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NJPA Notes
August 31, 2010 Happy Labor Day!
September 2 This
week:
September 23 RSVP
deadline is Sept. 14 For more information about our events and webinars, go to NJPA Events
Join NJ-SPJ’s Celebration of its 50th
Anniversary
The New Jersey Society of Professional Journalists invites members and friends to celebrate 50 years of professional camaraderie with food, booze and great conversation, including words of wisdom from past presidents. Tuesday, September 14 RSVP: David M. Levitt at dlevitt@bloomberg.net or dml125@verizon.net. Those who plan to take a bus or train can arrange to be picked up at the station by contacting David Levitt at dlevitt@bloomberg.net or dml125@verizon.net.
‘Asbury Park Press’ Names Three Editors to
New Posts The Asbury Park Press in Neptune, N.J., has
named three of its editors to new posts. For the article: http://www.editorandpublisher.com/Headlines/asbury-park-press-names-three-editors-to-new-posts-62382-.aspx
Former Star-Ledger Editorial Chief Neal
Cocchia Dies at 93 Born in Newark to a family of nine children, Neal Cocchia dropped out of Central High School when he was 15 to work as a copy boy for the Newark Sunday Call. Over the next six decades, he rose to the top of his field, becoming chief of the editorial section of The Star-Ledger before retiring in 1995. Cocchia died late Thursday after a brief illness. He was 93. Though he started as a copy boy, Cocchia soon became a reporter, covering Newark public schools and writing feature stories for the Sunday Call, a paper partly owned by the owners of the now-defunct Newark Evening News. Cocchia joined The Star-Ledger in 1939, when two of the city’s ailing papers, the Ledger and the Star-Eagle, were merged. He first achieved prominence covering Newark City Hall. It was there he met his wife, now retired Superior Court Judge Frances (Ciccolini) Cocchia. At the time, she worked for the city’s Central Planning Board in offices next to the press room. They were married for 59 years. After City Hall, Cocchia returned to the
newspaper’s main office as an editorial writer, and then editorial page editor.
He retired in 1995 and moved from Newark to Roseland. In addition to his wife, Cocchia survivors include two sisters-in-law, Dolores Cicenia of Roseland and Janet Ciccolini of Verona, and their husbands, James Cicenia and Robert Ciccolini, brother-in-law Robert Ciccolini and his wife, Marguerite, of Newark, and many nieces and nephews. The funeral Mass was on August 30 at Our Lady of Blessed Sacrament in Roseland. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital of Memphis, Tenn. For the rest of the obituary: http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2010/08/star-ledger_editorial_chief_ne.html
Philly Newspapers Guild Agrees to Pay Cuts The company formerly known as Philadelphia
Newspapers just moved one step closer to a fresh start. For another article on this topic:
Newspaper Drivers Reject Tentative Contract The drivers who deliver The Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News voted overwhelmingly Sunday to reject a tentative contract agreement reached between their union, Teamsters Local 628, and Philadelphia Media Network, the newspapers’ new owner. The no vote – 182-3 – was a setback for Philadelphia Media Network, which is trying to reach contract agreements with 14 unions by Tuesday. That is the date that had been scheduled to bring the company out of bankruptcy and complete the sale of The Inquirer, the Daily News, and the website Philly.com. … The new owner has declined to say what it will do if contracts are not completed by the deadline. It has the right to walk away from the sale if contracts with the unions are not settled. John Laigaie, president of Local 628, said he thought the drivers were most concerned about the new owners’ intention to no longer fund all union pension plans. … The drivers were one of two unions to reject contract offers over the weekend. The machinists, who represent about 44 employees, voted no to their contract offer Saturday. … Unions representing the pressmen, paper handlers, and operating engineers are to vote Monday. For the rest of the article: http://www.philly.com/philly/news/local/20100830_Newspaper_drivers_reject_tentative_contract.html
Journal Register Co. CEO Paton Named to NAA
Board Journal Register Co. CEO John Paton has
been appointed to the board of director of the Newspaper Association of America,
Mark G. Contreras, NAA’s chairman and senior vice president/newspapers of The
E.W. Scripps Co. announced Wednesday. For the article: http://www.editorandpublisher.com/Departments/Business/journal-register-co-ceo-paton-named-to-naa-board-62402-.aspx
‘Radical’ Shakeup at ‘USA Today’ as Print
Takes Back Seat to Mobile; 130 More Layoffs Seen USA Today launched a major restructuring of The
Nation’s Newspaper Friday as it broke apart its newsroom management and staff
