(Annette Moster-Wellman)

How DOES Twitter make money? I hear that refrain constantly so I'm sure you wonder about it too. When I interviewed one of the founders a few years ago for the Media Management Center, Twitter was a fledging service popular with only early adopters in the Valley. When I asked Biz Stone how they would monetize the service, he told me they had a few models in mind. Now, when Twitter has fully bloomed - even Larry King is twittering! - we still see no advertising. We continue to wonder. One thing is sure: Making money on mobile advertising is tricky.

In a recent blog, I wrote about Tony Fish, one of the leading industry consultants on mobile. I asked Fish what companies were ushering in the era of mobile as the 7th mass media. Who was making money and how? He mentioned Blyk. Blyk is a company that optimizes a user's digital footprint - its interests, attitudes and behaviors - in exchange for the right to share advertising.

So, I interviewed Leif Fagelstedt, the COO of Blyk, and learned about their theory of mobile advertising and how the service works. The Finnish company provides a mobile service for young people in the UK. Blyk provides free texts and cell phone minutes in exchange for receiving relevant communications (offers, information and entertainment) from brands on their mobile phones. They also become part of an invitation-only community.

Fagelstedt outlined some strategies he has identified for monetizing the mobile space and predicted which would be the winners and the losers. "There are the content enablers like AdMob, ScreenTonic and others who serve advertising through operators with response rates similar to the on-line space in the area of 0.01%. There are companies that think search and banner advertising will be the next big thing. There are those who are trying to figure out how to give people something for free in exchange for receiving a certain number of ads. Our model is an engagement model. Blyk enables a two-way dialogue between brands and Blyk members much like the way you and I would communicate - through text messages. I text you, you reply. And, since Blyk members are profiled, we can provide our audience with information they are genuinely interested in and want to receive which drives unprecedented response rates."

In fact, from a consumer perspective, you could call Blyk a social network. They currently have 200,000 young people in their mobile network. Once opted-in, members receive useful and relevant information by way of advertising in a way only a 16-24 year old would love. From free mobile wallpaper to first-run music videos, check out the types of messages they receive.

But from an advertiser's perspective, Blyk is an extremely effective medium. They deliver an average response rate of 25% with a very important target audience. Blyk drives awareness, interaction and action with the young adult market for companies like MTV and Coca-Cola. Because the audience opts-in and gets great benefits for joining, they are open to sharing their interests and receiving advertising from the network. Fagelstedt describes these young people as "happy" because they have self-identified as those interested and willing to hear about new products and services.

Fagelstedt believes media is moving toward venues that can create true engagement with their audiences. And with a cell phone device that is always on and always at your side, mobile is uniquely suited to promote that engagement. "Everything you do in building new media needs to be based on the most common patterns and behaviors of what people like. The two most common things people do with their telephone is text and talk."

Blyk created 18 tribes or behavioral groups that share similar interests. This dynamic profiling is the basis on which they assign advertising relevance and the pace of information. They represent over 200 brands and have plans to expand beyond the UK this year. Interestingly, they are less interested in the US market. They are focusing on those geographies and cultures where PC penetration is low and mobile is high. They want those who are engaged with mobile as their primary means of communication and are interested in getting relevant information from their phone.

I don't know about you, but getting high quality information on my phone seems appealing. When it's rush house and I'm speeding to catch a boat across the Puget Sound, I just might look forward to that text message from Washington State Ferry with a webcam view of the commuter traffic lines. So the perhaps the future of mobile advertising hinges on consumer engagement. So then answer me this: How WILL Twitter make money?


Annette Moser-Wellman is President of Firemark, Inc., an innovation consultancy, and author of Six Competencies of the Next Generation News Organization and Running While The Earth Shakes: Creating An Innovation Strategy To Win In The Digital Age, both published by the Media Management Center.

This TechScout article is part of a series of Moser-Wellman interviews commissioned by the Media Management Center to explore opportunities and insights at the intersection of technology and the news media. Click here to view other articles in the TechScout series.

What do you think? Please share your thoughts, experiences and reactions by clicking on the comment button below.

(Annette Moser-Wellman)

Some say history can be thought of as a spiral. As the spiral climbs ever higher, we deal with the same problems, but in a slightly different context. Can that experience be true with the news industry? If so, what can we learn from that history?

