Save a Journalist, View an Ad

Do Internet ads bother you? I really have never been bothered by them, and kind of block them out when viewing Web sites. (Ask me if I've seen any banner ads lately, because I won't remember.) I employ a basic pop-up blocker, but that's about it.

Looks like I am an outlier. Adblock Plus is one of the most downloaded Firebox ad-ons, with 700,000 new users a week, according to a recent article in Slate. However, is blocking out ads, which pay for the free content you view, really fair?

The article notes that Adblock is considering finding a way to make the tool more ethical:

Adblock Plus would keep track of which sites you visit often. If it notices that you're spending a lot of time at certain sites on which you're blocking ads, the software would give you guilt-inducing prompt, like, "The owner of this Web site indicated that no annoying advertising is being used here. Would you like to disable Adblock Plus on Example.com to support it?" If the user clicks "Yes," she begins to see ads on that site—but, importantly, she'll be able to shut down all the ads on the site at any moment if they begin to annoy her.

You'd think anyone in the media business, which thrives mostly on ads, might have a vested interest in keeping ads in your face -- but we're as guilty as anyone at ignoring them. My friend Rebecca Trela, managing editor of Print Solutions magazine, is an Adblock devotee and called my attention to the Adblock proposal. She says it is a nice idea, but doesn't think it would work. She e-mailed this alternative plan:

However, what if we newsers adopted something from another model?—and here, I’m borrowing liberally from the Alexandria Planning Dept., which allows real estate developers to either 1) provide a certain percentage of “affordable-rate” housing per development project, or 2) contribute funds to the city so that it can purchase and administer the affordable housing; effectively “buying out” of the program. Btw, buying out is more popular by a *very wide* margin.

What would you pay to “buy out” of ads? I use Adblock Plus at home (sadly, not at work) and it is GLORIOUS. However, if one morning while I was reading Slate (which I do every day, as you can tell), ABP prompted me with a popup that said, “You visit this site XX% of your internet visits, but you block the ads that support it. Click here to donate to the site…”

…I definitely would. Not sure if that’s only because I feel the deep pain of everyone in the news game.

Nothing wrong with feeling the deep pain of everyone in the news game! I myself would rather just view the ads, but maybe that isn't enough anyway, and Rebecca's plan might work.

Or, what about my plan: Let's hold a click-a-thon, where everyone must click on as many ads as possible for one day, pleasing advertisers and somehow providing media revenue somewhere. Maybe there's a starving journalist who will be able to afford a can of green beans.

Good Phrases for New Media

A few phrases I love to describe new media:

"Platform agnostic" is one of my favorite ways to describe journalists and information dissemination of the future. Journalists who are platform agnostic are non-preferential about the platform they use to distribute information. I first picked up the phrase from Joe Grimm, the journalism recruiting expert at The Poynter Institute. Journalists are continuing to learn that it's not about reporting and writing; it's about reporting and distributing in various different ways simultaneously.

Quiet voyeurism is what we practice on social networking sites. As I have found myself explaining to newer users of Facebook, a conversation one witnesses on Facebook is not necessarily good fodder for an in-person conversation (depending upon the relationship you have with that person). It is implicit to Facebook users that we will watch one another's lives -- but not necessarily bring it up in the office next day. I don't know if anyone else describes it this way, but it's a phrase I like to use.

Digital natives are those who grew up/are growing up in the digital age. Digital natives are unable to divide their digital lives and real lives, and generally do not find the need to juggle the two. Rather, the two halves are cohesive.

My Encounter with a Superhero

Saturday I ran into the Pink Man. I had never heard of San Francisco's unicycling "superhero," and when in Manhattan's East Village, I generally don't blink at people dressed in Pepto-Bismol-colored unitards.

So there I was outside the Bowery Poetry Club, passing out maps for a literary pub crawl, and little did I know I was next to a legend. People started coming up to him on the street, saying, "Hey, I saw that documentary about you!" or "I love what you do!" and what not. Cars were honking and waving. Encouraged by the crowd, he rode his unicycle out into traffic, circling around the cars like a pink Flash and flapping his arms like wings. Even for New York, it was odd.

Of course I was intrigued, and decided to listen in and partake in some small talk. The Pink Man travels all over the world riding a unicycle in a pink unitard. He doesn't get paid to do this, which especially boggled one interested passerby. He seems to run on the occasional charity and business deal (he was sponsored by a the game designer of SimCity at one point). The Pink Man wasn't carrying a cell phone, and that day was relying on the occasional stranger to make phone calls. I made a phone call for him to help him locate his friend, and he was very courteous and thankful. I said I was happy to help. "It's not every day you get to help a superhero, is it?," he said. It certainly isn't.

He does what he does to give a dose of happiness to the world, and I suspect, to himself. Regardless of language, everyone can "get" him all over the world, he said. One velvet-clad woman who trickled out of the poetry club commended him for not being bored, as bored people are boring. From Alain Robert, the "French Spiderman" who scales buildings, to buskers like the Naked Cowboy, there is something to be said for the people of the world that keep us boring people intrigued. Call them superheroes, if you want.

