October 23, 2005

Multimedia assignment 2

All:

Please post links to your second multimedia assignment in the comments below. Remember: The first assignment was to be personal or first person. This one should be more of a "traditional" news story, though in a multimedia format.

I spent Sunday looking over your submissions for the first assignment. Overall, you did a great job. Impressive. I sent each of you comments on your work. Let me know if you didn't get a note from me. I look forward to seeing the next round ...

Also, a note about this week. I hope Jay Small's lecture last week was enlightening. This week, Rich Lacy, our director of online marketing, will be talking about Guerrilla Marketing Tactics. This is a great chance for you to pick Rich's mind about how to market your websites.

Sorry I've been scarce lately. It's budget season for us and I'm spending a lot of time on the road. I was on the West Coast last week and am in Texas all this week. But I'm still checking e-mail, so if you need something or have questions, just give a shout.

Posted by Bob Benz at 03:17 PM | Comments (16)

October 13, 2005

Tuesday 10/18 (Week 7, I think) readings

Hi, gang ... Jay Small, guest discussion leader, reporting in with a few suggested and brief readings to prep for our class time on Tuesday, 10/18.

On the syllabus, the scheduled subject for discussion is Guerrilla Marketing, and we'll definitely hit on that. But I also want to touch on other product development and marketing concepts that may help you: identifying target audience segments, setting your content "filters" right, why less-and-lighter trump more-and-heavier.

Nuggets to get you thinking on these concepts:


The 10 Faces of Innovation

Less as a competitive advantage

Saving Newspapers I: Focus on customer experience

QuickMBA.com: Market Segmentation

(Logistics for Tuesday: When it's time to start, you all can call me at my office number, 865-560-3546. Looking forward to it!)

Posted by Jay Small at 03:19 PM | Comments (0)

October 11, 2005

Week 6 Assignment: Advertising

Here is the assignment for this week:

For Thursday’s lab, do the following:

1. Go to Google AdWords and AdSense and read how these two programs work.

2. After reading, go to Google and search for one of the following terms:

Athens Ohio
Ohio University
OU Bobcats
Athens Ohio Apartments

Who has the top sponsored links in the results of the term you chose? Based on what you’re seeing, do you see an opportunity to buy a campaign that might drive traffic? What kind of site would use this campaign?

3. Bonus points: Set up an AdWord campaign for keywords for your publication. (You can do this for as little as $6. Go ahead and give it a try. It’s a great way to see how this works.)

4. Bonus points II: Set up an AdSense program for your site.

5. Post your answers to No. 2 to the blog. If you do either of the bonus items, post to the blog and let us know how it goes and what you learn.


Posted by Bob Benz at 12:53 PM | Comments (14)

Post links to your assignment here ...

Use this thread to post a link to your "me" multimedia assignment. Just post a link to it in the comments below.

Posted by Bob Benz at 08:51 AM | Comments (16)

October 08, 2005

Cool tool for building multimedia presentations ...

If you're using a Mac, this application might be worth looking at for your multimedia assignments. It makes it insanely easy to create a slideshow with sound that plays in the background.

Posted by Bob Benz at 10:20 AM | Comments (0)

October 02, 2005

Week 5: Audience

This week, we'll be looking at one of the most critical elements of running a successful news site: knowing your audience. Your assignment for this week is at the bottom of this post ...

Intro: Whom would you rather be speaking to?

207.203.254.110

or

Bob Benz, 43, resident of Knoxville, TN, who is interested in alternative country music, literature, dogs

1. Targeting your audience.

Whom does Speakeasy target? The Post? AthensI?
Think about the various audiences in and around OU ...

It's critical that your site home in on a specific audience. The more general you are, the tougher it is to provide a satisfactory experience to everyone.

Remember: Department store vs. boutique
Fragmentation

Long tail phenomenon

Now let's assume we've targeted the audience we're seeking. That's only the beginning of the job. One of the major advantages of the Internet is that it allows you to get very 1-to-1 with your audience. TV and newspapers have a very tough time doing that.

2. The basics: data you can easily glean from the web server

3. Getting personal: Ways to enhance user information

Audience management -- i.e. Tacoda

user: bbenz62@yahoo.com
pass: ohiouniversity

Now let's see what it looks like when we start pulling various data points together ...

4. The End Game: What you do with the data
We'll discuss this, and other strategies, during next week's discussion on advertising.

5. Assignment: Pick one of the following:

And analyze the site from an audience perspective.

Post your answers in the comments to this post. As always, the key is what you say, not how much you say ...

Posted by Bob Benz at 02:49 PM | Comments (12)

September 23, 2005

Flash as a journalistic tool

This story in Online Journalism Review should be of interest as you begin thinking about the multimedia story you'll be working on. (Remember the link I offered to Random This? That's another piece you should be looking at ...) Flash is a tool that most of our online newsrooms use in some way, shape or form.

An excerpt: "Want to put multimedia content on the Web? You’ll quickly find out that the free Flash player and the Flash authoring application top the list of solutions at most online news organizations."

Posted by Bob Benz at 08:54 AM | Comments (0)

September 22, 2005

Random this: Check it out

For an upcoming assignment, I'd like you to take a look at Random This, an ongoing web project that four young women at the Knoxville News Sentinel are working on. Very cool. Very fun. We'll be discussing this in class next Tuesday (and I will be in Athens for that class, so you won't be able to sleep through it the way you do on the conference calls.)

