Brett Macfarlane

Better "Digital" to Suit the Times

There is an increasingly accepted view that the 70’s and 80’s were not the definitive model of publishing and the news business but in fact an anomaly.  The simplicity of writing some articles, filling ad pages and printing paper products downstairs in your basement with ever increasing efficiency was beautiful, and yacht buying-ly profitable.  It also wasn’t ever really going to last.  It wasn’t true to the reality of upheaval and intense competition in the news industry.

Like the music industry last decade, news reportage isn’t dying.  Far from it, for as those with a clear point of view, a body of trade craft and a business strategy that understands the real value of what they produce are continuing to find they operate a very profitable model.  Maybe less gargantuanly profitable than in the past, but really that all depends how you compare today with yesterday.

But tomorrow is very interesting, in particular when dissecting the FT’s decision to fundamentally relook at what is their core value and how they deliver it.  Digital First is the mission according to the editor Lionel Barber in a memo that isn’t your usual PR talk value over real business value of too many executives trying to feign as “getting it.”

“Digital,” as highlighted in 21 Quotes from Clay Shirky’s Post Industrial Journalism Paper, is at the centre of the production process, not simple an add on to the sales department.  “Digital” is not someone’s domain, department or a silo, it is a way of doing business.

Gone at the FT will be the multiple versions and updates of the paper late into the night on fast moving presses.  The on-going, forever updating, stream of “what is happening” will live first and foremost online through browsers and apps.  The “what matters” as a more considered view of “news in context” will be put to a single daily “paper” giving a greater sense of permanence and understanding on pre-planned versus reactive schedules.

If I am an advertiser there may be times I just want to get some exposure and reach.  Often with a real time aspect as is increasingly possible and meaningful – particularly if the media property properly tracks and shares data / usage behaviour.  Of, if I am an advertiser who wants to build margins and brand values I may want to pay a premium for placing my brand where the context of the title improves the perception of my content in a slower more considered reading context.  Many would argue the latter is what you get with the pink paper.

As has long been obvious is that media isn’t an either or debate. Offline or online.  Analogue or digital.  No it is a debate about actual usage and behaviour with an understanding of the real value of a medium in a given context for a given property valuable to certain groups of people.

When speaking of media, fragmentation has long been on the tip of people’s tongues, paradoxically as much a convergence.  Typically fragmentation is code for meaning some small guys stealing the big guy’s lunch.  For the near team the truth seems to be a race to the middle, the small guys getting bigger and the big guys getting smaller on a relative basis though still with scale and might.  Throw in some mergers and acquisitions and before we know it there will be a new model that emerges, only to be killed again…

 

New Media New Year

As we purge the old to start anew in 2013, it is an ideal time to also revive one's media diet. Media habits settle easily and lazily, as any habit does.  

Here is some wide ranging media that may be notable enough to displace any tired media in your life.

Watchable

Two continents, two eras, two dramas, one environment - the newsroom:

- The Hour - post WWII investigative news drama set in the BBC produced by the BBC.  Unfairly compared to the heavy shadow of Mad Men, as all dramas of this era now must be, The Hour stands its own with dignity, pace and surprise in a time when integrity was rife in the news room.

- The Newsroom - Aaron Sorkin's take on the tensions and conflicts of the modern newsroom where integrity swims against the current. Jeff Daniels, while a great actor who will always be most noted by this writer for his stellar performance in Dumb & Dumber, is stellar as the jaded ego maniac with a deeply buried yet strongly burning moral compass.

Both timely given the ongoing debate of eroding journalism, a decline English language France 24 and its plucky young crew refutes. Well informed and concise coverage of the news stories that matter - that many networks don't think deliver ratings. Particularly good for Africa and Middle East affairs free of hype, agenda and hyperbole. An informative tabletop tablet app over your morning coffee.

Listen

Here's the Thing hosted and produced by Alec Baldwin is 40 minutes of your life you cannot believe didn't cost anything. He is an interesting man interested in a wide range of subjects and people, getting under the skin of what makes them tick, revealing what makes himself tick.

The Menu - the casual and welcome pretension of uber media brand Monocle is at its finest in The Menu. A weekly podcast bringing the world of food to your ears. For some reason I listen to it at the gym...

James Chutter Mixtapes - an oldie but goodie by an old friend - while I'm not sure of the legalities and I am sure of the listenability of these newschool mix tapes by actor/ad man/entrepreneur extraordinaire James.