Of course there are those who don't "get" it. A cliche little old lady in a head wrap sauntering down the street turned around and told the Pink Man he looked like bubble gum, and turned back around. He lightheartedly suggested she chew him up and spit him out, adding, "do you want to blow me?" He instantly realized what he just said in shock and horror and laughter. It was a believable slip -- an ironic example of how even a pink man's happy-go-lucky interactions with people can be twisted to insult. The little old lady crossed the street slightly disoriented. We decided pink bubblegum would go very well with his ensemble.

Even the Pink Man questions being pink sometimes. Some days, when he is riding his unicycle, he thinks to himself, "I am a grown man, what am I doing?"

It's OK, I told him, sometimes, when I am sitting at my desk typing away, I think the same thing.

Here's a video of the Pink Man:

***Round-Up***

...because I haven't done this in a while.

Another Gen Y-meets-the-recession story: This latest one in the Financial Times is really worthwhile. It presents the young workforce accurately as both helpless and inconquerable. The key for managers really is to say, "here is cool technology, go be creative," and it will help their businesses in the long run.

No Grand Slam: TIME did a piece about the restaurant chain Denny's, which has upped its appeal to young people by adding midnight entertainment. The live music angle is interesting, but the author really missed the mark: "These hip 20-somethings are taking the after-party to Denny's?" he asks. Well, if you ever left Danbury, Connecticut, you would know that Denny's is a staple of after-party fare all over the country. We'll forgive you your misfortune of never having Denny's at 4 a.m.

Shred ahead!: If you hate clutter but are also uptight about organization, you'll love this list of financial documents to keep/shred. Feel reaffirmed that you are not odd to keep your credit card receipts for a month. But do go ahead and shred papers from the bank account in college you closed. Looks like I know what I will be doing this afternoon.

Five Overused Blog Topics

The following topics are completely over-blogged (somehow perpetuated by the collective unconscious of bloggers, like this one, everywhere). While there are many more topics easy to groan at, these five stand above the rest as burnt-out blog fodder in the spring of 2009:

1. Twitter. Who could possibly not be sick of hearing themselves talk about tweeting and how it's revolutionized communication?

2. Generation Y. I love the spirit of Generation Y (thus this blog), and analyzing how the group will shape society, but I'm over trying to pin personality characteristics on the generation. We mine as well be talking about horoscopes.

3. Recession. From eating to sexual habits, everything is related back to the recession. Some of the generalizations feel valid, but a lot of it's overdone. In our urge to pin a historical name on our present existence, we might not even realize when we are out of the recession (technically). We have no idea how history will look back on this period. (But yes, I know it's fun to talk about our Obama-era, post-Bush, globalized, recessionary, post-9/11, millennial existence.)

4. The death of the media industry. News is apparently ailing and yet we've heard about its slow death incessantly.

5. Blogging. The old poem about writing poetry is seen a lot in the blogosphere ... We've come full circle.

Is Tweeting Productive?

Those who surf the Internet at work for personal reasons are not any less productive than other employees -- in fact, they are more productive. At least that's what a recent Australian study found. According to the study, workers who use the Internet for personal reasons are 9% more productive than those who don't.

However, studies like that could be dangerous, because they suggest that, oh, it's OK to go on Twitter 24/7 because it makes me more productive. Not true. The study simply demonstrates that there are workers who have the ability and digital inclination to balance many tasks online and still be very productive. I would say many digital natives, or those who grew up with digital technology, have that ability, and will continue to transform the workforce with it.

So the study basically says that digitally savvy workers are not less productive. To me, that's kind of a "no duh," but I am glad there are more stats to refute the stigma that those who spend their breaks surfing the Internet (rather than any other time waster) are shirking other duties.

Also, the study reminds us that workers needs breaks in order to keep their minds fresh. We need to come up for air! In a previous post lobbying for why employers should let workers Twitter, I likened tweeting to the smoke break of the 21st century.

But what is happening here? Not only do we spend eight or more hours a day glued to a screen, but we remain glued to our screens even on breaks...Guilty!

The 'Secret' of New Media: Video Growth Spurt

Well now that I've confessed my love of podcasting, it's time to talk about video. And what perfect timing to talk about video: The blogosphere is abuzz with the latest Nielsen survey about the growth of online video. Nielsen found:

• The number of American users frequenting online video destinations has climbed 339 percent since 2003.
• Time spent on video sites has shot up almost 2,000 percent over the same period.
• In the last year alone, unique viewers of online video grew 10 percent and the total minutes engaged with online video grew 71 percent.

So if you are still wondering whether this video trend is real, stop wondering!

With that said, getting online video right can be a complicated task. And you want to get it right, because an unprofessional video presentation can tarnish a brand. However, not having video content could tarnish your brand even more.

Lucky for wannabe video producers, video is as accessible as it's ever been. That can be good or bad, just like all accessible things. In a previous post, I've bemoaned the rise of YouTube as a legitimate video platform on Web sites, but maybe I'm old-school new media (a phrase I stole from a comment left on the post).

The point is, the opportunity to create online video content is thriving, but how each Web site approaches it must fit with the audience and brand of the company. I'll continue to talk about video in upcoming posts.