SXSW 2009? Turn Your Old Media Empire into a New Media Paradise August 12, 2008
Posted by Ryan in : Trends, Teaching, Storytelling, Social Media Events, Magazine, SXSW , add a commentQuestion mark is because we proposed the talk, but it’s up to the people to decide whether they’d like us to present…
The form we filled out had lots more info on it, but here’s what the site says:
Turn Your Old Media Empire into a New Media Paradise
Companies that have been at forefront of the publishing revolution, before the days of the internet, have recently found themselves behind the eight ball. While they struggle with their digital strategy, smaller leaner companies have been capturing their traditional audience on the web. However, many of these companies forget that the ability to create compelling engaging content is their greatest asset. Instead of placing their focus on pages views, they should be placing it on the pages themselves. This presentation will show how we used Drupal and other open source technologies to to transform a couple of 100 year old magazines into fresh and relevant web 2.0 destinations - from both a technical and philosophical perspective.
The whole deal is, Content is King, but media companies are withholding their content from their audience, because they don’t want to cannibalize their print business (or insert traditional medium here). Eric (@xentek) and myself (@liberatr) are proposing this topic, so vote, comment, or otherwise show us some love.
Other Drupal-Related Sessions
Another Local’s Session
I’m in Axis Magazine talking about Internet Video April 9, 2008
Posted by Ryan in : Tech, Career, Video, Trends, Newspaper, floridacreatives, Magazine , 3 comments
No, that’s not me in the white suit and glasses.
I was interviewed this month by John Theisen, who runs the Enzian FilmSLAM, the FMF Indie Film Jam, and works for United Arts.
Go pick up the magazine, on Newstands all over Orlando, but here’s a teaser:
Yes, that’s a picture of a network cable next to a planet. I think I was supposed to get John some pics or logos… sorry!
“Ryan Price, producer of OrlandoScene.TV and FloridaCreatives.com has been making his mark in Central Florida’s web forums and has tried to add his own quality content to its ever-shifting environment.”
Welcome Back, Old Media March 13, 2008
Posted by Ryan in : Tech, Site News, Career, Markteting, Blogging, Podcasts, Reviews, Trends, Web Sites, PopSci, Magazine , add a commentHere’s a quick follow-up to last night’s post.
Earlier today, Ryan Block asked:
Why should I be concerned? People aren’t coming to Engadget to read about gadgets from 2006, or 1996, or 1896 — they’re coming to read about what’s going on today. Still, I love that PopSci, so this is gravy!
Ryan is absolutely right. In fact, he’s pointed out to me that Engadget does not fill the same void as PopSci. People aren’t going to his site for the archive, but rather, the very latest and greatest, and so much so that most of the content on Engadget is exclusive and they are the first ones to post about it. They could probably delete all of their archives older than 3 years and nobody would be able to tell.
Mr. Block also loves that PopSci gravy, which means that it’s likely the audience can see those two sites as separate flavors and sample a little of column A, and a little… well, you get it.
I also like how Ryan responded to my post within 9 hours of my writing it. Maybe if I drop Megan Miller’s name in here a few times, she will notice it in her Google Alerts too and come check out the blog.
Actually, I really like what Megan Miller of PopSci has been doing with the 5-minute projects on the site. There is certainly some room for improvement, but she mentioned in this week’s podcast that PopSci is working with Instructables on these videos, though she didn’t say in what capacity.
Mmmm, meta-journalism, hot and fresh! I really feel like I’ve been writing a story about the story of PopSci these last few days. Both in my Twitter stream with Etan asking about the particulars of my new job, and Jeremy direct messaging me as I drove to the office this morning, and now these past few days on my blog. I’m not the story here, the magazine is, and Megan Miller is, and Jonathan Coulton, and Bonnier, a family company. As are Eric and Seth and Sway, and also the folks over at PingVision. I haven’t told the whole story, nor is it in the scope of these blogs to attempt to tell that whole story, just a story around the story.
Old Media, Welcome to New Media Land
Posted by Ryan in : Tech, Site News, Career, Markteting, Blogging, Podcasts, Reviews, Trends, Web Sites, PopSci, Magazine , 4 commentsOR “How the battle became a collaboration”.
To the Editors of Popular Science:
You win.
Actually, I’m not a quitter, so I’ll say this: I’ve decided that instead of being “versus” each other, some of you Old Media types (can I say Traditional Media? thanks) actually care about your audience. Therefore, we are actually on the same side, you and me. That’s why today, I changed the name of my blog to “Ryan Price and the Media”. The arc of my story is changing, Act II is beginning (but please wait until the pops are two seconds apart).
