We look at websites all day long. After all, our software powers some of the biggest and best local media sites in the country. Those websites and mobile sites communicate vital information to their users 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. As a marketer, I am always assessing communications – what makes it work, or why doesn’t it work. It’s a great way to problem solve. 

It is not often that we get to see the uphill climb that is an attempt to reroute a legacy organization on a new path to prosperity. Sure, there are many turnarounds, organizations that have seen the market shift on them, seen it zig when they zag, but what is happening in the media space, particularly the local media space, is truly fascinating. The challenges facing local media organizations such as newspapers and television stations have been well-chronicled. Their legacy business models have been tested, to put it mildly. Several newspapers have unfortunately failed that test and some are watching the timer count down towards zero.

“The Speed of Trust” by Stephen M.R. Covey is one of the most important books for CEOs and business leaders. I have read it a couple of times and am still finding new things to think about.

Among the many topics of conversation in our office at Internet Broadcasting is “what does the future of news consumption look like?” Todd Carter, our chief technology officer, has argued for some time now that streams are becoming the preferred method of digital content consumption. With the astonishing growth rates of Twitter and Facebook, not to mention the dozens of other services that use a stream model of content display, it is becoming increasingly harder to argue against streams, or "rivers," as the future.

Among the most meaningful discussions taking place in the digital media world this year has been the ongoing conversation about whether it is possible to measure journalism by its impact. I first became aware of this discussion through a post by Aron Pilhofer of the New York Times. Pilhofer’s post teases a Knight Mozilla fellowship and opens a Pandora’s box of ideas related to measuring journalism by its impact. The argument centers on the thoughts synthesized by Greg Linch at The Washington Post on his blog, The Linchpen. If you read the thread of posts you will see why I say synthesized. The entire topic revolves around the idea that digital publishing affords us many measurements related to the output of journalists (pageviews, time on site, pages/visit, etc.) but that these measurements are not the best ways to assess what journalists or media organizations do each day.