The Internet: It's Not Just for Coaches Anymore

We have seen more than our share of Coach getting up in front of the ole booster club and saying something he shouldn't have. Lo and behold, it's out there on the internets.

Meet Catherine E. Watt. Ms. Watt presented a paper at an academic conference, and made some interesting observations about techniques being used by Clemson to improve its standing in the US News and World Report annual college review.

All the gory details on the educantese battle over what she accused Clemson of doing is at The Chronicle and other on-line media. What catches my attention is another great example of no matter where you speak, you are on the record. From The Chronicle:

She acknowledged that she might have chosen her words "more carefully” if she had known beforehand that reporters would attend the session, which took place at the annual conference of the Association for Institutional Research. “Someone gave me the comment that I was pulling the covers off this issue," she said. "I think I was just discussing publicly what we all say privately.”

You reckon? Hey, Christine, your colleagues were in the audience. Did you not think they would blog about your ideas? Not Twitter a few key notes? Text a friend or two that "OMG! CU is fxn data"?

Please always remember, and never forget: When more than two people know something, it's no longer a secret -- or you really can't discuss things publicly you want to be private.

You Can't Make This Stuff Up

This just in -- Harvard researcher says Twitter users are more self-obsessed than users of other blogging formats.

He reported his findings, among other ways, by Twitter.

More at The Chronicle.

Got to Stop Giving It Away for Free

Not to say I had anything to do with this, but I can at least say it's part of the scheme I laid out two months ago for local media survival. KARK in Little Rock announces a hybrid lineup of high school live games, partnering with one of the larger net media enterprises in the state.

Think about it -- if the networks and the studios decide to take their content direct to the consumer, this will be the only way for the stations formerly known as affiliates to survive.

Difference for them and what's happening to GM and Chrysler dealerships? At least when the franchise model collapses on the TV stations, they have something they can create -- if they are forward thinking.

LaRussa Case Bears Watching

Tony LaRussa may set major on-line precedent with his lawsuit against Twitter to stop a parody using his name and likeness. The newspaper account and the more detailed legal paperwork reveal that LaRussa's move is to use trademark against the faux account.

Typically, Twitter has allowed parodies to stay if they were clearly marked, which this one is, but if LaRussa is successful, this could open the door for ICANN-like actions against those who may be cybersquatting on labels.

Many have believed that since Twitter was a closed system, one could not approach to have a non-approved person from a brand or trademark. The same applies at Facebook and YouTube. A loss for Twitter could open the door for many groups -- the Arkansas Razorbacks included -- to regain trademark names grabbed either for profit or fun by non-approved individuals.

LaRussa's lawyers had trouble reaching Twitter (surprise -- try to contact a human at any of these services) and filed the suit. Shortly before the case was put to docket, Twitter pulled the parody but the suit remains. It will be interesting to see if the case will be carried through for the legal precedent, or will Twitter simply become more open to DMCA-type actions.

Manjoo's Simply Not the First

Another "True Enough" precursor; a little more of our time than the previous:

“Early in life I had noticed that no event is ever correctly reported in a newspaper, but in Spain, for the first time, I saw newspaper reports which did not bear any relation to the facts, not even the relationship which is implied in an ordinary lie. I saw great battles reported where there had been no fighting, and complete silence where hundreds of men had been killed . . . This kind of thing is frightening to me, because it often gives me the feeling that the very concept of objective truth is fading out of the world. After all, the chances are that those lies, or at any rate similar lies, will pass into history.”

George Orwell, on the Spanish Civil War of the late 1930s

How It Is Done

Good friend and colleague with Wal-Mart, Kevin Thornton (K5KVN -- see, even more reason to be a ham), is providing a Twitter feed of the Wal-Mart Shareholders meeting. @Walmartmeeting.

Where is the Line?

Deadspin gives us an interesting note today from the sports journalism world. A Tampa Bay beat reporter tweeted some potential news on a player that turned out to be rumor. In the meantime, of course, the Tampa Bay world was all atwitter (sorry, bad pun) over the prospect.

The writer, Rick Stroud, has since said well, you know, it's not real until I put it on TampaBay.com. Thanks for clearing that up.

Good to know media members are equally confused about what is news, or a public statement. I'm sure Lane Kiffin and Tennessee would like to have that defense available from the unfortunate Twitter incident over a commitment. If Stroud's logic follows, Kiffin's personal assistant gets a mulligan since that wasn't a "real" website; just Twitter.

Please, everyone -- the public square has expanded to all forms of communication. If you post it in public, guess what, it's a public statement that you may be asked to stand behind. I'm not going to bogart all of Deadspin's take -- which is spot on -- but you cannot have it both ways. It is either news, or made up buzz.

On-Line Gender Equity

Now that I have your attention -- a post NOT about Title IX.

The trend I noticed a few weeks ago continues -- Twitter followers seem to be 50-50 male-female, a remarkable thing. In a male-oriented on-line world, perhaps these Twitter feeds are a way for us to reach our female fans.

Curious to hear from others if they see the same kind of balance of numbers after the initial start. A high percentage of our first 100-200 followers were male, but in these last couple of hundred, females tend to lead. For example, our 1000th follower (and a gift certificate prize winner) was female.

I've Been Everywhere, Man

Yard work and a little Johnny Cash; good times -- between battling the up-and-down Twitter feed and remote supporting our away teams for ArkansasRazorbacks.com.

Twenty years last month here at Arkansas; 24+ in the SID business. Worked five Final Fours for the good times; had to face NCAA probation cases and bury some student-athletes way before their time for the bad. In between, people knew where my schools or teams stood, and we had very solid media relationships.

It is easy to be the spokesperson when it's the national championship -- or your hosting the national championship. Different when the coach was fired, or the athlete arrested; or worse.

For all the technology and the "new" media, it comes down to relationships, and how you manage them. Getting the message through is the key.

20 years -- didn't seem like a long time until recently.

Converting Brand into Bond

Recently, I've been doing some work on how social media can be used to enhance the school's brand, and that pushed me to a new idea on the relationship between a brand and it's fans/consumers/supporters.

What makes a brand a Brand is the level of commitment, the level of buy-in, from the users of the product or service. It's all the small things that add up to the difference between an Apple devotee who will proudly put the little sticker that came with an iPhone on their car and a Dell user that perhaps wouldn't go to battle for his beloved computer.

How do we translate the brand into that kind of bond? This is the heart of foundation and booster group work for colleges and universities across the country. People want to be a part of the team, and social media is a perfect way to build and enhance that bond.

Along with interactive social media -- like Facebook, but especially Twitter -- showing, not just telling, the brand's story is vital.

Today's NYT provides a perfect enhancement to my theory. The story of the rise of Vice as a multimedia trendsetting publication juggernaut (hmm, could that be too many exciting modifiers? read the linked story and you tell me) includes this nugget from Vice co-founder (and no relation) Shane Smith, which is the Twitter-away line of the story:

"Mr. Smith said Virtue's approach is simple, 'All brands dhouls think of themselves as media companies.' "

Virtue is the companion advertising agency to Vice, and they are blurring all the lines between editorial and advertising; breaking the rules for using their own staff as the engine for concept and content rather than running back to the client. Mad Men? Hardly. The future? Oh yes.

Remember, you heard it here first -- as early as last year -- that there is a reason why all those media companies are eager to snatch up college and university rights for what seem to be large amounts of money.

It's because they have figured out they can make even more money with the content.

Wanderlust

I was asked yesterday if I had the opportunity to travel abroad, and was that valuable for me personally. Absolutely.

Later I pondered my answer, and wished I had remembered my dad. He was an interesting individual, proud owner of an eighth grade education. Travel, he always said, was his greatest teacher. I know that he wanted for me to see America before seeing college, but his health and the course life takes didn't let that happen.

Understand, he was a natural businessman, and frankly minted money with his night clubs and discos. Even though his early career in mule trading -- I'm not making that up, literally, mule trading -- and his service in the Pacific gave him all the formal education he felt he needed. However, he never stopped reading -- books, newspapers, magazines -- and he constantly preached you need to take a year and see the world.

At one point, I had an offer in hand from ROTC that certainly would have allowed that, but he was violently opposed to my thoughts of a military career.

The English call it gap year. Smitty called it education.

Happy Belated Memorial Day; New Content Coming

A great weekend project produces more fodder for the blog, just not content I can get to today. So a shameless bump, and a promise of some new perspectives on brand translating to bond.

Be Still We're History Fans

Two new episodes taped last week, and they should be coming to air soon. Better yet -- Kyle Kellams and I are digging out all the old scripts to recreate the whole archive in the next few weeks (repairing a tragic hole in the universe caused by a hard disk failure).

I Want My MTV

Yes, it was my generation that made that demand of the media; my music that said we should have money for nothing.

I'm not ashamed of it.

And now, I want my newspaper, my radio and my television where I want it, when I want it, on the platform I want it on.

Guess what -- I'm willing to pay for it, too.

So, here's the deal. Newspapers -- get with the iPhone apps to present your copy like the New York Times AND in simple PDFs for Kindle DX. Hey, password protect it to subscribers -- no problem for my local content.

Why? Because hello local/state/regional media -- I've spent more time reading a newspaper on my iPhone in the past month than I've probably spent reading it since I stopped spinning reels of microfilm in search of references to the arrest of British agents trying to recruit Americans into the RAF in the 1940s for my dissertation.