Andrew Odlyzko is a Professor of Mathematics at the University of Minnesota and the founding director of the Digital Technology Center. He researches electronic publishing, electronic commerce and the economics of data networks. In our interview, he started out by talking about his latest research comparing the Internet bubble to the British Railway Mania of the 1840's. My first thought was, "What could the 19th century possibly have in common with post-modern technology?" But when Odlyzko started explaining how information flowed both then and now, I caught a glimpse of the lesson he was trying to share:

150 years ago newspapers were selling opinions. But their information tended to be opinionated presentation of factual material and recommendations on that content. Journalism was widely regarded as corrupt. Until a few decades before, practically all papers had been either subsidized by some faction of government or by some wealthy aristocrat. Investigative journalism wasn't so much reporters digging up facts. It was about getting some gossip or purposefully crafted misinformation spreading information on a case which the newspapers would pick up. It was simply expected that newspapers were openly partisan. There were many views and newspapers were small affairs.

Sounds like the blogosphere today doesn't it? Odlyzko's point is that information sharing is and always has been a fairly complicated flow and that the battle for public opinion and mindshare will likely continue to be more complex, richer and provide even more opportunity for monetization schemes.

We've gotten used to the concept of the public as consumers of news and commentary and of the professionals - the reporters, the editors - as those who prepare the materials for wide consumption. Increasingly we see a model, similar to the 19th century, in which the newspaper doesn't have many reporters. In the past, reporters were often called penny liners, because freelancers were paid a penny a line to write. We now are moving to a continuum of information flow in which you have information prepared for you for consumption by groups of various sizes, from very small to very large, for groups from very small to very large.

This new flow of information driven by the Internet is causing more players to play in the news and information market. Odlyzko uses the term "intermediaries" for those who prepare or package information. News organizations have traditionally been one of the primary intermediaries. But now the weight is shifting to many smaller players who will have a more opinioned and tailored role. And we are not merely talking about the obvious blogger community. Odlyzko describes it like this:

Because we are increasingly an information society, more people are involved. More scholars, more researchers, more voices from the developing world. And more data is involved. More field science, more engineering, more medicine. There is a greater need than ever for intermediaries. These intermediaries will expand beyond news organizations and technological functions like Google and Yahoo. More and smaller new intermediaries will enter the picture and will come from unexpected places, like corporate PR organizations, financial analysts, community groups and the legal community. These intermediaries will specialize in the power to package and present data in a particular light to serve a particular audience. I believe there will be opportunities for journalistic skills in these kinds of areas. There will be new markets for customized and insightful information.

So how will lots of these smaller intermediaries make money? Will they charge for their packaging and opinion? Will micro-fee based news emerge in which you pay per story? Odlyzko reminds us that readers haven't been paying for news since the 19th century, when most revenues came from newsstand sales and subscription fees. When the majority of revenues transitioned to advertising in the early 1900's, consumers didn't realize they were paying for news indirectly through the goods they purchased. So paying for news products will happen but it may be a slow transition. Expect advertising to continue to be a viable way to monetize.

But Odylzko believes there will be new and unexpected revenue models ahead. He cites the Bloomberg model as a way to monetize access to deep financial data by bundling service and news feeds:

One of the things the Internet does is that it lowers costs. So part of what is happening is just a general squeezing out of redundant costs. I suspect there will be many specialized news services that will be set up. They may be sponsored. They may be ancillary. But with more specialized services and an increasing volume of data and information, you'll need more and more insight, and that's where the skills of the journalist come full circle.

With new intermediaries packaging insightful data, competition will increase the quality of information and perhaps deliver on the highest values of the press. Odlyzko uses an example from history to illustrate his point:

The Internet bubble should have collapsed much sooner, and one of the reasons it didn't was that the news media didn't have the expertise to dig into it and expose the problems. Constituents like lawyers, accountants, financial analysts and technologists had better data and could see parts of the problem that would lead to the collapse of the bubble, but their individual contributions were not assembled into a coherent whole, and their voices were buried. These intermediaries could have eased the crisis. With more, smaller and even openly biased sources of information, we will find more and better information available to society.

Annette Moser-Wellman is President of Firemark, Inc., an innovation consultancy, and author of Six Competencies of the Next Generation News Organization and Running While The Earth Shakes: Creating An Innovation Strategy To Win In The Digital Age, both published by the Media Management Center.

