Multimedia and more

I had a great conversation over lunch today with Paul Grabowicz, the director of new media at the graduate school of journalism, UC Berkeley. We talked about why media organizations simply cannot demand a premium for their online ads, no matter how many unique viewers come to their sites. Our conclusion, among the vast amount of possible reasons, was that the market is simply too saturated with possible ad venues.

Think about it: In the 80s and earlier, if you wanted to advertise your business, what were your options, really? Well, there were billboards and store signage, but the reality is you probably would have gone with newspapers, magazines or TV.

These days you can advertise just about anywhere. They are selling ads on airplanes, at the gas pump, and pretty soon your cell phone. (more on that later) The truth is the news media was too slow to adopt the Internet, so other companies sailed that ship first.

Really, it should have been a news organization that became the next eBay, craigslist, youTube or FaceBook. Now they are scrambling to catch up. But there is hope, and it’s emerging sooner than people think.

In two weeks a major cell phone manufacture will release a Software Development Kit (SDK) that will teach developers how to write programs for its handheld device. I speak of course about the iPhone. Not that software for cellphones is anything new. But this time the world is paying attention. Very soon the handheld market will explode. Already cellphones are a huge part of the lives of young people, and the capability of these devices to view Web sites is proliferating. For once, the journalism industry can look to the horizon and see the next big thing.

I once heard a talk at a journalism conference where a professor said the main advantage the newspaper has over the Internet was that he can fold it up, take it on the train, or take it to the bathroom. Well, it appears that issue is about to be solved. Will news companies sit idly by and watch this new technology emerge without their participation?

Already, the iPhone has a Web SDK and very few news organization are taking advantage of it. In fact, CBS news is the only news site that has offered an iPhone-specific version. And I can tell you this much: Just about every iPhone user knows about it because they are the only ones doing it. So far there are 5 million iPhone users — not a relatively large number. But the idea is right on. Be an early adopter and people will come to you first.

The NY Times could be building an iPhone news reader. Or maybe a program that would allow you to buy books from their best seller list. Already Apple has given advanced copies of its SDK to a photo company which will automatically print photos you take with your iPhone and send them to you. There are possibilities out there for this one. Is the news industry going to let this one pass by?

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