smays.com

The truth about switching

This post purports to be an "honest word about what it's like to switch" to a Mac. It certainly mirrors my experience. My favorite was #13: "You'll be amazed at how little there is to modify"

"I was the ultimate tweaker in Windows - registry entries, options, toolbar buttons - and was taken aback at how few things there are to tweak on the Mac. At first it seemed to be restrictive, but I've realized it has actually freed me to do things other than tweaking, like work on this website."

If you're thinking about getting a Mac, this is worth a read.

Towel Art

I've stayed in a few nice hotels so this is not the first time I've seen hotel towels folded and arranged in a pleasing manner. But someone in Guest Services here at the Country Inn and Suites (Knoxville) is the Michelangelo of towel folders. I kept using the same towel and wash cloth because I didn't want to ruin this arrangement. (I did remove one hand cloth before taking this shot)

Then I started wondering how this works from a practical standpoint. Is there just one person who knows how to do this? And he/she races from room to room every day? Or do they require all new hires to learn how to do this? Six weeks of Advanced Towel Sculpture before you move on to Short-Sheeting the Bed?

I'm betting someone on the staff once worked at the Bellagio and was doing rooms one day and decided to have some fun. A supervisor spotted what she had done, called all the other maids in and announced, "Alright ladies... from now on, this is how we fold the towels."

23+ hours in the air

It took me 5-6 hours to drive from Jefferson City to Nashville and less than 4 hours from Nashville to Knoxville [blue line]. I was feeling noble for making the drive to see my brother...until he related his flight.

Bandar Lampung (Indonesia) to Jakarta - 30 min
Jakarta to Singapore - 90 min
Singapore to Tokyo - 7 hours
Tokyo to Detroit - 11 hours
Detroit to Knoxville - 1 hour and change [larger image]

He's been doing this for years and usually with three kids in tow. He's a hard guy to rattle. And if you need to know how to bribe a corrupt third-world customs official, he's your guy. I'm just hoping I can find my way back to Jefferson City.

Like a bad marriage

Kathy Sierra blogs about Creating Passionate Users and says too many companies are like bad marriages:

"It's been said that the secret to a good marriage is... don't change. In other words, be the person you were when you were merely dating. Don't stop paying attention. Don't stop being kind. Don't gain 50 pounds. Don't stop flirting. Stay passionate, stay sexy, stay caring. Answer their calls. Unfortunately, too many companies are all candle-lit dinners, fine wine, and "let's talk about you" until the deal is sealed. Once they have you (i.e. you became a paying customer), you realize you got a bait-and-switch relationship."

This is an excellent post with great illustrations (Perfect for that Powerpoint). If you own or manage a company (or department), this is a must-read.

It's just a number, it's just a number, it's just a number

In a couple of weeks I start my Victory Lap on my 50's. In just a bit more than a year I will be...(scream it with me)...SIXTY YEARS OLD!! In preparation for a birthday post, I wondered who else is 59 years old and googled accordingly.

You can read all the scholarly articles here. I choose not to.

Listeners of tomorrow are online today

Jerry Del Colliano, Professor of Music Industry at USC and founder of Inside Radio, offers still another warning to radio broadcasters:

"When universal WiFi or its equivalent is available and consumers can take the Internet with them then it's all over for radio. Ditto for satellite radio. That is, of course, assuming that terrestrial radio broadcasters don't have an epiphany soon and decide to get into the Internet radio business.

Radio and the merged satellite radio company need to get into the Internet radio business now because tomorrow Internet radio will be the next radio. Why? Because that's where the listeners will be and universal WiFi will make it all possible." [via RAIN]

I'm tempted to email Mr. Del Colliano and ask if this applies equally to small and large market broadcasters. But I'm afraid of the answer.

Light blogging for a few days

Although the wifi here at the Best Western on the outskirts of Nashville is pretty good. Family time with Brother Blane in Knoxville (which is 4 hours from Nashville!). Then a long haul back across the state and on to Kennett for a quick in-and-out.

Side Note: When I went to the motel desk to get change I asked why the night clerk was not watching the Oscars. "Oh, I'm glued to the Anna Nicole Smith story," she explained. If they could keep the body cold enough, long enough... this could rival the OJ Trial.

