Personal Branding Is Not An Option - It's Crucial To Success

Regardless of age, regardless of position, regardless of the business we happen to be in, all of us need to understand the importance of branding. We are CEOs of our own companies: Me Inc. To be in business today, our most important job is to be head marketer for the brand called You. ... You're every bit as much a brand as Nike, Coke, Pepsi, or the Body Shop… To start thinking like your own favourite brand manager, ask yourself the same question the brand managers at Nike, Coke, Pepsi, or the Body Shop ask themselves: What is it that my product or service does that makes it different?

Read more here.

Bill seeks to rescue faltering newspapers

Sen. Ben Cardin introduced the Newspaper Revitalization Act to allow newspapers to restructure as nonprofits. In addition to getting a variety of tax breaks and having a similar status as public broadcasters, the papers also would be barred from making political endorsements.

"We are losing our newspaper industry," Cardin said. "The economy has caused an immediate problem, but the business model for newspapers, based on circulation and advertising revenue, is broken, and that is a real tragedy for communities across the nation and for our democracy."

Thoughts?

Changing the Conversation

Writer Jon Anne Willow examines the journalistic landscape. The piece includes issues we've talked about in class.

Is this what we'll be doing in the fall?

American Observer's tech issue looks a lot like a package we all could put together at this point, too! Weell maybe in a few more months :)

Why Teach Journalism if Newspapers are Dying?

Here is an interesting piece from Salon.com.

Last day for the Seattle P-I

The final edition of one of my hometown newspapers, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, came out today. Today's online edition is full of stories about the 146-year-old paper, including an indictment of the newspaper industry by one of its business columnists. Even though the P-I will continue online, I still mourn the loss of the paper I grew up reading.

• "The pioneering P-I slips into the past"
• "Class final: How to kill an American newspaper," by business writer Bill Virgin.
• P-I memories page, with stories, photo galleries and video.
• "P-I reporter: 'It hasn't really sunk in yet' " (Seattle Times)
• "The P-I's globe will keep on spinning" (Seattle Times)
• "Inside, and outside, the P-I" (The Stranger)

Images from the Seattle P-I, cartoon by David Horsey

Thinking the unthinkable.

The curious thing about the various plans hatched in the ’90s is that they were, at base, all the same plan: “Here’s how we’re going to preserve the old forms of organization in a world of cheap perfect copies!” The details differed, but the core assumption behind all imagined outcomes (save the unthinkable one) was that the organizational form of the newspaper, as a general-purpose vehicle for publishing a variety of news and opinion, was basically sound, and only needed a digital facelift. As a result, the conversation has degenerated into the enthusiastic grasping at straws, pursued by skeptical responses.

Read more of Clay Shirky's thoughts here.

Internet start-ups

In case you missed it, a New York Times article on Sunday about an Interactive conference in Texas seems magically timed, considering those group projects you're working on. One thing that is obvious from this story -- whatever it is that you are developing needs a really cool name, or at least something catchy.

Valley Exec Twitters Through Home Break-In

So funny. Read the story here

Newspapers make move to online only

A good summary from the Seattle Times about newspapers halting their print editions to publish only online. The Times' crosstown rival, the Seattle P-I, will likely do this. Papers in Cincinnati and Madison, Wisc., have already made the switch.

Teaching Online Journalism

I found this site on the web:

Mindy McAdams provides detailed tutorials on how to use online tools - soundslides,
blogs, RSS feeds, audio recordings - things we've already learned.

But I still thought it would be useful, if only for a refresher.