Here is the latest in my series of essays Local Media in a Postmodern World, and it’s a topic I’ve kind of “written around” over the years.

The Cost of Interaction is a simple concept with complex aspects pertaining to web design and content management, but for local media companies to be relevant downstream, we’re going to have to take a serious look at this.

Just as there are costs in doing business, there are costs in being a consumer. Over the years, we’ve witnessed businesses shifting some of their costs to their customers — think self-service gas, fast food, self check-out at the grocery store or telephone answering systems — but online is a different matter, for consumers have choices here than they don’t have in the “real” world. Therefore, pushing customers in this manner online is a dangerous proposition. A high cost of interaction means less value to users and fewer reasons to return. Conversely, the lower the cost of interaction, the easier and more usable the application, and that means a reason to come back.

Here is the latest in my ongoing series of essays, Local Media in a Postmodern World.

The price at the pump is bumping up to the four dollar range, something I’ve not seen in my lifetime. While paying $50 the other day to fill my little car, it occurred to me that we’d best be prepared to pay these prices through the summer, because regardless of what’s causing the pricing, the law of supply and demand is at work. People drive more come Memorial Day, so the demand drives the price.

In this often frustrating world of supply and demand, the pendulum swings one way or the other as the factors influencing price begin to change. These factors can be seasonal, like the price of gas, or they can be determined by other forms of behavior. In the world of online advertising, it has clearly been a buyer’s market, with advertisers determining rates for revenue-hungry media companies.

All of that is about to change.

The Problem With Web Advertising

The views and suggestions expressed in this essay may seem radical, but like other things I’ve written, they’re designed to make you think. Publishers need to take control of the pricing of their web properties, and I believe it will happen sooner than later.

The first volume of this essay series (Reinventing Local Media) is now available in book form and “in stock” at Amazon.com. Get yours today!

Here is the latest essay in my ongoing series of essays, Local Media in a Postmodern World. “It’s Always About the Money” takes another hard look at how trends in advertising and personal media are working around traditional media offerings to choke the money spigot and threaten the business that is mainstream media in our culture. It’s our own fault, because we cannot bring ourselves to actually compete in an arena with which we are unfamiliar.

Google’s announcement last week of a free ad manager for web publishers is just the latest evidence that the drain of ad revenues from local markets will continue to flow to outside pureplay companies. Data from Borrell Associates clearly demonstrates what’s happening, but local media companies are doing nothing to stop it. The Project for Excellence in Journalism’s fifth annual State of the News Media report is due to be released Monday, and it reportedly shows that despite huge growth in audience for legacy media offerings, advertisers aren’t following yet. This essay will help you understand why.

Here is the latest essay for your consideration, The Public Journal.

As traditional media companies struggle to hang onto models that have served us well for a very long time, the forces of change are leading us down a path that’s not quite as foggy as it once was. I wrote about it a few months ago in “News is a Process, Not a Finished Product,” and I continue that theme in this essay with a look at how the “journal” in journalism is shifting from the private to the public. This new journal is the product of many voices, all coming together to serve the information moment. It is sometimes raw and sometimes unedited, but mostly it’s the collaborative work of amateurs and professionals alike.

This concept will challenge your assumptions about media in a way, I hope, that will produce a genuine willingness to explore what I view as a pretty clear path to tomorrow. It’s scary, but in an exciting sort of way. The only question is this: will we wait until somebody else figures it all out, or will we pave the way in our own communities and beat everybody else to the punch?

Here’s the latest essay from my ongoing series of essays Local Media in a Postmodern World.

It’s Not the Same Game

This piece examines changing fundamentals of media in the new world, primarily how mass marketing is increasing problematic when access to the mass is what’s restricted. We’ve all grown up in an industry where value was created by restricting access to content, so what we’re dealing with today is, in many ways, the opposite of what we know.

One important factor to consider when reading my essays is that I don’t approach this stuff as a zero-sum game. New media won’t “replace” the old — at least not for a very long time. Mass marketing will continue, but it would be foolish to assume that it alone — or any variation thereof — can rescue the sagging revenues of local media companies. This is why we must follow a dual path approach, which is the foundational strategic principle of AR&D’s Media 2.0 unit.

Here’s my annual state of things and predictions essay, 2008: Embracing the (Real) Web.

I like to stick with broad themes in forecasting media movement, because nobody really knows, with specificity, where things are going. We’re in the middle of profound change, and if I had all the answers, I’d be rich. I’m not (of course), but my track record has been pretty good, and it goes back a number of years. Here’s one sentence I wrote a year ago: “The most visible and obvious online media story of 2007 will be the shift of the internet’s center away from text and towards video.” Anybody want to argue with that?

My boss, Jerry Gumbert, says “2008 will be all about getting ready for 2009,” and I agree with him. ‘09 sends chills down the spines of every media company executive, but I think the fear is healthy, especially if it moves us to action. And that action must be in areas beyond our ad-supported content business models. The (Real) Web makes that possible. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

May the new year bring you joy and prosperity.

Good morning. I’m heading out for a client trip, but I wanted to get this up first. It’s my latest essay, and since it doesn’t really fit under the banner of “Local Media in a Postmodern World,” I’m not sending it out to our email distribution list. This essay — The Ultimate Question — is an intellectual examination of the looming reality of a networked world, one in which we’re all connected. Will this be a good thing or not?

The piece points to a wonderful video featuring John Hagel, wherein he states that he has no answers about this idea of a networked world, only questions. Hagel asks 14 questions, but I think there’s only one that matters: Who or what will be the governor in a networked culture?

The Ultimate Question

Here’s the latest in my ongoing series of essays, TV News in a Postmodern World, Creating Spectrum Within Spectrum.

As media companies struggle with disruptive innovations eating away at the foundation of their business model, they’re throwing everything but the kitchen sink at trying to sustain the unsustainable. One solution would be to transfer the world or worlds in which they now compete to the Web as a whole, instead of trying to compete for attention in a world of unlimited reach and range.

I flew over Philadelphia on Tuesday, a city — like others — that has all of its sports arenas in the same location. Each shares the parking space, and freeway access can sustain the traffic required for such big crowds, all of which makes it very convenient for sports fans. There are many examples of this in “real” life, so why can’t we see that this might also be smart online?

Why? Because it would mean competitors cooperating to create the location.

Ain’t gonna happen? Never say never.