Let me be clear -- I am not a NYT reader. Never had been. Never planned to be. But because it is the best quality writing and story base available in a usable, easy to manage format (and it's free) I read it all the time.

Please, don't let the free part get in the way. I've said I'll pay for value added content. (Why pay for the basics when the Associated Press and Reuters are giving that away for free?).

Look, like whole lot of folks, I pay a substantial amount of premium fees to have TiVO on my satellite service. I watch what I want, when I want.

Guess what J-School kids? We'll do the same think when you figure that out.

Same for you, radio industry. Could you guys get together and realize that without RiVO, podcasting will be the end of your terrestrial business model (not unlike the soon to be end of the satellite business model)? Here's a clue, we don't need RiVO to get all the music we want for free. Those so incline get it, rip it and share it every day. By using RIAA to stand in the way of capture and store radio, you're just encouraging us to find other alternatives.

Finally, Madison Avenue -- pick up the ringing clue smartphone. Those on-line ads that you don't seem to "value" because you can't quite come up with a metric that's as solid as Nielson or Arbitron, well, you might rethink those values. You can have all the share in the world if no one is tuning in.

We -- the generation that got its MTV -- are waiting.

Not very patiently.

Good, Bad & Ugly in Twitterverse

You really can't say news across the transom any more . . . maybe these pixels just across the screen.

Good friend at another institution -- Joe Friday rules here, the names of the innocent . . . -- alerts us of the latest in Twitter miscue.

Remember, folks, the NCAA rules follow you on-line. Lots of hot pixels a couple of weeks back as media and compliance folks alike tried to discern if Twitter was NCAA-compliant. Yes, but not when you do things that would get you into the same level of trouble with the traditional media.

Like a coach saying out loud for attribution that a verbal commitment has happened. Tennessee is turning itself in over a Tweet on Lane Kiffin's feed.

"It's a beautiful day in Knoxville, Tennessee today. I was so exited to hear that J.C. Copeland committed to play for the Vols today!"

Let me extend a piece of recycled advice -- just as we tell a student, when you start a Facebook/blog site/Twitter feed, you are no longer the subject of the interview, you are now the source, editor and publisher. There is no one to blame; there are no take backs.

According to ESPN's reports, it was not Kiffin who punched out the violating Tweet. It was an Kiffin's personal assistants who was tasked with keeping the feed moving. First day on the job, too. That's rough.

Here is the real problem with Twitter: You don't know who is behind the keyboard. Shaq has been very up front that it's him, and he won't accept substitutes. But for every Shaq, there are 10 celeb feeds that are "managed" by members of the PR team working for that person. All part of keeping up appearances.

On an audio podcast or a video package, you know who is doing the work. Even on the website, typically there are attribution lines. No such on Twitter -- you are presumed to be who you are Twittering as until proven otherwise.

Like @ChristopherWalken; sorry, not enough cowbell to be the real thing. Spoofing celebrities is a major part of the Twitterverse.

To repeat, that's why we claimed every one of our coaches' names that we could two months ago, and urged all our colleagues in the SID business to do the same. Not so those coaches could run out and start Tweeting, but to prevent ugly things like: @HoustonNuttOM.

I'm pretty confident the former Razorback head coach has nothing to do with this feed. A sample recent Tweet:

twitter reminds me of text messaging.....i like it!!!

Here is the problem. Look at the structure between the real Tennessee coach's feed @LaneKiffinUT and the faux feed of Ole Miss @HoustonNuttOM. Very similar. Person behind this has captured Coach Nutt's photo to add some realism. This is nothing less than media phishing -- how long until someone comes across this and tries to claim those are real quotes?

I Cannot Say This Better

Today's missive from the Word of Mouth Marketing Association reminds us that "word of mouth" isn't necessarily social media, but it is often confused as such. The full story by Molly Flatt is here on the WOMMA website.

Here's just one nugget:

WOM is our most ancient form of marketing (where on prehistoric earth did you get the recipe for that mammoth stew?), existing long before Mark Zuckerberg got his hands on a PC, but companies still seem to categorise [sic] it in the innovations, digital or experimental fields.

Flatt continues to explain the brand advocacy role for social media within word of mouth, but really, she says it best -- go read her column.

Old vs. New

The schools squared off in the Sunday ADG, former journalist now Hollywood show writer David Simon and in-state blog-fly (blogger gadfly) David Kinkade. I highly recommend both essays, and in the best moderate journalistic writing style, I can say that each side makes valid points and each side over-reaches. The truth, as always, lies in between.

Simon has presented the most cogent end-of-times argument for the impact the loss of traditional newspapers could have on the nation.

[The recent publication was of his testimony to the U.S. Senate (in HTML many places, here's one), but Simon has an additional essay from earlier in the year that's equally interesting in the Washington Post (obviously the notes for the later testimony).]

Due respects to Mr. Kinkade who expends a lot of energy countering this, but "high-end journalism" as Simon calls it is not replacable by the blogosphere. There is something to be said for the experience and knowledge that can only come from daily, close proximity coverage.

Primarily, it's the ability to filter what is truly significant from A) a blantant distraction attempt off a trail by a subject, or B) knowing when to press in on something that to the passer by looks inocuous, yet in reality is the tip of an iceburg.

Passion and numbers will help fill that void, according to Kinkade. I'm as open to concept of the citizenry becoming active in media -- let me inject, they need to first and foremost be more active consumers -- but there is a fine line between vibrant participatory groups and pitchforks and torches.

Kinkade hits the traditional media where it hurts when he points out the way newspapers use the boards and blogs as sources, quoting, "the relationship is not parasitic -- it's symbiotic." Or, as I've said many times, the declining newsroom employs the citizen media and the participatory media as a force multiplier. Think of it as replacing those expensive human assets in the field with satellites and technology. Cost effective and you get great snapshots of moments -- but then again, how's that working out for us down at Langley?

I worry less for the republic than Simon because I know there was a land before this time in which partisan media ruled, and we as a nation managed to survive a Civil War, abolish slavery and settle a continent with the pre-corporate mass media of the mid-to-late 20th century.

Let me say as a news consumer, I want both. I want my newspaper content and I want my on-line communities. I want my peanut butter. I want my chocolate. Why can't anyone give me the Reese's of journalism?

Don't Say It Can't Happen Here

After 174 years in print, the Ann Arbor News will cease on July 23. That would be the daily paper that has covered the comings and goings of the University of Michigan for all that time. A new on-line venture will replace the paper.

Once Caught, Don't Dig Deeper

In politics and public relations, often it is not about the crime, but the cover-up. Call it the Watergate Syndrome, but individuals who are reflexively unable to accept blame or admit guilt believe that if they can simply lean in to a story, steer into the skid, they can escape. They do so in part due to an escalating series of successes with this strategy in their past; often is will be the reason why they have risen to the place or maintained their position.

The current edition of the Watergate Syndrome is Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi. Please, this isn't political, this is public relations tactical. The Speaker's strategy vis-a-vis CIA briefings is starting to unravel under the continued pressure of questioning. (If you must, substitute the name George Bush and the topic Weapons of Mass Destruction if that helps you to continue reading).

Yesterday's press events are bringing this WS to its end game. The purpotrator is cornered, and faces that classic decision: mea culpa or evasive action. What is often forgotten was the original issue -- in this case, waterboarding as interogation techinique -- and what becomes the issue is the veracity of the target.

To put it in the classic words of the late Tennessee Senator Howard Baker: What did the [Speaker] know and when did [she] know it? To me, that quotation did more to bring Richard Nixon's presidency to a close than anything else. It spoke to the heart of the cover-up; the deception.

Americans love the tragic hero, love to forgive, love a comeback story -- but only to the extent they believe they have not been played. Nixon's cardinal sin was not admitting to the events of Watergate early on when it could have been more effectively poo-poo'ed away. By the second term of his Presidency, he had forgotten that he himself had escaped a controversy over campaign contributions as Dwight Eisenhower's vice presidential candidate. He laid himself before the American people with the Checkers Speech, and his wife Pat not receiving fur coats from fat cats but owning simply a "good Republican coat."

Who plays the role of Baker today? Leon Panetta's defense of the CIA is getting close. Why Panetta? Isn't it his job to back his people as an adminstrator? Certainly, but this overlooks the real value of Baker.

Who remembers what Baker's party was? That's right, he was the Republican senator from Tennessee, replaced by a young man named Al Gore when he later became Ronald Reagan's chief of staff. And the legend has it the person that came up the question was a young staffer, future Tennessee senator himself, Fred Thompson.

Those who play the Watergate Syndrome are rarely undone by their opponents; their failure most often comes at the hands of their own. So will the former California house member Panetta be Pelosi's Baker?

How Not to Avoid the Question

I kept a collection of these kind of clips for students to watch in my SID class. When you are the spokesperson, you must command the room, and occasionally it is your duty to not answer a question.

But when you get too flip, things like this happen:

Robert Gibbs, White House press secretary

Need to figure out how to capture this particular flash video for the teaching collection.

