2009 August | Brandon Coppernoll

31Aug/090

Newspaper revenues are falling hard – time to embrace social media

The newspaper industry

Newspapers are old news. Literally. When you think about it the newspaper provides news that is a day or in some cases older. I still remember the days my older brother had a newspaper route and would go door to door collecting money. At least now the newspaper allows you to pay online or pay for a long-term subscription without that hassle. Unfortunately the one thing that's never changed is the extreme overhead costs and the old news that is brought to you daily.

When you look at the numbers of the failing business model that is the newspaper business you will find that in the second quarter of this year newspapers made $6.8 billion in print and online revenues. At the same time last year they made $9.6 billion which is a 29% decrease between 2008 and 2009.

The numbers found in the above link are staggering. Here's key points that they listed that are worthwhile:

- In Q2 2006, newspapers made $11.69 billion in print revenue and $666.9 million online , nearly identical to 2005 numbers.

- In Q2 2007, print dropped by 10% and online revenue jumped by 19.3% to reach $10.5 billion and $795 million, respectively.

- In Q2 2008 newspaper losses accelerated: 16% in print and 2.4% online. Newspapers made $8.82 billion in print and $776.5 billion online, for a total of $9.6 billion.

- Q2 2009 was simply brutal. Print revenues were $6.16 billion, a drop of 30.15% from Q2 2008, and online revenue dropped by 15.9% to $653 million. You’ll notice that newspapers made more money in Q2 2006 online than they did in Q2 2009.

The high overhead and increasing habit and desire to receive news quickly from many different sources is jeopardizing the newspaper business model. My opinion is that some newspaper organizations are starting to get it. Some have moved to the Web, but a few have gone completely online, downsized their model and run their business much more fluidly. Some newspaper companies have gone to branded community news or social journalism which allows communities to post the news under the umbrella brand of the local news.

Source: FREEFALL: Newspaper Revenues Crash By 29%

Filed under: Business, Social Media, Social Networking No Comments

31Aug/092

Disney is buying Marvel for $4 Billion: What will happen next?

Multiple sources report Disney is to acquire Marvel Entertainment, Inc. for $4 billion in a stock and cash transaction.

Disney will pay Marvel shareholders a $30 per share, plus approximately 0.745 Disney shares for each Marvel share they own, based on the closing price of Disney on August 28, 2009. What makes this deal huge, as far as content goes, is the fact that under the terms of the deal, Disney will acquire ownership of not only Marvel itself, but also over than 5,000 Marvel characters.

This deal not only places the brand and name of Marvel Entertainment under the massive global umbrella of Disney, but it also transfers over 5,000 Marvel characters to Disney as well.

"This transaction combines Marvel's strong global brand and world-renowned library of characters including Iron Man, Spider-Man, X-Men, Captain America, Fantastic Four and Thor with Disney's creative skills, unparalleled global portfolio of entertainment properties, and a business structure that maximizes the value of creative properties across multiple platforms and territories," said Robert A. Iger, President and Chief Executive Officer of The Walt Disney Company. "Ike Perlmutter and his team have done an impressive job of nurturing these properties and have created significant value. We are pleased to bring this talent and these great assets to Disney."

I can only hope this transaction doesn't change the compelling storytelling that Marvel Entertainment has been able to piece together for so long. Personally, I'm hoping business will go on as usual and Disney uses it's branding and business strength to push the Marvel brand to a wide audience and hopefully develop new fans. Only time will tell.

Disney posted an official press release regarding this matter.

Filed under: Business 2 Comments

27Aug/092

Pandora’s Music Genome Project is a success in my opinion

Music is a big part of me. Anyone that knows me can vouch for that. I have played musical instruments since I was in fifth grade. I started with the trumpet and moved to guitar. I have an acoustic and electric guitar as well as a bass. Unfortunately I haven't been nearly as active with it as I should have. My goal is to dive right back in as the kids are a little older so that I can maybe take official lessons with them. I think that would be an amazing journey.

When I'm at work and don't feel like listening to the music that I have already installed on my computer I like to listen to Pandora. This is a great music player for many different reasons but the best one is they are free. I'm just kidding about that, but it certainly does play a role.

There are many different reasons why Pandora has won my support. I'll try my best to list them:

I can choose an artist, and Pandora tries to find matching artists to accommodate that artist in my station;
I can set up many different stations all with different "genres" that are focused so whatever mood I'm in I can select a station and listen to that;
There are ads, but they are not in your face and do not take away from the experience;
The quality is quite good;
I've been able to listen to many artists I would never have been able to give a chance to without Pandora.

I know many of my friends have tried Pandora, but if you are one of the few who haven't please check it out as soon as you can. For those that do listen to Pandora, if you have a station you think I'd be interested in feel free to send me the link to it.

Filed under: New Media 2 Comments

27Aug/090

Cashflow 101: Like cracking open an old book

I've been a big fan of Robert Kiyosaki's "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" for a long time. I think the invaluable lessons he teaches about money and the idea of money are great. I can only hope that the lessons I've learned and steps I'm currently taking with our finances really "pay off" (pun-intended), and that I can teach my children the things I only wish I knew before I graduated high school.