Most creative media job posting ever

Lost Remote points us to this very clever and effective job posting (for an editor) at The Roanoke Times.

Now, compare that to the job listings at your company. Or my company. Can we do more creative ads? Absolutely. But nobody has ever asked for one. Would we get better candidates with postings like this? Maybe.

Apple iPhone teaser ad airs during Oscar telecast

The advertisement started with a collection of scenes from television and film with actors saying "Hello" on a telephone. The scenes are played in rapid succession, and the iPhone appears on the screen. Then a black screen with the words: "Hello" ... then ... "Coming in June" and finally an Apple logo.

Simple and brilliant. Lots of folks pissing on the iPhone but let's talk again in December.

User-generated videos most popular on YouTube

According to research company HitWise, user-generated videos are more popular on the Youtube than commercial videos. Oh yeah, in February online traffic to YouTube was more than all television network websites combined. [Podcasting News]

NASA procedure for nuts in space

"If you're a NASA astronaut and you totally flip out in space, your crewmates are instructed to restrain you with duct tape, tie you down with bungee cords, and inject you with the anti-psychotic drug Haldol or a tranquilizer like Valium. The plan is outlined in 1,000+ page document that the Associated Press obtained this week outlining how to deal with medical emergencies." [Boing Boing]

For just a micro-second, I considered inserting the NASA instructions in the Learfield Employee Manual, just to see how long it took someone to discover and report.

Blogging makes you respectful and clear

Seth Godin explains two of the biggest benefits of blogging:

"The act of writing a blog changes people, especially business people. The first thing it does is change posture. Once you realize that no HAS to read your blog, that you can't MAKE them read your blog, you approach writing with humility and view readers with gratitude. The second thing it does is force you to be clear. If you write something that's confusing or in shorthand, you fail.

Respectful and clear. That's a lot to get out of something that doesn't take much time."

I've been dealing with clients and customers for 35 years and there's no question that the past five years of blogging has made me better at it.

Gumbo Bottoms

Jefferson City has a new watering hole and Scott Brandon led a contingent of Learfielders downtown this evening to check it out. We'll let the proprietor, Andy Neidert, give you the elevator speech (video).

This is a different kind of place and --if opening night is any indication-- a big hit. It's a tiny place, in the best tradition of Big City hot spots but nobody seemed to mind. Nice ratio of servers to clientele. Never had to wait for a drink. Non-smoking. Micro brews. My new Favorite Place to Have a Drink in Jefferson City.

Mt. Flushmore

Longtime pal Randy Evans shares the delightful image above. It is the handiwork of one of the talented photographers at The Des Moines Register (where Randy toils as Assistant Managing Editor). Jerry Perkins, father of Learfield's John Perkins, is George Washington; Randy is in Abe Lincoln's spot and Thomas and Teddy are a couple of other Register ragamuffins. This puts my sad little effort to shame.

"Do what you do best. And you link to the rest."

That's what Jeff Jarvis calls "the new architecture of news" in an excellent post at Buzz Machine. He's writing about newspapers but it applies to any news organization:

"They try to cover everything because they used to have to be all things to all people in their markets. So they had their own reporters replicate the work of other reporters elsewhere so they could say that they did it under their own bylines as a matter of pride and propriety. It’s the way things were done. They also took wire-service copy and reedited it so they could give their audiences the world. But in the age of the link, this is clearly inefficient and unnecessary. You can link to the stories that someone else did and to the rest of the world. And if you do that, it allows you to reallocate your dwindling resources to what matters, which in most cases should be local coverage."

"Instead of saying, “we should have that” (and replicating what is already out there) you say, “what do we do best?” That is, “what is our unique value?” It means that when you sit down to see a story that others have worked on, you should ask, “can we do it better?” If not, then link. And devote your time to what you can do better."

What do our news networks do "best?" Easy. We cover the legislature and state government in our respective states. Big newspapers do a great job on this beat but not much with audio. Yet. Some TV stations jump on a story if it has local appeal (and time allows). I still think we do the audio thing best. For now.

