"Coca-Cola, the US soft drinks giant, will adopt a "far more aggressive digital presence" as it seeks to respond to "dramatic changes" in consumer behaviour, according to Joseph Tripodi, the company's chief marketing and commercial officer."

"…there is growing evidence that, although social media spend is said to be growing, few of those spending the dosh have worked out a way to measure the ROI. Indeed, a study – and I don't put a huge amount of faith in the results of a single study, but it is noteworthy regardless – suggested as few as 14% of professionals across a range of industries claim to measure ROI for their social media activities."

"I think we need to broaden our base and include all types of online-content producers. In adition, we need to look at how our members can earn revenues outside of the traditional advertising model and keep on the hard work, that the team is doing, the research and the events"

"The Vodafone 360 suite of services includes displaying the address book, called Vodafone People, in a 3D format featuring contacts’ latest Facebook status updates and location."

"Some retailers are getting arsey about stocking a device aimed exclusively at digital distribution, because they can’t sell games for it."

I'm not sure I like what the release implies: "Academics set out to show whether customers who have been let down continue to do business after being offered an apology. They found people are more than twice as likely to forgive a company that says sorry than one that instead offers them cash."

"The fact that she only wants to talk about her business proves that not only is she not interested in you, but she was trying to trick you. Now you're insulted and will never go to that bank again, or at least never believe it when they pretend to care about you. This is what's happening with most companies' “Social Media Strategy”."

"While only 5% of people who read a news site at least once a month told us they would pay for online access, when you throw in a free or discounted subscription to the printed paper, that rises to a combined 48%."

European radio stations streaming live on the internet

"Our principles are split into three sections: personal use of social media; professional use of social media on behalf of our company and clients; and use of our official social media platforms."

"Auto Trader has expanded its social media presence, setting up on YouTube and Twitter to create greater rapport with consumers."

"Denis O’Brien launched an eleventh-hour attempt yesterday to seize control of the publisher of The Independent from Sir Anthony O’Reilly — on the condition that the Dublin-based company close down the loss-making London-based newspaper."

"By providing tools, training, platforms and support, we hope to empower neighborhood residents to report the news from the inside out. We are an outlet for Grand Rapidians to become more than just content consumers but also providers by becoming citizen journalists."

"Rolling out this kind of option further afield and offering more magazines alongside could be a winner when it comes to encouraging readers to return to a paper. I know that such a scheme within the boundaries of the M60 and offering a good selection of magazines alongside would certainly get my vote – and my cash."

…it was an accident. There was a set of forces that made that possible. And they weren’t deep truths — the commercial success of newspapers and their linking of that to accountability journalism wasn’t a deep truth about reality. Best Buy was not willing to support the Baghdad bureau because Best Buy cared about news from Baghdad. They just didn’t have any other good choices.

"Google is trying to take interactivity away from the source and centralize it. This isn’t like Disqus, which enables me to add comment functionality on my blog. It takes comments away from my blog and puts them on Google. "

"Even an annual news site fee of about £15 (the kind of price a fifth of of those who favoured annual subscriptions said they would pay) is about 17 times less than a reader of a printed quality newspaper would pay out over the same year."

It’s a social process, people see what leaders in the community and their peers are giving and say they want to be a part of that,” Barnett says. “People start small and work their way up. Not every body will move up the ladder, not everybody who moves up will go to the top, but the end game as a not-for-profit is to make this a part of people’s lives. When there’s a socialization to it, that’s when you start getting the reinforcing numbers at the lower end.”

"There’s more foundation money available for journalism startups than ever before, Donohue told me in an email. But he added: “We’ve learned that this isn’t money you should rely on for your long-term. It’s startup money to get you going. You’ve got to be absolutely obsessed with finding as many revenue streams as possible to sustain and diversify you for the future.” "

I" have bad news on two fronts: The Judiciary Committee didn’t vote on the shield law, but it did adopt an amendment that would exclude amateur journalists from protection."

"News International's service now offers customers the choice of one of eight weekly or daily publications from within and outside the company's stable."

"You took the leap and installed WordPress to host your own blog because you want complete control over how it looks and works. Now, it's time to power it up, lock it down, and make your blog completely yours."

