We Got Another Prediction Right

On Jan. 9, we issued a list of media predictions for 2009, mostly covering mainstream media's transition to online-only business model.

But we also made a prediction about Amazon's Kindle: that a new version should offer more colorful screens, easier ways to share articles to other users, even a text-to-speech or audio book option so you can throw your book in the car.

Well, Amazon just announced the 2.0 version of the Kindle, and among its features are an improved ability to share articles and text-to-speech.

We were optimistic about a color screen, so we're 2 for 3.

With longer battery lifer -- always an important feature in portable electronics -- the Kindle is looking better, and may beat our prediction of 2010 as the year that ebooks become mainstream. I think it will certainly well, but the $359 price during a recession may be steep for the average reader.

Can't Get That Song Out of My Head

Even if I wanted to -- and I do -- I can't get these songs out of my head. No -- this post has nothing to do with last night's Grammy Awards.

During high school and college, I used to go to the clubs in Manhattan -- ok, not a lot of them, not constantly. I wasn't a club kid and I don't believe I used the term as a verb -- clubbing -- but that's because I also didn't like the word partying (which had come on the scene around the time I did) -- but only from a grammar perspective.

I mean, type and typing made sense to me; both were real words. But at the time, neither party or club appeared in the dictionary as a verb (partying and clubbing, that is). I've long since accepted that, and don't have a problem with texting. Except when someone is texting while driving (TWD).

Back to the main point: I didn't always like clubbing perhaps because it's hard to tell jokes in loud places.

But one thing that kept me going was the thought that disco music was a passing fad, and that it would quickly fade just as so much else in the 70s & 80s seemed disposable...such as so-called TV entertainment like "Brady Bunch," "Fantasy Island" & "Love Boat."

Now, when I go to Spinning class at the gym, most of the songs they play are disco. I can't escape. This morning, I've got a choice of "Mamma Mia" or "Turn the Beat Around" (the original version). Having that beat in my head is making it difficult to type accurately.

And, for the record, the Spinning class is not PR-related.

Boston Globe to Kill -- um, Transition -- Health/Science Section

Months after the Boston Globe reduced the status of its business section as a bundled section within the Metro section, the Globe has announced plans to kill its health/science section, which had appeared on Mondays.

The Boston Phoenix reported that the Boston Globe plans to -- well, not eliminate the coverage, but transition it to its popular g section. Launched recently, the g section is very popular, and includes entertainment, TV listings, arts, comics, etc. And now, health news.

Science coverage will be included in the business section.

The Globe's Caleb Solomon, managing editor, told the Phoenix, Roughly speaking, the paper will have about as much personal-health coverage as it did before. And the same goes for science coverage. "We do a Monday business and innovation section, and as you know, a significant portion of the innovation economy is science driven," he says. "Is coverage of a biotech company business coverage or science coverage?... There will probably be increased science content inside the Monday business section, because that seems to be a natural alignment with the innovation economy of Boston."

However, since the number of pages in the g section will not increase, it's safe to say that health coverage in the Globe will decline -- which is interesting given the importance of biotech is to the Boston economy.

"Blue Book of Advertising" Has Some Good Ideas for PR

While the media & PR worlds are changing, The Little Blue Book of Advertising: 52 Small Ideas That Can Make a Big Difference provides some useful insight and tips -- whether you work in PR or advertising.

Written by agency veterans by Steve Lance & Jeff Woll, some of the ideas are not new for those who have been in the agency business for a while, but too often people forget them, like:

• Be expert on the benefits of your client's product or service.
• Know who your customers are.
• Read what your customers reads, watch what they watch.
• Quality is the absence of non/quality signals )like misspellings."
• Attention spans will get shorter. Need to make the point/message shorter.
  

There are some good points on branding:

• Know where you want to take the brand.
• Map a clear route of how you'll take your brand to the destination.
  = make sure to communicate that map.
  = establish benchmarks against which progress will be made.
  =establish measures w/client/agency.
  = agree how to resolve issues.
  = establish criteria w/client.

The book is a quick read, and worth picking up as a refresher.

NY Times Reports on "Mostly Gloom for Glossies"

According to the New York Times: "Another day, another closure. Magazines are becoming thinner as advertising pages fall, and publishers are grimly cutting underperforming titles."

But the article, "Mostly Gloom for Glossies," is interesting not because it reports market conditions already well known to the readers of this blog. But because the print version is a static chart that highlights the plights of six glossy magazines while showing lines marking two dozen other magazines.

It's that the online version is much more useful for being interactive. You can click on each magazine, and more clearly see the trend of its advertising pages -- many more were flat than were apparent in the print version of the chart, and flat during this economy is actually good news.
It's an example of what online can do much better than print.

It's also an example of reporting that requires far less actual writing. (This post contains more copy than the Times article.) Even as the article compiles a lot of data.

Ready for Web 3.0?

Fortune's Jessi Hempel thinks Web 2.0 is so last big thing because no "new game-changing companies have emerged since Twitter burst on the scene in 2007."

But the main reasons is that Web 2.0 sites have "failed to deliver new ways to cash in the way their Web 1.0 predecessors, such as Amazon and Yahoo"

Interesting article. Check it out: "Web 2.0 is so over. Welcome to Web 3.0: Facebook and Twitter may be more popular than ever among users, but what are they worth?"

Chris Anderson writes about the Freemium business model

Wired's Chris Anderson wrote an interesting article about online business model, The Economics of Giving It Away: In a battered economy, free goods and services online are more attractive than ever. So how can the suppliers make a business model out of nothing?

Here's an excerpt from the article:

Digital economics have spurred entirely new business models, such as "Freemium," a free version supported by a paid premium version. This model uses free as a form of marketing to put the product in the hands of the maximum number of people, converting just a small fraction to paying customers. It's an inversion of the old free sample promotion: Rather than giving away one brownie to sell 99 others, you give away 99 virtual penguins to sell one virtual igloo. (Confused? Ask a child: This is the business model for the phenomenally successful Club Penguin.)