by cameron | Feb 11, 2007 | media 2.0
Richard Sambrook is the Director of BBC Global News and on his blog “SacredFacts” he is trying to suggest that there isn’t a power struggle going on between “old media” and “new media” but that
It’s about integration, not subsititution…
Richard, what is your rationale for saying it isn’t a power struggle? I can only think of three reasons why you would say that.
1. You don’t believe there is a desire, on behalf of audiences, to have more power over the media they consume.
2. You don’t believe any “power struggle” will succeed because “old media” is just too big, politically protected and cashed up for “the people” to take power away from it.
3. Or… You do believe people want it, you do believe they will try succeed to taking it… but because you work for the old guard you’re just hoping that if you keep your eyes closed, and say “Kansas, Kansas, Kansas” over and over again while clicking your heels, it will all just go away?
I think the RIAA tried that over the last ten years but maybe they didn’t have the right fairy dust?
Trust me when I tell you, Richard, that there is a power struggle going on. We, the people, want more control over our media than we currently have. That is a power struggle. We are going to take it (control) away from big media companies. Whether we take it partly away or entirely away remains to be seen. But ten years from now, you will have less power and we will have more. Unless you are willingly going to give it up, I’d say that meets every definition of a struggle.
Meanwhile, over on Mark Fletcher’s “Australian Newsagency Blog”, my radio sparring partner from earlier this week, James Farmer, is trotting out the tired old rationale that:
theage.com.au is the number one News & Info publisher in Victoria – the smh.com.au in NSW. The vast majority of people come to a few sites to get their media fix, listen to a few radio stations, watch a few tv channels and read a few publications…
The problems with this line of thinking are multiple.
1. Australia newspaper circulation is in massive decline. See my earlier posts on this for the facts. Even if the owners of these papers have been able to begin to translate their old print readership into online traffic, it is well known that they don’t make nearly as much money online as they on from print. So their revenues are going to take a battering. As their revenues decline, they have to continue making cut-backs, as Australian print, TV and radio news networks have already experienced over the last decade. As they cut back their news staff, they rely more and more on Reuters and AAP feeds which are undifferentiated everyone else’s. As their unique content declines, do will readership and revenue.
2. What empirical data do you have, James, to suggest that “The vast majority of people come to a few sites to get their media”? Have you asked the majority? Did you poll them? Or are you just assuming that is what they want to do because that is what they have always done? That’s like saying people of 18th century Europe didn’t want democracy because they had always had Monarchs.
3. Even if you are right and people *do* want a few sites to get their media from, what Darwin-Given right does Fairfax or News Corp or Channel Nine have to be the sites they get their media from? Why won’t they want to get their media from Google? Or from TPN? Or from Gnoos?
We have not yet begun to fight.
by cameron | Feb 2, 2007 | Podcast
Recently I discovered an Aussie start-up taking on the big boys in the area of local search – the online business directory dLook. Started in April 2006 by Theo and Meg Tsiamis, dLook is going head-to-head with the bigger online business directories in Australia and is starting to take siginificant marketshare from them, at least in terms of traffic.
Check out dLook’s Alexa chart versus Sensis’ YellowPages:
The best part of the story? dLook has four employees and is self-funded out of the Tsiamis’ bank account!
So I invited Theo onto the show to talk about why they decided to step out of their previous business (real estate development) to set up a search site (hint: a rude reply from one of the existing search providers) and how they are going to continue to beat them at their own game.
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The G’Day World Theme Song is “Save Me†by The Napoleon Blown Aparts.
by cameron | Feb 1, 2007 | Iraq, Uncategorized
ROFL! Mark made the brilliant observation on the recent Sensis post that Telstra’s American CEO, Sol Trujillo, in a November 2005 article on the ABC said:
SOL TRUJILLO: Google Schmoogle.
PETER RYAN: Speaking at yesterday’s release of Telstra’s strategic review, Mr Trujillo said Sensis was the answer, at least for Telstra, and that Google could be feeling some heat, at least locally.
SOL TRUJILLO: We’re outgrowing Google in Australia. We’re doing more, we’re growing faster and we have more capability, because we’re more relevant.
Well here’s the Alexa charts for Google’s Australian site versus Sensis versus YellowPages.com.au:
You may not be able to see the Sensis or YellowPages lines on the chart. That’s because they are wayyyyy down the bottom. Sensis has been a terrific asset for Telstra over the last few years but it’s time to face the facts – they are losing the battle for online search which, by all rights, was theirs to lose.
They aren’t the only ones that should be kicking themselves.