This TechScout article is part of a series of Moser-Wellman interviews commissioned by the Media Management Center to explore opportunities and insights at the intersection of technology and the news media. Click here to view other articles in the TechScout series.

What do you think? Please share your thoughts, experiences and reactions by clicking on the comment button below.

(Annette Moser-Wellman)

From the moment you wake up to when you go to sleep at night, who is your most intimate companion?  Well, I'll give you a hint.  It's not your partner or spouse.  It's not your Chihuahua either.  It's probably your mobile phone.  Not only does your device bring you immediate access to your social circle whenever you want it, but when its GPS is enabled, it reveals intimate secrets about you and your behaviors. 

Tony Fish is author and founder of AMF Ventures. He uses the term "digital footprint" to describe the data that you create and collect on your mobile phone.  Fish was recently recognized as one of The Observer's most influential thinkers in technology and business.  In our interview Fish talked about this Digital Footprint, the title of his new book - how it is created, sustained and how it brings values to individuals, companies and the media industry.

Fish talks about the detailed, sophisticated data graphs that are available when Web use, TV, radio and mobile are combined.  While you can determine some preferences from Web data alone, most of us interface with the Web just a few hours a day.  Add in the 18 to 24 hours of data available through your phone, and a whole new world of digital DNA emerges. 

When you look at the flow of data that comes off the mobile, it's different from any other media. It's with you from the moment you get up in the morning and shower to when you get back into bed at night.  It's actually creating data via your location, your attention, the time, who you are spending time with, when you take a picture, where that picture was taken and who the picture is of.  It's creating data and it's also consuming data. Over time, the device knows every routine you do.  When that data is analyzed, it is classified as 'normal behavior' or your personal preferences. As the user, you no longer have to deliver or input the data - it just is.

Fish predicts that the availability of these preferences will change the business models of the media landscape.  As you can imagine, these personal and social graphs are valuable to marketers and media companies.  Surprisingly, this information is very valuable to the user as well.  We will have at least three ways we can use our data - we can trade and barter it, and use it to discover new services and service improvements.  If you are an 'alpha user' with a large network of friends, your data will be more valuable to companies than that of other users.  For example, when you agree to share your data, you could be offered a free service agreement or even cash from a cell phone carrier. 

I asked Fish to give me an example of how this would work. "Imagine there is a company called Vacuum.  Vacuum turns around and says to its users, 'I will collect your digital footprint from your mobile, your TV, your searches on Google, Amazon, Yahoo and more, as well as your payment streams from your bank and credit card company.  I will collect your data and I will remove everything that locates you as a person from that data.  It will be completely transparent but unidentifiable.  I will then sell that data back to Google or to the Financial Times, to Nike, to whomever you want me to sell it to, such that you get great service improvement. I will ensure that the user is in control.'"

This type of model suggests that news organizations will need to create modules of highly segmented news that can be customized for the individual.  It also means that advertising can be specifically tailored. Some people may opt to receive ads as barter for improved service or even cash.  Even paid content schemes will develop, as consumers demand more in-depth, personalized news products.  "People will always pay for quality," Fish explains.

Fish is bullish about the future of traditional media.  He points out that digital media is about personalization, and as your media preferences become increasingly personal, there is the danger of gravitating to the same sorts of information sources.  How do you introduce new things and novelty to make your preferences more exciting? 

Fish explains that it's harder to introduce new content innovation in the digital space.  Magazines, newspapers, books, and the like, introduce creativity - things you may not necessarily read.   So, to the extent that you don't find novelty through your trusted networks, you will migrate to traditional media forms to get something that you can't get anywhere else. 

Conventional wisdom has been that traditional media should target their users demographically and provide exactly what reflects their interests.  But with the advent of highly personalized data, we may find that the thriving news organizations will be those who seek to inform and delight users on a wider and more varied swath of subjects.  So while your mobile phone may be your most intimate partner, you still may enjoy hopping in bed on Sunday morning with a cup of coffee, the newspaper spread out over the covers and your Chihuahua at your feet.


Annette Moser-Wellman is President of Firemark, Inc., an innovation consultancy, and author of Six Competencies of the Next Generation News Organization and Running While The Earth Shakes: Creating An Innovation Strategy To Win In The Digital Age, both published by the Media Management Center.

