Newspapers become irrelevant and media is reborn by 2022

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On Thursday I am giving the closing keynote at Newspaper Publishers Association Future Forum conference in Sydney. I gave a sneak preview of some of what I will be covering, leading to a wide variety of coverage including in The Australian, by Roy Greenslade in The Guardian, on The Inquisitr, and on Mumbrella (including a rich discussion). I will also be doing some interviews on ABC radio tonight and tomorrow.

Below are my pre-talk primer notes – more detail coming in a bit:

• By 2022 newspapers as we know them will be irrelevant in Australia. However the leading newspaper publishers of today may have transformed themselves to thrive in what will be a flourishing media industry.

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Seeking exceptional senior researcher/ writer for high-profile report on crowdsourcing

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writer_large.jpgWe have just posted an ad over at CrowdsourcingResults for a senior researcher/ writer for a forthcoming report on crowdsourcing we are doing. I’ve posted the ad below as well – please pass on word if you can think of anyone who’s perfect for this.

Seeking exceptional senior researcher/ writer for report on crowdsourcing

Advanced Human Technologies is publishing a highly practical report to help people use crowdsourcing tools well. We are looking for a Senior Writer/ Researcher to work on this project, and can offer good payment and rewards.

We are also in the early stages of working on a number of other reports on topics including social media strategy, iPad media strategy, media channels for marketing etc., so do let us know if you have interest and world-class expertise in these topics.

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Culture jamming is where it’s at: morphing the news into a Billboard hit single

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At the turn of the decade I selected Culture Jamming as one of the top 10 trends of the 2010s.

We have a fantastic example of that in the Auto-Tune the News series from members of the Gregory Brothers band. These take actual TV news coverage and use auto-tune to create songs.

The latest song in the series, Bed Intruder (below) has hit #25 on the iTunes top sellers, and solely on that basis (since that is the only way the song is distributed) it is now ranked as number 89 on the Billboard Hot 100.

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Key trends in media and communications usage

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Ofcom, UK’s communications regulator, annually produces what is the most detailed study of the local communications marketplace available anywhere in the world. Every year it provides deep insights into many aspects of media and communications usage and the state of the industry, and Communications Market Report 2010 is another gem.

Depending on your interests different data will come out – here are some of the results I found interesting. All charts are from the Ofcom report.

Ofcom10_simultaneous.jpg

The results that have received the most attention is the multi-tasking in media usage. Everyone multi-tasks, but younger people more, to the point of 29% of media usage being concurrent in 16-24 year olds. Back in our Future of Media Report 2006 we described how simultaneous use of media would drive future media consumption.

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Infographic: iPad sales fly way beyond expectations

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Here is the first of a series of infographics we are creating on the iPad and media. It shows the growth in sales of the iPad, including actual sales figures announced by Apple and forecasts by a variety of players for the end of this calendar year.

Click on the image to see at full size

It is interesting to look at the forecasts made before the launch of iPad for September 30 (Apple’s end of financial year). No-one had any idea how successful the iPad has turned out to be. Given continued shortages in the stores, it appears clear that any forecasts for sales this year need will be driven by supply capacity rather than demand.

While some believe these high initial sales are just early adopters and Apple fanboys (and girls), I think the higher range of forecasts for this year and beyond (some as high as 35 million for next year) are likely.

[NOTE:] Our iPad Strategy Workshop on 27 August in Sydney is now at 75 registrations and will almost certainly sell out, so register soon if you want to come!

iPad swiftly becomes the dominant medium for reading and entertainment

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Very interesting results out from a survey by Cooper Murphy Webb of British iPad users:

ipadreading.png

Source: Cooper Murphy Webb

The study of 1034 iPad users in the UK showed that 31% prefer reading magazines and newspapers on their iPad, followed by 26% on their laptop/ computer and 24% on print.

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The 12 key elements of iPad media strategy

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iPadmedia.jpgOn August 27 in Sydney The Insight Exchange is running an iPad Strategy Workshop as part of the Newspaper Publishers Association Future Forum conference. It is free for PANPA members and very inexpensive for others, including discounts for members of industry partners, so if you’re in Sydney I hope to see you there. See here for full details and registration.