Aside, to blog readers: Yes, I now work for a big media company: Bonnier Corporation. Dozens of magazines, or more accurately now Brands or Communities, and that’s just in the US. Potential for the big nasty side of media to show itself. However, as our Director of eMedia Howard was pointed out, “Bonnier is a family company, very different from a publicly traded business”. He was quick to point out the differences, and I was quick to believe him.
Back to you PopSci. You have been around for hundreds of years, and if you continue on your current path, you’ll be around for hundreds more. You’ve got a great formula working for you, and I have faith you’ve got the chemistry know-how to achieve the always-coveted, yet rarely achieved Activated Complex state. (sorry, that’s the only thing I remember from Chem I).
Let’s take a look at your assets:
First, and most importantly, you’ve got you’re audience. Not only your current subscribers to the print edition, or the folks that pick up a glossy when they’re traveling or when a pretty picture catches their eyes, but your modern-day audience. RSS subscribers, Google searchers, Diggers, Podcast listeners, Makers, Engineers and people who just want to sound smart at cocktail parties. You understand them all, and your understanding is only getting better as you experiment with new media (the content types, not the buzzword) and use your hundreds of years of publishing experience to deliver an experience that the smaller publications used to dream about (and in many cases you’re still eating their lunch).
That’s right. You’re a contender on the Internet, but you’ve got a hidden advantage. You’ve announced that some time soon, you will be opening your entire back catalog of Popular Science archives to the public (it is to the public, right?). Either way, no Engadget or even the castle-dwellers in Massachussets can claim over a hundred years of back catalog. Hell, few entities on the planet have such a rich offering.
Ryan Block and Chris Anderson should be very very concerned.
If you can continue taking advantage of modern advances in Media distribution (and I have to say you’re maybe one of the most advanced magazines I’ve seen in this area), your Coliseum will never fall into ruin, your Pompeii never covered with ashes.
Smart moves you’ve made include hiring Jonathan Coulton to be your Troubador, creating a podcast that both captivates and informs me and countless others every week, hiring bloggers to keep fresh hot steamy Science articles on your home page, having great SEO, and hiring me to maintain it all, ha ha! (I work for Popular Science, but I promise you this blog post is completely unsolicited, I only started three days ago)
Really, your organization is one to be looked up to in this time of transition, when many print publications are stopping the presses and hoping for bluer skies. I’ve been following my former enemy The Media very closely for the last several years, and I must say that you and I are enemies no longer, in more than one way.
I wish you the best, and I hope that I can ride your coattails to a new and exciting Land called New Media. I am honored to bask in your wizened glow.
Peace,
Ryan Price
New Hire, Drupal Developer
Bonnier Corp. and PopSci.com
Daylife: This is how you do a ‘zine January 5, 2007
Posted by Ryan in : Tech, News, Markteting, Blogging, Links, Quotes, Reviews, Trends, Design, Newspaper, Web Sites, Magazine , 1 comment so farDaylife has finally hit the web, and it is pretty cool so far.
This is how you do a ‘zine Hosted on Zooomr
From what I can see, this is the most usable news site I have seen. Like a magazine, they have a cover with big, pretty images and headlines, and like a good interactive experience, you can jump straight to that story. Also, once you get there, you are showed lots of good related content, also with photos!! Then, they provide… location-based stories! Magic!
The location page is packed with goodies, like stories from the past week, a month or so ago, and beyond. There are also the ever-present images from Getty along with captions slideshowing past, quotes, and testimonials relating to that geographic area. To the left is Florida.
There are bound to be a few things about a brand new site that the critics will not like, and I can’t say I disagree with Mike Arrington (who invested in this project some time ago). Apparently lots of A-listers have some money/ consulting sunk in this site, but Mike doesn’t mind coming out and stating some shortcomings.
From Techcrunch Jan 04, 2007:
What makes Daylife stand out is not so much what it does well, but what�s been left out. There are no RSS feeds, even for your bookmarked stuff. Even worse, there�s no ability for users to leave comments on articles, a feature that has been wildly successful at NewsVine and Topix. And the fact that the front page news is gathered by humans, instead of the algorithmically determined news at Digg, means the company will always have a higher cost of doing business.
This quote also serves the added duty of comparing Daylife to the other top news sites on the web. Mike says Google News is still the king of aggregated news stories, and I must say I agree with him. Actually, I think Techmeme (see their tracking of Daylife posts) qualifies as a competitor, though the “tech” in the title suggests a different audience, I suppose.
I really hope these guys get a clue and start including audio and video services, along with the related stories and etc. If someone could start semantically linking podcasts, audio and video through speech-recognition, it would be quite a bit easier to steer people (or spam them). Maybe that’s a mashup idea in the works… anybody game?