By chance or design, our websites have had this same focus. We've stayed close to what we do best.

I won't get into pros and cons of our current network/affiliate business model. That's too big an issue for this little blog. But it begs the question: Do enough people care about the legislature and state government to give us an audience that will be attractive to advertisers?

I should add that we still attempt to cover news from throughout the state. But it's getting harder. At the same time, it's getting easier to find out what's going 500 miles away. But we are dependent on our affiliate radio stations to cover local stories of statewide significance. And many local radio stations have cut their news departments. As a statewide network, we are the sum of our affiliate parts.

I posted last month about one of our reporters killing a link (that I had added) to a "competing" news organization. Jarvis' post is for him. If a news outlet was at a press conference that we couldn't attend and posted a story, we can't be afraid to link to them. Not if we're serious about serving our listeners/readers. The fiction that "if they don't know about it, it didn't happen (yet)" doesn't fly anymore. They know about it. And we should help them know about it. Whoever does that best wins. [Thanks, David]

Put down that phone, take out those ear buds, and turn on the radio!

Bridge Ratings & Research recently concluded the second phase of its study on the media habits of 15-24 year olds and has confirmed initial perceptions that young people continue to spend less time listening to the radio as a result of increased use of the internet, cell phones and MP3 players.

The study also found that young people are spending most of their total media time (23%) online, more than watching television (22%), listening to the radio (16%) and listening to their MP3 players (19%).

Obama Mamma

I post frequently about Kay Henderson, the news director of Radio Iowa, our network in...uh, Iowa. Kay is Sheena, Queen of the Political Jungle that is Iowa (pre-election). No better place to follow politics in Iowa than Kay's blog.

I snatched this photo from The Des Moines Register because it shows Kay in her Secret Service/Stalker mode.

We get the news we deserve

Matt Taibbi is more frightened by Bush's budget than Britney's shaved head:

"Here's the thing about the system of news coverage we have today. If the Walton family, or Lee Raymond, or the heirs to the Mars fortune actually needed the news media to work better than it does now, believe me, it would work better. But they have no such need, because the system is working just fine for them as is. The people it's failing are the rest of us, and most of the rest of us, apparently, would rather sniff Anna Nicole Smith's corpse or watch Britney Spears hump a fire hydrant than find out what our tax dollars are actually paying for. Shit, when you think about it that way, why not steal from us? People that dumb don't deserve to have money."

This excellent column is a painful reminder of times I argued (with news directors) that we should give people the news they want, not the news they "need." I was more of a ratings pimp than ratings whore, but I was wrong.

Onion polls readers on sat radio merger

[The Onion]

Student Blogger Wanted

How can you make money blogging? Learfielder Len found this job posting on the Journal of Sports Media blog:

"Career Sports & Entertainment, a sports marketing and PR agency in Atlanta, is looking for qualified journalism students for a program called “AT&T SEC Snapshot." It will provide weekly coverage for SECsports.com, devoted to Olympic spring sports across the SEC. The student blogger/reporter would provide weekly articles/blogs on SECSports.com. The program is scheduled to launch in early March, so they would like to find a good candidate as soon as possible. If interested, please contact Melanie Jarrett, Career Sports & Entertainment, or 770-995-1300."

We'll see more of this. Good, experienced bloggers will be in demand. Can every MSM reporter blog? Some can. But years of traditional writing and reporting seems to rob some of the human voice that the best blogs have.

"Riverboat ring your bell"

Great post by my pal and co-worker, O. Kay Henderson:

"Soon, you may be able to hear the death knell for what was initially billed as "riverboat gambling" in Iowa. The Senate State Government Committee will meet tomorrow at 11:30 am in room 22 at the statehouse to take up a bill that will be another big moment in the long-running debate about gambling in Iowa. The bill would erase the requirement that those floating casino "barges" which are sitting on lakes be required to maintain the fantasy that the gambling casino is floating on water."

We have a similar fantasy here in Missouri. But my favorite part of Kay's post is the Maverick reference (MP3)

Why blogs matter: Reason #236

Let me preface this by saying --again-- how much I like Hy-Vee. Our local store is working hard and making a big investment to give us an even better shopping experience.