This TechScout article is part of a series of Moser-Wellman interviews commissioned by the Media Management Center to explore opportunities and insights at the intersection of technology and the news media. Click here to view other articles in the TechScout series.

What do you think? Please share your thoughts, experiences and reactions by clicking on the comment button below.

(Annette Moser-Wellman)

Imagine for a moment that you didn't search for news, but news searched for you. The news knew your mood. What you wanted and needed to know showed up on your television, your netbook, your computer and, especially, your mobile device. If you had trouble getting out of bed, you might get an inspirational story on the radio. If you were interested in local politics, you would be served a story on your handheld about the debate on affordable housing. About 4 in the afternoon, your computer would suggest a dinner idea and, when you came home from a hard day, the television would provide three options for a movie on-demand. The news delivery would match your behavior and your attitude.

In our latest blogs, we've been interviewing academics researching the frontiers of science and technology: men and women who have projections about the future of media. Sensors are one of the most intriguing areas of development that promise application within the news media. Sensor data is available through a plethora of electronic devices including cell phones and a variety of other mobile devices. Scientists are asking "What attitudes and behaviors could we predict from the analysis of sounds, movements, and location over time?"

Tanzeem Choudhury, an Assistant Professor in Computer Science at Dartmouth College, is one of those scientists. She researches how building machine-learning techniques can help people communicate and understand each other better. She uses sensor data such as microphones, accelerometers and GPS to determine what people are doing at any point in time. "You can tell whether someone is running to catch a bus, whether someone is having a conversation in a restaurant with friends or sitting quietly at a café. You can determine the entire range of behavior they are engaged in."

One of the focus areas of Choudhury's research is understanding the stylistic content of conversations. She looks at the data from a group of people and can determine which people are more central in a social network and those who are on the periphery. People who are more prominent in a network do not adapt their speaking rate, their turn-taking, the loudness of their voice as much as those on the periphery who adapt to the central individual. Choudhury can predict those who are the influence-makers in the social network from the voice - even without the words.

At first this might seem very Big Brother. But Choudhury believes individuals will see how behavioral monitoring can improve their lives. They will become enthusiastic and willing participants and opt into such types of tracking. She speaks about the potential for health care and how individuals could get help with managing their health and could build a better quality of life.

"If you know what kinds of environmental and behavioral factors lead to long-term health problems, you can keep track of that and give information back to the user that can lead to positive change. For example, people in the United States don't get enough physical exercise. But if you had a way of getting information to them about how much they actually took the stairs or how much time they spent in a chair, they'd have more information and control about what they could change."

From analyzing conversation and movement data, it is also possible to predict mood. When someone walks more slowly, talks more slowly, there is potential to provide the right feedback at the right time to deliver information they might need.

"I see in the future a broad set of applications that help you communicate at a better level," she says. "Now we share a piece of news story in a social network because we think it might be interesting to someone else. And how do we know it will be interesting? Because we know the person well enough – their tastes, what they do. Computers, cell phones and modern technology will have that same insight. They will be able to predict the usual, but also to predict what might be unusual and really interesting to the other."

Eventually, Choudhury sees the ability to gauge the mood of an entire city or group of individuals.

"If you think about what we are doing in terms of behavior analysis, we are assessing a person. The information can be used to characterize activities, personalities, and emotions," she says. "We can map the current mood of individuals and groups in an area. Potentially you can cater news to a city in Italy that was struck by an earthquake or a city like Rio after Brazil won the World Cup. Knowing the emotional state of a group of individuals determines what kind of information someone might be receptive to."

So expect news organizations to be able to get a lot smarter about whom they serve, what to serve and when to serve news. One of the complaints about Web sites, newspapers and especially television, is that it takes so much time to search for what's interesting. Technologies like those Choudhury is tackling could eventually level those concerns. News companies that search the news for you and give you what you didn't even know that you needed will be the winners in the future.


Annette Moser-Wellman is President of Firemark, Inc., an innovation consultancy, and author of Six Competencies of the Next Generation News Organization and Running While The Earth Shakes: Creating An Innovation Strategy To Win In The Digital Age, both published by the Media Management Center.

This TechScout article is part of a series of Moser-Wellman interviews commissioned by the Media Management Center to explore opportunities and insights at the intersection of technology and the news media. Click here to view other articles in the TechScout series.

