Can Investigative Journalism Survive?
In case you’ve been living in a bubble the past several years, you’re well aware that the newspaper industry isn’t exactly doing very well these days. Where newspapers once dominated our media landscape as the main source of news and information, today they have become overwhelmed by the dramatic and unstoppable force of technology and the web in ways never before seen. Radio and of course television changed the face of the media significantly, but over the years newspapers and other print media were able to find ways to stay relevant as well as profitable.
But this most recent era of change has sadly brought into serious question the basic long-term viability of the daily newspaper. Lots of concerned folks, such as Paul Gillin over at Newspaper Death Watch, are watching this issue closely, pondering what’s next and mulling the short-sightedness of investors like Bruce Sherman, who view the media as just another opportunity to make some cash, ignoring its vital role as public watchdog and the backbone of a free democracy.
One particular value that the newspaper had the unique position of delivering was world-changing investigative reporting on issues that were too complex, risky or costly for broadcast or new media to tackle. I’m talking about Pulitzer Price winning journalism such as the Chicago Tribune’s exposure of faulty governmental regulation of toys, car seats and cribs and the Hartford Courant’s exposé on suicide among American soldiers in Iraq, leading to policy change to address mental health problems amongst military personnel.
Ever since Knight-Ridder was forced to sell and divest its once-formidable newspaper holdings in 2006 by frustrated shareholders looking to cash out, I’ve been worried about who’s going to take on this important societal role. Investigative journalism is an often thankless, tedious and expensive proposition, and you never know if there’s even going to be a story in the end. So naturally, as newspapers have struggled and been forced to cut costs, this is one of the first areas to be slashed.
But, a few months ago at a VentureBeat party, I met a young ex-journalist named David Cohn who had the germs of an idea that got me excited about how we can help make sure someone’s keeping tabs on the bad guys. Cohn, a former tech and science reporter for Wired, has created and is getting ready to launch Spot.Us with the goal of creating a new business model that can sustain local investigative journalism. The basic idea is this: a freelance reporter will come up with an issue he wants to follow and proposes a budget for how much it will cost to develop. The idea is then percolated within Spot.Us, where donations from the public can be pledged and processed. Once the goal is met, the story gets launched.
“This is a way for the community to come together to help fund investigative journalism through small donations,” says Cohn. “If you get 100 people to give just $15, that’s enough to pay a journalist to do a story on something that will benefit the community.”
Once the project is finished, it will then be given away to news organizations who can run it at no cost both in print and online. If a news outlet wants exclusive access to the material, they then pay back the original donors, who can then donate to another story being proposed.
Everyone benefits in this scenario: The paper gets free, compelling content that they no longer have the resources to support, helping to keep and draw in readers; the journalists get paid for writing stories that interest them; and society has a system in which more in-depth, investigative journalism can survive.
Ironically, Cohn is building Spot.Us with the help of a grant from the Knight-Ridder Foundation, a remnant of the once-mighty media conglomerate that is dedicated to promoting journalism and supporting the 26 communities where the company formerly operated.
Cohn and his network of freelancers have some interesting early stories in the queue, starting in the Bay Area, which is their first area of focus. The first proposed piece aims to explore whether cement plants can clean up their environmentally unfriendly practices and stay in business, or if they will simply move out of California to less eco-sensitive States and keep on polluting. The story is currently 61% funded and needs another 14 donors to give $10.
A second story is one that I’m sure all of us are concerned about: the credibility of political advertisements (is that an oxymoron?). Newsdesk.org editor Josh Wilson is interested in examining all of the political ads in San Francisco headed our way in the weeks leading up to the election. The story is 75% funded and needs only $500 more to meet its goal. I can’t think of a much better cause than keeping the political manipulators in check. If not these folks, then who?
Update 8/27/08
Great news! Josh Wilson’s story about the political ads was just fully funded and will go forward. Look forward to seeing what Josh finds out; hopefully it helps keep the political marketers in check and the voters educated.
Read David’s enthusiastic note here.
