Media Future Now

Media Future Now: THIS TUES 12/15, 5:30pm to 7pm - “New Media Law 2009 + Cocktails”

Andrew Mirsky — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 01:52:00 +0000

SUBJECT: Media Future Now: TUES 12/15, 5:30pm to 7pm - “New Media Law 2009 + Cocktails”

Spring is right around the corner! While that might not be technically correct and the pilot light seems out on the 2009 furnace, what IS right around the corner (TUESDAY DECEMBER 15th, in fact) is Media Future Now’s annual holiday fete, at the New America Foundation, 1899 L St, NW, 4th Floor, Washington, DC 20036 (Farragut North and Farragut West metros), at 5:30pm. For the parched among you, holiday refreshments of the cocktail variety will be served.

MEDIA FUTURE NOW’S DECEMBER 15th HOLIDAY FETE:
“New Media Law 2009 + Cocktails.” TWITTER: #mfn

We will discuss copyright, trademark, data ownership, privacy and cookies (“mmm … cookies”), digital content, technology law, social media policies, regulation of bloggers, fair use and more.

NEW MEDIA LAW 2009. Our guests:
Shana Glickfield (yes, THAT Shana!), online communications consultant and distinguished member of the Bar (and frequent patron).
Andrew Mirsky, principal with the new media law firm Mirsky & Kong PLLC.
Joshua Engel, partner with the technology law practice at St. Ledger-Roty, Neuman, and Olson, LLP.
Nancy Prager, attorney focusing on emerging issues with copyright-protected works and other intellectual property assets.

PLUS … HOLIDAY COCKTAILS AND MINGLE. Who can really blame you if you can’t stand all this holiday mirth?

Date: TUESDAY DECEMBER 15th
Time: 5:30pm to 7pm
Place: New America Foundation, 1899 L St, NW, 4th Floor, Washington, DC 20036 (Farragut North and Farragut West metros).
TWITTER: #mfn

Thank you, once again, to Troy Schneider of New America and Troy’s colleagues at NAF for hosting our holiday event. Seasonal cocktails will be furnished by our friends at the new media law shop and night-putting enthusiasts Mirsky & Kong PLLC.

And please remember, as always … no wagering.

RSVP: To andy@mandklegal.com, or on Facebook, search for "Media Future Now" under Groups, or http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/event.php?eid=173098482324&re...

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Media Future Now is …
Nicholas Yaeger (“That’s MISTER Nick to you, pal”), Y Business Development (nick@ybizdev.com)
Diana West (“purveyor of cakes and other fine foods”), Capital Briefings, President (diana_west@comcast.net)
Alex Treadway (“COO/Assistant to the Traveling Secretary”), The Daily Caller (www.dailycaller.com)
Troy Schneider (“You may know Troy from such educational films as …”), New America Foundation (www.newamerica.net)
Larke Paul (“Happy Birthday Larke!”) (www.mediafuturenow.com/user/3)
Richard Parker (“Oh where, oh where can my Richard be?”), Parker Media (www.parker-media.com)
Andrew Mirsky (just back from his summer stint as maitre d’ at Vinnie Abrizzi's Little Touch of Newark), Mirsky & Kong PLLC (www.mandklegal.com)
Shana Glickfield (“Shana will be wearing Oscar de la Renta”), NextGenWeb (www.NextGenWeb.org)
Porter Davis, Medius Communications (www.mediuscom.net)
And of course …. Peter Cherukuri (turns out Peter was NOT in fact Tiger Woods’ driver), Vandelay Industries, (www.vandelay.com)

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Mobile Media & Privacy

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 15:42:44 +0000

Please see the attached recent “short article on Mobile Media and Privacy by our colleague Karen Neuman” of St. Ledger-Roty Neuman & Olson LLP. Karen spoke at our Media Future Now event on October 19, 2009.

Monday October 19th Media Future Now Evening Event - 5:30pm - “Privacy: Mobile and Social Media”

Andrew Mirsky — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 14:55:08 +0000

Media Future Now will make its triumphant Fall return to the starved new media environment that is our nation’s capital for a special evening event on MONDAY OCTOBER 19th at the New America Foundation, 1899 L St, NW, Suite 400, Washington, DC 20036 (Farragut North and Farragut West metros), at 5:30pm. Refreshments of the happy hour variety (and varietals) may be served.