"The section will feature highlights from categories called Today’s Top Stories, Our Latest Post, Who Just Blogged, What We’re Listening To, Today’s Hot Videos, Who Should I Befriend and Apps We’re Playing With."

"The study will test a range of advertising formats, including pre- and post-roll, companion ads, in-stream overlays and branded video player skins and may also extend to include interactivity."

"Brands In Public provides an online dashboard that pulls together the latest news and conversation about a brand from sources such as Google Blogsearch, Google News, Yahoo! News, Twitter, BackType, Google Search Trends and Quantcast."

"Mercedes-Benz is now allocating 50% of its UK marketing budget to digital media, according to its VP for brand communications, Anders Sundt Jensen.

So much city thinking seems mad keen for a return to city states; autonomous islands, connected to each other through finance and fibre but not to land that surrounds them. It's a little bit collapsist; let's wrap the city around us while we still can. But maybe we could think about network technologies as a way to reintegrate rural and urban rather than accelerate the dominance of one over the other.

"When the rebound comes, what will drive advertising growth, and which of these media will rebound to their prior-year levels? That depends the size of ad budgets relative to retail sales, and how media buyers choose to allocate the dollars. Neither of these factors is likely to favor newspapers."

"I've been thinking a lot lately about my changing work practices, in terms of the tools I use to improve the way I work or just offer different, more interesting ways of getting things done. Here's a quick run-through of stuff I've tried, tested, stuck with, abandoned or am just doing differently."

"A group of volunteers is building a rival version of Birmingham City Council’s website which they believe improves on the £2.8 million official site pilloried by the internet community on its launch earlier this month."

"The following list of citizen journalism websites illustrates some of the efforts underway to develop new forms of inclusive, participatory journalism"

"The Wrexham Chronicle and the Mid-Cheshire Chronicle, both freesheets, and the paid-for Whitchurch Herald will all cease printing next week. Trinity Mirror expects that eight editorial and three commercial jobs will be lost as a result of the closures."

"Still, 5% is 5% – thats a similar number to what seems to emerging as a rule of thumb for Freemium use, so that probably points to the answer – offer extra value and you will get a 5% freemium user base. Much cheaper than trying to Bunker-Hunt the news market and buy them all."

"Out into the ‘useless’ pile goes status updates on z-listers cellulite, footballers’ sexual preferences and stories about what people wear on the school run.
It’s looking good so far as a test to avoid being the new bankers."

"Dow Jones plans to close the its Hong Kong-based monthly Far Eastern Economic Review in December, after more than 60 years of publication.
The magazine's six remaining staff will be redeployed within Dow Jones. The Wall Street Journal publisher said it wanted to "focus on its core publications to better serve readers and advertisers in key markets".

"I recently convened an online meeting using CoverItLive, a live-blogging tool. I invited members of our community to join me for a discussion about a specific topic. There would be no experts on hand — just me and the people who logged on."

"Journalism.co.uk wonders how Telegraph.co.uk will monitor and police misuse of the videos – if abuse was extensive. Or how they decide who is commercial and who is not? If, as the Syndication people tell us, ‘on this occasion Telegraph.co.uk are not offering this video for web syndication’ why bother supplying it at all? Isn’t that just asking for trouble?"

"Day two in our exclusive paidContent:UK/Harris Interactive poll shows that a long-term subscription, and not micropayments, is by far the most attractive option to consumers…"

# Bring social media experts in-house, rather than outsourcing the project to your agency
# Avoid any controversy by involving your legal department from the very start
# Invest in a team that will deliver the best monitoring and analytics

"Chris Boudreaux, author of the upcoming book “Social Media Governance”, has assembled 82 such policies on the book’s website. From companies to charities to military organizations, it’s a treasure trove for those struggling with social media guidelines."

"MyBuilder aims to solve two simple user needs: the difficulty homeowners have in finding good builders; and the problems builders have in getting the right kind of work, when they need it and where they need it."

"Newspapers have a long tradition of paying for their journalism by taking advantage of the community they create," he said. "Classified ads were an example of that and today it's no longer the staple it once was. It behooves the industry and the New York Times to think of ways to replace some traditional revenue streams using that same thinking. What is our community and how can our newspaper pay for its journalism by enhancing that community?"