Robert's company, CASHFLOW Technologies, Inc. not only sponsors many books about the subjects of money, real estate and business, but the company also created two board games that I do find enjoyable and until recently I have not played them for a long time. I recently tried my hand at CASHFLOW 101. There is a CASHFLOW 202 game as well, but I am so rusty I'm not ready to try that out again.

When I was really into reading the books and playing the games, I think I had a more conscious idea of what I was doing with my money. I spent less on frivolous items, and I tried to spend more in areas to better my bottom line and hopefully increase my monthly income. I've made some mistakes and done some things I probably shouldn't have, and then I fell by the wayside and stopped holding to the lessons I have learned.

I'm going to get back to doing what I was doing financially and apply some of the following lessons:

Understand the difference between needs and wants;
Saving is almost pointless when the interest you earn from saving is outweighed by the debt you're paying on;
No more bad debt;
Find a way to eliminate bad debt;
Most individuals can be completely (bad) debt free in less than seven years.

Personally I've lost sight of some of these lessons for some time. I am going to spend more time reading the books once again as well as playing the game to sharpen my mind and spending habits. I balanced my checkbook this morning and realized I've been spending a crazy amount of money in areas I didn't spend it two years ago. I need to reapply the lessons I've learned, and there is no better time to start than now.

Note: I'm not saying for you to go buy his books or games or anything. This is a personal decision of mine, and I believe there are strong lessons in these books if you have an open mind. He doesn't tell you what to do rather than tell a story and allows you to apply a lesson from them.

Filed under: Family and Life No Comments

25Aug/090

Writer's block doesn't exist in blogging

I've heard this statement several times. I am sad to say that I'm guilty of saying this myself. Recently I heard my wife say "it" too. Until I started really dedicating myself to blogging and writing every day I couldn't come back with anything profound.

"Who would care what I have to write about in MY blog?"

Well, I've always tried to pride myself in admitting when I make a mistake or when I'm wrong. This time I was definitely wrong.

If I went by that logic, why would I have already done the following:

Created my Facebook account;
Started a LinkedIn account;
And started a Twitter account?

I joined those social networks to be able to keep in touch and find out what others are doing. I also joined so that friends, family and coworkers can keep in touch with what is happening to me personally and professionally. So the question now becomes how could I honestly believe that no one would want to read what I write about?

I think the truth is most people are not confident in their writing abilities. I know I have moments where I write something and delete it only to write it again because the way I worded it the second time was so much better when it really was the same. I think it's the fear of the unknown when you don't really know what you're getting yourself into. Another reason is I think that people believe they'll run out of things to write about. It's the dreaded writer's block everyone fears.

There is so much going on in the world and our daily lives I don't know how anyone could claim writer's block when blogging. I can see writer's block when writing a fictional story if you get to a point but don't know where to take the story next. Blogging is about real life. Real life doesn't quit or have "writer's block" when detailing what will happen next.

So if you're unsure of who would want to read about what you're writing in your blog look at the social networks you've joined. Your connections on those networks already are interested in you. By blogging you're not only getting a creative release for what interests you, but you're giving your connections an opportunity to get to know you and how your mind works better too.

Filed under: Internet Marketing, Social Media, Social Networking No Comments

24Aug/092

Just keep writing specific, relevant content

In the immortal words of Chip McComb, the Director of Internet Marketing at Fusework Studios, "What you need is specific, relevant content." I have been doing my best at making a post (sometimes two) every single day on my personal blog for a variety of reasons and ideas. I am on the verge to having the best results month I've had in a long time since the very first month I have started this blog.

As I look at the stats to "Brandon's Big Ideas" I notice that the slowest months in traffic are the months I would write one post every week or two rather than one every single day. I cannot help but realize there is a correlation to the traffic I've been witnessing versus the amount of content I've been writing, and I hope the content that I've been writing about has been interesting to this point even if you're not into "gaming" or some of the other things I've discussed.

What's driving my traffic in an upward pattern at this point?

I link my blog in Twitter and Facebook every single post I write;
Joined the application on Facebook called Networked Blogs. It's really helped syndicate my blog;
Spent more time choosing my categories;
And have taken more care in choosing better post tags.

A well-syndicated blog along with a lot of content can really boost your traffic because it attracts the target audience you are looking for. I've experienced many comments from people I've never met because they were able to find my work based on the time and choices I've made to list my blog. If you're blogging today take some time to choose the categories and tags you use. You will be amazed at the results and not regret it.

Filed under: Career, Internet Marketing 2 Comments

23Aug/090

Good weekend

We have had a good weekend so far. Yesterday was a really long day as we drove up to Spencerville to visit my parents, and that is a two hour drive one way.

Yesterday was probably the best weather we've experienced in going up there. It seemed as if every time we went to visit there would be rain, wind and one time one and half inches of ice covering everything.

I want to thank my parents for having us up. Hunter got to enjoy looking at the lake, and Lillian had a great day as well as she obviously felt comfortable all day.

We look forward to seeing my parents again on Hunter's three year birthday party. That in itself is crazy to think that my son is going to be three years old this year. Where has the time gone?

Filed under: Family and Life No Comments