What do you think? Please share your thoughts, experiences and reactions by clicking on the comment button below.

(Annette Moser-Wellman)

Less investigative reporting? Less high-quality news available? These are frequently heard concerns as news organizations struggle for survival. But what if the disruption in the market for news and information could lead to fresh, new media products that have yet to be imagined?

This is the view of Dr. Irfan Essa, Professor in the College of Computing at Georgia Tech. Essa works in the areas of human computer interaction and artificial intelligence and coined the term "computational journalism."

"Imagine an article written by your favorite news organization about your neighborhood that offers background data you can personally customize or visualize in a myriad of ways and provides access to experts in your area to for perspective," Essa said, describing the future of news as an intersection between breakthroughs in computation and the highest-order journalism.

"Computational journalism is an entirely new way of thinking about how information is captured, shared and processed," he said. "From accessing data online to broad-scale, eyewitness reporting, journalists will be increasingly able to get closer to raw data and tools to contextualize information so they can make judgments relevant to their audiences. Our research is about extracting content from images, videos and text to enable more intelligent news gathering. The combined fields of computation and journalism support a new kind of highly informed participant in the public conversation."

Essa believes there is an opportunity for journalists to use technology to reinforce their civic role in society. He notes the emerging smart technologies like semantics that use metadata instead of key words for quality search. These types of tools will allow for more efficient scouring of public records and multiple databases.

Essa's team is pioneering research in identifying video and image content in ways that make it more accessible for reporting. He believes that providing deeper levels of access to information can allow the journalist to data-mine large amounts of information and thus be able to provide more in-depth and customized reporting for their audiences. The journalists' storytelling and watchdog functions can be enhanced by the ability of the computer to automatically visualize data just as PowerPoint might with a graph or a pie chart. It's this ability to harness large amounts of data for individual and public interest that defines the computational journalist.

"Citizen journalism is perhaps misunderstood. Citizens are not contextualizing on their environment. They are merely letting you see what they just saw. They are an advanced form of eyewitness. Bloggers are not directly journalists. Generally, they are expressing their opinion. They are, in essence, writing editorials," he said.

A journalist, on the other hand, "is trained to contextualize what has been seen and experienced," Essa notes. He believes that journalists armed with the advanced tools of computation will have access to more and better data than any one person, enabling them to aggregate and assimilate information with higher levels of accuracy and less bias. Thus, Essa believes computation can elevate the quality of investigative reporting and news gathering.

"There is a dire need for better information to be given to citizens. We are in an era where people are focused only about what they are interested in. But if we can get both journalists and citizens the best information out there and let them navigate the information without the ‘noise' of unwanted data, this will draw audiences who want higher level information and more contextualization," he said.

An example of this contextualization Essa shares is a partnership between American Public Media and Minnesota Public Radio called Public Insight Network, a database of experts in different areas in Minneapolis on topics from farm policy to family budgets. MPR consults those who sign up as a resources pool and asks them questions to help provide insight and information about a particular area they may be reporting. These types of sites help journalists capture the broadest information possible and provide the customized information that customers want.

Additionally, computational journalism can help tailor information to individuals. "Google and the New York Times do a good job of aggregating information from news sources. But I have to go through about 10 articles to find what's relevant to me," Essa said. "Would it not be great if tools were available for news organizations to help individuals navigate and pinpoint exactly what is relevant to them and provide in it a dynamic and compelling way?"

Far from seeing a bleak future for journalism and news, Essa sees a future in which technology helps restore journalism's civic role in society - where the market demand for customized news and information serves the public interest.

"Journalism benefits from information quality. How can we get more authentic information? How can we get more verifiable information? How can we increase information quality in the era where anybody and everybody can have a voice? These are the question computational journalism will answer," he believes.


Annette Moser-Wellman is President of Firemark, Inc., an innovation consultancy, and author of Six Competencies of the Next Generation News Organization and Running While The Earth Shakes: Creating An Innovation Strategy To Win In The Digital Age, both published by the Media Management Center.

This TechScout article is part of a series of Moser-Wellman interviews commissioned by the Media Management Center to explore opportunities and insights at the intersection of technology and the news media. Click here to view other articles in the TechScout series.

What do you think? Please share your thoughts, experiences and reactions by clicking on the comment button below.