Over the noon hour, I posted about trying to take a photo in our newly remodeled store. No biggie.

Fast-forward less than 10 hours: I search Technorati (a blog search engine) for "Hy-Vee" and get 5,000+ results. My post was #3 on the list.

How many will see my post? Who knows. The point is...in 2007...every customer can be heard. When they walk out of your store, they can sit down at a computer and talk to the world about their experience with your company. Do you know what they're saying?

No pictures! No pictures!

My favorite Hy-Vee Supermarket reopened today after a year-long renovation and expansion. I stopped by to get some lunch from the deli (where I get 90% of my hot meals) and took a photo. I would have taken more but one of the corporate neckties came running over to tell me I couldn't take photos. You can see half of him in this picture.

"It's okay," I told him, "I'm a regular. My wife's out of town on business and couldn't be here so I'm gonna send her a photo."

"There will be 'approved photos' in the local newpaper. I have no way of knowing what you're going to do with any pictures."

I'm sure that...let's call him "Phil"...Phil has every legal right to tell me I can't take a photo in his new store. Underlying his panic at the sight of my little Casio, however, is his lack of trust in a customer. He assumed I'd do something nefarious, like race down to Gerbe's (a competing store)...

smays: (Pant, gasp) "I' got 'em! I got 'em! Photos of the new deli at Hy-Vee!"
Gerbe's Store Manger: "Quick, let's see 'em. We've got to plan our strategy!"

As I was checking out, one of the local Hy-Vee guys came over to ask what was going on and I explained.

"What?! (exasperated sound) He'll be gone tomorrow. You can come back and take as many photos as you like."

Trust.

So, "Phil," this post is for you. I'm thrilled to have a bigger, newer, better Hy-Vee and plan to spend even more time and money in your great store. Give my best to the guys in marketing and public relations.

Newspapers better at web video than TV (and radio?)

That's the conclusion of Kurt Anderson in an article on the New York Magazine website. My first-read take-aways:

"The lessons seem obvious: Don’t do Web video if you don’t have anything interesting to show, and don’t compete with TV unless you can do something they can’t or won’t. In other words, use the medium.

The passionate, improvised, innovative reinventings, as opposed to the final, fully professionalized reinventions, are often the coolest moments in cultural history. Think of movies in 1920, TV in 1955, or public radio in 1980."

A few years ago I was concerned that newspapers could so easily incorporate audio on their websites. It didn't occur to me that they'd jump straight to video.

[Thanks, Morris]

XM, Sirius merger?

The New York Post is reporting the long-awaited merger of Sirius and XM may be announced today. Combining Sirius and XM would result in a single satellite radio operator with more than 12 million total subscribers. A deal would also marry Sirius content, such as Howard Stern, Frank Sinatra and Nascar with XM's Oprah Winfrey, Bob Dylan and Major League Baseball. More important, analysts widely predict that a deal would also save the two companies nearly $7 billion annually.

Total radio silence from XM Ben on this story. And XM and Sirius have to get this just right to keep me. I'm spending more time with the nano and less with my XM. If they don't make the merged service better/cheaper... I'll be gone at the end of the contract.

In-flight sex: Urban myth?

Countless people saw the story about actor Ralph Fiennes allegedly having sex with a flight attendant in the bathroom of the plane (The flight attendatnt says there was no sex). But nobody gets more comic air miles from the story than Scott Adams:

"How horny do you have to be before you’ll follow a flight attendant into an airline bathroom, knowing that she actually has to use the bathroom? I mean, does that move ever work? I can barely convince myself that ANYONE has ever had sex in an airline bathroom. And that includes the best-case scenarios where:

1. The couple are already lovers
2. Neither person needs to actually USE the bathroom at that moment
3. Neither person is on an STD awareness tour
4. Both lovers are blind, noseless people with disposable shoes.

Adams/Dilbert fans are sure have have mixed feelings about the news that Chris Columbus (the man who directed Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Rent, Mrs. Doubtfire, Home Alone and a score of others) has picked up the theatrical rights to Dilbert.