Thank you in advance to Troy Schneider of New America and Troy’s colleagues at NAF for hosting our October event. Adult beverages will be furnished through the wonderful generosity of the new media wiz kids at Mirsky & Kong PLLC, so be sure to get there early for the good stuff (we’re breaking out the Blue Nun!).

OUR OCTOBER 19th EVENT: “Privacy: Mobile and Social Media”. TWITTER: #mfn

We will have a cocktail to celebrate the fall colors. We will toast to the good luck of the New York (football) Giants in their current campaign.

And we will talk about PRIVACY, including legal issues in MOBILE MEDIA and SOCIAL MEDIA, including social media and the nonprofit sector through CAUSES on FACEBOOK.

We will be joined by KAREN NEUMAN, a partner with ST. LEDGER-ROTY NEUMAN & OLSON LLP. We will also be joined by Mathew Mahan, director of nonprofit relations and business development at CAUSES on FACEBOOK (the largest application on Facebook). ANDY MIRSKY of MIRSKY & KONG PLLC will moderate.

Karen Neuman’s practice focuses on telecommunications and related privacy & information security issues. Karen will discuss how the unprecedented deployment of new technologies, applications and devices in mobile communications is outpacing the efforts of courts and regulators to strike a balance between preserving an environment that continues to foster innovation in services and products – including new business models for supporting those services and products – and protecting privacy and individual data.

Moving along to social media, Mathew Mahan, of Causes on Facebook, will discuss how Causes leverages social networks for philanthropy, offline action, cause marketing and campaigns. While perhaps a stretch, we will attempt to segue privacy from mobile to social media, particularly with the breadth and depth of data coursing through Causes’ 85 million users, 300,000 user-created “causes” (online grassroots communities) and 65,000 nonprofit beneficiaries.

Date: MONDAY OCTOBER 19th
Time: 5:30pm to 7pm
Place: New America Foundation, 1899 L St, NW, Suite 400, Washington, DC 20036 (Farragut North and Farragut West metros).
TWITTER: #mfn

Thank you to Vinnie Curren and his colleagues at Corporation for Public Broadcasting for hosting our last Media Future Now event. And thank you to our great speakers, Cindy Boren of The Washington Post, Jeff Mascott of Adfero Group, Nick O’Neill of Social Times and Erica Anderson of Spectrum and EricaAmerica.

RSVP: To andy@mandklegal.com, or on Facebook, search for "Media Future Now" under Groups, or http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/event.php?eid=152495501885&re...

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Media Future Now is …
Nicholas Yaeger (“That’s MISTER Nick to you, pal”), Y Business Development (nick@ybizdev.com)
Diana West (“purveyor of cakes and other fine foods”), Capital Briefings, President (diana_west@comcast.net)
Alex Treadway (“Assistant to the Traveling Secretary”), New York Yankees (www.yankees.com)
Troy Schneider (“You may know Troy from such educational films as …”), New America Foundation (www.newamerica.net)
Larke Paul (“We love LA”) (www.mediafuturenow.com/user/3)
Richard Parker, Parker Media (www.parker-media.com)
Andrew Mirsky (just back from his summer stint as maitre d’ at Vinnie Abrizzi's Little Touch of Newark), Mirsky & Kong PLLC (www.mandklegal.com)
Shana Glickfield (“thank you! thank you!”), NextGenWeb (www.NextGenWeb.org)
Porter Davis, Medius Communications (www.mediuscom.net)
And of course …. Peter Cherukuri (“Senior Latex Salesman”), Vandelay Industries, (www.vandelay.com)

Media Future Now’s June 4th brown bag lunch - BEHAVIOR MARKETING

Andrew Mirsky — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 02:21:29 +0000

Please join us THIS THURSDAY JUNE 4th at New America Foundation, at 12:15pm, for Media Future Now’s brown bag lunch: “Behavior Targeting: Advertising Where it Counts”.

