While reading books on the Kindle is a delight, diving into your favorite newspaper or magazine is (as they say in Twitterspeak) a total fail. Newspapers render oddly, converting an inherent non-linear read into a stilted, non-interactive session that captures neither the context of print nor the hyperactive richness of the Web. Magazines are not only rendered in the same linear fashion, without color they lose their sense of artistry and personality. The fact that Amazon charges up to $14.99 per month for newspapers and $2.99 for magazines adds insult to an injured concept.

Lo and behold, Amazon watchers announced the company was working on a larger format Kindle that might be ready by Q4 2009 and would address the issue of the device’s current unsuitability for magazines and newspapers. So, does that mean my Kindle 2 becomes a $400 paperweight in less than one year of ownership if I want to add the San Francisco Chronicle and Fortune to my virtual lineup? Meanwhile, the picture gets cloudier (or clearer, depending on your perspective) with the advent of a new device from Plastic Logic which with a larger screen size is, out of the chute, better suited for newspapers and magazines. Hearst, publishers of both newspapers and magazines, has also expressed its intent to get into the portable reading device game, but it’s not clear whether it will build its own or OEM one from…well, Plastic Logic? All eyes will be on Plastic Logic’s upcoming trials with the Detroit newspapers as well as partners such as USA Today.

All of this begs the basic question; are newspapers and magazines well suited for e-readers and is there a business model that will work for publishers and capture the imagination of young, digital consumers? These are topics we will tackle in some upcoming research, with investors, advertisers, publishers, consumer electronics firms and e-warehouse providers (Libre Digital) having a lot riding on this trend. Needless to say, we’re on top of it.

Final Edition from Matthew Roberts on Vimeo.

What makes me doubly perplexed is that 2009 will be a crucial year for Hulu as it faces the YouTube juggernaut in a race for online TV audiences and ad dollars. In the past several months, YouTube has made efforts to rid itself of inappropriate and unauthorized copyrighted content and improved its viewing experience by offering HD content. Hulu should have taken the time and money simply telling the world it is better than YouTube. Curiously, this raises the interesting juxtapositions of mantras as Google (YouTube’s parent) proclaims “don’t do evil” while Hulu sneeringly says it’s an evil plot.

I admit I often am in the dark as to the intent or goal of both networking programming as well as TV ads. My sense here is that the brains behind this spot was the same person (or persons) who believed a weekly eponymous sitcom starring Emeril Lagasse would be a winner.

Note: Sorry: The Hulu ad is not viewable outside the U.S.

According to Lycos’s tally of top searches for 2008 (I guess it’s over before it’s over), nothing related to jobs, Iraq, McCain, Obama, financial bailouts or gas prices made the top 10 searches for the year. The top searches are: Poker, Paris Hilton, YouTube, golf, Sarah Palin, Brittney Spears, Clay Aiken, Pamela Anderson, Facebook and Holly Madison. And since I had no idea who Holly Madison was (not related to Dolly Madison), I searched and found out she’s in that reality TV show with Hef and his “granddaughters.” (Couldn’t resist that one).

For the record: man of the year based on Lycos searches? Clay Aiken, not Barack Obama. And if you are wondering why NBC is thinking about cutting back on prime time programming? Consider that the top TV programs based on searches were “Star Trek Enterprise” (is that still even on?) and “Dancing with the Stars.” Now that’s entertainment.

What will the top searches for ’09 be? Hard to predict, but unless you’re playing with plastic chips, I am betting poker won’t be one of them.

In a Gartner document published in May 2006, “Transforming Value in Digital Publishing Companies,” Mike McGuire and I suggested that incumbent publishers trapped in businesses laden with large infrastructure expenses might be wise to consider some sort or cost-realignment based on the airline industry model where many airlines lease rather than buy costly fleets. It was our belief, then as now, that newspaper publishers must attempt to do their businesses over with a focus on future opportunities, most of which can be met without print-related expenses. Or, at least look for efficiencies that would allow a publisher to keep both web and print channels alive. One such trend is the editorial hub and spoke model, where newsrooms are organized by topic (sports) as opposed to function (web vs. print). Any newspaper (or magazine for that matter) not implementing such a strategy must strongly consider it as the economic slippery slope for publishers shows no sign of letting up.

