Outsourced newspapers: an option worth considering
If you don’t follow Kirk Lapointe via his RSS feed or on Twitter, you should. Particularly if you are interested in some of the changes and discussions going on behind the scenes in the newspaper business. Your daily newspaper is undergoing major changes and some bright people out there are looking for solutions to aid in an evolution or even revolution to the next phase of dead-tree media.
This article on outsourcing elements of a newspaper may appeal to the “bottom liners” in the corner offices who are looking for strategies to reduce costs to keep up with declining revenues. Keep the journalists and editors in-house and outsource the rest. At first glance my feelings were that they got it backwards. Is a newspaper’s core business publishing (the mechanical process of putting ink on paper and delivering it to subscribers) or journalism? The fundamentals of outsourcing is to move repetitive and mechanical tasks into a mass production environment. And after all, maybe a newspapers core business is journalism.
After reading through related links and articles and the slide-deck from Mindworks Global Media Services it was obvious where the outsourcing of operational tasks come from. As an IT professional and manager for many years I am well acquainted with the O word. Outsourcing bodies doesn’t save money. Outsourcing tasks won’t produce a higher quality product. On the other hand, results based outsourcing has proven to have some success.
The other O word – offshoring – is the final suggestion and ultimate solution in the Mindworks article. After all that’s their business. Task based workers in India performing various repetitive newspaper duties similar to what has been accomplished with IT services and call centres. The corner office might go for this. After all the bottom-line is what’s important. But what about the longer term bottom line? Outsource, yes. Offshore, no.
You’d think by now we’d realize that losing local talent dilutes the value of our local communities. Outsource if you want to, need to, have to. But outsource to the local community. Help develop and grow financial opportunities in the immediate world around you. You know, the folks that subscribe to your paper and buy from your advertisers?
Dean
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Add comment December 5, 2009
Movies from the web – no more trips to the video store
Years ago when we purchased our first video tape deck (BTW it was a Beta) trips to the video store became a weekly routine. I remember spending an hour and sometimes longer browsing through the titles on the shelves looking at blockbusters and the odd and unusual. Then we switched to satellite and pay-for-view movies became our source of entertainment with a trip to the local video store as a backup when the pickings were slim on the satellite feed. Then came online DVD stores – order via the web and the movie is shipped over night right to your door. Now there is a new option – downloading movies (legally of course) from online video stores such as iTunes.
This was how it was explained to me by a fan of iTunes and AppleTV…
“I drive down to Block****** and pick out a DVD. Sometimes they have what I want, sometimes they don’t. I get home and it doesn’t work – it skips, jumps, bad sound or no sound. Take it back to Block****** and trade it for another one. Get home and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. Now with my AppleTV (essentially a computer hooked up to your TV and home theater system) I order up a movie from iTunes and by the time dinner is cooked, the movie is downloaded. No more wasted time driving down to Block******. And when winter turns foul – no more going out when it’s twenty below. No wonder Block****** is going out of business.”
You don’t need an AppleTV since any computer will do the same job as long as it can be hooked up to your TV. iTunes is a free download – runs on a Mac or on Windows. Movies – rent or own, TV shows and even audio books.
Although this might sound like an advertisement for iTunes and AppleTV it isn’t meant to be. We just wanted to share with you alternatives to traditional TV. Alternatives which reflect the changing world of media consumption. The control is now in the hands of the consumer in how, where and what they consume.
Dean
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Add comment December 3, 2009
You might not use the web but they do – know your market
A small business owner mentioned to me that they didn’t think their target market were big on using the web for shopping or research into products or services. They felt that the older demographic that they market to didn’t use the web that much. The “older” group they referred to were the boomers aged 45 to 60. As we chatted it occurred to me that this boomer business owner was not a big web user and was basing their online marketing efforts (or lack of ) on their own experiences and not what their target market was tuned into. That surprised me since they were normally very responsive to the buying public with the choice of products and services they provided.
Rather than inundate them with stats and surveys and online marketing industry white papers, I suggest they ask their customers what they use. Perform your own mini-survey. My suspicion is that this business owner would be surprised at the results. My other advice was to consider meeting the marketing needs of their market by using a mix of old and new media. More and more boomers are using the web but many still tap into more traditional marketing and advertising methods. With a little online activity they might even reach into the Gen X demographic, who could make use of their product or service and expand their business opportunities.
Remember – you might not Facebook or YouTube or Google (or Bing) but they do! They being the folks looking for the products and services you offer!
Dean
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Add comment November 30, 2009
A Better World Canada video – Eric’s Kenya trip
Here is our latest video for A Better World Canada . . .
Dean
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Add comment November 27, 2009
TV studio in your basement – update
We had posted about setting up a TV studio in your basement ala Leo Laporte a few months back and it has received a few hits from folks out there. This past weekend we brought our setup online and broadcast/webcast our first live show for Radio Free Red Deer – independent music from the heart of Alberta.
Here’s the show . . .
Here’s the setup . . .
Cameras: Canon DV camcorder connected via firewire, Samsung 8mm camera connected via USB VidBox convertor;
Lighting: three CFL daylight bulbs in aluminum clamp-on reflectors;
Audio: Shure SM-58 mic, Behringer mixer – connected via USB interface;
Software: Vidblaster video mixer – trial version;
Feed: Ustream.tv
Here’s what we learned . . .
Vidblaster needs a more powerful computer than what we ran it on. It’s a great piece of software but it does get finicky. A quad-core PC or better running in a clean environment (no background processes) would improve the performance. We had a problem with video/audio sync which is directly related to the hardware according to Vidblaster’s support forums. For our next show we will connect directly to Ustream.tv and that should align the audio and video.
Be prepared for anything…equipment failure, mis-cues, etc. After all it’s live and anything can happen.
It’s more fun if you have others to share the workload – and the fun! Multi-tasking can get hectic.
TV (and any video for that matter) is more than audio with pictures. It needs to be visually appealing so lots of graphics and even full motion visuals add to the viewer experience. Watching some guy talk into a mic can get boring. Since this show is all about music I think we can get away with an emphasis on the audio with less visual content.
What’s next . . .
We would like to go on locations and broadcast live bands performing at some of the venues in the area. Once we work out some of the syncing problems this will be our next step.
Broadcasting live events other than music is something else we would like to do. The key requirement is availability of internet bandwidth. Without some form of reliable and consistent high-speed connection live video fails.
We’ll keep you updated on our progress. If you’re out there doing this type of live video via the web, let us know and we’ll feature your show and share your work.
Dean
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Add comment November 25, 2009
