From blog to print - The printed blog newspaper

On January 27 the first issue of The Printed Blog appeared in Chicago, using one of the most popular Internet applications to turn into one of the oldest media. The idea is simple, bring local news provided by free reporters (citizen journalism), attract local advertisers (buy an ad for $15-$25), offer it to local readers, for free and PRINT it. Joshua Karp, founder and publisher, hopes eventually to reach, twice a day, a multitude of neighbourhoods in major US cities. In Chicago for example, there could be 50 local editions. The paper printed on a 27 *43 format, presents news that has been chosen by the readers of The Printed Blog site, selected among articles of 300 bloggers.
The business model is based upon advertising revenues; advertisers can reach a well selected audience and are prepared to pay more for a printed advertisement than an online ad.

Green Google?

Sustainability and CO2 emissions are often related to paper but almost never to Internet search. A Harvard graduate student - Wissner-Gross - recently opened the discussion about how green the web is. He claimed that every web search creates between 5-10 grams of CO2 from the power required to keep the servers going. Google reacted immediately by saying that its emissions are only .02 grams. Gartner, industry analysts, calculated that the global IT industry contributes 2 to 3 % of global carbon emissions, which is as much as the world's airlines. Another calculation indicated that maintaining an avatar in Second Life requires as much electricity as used by an average Brazilian! With growing online use and time spend with the computer this figure will further increase.

Warm news

Students from the University of Linz (Austria) have designed the news knitter, clothing that integrates the news of the day. Via news feed and a data visualisation programme news from all over the world is integrated in the knitting of sweaters.

Thumbs up?

Digital natives are changing many habits. One of these habits involves our fingers, the thumb is taking over the role from the index finger as it is used a lot for texting and playing. They are also showing all of us that multi-tasking is perfectly possible given information is presented in bite-size formats and in digital format. The downside of the multi-tasking was shown in a recent study by a British professor. He concluded that multi-taskers who continuously switch between responding emails, phone calls, text messages and chat sessions, have a 10 point lower IQ score (which is the equivalent of missing a night sleep). The compulsion to answer emails immediately was found with 60% of the workers. The stress of multi-tasking is putting a strain on the effectiveness of workers which is why certain companies are installing quiet time, time to think and read offline.

On the future of media

I came across a very interesting list of articles on the Life, Death and Rebirth of Media via Patou Nuytemans. It includes articles from the USA and Europe about the developments in the print media. An excellent read.

How to make the digital native read a newspaper, by Pres. Sarkozy

After three months of intense meetings, interviews and research the French government published the recommendations to support print media in France. In the context of the growing importance of online news and the economic situation of the print media "Etats Genereaux de la Presse Ecrite" was created. This Conference worked on four aspects of the print media business: the journalist function, the industrial process, print media and Internet and print media and society. Earlier this month the group presented its conclusion in the "Livre Vert". On the basis of these recommandations President Sarkozy decided to give all 18 year old French a free newspaper subsription of one year. The French government is also to double its advertising budgets spent in print media to 40%. Other measures have also been announced. Together with the ban on advertising on public broadcast television, the French have put together robust measures to support the print media.

Livre Vert

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Do newspapers offer own view?

Dutch research confirms what many fear: the strong position of news provided by news agencies and PR companies. It was estimated that almost 32% of all Dutch news was not written by the journalists of newspapers. The news articles were provided by the news agencies or PR companies. Cost reductions and the time pressure in the print room force journalists to look for easier solutions to produce copy. The research was inspired by a UK study, which was the basis for the book by Nick Davies called Flat Earth News.
In a media landscape with increased interest in news from online consumers, and a reduced interest in printed news, one might question whether this is the right strategy for the printed newspapers. Doesn't this strategy slowly kill the independence of the newspapers, reduce the quality of the news, lessen the interest of readers and minimise the attractiveness of the newspaper for the advertiser? Sounds almost like a self-fulfilling prophesy from Andrew Keen.

Recession increases wear-out of TV commercials

The current economic situation will move advertisers to run more often the same commercial or ad. This despite the increased wear-out of TV commercials. Wear-out refers to a situation that an ad or TV commercial gets unnoticed - because of lack of interest- or even creates irritation because of the high showing frequency. For print advertisements this point is reached after three ads, which proves the effectiveness of print advertising. This figure has been stable over the last 10-15 years. For TV advertising the wear-out figure has plummeted from 15-20 exposures during that same period to only 8 now. Advertising Age has some interesting views on this subject in a recent article.

Writing a book like Tom Kelley

I recently met Tom Kelley, the General Manager of the design company IDEO, and he mentioned how he wrote his most recent book 'The ten faces of innovation'. He refers to Tom Peters as his mentor for writing books. He taught him to use blank cards to jot down ideas. Kelley used a notebook system from Levenger (comparable to the Belgian Atoma notebooks). Levenger brings the story about how Kelley creates his book on their website. An interesting read for those who use longhand to write books.

Magazine ad shows invisible 3D Mini

I saw this great example of integration of online and offline media in the German press recently. It uses a print ad, 3D software, a webcam and the internet to show a Mini Cabrio on the ad. It looks like the work of David Copperfield! You can be your own illusionist by downloading this pdf and by following the German instructions on this website. By the way this new technology also come with a new name: Augmented Reality.