Please bring a bag lunch and we will provide refreshments and snacks. Thank you to Shana Glickfield for leading our planning for our June 4th event. Please also see the JOB OPENING (below) from our friend Kara Reinsel of AOL.

Date: THURSDAY JUNE 4
Time: 12:15pm to 1:45pm
Location: New America Foundation, 1899 L St, NW, Suite 400, Washington, DC 20036 (Farragut North and Farragut West Metro stops). Thank you in advance to Troy Schneider and Troy’s colleagues at NAF for hosting our June 4th lunch, and to Shana Glickfield for leading our planning for our lunch. Thank you also to our engaging April speakers, Gary Bivings of The Bivings Group; Carol Darr of GW’s Graduate School of Political Management; and John Shea of FEMA.

JUNE 4TH TOPIC: “Behavior Targeting: Advertising Where it Counts”: Innovations in behavioral advertising and marketing. Strategic, marketing, consumer and policy issues, including value to publisher and marketer, value to consumer, consumer control, policy and legal issues, and more.

OUR JUNE 4TH SPEAKERS:
An ad network perspective from Mark Bryant of Resonate Networks, a new attitudinal targeting online ad network.
A digital agency perspective from Ernie Mosteller of Blattner-Brunner.
Mike Zaneis of Interactive Advertising Bureau (VP of Public Policy).
Lee Brenner of MySpace (Director of IMPACT (Public Affairs) & Executive Producer of Political Programming).

An expression of moderation from Shana Glickfield, new media consultant and font of wisdom.

RSVP: To andy@mirskylegal.com, or on Facebook, search for "Media Future Now" under Groups, or http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=14243409897#/event.php?eid=1905347....

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JOB OPENING (from our friend Kara Reinsel of AOL, please contact Kara if interested, kara.reinsel@corp.aol.com):

AOL Real Estate is looking for a creative, energetic and organized Lead Blogger to help launch a new blog around renting and the renting lifestyle. Interested individuals should have an interest and/or expertise in the following areas: rental/apartment living, entertaining, design and décor and consumer advocacy. This position is approximately 25 hours per week, and the lead blogger will work remotely.

The Lead Blogger will manage all content needs of the blog. We will also look to the Lead Blogger for ideas around new areas of content that will help the site grow its traffic and user base, along with other important success metrics as defined by AOL Real Estate.

Job requirements:
Help define and deliver the vision, personality and tone of the new blog.
Manage overall content and blogger needs (i.e. frequency of posts needed per day/week) and recruit bloggers accordingly as mandated by content needs, diverse perspectives and budget.
Understand key revenue drivers for the Blog and balance editorial needs with revenue optimization.
Manage a “features” editorial calendar, comprising of engaging and sellable editorial concepts.
Daily editing of blog by selecting stories from various multimedia and social networking sources, writing headlines with a distinct point of view, selecting/editing images and arranging stories on the page in a dynamic and compelling way.
Foster user engagement by continually improving and refining the user experience.
Increase traffic on the page through search optimization and referral.
Freelance as time permits.

Job Qualifications:
The ideal candidate will have: lead blogging experience, subject matter expertise, strong writing and web editing skills, online video, social networking sites and web application familiarity. Must be able to work on a flexible, news-driven schedule, multi-task and meet deadlines.

If interested, please contact Kara Reinsel - kara.reinsel@corp.aol.com.

Poli-Fluentials and Donors: Political Activists and Contributors, Including Their Media Habits

Troy K. Schneider — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 21:39:02 +0000

Carol C. Darr -- who's speaking at next Wednesday's Media Future Now lunch -- has just released her new report with Stephanie H. Cacace, on "Poli-fluentials and Donors." You can download a PDF of their findings here.

Their findings on the overlap (or lack thereof) between activists and donors are interesting, and not what I would have expected. Check it out for yourself, and come hear what Darr has to say on the subject next Wednesday.

Fair Use and the Collapse of Web Advertising

Andrew Mirsky — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 14:37:31 +0000

If the thinking behind a liberal approach to web content sharing is driving traffic back to your original content source, what happens when the benefits of doing exactly that – i.e. bumping up traffic for potential advertisers – fails to generate the hoped-for commercial return?

