Brian Fuller’s blog on the state of media and communications

The sound of change

Posted on | August 27, 2010 | 1 Comment

You can kind of hear it in the wind, the sound of change in publishing. The cacophonous clanking of consolidation continues to be sure, but if you listen closely enough there’s music in the distance.

Howard Kurtz points at, what I think is, one of the drivers of change in his post earlier this week on the stampeding media herd. Urgency and bombast rule the day right now and no one’s really happy about it.

…the media crowd doesn’t stick around long enough to do more than stomp around. There was a furious argument over Obama giving General Motors a $50 billion bailout; now that the company is profitable and preparing a stock offering, the herd is MIA.

Amid noise, people tend to seek quiet or at least a volume dial. We may beginning to understand that overstimulation, made soooo easy today, is not good for us. The New York Times cites research that suggests we should be thinking about finding downtime and distance to process stimulation properly.

People are starting to get angry at the lack of context and insight media is delivering.

  • Television is a complete and utter waste of time and bandwidth.
  • Not everyone has all day to search out the expert blog post to explain just why the BP oil rig failed.
  • Text news organizations are just throwing stuff against the wall to see what sticks, and everything’s sliding to the floor.

But consider the rise of e-reader platforms, such as Kindle and iPad. Sure they represent more gadgets, more distraction. But particularly with the iPad, the platform represents:

  • A way to improve the digital reading experience in phenomenal ways. (See the Pedlar Lady iPad app as an example).
  • Monetize content with a better value proposition.

Engaging with the Web online is essentially an exercise in distraction. You jump on with a specific information-gathering objective in mind and suddenly you’ve wandered far afield, down endless  and seemingly interesting (stimulating) rat holes. If you’re like me, pretty soon you’ve forgotten the very important reason you jumped online.

A platform such as the iPad is a walled garden in the good sense of the phrase, potentially limiting distraction as it presents content in ever-compelling ways that keep reader attention.

If the reader experience changes from constant stimulation to more measured engagement, then publishing should be able to value that experience. Value that experience, and the journalistic product should improve.

That’s the theory at least.

What do you think?

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Category: journalism, social media
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No big deal: Magazine circulation falls (again)

Posted on | August 11, 2010 | No Comments

The sky isn’t falling, really, even though the Audit Bureau of Circulation reports that overall subscriptions for magazines are down 2.27 percent.

Some big titles took it on the chin, to be sure: Playboy (-34%), Reader’s Digest (-25%). Neither of those tumbles is a head-scratcher.

But overall, circulation (paid and verified) is 313 million. That’s a lotta eyeballs.

What’s more, the ABC is improving how it quantifies digital versions of magazines.

The old standards have always required that in order to be considered as part of a periodical’s circ, the e-paper version must include an exact replica of a print edition’s full editorial content and advertising. The change is that an e-paper edition no longer needs to be presented in a layout identical to the print version. Replica digital editions will continue to be included in a magazine’s circulation guarantee, or rate base.

One possible lesson in the latest ABC numbers: Total paid subs were down 1.96 %, but total single-copy sales fell 5.6 %. If you assume that subscribers are pre-disposed to re-sign when the time comes, this  newsstand trend suggests that magazine covers — whether that’s subject matter, cover design or overall theme — aren’t cutting the mustard for readers.

Build a good issue, and they’ll read. It’s a much more competitive landscape today, and editors need to step it up. But go easy on the sizzle. Readers respond to well-told, well-packaged stories, not flash.

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Category: journalism
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It’s the medium is the message, stupid

Posted on | August 9, 2010 | 2 Comments

L. Gordon Crovitz, writing in today’s Wall Street Journal (subscription required), puts it simply:

“It’s ideas that count, not how they’re transmitted.”

This is a closing line in a column about e-books and the iPad. That a “print” journalist makes this comment directly and without pussy-footing around with adverbs is a testament to how far we’ve come.

Or, as the little boy said at the end of “Animal House” as the Playboy bunny flew into his bedroom: “Thank you, God!”

iPad Effect

The iPad has the industry atwitter. This, many argue, is the future of publishing. Yes and no.

