Julie Roehm Ready For Primetime!

Those of you who read this blog regularly, and attend our breakfasts know that Julie Roehm is a good friend (a true FOBS) of mine as well as an early supporter and fan of our events at NY:MIEG.

For the record, Julie and I first met when she was at Chrysler in 2002 and stayed in contact thru Read more

Back to High School with Facebook…eeks!

Facebook phobia
Thought high school was bad? Social-networking sites jack up Web-era insecurities
By SHARON STEEL | July 16, 2008

I am in Boston this weekend with friends and picked up a copy of a local paper called The Boston Phoenix while waiting for the “T” on our way into town. I came across the following article about Facebook that I thought you’d find of interest.

-Bill

Not long ago, I spent almost as much time in agony over how to change my Relationship Status on Facebook as I did over the actual “We’re on a break” conversation that led to it. I couldn’t just leave that defining tag alone: it tormented me when I saw it in the mornings after logging in. I blamed Mark Zuckerberg, the founder and CEO of Facebook, for not having the forethought to create a Relationship Status alternative that suited my needs. (How come “I Don’t Know and I’m a Mess” isn’t an option?) “Single” was too finite for what we were now. “It’s Complicated” sounded ruthlessly unaffected. And “In a Relationship” made me feel terrible, like I was lying to myself.

I sat in my puddle of sad, imagining how each person in my network of real friends, faux friends, and legitimate frenemies would check their daily News Feeds and find a tiny picture of a broken heart, with the words “Sharon is no longer in a relationship” and then — dagger! — the nausea-inducing “Sharon is single.” It added a whole other level of complication and hurt to something that already felt like the worst thing in the world. After several hours-long nail-biting sessions at my laptop, I set my privacy level to “high” and took down my Relationship Status altogether. There was immediate relief, followed by a paralyzing fear that someone I hadn’t spoken with since high school would message me, boldly inquiring what prompted my sudden take-back of information.

FOR THE COMPLETE STORY FROM THE BOSTON PHOENIX CLICK HERE

Lloyd Trufelman: Filling the Online News Hole

Lloyd Trufelman is not only a good friend but as the
President of TrylonSMR is the strategic media relations
agency of record for SobelMedia & NY:MIEG.

I thought you’d find this article intersting

-Bill

The Online Rush to Fill an Ever-Widening News Hole

By Lloyd P. Trufelman, President & CEO, TrylonSMR

From a new media perspective, there is little difference from the way the industry was five years ago. It’s more a question of how information dissemination has evolved.

Things are moving faster and the news hole is larger. The old days of sending press releases to fax machines are long gone. Now it’s all about the Internet and e-mail. The challenge with fax machines was always “the last 10-feet” — how would the paper make it from the machine to a reporter’s desk. That problem has disappeared. Now it’s all done by e-mail and even instant messenger.

With a bigger news hole, everyone is in competition with each other. Everybody is more or less in the 24/7 multimedia newsgathering and dissemination business.

However, with all the layoffs at major newspapers and magazines, there is a real danger of a drop-off in editorial quality. The old model of reporters carefully vetting their own stories, which are then vetted by editors, raises a question of current accuracy and credibility because of the cutbacks.

The newspapers’ sole advantage in this new media world is that they can cover things more comprehensively than other media. Ironically then, they seem to be shooting themselves in the foot with all the cutbacks.

Nevertheless, while reporters are being laid off in the daily newspapers and hiring in journalism is slowing down, some hiring in PR and marketing is going up. While that might be good for the PR industry, it has wider societal implications if the trend continues. It means less coverage of real news, and more coverage of manufactured news and corporate spin.

In an effort to fill that ever-increasing news hole, bloggers have become an essential part of the information dissemination process.

If you take the word “blogger” or “blog” and change it to “pamphlet” or “newsletter,” from an editorial point of view, it’s pretty much the same.

A PR practitioner’s dealings with a blogger need to be straightforward, focused, and targeted. In addition, the criteria for approaching a blogger isn’t much different from approaching a regular reporter.

For some reason though, the PR industry has put up a kind of artificial wall. As a result, a lot of the outreach that PR firms should be conducting towards bloggers has been taken away by so-called viral marketing and buzz marketing firms which are in essence pitching bloggers but usually in the worst way possible from a PR point of view.

The small difference between pitching bloggers and pitching traditional reporters and editors is mainly the result of hyper-specialization. Many bloggers maintain legitimate, well-researched, well-executed blogs. The only difference is the lack of a major infrastructure behind the blog, with regards editing and vetting.