with the goal of becoming a mobile-first organization. For the rest of the article: http://www.editorandpublisher.com/Departments/Business/%E2%80%98radical%E2%80%99-shakeup-at-%E2%80%98usa-today%E2%80%99-as-print-takes-back-seat-to-mobile-130-more-layoffs-seen-62428-.aspx
Not on His Watch, USA Today Founder Says Allen H. Neuharth, 86, the former Gannett executive who founded USA Today nearly 30 years ago, had some tart words for the people now in charge of his beloved paper. When USA Today wrapped its front section in an advertisement for a Jeep last month, obscuring the entire front page, Mr. Neuharth fired off an angry letter to the paper’s publisher, David L. Hunke. He called it “the low point in any decision any USA Today publisher has ever made.” For the rest of the article and Neuharth’s letter: http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/30/not-on-his-watch-usa-today-founder-says/?nl=business&emc=atb3
AbitibiBowater Gets Good News in Ottawa and
Wilmington U.S. bankruptcy court in Delaware has approved AbitibiBowater’s $1.35 billion financing plan, which the Montreal-based newsprint manufacturing giant expects will enable it to exit bankruptcy in mid-October, about a year-and-a-half after it petitioned for a Chapter 13 reorganization. Reuters reported that Judge Kevin Carey also approved the company’s request to file under seal the fees it will pay to borrow money, in order to protect negotiation of terms for that borrowing – needed to help pay secured, prebankruptcy debt. Earlier this week, the Canadian government reached agreement to pay AbitibiBowater, upon its restructuring, C$130 million (Canadian) for provincial expropriation of its assets in Newfoundland and Labrador. The government called the sum the fair market value of the assets. AbitibiBowater irrevocably withdrew its claim. That claim originally had been for C$500 million under a provision of the North American Free Trade Agreement. NAFTA’s Chapter 11 allows foreign companies to seek compensation from countries where they can demonstrate unfair and discriminatory action by a government. National governments are responsible for state or provincial government action. Although headquartered in Canada, the forest-products company is incorporated in Delaware, and, since its merger with Bowater, has a substantial presence in the United States. Newfoundland took over AbitibiBowater’s timber and water rights and its hydroelectric assets in the province in 2008 in response to a company mill closure that left 800 workers unemployed. For the article: http://www.editorandpublisher.com/Headlines/abitibibowater-gets-good-news-in-ottawa-and-wilmington-62427-.aspx
Traditional Advertising: Why Companies Need
It Back when the first towns were so small that every resident and half the itinerant traders passing through were on a first-name basis, advertising a professional service meant little more than walking into the village pub and introducing yourself to the innkeeper. Chances are, you would have gotten to the next stage – in part because you were the only lawyer, accountant or land surveyor in town. These days few potential buyers will even take a meeting unless you’ve found a way to tell them who you are before you walk in the door. Which means something has to open that door for you. Then and only then can your professionalism, empathy, experience and ability to demonstrate a clear value proposition come into play. That’s why I’m a big believer in advertising. It remains a highly efficient way to say hello and offer a sense of ourselves to potential clients – on a scale we could never achieve in person. For the rest of the article: http://www.forbes.com/2010/08/26/advertising-social-media-old-spice-ibm-commercials-brand-loyalty-cmo-network.html
Seven Reasons Print Will Make a Comeback in
2011 Print can still play an important role in your overall content marketing mix. Okay...there, I said it. “The physical costs of production and distribution are killing. The marketing cost of subscriber acquisition and churn are hellish.” He’s right. And if you are a media company that
relies on most of your revenue for print, you need to post Jeff’s article on
your forehead. 2. The Focus on Customer Retention: In a
soon-to-be-released research study conducted by Junta42 and MarketingProfs,
customer retention was the most important goal for marketers when it came to
content marketing outside of basic brand awareness. Historically, the reason why
custom print magazines and newsletters were developed by brands was for customer
retention purposes. We have a winner! So, let’s say, a publisher’s cost per
subscriber per year is $2 and their distribution is one hundred thousand. That’s
$200,000 per year for audience development. 4. What’s Old Is New Again: Social
media, online content and iPad applications are all part of the marketing mix
today. Still, what excites marketers and media buyers is what IS NOT being done.
