Since The Wall Street Journal began charging for access, Rupert Murdoch’s NewsCorp and a host of other sites have followed suit.  The New York Times has announced a plan to begin a “paywall” structured site in 2011. Similar modifications are under way at abcnews.com and Newsday Publications’ sites to make way for paid-for content.

A recent study conducted by the Pew Research Institute revealed that, if asked to pay for online news access, 82 percent of those surveyed would find their news elsewhere.  That begs the question: Who  belongs to the leftover 18 percent? (more…)

When British soccer sensation David Beckham arrived in America in 2007 to play for the Los Angeles Galaxy, he had to correct himself after dropping the proverbial ball with the name of his beloved sport.  Beckham made a mistake by calling his sport “football.”  He then said, “Excuse me… soccer.” Even he was confused as to what to call it in the US. (more…)

Colombian investigative journalism lost an important contributor last month when Casa Editorial El Tiempo announced the restructuring of Cambio, a well recognized magazine which, from 1993, focused on investigative cases; a vast majority based on political corruption. (CNN covered the topic last month in an article entitled “Shutdown of Colombian magazine raises questions.”) (more…)

For this week’s SM 10X30 Q&A, I’ll answer questions about using LinkedIn for business. With all the attention Facebook has been getting for overtaking Yahoo!’s No. 2 position as most popular website in the US and Twitter’s announcement of 50 million tweets a day, LinkedIn is still one of the most relevant social media networking sites around.

As a reminder, all questions are welcome, whether you are new to social media or someone who is already very familiar. I love to help and chat about social media.  Join other social media gurus, ninjas, experts professionals on the Social Media Corner group. (more…)

Our Media Relations team is constantly in touch with our downstream partners to ensure that communications between us is always clear and we are doing our best to promote our clients’ visibility in the marketplace. I recently had the opportunity to chat with an editor at Dow Jones, who provided me with useful tips and advice (particularly for IR folks) that will help our readers and clients maximize their press release distribution. (more…)

One of the largest American media conglomerates, Viacom, is pulling two of Comedy Central’s most popular shows: The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report off the online video giant Hulu. Relax…Comedy Central has no plans to switch to the  increasingly popular idea of a pay wall. They’ve simply come to the realization that there is no need to split ad revenue with a site like Hulu when they can keep the content in-house on ComedyCentral.com.

The fact is that if consumers are interested in the content, they will find it online. Clearly, there is an inverse relationship between a show’s popularity and its need to be on Hulu.  Does this mean that, in the future, Hulu will be consumers’ No. 1 stop for Hee Haw reruns?  I seriously doubt it, but it will be interesting to see if more of television’s most popular shows follow Viacom’s lead…

For more details on this issue, and another perspective, read the recent New York Times article, “Viacom Will Take ‘Daily Show,’ ‘Colbert’ off Hulu.”

I’m sure many of you participating in SM 10X30 – Marketwire’s Social Media Fitness Program — have had thoughts of using social media as a source of lead generation. Whether you are new to social media or a grizzly veteran, always be cautious of your mindset when using social media, especially if your main objective is generating leads. You can come off as spam and you will instantly lose credibility.  In this installment of my weekly Q&A for SM 10X30 participants, I answer questions about how to prospect for leads via social media, particularly Twitter and Facebook.

As a reminder, all questions are welcome, whether you are new to social media or already very familiar. I love to help and chat about social media. Check out our SlideShare presentations for exclusive tips.

Q. How do I create a list on Twitter and Facebook? (more…)

Last month, Jen McClure, founder and president of the Society of New Communications Research (SNCR), and Don Middleberg, SNCR senior fellow and CEO of Middleberg Communications, presented an informative webinar to discuss the results of the 2nd Annual Middleberg/SNCR Survey of Media in the Wired World, sponsored by Marketwire. The purpose of the study was to examine the ever-changing relationship journalists have with social media. In this installment of Ask the Expert, I had the opportunity to ask Jen a few questions about the advent of social media and its impact on journalists. (more…)

With the Winter Olympic Games taking place in Vancouver this time around, watching the athletic events ended up being only one part of the whole Olympic experience, albeit, the main one. Marketwire’s Senior Vice President, Sales Canada Judy Hutchins, based out of the Vancouver office, was among them, along with her husband and friends. Below, she provides a first-hand account of the Olympics “in action,” not only as a spectator, but as a patriotic Canadian.