Turn the Ship

Good on you, Jodi Beznoska. There's a local tempest in a teapot going about some legacy media reports about part of Fayetteville, and the counter reaction by the net media. Our local theater venue, the Walton Arts Center, gets pulled into this debate about whether or not Dickson Street is "safe" and is WAC looking to move. Once WAC's plans start to become part of the thread, enter Jodi to stick up for the brand and redirect the debate. It is a textbook WOMMA move -- show presence, correct a misconception, let the debate continue.

Jodi from the WAC here. I just wanted to let you know that we listen in and really appreciate conversations like this, regardless of your opinion. It’s exciting that so many people care about our future.

One clarification:

From here, she points out what the established expansion plan for WAC includes, gives a website link to the WAC that gives the hard facts and signs off with her contact information. The only other touch on the thread was a quick PS thanking the Fayetteville PD for doing such a great job in patroling the area.

Result? A break in the debate for several kudos posts for the communications director of the WAC taking the time to drop by with info. Once the thread resumes, its all about what the media said and the usual partisan in-fighting among the group. Gone from the comments are any further involvement over WAC.

A classic effort by Ms. Beznoska. The news blog site's readers know she and WAC are paying attention (and watching for errors), that WAC wants to be a part of its fan's passionate community and set the record straight on a factual error.

Twitter is Just the Software

The continuing growth of the Twitter phenomenon into the mainstream of American media shows the validity of the combination of the conversation of Web 2.0 with the mobility of Web 3.0.

It's the connection that's important -- Twitter's just the software that makes that happen. The focus on Twitter as a company, as a system, overlooks the two vital components that make it work. Sure, good ole' Biz's site has nice functionality, but it is nowhere without the public's desire to participate in the conversation and become a part of something larger than themselves.

To activate that community requires the content from the subject, and the willingness to cede some of the brand control to the community one seeks to bring closer to the brand.

Part A without part B -- just another echo chamber message board; part B without part A -- whew, I've seen some ba-a-a-a-d MySpace band pages like that.

Got both? A branding machine.

You're Selling Truth

Knowing my colleague at Arizona State Dan Gillmor has expounded on this at length, there is a real need for the entrepreneurial aspect of journalism. I see it today locally with our recently laid off members of the media. What sparked the idea was a catch-up night of listening to Dennis Miller's podcast where he was interviewing Tucker Carlson. Late of the cable news channels, Carlson is on to a new blog-news site and mentioned he was getting ready to launch another on-line news project.

So there he was, selling the brand that was Tucker Carlson, promoting two business ventures and doing reviews and columns. Is he a journalist? In the old-school mentality of creating virtuous vessels for pursuit of the objective truth, no.

In the net media world, Carlson is the embodiment of punditry. Even in college sports coverage, who's the biggest name in the state of Alabama -- Finebaum. Multi-platform, multi-format presentation of reporting.

Is this a bad thing? No, and those who might cluck at the commerce aspect are painfully naive. The idealistic cub reporter was making coin for his publisher every day. Now, those roles can merge.

Is it dangerous? Think about it in these terms. When you go to the doctor, do you stop and think about the fact he is selling health? Really, when you get down to it, if the doc is any good, you pay for the service and for that practice to stay solvent, it better make money.

Members of the media sell truth. It is the primary commodity. Any person who moves from pundent to pedantic risks damaging the veracity of the main product.

We need to make sure we're teaching the rising generation that hard fact, as they may spend more of their working years operating closer to the 1920s hometown publisher/station owner model than the existing corporate media world

Our Attention Spans Are Still Long

While we push more and more for the 140 character Twitter nation, an equal amount of research is telling us consumers -- regardless of age group -- are seeing long-form content. Both Hulu and iTunes are doing brisk business in the unedited hour and half-hour traditional episode content.

It makes sense. YouTube is fun for about 30 seconds of cute kitty cat stuff, but what we really want to sit down with is traditional fare.

There is more on this from the NAB's super session on generational viewing habits, but the take-away is dedicated users -- read, your college fans -- like the full coach's show more than the cut-ups. Recruits, maybe different, but for now, consider looking into that traditional time frame of 30 minutes for your on-line productions -- even though you don't have the lock-in of broadcast TV's 28:30.

Part of the key is mobile TV. HDTV and digital might of killed off every old Sony Watchman and portable camping b&w 4x3 unit, but that didn't stop us from wanting to have over-the-air in our hands. It comes through the smart phone -- as one presenter, Ed Moran, noted in the pre-event press in NAB Daily:

"The other day waiting for some friends at a resturant, I pulled out my iPhone and watched the first 10 minutes of an old Star Trek episode."

Or, as my director of new media did, walk around the building keeping up with the Masters.

Twitter Destroys the Mystery

Thinking about the obsession we have these days with "breaking news" -- from being the first to post it on a participatory media website or sending out a Tweet -- J.J. Abrams talks about why he's so obsessed with security on his projects:

"I completely understand the desire to find out behind-the-scenes details in a nanosecond. . . . the real damage isn't so much that the secret gets out. It's that the experience is destroyed. The illusion is diminished. Which may not matter to some. But then what's the point of actually seeing that movie or episode? . . . It's telling that the very term itself - spoiler - has become synonymous with "cool info you can her before the other guy". What no one remembers is that it literally means "to damage irreparably; to ruin".

Telling stuff -- particularly the experience part. If everyone is on the inside, where's the wonder of the new?

On Learning

Here’s a double thought on teaching. One of the presenters posited a Matix-like world in which we really could download expertise by simply asking the cloud through our mobile device. The mobile device could take images of the problem – his example, my car won’t start – and bring back step by step instructions. His point being here is a chance to escape the old 19th century rote memorization paradigm. Fair enough, but how can you ask for info and solutions when you lack context. For that matter, who become the subject experts in a world of experience learners?

Cut now to J.J. Abrams’ essay in this month’s Wired
"True understanding (of skill or effort) has become bothersome - an unnecessary headache that impedes our ability to get on with our lives (and most likely skip to something else). Earning the endgame seems so yesterday, especially when we can know whatever we need to know whenever we know it."

Question to the Masses

I've noticed that a higher percentage of female followers @ArkRazorbacks than the subscription base of ArkansasRazorbacks.com or RazorVision. Once the media and other schools are removed from our roughly 800 followers, my estimate is about 60-40 male-female in what appears to be a pretty heavily college student age generation.

Are others who have Twitter feeds, particularly sports info offices, finding the same demographics? Have we stumbled upon a better way of involving our female fan base? I'd be interested in responses.

Pot, Meet Kettle

Al Tompkins of the Poynter Institute on a recent NPR technology podcast spoke about the impact that "social media" was having on the public at large. Here, we've used the terms B&B or participatory journalism for what Tompkins was giving the long look down the nose. Can you trust social media was the set-up:

"Just because a person says it and says it on-line in a Twitter page does not make it true. Not even close."

Pause for a moment. How long ago did we hear same said of newspapers by news makers? How many have had a personal experience with that?

Tompkins continued, noting "the enemy of truth is speed."

Hmm. Perhaps the enemy of accuracy can be speed, but time and time again the first version of a story proves to be the most true. What became of the old first write through of history? Apparently, doesn't count unless its a journalist.

I can think of a lot of enemies of truth -- self-interest, lack of open [fill in the blank with your choice of meetings, records, accounting], editorial filtering, etc.

One item Tompkins offered in support of speed killing truth was spot on. He bemoaned the desire of bloggers to throw up a story quickly, then verify it later. The need for speed and being first overriding good reporting practice of getting double sourced verification, as one example.

Problem is a lot of those bloggers is they aren't a bunch of Cheetos-fingered zealots; they are journalists doing that work for the legacy media's website. It is as if the newsroom is crowdsourced to the extreme -- throw it up on-line and see if it sticks.

Remember Travel?

With lots of theory lately, I forget the other reason for this blog is the Road half of the title.

I know Las Vegas is high on lots of people's lists of places to go, and it had been some time since I'd visited. I missed the whole "family Vegas" phase, and make no mistake, the emphasis is back on sin city.

Above all, the big highlight: Starbucks per capita. Just when you think you've seen the ultimate concentration in Seattle, where one can occasionally literally see the next one from the one you're at, I don't think I've ever been anywhere with as many locations.

And, 24 hour Starbucks locations. Yes! More than once in Seattle's downtown core, I've had to go brewless after 7 p.m., but no such worries in Vegas.

Hmm, unholy alliance -- gaming and unlimited caffine.

Sex sells again in Vegas, but not the grimy prostitution stripper sex of old Vegas. It's more of an oddball Ozzie and Harriott get their freak on sort of sizzle. It's everywhere, call it the Pussycat Doll-ification of the town. The bride jumping the groom cake toppers at Paris to the star-powered Peep Show (true name, and all pun apparently intended) like Mel B and Kelly Monoco; from the Pleasure Pit - bustiers and blackjack at Planet Hollywood to free pole dancing lessons offered daily to the bored touristas.

Net Control = Twitter Feed

Here's a piece of cross over skill. Those that follow know I volunteer a lot of spare time with the local weather spotters and the county's emergency services amateur radio operators. Most of my work is as a net control operator. The person that sits in the middle of the information flow, takes reports, moves along the net with other information from internet and public service sources, vets the reports from the field and decides what needs to move forward to the served agency.

Guess what -- perfect training for running an effective Twitter feed.