Read

Rouleur - much more than an elegantly designed bike magazine. Rouleur is a tribute and asset to the culture of cycling effortlessly mixing the personalities of yesterday with the practitioners of today.  Optimistic, transparent and celebratory of the sport without being naive or caustic.

Giles Coren - hidden behind Rupert Murdoch's Times paywall is a critic of culture, Britishness and society in the disguise of a restaurant critic. Informed provocative priggishness dished lavishly in hearty laugh out loud helpings.

Foreign Affairs - as the doctrine of globalism - one planet, one nation, one culture - exhausts its remaining breath big questions with big facts and big implications rumble underfoot. Though a bit America centric and at times military focused the informed and well written readible essays take you out of the trees to see the forest of global concerns.

Collect - an Australian upstart focused on the culture of entrepreneurs. As we live in the new era of entrepreneurship Collect packs together the best of this world while unintentionally encapsulating the modern global esthetic of the "indie" brand.

Fricote - a bilingual journal about food that is in fact an eye wateringly fresh take on visual magazine design. Playful while never letting polish get in the way.

Agile Combat Storytelling

Humans tell stories.  We are really good at it.  Both the telling part and the receiving.  A good story says so much more than the volume of words or visuals used.

While stories fills much of my day the greatest storytellers I respect are those on the front lines of combat.  People enduring real physical risk to tell stories that need to be told.  Rather than the stories somebody wants to tell.

The Imperial War museum currenlty has a powerful exhibit by iconic war photojournalist Don McCullen - Shaped by War.

On Saturday fresh off the plan from six months in Afghanistan British Army photographer Sergeant Steve Blake along with the head of photography at the museum talked about covering 21st Centruy Conflicts.

His story of covering modern conflict is one of the most compelling stories I've heard in recent years.

Firstly, with extreme forensic distance the head of photography chronicled the shift int he past 20 years from film to digital photography and its moral and operational implications.

Followed by Steve pragmatically detailing the team structure and how despite being a photographer he is  a soldier first.  A soldier who must engage a population with a thing most have never seen - his camera.

Most interesting to me is their team structure.  Steve works in a group of three. Himself on stills, another on film and their leader, a superior, who serves as the official media voice and is responsible for all radio content.

These three, with their individual equipment adding 50 points to each's back and a shared satellite uplink operate as a self contained mobile news room that delivers against every single possible medium. 

Some stuff they shoot goes on TV, some on Facebook, some in newleters and some in magazines.  They don't worry about the medium, just getting the story.

I loved the brutal simplicity of three people getting all possible required content for any medium.

When lives are at stake, no time for messing around.

DSK Design Boom

 

While the internet and rolling 24hr news channels did what they do best - breathly moment by moment updates on what is happenning, the dailies and weeklies in France did what they do best - provide context, colour and the big picture analysis of what happened.

A man is facing prospect of trial.  The media has put the world's coverage of the situation on trial, so to the American Justice system, the French justice system, the IMF, the Socialist Party, a nations view's on privacy and the behavior of powerful old men.  All brought to life in words and illustration.

 

 

Noticed: Noticings

There is an interesting tension of living in a big city, surrounded by people, yet easily falling into a same old same old routine.  While maps and way finding were a major initial land grab in the digital urban layer the game play and inter-personal layer is now emerging.  Evolved ways of exploring and appreciating your immediate urban environment.

In North America Four Square is getting a lot of buzz but I really like Noticings in London.  Where Four Square seems on the verge of becoming a new coupon tactic Noticings is more a introspective and philosophical approach to viewing your city.  Slowing down and appreciating what's great about.

This whole notion of the blurring of lines between digital and real worlds is absurd.  They are on into the same.  These new properties like a Four Square or Noticings are interesting mostly for the differing backgounds of their creators.  One comes from a technology background another design.  Both are intimately shaped by their mindsets and craft.  Both are equally great because of it.

How our behaviors will evolve because of this will be interesting.  On one end an echo chamber like affect reinforcing within a network the same old, same old.  On the other hand encouraging greater exploration and travel across urban boundaries both perceived, imagined and geographical.

I love it when a brand can relevantly invest such a property that can be leveraged into an experiential or retail product.  Sadly, sometimes these things seem so desperate for a business model the old slap on some ads and coupons approach quickly devalues deeper value and meaning.  The last thing brands need new technology for is to erode pricing power by offering coupons.  New technology is relevant and meaningful when it adds value to a brand/product, makes you want it more, use it more, love it more or evangelize it more.

Or something like that.  Time to go play some games...

