Robert Niles: November 2009 archive
How thankful are you for your role in journalism today?
November 27, 2009
Here's my shout-out to all you fellow journalists, working today instead of hitting the malls, sleeping in or lounging on the couch, like the rest of America today.(Okay, I suppose some of you have been assigned to covering folks at the mall, but still....)
Allow me to turn things over to you today. How are you feeling about your journalism career, as the first decade of the 21st century moves toward its finish? How thankful are you for your role in journalism today?
More...
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Microsoft and News Corp. are pursuing yesterday's solution to today's challenges
November 24, 2009
News Corp.'s alleged plan to shield its online content from Google's search engine in favor of having it indexed by Microsoft's Bing is a brilliant content business strategy... for the 20th Century.But, today, it illustrates just the latest example of backward-thinking by legacy media executives who've been left lost and clueless by the Internet revolution.
Microsoft needs to do something to distinguish Bing from market leader Google. (And simply renaming its Live search engine didn't get that done.) News Corp., like any business looking for growth, wants to find a new source of revenue.
So, instead of making its content available for indexing on all search engines, News Corp. could decide to make it available only to one search index, in exchange for payment or some other consideration from that search engine's owner. On the surface, the deal makes great sense for both sides: News Corp. gets cash (or some other payment of value) and Microsoft gets unique content in its search results - pages that readers can't find elsewhere.
That's the way many successful content deals have happened in the past. Think how sports leagues sell broadcast rights to their games to selected networks or channels. Or how cable and satellite companies have split popular channels across several packages, "encouraging" customers to move up to more expensive subscription tiers. It's all about exchanging cash for access.
But that model is beginning to fail. More...
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Walt Disney vs. the news industry: How bad management is killing newspapers and their websites
November 20, 2009
I've attended many journalism conferences over the years, but our industry offers nothing like the event I attended this week. As many of you might know, my primary job these days is running a theme park news website that I founded nearly a decade ago. So this week I drove up to Las Vegas for the theme park industry's largest annual event, the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions' Expo.What does this have to do with journalism, you ask? Nothing.
Which is everything. (Hang with me, okay?)
Wednesday afternoon, a source I've had a good relationship with introduced me to several former Walt Disney Co. employees who are now legends within the theme park industry. Each worked with Walt Disney himself, and had gathered for a panel discussion about Walt's management style. The question they were to answer was... what could Walt Disney's approach toward management teach today's industry leaders?
Plenty. And not just in the amusement business. Walt Disney's management philosophy contrasts sharply with contemporary management practices in the news industry, especially within "legacy" media companies. Might I suggest that difference in long-standing management tradition helps explain the sharp contrast between the recent financial performance of the Walt Disney Company and the newspaper industry? Disney today enjoys a market capitalization of nearly $55 billion, and its share price is up 13% over the past five years.
How many newspaper companies can report that?
So let's look at how Walt did things, and compare that with how things are done in the news business. More...
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Starting your news website: How to get the most promotional value from Twitter
November 13, 2009
Thank you to everyone who sent along comments about my last piece, Starting your news website: A checklist for students and mid-career beginners. In response to a few comments, today I'm going more in-depth on how to most effectively use a promotional channel for a news website - specifically, how to get the most from Twitter.A Twitter feed provides one more forum for you to show the best of your site's work to an audience. Ideally, the Twitter feed should encourage people to click to your website, as well as to use their Twitter feeds to spread the word about your feed (and your website and brand), to other readers you haven't attracted yet.
Again, these tips are designed for beginners to social media - journalism students or mid-career legacy media journalists who are making the switch to online publishing. If you are an online news veteran, well... click the comment button and share your best advice, too! More...
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