Where is everybody?

Presidents Day is the common name for the United States federal holiday officially designated as Washington's Birthday. It is celebrated on the third Monday of February. If your company recognizes this holiday, and gives employees the day off... you are officially a dumb-ass if you forget this and come to work, dressed to code.

Mummified man found in front of blaring TV, dead since 2005

Police called to a Long Island man's house discovered the mummified remains of the resident, dead for more than a year, sitting in front of a blaring television set. Officials could not explain why the electricity had not been turned off, considering (the man) had not been heard from since December 2005. (Reuters)

If I'm the last one left --god forbid-- they'll find me sitting here with the dead MacBook still on my lap.

Speaking of laptops... I was recently asked how often I use my IBM Thinkpad. I confessed that I now turn it on only to download latest Windows security patches. Wonder if that could be turned into a Get A Mac ad?

read more | digg story

Dwight from The Office to host SNL

Saturday Night Live has lined up Rainn Wilson (Dwight on The Office) to host the show February 24th.

AirPort Extreme: Fast and Easy

One of the more frustrating computing challenges I've encountered is setting up a wireless network in my home. I knew enough not to attempt to try this on my own and called on some of very clever men and women I work with. But it was a booger, even for them.

Today my buddy George came over and set up my new Apple AirPort Extreme ("Easy as a Mac"):

"Just take the AirPort Extreme out of the box. Plug it in. Install the software, and in five minutes or less, you’re good to go."

And it literally took George 5 minutes to install and configure the base station. My Netgear base station was doing the job but the AirPort Extreme had a couple of features I wanted.

Before, I had to have my Dell desktop box turned on to print from our laptops. We can now print directly through the router.

I also now have an external hard drive hooked to the router...and visible on my MacBook desktop when I'm at home. No more storage issues and three times a week the MacBook does an automatic back-up.

Yes, I'm sure it's possible to accomplish these things in Windows on PC's. But the folks at Apple just made it fast and simple. And I promise to share any problems I have with the new base station down the road.

Speaking of down the road... the Apple TV is scheduled to start shipping in early March and George tells me our new TV has the necessary connections and cables to take advantage of the features.

Update: Surfing from the couch (base station upstairs in the office) and --perceptually-- pages are loading twice as fast as before (on the Netgear base station).

Another view of the future of news

Steve Outing posts an insightful look into the future of news that contains this gem from his interview with Robin Sloan, manager of new media strategy for Al Gore’s Current TV.

"I think 'news' just becomes a less distinct category. You don't sit down with a newspaper, or even a news website, or even a super wireless e-paper device, for 10 minutes in the morning to very formally 'get your news.' Rather, you get all sorts of news and information -- from the personal to the professional to the political -- throughout the day, in little bits and bursts, via many different media. With any luck, in 5-10 years the word 'news' will be sort of confusing: Don't you just mean 'life'?"

Anyone that reads the news, produces the news, or is in anyway involved with the news should read Outing's article. [via Terry Heaton]

Keeping the elephants away

Here's something I've never understood about the Iraq stay-till-the-job-is-done vs. get-out-now debate. The administration (and a shrinking number of GOP supporters) warns that the bad guys will "follow us home" if we get out.

Given our sieve-like borders, what's stopping a terrorist from walking into Mall of America and blowing himself up? [See Oklahoma Bombing, Atlanta Olympic Bombing et al] Is the theory that ALL of the terrorists are in Iraq, too busy to get over here for some death and destruction?

Marty Kaplan expresses my confusion far better than I can:

"In a jail in Jakarta, a jihadist from Jedda has learned the coordinates of a Mafioso in Moscow who will sell him a dirty bomb for a billion rubles. But if John Boehner and Roy Blunt can prevent the nonbinding House resolution against the Iraq escalation from passing (they didn't), then that jihadist will completely forget the cell phone number of that Russian while doing a Sodoku."

I have no doubt that we will someday see another terrorist attack on our soil... whether we stay in Iraq 18 months or 18 years.

It reminds me of the guy that lined his hat with tin foil, explaining, "It keeps the elephants away."