Holy Chrizzy, Orlando Weekly Knows About Blogging December 29, 2006
Posted by Ryan in : Tech, News, Markteting, Blogging, Orlando, Links, Video, Reviews, Trends, Newspaper, Magazine , add a commentThat’s right, kiddies. While following up on my last post here I saw a curious legend at the top of the page that said “Online Exlusives”. Surely this must be some trick. OW makes their money from PRINT, what is an online exclusive to a print ‘zine? Apparently they call it Bloggytown, and they have contributors like Jessica (no last name), Jeffrey Billman, Billy Manes and Bob Whitby to name a few. There is no announcement of the puropse of the blog, no tagline (though there is a dedicated RSS feed of some kind).
Hell, I’ll subscribe to any feed for a few days, but I’m not sure what I’m getting. Why would a regular Joe want to take time out of his busy day to go over to this blog. It certainly isn’t A-list enough to get its own site design, URL or even anything more than a header graphic, so why do I need to subscribe to this? What’s going on in the blog that I can’t get in the pages of the Weekly, and if it’s that good, why doesn’t it make it in there in the first place?
There’s a perfectly good explanation, but I’m not sure these kids know what the reason is or that they could really say it yet. They’ve been doing this since at least my birthday this year (as their very pretty and oh-so-usable archive thingie tells us), which is July 18th for the curious.
Plus: they were right on top of Kerry’s presidential announcement, with video (something you can’t get in print).
Minus: There is no way to separate out posts by individual authors. All the posts on the first page are from the last two days or so, and may I remind you of the wonky archive again?
I thought one of the points of a newspaper or magazine was to hear from a journalist’s perspective, and especially a blog on a MSM publication’s website. However, there is no way to know who is writing the post until after you’ve read it! Perplexing…
Sorry to rant and rave so much, but this whole OW blog thing just has me in a tizzy (if I can use such a word).
New Podcast July 28, 2006
Posted by Ryan in : Career, Blogging, Podcasts, Magazine , add a commentIt’s called Liberatr::Art::meta(), and I chose that name because it builds on my brand, it attracts the geeks, but it contains the word Art. I am hoping I am covering all my bases here.
There are two shows, one covering Refresh Orlando, and another for DIH Magazine. I originally recorded one with Jake, but the audio quality was not good, and the discussion was a little slow.
As Phil Palmeri said “Kaite Couric you are not!” It’s OK though. Nobody else in town has this game. That means I am the default, and I will have my foot in the door when they decide to get off their butts.
New York Magazine’s 6-page Guide to Starting a Monetized Blog February 14, 2006
Posted by Ryan in : News, Career, Blogging, Links, HowTo, Trends, Magazine , add a commentThe story of starting a blogging business is not a new one: if you listen to as many podcasts and read as many blogs as I do (which is not a large amount), the formula stares you in the face. There have been covers stories in BusinessWeek that caught huge attention for blogs. Whereas a year ago I would not have been able to say so, my dad now knows what blogging is. So when I tell him I am interested in pursuing blogging for money, he didn’t shoot down the idea right away.
This week, New York Magazine released a story that is a natural progression in blog reporting: now that everyone knows what blogs are and why they are good, how did the A-list bloggers gain their rank? One thing that had to be done was to establish that there was in fact a rank heirarchy, which is proved with a scientific sampling of 433 blogs: the blogs with the most links are generally higher traffic. Blogs with more links are more popular, charge more for their ads, and… people have heard of them. No joke, it’s pretty simple. The thing that stinks about the whole deal is that blog popularity is a self-perpetuating system. The fat keep getting fatter, while the thin are fighting over the table scraps.
Here is the full article:
Blogs to Riches: The Haves and Have-Nots of the Blogging Boom
I am no journalist; if I ever write one of my own blogs, I will have to find something I really care about, and I’ll be able to keep up with daily. I actually think there is some serious merit to building a network of media, with separate channels for different classes of consumers. There will never be a blog that caters to everyone, just like there will never be a TV show that everyone watches. With the blogosphere becoming as popular as it is, however, there may come a day when you will get your daily gossip from boing boing or another of the blogs with a high entertainment value.
Quality content won’t win you an everlasting place, however. Constent vigilance, shameless self-promotion, making the sale, getting the scoop on the other guy, and of course, social bookmarking will get you everywhere. Getting noticed by the big dogs, getting to the front page of digg, getting an honorable mention on any number of A-list or even B-list blogs, will likely help you get your foot in the door.
Writing crappy posts like this one, however, will likely get me nowhere.