Posted by Bob Benz at 10:07 AM | Comments (0)

September 18, 2005

Week 3 lab assignment

Here's your assignment for this week's lab. It will be a great time to start thinking about your final project. Make sure you review the sites we looked over in this week's lecture, and pay particular attention to the questions at the end of that post. They'll help you formulate your response here.

You are the new media director for the Deadtree Gazette, a 100k circulation newspaper in Deadtree, Okla., with a good website. It earns about $2.5m a year in revenue and is profitable. You have an average of 30k monthly unique users (about 30% of your print audience). A few key points and statistics:

As you survey the market, there are several potential media and non-media sites that you could try to partner with. Here are the candidates:

Your assignment:

Tell us what you’d do to try to expand your revenue and audience at the Deadtree Gazette. Take time looking over the options. You are welcome to consider other alternatives that might not be listed above. Don’t be afraid to be creative. Post your proposal as a comment to this blog entry. The proposal should be short. Three paragraphs, tops. You don’t need to fill in all the details. Just float a proposal and quickly state why you believe this is what senior management should do. I want you to spend most of your time thinking about what you'd do, not drafting a detailed plan of how you would do it.

Posted by Bob Benz at 03:30 PM | Comments (15)

September 17, 2005

Final project rosters

By Oct. 5, post a comment here to let us know if you'll be working alone or in a group on your final project. If you're a group, please list all members of the group. For final project tips, click here.

Posted by Bob Benz at 12:31 PM | Comments (6)

Final project paint by numbers

I realize your final project (“Strange Bedfellows”, see syllabus) is somewhat vague. But that's the way it often works when you're trying to pitch your ideas in the "real world." There isn't necessarily a strict format you follow when you're trying to convince senior management to follow your recommendation.

But despite this, here is a "paint by numbers" approach to the final project. This will help you cover key items that will need to be addressed as you present to your board of directors.

  1. Introduction: Set the scene and explain the competitive landscape and issues that we're facing as a business.
  2. Discuss several possible options for addressing the problem (in this case, we're trying to decide if we should partner with or compete with another site in our market).
  3. State your proposed solution.
  4. Explain how your solution will deal with content/audience.
  5. Explain how your solution will deal with advertising.
  6. Explain how your solution will address marketing.
  7. Sum up why, given the above points, your solution is the best business case. Convince the board this is the direction to take.

In items 4-6, you should be drawing on things we're discussing in class to bolster your argument. You need to be laying out strategy in the context of what you're proposing.

For instance, if you're proposing the sites remain separate and you compete aggressively, you'll be explaining why it makes more sense from a content, advertising and marketing perspective to pursue this route and how our company will be better off for having done so.

Now the critical part. How long should it be?

That's up to you. But know this: The average senior executive has the attention span of a gnat. I would keep the written version of this as concise as possible. I'd favor bulleted lists over verbal flourishes. Think memo, not treatise. I guarantee you we will be grading these based on how well you argue, not how long you argue.

You also will need to present your recommendations to the board. This is where the rubber hits the road. Again, long, rambling presentations will have the board members reaching for their Blackberries and answering e-mails rather than listening to you.
Follow the outline you laid you in your written proposal. In addition:

The real test here will be when the board asks you questions about your proposal and challenges you on assumptions you're making. Don't get rattled when a board member is disagreeing with you. Acknowledge his or her concerns. Explain that you considered that particular point. And here's why you don't agree and believe your course is the better option. This is about persuasion.

And finally, a note on working as groups vs. individuals. That's up to you.

If you work as a group, I want to be able to see the contribution each member of the group is making. Each member of the group needs to be responsible for delivering a section of the proposal. You will be graded as a group, not as individuals. So you'll be only as strong as your weakest link. But I'll also take the group dynamic into account when I'm grading. In other words, I'll cut groups some slack if there are a few rough edges in their presentations. In the "real world," you will find yourself working in groups more often than not in these situations. It's more difficult than operating alone, but it also has more value. Collaboration and playing well with others is a critical skill in the business world.

If you work as an individual, you will succeed or fail based on your own work. That's an advantage in some senses, but a disadvantage because a group has the ability to challenge assumptions and think problems through from a lot of different perspectives.

By Oct. 4, I would like you to post a note in this thread of the blog that tells us if you are going it alone or working in a group. Group should list all of their members. I'd like to know this in advance so I can figure out scheduling for the final presentations.

Posted by Bob Benz at 12:29 PM | Comments (0)

September 05, 2005

Introductions: Post your bio here

Since this class is being done via conference call, it really helps to provide a few details about ourselves so we can get acquainted. I'll start. Each of you can post a comment providing details about yourself.

I'm general manager for interactive media/newspapers at the E.W. Scripps Company. We own 21 daily papers, and I've been in the newspapers business in some way, shape or form since 1984. You can learn more about me in the following places:

1. My blog and website. I tend to steer clear of work issues here and focus mostly on travel and fun stuff.

2. My resume.

3. My biography.

Now it's your turn. Tell us about yourself ...

Posted by Bob Benz at 11:49 AM | Comments (17)

Epic 2015 video: Post your thoughts here

During the second half of Tuesday's class, you were asked to watch the Epic 2015 video. When I show this video to newspaper people, the room goes dead quiet and the rest of the conversation is very somber.

I'd like each of you to post your reaction to the video. Does it seem likely? What specific indications are you seeing that this prediction is on the mark or off base? This will be a good chance for you to get a feel for how the blog operates.

Posted by Bob Benz at 11:37 AM | Comments (16)