It will be highly compressed event, packing much content, action and participation into two hours. One of the highlights will be the panel discussion with a group which has extensive experience and insights to share, including:

Keith Ahern, CEO, mogeneration

Grant Holloway, Managing Editor – Online, The Australian

Warren Lee, Group Director – Content Strategy & Integration, APN

Jan Razeb, CEO, Hungry Mobile (Czech Republic)

Abigail Thomas, Head of Strategic Development, ABC

Content partner for the event is Future Exploration Network, which is currently preparing a website and report on iPad and media. We are still developing the strategy frameworks, but I thought it would be worth sharing some of the high-level strategic issues we think are important, and will be raised at the iPad workshop (to the extent we can in the time available!).

iPad in the distribution mix. As some have pointed out, iPad can not be looked at in isolation. It is one of an increasing number of channels for content distribution and revenue generation. Strategies need to examine not only relative characteristics of the available channels, but how they complement each other and afford economies of scale or reach. In particular, the iPad is just the vanguard of a coming cornucopia of tablets and other media-friendly mobile devices.

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Thoughts on the future of workplace communication

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Earlier today I spoke on a live webcast on the Future of Workplace Communication as part of Viocorp’s Future Forum series.

I took notes during the panel session and posted these live on my blog right after the event. I took notes while the other panellists were speaking: Nicky Wakefield, head of human capital at Deloitte, Philip Cronin, general manager of Intel Australia, and Oscar Trimboli, head of the information workers group at Microsoft.

I wasn’t able to take notes while I was speaking myself, so having had a look at the panel discussion which is now archived and can be viewed at the Viocorp site (requires registration), I’ve written out some of what I said during the discussion.

10:50 – 14:00

Workplace is not a good term to refer to the future – people will be working from anywhere so workplaces will have less impact than they have today. In the bigger context we also have to question whether organizations as we know them today will exist. Transaction costs are going down, meaning that moving forward, organizations will have to justify why they exist. There will be many business models bringing together loosely coupled talent and processes.

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The Future of Workplace Communications – Live notes from Future Forum webcast

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I am at The Future of Workplace Communications webcast, which is an hour-long discussion broadcast as live video as part of Viocorp’s Future Forum series. (Archived event now available)

The four panellists are Oscar Trimboli, head of the Information Workers group at Microsoft, Nicky Wakefield who runs the Human Capital practice of Deloitte Australia, Phil Cronin, General Manager of Intel Australia, and myself.

I am just taking notes through the event – on the fly so they probably include misquotes. I also won’t be able to record what I say, so I’ll do a separate post later with my thoughts.

[UPDATE:] Here are the thoughts I shared on future of workplace communication

NICKY: It’s about solving the war for talent. Difficult to get talent. We have found a strong correlation between use of Yammer and staff retention. Deloitte Australia is world’s largest user of Yammer, with over half of 4,600 employees using it, having sent over 24,000 messages. Use quickly shifted from social use to business applications. People are looking to communicate with each other and the organization. Workplace communications is a key part of the answer.

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“iPad Strategy”: incredibly limiting or a useful frame?

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I recently tweeted to announce The Insight Exchange’s iPad Strategy Workshop, which will be held as part of the Newspaper Publisher’s Assocation Future Forum in Sydney on August 27.

I was a bit surprised by the response, firstly from @trib who said:

@rossdawson seriously, Ross, *iPad strategy*? Isn’t that incredibly limiting and the sign of some bandwagon-induced narrow thinking?

with @renailemay supporting @trib and @abroadabroadeh separately writing:

@rossdawson cmon Ross – ” iPad strategy” ? Please! It’s a tool it should be part of a strategy – talk about shiny object syndrome

…followed by a bit of to-and-fro between us all on how iPad is only one element of media distribution.

It’s a fair point. As a media organization, anything you do on the iPad has to be considered within the complete context.

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