There is going to be a merge between bloggers and traditional news organizations. Bloggers realize that any connection to a larger mainstream media organization helps them in terms of research, standards, and the possibility for increased ads sales.

For the media organizations, the more they get active in the blogosphere, the more they move away from the print model, which for all intents and purposes, in terms of demographic trends, is dead.

The 9th Jewish Film Festival

My friend Laura Siegel sent this the other day…and I just had to pass it along.

-Bill

Job Opportunity at Channel M

I recently met with my friend, one of the newest members of the FOBS family, Kylie Sachs, a partner in the investment firm Ascend Ventures Group here in NYC, with a strong understanding of the media industry. As you will read below Ascend recently invested in Channel M, one of the biggest players in the burgeoning field of in-store video. Channel M’s programs run throughout the day in thousands of places, such as Macy’s, Blockbuster, Nordstrom’s, Harrah’s and GameStop, the mecca of video game players.

Not only have I had a couple of great meetings with Kylie, she is investing in growing companies…looking to expand their staff…and in this economy that is a good thing. Read more

The World’s Most Innovative Companies

The Worlds Most Innovative Companies according to BusinessWeek

Do you agree?
-Bill
Rank Company
1 Apple
2 Google
3 Toyota Motors
4 General Electric
5 Microsoft
Read more

Starbucks NYC Store Closings Announced

When Starbucks released the full list of stores tagged for elimination, it included six in Manhattan, two in Queens and one in Brooklyn.

 

 

Those of us who consider ourselves mobile warriors no doubt have taken advantage of the WiFi service offered by Starbucks…originally T-Mobile and now AT&T. Now with Starbucks announcing 600 store closings I have been nervously waiting for the list of stores being closed. As you will see the clip below from the New York Times, the 4 Manhattan locations are in midtown…all of which are in neighborhoods that I frequent often.

Next week I will attempt to offer some solutions that you might find useful. If you come up with any please feel free to email me an I will include them (along with a credit to you). Either leave it here or email me at bsobel@gmail.com

-Bill

 

From Todays New York Times:

When Starbucks released the full list of stores tagged for elimination, it included six in Manhattan, two in Queens and one in Brooklyn. All of those in Manhattan are in Midtown: 340 Madison Avenue (at 44th Street), 400 Madison Avenue (near 48th Street), 1600 Broadway (near 48th Street), 1675 Broadway (near 52nd Street), 565 Fifth Avenue (near 46th Street) and on the fifth floor of Macy’s flagship store in Herald Square.

FOR THE COMPLETE NY TIMES STORY CLICK HERE

Our Next Event: Brian Reich Author of “Media Rules!”

Our Next Event!

Thursday, August 21st

Our Annual Summer “Author in Residence” Program

Featuring Brian Reich co-author of

“MEDIA RULES:
Mastering Today’s Technology To
Connect With And Keep Your Audience”

Thursday, August 21st
Authors Brian Reich and Dan Solomon have seen how changes in both technology and society can affect the communications and operations of an organization. Now, with Media Rules!, they provide you with a framework for understanding this dynamic world. It doesn’t matter whether you’re in the business of disseminating information or producing products, this book will prepare you to distinguish yourself from the competition by creating new models to better serve your audience and harnessing the full potential that technology provides.

 

 
CLICK HERE FOR EVENT AND REGISTRATION INFORMATION

Sean Cheyney on Boosting your Industry Reputation

5 ways to boost your industry reputation.
A few weeks ago I ran a story by author Sean Cheyney, from iMedia entitled “5 WAYS TO RUIN YOUR INDUSTRY REPUTATION” and I received some great feedback, including the author himself. Sean and I have Read more

Quick Question: How old is the average TV viewer?

Believe it or not, according to CSM (thanks to Piers Fawkes of PSFK) the average television viewer last year is 50 years old…interesting huh?

-bill

 

Average TV Viewer Age Hits 50

by Piers Fawkes

CSM reports that the median age for (live) TV viewers in the US hit 50 last season. The median age of Americans is 38. Can you guess where the younger folks have gone?

This is one of the clearest signs that the Internet is a competitor to television. While cable TV is certainly another major player, idle surfing, social networking, YouTube viewing, news reading, MP3 downloading, and email drafting has pulled Americans away from the small screen and toward a smaller one.

FOR THE FULL STORY FROM PSKF CLICK HERE

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