Modern Voices Newsletter

Modern Voices Newsletter - July 2006

A little bit of everything in modern media this month. A little TV, a little journalism, even a little Google. But our favorite by far, is Jennica's commentary on e-mail. She's your audience...

  Today's Successful Business Models

"The most successful Web companies are building business models based on user-generated content."

--Chris Anderson, Wired Magazine

  Millenials Like Media

"Millenials consume 20 hours of media a day, but that is all done within 7 hours of clock time."

--Brend Magid, CEO, Frank M. Magid Associates

  Forever is Short

"In business, forever tends to last about five years, a decade or two at most."

--Steve Lohr, New York Times

  It's Called 'The Web'

"Newspapers have always wished they could be in television, but they didn't have a television network. Now they essentially have one: it's called the Web."

--Av Westin, co-chairman of the National Academy of Arts and Sciences, news and documentary awards committee

  E-Mail is Dying!

"It's too complicated to send e-mail.  I have to go in and type it, and send it, then wait for a reply."

--Jennica Paho, 14, San Jose

  It's Impossible

"It's becoming impossible not to visit with Google daily."

--Rene Berger, Technophilosopher

  Blogs Are People Too (?)

"Blogs are people. Your blog is where you are."

--Jeff Jarvis, BuzzMachine

  It's My Show Too

"The Internet has created someting that didn't exist five or 10 years ago, a direct dialogue with the creators or actors of a show.  For fans, they feel they have this access and they are empowered.  When we do our podcasts, and we explain what we are doing, they disagree with us and they tell us, 'Well, it's my show too.' "

--Damon Lindelof, co-creator "Lost"

  Audiences Have Turned the Advertising Table

"Our audience has gone from watching commercials to making them."

--Mark Tutssel, the chief creative officer for Leo Burnett Worldwide

  Do You Want Easy or Do You Want Effective?

"People say mass media is easy and digital is complicated. But do you want easy and ineffective or complicated and more effective?"

--Anne Benvenuto, R/GA's executive vice president of strategic services

Modern Voices Newsletter - June 2006

This month, the theme seems to be "it's sociology, not technology."  A little TV talk, a little blog talk and as always, an important comment or two on the state of mass media. Listen...

  The Battle for News Relevancy

"The competition for audience is not about news, not about the quality of journalism, not even about whether the great unwashed cares more about Branjelina than global warming, but the relevancy of the medium to the lives people lead.

"And, the battleground for that competition is digital."

--Time Porter, First Draft

  PC's are "Over"

"Last year there were maybe 130, 140 million PCs shipped, yet there were more than a billion Java handsets (mobile phones) shipped. The PC revolution is over.

--Jonathan Schwartz, CEO, Sun Microsystems

  Ignore the Future at Your Own Peril

"A new generation of under-25s is emerging with radically different expectations of media. We can't just think of them as our future readers and users, but as the brand managers and media buyers of the future as well.

"We ignore them -- and their expectations of us -- at our peril."

--Simon Waldman, director of digital publishing, The Guardian, U.K.

  Blogging Moves the Compass

"Blogging hasn’t just moved the needle for Sun Microsystems, it’s moved the whole damned compass."

--Jonathan Schwartz, CEO, Sun Microsystems

  The Declining Power of Institutions

“Individuals increasingly take cues from one another rather than from institutional sources like corporations, media outlets, religions, and political bodies. To thrive in an era of Social Computing, companies must abandon top-down management and communication tactics, weave communities into their products and services, use employees and partners as marketers, and become part of a living fabric of brand loyalists.”

--How Networks Erode Institutional Power, And What to do About It, Forrester Research Report by Chris Charron, Jaap Favier, Charlene Li

Teens are Media Competition

"Established media has to grapple with the novel fact that its next generation of consumers is also competition."

--Jon Fine, Business Week

  Blogs Are the New Black

"In my opinion, blogs are the new black."

--Om Malik, journalist, Business 2.0

  Prime Time TV Has Moved

"To me, the new prime time is 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., because more people have access to a computer then."

--Mark Burnett, Mark Burnett Productions

  You Wanna Reach New York?

“You wanna reach New York, you buy on Gothamist. You want to reach mommies, you buy on Busy Mom. How does traditional media match that?”

--Brian Clark, ad buyer

  The Good Thing About TV

"The good thing about TV shows is that it's about four hours' worth on one DVD, so it lasts me about two days during the commute."

--Andy Tao, Red Line Metro Commuter, Brookland, New York

Modern Voices Newsletter - May 2006

This is our inaugural edition of our Modern Voices Newsletter.  Welcome!  These are the quips, quotes and soundbites we hear in our travels in and around the modern mediasphere.  They come to us from gurus, thought leaders, executives, bloggers, publications, and the everyday citizen of the modern mediasphere.

These powerful “verbal snapshots” give us insights into the state, direction and evolution of modern media and modern communications.  Use them to spice up your proposals or make a point in your presentations.  Perhaps they will serve to crystallize a modern media trend for you.

We hope they will serve to get you thinking modern communications, modern marketing, modern audiences – and operating in the modern media commons.  And, as citizens of the modern mediascape, we hope you’ll express your opinions and give us more modern voices!

  Digital Socializing

"This is the first generation for which it is entirely natural to socialize in a digital environment. Mobile phones, instant messaging, texting and being online really are their life support."   

--Ross Dawson, chairman, Future Exploration Network

  Blogs and CEO’s

"Five or ten years from now almost every one of my peers will be a blogger. It's just a more efficient means of connecting with the marketplace."

-- Jonathan Schwartz, CEO, Sun Microsystems

  Burpee and RSS

"Burpee is a 130-year-old company that built its brand on innovation.  To me, that little orange button says what kind of company we are. It signifies we're on the team."

-- Ethan B. Holland,  director of e-commerce, Burpee

  Fire, Hire, Fire and Hire

"Ad inventory no longer works and marketers have started to figure that out.  In the process your clients will fire, hire, fire and hire agency after agency...seeking someone -- anyone! -- who can help them perhaps on where to go next."

-- John Stratton, CMO, Verizon Wireless

  Emmys Everywhere

"The underlying issue was, 'What is television?'. In this digital world, television is video images projected on a screen."

--Peter Price, President, National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences [regarding the Academy's award for Outstanding Achievement in Content for Non-Traditional Delivery Platforms]

  Me-Vee Guide: The New TV Guide?

"We've created a Me-Vee Guide - a way for you to understand, navigate, and participate in the online video explosion. What's on? Whatever you want."

--Wired News, What Do You Want To Watch?

  Formerly Known as Amateurs

"Can consumer-created content posted by amateurs actually remain consumer-created content posted by amateurs? Or, if people start to realize that somebody's making money off of this, will the amateurs suddenly become people formerly known as amateurs?"

-- Tom Wolzien, media analyst

  If MySpace Were A State

"If MySpace were a state it would be twice the size of California, but the crime associated with it would be a five-block area of New York City."

--Shawn Gold, marketing director, MySpace

RFID Tags

"We are heading toward a world in which billions of networked objects and sensors will report their location, identity and history."

-- Viviane Reding,  EU commissioner  [regarding the widespread use of radio tags tying together the internet world of cyberspace with the real world]

  No Time to Think

“We don’t build into our system of thoughts the need to explain, the media doesn’t build that into its transmission of knowledge and information.”

--Richard Dreyfuss