They want to do something different...something new. It’s hard to believe, but
I’ve heard many marketers talk about leveraging print as something new in their
marketing mix. Unbelievable. “The web is where we go to get answers but print is where we go to ask questions.” The print vehicle is still the best medium on
the planet for thinking outside the box and asking yourself tough questions
based on what you read. It’s lean back versus lean forward. If you want to
challenge your customers (like Harvard Business Review does), print is a viable
option. 7. Unplug: More and more people are
actively choosing the unplug, or disconnect themselves from digital media. I’m
doing this more myself. I’m finding myself turning off my phone and email more
to engage with printed material. A year ago I didn’t see this coming. Today, I
relish the opportunities when I can’t be reached for comment. … For the rest of the article: http://www.foliomag.com/2010/seven-reasons-print-will-make-comeback-2011
Borrell: Online Ad Spend to Gain 17.5% in
2011 Streaming video advertising will see continued big growth – increasing more than 60% to $5.6 billion next year. The Williamsburg, Va.- based media researcher, Borrell Associates, says one of the keys to this continuing strong growth is less-expensive video tools, which can be used by small advertisers. It says two of every five video ad dollars will come from local advertisers next year, according to one report. Overall, online advertising will continue to outpace the U.S. ad market as a whole. Borrell says local online ad spending will gain 14% in 2011, to $51.9 billion from $45.6 billion this year. Targeted display advertising is expected to see a 60% increase to $10.9 billion overall. U.S. advertising spending will inch up less than 5% in 2011 to $238.6 billion. Just looking at local online spending, Borrell projects a gain in 2011 of 17.5%, to $16.1 billion from $13.7 billion in 2010. It says run-of-site display spending will decline nearly 14% to $8.2 billion next year for both local and national. Local run-of-site ads are estimated to decrease only 3% next year. National paid-search spending will sink 11% – due to lower pricing and churn. On the other hand, local advertisers will increase paid-search revenues by 10%. Email ad revenues will grow 9% to $16.0 billion for national and local advertisers. National email marketers are contributing a major part of this growth. Online couponing will contribute strongly to online promotions, growing 10% of 2010 totals to land $24 billion next year. Online couponing will climb 14% to $9.1 billion in 2011. For the article: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=134276&nid=118011
Groupon Offers Opportunities and Threats for
Newspaper Advertising For years, newspaper industry analysts have argued that the gradual switch of advertising dollars to direct marketing, much of it digital, could be the toughest challenge facing an eroding business model. Suddenly, in August 2010, that abstraction has a name and a face – Groupon and its youthful, music-major CEO Andrew Mason. The deal-of-the-day startup, less than two years old, had been largely under the radar (except to its 15 million e-mail subscribers worldwide). Now Mason, 29, and his venture are on the current cover of Forbes (“the fastest growing company ever”), and he was a guest recently on the “Today” show. “It’s just huge,” said Gordon Borrell, a leading consultant on local ad and marketing spending, in a phone interview. “You have a smart man, a good idea and it works very well,” he said. “Like Craigslist, it’s just going to take off – and it is already generating big dollars right now.” … Since the crescendo of publicity the last month, Groupon spokesperson Julie Mossler told me by phone, the site has steadily added a million subscribers a week. That volume won’t wipe out the newspaper industry. But $1 million a day is significant compared to industry ad revenues, which I calculate to be about $70 million a day ($90 million if you include weeklies as well as dailies). … Once again, a clever, nontraditional competitor
has grabbed a segment of the market and a digital revenue stream that newspapers
had hoped to capture. For restaurants, salons, cultural activities and others trying to lure new customers, Groupon simply has invented a better marketing mousetrap. The deeply discounted deals (e.g., an $80 massage for $30) expire after a day. The deal only takes effect if a specified numbers of customers buy in. Takers pay up-front. The merchant and Groupon have measurable results immediately and split the proceeds. The only downside is that the business has to serve hundreds or often several thousand takers at a slight loss – but the possibility of upsells or repeat customers more than makes up for that. … How should newspapers react? Join ’em or
