Media Companies Must Divide To Conquer

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The following essay is also

my Forbes.com column for August.

Media Companies Must Divide To Conquer

The media is something that for most, if not all, of our adult lives, we have taken for granted. Media giants form the terra firma of the marketing industry, both its paid and earned disciplines. They provide the lifeblood of services and bring us the audiences we need to do our jobs.

However, underneath it all, the harsh reality is that there's a new digital dynamic present today. This will mean that many media companies divide themselves into dozens of smaller independent operating companies if they wish to survive. Many won't.

First, there is some good news.

Over the last few years, to their credit, traditional media outlets have done an outstanding job adapting to new technologies, including social networks, mobile and tablets--and helping marketers do the same. Rather than see Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, the iPad, et al, as threats, most media companies have embraced them as potentially lucrative revenue opportunities. And they've innovated too.

Nevertheless, the media business, as anyone who is in it will tell you, is still reeling in pain. To paraphrase NBC head Jeff Zucker, analog dollars are not being replaced quickly enough by digital pennies.

There are at least three currents contributing to the pain.

First, there's the sheer ballooning of information. According to TechCrunch,Google CEO Eric Schmidt recently said that every two days we create as much information as we did from the dawn of civilization until 2003. "The real issue is user-generated content," Schmidt said at the Technomy conference.

Despite Google's best efforts to organize it all, this is one of three new realities that will force us to make choices about what we consume and from whom.

This leads to the second current: time. Despite our Herculean efforts, time and attention remain finite quantities. And, increasingly, we are burrowing deeper into social sites. According to Nielsen, time spent on social networking climbed 43% since 2009. It now accounts for 27% of the time Americans spend online, and is the most popular online activity.

What this means for media companies is that, like it or not, social networks and social information networks are becoming their largest distributors of content, perhaps only second to Google.

Finally, and not least of all, we have mobile. According to Morgan Stanley, in just a few years digital content consumption from mobile devices will surpass the same from PCs. No matter how sophisticated these devices get, the rise of mobile will have a dramatic impact on how our global society interacts with digital information. The devices lend themselves more to pervasive media snacking over meals.

The upshot of all of this is that the era of one-size-fits-all media is coming to an end. Faced with infinite choices (and competition from people we know), finite time and attention and form factors that favor short over long, consumers are going to--as a coping mechanism--increasingly drill to find sources that align with their worldview and interests, and let the rest float by.

Media analyst Ken Doctor, in his outstanding book Newsonomics, makes a strong case that there will be only a dozen major global news players. This is down dramatically from the hundreds we have today. Given the above trends, the rest many not make it. But I am optimistic that they can if they see the light now.

To survive many media companies will need to divide themselves into dozens of smaller, independent units if they wish to survive. Although few will say so publicly, some are already moving in a direction of verticalization and specialization.

Consider, for example, ESPN. The juggernaut of sports news has been aggressively rolling out a network of local-interest sites, like ESPNNewYork.com and ESPNLosAgeles.com, in order to cater to rich sports towns. Now it's in the process of adding similar mobile apps to the mix.

This approach is smart. It slices and dices content into micro chunks that cater to diverse interests, rather than trying to be one size fits all. Granted, ESPN itself remains a whole, but others may not be as lucky.

Just as Ma Bell divided itself up into dozens of baby bells back in the 1980s - and arguably to the benefit of consumers and the telecommunications industry - many media companies will need to do the same to cope with the new digital dynamic.

Let's hope that they are just as open to structural change and verticalization as they have been to embracing new formats.

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LasercutChristmas classroom project in development

horseOrnaments.jpg

This year, I'm creating a new high school engineering program at Pembroke High School. As far as tools go, we've got three computer-controlled machines: Roland vinyl cutter, an Epilog laser cutter, and a MakerBot 3D printer.

These ornaments are from the laser cutter. I started with a picture of a horse, since my daughter is really into riding. Then I modified the picture a bit with Gimp and used CutStudio, the software that ships with the vinyl cutter, to trace the lines of contrast. I've also used this image to form the basis of a makerbotted cookie cutter, but that's another project altogether.