Like all advertising, web advertising has always been somewhat more art than science (yet), for better or worse, with accompanying difficulties in translating eyeballs into advertising revenue metrics. Comes now the collapse of the web advertising market. What then becomes of the willingness to go along with liberal content “scraping”, excerpting and other copying under “fair use” arguments?

Brian Stelter probed this very question in the NY Times recently. Stelter interviews, among others, Henry Blodget of Alley Insider and Arianna Huffington of The Huffington Post, whose publications are among the most aggressive and overt in the practice of integrating others’ content into their writings. Ms. Huffington states, honestly, that “we excerpt to add value”, which is probably a fair statement, except that Stelter also notes that these sites “highlight[ ] what they deem to be the most meaningful parts of newspaper articles and TV segments.”

That is troubling from a fair use perspective, removing any serious reason for a reader to follow the link – even where prominently attributed – to the original source.

Further trouble with a fair use argument comes from the evaporation of any serious financial benefit from any increased traffic that does happen to make its way over.

Stelter goes on to discuss the renewed interest recently in paid-subscription models, alluding to (although not specifically discussing) the micro-payment debate among publishers, particularly newspaper strategists.

The whole issue seems the logical next step (a middle-stage consequence) of the enormous success of news aggregator sites like Huffington Post, Google News and others dependent on a vital supply of fresh – and freely available – original content sources. When does the argument go from an examination of “fair use” to one of how does this business model continue to sustain itself?

As I wrote last year, and to quote again the now somewhat-questionable wisdom of (in-bankruptcy) Tribune Company owner Sam Zell, “If all the newspapers in America did not allow Google to steal their content for nothing, what would Google do? We have a situation today where effectively the content is being paid for by the newspapers and stolen by Google, etcetera. That can last for a short time, but it can’t last forever. I think Google and the boys understand that. We’re going to see new deals and new formulas in the media space that reflect the reality of cost benefit.”

Zell’s comments were dismissed as the know-nothing crankings of a real-estate tycoon dabbling in a foreign sandbox, but he was clearly on to something. He may not have anticipated the utter collapse – or the timing of the collapse – of the web advertising market, but he was familiar enough with the axiom that economic turndowns reveal the flaws that auditors miss.

REMINDER: Media Future Now – Tues 03/17/09, 12:15pm to 1:45pm - GOOGLE

Andrew Mirsky — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 23:05:09 +0000

To all those (un) lucky souls who will NOT be joining our early-adopter friends in Austin this weekend ...

A reminder to please join us at Google, this coming Tuesday March 17 at 12:15pm for Media Future Now’s March 2009 brown bag lunch. (DETAILS AT BOTTOM)

Our discussion this month will be “Tough Times: Finding Talent, Advancing a Career, and Building Diversity in New Media in a Troubled Economy”.

Guests:
Onica Makwakwa, UNITY (Executive Director).
Chris Murphy, Atlantic Media Company (GC & Executive Director for HR).
Harry Weiner, ON-Ramps (CEO and Founder).
Mark Williams, KnowMeNow (Founder).
Moderator: Peter Cherukuri, Roll Call (Publisher).

Please share with us your thoughts: In advance of next Tuesday’s lunch, and to prime the discussion, we want to take advantage of the talent and thought leadership of our members. In particular, please share with us (through our Facebook group Discussion Topic http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=14243409897&topic=7225 or by emailing andy@mirskylegal.com for posting on MFN’s public blog) your thoughts and experiences on the following questions:

1. How are companies dealing with talent and recruiting challenges?

2. How are individuals dealing with the same challenges?

(Not just theory on long-term company goals, but seriously: (a) How are companies doing things NOW? and (b) How are people managing their careers NOW?)

3. How do long-term goals (i.e. improved opportunities in media for minorities and women) get fast-tracked OR derailed in tough economic times?

4. Given the state of our economy, what is the responsibility of media companies to – and how do we, as individuals facing daily career challenges, deal with - issues such as diversity, development of talent or work-life balance?