If you mean this is the future of a new kind of communication, that blends words, video, audio and graphics, you better believe it. If you mean this replaces print, I think not.

Ideas are communicated differently depending on the medium (and, by the way, regardless of the cost of the medium). A book is a medium for ideas of enormous complexity; a magazine for ideas of somewhat smaller complexity, a news story for ideas of somewhat smaller complexity again. Television is fantastic medium to communicate emotion through images; it’s not so great for communicating complex ideas (The Decline of Culture–Part 863). That television dominates the media world today is directly connected with how ineffective our political system is at present. Radio may be even better than tele

Flyp capture

Screen shot from an article from Flyp Media's multimedia-enable publication

vision for communicating uncomplicated ideas because it lacks the image distraction.

Platforms and Promise

Platforms such as the iPad have promise for promoting new kinds of journalism. Just check out a place like Flyp Media to get a sense for the potential.

Still, there are levels of information engagement that all readers need and need at different times: details, data, context and overviews. No one medium can really deliver it all. That’s why saying the iPad is fantastic and print is not dead are perfectly compatible concepts. Every day I ride a bus with people who have ear buds plugged into an iPod and fingers tapping away on an iPhone or a Blackberry or a Droid.

The medium is indeed the message.

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Category: Electronics, journalism
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Chatting with Karen and Rick on Synopsys’ Conversation Central

Posted on | July 29, 2010 | No Comments

blog talk radio imageJust after jumping back into the fray at EE Times last week, I had a chance to talk about what we’re doing and the state of the “social engineer” with two of our industry’s leading communicators and social media mavens: Karen Bartleson and Rick Jamison at Synopsys. Their Conversation Central programming has expanded from its beginnings at DAC 2009 and 2010 to become a regular monthly program about engineering and social media.

  • Do engineers resonate with social media?
  • Is there any value in social media for engineers?
  • Doesn’t confidential information blunt the social conversation in engineering?
  • Do engineers like or hate Twitter?
  • What’s the latest with the evolution of EE Times and EE Times products?

These topics and more were discussed. Have a listen!

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Category: Electronics, journalism, social media
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Back at EE Times–What gives?

Posted on | July 21, 2010 | 5 Comments

After three years out of the daily publishing grind, I re-entered the troposphere this week as Products Strategist for EE Times.

As my old man used to say, “Absence makes the heart grow fonder.” (I think he used to say that each year near the end of his one mandatory no-drinking month).

I spent the past three years leveraging 25 as a journalist, using those reporting, writing, publishing and new-media skills in agency PR and corporate communications. I learned a lot. And one of the things I learned is that it’s not difficult to translate certain skills into other roles; but it’s very difficult to give up a career you’ve had most of your adult life.

As challenging as is the environment for the media today, it’s still the most interesting game in town. And, more importantly, there are still audiences hungry for information that comes through a filter created by people who put food on the table by being, if not objective, at least fair and questioning.

My job is to take electronics products coverage to the next level, to make it more compelling, timely, and informative than ever and to introduce relevant multimedia channels in the process. But I also want to bring back that scoop spirit that guys like Marty Gold had in the old days, the days when Marty used his Buddha belly literally to back product marketers into a corner as he badgered them with questions not about their current product but tomorrow’s product. There’s no better team to do it with than EE Times.

I rejoined EE Times Group just after Ron Wilson did the same. Ron’s in charge of the embedded franchise now; his hire was a coup for Paul Miller, David Blaza and crew. What’s better, is I sit next to him just like I did almost 20 years ago. Ron’s hire followed by a few months another great pick-up for team EET: Karen Field, former editor of Design News who is now in charge of community for EE Times and contributing great insights and creative ideas at a rapid-fire rate. To top it off, EE Times relaunched its site recently with a smart, cool new look and architecture.

I’ll share some thoughts (such as they are at this stage) with Rick Jamison on Synopsys’ Conversation Central podcast Thursday at 11 a.m. PDT. Listen in and fire some questions our way. We’ll talk a lot about social media and engineering, the new publishing paradigm and more. Should be fun.

