Really Practical

Is Monocle the Future of Publishing – and Content Marketing?

Mark Nagurski — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 13:21:23 +0000

As many of you will know by now, I’m an unrepentant magazine junkie. Monocle is one of my personal favourites due to the quality of its journalism, design-ethic and truly global breadth. But as someone at the crossroads between media and business (and business as media for that matter), Monocle’s real appeal is in its business [...]

TechCrunch and Mashable Get Articles on Twitter Trend Badly Wrong

Mark Nagurski — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 13:50:57 +0000

British actress Mollie Sugden, most famous for her role in ’70s comedy Are You Being Served, sadly died yesterday. In typical Twitter fashion (mostly) British fans set up a hashtag – #mrsslocombespussy in reference to the show’s running double entrendre – as a tribute, and it quickly became one of the most popular topics on the [...]

How to be a Content Marketing Heavyweight

Mark Nagurski — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 08:57:49 +0000

Your Content Has to Have Weight High School science class was some time ago but if I remember correctly weight is a function of mass (and gravity). Mass, in turn, is a function of both size and density. Something can be very large but not very dense – like a cloud – and so have very little [...]

How Much Should You Be Paying for Content?

Mark Nagurski — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 15:46:53 +0000

OK, before we even get started I’ll declare my self-interest in this one. I write content for clients and, as such, am keen to ensure that I’m fairly rewarded for my work. But I also commission content for both client projects and my own. And while I’ll always push for a good deal, I also want [...]

Are Content Marketers Making A Mistake With Opt-in Content?

Mark Nagurski — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 17:15:43 +0000

“Everything that becomes digital will become free. There will be a free version, either you will be competing with free or giving it away for free and selling something else. If it is not zero today, it will be zero tomorrow.” As you can tell from the quote above (as reported on Techcrunch) Chris Anderson, Wired [...]

True/Slant: A New Model of Web Journalism?

Mark Nagurski — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 10:26:20 +0000

There’s no question that the business model of news has to change. The demise of print journalism – largely dependent on plummeting advertising revenues – has been well documented and each week brings news of more layoffs and closures. Against this backdrop it’s always interesting to hear of new business models being trialled – the subscription [...]

Creating Content for the Net Generation

Mark Nagurski — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 15:03:15 +0000

Way back in 1997, Don Tapscott wrote about the Net Generation in Growing Up Digital. The premise was simple enough; that we were witnessing the first generation of digital natives – kids growing up never having known a non-digital world – and that it would have a profound effect on both them and society in [...]

What’s Stopping Social Media in the Public Sector?

Mark Nagurski — Fri, 29 May 2009 10:48:35 +0000

Last week I spent some time at the Public Sector Learning Conference in London. The public sector is not my usual haunt so it was interesting to learn how people in local government and the like were coming to terms with the brave new world of social media. The theme from the speakers was surprisingly consistent [...]

Online Video Boosts Ecommerce Sales

Mark Nagurski — Thu, 14 May 2009 10:40:05 +0000

I’ve often noted here that great content doesn’t have to be written – it can be images, animation, audio, video or even live content. Case in point: Jamie Parkins, from online video company Vzaar, dropped me an interesting email today with the results of a recent straw poll of Vzaar users. Some of the results included: Diamond [...]

Investing in Content? Invest in Talent

Mark Nagurski — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 14:19:07 +0000

I was browsing through the UK launch edition of Wired magazine today and came cross some interesting quotes. Wired asked a handful of influential media types how they would invest $100M in media? Here are a few of the answers: “I’d stop worrying about technology, and would amass a dream team of fantastic, opinionated journalists.” Colin Gottlieb, [...]