imitate ’em In fact, Groupon and its cohorts can potentially be, using ad exec Sir Martin Sorrell’s term for Google, “frenemies” – mainly competitors, but also collaborators. McClatchy announced on July 1 a partnership with Groupon. Beginning in September at the chain’s Sacramento and Kansas City papers (and expanding later to all 28), Groupon will offer a second and different daily deal on McClatchy websites. Groupon officials say they’d like more partnerships with newspapers. The mutual benefit is straightforward. Groupon gets past the limitation of offering just one deal-of-the-day in a given city, a next step in sustaining its growth. McClatchy will get some revenues (though the kitty will be split three ways) and add a traffic builder to its sites as well. Other newspapers – among them the Star Tribune in Minneapolis, The San Diego Union-Tribune, and Morris Communications papers in Athens, Savannah, and Augusta, Ga., and Jacksonville, Fla. – have just started to offer their own versions of a deal-of-the-day. They’re using other vendors, not Groupon. That has two potential advantages. The papers keep a bigger share of the proceeds, and the deals are sold by their own local sales teams, who develop new customer relationships in the process. … The deal-of-the-day category is part threat, part opportunity for newspapers. But once again, the industry is playing catch-up, challenged to move quickly. For the rest of the article: http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=123&aid=189557
Brian Solis: Context, Rather Than Content,
Is King On Thursday Google boosted an attempt to make the Web real time by launching a dedicated engine that locates content on Twitter and Facebook – but social media expert Brian Solis said such efforts could prove futile. Context rather than content has become king – and consumers will find the most valuable engines and social media sites have the ability to index for relevance rather than real time. Traditional search, real-time search and social search remains disconnected from social media, Solis told a packed room at an event Thursday night hosted by Linked OC, an organization for Orange County, Calif. business professionals. And because he and millions of others can’t spend time searching for information in more than three places, the future of search becomes contextual and lives in semantics, matching results not only based on the “likes” of the person searching on the Web, but also those of socially connected friends. Solis, the author of the book “Engage,” explained how social media is more than just a gimmick, but rather a tool to change the experience of customers and people who influence their decisions “That’s transformative. It will change business from the inside out, from the ground up,” he said. … Solis reminded marketers they market to an audience who has an audience who has an audience, who might even have an audience. They connect with individuals they want to know. Perhaps those connections represent something they want to know, respect, trust and adore. This is why marketers must figure out not only how to connect with people crafting their own network, but connect with those whom those folks connect with as well, because most feel a responsibility for passing along content to those who connect with them. Although some may not want to read this, Solis said the landing page will become more important because marketers need a place to shape the experience and introduce a click to action to have something to measure against. The Twitter box represents more than what someone had for lunch. It represents an opportunity to cause measureable action. For the rest of the article: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=134553&nid=118033
ABCi Offers New m.Audit Report In the last couple of months, ABCi announced it is working with both Verve Wireless and Handmark to audit mobile content delivered via the two companies’ platforms. The announcements were predicated on reviews of the Verve and Handmark systems by ABCi auditors to ensure they met the necessary prerequisites to be integrated on ABC and ABCi reports. Now ABCi is announcing a new standalone m.Audit Report that mobile publishers can use to provide advertisers with detailed, audited mobile usage statistics, including:
For the samples of the report and the rest of the article: http://accessabc.wordpress.com/2010/08/25/abci-offers-new-m-audit-report/
Research Brief: According to new research from The Nielsen Company, though Email has long been the king on home computers, it’s shifting quickly to social networking and online gaming. Americans spend 36% of their online time communicating and networking across social networks, blogs, personal email and instant messaging, up from 15.8% just a year ago (43% increase). … Nielsen analyst, Dave Martin, says “Despite the almost unlimited nature of what you can do on the web, 40% of U.S. online time is spent on just three activities: social networking, playing games and emailing, leaving a whole lot of other sectors fighting for a declining share of the online pie.” … For the rest of the article: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=134232&nid=118085