What Tech Media Is Talking About
Here at LaunchSquad, it’s vital that we stay on top of all the latest trends (and the newest buzzwords) in the tech industry. My colleagues and I typically get a feel for what’s hot by constantly keeping tabs on what the media is talking about and watching the emerging (and maturing) markets our clients are involved in. I recently worked on a project that included studying what the top technology trade publications are covering and found the results really interesting.
The research process was clearly imperfect, but all things considered, I think they provide a pretty accurate look at what IT topics are being covered the most these days. To get the data, I took about 20 of the most common terms and industry categories and searched the sites of nine popular trade outlets (i.e. InformationWeek, Network World, ZDNet, CIO Magazine) to find out which ones were most popular. A couple terms appeared so few times, they didn’t make the final list (accounted for in the “other” category), but the following 12 topics are frequently discussed – some more than others – in IT media.
Hot Topics in Tech Trades
Marketing and PR folks like ourselves can come up with as many catchy terms as we’d like, but one thing that will never change is that security will always be a top-of-mind issue amongst IT professionals. Our research results show a whopping 20 percent of stories addressing the topic, more than any other. Security has always been and will continue to be important to people, in technology of course, but across virtually all facets of society – automotive, airline, finance, government – people want to feel secure, and the same goes for the IT world.
Storage is tied as the second most discussed topic with 14 percent of the total. As Internet and business needs continue to grow, companies will always need additional storage to keep up with the demand, and it will therefore continue to be a highly relevant topic in IT. One example is LaunchSquad client Ocarina, which optimizes online storage for media-rich, digital files and images, clearly an emerging problem as online data grows exponentially with increased bandwidth and Internet ubiquity.
Virtualization is admittedly a broad term, which probably accounts for it also coming in at 14 percent. But all things point to this being a very important and timely issue that is of increasing interest to CIOs and IT managers. We’ll hear more and more about this topic as the push to virtualize additional IT resources like desktops, servers and storage continues. Some believe this trend is part of a “perfect storm” brewing within IT, so it’ll be quite interesting to see how the topic progresses. Look for some exciting stuff on this issue soon from new LaunchSquad client Precise Software Solutions.
A result we found particularly interesting is that SaaS (and its sister cloud computing) generated almost five times as much coverage than enterprise software. While SaaS has been a growing slice of the enterprise software market, these numbers would suggest its popularity is driving the software market, which aligns with most projections that the future of software will be dominated by on-demand models. Good news for our SaaS clients, SuccessFactors, Daptiv, InsideView and Awareness.
As we’ve discussed previously on Exclamation, cloud computing is an increasingly used buzzword and is getting more attention in IT media. Cloud computing has technically been around for a while as it refers to anything that uses the Internet to allow people to connect to technological services. With just three percent of market share in the IT trades, we expect that number to increase as IT shops get more comfortable with the concept and its benefits.
All in all, a pretty interesting overview of what’s truly hot in the tech space. It might not be true in the tech industry that “one day you’re in and the next day you’re out,” but trends do come and go as new technologies emerge and companies continue to grow and adapt to the constantly evolving needs of their business.
NHL Goes Interactive, and Social
For those who don’t know me from Adam, I’m a bit of a hockey fanatic. Over the past few years, it’s been exciting to see the National Hockey League undergo some pretty significant changes and growth, especially in the wake of the heartbreaking loss of the ‘04-05 season due to a labor dispute. I recently had an interesting conversation with old friend/colleague Mike Dilorenzo, who works in the NHL communications deptartment, and discussed some things the league is working on as they prepare for the ‘08-09 campaign.
The NHL is in a unique situation among the major team sports. On one hand it has perhaps the most loyal and energetic fan base of any sport; the league played to over 93% capacity last season despite very high ticket prices, and more than 260 million watched their hometown teams on local TV. However, hockey remains a largely regionalized sport that has failed to capture the imagination of the casual American sports fan.
Another huge factor the league faces is the displacement of a large percentage of its fans. According to Dilorenzo, between 40-60% of a given team’s fans no longer live in the market their team plays. “For example, Hartford Whalers fans living in San Francisco,” Mike says, a little dig at yours truly. “If we are only reaching the fans on a local level, we are missing out on half the audience. So it’s important to take a more national approach where the league is the overarching brand and we are building off the local passion we have.”