Again, please share with us (through our Facebook group Discussion Topic http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=14243409897&topic=7225 or by emailing andy@mirskylegal.com for posting on MFN’s public blog) your thoughts and experiences on these questions.

Date: Tuesday March 17 (St. Patrick’s Day)
Time: 12:15pm to 1:45pm
Location: Google, Inc., 1101 New York Avenue, NW, Second Floor, Washington, DC. Thank you in advance to Peter Greenberger and his colleagues at Google for hosting our March event.

Thank you to Peter Cherukuri, Publisher of Roll Call, for leading our planning for our March event.

RSVP: To andy@mirskylegal.com, or on Facebook, search for "Media Future Now" under Groups, or http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=14243409897.

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Media Future Now is …
Nick Yaeger, The Magazine Group and Publisher, Washington Flyer (www.themagazinegroup.com)
Diana West, Capital Briefings, President (diana_west@comcast.net)
Alex Treadway, National Journal Group (www.nationaljournal.com)
Troy Schneider, New America Foundation (www.newamerica.net)
Larke Paul, Threespot Media (www.threespot.com)
Richard Parker, Medius Communications (www.mediuscom.net)
Andrew Mirsky, Mirsky and Company (www.mirskylegal.com)
Shana Glickfield, NextGenWeb, Online Community Director (www.NextGenWeb.org)
Porter Davis, Medius Communications (www.mediuscom.net)
Peter Cherukuri, Roll Call Group (www.rollcall.com)

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Old School Business Models - Doing Good and Printing

Andrew Mirsky — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 17:18:26 +0000

When David Carr wrote recently in his Media Equation column that “there is a rational argument to be made that the part of the [newspaper] apparatus that has a working business model, declining or not, should receive the resources”, he was talking about the print side of newspapers. If that statement seems remarkable coming from a dedicated advocate of new media, perhaps it should not when countered by Carr’s voicing of many industry observers’ concern that the online business model “does not seem to show a promise of returns any time”.

And it’s already been a while.

Carr reports on recent staff cutbacks at Conde Naste’s Portfolio and at Forbes and Fortune that weighed heavily against the digital staffs of those publications.

Actually, the backdrop for and real star of Carr’s report was the TriCityNews in Monmouth County, NJ, a 10,000 circulation weekly that brazenly scorns the web in favor of rich, lush print-only distribution. Says Dan Jacobson, TriCity’s publisher and owner, “Why would I put anything on the Web? I don’t understand how putting content on the Web would do anything but help destroy our paper. Why should we give our readers any incentive whatsoever to not look at our content along with our advertisements, a large number of which are beautiful and cheap full-page ads?”

Indeed, as Scott Karp and others have long noted, print ad dollars cannot be easily replaced by lower-dollar online sells even conceding dramatic increased online volume.

Of course, local “booster” and “reader” papers have advantages in recessionary times over regional and national publications dependent on corporate, automotive and other national account advertising. Carr points out certain quirks about TriCity and its founder that aren’t easily replicated even with similar local publications. And Carr is quick to note the success of the Wall Street Journal’s online subscription model and other “signs that the free ride for consumers [in online content] may be coming to an end”.

Speaking of business models and on a somewhat related note, thanks to Shana Glickfield of Amplify Public Affairs for referring me to the Extraordinaries , a start-up non-profit using crowdsourcing techniques to (in their words) “deliver skills-based volunteer tasks to people whenever and wherever they are available by mobile phone”. The tasks are interesting and make innovative use of technology and also the mobility of modern technology, from the mundane (“Confirming addresses for a nonprofit’s membership list”) to the determined (“Translating a nonprofit’s Website into a foreign language”) and the exotic (“Identifying birds for the Cornell Lab of Ornithology”).

The founders are refreshingly open about the challenges of financial viability for a non-profit, going so far as to solicit community feedback on an appropriate business model exploiting the best of non-profit and for-profit structures.

As vividly highlighted with the TriCity story above, it is exactly this problem of finding the successful business model that plagues the new media community. While obviously exacerbated in this recessionary time, this problem is nothing new with innovation. Just because you can do something faster, cleaner or cheaper might make it a fabulous idea but not necessarily a fabulous business. Saturday Night Live’s “Change Bank” lampooned the brilliance of brilliant business ideas: “We will make your change”. Clever and VERY funny, and when asked how a bank could make money making change, offering the one-word response “Volume”. Of course!

