. Stop fixating on social networks, stop fixating on trends — these things will not matter in the future. They’re tools for you to use, not the answer. Just two years ago, MySpace was all the rage if you might remember — trust me when I say you’ll see things change again. Start focusing on YOU and MOVING YOUR EXISTING CUSTOMERS to YOU on the internet. Success on the internet platform (or any platform) is all about CREATING A CUSTOMER BASE. You should know how to do this. Customers are not traffic. Do not believe the people in the market who say “people won’t pay for content.” There is more proof that people will than not. Not one person who has said this has cited anything concrete or conducted any research to support that people won’t pay for content. A poll on a blog doesn’t count — if someone isn’t polling the mass consumer base in a meaningful, accurate way, then it’s not worth paying attention to. It should not even come to this. Subscription content has existed over platforms forever because people choose to pay for it. Nothing has changed here. Create value and you’ll find a customer willing to pay for it.

As far as mobile goes, the internet is designed to be device agnostic. It’s not a “mobile” play exactly — it can be fixed too. Don’t make the mistake of bum rushing a “trend.” Going “mobile” without a customer base will equal failure. Create a customer base, and you can do all of that and more so focus on it first. You have MBA grads running your companies at nice fat salaries. There is no reason why they are failing you. Either make them learn or help them learn, or replace them. Your failure is your fault, not the internet’s. Fix it.

9:47am  |   URL: http://patriciahandschiegel.tumblr.com/post/216403760/let-me-break-it-down-for-you-magazines-and-newspapers
(No. OF NOTES: 1)