Each day, there may be two or three events running live. I can either monitor by live stat or SMS text with our SIDs on location. Often I'm on site at one, taking feeds in from others. Boiling it all down to quick 140-character updates, and mixing in the automated parts with TinyURL from the regular website stories. When I can't be the "net control" of the feed, I've got to arrange with a couple of our alternates to keep the feed running.

That's how you can effectively get to well over 800 updates for the fans in less than a month and a half. This keeps them plugged in to live events as well as promoting our key stories.

Early Polling is In; Results are Bad

I posed the question to the body of women's basketball contacts -- has the media crisis effected your sport's coverage. The answer, so far, is the one you anticipate -- yes -- but it is also worse.

More when I get a wider sample in, but judging from about 60 emails within 24 hours (do the math, D I has what, about 335 now) I wasn't the only one thinking there is real trouble on the horizon for women's basketball.

Why? Best case, the person who comes out and covers some of the home women's games is worn ragged as the second person on football and the baseball person.

Look, when the Vopels and Greenbergs are gone or limited to on-line -- it bodes poorly for the state of women's hoops media.

Informal comments include a significant drop in traditional media members at the Women's Final Four. This is a decline in real terms, not looking at the participant's media or the increase in television network needs. If more than half of the nation's top 15 metro markets have no reporter there -- relying on AP -- that's a bad sign.

Let me be the first to break the news to my brothers and sisters -- you are the beat reporters now. More so than you ever were before.

I make the point with the sport I've worked for a quarter of a century, but it applies to every women's team, every Olympic sport. Last month at NCAA women's gymnastics, the numbers were down. A real bellweather is coming up in one month when Arkansas hosts the 2009 NCAA Outdoors. We built the press box to service over 100 writers. Anyone want to give me a guess how many seats we'll fill?

Brands at Battle

There was a lot of talk about now net media is increasingly more important to brand, and in turn, a greater risk to the brand. These notes are a combo of some on-line listening (notably TWIT) but also some examples given at NAB.

Domino’s Pizza was faced with a fierce challenge to its brand after two dufus employees put their gross hijinks on YouTube. Response – CEO of Domino’s cuts his own YouTube video and meets the challenge on the same playing field.

It wasn’t that different from the KFC employee video, but the bump for Dominos vs. KFC was the rapid response. Of course, Domino’s had the advantage of looking at the slower effort by KFC and two other notable SNW brand events.

The Motrin Mommy-Gate results from a poorly researched attempt at hip internet humor with an advertisement pitched to mothers with infants. It backfired, and the first attempt by the company was to ignore, then later to offer a tepid apology. Here's a little background.

SeaWorld found itself facing a David Letterman gag that took off on YouTube over a weekend. Rather than calling for the take down, SeaWorld launched its own offensive to pump its positive message into the search engine world to counter.

What’s the bottom line through all – be prepared to meet the challenge in the format presented, and be aware of now Net Influencers impact the brand. These are consumers of the brand who actively share and forward info.

As one producer for a major on-line webcast pointed out, as brand managers “we are our own networks.”

Mighty Tablet Arrives

Just about the time the post was finished, we get the result. Jeff Bezos shows off the worst kept secret in recent tech (perhaps only outdone by a maybe tablet from Apple) today with the Kindle DX. At 9.7 inch display is considerably larger than the standard 6-inch, but so is the price at $487 dollars.

It's pitched for newspapers and text books -- but CoSIDA members, pay attention. The DX comes with native PDF support.

Let me repeat -- PDF in the unit for those soon-to-be digital media guides.

Of course, the hope is it becomes the delivery mechanism for legacy print media outlets like the New York Times, Boston Globe or Washington Post -- no small coincidence each is on board.

Arthur Sulzberger Jr., chairman of the New York Times Company, said that the Times and the Globe will first be available on the Kindle DX in markets where home delivery is not available.

So that's good for those of us in middle America, but once again, the legacy media misses a point. In the high-concentration upper east coast media markets, think about the printing press savings if you distribute via Kindle DX. Not to mention the smaller carbon footprint. My money is on DX breaking the back of these newspapers if it achieves the kind of market penetration seen so far for regular Kindle 2.0 in books or iPod/iPhone in music.

Why? Because the most desirable consumers for advertisers are opt-in consumers with disposable income in copious amounts -- the kind of folks who could pick up a DX or two.

The current target of existing newsprint/magazine advertising? Boomer age segments, but guess who is the largest growing percentage of Kindle purchasers? That's right -- that 45+ age crowd that conventional wisdom thinks never goes tech. HA! These are prodigious readers, newspaper subscribers AND they're into their bifocal years.

Huh? They huge appeal for the AARP generation is that scaleable type. No need to squint or embarass oneself by purchasing the large print edition.

More CNET analysis on the use of the Kindle DX for newspapers and for textbooks.

Fun With Numbers from NAB

Here’s a scattering of data presented in various forums, all of which impact the college athletics world.

While youth is half the audience for on-line video (and youth defined as under 35), the largest growing segment is 55+. I can confirm that stat from my own anecdotal evidence of assisting with our tech support for streaming. More and more Boomer retirees want to keep up with their alma mater from distance, and they are rapidly becoming more enamored with the streaming and IPTV world.

Only 24% of all the on-line users have a social profile. That was a surprising number; one that I doubt would be valid in our core demos.

For those who download podcasts, the ages 18-24 are twice as likely to download an audio object (podcast or music); but the ages 25-34 are twice as like to download video versus audio (again, podcast or television shows).

Don’t overlook the CFO of the family. Several presenters went to numbers that ranged as high as 80% of the purchasing decisions of the average family being made by the mom. Especially true for entertainment purchases, and they have a very high skepticism meter.

I found this one very interesting – Google Trends reveals on almost any term search a distinct drop in internet activity around Christmas; almost 30% drop each year before picking back up in January. So much for needing a ton of holiday content, because no one is watching. That seems a little counter intuitive, however, what about all the folks getting new computers, iPhones or other devices?

Mighty Tablet is On the Way?

Technology news has stories today about a new uber-Kindle in the works from a consortium of legacy media outlets, perhaps including the New York Times group (odd, since it was their story that only rumored themselves). Conde Naste group turned up its nose -- no color.

The hope is by using this new larger "magazine" like reader, the old Gray Lady and her colleagues can keep the advertising business together as they know it. I get the sense it is too late.

A lot will be decided this summer with the new devices, but I fear the shock of loss is necessary for the general public to understand what is really happening.

These past couple of weeks, I've seen several colleagues in the media let go. Good journalists, every one. One of our coaches commented that so-and-so, he's really good. Someone will pick him up. No, I countered, you don't understand. The job is gone; not the people. There's no where to go.

This is a selfish post on my part -- three of them were directly involved in covering women's basketball. One was the area's voter on the AP poll. Those positions don't look like they are coming back.

I wonder how many more members of the AP women's basketball poll are gone by next fall's preseason poll. And when the papers that try to hang on to those prestigious voting positions give them to their double and triple dutied staff . . . well, somewhere in America, Mel Greenberg shudders.

It's just the first wave here. Word on the street is more changes to come in our media market, which was blessed to be one of the few competitive ones -- two major dailies, all four networks with full news staffs -- left in college sports.

Gonna take more than a new tablet, or reader, or computer app. The internet remains free -- and as much as pundits want to blame decisions years ago to put content on-line at no cost, regretably they'd be done in by the free alternatives. It's not a piece of tech that solves the problem, it's solving how to return balance to the advertising dollars.

Frankly, I never read any stories about those break throughs. Only killer app tablets, which are useless without content, content that costs money to produce -- and so the spiral continues.

More Reasons to Believe in iPhone

A collection of iPhone stats and notes gleaned from several NAB presentations:

Of iPhone owners, 80% use their device to watch videos.

iPhone owners consume four times as much video as owners of any other device.

Apple has become the second largest cell phone company in the world (well, more accurately, Apple’s handset – but I quote the presenter).

Why do advertisers suddenly pour money into sponsorship of podcasts? They can quickly prove their work through trackable advertising items like end of podcast coupons to be scanned at local stores. However, the big item for the advertisers is the content is actively sought out by the end user.

Nothing is better for message retention than an opt-in audience. Research supports the best way to get content across to end users – listened with headphones. Combine the two – “walk away” brand extention.

Random Quotes from NAB

This wasn’t a stat – but it’s a hell of a statement – speaking of streaming video and IPTV:
“The technology as caught up, but the decision makers remember it when it was not.”

No greater words for a college athletic department than those said about MommyCast:
“We are our own networks”

NASCAR Notable Quotables

Scott Reinhardt, Director of Internal Operations at NASCAR, had a talk on Saving your Assets, Preserving Sports History. It was a lot more than just racing, or even video archiving (which it’s pretty obvious NASCAR is on the cutting edge). As a side note, start with the highest possible quality for ingest of video, says Scott.

This is going into the operations manual:
“If you’re asked to do it, it’s important.”

There’s a follow on, referring to how some folks discount small details or only think the important things are the big TV events on HD by some network:
“Whatever the production, quality counts.”

On the importance of starting your conversion to a stable video archive:
“Forget making money. There’s no ROI. But, it’s your life, and it’s irreplaceable”

Buyers Beware

A quick post to let those who follow that are Razorback fans that the athletic department has not placed any official apps on the iTunes store (we are working on some options) and that ANYTHING you see there now is unofficial. Several of them don't even work, much less being nothing more than a pirate attempt at harvesting our website info and using the trademark without permission.