"The unfortunate reality is that even the best micropayment system is not going to recreate that system of artificial scarcity and control — and some have argued that micropayments could even be bad for journalism as a whole, putting pressure on individual stories to be revenue generators."

"Our online display campaigns typically have 0.01% to 0.09% click-through rates. If it’s well-planned and targeted, it’s not unrealistic for a mobile campaign to have a 1%, 2% or even 3% click-through rate depending on the creative messaging and the offer. In sponsored SMS campaigns, we’ve seen click-through rates on sponsored text links go as high as 9% and 10%."

"WordStream’s new Keyword Tool is another free resource you can use to write better copy for your website. "

"Still, there is yet to be a perfect solution to the problem. Perhaps it's time we give up the idea that the "wisdom of the crowds" was ever a driving force behind any socialized, user-generated anything and realize that, just like in life, there will always be active participants as well as the passive passerbys."

"Let’s say you launched a blog today and want it on Google’s results tomorrow. Can this be done? Yes."

"I was concerned that many people are surfing without an awareness of how to protect their internet conversations and content. To this end I have recorded part one of a two part discussion on how to secure your internet surfing when abroad. "

"…we've heard from some of our users that the way we displayed these blogs in Google News was not very clear. To address this, we're now visibly marking articles published on a news blog with a "(blog)" label attached to the publication's name. "

"Many of the sites in these exchanges use multiple layers of I-frames, which further complicated efforts to track campaigns. Sites are able to hide fraudulent traffic behind numerous layers of nested I-frames, leaving advertisers blind to in-view data, according to the study. "

The current pace of innovation in online display advertising is unprecedented, and the bulk of it is focused on the non-premium space: Demand side networks, ad exchanges, data exchanges, and the emerging infrastructure to accommodate real-time bidding are pushing us to the brink of an entirely new paradigm.

As one of the longest-serving regional editors in the UK, Horrocks was editor when the MEN set up its integrated multimedia newsroom and when pioneered its part-paid, part-free strategy that saw copies of the paper given out for free in Manchester city centre.

What Facebook announced on Friday afternoon was that it had come to an agreement over that lawsuit – with proposals that would see two things happen if a judge in San Jose approves the settlement. Those things are:
– That Beacon will close down entirely (it is still running at the moment)
– That Facebook will put forward $9.5m to settle the case, with the money used to create a foundation "to benefit internet users" – by which it means funding online privacy and security initiatives.

"It is often said that if you want to know what the technology trends of a few years hence will be, watch teenagers. But if you want to find out how you're going to be working in a few years' time, watch the technology journalists" <— or web development editors?! 🙂

"…news sites should be doing more to incorporate such features into their daily news stories so that users can make the most of real-time updates.

"Being there and being accurate are how journalistic credibility is brought to the social media ocean. Yet many legacy media have fallen behind in delivering this one-two punch combination. While it’s a given that there will always be a need for reliable verification, what must be better understood is how people seek out news and information and how they learn through their use of social media."

"When Google Wave was announced, I got all jittery-happy about the possibilities it presented for news. Now, from a Belgian site, via a German site, I find a video interview with Wave’s project manager, Stephanie Hannon, speculating about its use in news:"

"Now that the medium is evaporating, publishers have nothing left to sell. Some seem to think they're going to sell content—that they were always in the content business, really. But they weren't, and it's unclear whether anyone could be."

"Realizing that it's better to swim with the stream than against it, MySpace has just turned on two-way sync with Twitter. MySpace status updates can now be sent to Twitter and shared with all of your followers there, and Twitter updates can appear in your MySpace activity stream as well. "

"So is employment the measure of news? No. Is it the proper measure for every industry? Not necessarily. Is it the measure of the economy? Not as much as it used to be. Media is becoming the first major post-industry. Others will follow. You just have to know where to look. "

"…in the new media age transparency is what delivers trust. He stressed that news today still has to be accurate and fair, but it is as important for the readers, listeners and viewers to see how the news is produced, where the information comes from, and how it works. The emergence of news is as important, as the delivering of the news itself."

"Murdoch has confronted and overcome orthodoxy throughout his career. In so doing, he has always stressed that he has defeated "the establishment" on behalf of "the people" (the audience, the readers, the viewers). His mantra: I am giving the people what they want.
This time, by contrast, he appears to be flying in the face of peoples' wishes. He is taking away from them what they want."