"There are no elephants within a thousand miles," his friend protested.

"See? It's working!"

Apple TV: node on the iTunes peer-to-peer video network?

I ordered one of the new Apple TV doo-dads right after they were announced. Didn't/don't fully understand it but it sounded like fun, so... Since then I've been hearing and reading all kinds of knocks on the gadget, usually from serious video-philes.

Then I came across an interesting theory about where Apple might be headed:

"Here is what I think is happening with the Apple TV hard drive. I think sometime this summer Apple will ship a firmware upgrade for the Apple TV and it will suddenly gain an important new capability. That's when the Apple TV becomes a node on the iTunes peer-to-peer video network. "

"Apple would have one or many content channels roughly equivalent to an HBO, Showtime, or perhaps Discovery. Yes, I think Apple will do direct content deals, buying programming that it will then either distribute to subscribers or support with Google ads, thanks to Google CEO Eric Schmidt's position on the Apple board. Apple's network will give you the same content with or without ads, delivered from the same servers, one of which may be underneath your TV."

Hmmm.

Adding interesting ads to mediocre products

Couple of bullets from a podcast with Seth Godin, during which he talks about ad agencies;

* What ad agencies ought to do, in my opinion, is not focus on selling ads anymore. And instead, focus on getting in deeper within the clients, and help the clients make products that people want to talk about.

* The problem is that ad agencies have defined themselves as the people who take the mediocre products and add interesting ads to them, and washed their hands and say, we can’t do anything about what the factory brings us. And my answer is, of course you can, and the clients actually want you to, you’re just not working hard enough to get that piece of business.

[via Learfield InterAction]

"NPR is not radio"

Jeff Jarvis, David Weinberger, Doc Searls, Jay Rosen and some other New Media thought leaders have been invited to Washington to talk/think about the future of National Public Radio. Mr. Jarvis shares some of his notes going in and I found myself substituting the names of our radio networks for NPR.

"NPR is not radio. If I tell newspapers they have to stop thinking on paper, so I’ll argue that NPR must throw off the limits of its medium. And I don’t just mean that the can go multimedia, adding photos or videos to their sound. I mean changing the culture, not thinking like a radio network anymore so they can see the options the internet opens up to work in every appropriate medium with entirely new kinds of content, from TV to data bases. So change the name: It’s National Public Media, except that Doc will scold me that this is more than media. It’s National Public Whatsis."

Some of his other ideas: NPR should be a network of networks and a training ground for great media. They should add to their mission finding and nurturing new talent and help local affiliates become hyperlocal.

I surely would love to sit in a corner and listen to these guys. But it appears they will be blogging all or parts of the conversations so I'll follow it there.

Broadband up; Blackberry chains; ESPN welcomes comments

I found the following nuggets at Steve Rubel's Micro Persuasion. I shamelessly repost here so I can find them when I need them.

Report: Broadband Users Now the Majority in U.S. - Yahoo! News
"According to a new report released Thursday, U.S. home broadband penetration will top 50 percent this year, the first time it has ever done so."

Survey: Blackberry owners chained to work
Survey results showed that those who owned a Blackberry were, in fact, more likely to work long hours than those who didn't."

ESPN.com allows comments on every article
ESPN.com has enabled comments on every single story they post, even ones from the wires. The feature is called ESPN Conversation. You can dig into this yourself on this controversial story about some remarks made by former NBA player Tim Hardaway. This particular story has attracted nearly 1000 comments in just 24 hours. ESPN is one of several big media properties that allows readers to comment on stories. The Washington Post has also embraced reader feedback.

Majority of Americans feel bloggers play a valuable role
According to a new poll by iFOCOS and Zogby, a majority of Americans (55%) feel bloggers are important to the future of American journalism. Further, 74% said citizen journalism will play a vital role. I am not quite sure of how they distinguished the two in the poll, but the results are certainly positive. The survey of 5,384 adults nationwide was conducted Jan. 30-Feb. 1, 2007, and carries a margin of error of +/- 1.4 percentage points.