For The Tribune Company, one mandate appears clear (at least to me). In the four major markets in which Tribune owns both a newspaper and TV station, it will be crucial to merge those organizations as tightly as possible. Not only is there IT areas of overlap that can be scaled down, but the hub and spoke should work well for TV/print news operations. The Tribune is in the process of doing this in South Florida, but escalating such efforts across all properties should be a priority. In addition, Tribune must do more to leverage its ownership (full or partial) in such web 2.0 assets as Classified Ventures, Careerbuilder, Metromix, Cars.com, Apartments.Com. Zap2it (TV listings) and Topix. Alternatively, Tribune might consider selling off some of these assets to raise some cash. Some of these subsidiaries might be attractive to the new class of media cloud providers such as Microsoft, Google or Apple.

One thing is for sure. All publishing eyes are on the Tribune; a successful execution of reorganization under Chapter 11 bankruptcy is likely to cause a ripple effect. Sounds like it’s a good time to be a bankruptcy lawyer.

I am in possession of five video cameras and one mobile phone with great video capability. Each camera seems to fit a purpose, and those from Pure Digital have become my go-to devices when I am trying to be inconspicuous (like videoing surreptitiously in Graceland) yet grab a clip with good picture and sound. My original, about three or four years old, is a rather innocuous looking white device with simple features, and is a big banged up from being dropped a zillion times (and keeps on tickin’) and from having shot about 400 videos in places ranging from the Underground in London to the waterfront in Cannes. One of my most viewed videos on YouTube shows off the beauty of this little wonder—I grabbed a quick interview with one of the Tampa Bay Rays (nee Devil Rays), Fernando Perez, as he emerged from the locker after the Arizona Fall league Championship in 2006. The camera fires up quickly and is made for those spontaneous moments you want to capture on video.

Last week, the nice folks at Pure Digital sent me its latest camera, the minoHD. It’s smaller and lighter than the original mostly because it uses a rechargeable lithium battery as opposed to two AA batteries in the original. To compare the old and the new, I took the cameras to a Fall League baseball game and shot essentially the same scene with both cameras. Below are the results.

Original Pure Digital

MinoHD

What I like about the new camera: Battery life indicator; more brightly lit viewfinder; on-off switch on the side to avoid an accidental shutoff while filming; better in-viewer previewing; tripod mount; better software to create video clips and seamlessly upload them to YouTube, AOL (oops, AOL’s shutting that down next week) and Myspace.

What I miss from the older model: More intuitive zoom.

The HD capability in the mino is not the sort of 1080-I HD you will find in your home plasma, but the quality is noticeable when you play the videos on a bright video monitor or burn them on a DVD. Given that YouTube does an iffy job on transcoding, the resulting video you get after uploading to YouTube is no different than from any other camera. If you want to get more out of your HD clips, I suggest uploading to Vimeo or Blip.TV.

And here’s my dream: A Pure Digital camera with a WiFi radio inside to allow me to stream live (ala Qik) or go to a hotspot and upload on the fly. Will I see one of these at CES? I sure hope so.

A bit too blue sky? Wonder what sort of legal issues the Obama Administration would have with such a market play?

The folks over at NewTeeVee commented on the report on their site, and I am honored they took the time to add their perspective. I find the site a feed reader must and think some of their insights are quite interesting and fresh in perspective. Liz Gannes, who authored the post, had a lot to say about the report (actually the press release, not the actual report), and while most of what she says is worth pondering as we look at this space, I do hold firm that the industry is in need of protail video hubs. Crackle, Veoh and Metacafe are not protail hubs as those sites are a mix of UGC, brand content (from magazines and the like) and network TV shows. This is not to say they have some protail content, but it’s not the focal point of the brand. A site such as Austin’s On Networks, on the other hand, is a textbook example of protail content. This is not based on the cost of production; it’s based on short videos that appeal to a consumer’s passions such as travel, music and food. I see more such sites that monetize content via sponsorship or advertising sprouting up in big numbers over the next few years. This underscores the point that advertisers will be quick to work with a video community where the content is careful selected to ensure they offer “a clean well lit place” to put their marketing dollars.

As a former reporter, the Web 2.0 world is great as it presents instant feedback to your ideas. As I have said (half joking), the only time I ever heard from readers in my print journalism days is when they
threatened to sue. This scenario is far more pleasant and far less career threatening