"The AmeriKat does not believe, that under the fourth factor of the fair-use test, a newspaper could actually prove that hyper-linking to their content affects the potential market value of the work. Surely Posner’s suggestion in protecting the print media by copyright would in fact have the effect as acting as an improper prior restraint in chilling freedom of expression and would therefore violate the Copyright Clause in ‘promot[ing] the Progress of Science and useful Arts.”

"…the Google proposal envisions aggregating journalistic content into a subscription service that offers flexible packages to users, with "one-time sign-in" so you don't have to pay for each newspaper, magazine, or article individually, as well as options for micropayments for add-on content outside the basic subscription. Google would take 30% off the top, and the content providers get the rest."

"That is why newspapers are finding it hard to charge for content: they haven’t done it for so long they’ve forgotten how it’s done."

"Another thing that seems to escape many journalists is the direct connection between their own indifference to interacting with readers and the parlous state of their comments. If my research has taught me anything — not to mention writing columns and a blog for 15 years — it is that the surest way to improve the tone of the debate in forums or comments is to get involved in them."

The Senate Judiciary Committee is expected to vote on a federal shield law today that would protect journalists from subpoenas for their confidential sources — that is, if legislators can agree on who counts as a journalist.

"MySpace declined to comment on where Reid is going or who will take over the role."

"Myna, a free online audio tool from the makers of reader favorite image editor Phoenix, lets pretty much anyone jump into recording, arranging, and mixing audio tracks for quickie soundtracks, or just for the fun of it."

"In 2008, the Oriella PR Network undertook a survey of over 350 journalists across Europe to determine what impact the advent of the Internet and widely-available broadband had had on the world of journalism. One year on, we looked to see if journalists have acclimatised further to their digital environments and whether they are under more or less pressure due to the current economic turbulence."

"We would shy away from stories that seemed to require a years-long familiarity with the news and incline instead toward ephemeral stories that didn’t take much background to understand—crime news, sports updates, celebrity gossip. This approach gave us plenty to talk about with friends, but I sensed it left us deprived of a broader understanding of a range of important issues that affect us without our knowing."

– Organize, monitor, follow and share over 100 social sites.
– Watch videos, pics and Tweets and other posts in a single interface.

"The as yet un-named digital production company will aim to combine the "traditional genre of television production with the reach, power and engagement of social media"."

News International has rebuffed an approach to buy its freesheet the London Paper, which publishes its final edition on Friday.

Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation last night announced that it was suing two of the firms in Silvio Berlusconi's media empire, accusing them of refusing to let satellite broadcaster Sky Italia advertise on the Italian prime minister's terrestrial network.

"Existing defamation law needs to be updated so it is fit for the modern age, and it is important we listen to views on the best way to achieve this", said Jack Straw, the secretary of state for justice. "Freedom to hold and express opinions is a right that is vital to democracy."

Basically, this is an industry in decline since the beginning of the 1990s. In terms of job loss, the newspaper industry looks remarkably like manufacturing.

"Somehow you goons have based an entire business on making people pay for —- they don’t want. Well done. Our business model is based on building the best ——- search engine on the planet so that people get what they do want. And you morons wonder why our business is booming and yours is going to hell."

"It will take years for media to figure out exactly the right digital business model. But the recession may have played its part in guiding the search."

"…the 2002-2004 recovery never reached the peak of two recoveries ago, in 1988, when real ad dollars hit $56.8 billion. Recall, this year ads are projected at just $31.6 billion—if they’re lucky—a 44 percent decline from twenty-one years ago.
That folks, is secular decline, and the vast majority of those dollars are not coming back."

I like his sentiment, but he has got his facts a little muddled.

"Their point was that by relying on community correspondents to cover grass roots parish pump news, you are cutting reporters off from the contacts they need to get to grips with their patch. My counter was that by enlisting people to write them themselves, they become colleagues rather than contacts, and surely that's an even more valuable relationship?"

"Adobe will merge Omniture’s web analytics offering into its creation tools, aiming to provide advertisers and etailers with better return on investment in digital platforms."

Habitat returned to Twitter yesterday with the message, “We’re back. Sorry it took so long. This time we want to get it right, tell us what you want to hear from us and we’ll mark suggestions in our favourites.”

