2006 September « Jim Rosenberg

Monthly Archives: September 2006

Rise of the Luddites?

First off, apologies for my lack of posting this month. It has been hectic at work – lots of new books come out in September, many about politics and the war. Today I’m producing a chat with this guy which should be really fun.

Sunday I was browsing the BBC’s news site (which I do every day) and I came across this story that is at once exciting, fascinating, and scary. A comprehensive survey of the world’s leading technologists finds consensus that by the year 2020 the internet will be pervasive and part of billions of devices worldwide. It also finds a self-selected group of Luddites will resist the technology. “Of course, we’ll have more Unabombers,”wrote Cory Doctorow, an author of the big blog BoingBoing.

Would English remain the dominant language of the internet? Not all agree. And more than half the respondents said it would be dangerous to leave machines in charge of surveillance and security functions.

[link via BBC]

Audience: Ask “who,” not “how many”

September 12, 2006 – 2:31 pm
Posted in content intermediaries, convergence, marketing, news, opensource, scared-as-hell-executives
Tagged Christian Science Monitor, TIME
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Dante Chinni of the Christian Science Monitor today considers why Time magazine is moving its publication day to Friday and has said it would seek to reduce circulation costs by cutting its readership by 25 percent.

Time’s new publishing schedule will mean it hits the streets on the same day as its British competitor. And Time’s idea about circulation, placing less emphasis on quantity, suggests an approach that several publications, including The Economist, have pursued: It’s not how many subscribers you have; it’s who they are.

The strategy is practiced by media outlets that are sometimes called the “elite media.” They aim at better educated, more-affluent audiences that have more money to spend on news and are more desirable to advertisers. The news outlets that serve them place a premium on trying to bring more depth and breadth to their coverage.

Among newspapers, the rise of the elite media can be seen in the growing and increasingly nationalized circulations of The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. On radio, it can be calculated in the increase of National Public Radio’s audience. In magazines, the prime example is The Economist.

Should this give hope to those who bemoan the demise of the mainstream media? Time will tell. While I agree with the idea that knowing your audience is paramount (try to talk to the right people, not everybody), I’m concerned that this trend means more elite media and fewer efforts to reach the mainstream.

[link via mediabistro]