For my colleagues in the industry, you need to get to searching the App Store ASAP to find the ones that are doing the same to you.

More NYT Bad News

More gloom in newspaper world as the New York Times lost $74.5 million in the first quarter. Second year in a row for a 1st quarter loss, but last year NYT dropped only $335K.

Print advertising for the Old Grey Lady was off 28.4%.
The loss numbers don’t add up. Did the story mean that the $74.5 loss was after some big infusions of cash?

Imagine how bad it could have been had Times Corp not raised $225 million on selling it’s Manhattan building and leasing back the space plus a $250 million loan from Carlos Slim of Mexico.

Real shame -- I'm really enjoying the news app on my iPhone. Perfect example of if you get it in the right format, people will use it.

Rich Context Advertising

Another article -- this from the NAB Daily -- continues to push the idea that quantity is not the future, it's quality of advertising experience.

From the NAB Daily, Zahava Stroud, president of the iHollywood Forum, says major brands are looking for ways to build mobile and online communities with broadcast content.

Lot of talk about Gatorade's Mission G, and one session that gives us a new buzz phrases -- "hiearchy of engagements" and "portable multiplatform experience" -- that nugget from none other than ABC Television. Another session was entitled "Brands as Content Creators."

Takeaway quote, this from Brett Wilson of Tubemogul:

"The smart advertisers have decided to stop interrupting other people's content and instead create their own content."

A big part of that call to action can be found in the IBM's Beyond Advertising strategic paper. Sure, they want you to use IBM servers to do this, but its really clear that effecting consumer-centric marketing is where we are headed.

Guess who is a major Brand that has always been a Content Creator -- that's your campus.

Does Dvorak Speak the Truth?

Catching up on my podcasts, and TWIT got off in a rat hole about the value of J-School. John C. Dvorak adds this quip:

"I don't know what the value of it would be to a blogger, that you couldn't get elsewhere. . . . There's nothing like on the job training, and taking a bunch of graduate courses in journalism is different than getting a job at a newspaper or someplace where a bunch of people are yelling at you."

Something to be said for that. Hard to simulate that pressure; frankly, I found a of students aren't interested in being pushed in a classroom setting. That is, until they come back later and tell you that the best thing that happened was the chance to make a mistake under pressure when it didn't count for their jobs.

The reason Leo and company got off on this was a rise in J-School enrollment nationwide. Dvorak continued:

"The problem is in the United States that most of the people want to think of journalism as a profession where in the rest of the world, in England in particular, it is a trade. . . . It's not rocket science."

One of the guests made an interesting point -- the upturn is because more people are blogging and getting a taste of what journalism can be; that the net media is making things "a bit sexier than it use to be."

Um, hotter than taking down POTUS? Please, nothing approaches the Woodward and Bernstein years of being the next great crusader. Wil Harris chimed in:

"Taking a postgrad journalism course at this point is mental. Just take a job and getting any kind of freelance . . . is far more valuable than getting a grad course."

Dvorak closes with an interesting theory that J-School started back in the day to create "cogs for the wheel -- a neutral writing style with no voice" that allows people to fit into any paper, any where. Training like a lawyer to do a job anywhere, Dvorak continues, "and this is the controversial part . . . the fact is very few of them can do anything more than report. . . . Generally speaking, they write in a voiceless style . . . and it doesn't apply anymore."

As if that wasn't enough, then it gets really interesting -- Dvorak:

"Partisan writing is probably going to return to the fore where it was in the 1800s. . . . Papers would be on a side of an issue."

That sounds familiar.

Neha Tiwari comes to the conclusion she had a near miss, and was lucky to not get into graduate J-School. (Never would be able to pay off the $36K per year of student debt with a $40K a year job). Leo Laporte helps close off the discussion:

"You can get your chops in the actual environment . . . Isn't that how journalists use to learn."

This is where J-School needs to find new ways to be relevant.

Happy 500th

Shameless congratulations to the blog.

Geek Note: Phone Charging

Now that I've added a personal iPhone to my arsenal, I wondered if the little wall adapter could charge my old HTC Tilt. The Tilt's wall unit was "borrowed" by some teenagers about three months ago, and it's made charging it -- a drop in unit in the office or off a USB cable on my home desk top -- a pain.

Guess what? Drop a standard USB six (wide) to USB four (small) cord -- same one that would plug the HTC into my computer -- into the USB slot of the iPhone charger and bingo. Now I can carry one charger with the two cables for sync or charge and be good to go.

Deep Breath: Web 3.0

After that long post, here's one more digestible. Another of the big buzz phrases out of NAB was Web 3.0.

What, did I miss a generation, one colleague of mine quipped when I mentioned it.

Maybe -- let's review. The original web with HTML and static pages, maybe a little video and audio and live stats is what the programmers look at in a retro-term sense as 1.0.

Our current social networking driven, conversation rather than a speech, two-way internet is what the marketers coined as Web 2.0 (which of course, you had to back create the 1.0 for).

The 3.0 is derived from the new wave of mobile. Again, more later, but to set the palate for another long post, think in terms of taking all your digital assets and presenting them to the end user on personal devices -- mostly smartphones (think iPhone, but be more platform agnostic to recognize that sooner or later, Google Android system, the Palm Pre devices and whatever they are really cooking up in Redmond, Wash., when Microsoft says the future is mobile, will catch up to Apple).

At the same time, Web 3.0 is the intelligent web. Not only searchable for Long Tail content, it is automatically personalized and delivered to you based on your past preferences. That meta data on you also includes parameters of biofeedback and location. (One presenter at NAB joked that he doubted that SkyNet was about to become self-aware . . . )

Example of this -- your smartphone communicates with a smart panel in the mall. When I walk by, based on past activity and preference, it may show a computer or book store advertisement. When my wife walks by, it may be for a clothing store or boutique. When my son walks by, it could be the gaming store, etc.

What it means in college sports information later.

Twitter as News Conversation

Another catch-up posting. Last week, various news organizations were speculating about the fate of Arkansas' men's basketball team with the NCAA's APR. The news groups deduced that no members of an Arkansas class had graduated -- transfers, pro ball, etc. -- which brought forth the response of one of the members of that group, Steven Hill.

Hill posted on his Twitter feed that he was just one class away from getting his degree completion, and once that on-line class was done, at least one member of that group would be done.

This Twitter event brings to light lots of points to consider:

Right off the top, had Steven not made his post, everyone on our end of the equation would be gagged by FERPA to not say anything. He has joined into the debate himself, and that's the starting point for going forward.

One reason the NCAA is very vague and does its level best to limit data sets is to prevent the inadvertent singling out of individuals. In small count sports -- like a basketball -- sometimes it is pretty easy to figure out who did or did not graduate. Here's a hypothetical. If a recruiting class is four people, everyone knows one transferred from a news report. One went pro as a sophomore and the class has a zero completion toward APR guess what -- you just called out the other two guys.

Is it fair that only athletes get this treatment? At most institutions, the athletes are still ahead of the general student population for graduation rate. Within each group, there are always high and low exceptions. For every school where a sport might be singled out for lack of graduation performance, I'd be willing to bet their is a voluntary campus organization -- from performance to social to professional groups -- that has a similar poor track record.

Let's face a hard fact: college is an experience, and not everyone is suppose to graduate. While bachelor's programs across the country rapidly become more high school in expectation -- if you start, you should receive a degree -- not everyone stays. Nor should they. For every athlete who comes out early for a professional career, there is often a professional who decides that the business opportunity is better than staying in school.

I'll use two examples: Tim McGraw attended the University Formerly Known as Northeast, just about the time I was there. He was on a baseball scholarship and didn't finish. You know, he's done pretty good for himself. Shepard Smith went to Ole Miss and left before completion with his first TV contract in hand.

There are adjustments for APR to take pro deals into account, but the point of putting some scarlet letter on every person who does not get a degree is not fair. That said, the goal for every student we have in our care -- athlete or not -- should be to move that person toward their degree completion.

Meanwhile, back at Twitter, we have in this business a spread of the news sourcing. Traditional media make their news, but in this case, a subject of the news, gets the chance to respond in kind.

We all need to recognize that the more we become involved in social news gathering -- not just social networking -- that everyone will have a voice, and many points of view will be expressed.

The dark side is the speed of access to the world at large. We've had plenty of examples of hit keyboard first, engage brain second (Mark Cuban dropped $25K for his Tweets).

Consider the earlier post here regarding a student journalist that was going to harvest from Facebook. Or watching severe weather updates from untrained citizens? How about double, and triple, counting of flu victims? The troubles in Mubai on Twitter giving up too much information in real time. How soon before the race to be first results in some real injury -- either to reputation or bodily harm?

Maybe It's Sports Information After All

I have been a big proponent over the years that the SID business is missing the boat by not attempting to be more involved in the public relations part of the athletic department. Follow CASE rather than NACDA as a model.

I remain committed to the concept that in an era of Brand Management, the best equipped office within the athletic department for that task is the SID office. In that space resides the expert on media relations, the person with the background of the history of the department and the creative staff to project the message. At too many schools, that lead role is taken by marketing, which respectfully, has the job to sell the message; not craft it.