Back in 2003 I suggested to Steve Vamos, who had recently left Ninemsn to run Microsoft Australia, that we could take Hotmail and turn it into a White Pages killer. At the time I think Ninemsn were saying they had 7 million registered Hotmail accounts in Australia. My idea was that if we could create an incentive for people to put REAL contact information into Hotmail, instead of the dubious information usually in there, it could have become a serious online threat to Telstra’s WhitePages. Steve just laughed at me.
That’s why he and Sol get paid the big bucks I guess.
Of course, the Hotmail site is now a usability disaster of Iraq proportions. Not that I ever go into it anymore, but Belinda checks her old Hotmail account from time to time and I look over her shoulder… and shudder.
Speaking of shuddering.. I was just in Officeworks and saw that “Microsoft Windows(TM) Vista Home Premium Oh My God Can We Fit More Words Into This Title How Much Room Is Left Of The Box You Would Think We Are Charging By The Word Oh Hang On We Are Edition” is selling for $500! $300 for the upgrade! Wow. I nearly got excited about it yesterday when a mate of mine from MSFT told me that it can take a USB hard drive and turn it into RAM. Why isn’t THAT in the advertising?? But at those prices, I’ll have to wait until someone gifts me a copy. And just forget about paying $800 for the new version of Microsoft Office. I know that ribbon is kind of pretty but it ain’t $800 pretty.
by cameron | Jan 31, 2007 | Melbourne, Melbourne's Leaders, Podcast
Today, in the next episode of my “Melbourne’s Leaders” series, my guest is Mr Brian Watson. Brian is the founder and Executive Chairman of Georgica Associates Pty Ltd, a private equity asset management and advisory firm in Melbourne. He was based in New York with J.P. Morgan from 1987-1999, as Global Head of Equity Underwriting from 1990-1995 and head of Global Private Equity Business from 1995-1999. He returned to Australia in 1999 and was Chairman of J.P. Morgan Australia from 1999 – 2000 and Managing Director of JP Morgan Partners (JPMP) Australia from 1999 – 2002. JPMP Australia invested across a broad spectrum of private equity opportunities in Australia.
He also sits on the board of the Australian Stem Cell Centre, was Chairman of the Government’s Venture Capital Industry Review, and was appointed to the Board of Guardians of the Federal Government’s Future Fund.
During our chat he talks about the motivations for excellence, attitudes towards setbacks and failure, the state of the Venture Capital industry in Australia, the purpose of the Future Fund, and the future of stem cell research.
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The G’Day World Theme Song is “Save Me†by The Napoleon Blown Aparts.
by cameron | Jan 31, 2007 | Podcast, US politics
Scienta’s post on why not everyone in Australia likes to celebrate the coming of the Europeans reminded me of a podcast I listened to this morning in a similar vein.
The latest episode of Learn Out Loud’s excellent “Great Speeches in History” podcast has a speech by Frederick Douglass who confronts the country at the height of the Civil War. I’d never heard of Douglass before and in the podcast I learned that he was was an American abolitionist, editor, orator, author, statesman and reformer. Called “The Sage of Anacostia” and “The Lion of Anacostia,” Douglass was one of the most prominent figures of African American history during his time, and one of the most influential lecturers and authors in American history.
He was born in 1818 as a slave in Talbot County, Maryland. Douglass escaped slavery on September 3, 1838 boarding a train to Havre de Grace, Maryland dressed in a sailor’s uniform and carrying identification papers provided by a free black seaman. After crossing the Susquehanna River by ferry boat at Havre de Grace, Douglass continued by train to Wilmington, Delaware. From there Douglass went by steamboat to “Quaker City”—Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His escape to freedom eventually led him to New York, the entire journey taking less than twenty-four hours. He spent the rest of his fighting against slavery, for equal rights for African-Americans and became a newspaper publisher.
In the amazing speech linked to above, he absolutely eviscerates the USA’s self-image as being a “The Land Of The Free” and a Christian nation. Here’s a short quote:
“I assert most unhesitatingly, that the religion of the South is a mere covering for the most horrid crimes – a justifier of the most appalling barbarity, a sanctifier of the most hateful frauds, and a dark shelter under which the darkest, foulest, grossest, and most infernal deeds of slaveholders find the strongest protection.”
Definitely listen to it, it’s a powerful 8 minutes.
Getting back to Scienta’s post, she says:
It’s Australia Day here down under, which is supposed to be a celebration of Australia as a nation. Unfortunatly, the date chosen happens to be the day Australia was invaded by the British and for many is a Day of Mourning. As a nation I think it’s time we selected a date that’s a little more appropriate for celebration, one that’s less drenched in blood. Celebrating slaughter is not very Australian.