The league has a very deliberate strategy to increase exposure and revenues that is focused on getting their loyal fans to interact more with its various properties and products, especially those on the web. “We’re focused on building incremental behavior off of the behavior that’s already shown to be quite strong,” says Dilorenzo, a former prep hockey player and high school coach. The league is developing new platforms and refreshing or enhancing old ones, such as last season’s launch of the NHL Network in the U.S., a 24/7 cable television network that now reaches 80 million households and broadcasts a nightly wrap-up show during the season, documentaries and classic games.
The wrap-up show was desperately needed in my opinion; coming out of the lockout the league switched from ESPN as its primary TV rights holder to upstart Versus (then known as Outdoor Life Network/OLN). While Versus has gradually improved its exposure and broadcast quality, one huge negative impact was a loss of attention from the world’s top sports media property (remember NHL2night?), especially from its flagship SportsCenter program. Despite outrageous claims by ESPN to the contrary, SportsCenter has sadly evolved into a marketing vehicle for its (and its sister networks) other content. In the last few years, the amount of time spent on NHL highlights and news has fallen drastically, while exposure for its newer properties such as the NFL, NBA and NASCAR has skyrocketed. Hmmm, very curious. In any case, the NHL is looking to provide direct access to its fans and ratchet up the engagement through its own network where it has control over content and distribution. Smart move: hockey goals, saves and hits provide some of the most exciting highlight footage and I really missed seeing it on SportsCenter.
NHL.com is also in the midst of a significant overhaul that will be launched in conjunction with the upcoming season. Two specific programs are the launch of what Dilorenzo calls “the Holy Grail of fantasy games,” as well as some significantly expanded social networking features that will make it easier for fans to interact with each other and enable popular content to bubble up to the surface. A new live streaming game product will also be unveiled.
Ok, so what’s the NHL trying to do to win over new fans – a constant challenge given the fact that hockey is just not ingrained into most Americans lives, which makes it difficult to follow the flow of play (esp on TV) and appreciate the incredible athleticism required to excel at the game? The main approach is to develop new programs such as the immensely successful New Year’s Day Winter Classic (v2 of which will take place at Wrigley Field between the Hawks and Wings), and a first-of-its-kind kick-off event to take place in a to-be-named Original Six city this fall when the season opens.
“As we build out additional products, there is a novelty factor that we think can also pull in casual or new fans,” says Dilorenzo. “We also want to develop more pervasiveness with our messages, online through all of our inventory, through broadcast rights holders, and also through corporate marketing sponsors.” One example to look for is a national hockey-themed crossover promotion from Bud Light, one of the league’s top sponsors (hopefully this does not include that new lime-infused “beer”).
Of course as with virtually any modern business these days, technology is at the heart of the NHL’s growth strategy. The league has deployed an industrial strength customer/fan database, analytics from Omniture and commerce capabilities from GSI Commerce to become much smarter about how to engage with its fans and create those always-elusive one-to-one relationships.
Says Dilorenzo, “One of the most important things we’ve done is the formation of NHL Direct [the direct marketing group] and the creation of our relational database under one roof. Our fan database grew by 30% last year, and the quality of the information is also growing. More people are giving us their email, postal address, favorite team. Even for casual fans when we can get that from them and apply some analytics then we can serve them more relevant messaging.”
The NHL sure has come a long way since the pre-Gary Bettman era when marketing meant throwing free pucks in the stands after the pre-game skate.
The Revamping of Spectatorship
There is an energy and excitement stirring, the kind that happens every four years. Yes, the summer Olympic games have returned and in full force, bringing with them the usual feelings of anticipation, nationalism as well as enough controversy to hearken memories of the 1936 Berlin games when Hitler and the Nazis watched Jesse Owens win a gold medal for the long jump.
Despite the controversy, though, this year’s games will probably be well-watched as always. Why do we watch?
