By Francis Moran
In the near-universal rush to write print journalism’s obituary, it was refreshing this week to hear the perspective of a guy who might otherwise be seen as an active undertaker in the whole thing. Mathew Ingram is an online journalist, editor and Twitterer with Canada’s national — and, I believe, best — newspaper, the Globe and Mail. He spoke to Ottawa’s Third Tuesday gathering, held on the fifth Monday(!) earlier this week, about his paper’s many experiments with various online channels.
As the guy often leading the digital charge at the Globe, Ingram could be fairly accused of seeking to hasten the demise of the paper’s print edition. Except he grasps one fundamental concept that seems to elude many of those who think newspapers are already extinct, and that online — and, probably, free — is the only way to go.
The problem is, this isn’t working for the vast majority of traditional media properties. Their online editions are generating little revenue while their print editions are on life support, having bled too many readers and advertisers.
The Globe, on the other hand, seems to be prospering online and holding steady, at least in its circulation numbers, with its dead-trees edition. Why is this?
Well, in a contention I raised at Ottawa’s Social Media Breakfast a couple of weeks back when presenter Brady Gilchrist likewise praised the Globe for its mastery of the online, I don’t believe the paper is a roaring digital success just because it thoroughly exploits every available online channel. Other Canadian media properties. notably CanWest, are similarly aggressive at adopting new media but with much less apparent success. The Globe generates enthusiasm online because it offers superb content.
(I am not a disciple of Marshall McLuhan. I have never believed the medium is the message. While messages may have to be shaped by and for, or may be better received via, one medium rather than another, I believe content is king, that excellent content will triumph no matter via which medium it is transmitted.)
Now here’s the rub. The Globe‘s online content is available only because much of it was originally produced for the print edition. Expensively and originally produced by this country’s best team of journalists who not only cover the country more comprehensively than any other paper but staff the most overseas bureaus of any media outlet in Canada and more than most media outlets in the world.
How, I asked Gilchrist, is the Globe to continue generating such content when the very pillars of its economic model are being eroded? He had no answer but Ingram took a credible shot at this conundrum. The Globe‘s writers and editors are passionate about creating outstanding journalism, he told me in a brief conversation before his session started. And their readers are passionate about reading it. And so long as passionate readers come together with passionate journalists, there will continue to be a market for excellence.
Damn I hope he’s right.
I did not Twitter the session
Unlike other events I have attended where I have put out a stream of live tweets reporting highlights from the presenter(s), I opted not to at this event. Why? Well, being a Third Tuesday event, which attracts digerati in the city, there was barely a pair of thumbs in the room that weren’t banging away at tiny keyboards and tweeting Ingram’s every word. I didn’t think I needed to add to that.
However, nor did I take any notes. A quick scan of the tweets as they went out told me I would be able to fully rely on them for any pithy quotes or other details I might need for this blog post. So I ain’t dissing those who tweeted.
By Danny Sullivan
This is probably the first and last time the Pope gets a mention on this blog, but this week’s events in Africa got me thinking.
What got the Pope in hot water while visiting a continent ravaged by AIDS/HIV was his public assertion that the use of condoms could increase risks to public health related to the spread of the disease.
For most companies, there are countless topical situations that could be taken advantage of for the purpose of making a point. In some cases it might be appropriate and prudent to do so, and for others, definitely not. The events of September 11, 2001 are a prime example of the latter, where there were some who tried to capitalize on the fear generated around the attacks. But the majority of businesses rightly balked at such callous practice.
Many technology firms will unfortunately come across occasions when a global disaster or terrible event would provide a potential platform from which to illustrate their product’s capabilities, and how they might have prevented events from happening. But they just don’t. Our ethics help us to realize it’s better to say nothing in certain situations.
While I understand that the Pope has an agenda that he firmly believes in (as does the leadership of most organizations), I would have thought that someone within the Vatican’s PR department might have raised the point that certain subject matter might be better left alone when visiting the epicenter of that subject.
By Francis Moran
It might seem odd for this tech-focused blog to be writing about ringette, Canada’s other very cool game played on ice. Believe it or not, however, Ringette Canada was an original inmedia PR client, one for which I had been working for a few years when I founded the agency in 1998.
Another inmedia original was Alayne Martell, who was employee number 3, joining us scant days after we legally incorporated the company. Alayne swiftly assumed responsibility for the ringette account and, when she and inmedia parted ways a few years back, we agreed it made most sense that she take that account along with her.
Alayne being the phenomenal media relations practitioner she is, she has built up the account and continues to provide incredible service to the Canadian — and, periodically, even the international — ringette community notwithstanding that she lives on tiny Brier Island off the very tip of Digby Neck in her native Nova Scotia.
Alayne told me a few days ago about a terrific media hit for the sport and I promised her I would blog about it here. The CBC’s resident funny man and political satirist Rick Mercer suited up last month with the Cambridge Turbos of the National Ringette League and the piece will run on The Rick Mercer Report tonight at 8 p.m., repeating on Friday at 7:30 p.m.
Maybe the only thing in Canada faster than Mercer’s mouth when he’s doing one of his famous rants is a ringette player closing in on the net. Tune in; it should be a hoot.
By Francis Moran
The quote in my headline comes from a beautiful little story that is warming the hearts of Canadians today. Jorma Hogbacka was a regular customer at the Tim Hortons coffee shop in his hometown St. Catherines. Apparently, he had a colourful way about him, part of which was to ask the coffee shop staff to help him pick his lottery numbers, with Jorma promising to share any winnings with them.
Well, Jorma won. Big time. His was one of three winning tickets in Saturday’s $43-million jackpot, netting the retired welder a tidy $14.8-million.
And his instant millionaire status did not cause him to forget his promise. True to his word, yesterday he handed a $30,000 cheque to former Tim Hortons staffer Melissa Grivich, who, according to the Globe and Mail, now works as a police officer. And Jorma is working with the iconic Canadian coffee chain to find four other employees he says are on his list to receive similar big tips for past performance.
I’m writing about this because I constantly harp on customer service and how it can be a sharp, effective and sustainable competitive advantage in a world where commodity pricing and reverse engineering rapidly erode any other leg up a company might initially have in the market place. And even though she is a paramount example of how things should be, the newly-enriched Melissa Grivich doesn’t think she did anything special.
“It was my job. I was serving coffee. It wasn’t the greatest job in the world, but I made the best of it,” the Globe quotes her as saying. “It’s just unbelievable how far customer service can go.”
‘Nuff said, Melissa. ‘Nuff said.