Watching the Olympic events was but one part of the whole Olympic experience, the main one being the actual athletic competitions.  But, like any Canadian, I wanted to make sure that I had the “right” gear before heading up to Whistler for the women’s giant slalom and the men’s bobsleigh races that weekend – February 20-21, 2010. Mittens were de rigueur, as were scarves, pullovers, children’s clothes, men’s garb, red Canadian hoodies and T-shirts. It was estimated that C$1 million would be spent daily at Hudson’s Bay where official Olympic retail items were sold.  Before the Olympic Games commenced, lines to enter the department store were non-existent. Once the Games were underway, it took a several-hour wait just to get in the door! (more…)

In this installment of “Tips,” I answer questions submitted by SM 10X30 participants about some more advanced topics involving Facebook.
As a reminder, all questions are welcome whether you are new to social media or are already very familiar. I love to help and chat about social media. Get exclusive tips, photos, and videos by joining our Facebook page.

Q. How does a (Facebook) fan page become a fan of another page? (more…)

Having recently addressed some of the nearly 800 attendees of the Online Marketing Summit in San Diego, California, I and my esteemed colleagues – Jack in the Box’s Marilee Brusaschetti, Experian’s Kevin Akerman, Lyris’ Erick Mott, and HiveFire’s Pawan Deshpande – sat on a panel sharing thoughts, best practices, and viewpoints of 2010’s Integrated Marketing Trends. In doing so, I – being a huge film buff – harkened back to a Hollywood classic for inspiration and perspective… (more…)

Since the introduction of SM 10X30, Marketwire’s Social Media Fitness Program in mid-January, more than 3,000 people have registered and taken on high-intensity workouts to improve their social media skills and boost their confidence levels.  Folks are joining us from all corners of the globe: Canada, the US, the UK, India, Mexico, Guatemala, China, Italy, Spain, Israel, Kazakhstan, Puerto Rico, United Arab Emirates, Australia, New Zealand and many other countries. SM 10X30 participants represent Fortune 500 companies, government departments, non-profit organizations, media companies, colleges and universities, and PR practices of all scopes and specialties, from international and boutique agencies to private practitioners and consultants.  It’s clear that social media is important to communicators everywhere, regardless of geography and professional discipline. (more…)

Social media was around during the Beijing Summer Olympics of 2008, but as Alex Huot, head of social media for the International Olympic Committee (IOC) predicted, the Winter Games of 2010 in Vancouver would be “the first social media Olympics.” It turns out — he was right.

Today, media corporations are competing with citizen journalists, bloggers and Twitter/Facebook users for the most up-to-date content and volume of online traffic. The Olympics has always been a very tightly controlled media event, in part, to protect those media companies that paid millions of dollars for content and video rights to the Games. But with the use of new media outlets and social media, the IOC implemented new limitations on the athletes‘ use of social networking for the Vancouver Games so that they didn’t become journalists themselves. (more…)

We are in the midst of a media revolution, and that revolution is taking place at warp speed. For most of us, just trying to keep pace with what we need to know about social media, search, email and analytics to successfully participate can become a full-time job. As soon as we begin to feel a bit secure in one area, we realize we’re falling behind in another. But, as we heard at last week’s Online Marketing Summit (OMS) in San Diego, “online is where your audience is,” and if you aren’t in the game, your competitors are.  (more…)

My last post focused on how anyone can benefit from using press releases to boost SEO, but I purposely avoided mentioning multimedia and social media — until now.  In recognition of the 82nd Annual Academy Awards, I thought it would be fitting to explain how multimedia and social media can become the best supporting players in your SEO effort, within the context of a few of this year’s nominated films. (more…)

Would you believe that more than 90 percent of journalists think that, to some extent, new media and communications tools and technologies are enhancing journalism?  The statistic is staggering, and perhaps unbelievable to those who think the practice of true journalism has no place for citizen media, Twitter and social networking.

According to the 2nd Annual Middleberg/SNCR Survey of Media in the Wired World, the notion that today’s journalists shun the use of social and digital tools is a myth. Instead, journalists embrace social media, using it more and more to disseminate news, find story ideas and sources, monitor sentiments and discussions, conduct research on individuals and organizations, keep up on issues and topics of interest and participate in conversations. (more…)

In this installment, I answer questions submitted by SM10X30 participants about Facebook accounts for business.

As a reminder, all questions are welcome, whether you are new to social media or someone who is already very familiar.  I love to help and chat about social media.  Connect with hundreds of other social media enthusiasts on Marketwire’s Social Media Corner.

Q. How do I create a Facebook account for my business? (more…)