Phila. Bloggers Hit with Business Tax Some bloggers in Philadelphia who run ads on their sites are finding that they owe more in taxes than they are earning in ad dollars, thanks to a little-publicized law requiring anyone engaged in a commercial activity to pay a business privilege tax. The fee is either $50 a year or $300 for a lifetime license, no matter how little revenue is taken in. While the law has been on the books since 1985, the licensing fee has recently drawn media attention – apparently because the city recently sent out tens of thousands of letters to people who owed money as part of an amnesty program. Those amnesty offers were mailed in May and June to anyone who reported self-employment income on Schedule C of a federal tax return, a representative of the city’s tax department tells Online Media Daily. The program – part of a city revenue-raising initiative – allowed people to pay for licenses, and also pay any owed back taxes, without penalties. Although the business privilege tax applies to all entrepreneurs, not just bloggers, it became known this week as the “blogger tax” after the City Paper ran a piece examining bloggers who recently learned that they owed the city money. The author of the environmental blog MS Philly Organic, for instance, told the City Paper that the city sent her a letter in May informing her of the $300 tax, although she has made only $50 total from her site. City records show that 726 information companies paid the business privilege tax between 2004 and 2008. It wasn’t immediately clear how many of the owners of those businesses were bloggers. Philadelphia’s business privilege tax is probably legal provided that it is applied in a non-discriminatory fashion, says David Ardia, director of the Citizen Media Law Project. Nonetheless, he says, the law seems outdated. “One new wrinkle that comes from the fact that we’ve got a cadre of individuals out there performing functions that were previously performed by the press, is that the tax structure that was created around certain assumptions needs to be rethought,” he says. “I don’t think the end result that Philadelphia wants is for all the bloggers to cease their activities, because that’s going to create an information gap.” For the article: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=134313&nid=117968
Cable Loses Ground, TV Numbers Gain and Six
Other Numbers from the Past Week Each week a lot of data gets reported about media, marketing, demographics and consumer trends. We can’t possibly blog about it all, so we have a corresponding Twitter feed (@adagestat) where we curate links that you shouldn’t miss. Here’s a round-up of the biggest numbers from past week: From around the web: U.S. mobile video revenues are expected to reach $1.3 billion by 2014, up from $548 million this year, according to eMarketer. African Americans use twice as many monthly cell phone minutes as whites do, according to Nielsen. From Ad Age: Ad Age released the second in its series of How We Live articles, this one looking at the rise in multigenerational housing. 16.1% of the U.S. population now lives in multigenerational living units, including one in five baby boomers. Those boomers control 80% of the nation’s wealth. 2.5 million grandparents are responsible for the basic needs of grandchildren living with them. Cable TV lost 711,000 subscribers last year, driving the first decrease in pay TV ever. ExactTarget and CoTweet put out a survey naming the top five brands engaging fans on Facebook. Nabisco’s Oreo leads the list. It also includes some general results that marketers and agencies will find useful, including a stat that 75% of U.S. Millennials have a Facebook profile. As China and India continue a push toward urban living and developing cities explode in population in the coming decades, there are huge marketing opportunities. China needs to build out 40 billion square feet of commercial and residential space by 2030, says a great special report in Foreign Policy about mega-cities. That’s 10 times the space in New York City. India needs to build out 14-18 billion square feet. China will have 15 cities with populations of more than 25 million. Europe will still have none. For the article: http://adage.com/adagestat/post?article_id=145633
As Cord-Cutters Increase, Web Access Could
Become Pricier For the first time ever, cord-cutters outnumbered new subscribers to paid television in the second quarter of this year, according to SNL Kagan. Overall, the number of paid-TV subscribers plunged by 216,000 in the quarter, down from a gain of 378,000 last year at this time. Cable saw the biggest drops, with 711,000 defecting subscribers. Satellite providers and telecoms gained subscribers, but not enough to offset the decline in cable households. The reasons seem fairly obvious. As more video has migrated online, people are less inclined to pay for pricey TV subscriptions. Additionally, nearly all TV shows end up on Netflix, enabling people to view ad-free DVDs as often as they like. But the growth of cord-cutting isn’t necessarily good news for all Web users. That’s because cable companies and telecoms will almost certainly want to shift to pay-per-byte billing systems, in hopes of recapturing TV-subscription revenue. Should Internet service providers institute pay-per-byte billing, people who consume video online instead of via cable subscriptions will probably pay more than they currently do, but so will people who use bandwidth for other purposes, such as uploading videos they’ve created. And, while net neutrality rules could prevent ISPs from discriminating against particular types of content or applications, no laws currently would stop cable companies and telecoms from changing their pricing plans to discourage online video watching. For the article: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=134422