(Annette Moser-Wellman)

Tomi Ahonen is a best-selling author and media consultant based in Hong Kong. His expertise in third generation (3G) technologies and global wireless trends gives him an authoritative voice in new ways to monetize the mobile channel. His "Seven New Capabilities for Mobile" have been popularized across the media community. These "seven firsts" include: the first personal mass media, the first permanently carried and 'always on' mass media, the first built-in payment mechanism, the first content-capture at point of creative impulse, the most accurate audience measurement and the first capture of social context of media consumption. We interviewed Ahonen via e-mail about the future of mobile and news.

Who are the global leaders in the mobile marketplace?
The U.S. lags badly in this space as do many players in North America who approach the cell phone opportunity from an enterprise or business perspective. Today Japan is the most advanced mobile telecom market and it leads South Korea by about 4 months. Italy is the third most advanced, then Austria. The U.S. is currently tied for 21st and almost 3 years behind Japan in my research.

In Japan, more than half of all consumers use the phone to make payments for public transportation, groceries and petrol for their car. All Japanese phones are 3G speeds and are camera phones. Over 80% have 2D barcode readers. This means that phone owners point the camera phone at any barcode and that Web site address is displayed on the screen within a second. Japan was the first country where more users accessed the Internet via mobile phones than via PCs. They also became the first country where more time was spent surfing the mobile Internet than the PC-based Internet.

What do you envision as a mature mobile market?
Maturity will be visible when the changes are not drastic and frequent. Print is a mature industry. Yes, there is turmoil now with the cannibalization of newspapers by the Internet, but print overall is going through gradual evolution into the digital age. Similarly, cinema is mature, radio is mature, but TV is not. TV is still undergoing dramatic and traumatic changes with cable, satellite, IPTV and more. Each media will adjust. None will die.

I am very bullish about mobile. I also believe the Internet will continue to grow in its power and influence for at least another decade. But mobile will become the "first" mass media because it is nearest to us, more personal and most used. It's the first thing we see when we wake up and the last thing we see when we go to sleep. Already, three billion people use SMS text messaging on a phone. That's twice as many people as own a TV set on the planet and three times the number who own any kind of PC. Mobile has enormous reach and power and this power will be utilized by media companies the world over.

Can you give us an example of monetization in mobile that represents an opportunity for publishers and advertisers?
I think the advergaming opportunity is the hottest right now. Many young users would consume more content on phones but can't afford to. Advertisers want to do more on phones, but they find that banner ads and spam SMS text messaging is not compelling enough. So now, advergaming!

You can give phone users fun entertainment for free as an advergame. Puma did a multiplayer racing game in conjunction with the Shanghai Grand Prix race in 2008. Four gamers could race each other for free and Puma provided coupons to redeem at retail stores. The best drivers won prizes but importantly those who spread the game most virally won prizes as well. These kinds of opportunities will spread fast.

What are your favorite mobile applications?
Currently, my two fave stories are mosquito sounds and Virtual Ka. Mosquito sounds is a technical term for very high pitched sounds that only kids can hear. The human ear deteriorates so much with age that there are sounds all teenagers can hear and nobody over about the age of 25 can. Kids love these games on the mobile phone because their elders don't know what's going on. Kids even use these ring tones in class as the teacher can't hear it and the kids won't get into trouble.

The Virtual Ka is an augmented reality ad campaign by Ford in Europe. It uses clever optical tricks with high end camera phones to create an illusion. When you look at the street with your eyes, you see nothing, but when you point your camera phone at the same street, it displays a parked Ford Ka. You can see it clearly and even walk around it. It's augmented reality on a phone.

What advice do you have for news organizations?
Look at CNN's i-Report. It does not kill journalism, but it does change the role of the professional to be more of a judge, editor and expert. They weed out the good and the bad and nurture and help the wannabe-citizen-journalists into capable participants. A great case study is OhmyNews out of South Korea. Mr. Oh's news company is the pioneer that invented citizen journalism. A great success story.

The big lesson is to truly listen. Big brands used to control the message. That is no longer possible in a communities-dominated age. Now the brands have to engage with their consumers and try to learn to become a part of their lives in a way that turns consumers into activists and brand fanatics. Learn from the Obama campaign and use social marketing methods. Evolve, do it better and listen, always listen, to the consumer.


