Friday, December 1, 2006

Hey, Save Some Trees

Before getting started.... I will be adding new features to the blog as time passes. I have just added an rss feature as well as an email subscription. It's fun. It's convenient, and you won't miss a word.

OK. I have to say at the outset that I have long been a fan of magazines. I think they're great and I tend to buy more than I can usually read, and I sometimes even buy them at newsstand rates. But I think that magazines are in danger of becoming an endangered species unless they get over the fixation on paper. Fewer people are buying magazines and they're becoming a harder sell to advertisers. Time Magazine recently announced that it's cutting its rate base and circulation, and Jeff Jarvis' BuzzMachine has some very interesting things to say about the future of magazines.

Magazines have to start thinking of themselves as media brands. I believe that there will always be a place for paper, perhaps not in the same format that we find them now, but many of the brands out there have tremendous credibility and history. People will read the content -- in print or online -- or watch it or listen to it in other formats.

The recent evidence out there is that magazines are not making the most of the other distribution models out there. Even newspapers are doing it better if you look at the chart.
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The Bivings Group (via BuzzMachine and paidContent.org) reports that magazines have a long way to go, and possibly not too much time, to save themselves from irrelevancy and/or bankruptcy. It's a report worth having a look at. There's money on the table. It's just not in paper.

Thursday, November 30, 2006

In The Beginning....

November 30, 2006

Well, it's about time! It's about time for me to start a blog and about time to get something going on the subject of multi-platform media. This blog is about the phenomenon of content as it appears in many guises, both as traditional and new media. My sense is that in this rapidly evolving landscape of media as we know it we're not going to be looking at media in isolation as much as media as it all fits together. You won't be looking at a TV show as much as a brand. For example, if you want to see The Office you can get it on TV, on DVD, on iPod, online, etc. and it will be slightly different in each form.

Anyway, they'll be time enough to sort all of that out. I'll send out posts on interesting developments out there in multi-platform land and my take on them. I also hope to hear from all of you out there.

About me.... Well, I am an attorney and was for many years a television producer for ABC News Nightline before I started my own production company. Just this past year I founded a company, Gotham Media Ventures, a strategic communications/pr company focused on developing content and campaigns across, you guessed it, multiple media platforms. I'm sure you'll be hearing more about this in the days ahead.

Mobile is a platform that is right now at the cutting edge. The cutting edge here, but already well advanced in both Europe and Asia. Consider these numbers.... Apple has sold 60 million iPods, but there are now over two billion cell phone users in the world. One billion cell phones will have been shipped in 2006 alone.

Today's news about Vodafone could well shape the future of advertising on mobile. Starting in the UK, Vodafone is partnering with Yahoo! to target customers. There isn't a lot of info yet, but the cellphone company will be using customer information provided by to target consumers. Not to worry, users will have to opt in to the program.

That's it for now. It's only the beginning....