Fake-Profile Bill Could Squelch Parodists In what appears to be an effort to tackle online harassment, the California legislature has passed a bill that makes it illegal to impersonate someone else on the Web. The problem is, the measure also could ensnare people who create parodies or otherwise mock corporations online. Specifically, the statute, now awaiting signature by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, outlaws the use of the Web or other electronic means to impersonate an “actual person,” if the purpose is to harm, intimidate, threaten or defraud another. People who violate the statute can face up to one year in jail as well as liability in civil lawsuits. The law would obviously apply when people create fake profiles to intentionally hurt private individuals – as happened when the ex-boyfriend of Cecelia Barnes posted a phony dating profile of her on Yahoo, complete with her phone number, address and nude photos. (Notably, however, the measure wouldn’t apply when people create fake fictional profiles as happened in the Megan Meier tragedy. In that case, 13-year-old Megan killed herself after receiving a hurtful message from other teens who had created a phony profile of a boy, “Josh,” who didn’t actually exist.) But the bill also appears to apply to people who create online parodies of large corporations – as occurred recently when the Yes Men created a fake U.S. Chamber of Commerce Web site. Even though the language of the law refers to an “actual person,” in California a corporation can be considered a person, says Corynne McSherry, a lawyer with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which opposes the bill. And, while criminal prosecutors aren’t likely to rush into court against online parodists, individuals who are the target of such sites might be all too happy to have additional leverage against the creators. “People who are made fun of often don’t have a sense of humor about it, and are all too willing to take advantage of any recourse they have,” McSherry says. Of course, even if the law is signed, the First Amendment still would protect parodists and others who create fake sites to criticize companies. Still, few people want to be dragged into a time-consuming – and potentially expensive – courtroom battle about whether their Web posts are lawful. For the article: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=134297
‘Chief Listeners’ Use Technology to Track,
Sort Company Mentions The role of a “chief listener” evokes images of fuzzy sweaters, chamomile tea and sitting around with a patient ear. Instead, try sifting through unstructured data and building complex queries. “We get about 300,000 new mentions of Kodak every month and we don’t censor the comments or videos people create about our company,” said Beth LaPierre, Kodak’s chief listening officer, a role that’s just starting to crop up in a few major marketing organizations and involves decidedly non-touchy-feely tasks. “I’ve spent the past five months defining how we handle those data via technology and tools.” The big task? Data mining – and figuring out who needs the information. “What kind of information does our marketing team need vs. our product team?” Ms. LaPierre said. “How do we classify the data? What is the process for handling ‘ABC’ information vs. ‘XYZ’ information?” For example, she sends commentary about features and product requests to a product development team and so forth. Her counterpart at Dell, Chief Listener Susan Beebe, describes her job, which she started in July, as building “complex queries.” “There is a data-analysis research role to this job, and I have a very technical background,” Ms. Beebe said. Dell has thousands of new mentions per day and the CLO’s job is one of “broad listening” – as Dell has such a deep penetration globally in so many different markets. Unlike many social-media jobs, this position is very inward-facing. She’s listening to Dell customers and consumers and giving all the intel to her Dell colleagues internally. “Our chief listener is critical to making sure the right people in the organization are aware of what the conversations on the web are saying about us, so that relevant people in the business can connect with customers,” said Richard Binhammer, communications executive at Dell. Mr. Binhammer points out that “Dell has been listening for four years and created a position called ‘Listening Czar’ two years ago. We are a leader in the listening space.” Ms. Beebe and Ms. LaPierre said their companies were driving innovation through customer feedback. In a world where marketing managers are eager to get their perspective across, the idea of hearing the consumer is often more foreign than it should be. For the rest of the article: http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=145618
Digital Devices Deprive Brain of Needed