The original idea for this technique came from the work of several of my students in the Fashioning Tech class. Sam and Brooke were cutting images that they found online, and saw that the heavy black lines made image contours, which cut as a continuous line. What they saw as a horrible mistake, I thought looked really neat, and suggested they carefully glue the image outline to a backing sheet. They were hand cutting the background sheet, but it looks much more polished if they use the laser to cut the outline shape.

Read the Full Story » | More on MAKE » | Comments » | Read more articles in 3D printing | Digg this!

Source: http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/12/lasercutchristmas_classroom_project.html

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ruudh commented on pixhawk's blog post 'QGroundControl v0.8 Preview Binaries - New Features'

ruudh commented on pixhawk's blog post 'QGroundControl v0.8 Preview Binaries - New Features'
The Mac version gives this error message: Process: qgroundcontrol [21948] Path: /Applications/qgroundcontrol.app/Contents/MacOS/qgroundcontrol Identifier: com.yourcompany.qgroundcontrol Version: ??? (???) Code Type: X86 (Native) Parent Process: lau?

Source: https://diydrones.com/xn/detail/705844:Comment:245019?xg_source=activity

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In the Maker Shed: Monochron clock kit

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The Monochron clock kit from the Maker Shed is a completely hackable, open source, clock kit that has a funky retro feel. It can be programmed to display several different clock "faces" or you can program you own. The kit comes complete with all electronics (soldering required), laser cut case, and power plug.

From Make: Projects

Build a Monochron clock kit

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Source: http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/12/in_the_maker_shed_monochron_clock_k_1.html

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Limbo drops to $10 on Xbox Live today

Act before the strike of midnight tonight, and you'll be able to get a copy of Limbo for 800 Microsoft Points ($10) -- a 33% discount from its original price. Nothing says "happy new year" like running away from a menacing giant spider, while having a slug eating away at your brains.

We'd like to think it's in celebration of its esteemed position on the Joystiq Top 10 of 2010 list, but apparently it's just part of Microsoft's "Countdown to 2011" promotion. That means in addition to Limbo, you can download the Kick-Ass movie for 29% off. Like peanut butter and pickles, this pairing makes so much sense.

JoystiqLimbo drops to $10 on Xbox Live today originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 31 Dec 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.joystiq.com/2010/12/31/limbo-drops-to-10-on-xbox-live-today/

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Editors' Picks: Best of 1UP 2010

Feature

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Editors' Picks: Best of 1UP 2010

We select some of our favorite stories and videos from 1UP this year.

By: 1UP Staff

We published a lot of great content on 1UP in 2010, more than we could possibly remember. A lot of it is timeless and deserves a second look, but often gets lost in the shuffle of new stuff.

Source: http://www.1up.com/do/feature?cId=3182894

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Nice drawings of the Arduino UNO and Mega 2560


Arduino Uno Drawing 500X351

Arduino Mega Drawing 500X272

Layne writes -

If you?re looking to make your own shield for the Arduino platform, you?ll definitely need to know where all the pins and holes are located on the Arduino. After doing a quick search, I was unable to find an accurate technical drawing of the new Arduino UNO and Arduino Mega 2560. Using the PCB design files available at the Arduino hardware website, I created a detailed technical drawing of both the Uno and Mega 2560. The drawings are available in vector-based SVG format, but low-resolution PNG files are shown...
Read the Full Story » | More on MAKE » | Comments » | Read more articles in Arduino | Digg this!

Source: http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/12/nice_drawings_of_the_arduino_uno_an.html

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Square Enix trademarks 'Final Fantasy Type-0' in Europe

Guys, you're not going to believe this: it looks like Square Enix has another Final Fantasy game on the way. Or at least another Final Fantasy something. Square Enix filed a European trademark (number 009631144) for "Final Fantasy Type-0," covering everything from "Computer game software" to "toy swords."

A video game seems like a safe guess, being the primary format for Final Fantasy media, but Square Enix did just start an online manga shop. Siliconera also found a filing for the above logo, featuring "Type zero" in Japanese kanji. Yes, it's Type "zero" and not "o," dashing that joke we wanted to make about a Type O Negative role playing game.

JoystiqSquare Enix trademarks 'Final Fantasy Type-0' in Europe originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 30 Dec 2010 10:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.joystiq.com/2010/12/30/square-enix-trademarks-final-fantasy-type-0-in-europe/

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