After NAB, let me re-introduce CoSIDA to its old roots -- sports information. Session after session spoke of the ability to create meta data, based on statistics and other predetermined parameters, to enable the search of video, photo and other collateral material.

Guess who has that information? Oh, yeah, those people down the hall with their dirty little pencil pushing stat takers.

I've argued with limited success nationally that every school has three -- not two -- sets of distinct rights which they should protect, license and monetize. Everyone recognizes audio and video; radio and television. The networks know that the third one is important -- data -- because they routinely "borrow" it to fuel their own internet presences. Some schools and conference have just given that away, bundled it up in other new media gifts. Those that resisted had their data scraped.

True story -- told by tech support for a major national sports web presence that yes, they were just watching the TV and updating their live stats. Too bad the telecast was by a rival, and theoretically it could be argued, they were violating the copyright of the live performance by taking score, play and time from the broadcast.

Right now, third party programers lifting our RSS feeds from the official website -- and worse using on-line assests like FeedBurner to make RSS where it doesn't exist -- to serve as the engine of their iPhone apps. Some of them are charging fans $1.99 to get the info.

This becomes another arrow in the SID office's quiver -- the data management of the athletic department. That will bring a shudder down the spine of every PR type; we just got rid of the idea that we were the geeks of the department, the pencil pushers that don't need a seat at the table.

Here's the rub: if you lack good data going forward, you will lack rich content and the ability to monetize all those pretty picture assets. By data, I mean the old game files that can be easily converted to XML for search, dropped into pre-set columns within a meta data array.

As an organization, we're likely to not regain ground loss to the money creators. However, we must position ourselves as the office that protects and enhances the value of those money creators. You can't sell a bad brand for top dollar; you can't create Long Tails for old archives of video on demand without search data.

Let me be clear -- this isn't a call for a return to the hand written box and the mimeograph (mmm -- smell the fresh "ink"). Media relations needs to get a grasp on the modern data basing software, understand XML and its value, be conversant with the best ways to index within an array.

One of the best presentations to this was by the head of NASCAR's archive division. Every race is now indexed by an array of 256 variables; and with in those are a layer of sub variables related to race position.

Bring it into college sports, lets use football as the example. It's more than the data fields of date, site, home, visitor, score -- these are visual assets. Helment color, uniform color (and at many schools jersey and pants), player numbers, weather condition, time of day, network producing, record of teams, etc.; then all the data points within the game.

Why? So a producer can say I want all the footage of Casey Dick as a junior playing in Fayetteville in the red/white uniform that includes third down conversion passes to players X, Y and Z that were completed -- and be able to get that result in minutes.

Just like the Brand Management, Data Management best lives within the SID office that is aware of the value. Key phrase: aware. Harvesting that data will migrate to athletic IT or coaches' offices for the SIDs that don't get it. Who can give context to the numbers, depth to the decision of what data fields over the long term are significant? Only the people who live the brand and the historic information.

There's only one office that has command of both brand and information: good old Sports Information. These are distinct, but critically related, functions. The most efficient managers of message, brand and data are the people who understand and create those.

Maybe being CoSIDA -- with the correct rebranding -- is the right name after all.

Faster Than You Think

Some random media catch-ups. Hulu is now the platform of choice for three of the four networks -- ABC/Disney gets an ownership share like NBC and Fox for joining up. That's a shot against YouTube, but not a terrible blow. In fact, it may be a blessing in disguise. YouTube is the home of the social video community, and if it gets professionalized by picking up ABC (or maybe CBS), it would be changed and perhaps begin to lose its identity.

With ABC bringing its content on-line in a slightly advertising supported, very free to the end user experience, it will become harder and harder for people to argue that subscription base will work in the near-term future.

Meanwhile, MLB's on-line app for iPhone has reportedly topped $1 million in sales. Who said you can't sell stats -- excuse me, DATA -- to fans? Couple it with audio and video streams, and you got the holy trinity. Now, who'll be the first to do that in college . . .

Related rumor puts MLB's Advanced Media division thinking about an on-line newspaper. Kind of beats Mark Cuban's let's subsidize the beat reporters from the NBA office scheme to the punch. Or does it bode well for theories espoused in this space and other colleges, notably our friends at Wisconsin, of a Fan First approach to bring all the news to our followers? It has certainly worked already for MLS -- primarily because in many markets the American soccer league couldn't get the local media to give regular beat coverage. Hmm, sounds like women's college soccer or volleyball, where the only "newspaper" is the university website . . .

Recovering Journalist has a very detailed post today regarding the plan of one newspaper-television station to reinvent itself and survive. It is a must read.

Last of all, Daily Reville catches up with the interview I had gosh, what seems like two weeks ago. Good to hear the NCAA compliance folks and I were on the same page that as long as coaches don't cross the established lines of personalizing recruiting communication to a specific recruit that there is nothing wrong with Twitter.

One Take On One Coach's Twitter Perspective

According to our friends over at CNET and the Technically Incorrect blog, notable non-Twitterer Les Miles at LSU will look to tweet during games this year (maybe, like here at Arkansas where we call those Grunts, they'll be Growls).

We've seen our share of stories about the growing Twitter impact in recruiting, with one of our local newspapers weighing in today as well. They lead with Tennessee's football coach capturing the essense of so much of what happens in college sports:

“I don’t know that it really helps you that much in recruiting. But if it does, we’re trying.”

One of the local bloggers called out our basketball coach, John Pelphrey, for having only three followers while UK coach John Calipari had over 10,000.

I'll clear this one up from our end -- we secured all our head coaches names where available, and a reasonable alternative -- CoachTomCollen comes to mind -- to protect them from imposters until each coach decides how -- and more importantly if -- they may use the system.

So you can't get followers if you aren't active; and it is not fair to dun a coach for low numbers until they have decided how they will incorporate it into their recruiting philosophy.

Plus, as you read through the CNET story, those in the Division I business will quickly pick up some places where I hope CNET simply misquoted or misinterpreted. Twitter can be a minefield, and one must be careful to not let it become a SMS texting work-around.

As far as our main department feed, @ArkRazorbacks, I'm quite pleased that we're about to cross 700 followers who have shared the knowledge of the feed among themselves. There's been some cross promotion, but its a natural phenominan that grows about 30 followers a day.

It's a good tool for the mobile class and the distant fan -- they'd have gotten the first news of Eibner's hit and later his game winning walk. We also use it to refeed our RSS from the web and the video -- a huge item since I really believe a lot of folks were not aware of how much video came out of our site every day (usually two to three new clips in season).

Just Because You Can . . .

. . . Twitter style. A redeux of advice given in the early days of Facebook: the ability to post your innermost thoughts and the interesting events of your life does not mean it is in your best interest to do so.

I'll provide the link over to this recount at Technically Incorrect of a pair of San Francsico Giants, and their missteps in the world of Twitter.

Next time you see rutting hogs, just say no to the web photo.

Metadata

It will be the "plastics" of a new generation. More to come.

New Directions

In the coming few weeks, closing out some new outlines on the three states of media for college sports information: the mobile, the record and the pitch. Just as solid, liquid and gas represent different states of matter, we need to think of our total brand and how we will utilize each form of media. And yes, the printed word remains crucial. Blunt force trauma will result from the cutting of printing budgets for press guides -- rumored all around the country again.

I said it in 2005 when this narrow minded proposal was made by the NCAA, I'll repeat it today: not every bit of recruiting can be done on-line, not every mission of the university can be fulfilled by a web site.

Heresy, for a blogger. Perhaps.

Fact of the matter is the institution must match its message to the proper format. Websites are increasingly becoming reference material. Lists, PDFs, records, old stories, historical bits. News is rapidly leaving the 15-inch screen and migrating to the mobile device. Yet, we continue to front news. A refocusing time is immediately ahead for sports information people.

Does the university print the "racing form" -- the list of class schedules -- any more? No, it's listed data that can be better transmitted in digital forms. Even school catalogs fit better on-line.

But nothing equals the magazine format for an emotionally evocative presentation of a school's pride, history and traditions. No amount of website work is going to make the message statement of a well crafted two-page spread with accompanying artwork. Sorry, paper is not going away.

How we spend money on it, what we print on it -- that will be the subject of a series of upcoming posts.

Meanwhile, chew on this thought -- as sports information begins to give away its old soul, the future just might be in "sports" "information". Huh?

Just Don't Drop It

Three weeks ago, I railed at the loss of some key sections of my Sunday paper, and the decisions of the local to essentially encourage me to abandon pulp for pixel by putting the stuff that once appeared on my doorstep on-line.

Ten days ago, I got my own iPhone.

Today, I'm asking why in the hell isn't my local paper providing me with an app that presents the content in the way I want it.

And, I'm not alone. Mark Potts among others is joining in the clarion call for newspapers to save themselves through subscriptions in the format we want. The money quotes:

"Seventeen-plus years ago, when I began working in new media, the one thing I always heard was that nobody would ever be able to read a newspaper on a computer while sitting on the john." Then I take out my iPhone, hold it up, and deliver the punchline: "Now you can, and I have. Regularly."