Downtime It’s 1 p.m. on a Thursday and Dianne Bates, 40, juggles three screens. She listens to a few songs on her iPod, then taps out a quick e-mail on her iPhone and turns her attention to the high-definition television. Just another day at the gym. As Ms. Bates multitasks, she is also churning her legs in fast loops on an elliptical machine in a downtown fitness center. She is in good company. In gyms and elsewhere, people use phones and other electronic devices to get work done – and as a reliable antidote to boredom. Cellphones, which in the last few years have become full-fledged computers with high-speed Internet connections, let people relieve the tedium of exercising, the grocery store line, stoplights or lulls in the dinner conversation. The technology makes the tiniest windows of time entertaining, and potentially productive. But scientists point to an unanticipated side effect: when people keep their brains busy with digital input, they are forfeiting downtime that could allow them to better learn and remember information, or come up with new ideas. Ms. Bates, for example, might be clearer-headed if she went for a run outside, away from her devices, research suggests. … At the University of Michigan, a study found that people learned significantly better after a walk in nature than after a walk in a dense urban environment, suggesting that processing a barrage of information leaves people fatigued. Even though people feel entertained, even relaxed, when they multitask while exercising, or pass a moment at the bus stop by catching a quick video clip, they might be taxing their brains, scientists say. “People think they’re refreshing themselves, but they’re fatiguing themselves,” said Marc Berman, a University of Michigan neuroscientist. … For many such people, the little digital asides come on top of heavy use of computers during the day. Take Ms. Bates, the exercising multitasker at the expansive Bakar Fitness and Recreation Center. She wakes up and peeks at her iPhone before she gets out of bed. At her job in advertising, she spends all day in front of her laptop. But, far from wanting a break from screens when she exercises, she says she couldn’t possibly spend 55 minutes on the elliptical machine without “lots of things to do.” … Some researchers say that whatever downside there is to not resting the brain, it pales in comparison to the benefits technology can bring in motivating people to sweat. “Exercise needs to be part of our lives in the sedentary world we’re immersed in. Anything that helps us move is beneficial,” said John J. Ratey, associate clinical professor of psychiatry at the Harvard Medical School and author of “Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain.” But all things being equal, Mr. Ratey said, he would prefer to see people do their workouts away from their devices: “There is more bang for your buck doing it outside, for your mood and working memory.” For the rest of the article: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/25/technology/25brain.html?src=me&ref=general
The Most Valuable Productivity Tool Ever During my recent vacation, while setting up my Evo smartphone’s WiFi hotspot so I could connect my MacBook to the Internet, I asked myself: “What is my most valuable workplace productivity tool?” It is not my smartphone or laptop. It’s my paper notebook. Why? 1. As I go through my day, it is my small paper notebook that I refer to more than anything. It’s easy to always have by my side. 2. When I need to capture ideas, my notebook is always on and ready. It needs no batteries or charging – or even activation. 3. When I need to review prior recorded thoughts, it never lets me down. The pages never crash and they are easy to thumb through and scan. 4. My notebook enables me to record thoughts faster than can I type them on a keyboard. 5. Unlike any digital device, my notebook enables me to easily complement my textual notes with quick drawings and intensified underlines. 6. My notebook does just one thing – capture ink – and that focus results in great productivity. 7. With my notebook, I can easily rip out a page and leave it behind, or give it to someone else. That tactile nature is more soulful and impacting. 8. My notebook, by definition, requires handwriting. “Writing it down” is a conscious act that results in deeper cognition and memory (at least for me). 9. My notebook archives are more likely to be read by me and made sense of than my own email archives, or other digital message archives. It’s even enjoyable to flip through old notes. 10. Embracing a notebook in a meeting commands attention and suggests focus and importance, while the presence of a digital device suggests distraction and disrespect. 11. I can spill a drink on my notebook and it will look ugly, but it will still dry out and work well. That’s why I often take my notebook to places like the beach or my boat – unlike my smartphone or laptop. 12. A paper notebook model today work equally well 10 years from now – it won’t become outdated. 13. If I want, I can scan my notes into digital archives pretty easily. I love my notebook. For the rest of the article: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=134151 [Max Kalehoff is vice president of marketing for Clickable, an award-winning solution to simplify search & social advertising.] ___________
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