Another Mac Attack

My alternate headline was, "Gomer Does the Big Apple," but the Jim Nabors reference would be either too dated or unflattering to Learfield President and Chief Operating Officer Roger Gardner, the latest Learfielder to break down and "Get A Mac."

Like Phil and me, Roger has been flirting with the idea of buying a Mac for sometime. He's been teetering at the precipice for weeks and finally went over the edge this week and purchased a 17" MacBook Pro (with all the fixin's)

In all fairness, Roger has two teenagers at home and they needed another computer and --like a lot of folks these days-- couldn't come up with a good reason not to try a Mac.

New ice cream named for Stephen Colbert

Ben & Jerry's has named a new ice cream in honor of the comedian: "Stephen Colbert's Americone Dream." It's vanilla ice cream with fudge-covered waffle cone pieces and caramel. Ben & Jerry's call it: "The sweet taste of liberty in your mouth." I expect to see SC spooning some of this in on tonight's show.

read more | digg story

Business Week: Podcasting next big ad medium

Business Week is hyping the advertising potential of podcasts, calling them The Next Big Ad Medium. According to their analysis, podcasts are poised to grab a larger slice of the multibillion-dollar online advertising pie. They highlight research from eMarketer expects that advertisers will spend more than $400 million on podcasting by 2011, up from $80 million last year. [Podcasting News]

Related: Lost Remote points to a new Forrester report that 10 percent of North Americans online downloaded a podcast at least once a month in 2006. Nearly half, 49 percent, of Gen X and Gen Ys downloaded podcasts at least once a week. LR adds, "In my experience, video podcasts that are repurposed from TV are not attracting significant numbers of downloads. But original, niche content -- that’s unique in style and personality -- is making some real forward progress."

Barb is still the one

I sent my sweety some flowers for Valentine's Day (she took this very good photo with her Treo) and she sent me a lovely balloon bouquet and two pounds of M&M's. A little while later someone noticed a tag hanging from one of the larger balloons and we were treated to a little song .

"Is radio still radio if there's video?"

Thanks to Jeff for poiting us to this interesting story at NYTimes.com:

"The nation’s commercial radio stations have seen the future, and it is in, of all things, video. Across the country, radio stations are putting up video fare on their Web sites, ranging from a simple camera in the broadcast booth to exclusive coverage of events like the Super Bowl to music videos, news clips and Web-only musical performances."

Home delivery

On the drive home this evening, I got behind the guy that delivers newspapers. He was weaving a bit as he frantically stuffed The Daily Bugle into those pink newspaper condoms before throwing them into the bushes. As I watched, I had to wonder about the future of this job, not to mention the economics. I can't believe the job pays much and by the time you buy gas, how can the math work out?

I also wondered if the guy is a web-head like me. Does he keep up with the challenges facing newspapers (or maybe they're doing better than we think). Is he thinking --with every paper he flings: "Man, I gotta find another gig. This ain't gonna last."

He probably has more important things to worry about and is happy to have the job. And this Internet thing could just be a fad.

Okay, how about some bonus spots?

Betsy Lazar --Executive Director of Advertising and Media Operations at GM-- gave a keynote at the rcent Radio Advertising Bureau conference in Dallas. According to INSIDE RADIO, she was pretty specific in her advice to broadcasters;

"...doing business the old way won’t cut it. Pitching schedules of :30s won’t do it. What GM wants is ideas that show involvement by the station. Things that come from mining the listener database and exploiting the station website in fresh ways."

Ad Age reports that GM “slashed ad spending by more than $600 million last year, a drop so stunning it should convince even the staunchest doubters that the age of mass-media marketing is going the way of the horse and buggy.”

In that same issue of INSIDE RADIO: Bank of America analyst Jonathan Jacoby admits his survey of 34 industry pros last week in Dallas is not statistically significant. But he says 43% of them (14-15 people) said they’ve “used or plan to use Google/dMarcto sell airtime.”

Three "flavors" of web journalism

At the Columbia University School of Journalism, they've been thinking about how to better reflect the Internet in their journalism curriculum and have come up with three "flavors" of Internet-related jobs that students or alumni are or will be doing.