The media’s been battered in the past decade by the twin tornadoes of the ‘01 and ‘09 recessions and the disintermediating force of the Internet. But it’s still upright, and companies still need the audience and validation that comes with industry coverage. In the electronics B:B space, some of the oldest titles still remain next to emerging competitors, from the guys at Extension Media, to Gina Roos at Electronics Advocate, John Donovan at Low-power Design.com and Low-power Wireless.com, to John Day at John Day’s Automotive Electronic News and more. So there’s tons of competition

It ain’t easy, but the old man never said it would be. It will, however, be a fun ride again.

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Category: Electronics, journalism, newspapers
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Time well spent?

Posted on | June 17, 2010 | 1 Comment

One in every 4.5 minutes spent online is spent in a social network or in a blog, according to a study released yesterday by Nielsen. That’s engagement. It’s too bad that’s not translating into the engineering B:B space. Semiconductor and EDA companies have invested millions in the past 5-10 years not only revamping their Web sites but adding social functionality in more recent times.

At this point, the social functionality is a build-it-and-they-will-come rationale, because they aren’t coming at the moment.  Coincident with the release of the Nielsen study was a fine marketing webinar hosted by the folks at EE Times Group. A key takeaway: 85 % of engineers aren’t on Twitter. EE Times acknowledged it isn’t a scientific study, but it was a flash survey of 285 engineers done just last month. Roughly half of those who responded used words like hate or dislike to describe Twitter. Wrong Way Desert copy

At DAC and Synopsys’ Conversation Central interview series this week, Twitter and blogging was acclaimed by some (it’s big in EDA) but derided by just as many others as self-promotional hot-air balloons run by consultants and companies with an ax to grind.

Longer term, you could make the case that eB:B marketers are building those high speed rail lines in anticipation of their trailing-adopter audience jumping on the train eventually (remember the 1990s and the first Web sites?) EE Times shared other data that showed vendor Web sites are now the places engineers go to most often to research, in this case, embedded design decisions. Not too many years ago, vendor Web sites were a distant third behind industry publications and colleagues.

In that particular slide, 83% of the respondents said they consulted those vendor Web sites. Bouncing along way down the tail were blogs (18%) and social networks (11%). But a closer look reveals blogs jumped four full percentage points between 2009 and 2010 and social networks doubled in popularity. A fraction of the engineer’s interest to be sure, but growing fast.

Time will tell for sure where engineers consider their time well spent. When I Tweeted the EET engineer/Twitter dynamic earlier this week, an engineering colleague Tweeted back that engineers simply may not be big communicators, regardless of the medium.

And that’s a definitely a factor to be reckoned with in the months and years ahead.

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Category: Electronics, marketing, social media
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The Great (Print-Online) Debate (Cage Match Edition)

Posted on | June 14, 2010 | 3 Comments

In one corner, John Donovan, the crafty veteran (he of low-powerdesign.com), sat eyeing his opponent, rubbing his Everlast gloves together in anticipation; in the other, another crafty veteran, John Reardon, Donovan’s ex-boss at RTC Group, glared, as he shuffled his laced-up, ankle-high shoes on the canvas. In between them sat a third veteran, Rick Jamison, his eyes darting warily back and forth between the two pugilists. Two Irish guys about to brawl–you don’t see that very often.


Ding! Ding! Out they came to renew hostilities from earlier this year when Donovan and Reardon jabbed back and forth on Jamison’s blog about the virtues of print versus online. (The fight was so memorable that Jamison, ever the canny promoter (as well as referee) invited them back to the 47th DAC to renew their battle as part of Synopsys’ excellent Conversation Central live interview and podcast program. Publicists dubbed it “War Time in Anaheim.” ESPN bought the rights). Here is a link to the audio call of the great cage match.

Donovan, light on his toes, danced out to center ring, flicking his gloves upward at Reardon in a taunting, come-try-me invitation.

“I’m not predicting the death of print, just the dearth of print,” he offered, echoing the best of Ali.

Reardon charged.

“The media companies have done their best to kill off print. At RTC, we let the clients make the decision. Where they’re willing to spent their money is on print. We get 10x in print than we do online.”