Annette Moser-Wellman is President of Firemark, Inc., an innovation consultancy, and author of Six Competencies of the Next Generation News Organization and Running While The Earth Shakes: Creating An Innovation Strategy To Win In The Digital Age, both published by the Media Management Center.

This TechScout article is part of a series of Moser-Wellman interviews commissioned by the Media Management Center to explore opportunities and insights at the intersection of technology and the news media. Click here to view other articles in the TechScout series.

What do you think? Please share your thoughts, experiences and reactions by clicking on the comment button below.

(Annette Moser-Wellman)

Finding new ways to spread a media organization's content as far and wide as possible is the name of the game these days. Think of it as building a media brand's kingdom – in a crusade against the tyranny of declining advertising revenues.

So it's interesting to look at what some news organizations are doing to spread their audio and video content via podcast 'feeds' or RSS content – and at emerging services that intensify the consumer experience . Check out CNN's series of audio and video content that repurposes cable broadcasts for other forms of distribution. Each 'product' offered is a regular segment. Some are updated hourly, others daily. Magazines and other newspaper publishers are following suit, yet not with the same frequency. See and listen to the Wall Street Journal entries in this market.

Services like these are "not your father's" podcasts. In the old-style podcast, you had to download each MP3 file to your device, be it a PC, MP3 player or a mobile phone. These more accessible audio RSS feeds are podcasts streamed over the Internet. Importantly, the 'podstreams' allow consumers to easily customize their news and information menus.

Expanding your content's reach with audio RSS feeds is one viable means publishers and broadcasters can play in the mobile market. The audio experience lends itself extremely well to those traveling in a car or commuting.

One company taking advantage of the consumers' penchant for mobile audio is Stitcher, an online service that aggregates audio RSS feeds and lets consumers customize their news, talk, entertainment and information. With Stitcher, anyone can create their own "radio station" on their mobile device – and then Stitcher builds on the preferences of its users to create an even more satisfying experience. The online company profiler, TechCrunch, calls Stitcher the "Pandora of everything but music," because as you use the service, it analyzes your selections and serves you more of what you like and less of what you don't.

In my interview with Noah Shanok, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Stitcher, I asked why news organizations and others would want their audio content any place other than their own sites where they could be getting page views (and revenue). It all comes down to giving the consumer what they want.

"We are seeing media companies excited about the Stitcher concept of on-demand streaming audio. Consumers want all of their information, but on a mobile device. They don't want to go to NPR, ESPN or 10 other sites to get it. They just want it all to be there in one place. We allow content providers to extend their reach into places they wouldn't already be," he said.

Stitcher works by pulling audio RSS and traditional podcast content from a publisher's server. The content is formatted for mobile delivery and put back on the server. Through a menu of aggregated content, consumers can get the most up-to-date information via mobile in a way that's customizable and on-demand.

When spreading a brand's kingdom into the mobile audio world, how then does one make money? Stitcher is based on an advertising model. Listed as one of the iPhone's top applications, it engages audiences that are spending increasing amounts of time, up to 150 minutes a month, listening to content. Shanok said the company shares advertising revenue with content partners - either ads served by Stitcher or ads the publisher embeds in the podstream. Shanok said Stitcher's ability to bundle content into a "package" is an important part of attracting advertisers, as is its ability to track content consumption on the mobile device.

As an added benefit for publishers who don't produce audio, Stitcher will provide professional voice-over, reading Web page content and putting the podstream together.

There's much talk among people in the news industry about trading pennies today for yesterday's dollars, meaning that traditional sources still produce far more advertising revenue per viewer than Internet media.. But remember that these industries are young. The long term winners and losers have not yet been established. As distribution platforms begin to standardize in mobile and personalization becomes possible, there may be bigger incentives for advertisers and bigger rewards for publishers. Over time, the relative value of the different advertising platforms - Internet, TV, mobile and print -will begin to become clear.

But for now, one thing is sure: exploring ways to spread your content on mobile platforms is essential to building a kingdom for your brand.


Annette Moser-Wellman is President of Firemark, Inc., an innovation consultancy, and author of Six Competencies of the Next Generation News Organization and Running While The Earth Shakes: Creating An Innovation Strategy To Win In The Digital Age, both published by the Media Management Center.

This TechScout article is part of a series of Moser-Wellman interviews commissioned by the Media Management Center to explore opportunities and insights at the intersection of technology and the news media. Click here to view other articles in the TechScout series.

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