I suspect they will not give us the formats we want. Television as an industry is far more embracing of the net technology, and has recently begun to understand that they need to provide their content across every possible platform without impediment to the end user. They know if given the option, I will watch on my 48 inch plasma before my 19 inch computer or my 2x4 inch iPhone. But if I'm stuck in an airport, guess what, iPhone.

Newspapers remain stubbornly attached to old formats, first paper then static internet. The world is mobile. We're mobile.

I've spent more time the past 10 days reading the New York Times and Wall Street Journal because they freakin' get it and have the apps.

I don't think I'm alone when I say I'd pay my subscription to get all my local paper's content in an easy to navigate app format -- not firing up Safari and pinching and spreading to get the web on the iPhone.

The question for my colleagues -- will we as content creators and providers continue to live inside our printed media guides and static story-based websites -- or will we join the aggressive like MLB and jump for "advanced" media, not just "new" media.

Facebook as Reporting Tool

Shared with me, and like so many Facebook examples, the names and university changed to protect the innocent.

What in the world is being taught in journalism school when a student includes this passage in an interview request for a college athlete:

Normally I would have just gotten quotes from [SPORT REMOVED] on Facebook, but I'm received some grief about that from other sports relations people.

On one level, this is shocking. Could you be lazier, just Wiki-harvesting data? And not telling the subject of your story that you're lifting quotes from a place where the intention clearly was not to reveal information that was "quotable."

Before we tar and feather our young journalist, or call for the removal of accreditation of the involved school, turn this around.

How many times have I said you must take care with your Facebook -- any student -- because you do not know who is reading? How many experts have cast Facebook and other SNW as the opportunity to "market" yourself and create the public persona you want people to see?

At the end of the day, is what this person proposed to do wrong? It violates the 20th century ethics of journalism, but the whole blogger industry lives on the unauthorized lift of passages. This post itself would be a hypocritical example of that by taking a portion of an email forwarded to me. Is it any different from gossip columns of old and new -- this just "overheard".

In some ways, this college student could have reached for something true, something raw, something of the moment, by just taking the quotes needed from the Facebook page of the athletes involved. Are we at the point now where SNW becomes the real first draft of history? How many academic careers were made by reading the diaries of the dead -- paging Ken Burns, Mr. Burns, white courtesy phone please.

Again, is it unethical? Might be too strong. Is it bad form? Yes, especially if you ever wish to work with that person or institution again.

The tweet away: When I say everyone is watching your SNW, they really are; take care with your emotions and postings. They really will represent you forever.

Long Time Off Line

NAB will take the time away from you, but this small note before a wave of catch-up -- I could not get into my email the past five days (as I suspected might be the case). 1887 emails await today.

More Fun with Facebook

Ohio State resumed comments on its university Facebook page after someone thought about the fact that a gag order on a conversation was probably not in the best long-term interest of an institution of high learning.

More from The Chronicle

NCAA vs. Facebook

Here's the latest in fighting the future. At the risk of trouble, I'll simply give up the link:

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2009/apr/10/student-warned-over-facebook-site-wooing-prospect/

Giving It Away for Free

It's counter-intuitive, but here's some more free insight. My hope is whoever takes it will someday recognize the source and perhaps pay it backward.

Local newspaper wants to survive? Get a TriCaster; in fact, get a bunch of them. Sign deals with every high school to produce their home football games. Hire your own sports guys to crew the games, which insures they are on the ground to write the stories. Run the stats like regular so they go into your paper's on-line and into the broadcast.

Next up, take that portable system into the local town meetings. You become the source of the raw coverage, and the later value-added interpretation and analysis.

The paper evolves from being a singular medium of news into a portal for local knowledge. Want to watch Timmy's game, LocalPaper.com. Want to read the sports column about Timmy? LocalPaper.com. Want the immediate stats and scores? LocalPaper.com.

This mash-up unites the old local radio station's coverage with the TV station's visual presentation into a real-time entity that can regain some of the local relevance.

Current staff can't make it -- go get yourself a bunch of predators -- producer-editors who can shoot the story, package it, appear on-camera and write the copy. Yeah, backpack journalists by any other name, but the predator mode is a mindset.

Oh, that big-old continuous sheet press in the back? Sell it off for scrap and replace it with a ton of servers and a big pipe T1 hose. You'll only need a short run press for the weekend feature edition of the content the staff vacuumed up.

Continuing on Carey Article

Kevin Carey in his recent Chronicle article points to lower division classes as the weakness of the current public university system. Anyone can get a course of these type on line. He correctly points out the big private school brands like Duke, MIT and Stanford can afford to give away courses through iTunes to no impact on their bottom line. Why? Those schools are effectively in the business of vetting employees -- if you get in, you've reached a certain standard; if you get out, you have the stamp of approval (they call it a degree).

Carey's got a telling line on this: "People will pay more for better service, but only so much more."

He follows up with:

" . . . no-cost alternatives on the other side of the accreditation wall is growing. The longer the relentless drumbeat of higher tuition goes on, the greater their appeal."

This cuts two ways. It works against the quality of content as a driving factor in premium services (more on that later). But, it also opens more doors for people who want to learn, and not necessarily get a diploma. That is compelling in certain areas, but impossible in the "union card" areas of education.

For example, I could easily compose, create and put on-line a series of courses based on my years of expertise.
Sports Media Basics
Sports Media Relations (a course I taught in the brick-and-mortar here at UA)
History of Sports (a course I have developed, but can't get the B&M slot to teach)
History of Journalism (another syllabus and lecture set start unusued)
Gee, add a few more goodies like
Investigative Sports Journalism (how do you figure out what's really going on inside)
Convergence Sports
Technology for Backpack Sports Journalism
And real quick, you have a tool kit to enable a whole bunch of Net Media sports reporters.

Now, not a one of those that followed that would have any credentials, but like in space, where they can't hear you scream, on-line do you really need a J-School degree to be effective?

I'd still argue there are things that you can only get in the physical world, but we need to be ready to accept a tremendous virtualization of much of the education process. He quotes the Sloan Corsortium that found that 3.9 million people took an online course in 2007.

That's the REAL takeaway of Carey's warning for my particular area. Where next Columbus? Forward into the kind of world they are promoting on the Apple website (obviously, to sell more Apple computers) of the Arizona State Cronkite School or back to the future with the trades and guilds approach of taking young talent and teaching it the ropes of the 1920s through 1940s?

Hey Streaming Vid Guys

Good to know that we're not alone here in the colleges with spotty video streaming quality. Major League Baseball has caused a stir by deleting a bunch of comment posts about their struggles, but for me the real takeaway is down the story:

Some subscribers have also encountered what MLB describes as a “weird black screen” upon starting up the video player. “This one is a bit scary. We think it is related to pre-roll advertisements. That has been removed. We will be monitoring this one closely,” Sunday’s post read. Other problems have included “spotty” access to some archived games, as well as audio issues.

Were they watching our video this fall? We had some of those exact problems. Most colleges are still in the Windows Media Encoder world, but some have migrated to Flash. MLB started last fall in Silverlight, and moved to Flash for this year -- but to no avail as they're struggling to get either one to be locked-down reliable in the streaming mode.

Two side thoughts -- first, this is a Mac story, and hey they're a great platform but there's something not quite right when they try to take streaming media from the WME world (anytime you need a second program like Flip For Mac to see the stuff in your browser, you're just asking for compatability troubles). Second, while Hulu, et. al., have VOD locked down, streaming at the high quality level we now want is still emerging tech -- sorry, it is. You better have the right connection, the right equipment, the right software or there will be hell to pay on the user end.

Soon, let's hope very soon, we will be at a point where it's like TV -- plug cable into set-top box and go -- but that will require something the internet loathes: a single, lowest common denominator standard. That's a human variable that no amount of computer engineering can overcome.

We Interrupt This Train of Thought

For a "breaking" update: Guess what, legacy media is declining in the press box. Full story from today's Wall Street Journal chroncles "the end." The from the lede:

" . . . some games may be chronicled only by wire services, house organs and Web writers watching the games on television."

Welcome to the official website, home of the news coverage.

For better or worse, in this transition period, the only people who can afford to have "beat writers" -- you know, we call them sport contacts -- will be the brands themselves.

As we contemplate the horror that is the end of newspapers, cue Rock Hound:

It's time to embrace the horror

Who are those "Web writers" anyway? Methinks they are the former newspaper beat reporters. The story picks up on a Mark Cuban initiative to have the NBA create and fund a beat writer coop. That sounds a lot like the legislation to allow newspapers to have non-profit status (if you're losing a $1 million a week like the San Fran Chronicle, guess what, you're not a for-profit venture).

There is a sense that all the pillars of the society are in near-panic mode over the loss of the Fourth Estate in its ink-stained visage. Let me posit a counter -- if the US government is granting non-profit status to newspapers, and one of the requirements is that they must give up editorial endorsements in political races, doesn't that violate the First Amendment in that Congress will be making a law that is "abridging the freedom of speech."

And if in that non-profit paper, the NBA's funded writers create coverage on teams. Will the Dallas Mavericks writer rip Cuban when he makes his next referee Tweet?

At that point, is it really an independent newspaper? Or just an advertising vehicle? What is the difference between our own brand vehicle -- the official website -- and these professional league funded or government subsidized publications?

I have no answer here, but they are questions we should consider.