1. Bob Costas.
2. The anticipation of moments like this:
3. Watching other humans perform feats we can only dream of.
4. The sheer mystery of how the make-up stays on the synchronized swimmers.
This year, though, we watch because we can: The world is the smallest its ever been and the global conversation is at its loudest and most relentless with mobile technology and live video streaming.
The Associated Press reports “[NBC] is planning to make 2,200 hours of streaming video available on NBCOlympics.com. Consumers may also get video on demand via their computer and Olympics content through their mobile phones.”
USA TODAY reports that this is also the first year that the athletes themselves were allowed to blog about their experiences and many were supplied by Lenovo with computers and video cameras to document their stories.
The article also talked about Bank of America’s efforts in “viral rooting” and their site called AmericasCheer.com. The idea is that fans can record videos of themselves cheering and as well as well-wishing photos and post them on the sites for the athletes to see.
This is, in many ways, profound. Suddenly new technology adds a reciprocal element to the tradition that has been missing for centuries. Not only can spectators watch the events, they can now interact with the Olympians.
This year, thanks to the explosion of blogs and podcasts as a medium, the games become a discussion and a forum. For the first time, the games can be simultaneously enjoyed, celebrated, inspired and for some, whose teams do not win those coveted medals, endured.
Why Facebook Is Such a Big Deal
The way I see it, there are four types of people when it comes to Facebook:
1) Those that use it for fun and to stay connected to friends (”The Kids”).
2) Those that use it for both fun and practical purposes (”The Pros”).
3) Those that try to use it in a half-hearted way and just don’t get it (”The Cynics”).
4) People who will just never use it (”The Naysayers”).
I’m in the Pros group, and way off to the practical side of things (please please don’t SuperPoke me, send me flair or buy me a gift that I can do nothing with, although thanks for thinking of me). When I started getting into it last year, I quickly got excited about the long-term implications that everyone being on Facebook would enable. It seems that barring some huge disaster (like one 10 times worse than the Beacon fiasco) Facebook is going to become a central portal - for virtually everyone that uses a computer and has an email address anyway - for connecting and communicating with the people you know. Nonetheless, I still struggle to successfully explain this to The Cynics and The Naysayers, of which there are still many tens of millions.
So the other day, I had a very simple Facebook experience that really highlighted to me how powerful this social networking thing is. I was getting ready for the day, turned on my iPhone and went to my Facebook app after checking email. I have some problems with what Facebook has made available on the iPhone app, and how they have formatted things, but that’s another story. In any case, the home page basically lists the recent status updates (or Tweets) of folks I’m connected to. While it’s fun and oftentimes amusing to read through what people are up to or thinking about that day, I was amazed at how much useful information I got in a matter of just a minute or two. For example, I learned:
- A client was on vacation.
- A friend was about to have a second child (ok, so not a great friend) and he set up a Twitter account to use from the delivery room. Great idea.
- A high school pal runs a fantasy hockey league and is looking for new managers. Sign me up!
- I missed my friend’s birthday. Whoops.
- I was reminded that I needed to get in touch with a potential client.
- Apparently my cousin has a Harley. Who knew? Need to catch a ride next time I’m in Connecticut.
- Brussel sprouts and pancetta is a great dish. Should try that out sometime.
Facebook may never find a profitable way to monetize that huge user base, at least not to the tune of a $15 billion valuation, but man is it a great everyday tool. The imminent ubiquity of social networking (and I think perhaps even just Facebook) will have as profound an impact on behavior as email and web commerce did.
Cool or Scary? You Decide
What you see above is an image from a video the British Broadcasting Company put together using GPS and video imaging to track “the great migrations across our landscape.” The BBC took the GPS trails of taxis in London, freighters in the British Channel and planes flying in and out of Heathrow Airport, then superimposed their routes over composite images of different areas in England. The result? A beautiful pastiche of human travel and movement that’s both interesting and visually stunning. The network also stitched together the call patterns of England’s cell phone users down to the second, producing an image that looks like a blooming flower as London awakens.