Jacob Colker and Ben Rigby, the founders of the Extraordinaries seem well-grounded in the challenges they face to build a viable “good works” business. Like the reluctance of commercial lenders to loan other than to the most blue-chip of borrowers, venture capital firms have been facing their own difficulties realizing returns in a spooked investment climate. Nonetheless, Colker and Rigby are cautiously optimistic about the financial environment for a socially responsible business, pointing to a story on the San Francisco Bay Area’s venture community discussing the uptick in venture capital funding to socially responsible firms and business plans.

Internet = News

Larke Paul — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 21:15:50 +0000

According to the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, the internet has now surpassed all other media except television as a main source for national and international news.

The survey also presents data about young people (ages 18-29) who say that their main source of national and international news is equally split between television and the internet. I can't help but wonder, did all of the respondents make the traditional distinction between a TV and internet channels? What about people who watch television programming on their computer, via their internet connection?

For some (and not necessarily in the younger age group), the convergence of TV and the internet has already occurred. It's no longer about what hardware/platform one chooses (say a computer or a television set) - it's more about the availability rate, type and amount of content. It appears to me that the best selection, ability to personalize and various medias (videos, articles, radio) of content are available with the click of a button, but it's no longer the tv clicker, it's the smaller, sleeker box in the room. For those that can't be information deprived, there's also another favorite device - the mini-computer that also has telephony functions. They are expensive, but like every gadget, they'll make their way down to planet earth on the pricing scale.

A “buddy system” solution for the electoral college?

Andrew Mirsky — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 16:16:12 +0000

Crossposted on K Street Cafe. Randall Lane wrote a provocative piece in Monday’s New York Times suggesting a “ballot buddy system” among the states to permit apportioning of electoral votes among counties or congressional districts. The idea seems like one of those suggestions likely to go nowhere, except when you realize that (a) 2 states (Maine and Nebraska) have already moved in that direction, (b) the 2000 election may have permanently disencumbered any remaining pillars of the infallibility of the electoral college system and (c) the Obama campaign’s social media breakthroughs may have demonstrated the irrelevance of the system in the first place.

(Full disclosure: Lane is President of Doubledown Media, a corporate law client of my law firm.)

In “A Ballot Buddy System”, Lane argues that the big win for deconstructing the electoral college was vividly illustrated in Nebraska, where Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin both campaigned in Omaha in the last weeks of the 2008 campaign – something not otherwise thought likely for an otherwise reliably red state. When counties are in play, versus whole states, “winner takes all”, a different campaign dynamic kicks in.

Of course, the Obama campaign campaigned just as vigorously in reliably red counties in Ohio and Virginia, states that were viewed as vulnerable but where lower loss margins in Republican counties could sway the state-wide picture. It may therefore not be entirely predictable what would happen if apportioned voting becomes the national norm.

The constitutional argument for apportionment is that abolishing the electoral college would require a constitutional amendment, while individual state action of apportioned delegations would not.

As background on the problem, Lane’s essay is well-written in the Forbes tradition of understandable explanations for complex problems. (In a former life, Lane was Washington bureau chief for Forbes.) But Lane’s most nifty idea is that of his title, suggesting a system where equal-size electoral states (e.g. New York and Texas) that are, respectively, reliably Democratic and Republican can be persuaded to go the apportionment route to soften the political blow of the loss of a state-wide red or blue margin. That may be, but that too gets complicated by the disproportionately skewed demographics of a state like New York, heavily Democratic in just a few, albeit populous counties, while Texas is more broadly Republican.

Which simply raises obstacles that have to be gotten around, but that need not kill the deal.

What’s more, there’s political precedent for this sort of thing. The admission to the Union of Alaska and Hawaii in 1959 was smoothed by recognition of the states’ balanced party representation – Alaska was likely to be heavily Republican, and Hawaii equally so Democratic. For some background on this, see this AP story from June 30, 1959.