Side note -- looking at the recent U.S. circuit court ruling on what an employer -- in this case a college -- can discipline an employee for -- in the case, a tenured professor -- under an employee's free speech, how much longer can this blog survive?

The Fuse is Burning

So says Kevin Carey in his commentary in The Chronicle, "What Colleges Should Learn from Newspapers' Decline." The Twit-Away? The internet has caught up with newspapers; higher-ed shares many similarities and it catches colleges within our lifetimes (perhaps 10-15 more years).

He recognizes that this Cassandra call was made in the late 1990s, and that today it doesn't ring true. As more and more iTunes University high school seniors graduate, the tipping point for delivery mechanism from the lecture hall to the internet approaches. This is particularly true for "survey" courses in any curriculum.

He accurately skewers one of the misnomers of the decline of newspapers -- "The problem is that the (New York) Times is not, and never has been, in the business of selling news. It's in the print advertising business" -- but buys into one of the other pillars of today's panic -- "A strong society needs investigative journalism and foreign bureaus."

Really? Is that going to disappear when the Times stops printing nationally? Or is that function going to shift to the new advertising folks -- Yahoo, et al. (Did anyone else pick up yet another investigative sports piece by Yahoo!, this time time the texting at UConn.?)

More later on Carey's column.

Tweet or Twits

What will the NCAA do now that Twitter has come to town? So much for the vaunted blogger rules that the national college association went to the mat to defend last spring. Tonight -- as has been the case all tournament -- Rebecca Lobo is blowing those x-number of posts per half business out of the water.

The same for the SEC, where citizens microblogged each of the championships this spring. The one I can speak directly to having watched it happen was the SEC gymnastics meet.

Or does it not count because those updates are coming 140 characters at a time.

Maybe the excuse is ESPN owns the TV rights and can have its people violate the blogging policy. I suspect Rebecca is the most publicized Tweeter from St. Louis tonight.

I'll go back to my own point from convention last summer with the NCAA folks -- these guidelines weren't functional, and now thanks to the increasing pressure of techonology, are not enforceable.

Maybe AT&T Has The

Why is no one crying for the loss of pay phones?

They are a thing of the past because cell phones provide personal, continuous access to the voice world. The economic no longer works to support a system of public phones.

At the same time, if a voice had informed us in 1976 that just over a generation into the future we would stop dropping dimes for calls home, but would willingly pay ten times ten times (yeah, that's no typo -- that's two orders of magnitude for you stat geeks, and when you think about it, many of us add another with that $100 iPhone data, unlimited texting, 1000-minute deal) that amount each month to have a personal communicator on our hip.

Journalism isn’t going away tomorrow. The key is convincing us to pay its real cost. The next Warren Buffett really is the William Randolph Hearst who figures out how to make palatable that same transition; from putting two quarters into a newspaper rack each day into electronic debiting two Euros a week for our local information.

I know I've said that before, notably in reviewing some of Rupert Murdoch said the in the Boyer Lectures. But the pay phone analogy smacks me right between the eyes with a V-8 moment.

Another Plea for Sundays

Granted this is long winded and occasionally pretentious, but darn it, I'd like my full measure of Perspective back along with the Books section of the local paper. Without further ado, a letter to the editor:

Dear Messrs. Greenberg and Kane:

It is wholly a pleasure to engage plastic Chiclets to charge phosphors and diodes in response to the recent decisions of the legacy media enterprise known as the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Today’s Perspectives section carrying an obituary to the printed word that was performed either with tremendous irony and just a soupcon of insider’s joke to provoke responses similar to my own, or the complete and total lack of full awareness of the precipice really is systemic of newspapermen.

If I may engage in a moment’s self-promotion – as no self-respecting net media type would not plug their own blog – in my response last month on-line to the downsizing decisions of the ADG by dropping Books and Travel, I noted that it seemed like self-mutilation. Those of us still buying the print edition, are we the best demographic for Style? Gee, if we like our trees dropped on our doorstep, chances are we’d like to read about bound editions of them, AND read the opinions of others about them.

Can I find book reviews elsewhere? Absolutely. But I have become accustomed to the opinion of those I know, and put value in the Brand – there, I spoke the buzzword de jour – that is the motley crew of my local newspaper. In homage to Mr. Greenburg, I seek the Southern opinion on Books, not one that was made in New York City.

Instead, we get more encouragement to go on-line. For those of us in the Great Northwest, a scold that you savages out in the distant hinterlands should log on to continue imbibing in the delivered wisdom of those located in the Central like Philip Martin. Speaking of Mr. Martin’s essay, as he joins the chorus to wring hands and peel bells for the passing of his medium, could we not recognize a truer loss? The departure of the statewide community the statewide newspaper brings.

More and more, the paper becomes an index, and a dated one at that, for what we might find on those pesky internets.

The paperless office we were promised along with The Automobile of Tomorrow has not come to pass. Nor will it. As long as man has committed written language to surface, the quest has not been for the slickest browser, it has been for the cheapest fixed medium. Until the day when Our Scientists can bring us The Newspaper of The Future, some organically grown flexible LCD that can also double as a wrapping for our leftover Soylent proteins, the consumption of paper will continue to increase.

Note to the Greens: Within every home, attached to almost every desk, there is a small cut-sheet printing press. While it lacks the romantic charm and distinct odors of spinning rolls of the printing plant, it fuels our insatiable need for pulp. Quite fiction to think by eliminating a printed edition we save our environment. Have you checked out the amount of heavy metals contained within a single computer, the carcinogenic components of toner and ink cartridges?
But I digress from the central thesis, and do so at my own cause’s risk. After all, I have long ago exceeded the magical 140 characters that all net worthy know is the limit of both our expression and attention span.

Let me restate in the haiku-like form of the Tweet: This isn’t fighting the future; Raising hand to note, can’t force the future; adapt to our needs, give us right info on right platform.

If we believe the RIAA, digital formats were the end of music. Before that, if we believed the Motion Picture Association of America, the video recorder was the end of entertainment. Today, Cassandra speaks through the Legacy Media; those internets are the end of days.

By the way, as sure as the Paperless Office was going to save the forests, even though we are hip deep in the Worst Economy in Recent Memory, sales of CDs and DVDs, both music and moving picture, are up last quarter. How can that be? Because the internet is the most recent incarnation of the most effective advertising medium known to man. The future isn’t in Free Content. Regrettably, it is a proven business : any good dealer will let you have the first taste for free.

The Sunday newspaper is about convenience, just as books are about convenience. Edward Tufte is right – there are some things that work best in print, but you have to be imaginative enough to escape Flatland and give us the content we seek in the medium we want. Stock prices and sports scores are dated, the weather map and forecast is useless when frozen in print.
A sense of salon, that true Value Added content that can only come from experienced writers and editorialists – this is what we seek. And when what we want has migrated on-line, the Sunday paper ceases to fulfill its utility. So I salute you in your march to the edge by reducing the portions of the newspaper of most interest to those who still sit on the porch (and, to be frank and forthcoming, other places) on a Sunday morning to read.

We can’t pass our Kindle back and forth in the coffee shop. We don’t gather ‘round the flat screen. People still trade newspaper sections back and forth on a casual weekend. Reading is an individual art form, and if you haven’t noticed, reading is going up. How can that be as this slack-jawed, finger-twitching wireless X-Box controller generation knows only how to engage either in Mortal Kombat or NCAA 2009 Dynasty Mode? Generation Twitter texts, not talks.

Mourn the passing of the personal letter at your own peril. Before the rise of the E-Mail Leviathan, just how many of those personal letters did you really write? Today, how many more notes to friends and colleagues to you write because it’s easier to sit down at the keyboard, compose and transmit?

Having far exceeding the 700-word limit – wait, let me guess, it can go on-line where word-count is infinite – let me close with the admonition that we, the Loyal Reader, aren’t deserting the newspaper for the browser. Far more often it is the quintessential definition of that old Whittaker Chambers saw as the print edition becomes that curiosity shop unvisited by the public thanks to the decisions of the owner. We want to drop in and visit, particularly on the weekends, but increasingly there is nothing we want to see.

Good night, and good luck.

OK -- I did warn you it was long.

Harry Truman Strikes Again

Remember my favorite Truman quote -- The only thing new in the world is the history we don't know. I'm still just working the fringes of True Enough (again, anyone who tells you spring and summer are "slow" in academia is a liar or tenured full professor), but I've blogged here about the key outlines.

Discovered this quote in another book I'm co-skimming at this time. It's from the 15th century French essayist Michel de Montaigne:

Truth for us nowadays is not what is, but what others can be brought to accept.

Our internet age isn't always as unique as we'd like it. If our weather isn't unprecedented, we can't make the changes we want. If our crisis aren't the worst of all time, hard to justify our suffering.

At the same time, I got another validation for Farhad Manjoo's thinking while visiting with a colleague recently. At a particular school, the new coach arrived and demanded a media guide that had "none of those records or history." Ah yes, let us create our own reality in which our program is one of the finest in America. Don't let the fact that its suffered dozens of losing seasons get in the way. We are the Bestest! Go Lake Woebegon High -- where all teams are above average.

Here's for hoping our variable realities can get reconciled back to a time where there are certain truths.

Sorry for the Outage

Courtesy of a cut in my DSL feeder line that put me off-line from the home for the past five days. Not enough time in the business day to post anything.