Ms. Adverthinker

Colleges and universities are finally dipping their toes into the waters of technology.  Last month, I noted that students learn better from listening to a lecture podcast than from attending class.  Last week, the Missouri School of Journalism announced that incoming students are required to purchase an iPhone or an iPod Touch so they can download lectures from iTunes.  MU already encourages journalism students to use Apple computers.  As one can imagine, some students are not happy about the requirements.  Regardless of the choice of brand (although I am fan of Apple, of course), I am glad that MU recognizes the need to be on the forefront of technology and understands that teaching and learning methods have evolved.  Not all journalism schools are so progressive.  This is what led to our creation of SWIM: we were interviewing students who had no understanding of the impact social media can have on marketing and communications.  Our SWIM sessions are also available for download as podcasts on iTunes.

Also on the university and technology front: six universities will be part of a pilot program with the new Kindle DX.  Students at these universities will receive the Kindle DX instead of the traditional pile of text books.  The schools participating in the program are: Arizona State University, Case Western Reserve University, Princeton University, Reed College, Pace University and University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business.

Now you can.  The New York Times is reporting today that HP is offering a low-cost printing solution for consumers with start-up magazines.  The new service is called MagCloud.  The magazines are printed on-demand and cost 20-cents per page.  This new type of business model presents a great opportunity for those “consumer journalists” to experiment with what they think might be a cool, niche idea.  My initial thought: if you have a magazine idea, why wouldn’t you just start it as a website?  While I read magazines, I am not sure of the general readership these days.  With the newspaper business declining, it makes sense that the magazine business will be close behind it.  Many magazines are already offering their content as a monthly subscription through Amazon’s Kindle and online, but these outlets just don’t have the same feel.  You can read newspapers on the Kindle and not miss much of the experience, but magazines need that slick paper and those glossy photos that contribute to the experience of reading them.

“It is not clear how big a market there is for small runs of narrow-interest magazines when so much information is available free on the Internet. So far, users of the service, which is still in a testing phase, have produced close to 300 magazines, including publications on paintings by Mormon artists, the history of aerospace, food photography and improving your personal brand in a digital age.

“Aspiring publishers must handle their own writing and design work, sending a PDF file of their creation over the Internet to the MagCloud repository. H.P. farms out the printing jobs to partners scattered around the globe and takes care of billing and shipping for people who order the magazine. While H.P. charges the magazine publishers 20 cents a page, they can charge whatever they like for the completed product.”

I hope this takes off.  I love the idea of being able to experiment with an idea to understand its salience before dumping a large investment of money and time into it.  And, I think the more people we have talking about their passions out in the world, the better.

The Huffington Post announced yesterday that it will pay investigative journalists to write about the nation’s economy:

“Work that the journalists produce will be available for any publication or Web site to use at the same time it is posted on The Huffington Post, she said.

“The Huffington Post Web site is a collection of opinionated blog entries and breaking news. It has seven staff reporters.

“Ms. Huffington said she and the donors were concerned that layoffs at newspapers were hurting investigative journalism at a time when the nation’s institutions need to be watched closely. She hopes to draw from the ranks of laid-off journalists.”

With the demise of newspapers on the horizon, there has been much discussion lately about the state of journalism.  The concern: the quality of reporting will decline if we rely only on unpaid “consumer journalists” posting stories online.  The Huffington Post is proposing this solution, with the hope that their actions will encourage other news outlets to do the same.

I will admit that I have never been an avid radio listener.  For the most part, the reason for this lack of interest has been the radio “personalities.”  I have never found one that “clicks” with me.  Unfortunately, I think that local radio has to cater to the lowest common denominator of public taste in order to make the money they need to make to stay on the air.  But, let’s be honest: all media outlets are trying to figure out how to stay in business right now with the free online media onslaught.

Enter NPR.  NPR is growing.  The April issue of Fast Company has an article on NPR:

“In one of the great under-told media success stories of the past decade, NPR has emerged not as the bespectacled schoolmarm of our imagination but as a massive news machine poised for what Dick Meyer, editorial director for digital media, half-jokingly calls ‘world domination.’ NPR’s listenership has nearly doubled since 1999, even as newspaper circulation dropped off a cliff. Its programming now reaches 26.4 million listeners weekly — far more than USA Today’s 2.3 million daily circ or Fox News’ 2.8 million prime-time audience. When newspapers were closing bureaus, NPR was opening them, and now runs 38 around the world, better than CNN.  It has 860 member stations — ‘boots on the ground in every town’ that no newspaper or TV network can claim. It has moved boldly into new media as well: 14 million monthly podcast downloads, 8 million Web visitors, NPR Mobile, an open platform, a social network, even crowdsourcing. And although the nonprofit has been hit by the downturn like everyone else, its multiple revenue streams look far healthier long term than the ad-driven model of commercial media.”

NPR attributes this growth, and now sustainability, to its multiplatform distribution outlets: it has capitalized on the technology trends.  “It was the first mainstream-media organization to enter podcasting and often has several programs in the iTunes top 10….Traffic on NPR.org grew 78% from 2007 to 2008.”

This weekend, during a conversation with Blake’s Think Tank, the discussion veered to the importance of offering content to consumers in a format in which they want to receive it: no longer can the media expect consumers to come to them for the content.  We had this conversation in the context of literature, news and the Amazon Kindle.  However as it turns out, this is very relevant when it comes to radio too, evident by NPR’s success.  Radio is a convenience media outlet: “‘People don’t have 15 minutes to sit at home and read the newspaper, but you can get accurate, in-depth reporting as you sit in traffic,’ or make dinner, or clean out the garage.  It’s a screen-free complement to online browsing.”  And, people will get access to this information live by tuning in to the radio, or by downloading and listening on their iPods, or by streaming it from their computers.  NPR has given them the freedom to decide how to consume the information.  And that is making them a winner in this new distribution competition.

While it helps that NPR does not depend on advertising dollars for sustainability, it is dealing with the down economy too: “All sources of funding, from corporate underwriting to foundation grants, dipped last year, causing a projected $23 million budget shortfall for fiscal 2009.”  This news delivery battle will come down to the survival of the fittest.  Will it be radio?

Little Rock’s NPR station can be found on 89.1 and at kuar.org.  Tune in now: according to Fast Company, “…someday soon we may be looking at a world where public radio emerges as the main local-news source in many communities coast to coast.”

UPDATE: Blake’s Think Tank reports on NPR audience increases:

“Washington-based NPR will release new figures to its stations today showing that the cumulative audience for its daily news programs hit 20.9 million a week, a 9 percent increase over the previous year,” reports The Washington Post.”