Media to Love

One of the best parts of working in the "agency" world is you get to look at the whole world of media opportunistically.  An integrated swarming mass of interestingness. You are unbiasedly drawn to areas of innovation and effectiveness, regardless who brings them to you, while intertwining it with something old but effective hopefully trying to use an old medium in new ways.  There are some amazing things going on right now. 

Below, in no particular order is a list of things that really caught my eye.  With a bit of bias to stuff happening in my backyard. They may not be the latest and greatest but each used technology in new ways an a meaningful scale and is being used by normal people outside the marketing or tech world (sorry FourSquare.),

Twelp Force
Just as you prefer a human over a phone tree, online it's nice to connect with a human rather than be directed to a FAQ page.  LOVE this one.

Monocle
Firslty, it's a magazine, that's a fashion brand, that's a podcast, that's a FT column that's a retail shop.  Seamless multi-media integration.  Extraordinary clean and throughout design values.  Plus a club like feel between editorial recommendations and relevant advertisers.

The Guardian
Firstly, most newspapers remain operationally profitable.  Secondly, they have been risk taking digitally for years.  The Guardian has been brilliantly of late for many well talked about reasons, and their editor acknowledges the last thing they should be is a newspaper.

The Peak
Radio, no matter the efficiencies of mono-content by a leviathan owner, is ultimately a local medium.  This Vancouver rock station is serving as an music incubator taking 20 unsigned upcoming bands to develop, foster and launch.   The creation of music is the trans-media content.

Politico
Another transmedia media entity, what's not to love about these.  Politico was founder by former Washington DC heaveyweights.  It's timely, informed and fair in it reportage.  Real fair, not Fox fair. A window into the insiders world of politics accessible to anyone that uses whatever medium is best for telling a given story.

Fiat Eco Drive
This is a branded utility, social content, product design, and baked in marketing device at its finest.  Gorgeous.

Six Beers of Seperation
A simple premise - find your dream in 6 beers - well told through good storyline and strong production values. 

Vancouver Sun - SCAN Sports Page
Developed by our local daily and crowd source news innovator Now Public, sports buzz incorporates real time online activity with sprots coverage.

Kindle
Proves digital screens don't have to be garish and can be readible for hours by taking cues from 100's of years of experience from paper.  When this goes poster size with real time feed, outdoor advertising might regain some dignity.

Lululemon
A yoga brand with deep community roots building deep loyalty throughout North America.  While the little advertising they do is rather hokey, passionate ambassadors and knowledgeable loyal staff who live the yoga lifestyle are it's marketing.  The design lab / retail store finally brings the retail experience up to what a brand this meaningful deserves.

Gap - Born To Fit
Need to rebrand.  Start with the product.  Jump feet in to the social world by using Facebook as your platform for a campaign site, or whatever we want to call a microsite this week.

Newspaper Club
Like radio's benefit of being local, newspaper's benefit is that it's well printed on newsprint.  Horrendously cheap, portable, designable and loved. 

AdHack
Crowdsourced advertising really excites me.  Not so much as a way to develop more scripts for TV ads but to attract people from diverse backgrounds to come up with a completely different way of advertising we've never imagined or model to manage the tremendous complexity of the trans-media world.

Digital Languages

I hold a world of respect for companies like Microsoft, Nokia and HP.  The work coming out of their labs is phenomenal.  Like prototype cars (at least 20years ago) it takes a while for the costs of economies of scale and manufacturing processes to catch up to what can be conceived.

This demo video from Microsoft demonstrates some interesting possibilities.

<p>&lt;a href=&quot;http://video.msn.com/?mkt=en-GB&amp;playlist=videoByUuids:uuids:a517b260-bb6b-48b9-87ac-8e2743a28ec5&amp;showPlaylist=true&amp;from=shared&quot; target=&quot;_new&quot; title=&quot;Future Vision Montage&quot;&gt;Video: Future Vision Montage&lt;/a&gt;</p>

This starts to raise some fascinating questions around communications:

1. What happens when every surface is digital?
2. Every surface can receive input?
3. Screens can be transparent.
4. The cost of making screens thin, flexible and scalable is nominal?
5. Our languages, ie the way we interact with the world, becomes more touch based and intuitive?  Do verbal/written language barriers fall?

Who knows.

But what does fascinating me even more is that the person I discovered this from is the managing editor of the major daily here in Vancouver, if someone with 500,000 stubbornly resilient readers is paying attention I look forward to seeing what they do with it.

Mediums Are Consumed Complimentary

Duh!