It’s very cool, but also a bit weird. You know that GPS unit in your car that tells you how to get from downtown to that flower shop in the Marina you love? Or how about the cool, new GPS unit in your iPhone that let’s you see exactly how close you are to that obscure alley in Telegraph Hill you’re hunting for? If the BBC can do that, be sure the government can do a lot more. Not to fasten the tinfoil hat too tight, but there’s definitely a question here about what information companies and the government can use and what they do with it. It’s that way with all technologies, but the GPS phenomenon makes the argument a bit more real. After all, it’s about where you’re standing – right now.
A few years back, rapper Mos Def had the same thought:
Fourty percent of Americans own a cell phone
so they can hear everything that you say when you ain’t home
I guess, Michael Jackson was right, “You Are Not Alone”
With new technology, comes new problems. Stick around, this one will be with us for a while.
Dr. Horrible: A Whiff of the Future?
Joss Whedon’s online musical “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog,” starring Neil Patrick Harris as a geeky, weirdly idealist villain is not like anything I’ve seen on the web. Made during the writer’s strike on a super-low budget, it is just slick enough to rise above most of what can be found on YouTube. At the same time, it’s not quite TV. For one thing, it can’t be seen on television–it’s available for free on Hulu and the Dr. Horrible fan site, and can be purchased through iTunes. For another, it’s aimed squarely at the online audience.
References to blogging are knitted into the fabric of the story from beginning to end. The premise of the show is that we’re watching Dr. Horrible’s personal video blog (or “vlog” as they’re sometimes called). Considering how truly awful most vlogs are, this is a very funny premise. Harris even makes the kinds of moves that you often see on the part of vloggers, like looking down at the screen as if to check how he’s doing, staring into space, searching for something to say, and so on.
The character of Dr. Horrible has a mad scientist personality that of course draws on old comic book stereotypes, but is also very much in line with today’s Internet trolls, as profiled recently in the New York Times Magazine. He is evil, but with a sense of purpose fueled by anger at the mediocrity of the masses. He wants “social change” and “anarchy–that I run.” When his attempt at stealing gold bars from a bank goes wrong in the transmatter process, he defensively notes that the point isn’t getting money, but taking it away. His arch-nemesis, the shallow, jocky Captain Hammer played by Nathan Fillion, he refers to as “Captain Hammer, corporate tool.”
Get it? This is an inside joke for the geeks who swarm the net, and they have responded so enthusiastically that the day the show was made available, they crashed the site. According to Wired, “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog” was getting 200,000 hits an hour that day. The remarkable thing about it is that Whedon, while well known for directing such offbeat TV hits as Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Serenity, and Firefly, didn’t do all that much to promote this particular piece of work. He didn’t need to. It spread in that peculiar way that good stuff online seems to–I myself found that I just “knew” it would be on, and when. (I sensibly waited a few days and then watched it for free on Hulu.)
All of which points to the possibility that finally the day is arriving when major talent is willing to expend energy on projects like this, knowing full well that they’re not necessarily going to be highly profitable, or become long-term TV propositions. There is a giddiness in this — a sense that all the wacky ideas that wouldn’t or couldn’t quite fit into the dimensions of the idiot box can now be set free to roam around the net unchained, like pets gone feral and wild. Time will tell where this will all lead. For now, I’m happy to have something fun to sing along with.
Can CC Sabathia Save Print?
CC Sabathia, the former dominant starting pitcher for the Cleveland Indians (and born and raised in the Bay Area) was recently traded to the Milwaukee Brewers and took out a full page ad in the Cleveland Plain Dealer on Wednesday thanking the city for 10 great years.
Shaquille O’Neal was traded to the Miami heat from the Los Angeles Lakers in 2004 and soon after his departure, took out a full page ad in the LA Times to thank the fans and the city (probably not Kobe though).
So if this becomes a trend, if athletes that are traded, or retire, start taking out full page print ads in the local newspapers, could this somehow save print? Maybe it’s time for ad sales to shift their efforts to something that the economy has very little effect on, apparently — professional athlete’s salaries.
Math is not my strong suit, but if we take CC’s $11,000,000 salary this year and and assume he starts about 30 games and throws around 100 pitches per game, he only had to throw 3.5 pitches to pay for the $12,870 ad he bought. Yeah, he didn’t even have to actually fully-throw that fourth pitch…