Boom! A snap-jab to the side of head. Donovan only blinked.

Online you form communities and engineers, which you really can’t do effectively in print, he parried.

“Blogs are the basically the watercoolers of the 21st century.”

Shuffling, shuffling, shuffling, Reardon circled. Another quick jab:

“Point me to one Web page in our industry that generates $1million in revenue. I can point to three magazines in my space.”

He came with a right cross:

“We have 100 years of history that says print works. The Web can’t decide if the business model works, and it has 30 seconds of history.”

Jamison, pushed up the garters on his sleeves and stepped between the men.

Gentlemen, what of the generational demographics? he asked, pushing them apart with astonishing ease, as the crowd gasped at the query. Will youth gravitate toward print when it’s been weaned on digital? He clapped his hands quickly together to signal the fighters box on.

Donovan quoteReardon punched quickly: It’s about branding, and that’s where magazines shine.

Donovan came back with a quick combination, left-right-left:

“Corporations are losing control of their brand because of online and unless you can engage online…” he backed off, wiped with nose with a glove and took a satisfied breath as he bounced on the balls of his feet.

Reardon quote copyReardon bobbed his head side to side but suddenly came in for a roundhouse:

“I can hand you a phone book and tell you your clients are in there some place. But I’m looking for 50,000 qualified people to read the publication this month and take purchasing action next month. People are looking for qualified opportunities to sell into.”

Donovan’s head bounced with the blow, but he danced back and bounced around the ring, arms outstretched (bring it on, big boy) and then snapped off a head shot.

“Tech companies are moving online because they can get quantifiable results. It’s different than blasting to 40,000 people, four whom really care.”

Reardon buckled slightly.

“The Web is here to stay but for a company to base a billion-dollar organization on … different kinds of social media activities is a very dangerous move.”

Ding-ding! rang metallically around the Anaheim Convention Center and Jamison jumped in to separate the fighters for the break.

The crowd roared its approval and then began excitedly murmuring its commentary. Ringside scribes tapped on iPads as blue-gray smoke from their huge cigars corkscrewed up into the darkness. Somewhere amid the buzz, a drunk stumbled and fell on his way to the bathroom. A woman wearing astonishingly little strutted around the canvas to wild cheers as she held  up a huge cardboard sign that read:

“Next Round TBD.”

(Disclaimer: Your faithful correspondent has worked in one form or another for both these brawlers at some point in the past year).

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Category: Electronics, journalism, marketing
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The rewiring of our brains

Posted on | June 10, 2010 | 2 Comments

Are our brains going haywire? There’s been a lot of buzz about the latest weigh-in on the gadget-addiction theme: The New York Times’ piece Sunday Hooked on Gadgets, Paying a Mental Price.

Scientists say juggling e-mail, phone calls and other incoming information can change how people think and behave. They say our ability to focus is being undermined by bursts of information.

It also leads to crankiness and forgetfulness.

It may well be that rewiring our brains is a good thing in evolutionary terms as the brain begins to understand it can leverage the universal “brain” of the connected world (e.g. who bothers to carry a map anymore when your cell phone will find the way); but we just don’t know. And that this point, we’re forced to navigate uncharted waters. To wit: Nicholas Carr, who has published “The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains,” has blogged:

“The deeper a technology is woven into the patterns of everyday life, the less choice we have about whether and how we use that technology.”

It’s clearly changed the nature of communications (it began with email) and not to the good. Recently, as part of our move to San Francisco, I came across old letters (hand-written or typed on a piece of paper, remember?) I exchanged with friends after college. Each was several pages long, and, while none was a shining example of brilliant prose, each was nevertheless an insight into how we communicated just a few decades ago. People shared other people’s letters at face-to-face gatherings. They filed them away as if the small censers of thought each represented would smolder to life  again in the future, just as fragrantly. Communications was not just the act of letter writing: We sought time to consider each other.Writing a letter

I came across my grandmother’s college letters from 1910. People wrote to each other from just across campus and invited them to teas and socials and parties at specific events at specific times well in the future. If you had no interest, you were expected to make that decision and communicate it by letter, to consider the hostess. To show up without an RSVP was bad form. Today? You’re invited to things hours or sometimes moments before they happen because we can. The fact that technology enables this seems good in some robotic productivity-improvement way, but in in fact cheapens life. It communicates: “I am so distracted by life I didn’t think of you until just now but whatever. At least I’m giving ya a heads up!”