"Continuous News" - Entails providing multiple stories of varied lengths at deadlines across the day. The all-too-familiar wire service style of reporting upon which many journalists have cut their teeth for decades.

"Editor-host" - The journalist works inside the newsroom most of time. This job is about synthesizing, analyzing and displaying (in timely fashion for online audiences) content from myriad information sources: newswires, the Internet, video, audio. This is very much an editing role; some have likened it to a typical newsroom copy desk role.

"Webified Reporter" - A kind of one-man band, the Webified reporter is able to apply multiple Web tools -- from reporting to videography to Flash -- to create original content that takes full advantage of the medium's interactive multimedia capacities. Not only does the Webified reporter knows how to use these tools, but also when to use which tool for a particular Web story.

More on this at E-Media Tidbits. Interesting stuff.

Sheryl Crow Birthday Drive raises $14K+

Our Sheryl Crow Correspondent, Ann, reports the annual Sheryl Crow Birthday Drive raised more than $14,000 to benefit the Delta Childrens Home in Kennnett (SC's hometown). Ms. Crow posted the following thank-you on her website forum:

"I can't tell you how much your generosity has once again touched me and my community. The birthday gift of contributions made in the name of the Delta Children's Home is the most precious gift I could receive and I am deeply grateful.

I am working on a new record as we speak and am really enjoying the process. I hope you will enjoy the outcome. Much, much love and gratitude."

Our thanks to Ann for letting us know this was taking place.

Time, Inc. developing video for web

Time Inc. is announcing today that it's launching an in-house studio to help its 130 magazines develop videos for the Web. Along with that plan, it will unveil a deal to work with Brightcove, a leading provider of Internet video production, distribution and ad sales services.

We have some damned fine radio reporters working for our company. And most of them are just getting the hang of moving photos from their digital cameras to their computers.

Sounds like Time is making a significant investment. And a smart one. Not just handing out Canon Sure-Shots to their reporters as they head out the door.

Beep, Beep! [via Lost Remote]

90 second news cycle

David points to this chilling post at Media Guerrilla, where Mike Manuel outlines the 90 second news cycle:

+1 second to hit publish
+2 seconds for a blog to refresh
+3 seconds for feed readers to update
+4 seconds to email, link, tag, rank, or rate a blog post
+5 seconds for readers to form an opinion and/or leave a comment
+1 minute for Technorati to register a server ping, crawl and index a blog post
+8 seconds for alerts, watchlists and saved searches to propagate
+4 seconds for a blog post to plateau, amplify or disappear
+2 seconds for this cycle to repeat from the beginning
+1 second to realize the world's changing...

If any of the terms above are unfamiliar to you... don't worry about them.

Bush's $592 million palace in Baghdad

The locals call it "George W's palace". The luxurious US embassy being built in Baghdad is the size of 80 football fields, and will house 8000 workers and thousands of military personnel. So less of an "embassy" then, and more of a "permanent base", and at $592 million. Looks like someone is planning to stay a while. Wonder if there are any helicopter pads on the roof.

read more | digg story

Rooting for the home team

Matt Taibbi responds to the accustation that liberals are "rooting" for failure in Iraq. Warning: Strong lanuage.

"I'm sorry, but the next pundit who whips that one out should have his balls stuffed down his throat. You cocksuckers beat the drum to send these kids to war, and then you turn around and accuse us of rooting for them to die? Fuck you for even thinking that. We're Americans just like you. You don't have the right to get us into this mess and then turn around and call us traitors. Your credibility is long gone on this issue; shut up about us. This is a catastrophe, not a baseball game. "Rooting" is a kid's word; grow the fuck up."

Isn't this called "Public Access Television?"

A small television station in Santa Rosa, CA (KFTY-TV) has canceled its nightly newscasts...fired most of its editorial staff... and is soliciting programming from locals -- from independent filmmakers to teachers and politicians. According to station managers, the newscast wasn’t a hit with advertisers. Media execs nationwide are watching to see if the the Clear Channel property can make money from citizen-generated stories that will begin airing within a few months.

Gutsy or stupid...time will tell. Hard to imagine how bad things would have to be (ratings, sales, etc) before this would seem like a viable option.