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Le Web

LeWeb 3: blogging credibility

leweb_3.jpgDave Sifry from Technorati presented some excellent stats illustrating how fast the blogosphere continues to grow and how bloggers are gaining more links and references than much older commercial news sites. These links demonstrate credibility. Alexis Helcmanocki of IPSOS, France followed with very recent research in Europe illustrating how consumers rate blog content about products compared to sources such as newspapers and company websites. Both presentations reinforced the power of the blog.

Blogging is important. Of course I’d say that, I blog. It is important and here’s my view on why: anyone can do it; it’s free; people take notice; it makes the world smaller; blogging ignores economic status. It is the ultimate – by today’s standards – globalisation tool.

By blogging here about issues affecting my newsagency I have been able to achieve outcomes which eluded me when I used regular channels of communication. Companies notice when you blog about them and, often, they don’t like it. I had one supplier who had been ignoring an issue so I blogged about it. They responded within hours of the blog post. Then they asked me to take the blog entry down. I refused but added a footnote.

Blogging gives me the ability to bring matters of concern direct to the attention of some who would otherwise remain ignorant of the issues.

While companies respond to blog posts, it’s my experience that Government Ministers do not. I have outed Communications Minister Helen Coonan and Small Business Minister Fran Bailey here as being rubber stamp ministers and not caring about small business. It seems that no matter what I write they do not engage. Formal letters get impersonal off the shelf letters and blog posts are ignored. I’d rate government engagement through blogging as a failure at the moment.

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Le Web

LeWeb 3: Trade journals disappearing thanks to blogs

Dave Sifry, founder of Technorati, told LeWeb 3 participants today that trade journals were dying thanks to blogging. He said blogging about specialist topics was more economically feasible than publishing a magazine. I agree and would go further: blogging is more immediate and less influenced by advertisers. I have a real gripe with trade journals which give over editorial control (or at least part of it) to advertisers. Through blogging industry participants have a better chance of getting accurate and more timely reporting of a situation.

Sifry’s comments also relate to niche publishing. In Australia I would consider around 300 titles in an average retail newsagency to be niche titles. If retail newsagents charged a fair price for their real-estate and labour currently supporting these niche titles, they would quickly move online. While I like that only newsagencies have these niche titles, they are not economic and the sooner we put them to rest the better. We are deluding ourselves if we think having uneconomic niche titles makes for a good business plan.

What newsagents could consider doing is somehow leveraging their connection with readers of these niche titles through a blog based forum so that the connection made in the newsagency is taken online. The payoff for newsagents of doing this could be advertising. Creating such a blog or other type of forum would be easy.

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Le Web

Le Web 3, newsagents and finding a future online

leweb1.JPGTake 1,000 IT people involved in online businesses from around the world – from developers to venture capitalists – and you’re bound to get reality checks on a range of fronts. Le Web 3 brings these people together in formal conference sessions, informalk networking and a fascinating, compelling and intimidating start-up room. I’m here learning for the Find It online classifieds business being rolled out in partnership with newsagents. But there are more take aways than those which relate to Find It. Here is a summary of my key take-aways today.

First up, every second attendee is sitting in the conference hall laptop open and reading and writing during the sessions. More male than female. I’d guess the average age at early 30s.

Newsagents are getting left behind. I know I go on here like a cracked record about this but you onle have to come to a conference like Le Web and see how disconnected we are with the new worl in our bricks and mortar businesses. We must get this to survive.

They are generating content as they go – participating in live and relevant polls which speakers comment on from the stage.

Newsagents have no conection with the world of user generated content.

We’re hearing that user generated content is key. Quality content. A chap from yahoo said driving quality content was the holy grail. But then he said that while there;’s crap at YouTube, that there is some quality makes the site compelling.

The newspapers and magazines we sell in newsagencies deliver, in the main, quality content. There’s some, short term, comfort in that.

There was talk of a big impact of Web 2.0 on middlemen and in particular TV networks. IPTV is about connecting content producers with consumers. The TV stations are the losers in this. Consumers are proving they want content where and when they want. TB networks work against this. In an IPTV world the TV program is replaced by an a la carte menu.

Newsagents are middlemen for the most part. We make money from selling product people can get individually elsewhere. We need our own reasons to exist.

Free is the game in town. Free broadband. Free online software. Free content. Monetisation comes from advertising and other less obvious revenue models.

If you look at the change in newspaper cover prices in Australia over the last ten years compared to the change in advertising rates over the same period and you can see that publishers agree. In real terms, Australian newspapers sold in newsagencies are closer to being free today than ten years ago. Niche titles – foreign language newspapers – price their product as if the content is valuable.

More than this has been covered so far but I’m not about to blog about take-aways which will benefit Find It and my other businesses.

So far Le Web 3 has been exciting, challenging and very enjoyable.

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