We react, we don’t consider. We ping, we don’t communicate. We’ve surrendered to the machine.

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Category: Electronics
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Saint Steven frets about blogger nation

Posted on | June 3, 2010 | 3 Comments

Steve Jobs could belch and get national play. He did so this week at All Things D, where he said he doesn’t want to see us descend into a nation of bloggers. We must do everything in our power to find ways The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, etc. can continue to get paid to create the stories they do, Saint Steven declared.

Ok, No. 1, we are a nation of bloggers. That horse is out of the barn. Steve Jobs copy

No. 2, it’s amusing to hear the man who has single-handedly crushed one  traditional business model (music) with iTunes come to the defense of another. Could it be that Steve holds these people in the palm of his hand and is loathe to lose that control? (See case of the missing iPhone prototype, cops ransacking reporter’s home at Apple’s behest, etc.)

Let’s be honest. The iPad or some type of e-reader will help the publishing business to some degree. I have no doubt about it.

But only the publishing business can save the publishing business. Executives right now think “advocacy donations” for journalism aren’t the way to go, according to a Pew Research poll. So what to do?

The way to survive is not rocket science: Publish stories no one else can get and write from perspectives others don’t consider. The last remaining strength of the lingering few journalists is they get paid to spend time (time=money) covering. Use the time wisely. Don’t cover an earnings call or even an Apple press conference that 10 zillion bloggers will live-blog. Use your time to find stuff other people don’t have the time or expertise to dig up.

Print it. And they will come.

And Steve will be pleased.

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Category: Electronics, journalism
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Good Times

Posted on | May 20, 2010 | No Comments

It’s been a while, yes. We’re selling our house and moving to San Francisco (more on that in a later post) so the past month has been, to say the least, busy. Then there’s that work thing. At Numetrics, we’ve been working diligently to launch a new software product, and that’s just crazy nuts. Which brings me to the topic of this post.

We have been working with EE Times in recent months and have had a keen interest in the relaunch of the vaunted brand’s mighty site. It was initially slated for early April, although when EET Group CEO Paul Miller mentioned that in a public forum, you could see Editorial Director Rich Nass’s hair stand on end.

In any case, they publicly moved the launch to last weekend but on Saturday announced its postponement (Lou Covey captured the feeling in a State of the Media blog post). Performance issues are dogging the new site. Welcome to the world of software development. Adair insert-pearson copy

It’s always the corner cases that kill you (the source of their performance issues is not public). It’s a wonder any sophisticated software makes it to market. But it does. And so will the relaunch of EE Times.

My issue with the matter was simple: Miller beat himself and his organization up too much on this in public. Yes, they set a date and marketed to it. But in the end, everyone understands how difficult development is. Slip happens. Gmail goes down sometimes. Oh well.

Crossing the chasm

It reveals an important gap in publishing expertise, though: Traditional publishers know content, advertising and audience like the back of their hand. They’re learning  development as they go. And they have to. Software and platform development is as important to publishers today as union contracts, audience development and printing presses were  back in the day. Google and Yahoo understand this obviously.

Miller and his team have appreciated this dynamic for some time and have gotten more sophisticated in developing, for example, custom products using dispersed development teams; relatively new addition Brent Pearson, Group CIO, is another reflection of this increased grokking of the importance of development. But it needs to worm its way deep into every publisher’s DNA though, and that will take time. Last weekend’s announcement suggests:

  • It’s still a journey
  • Overhauling a 17-year-old Web franchise and tens of thousands of pieces of content ain’t easy
  • There’s a reason we know place names like Bangalore and Lahore and didn’t 15 years ago.

EE Times is now looking at late June to turn the switch on the new site, and we’ll all be fine with that. Really.

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Category: Electronics, journalism
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