"What the vast majority of these games inevitably do is present relationship mechanics that distill the commodity model down to its essence—you talk to the NPC enough, and give them enough presents, and then they have sex with/marry you."

More than at any earlier election the news web sites this year took an active part not only in distributing the latest results but also in giving people a platform to discuss the elections.

If you haven't heard yet about the BCC, it's a virtual community of existing book clubs and engaged readers, hosted by Sarah T. Williams, former books editor of the Star Tribune.

The Wall Street Journal’s Web site is expected to launch on Thursday a twice-a-day Webcast called “The News Hub” that will air at 8:30 a.m. and 4 p.m.

Windows only: Chrome turned one year old just a couple weeks back, and as a belated celebration, the folks at Google have just pushed out a brand new stable release in the form of Google Chrome 3.

TiddlyWiki is a single html file which has all the characteristics of a wiki – including all of the content, the functionality (including editing, saving, tagging and searching) and the style sheet. Because it's a single file, it's very portable – you can email it, put it on a web server or share it via a USB stick.

"More importantly to those wondering about the company's plans for the future, however, was the news that Facebook was now cashflow positive – which means it is finally making money after five and a half years and an estimated $716m of investment."

"One of the guiding principles of interaction design is to support existing behavior. This means to figure out what is already happening, what activities, tasks, and interactions people are already doing, and build support for them into software.
This may not seem like a glamorous way to approach design, but from my experience it’s the fastest way to make people happy. Let them do what they already do faster/better/easier, and then you’ll have their attention in order to push the envelope after that."

The unofficial tool, Guardian Anywhere, has been developed by Future Platforms and James Hugman, who first launched it onto the Android Marketplace after entering it for the Android Developer Challenge, it was announced in a blog post.

Figure out what you’re doing and why you’re doing it. Another way to put it: Who is your audience, or who do you want to be in your audience? Who is this for? There’s an old creative-writing maximum that goes something like this: If you write only for yourself, you’re likely to have an audience of one.

"ChangeTracker watches the White House’s web site so you don’t have to. Whenever a page on whitehouse.gov [1] changes, we’ll let you know — via e-mail, Twitter, or RSS.
But ChangeTracker is not a piece of software. It’s the output of a series of powerful and mostly free Web-based tools, lovingly connected over the Internet. Here’s how to do it yourself so you can track changes on any Web site on the Internets."

"Ask a question, either on our Web site, via e-mail, or by Twitter. Within 24 hours (longer on weekends and holidays), a personal response will come from our newsroom describing how we plan to handle the question. While we don’t commit to answering questions that are too specific to a single person’s situation or ones seeking to resolve disputes, we’ll at least direct the person who asked to possible resources. "

If brands want to conquer social media engagement, they must include it as part of their overall planning process, aligning it with both the company’s and target consumers’ requirements.

P&G, which owns brands such as Gillette, Pampers and Pantene, will now pay publisher sites running its campaigns more money for engaged users – for example, those who go beyond viewing ads and sign up to newsletters, play games or watch videos.

The tool uses an @ tagging function, similar to that used on Twitter. It will let Facebook users link to friends, groups, pages or events when updating their status.

"The IPKat feels singularly depressed at the thought that this is the best we can come up with. Merpel goes one step further. Imagine, she says, that the reader of this statement is not a legitimate stakeholder but a trader in counterfeit and pirate products: would such a person not feel assured and comforted by this assortment of pious and waffly sentiments?"

"From Software’s forthcoming 3D Dot Game Heroes."

"With RFID it’s proximity that matters, and actual contact isn’t necessary. Much of Timo’s work in the Touch project addresses the fictions and speculations in the technology. Here we play with the problems of invisibility and the magic of being close."

The unintended editorial consequeces of the race for unique users?

“Then we’re going to have no paper, no printing plants, no unions,” Mr Murdoch said. “It’s going to be great.”

US newspaper website owners think readers go to their printed editions instead. Users, have a difference idea.

The Daily Mirror this week revealed plans to create an engaged, loyal visitor base for the gossip brand online rather than focus on natural search and keyword optimisation to attract mass market audiences who might not dwell on the site.

"I'd hypothesize that the number of Utopians is a fairly close map to the number of Early Adopters that one gets before hitting The Chasm."