Saturday, March 30, 2013

The Business April 3rd, 2013: The BARATUNDE THURSTON Edition WITH BARATUNDE THURSTON



WHY AREN’T YOU LINED UP OUTSIDE THE DARK ROOM ALREADY?!?

The Business is never a show to miss, but this week… THIS WEEK.  

We are welcoming two splendid guests: Frank Chu and Boutros-Boutros Ghali.

BARATUNDE THURSTON. 

Baratunde Thurston is a politically-active, technology-loving comedian from the future. He co-founded the black political blog, Jack and Jill Politics and served as Director of Digital for The Onion before launching the comedy/technology startup Cultivated Wit. Then-candidate Barack Obama called him "someone I need to know." Baratunde travels the world speaking and advising and performs standup regularly in NYC. He resides in Brooklyn, lives on Twitter and has over 30 years experience being black. He writes the monthly backpage column for Fast Company, and his first book, How To Be Black, is a New York Times best-seller.

And the wonderful Wonder Dave

Wonder Dave is a writer and performer from Minneapolis MN. not to be confused with Super Dave, who isn't the slightest bit wonderful.  In 2010 Dave, as part of the Minneapolis Slam Team, appeared on the Group Piece Finals stage at the National Poetry Slam. Dave’s poetry has been published or is forthcoming in the Legendary, Orange Room Review, Breadcrumb Scabs, Pedestal, Shit Creek Review and Assaracus Magazine. 

All of your regulars will be there, it’s going to be like our new poster IN REAL LIFE!

The Business sells out.  Get there early for a seat.  

BYOBurrito. With black beans, or you're racist. 





Friday, March 29, 2013

[Re-] establishing the relevance of legacy news organizations

Legacy news organizations (newspapers, magazines, and broadcasters) are confronting three critical relevance challenges as the digital world matures: Changing business configurations and characteristics, declining value of traditional news and informational content, and unhealthy attitudes toward audiences. These challenges will need significant attention if they are to be successful in the new information environment. 

During the twentieth century news products were widely used, fast-moving consumer goods. Because media operated in relatively inefficient markets, news organizations were cash-producing investments with high cash flows that yielded high profits. Newspapers had asset-heavy balance sheets and excellent equity positions.
The business drivers of the legacy news industry in the latter half of the twentieth century were growing consumption in absolute audience sizes (but declining penetration that most executives ignored). Companies changed high prices for advertising and set low prices (or no price) for consumers. They had the ability to self-finance operations and growth, carried relatively low debt loads (with the exception of a few firms during acquisition binges in the late 1990s and first decade of the millennium), and their shares were highly desired by investors.

Those conditions have changed markedly. The emergent business characteristics are that news is a low-demand consumer good with niche audiences, producing low cash flow, requiring asset-light balance sheets, and producing normal rather than excess profits.

Today there is diminishing consumption of news in traditional forms by audiences and advertisers, increasing prices for audience consumption and decreasing prices for advertising in many media. Low debt loads have become a necessity and most news organizations are no longer attractive investments. These changing characteristics and business factors are not a short-term problem, but represent a comprehensive transformation of the industry.
Compounding these business challenges is the reduced value of news and information content provided by most news organizations. Fifty years ago, you had to read a newspaper if you wanted to know what the weather was going to be, whether your favorite team won the match last night, whether share prices of your investments were up or down, what was happening in the school your children attended, whether the government was planning to increase taxes, whether the conflicts in other parts of the world were going to affect you, and what commentators were saying about public affairs.

Today, we have enormously increased amounts of news and information available from a wide variety of paid and free sources. At the better end of the spectrum is expert journalism in which economists, scientists, bankers, and other cover many topics of interest and specialized independent journalists and news organizations that are covering military affairs, social benefits, and corruption. Unfortunately, the overall trend is toward a narrower form of news and information, with reduced focus on issues, oversight, and analysis, and an inordinant supply of celebrity, sports, and entertainment news.

If legacy news providers are to overcome the content challenges, they will need to rethink and improve the value of content on all their platforms and strive to make their news and information unique. The content of news organizations will need to be reconceptualized and can’t just be moved across platforms because each is a different product, used in different ways by consumers, and needs different types of news and information to be prominent and presented in different forms.
Of equal importance, news organizations and journalists will need to interact with audiences in new ways that are outside their comfort zones. This is problematic because journalism has traditionally had highly paternalistic role definitions, seeing its functions as educating the rabble, guiding thought and opinion, protecting social order, and comforting the people. These definitions combine with professional values promoting wariness of social alliances and distrust of sources of information to make most journalists stand separate from the society and people they cover.

Those attitudes create significance relevance problems in the digital world because it is networked and collective, based on relationships and collaboration, and relies on connections built on shared values and interests, acceptance, transactions, reciprocity, acceptance, and trust. The public is increasingly adopting values and norms of the digital world and this is creating many conflicts with journalism.

Journalism remains firmly rooted in the material world which is based on structured relationships, privacy and concealment, property, hierarchy, control, and formality. But the digital world is based on more amorphous relationships, revelation and transparency, sharing, collaboration, empowerment, and informality. Consequently many news organizations have difficulties relating to the public in the digital world and are struggling to adapt.

For news organizations, adjusting to the new world is not simply a matter of finding new revenue, moving content to new platforms, and maintaining existing relationships with the public. It will require a complete rethinking of the roles and functions of news media, how they fit into peoples’ lives, and where they are positioned in the new information environment. These are enormous challenges and need to receive increased attention.

Thursday, March 28, 2013

Enhanced Campaigns Hangouts on Air: Campaign Management and Upgrading Strategies

AdWords Specialists hosted a Hangout on Air yesterday as the second installment of the Enhanced Campaign Hangouts on Air series.

During the Hangout, Phil and Leslie talked about how to upgrade to use the new Enhanced Campaign features. Phil told us how to upgrade a single campaign, and Leslie showed us how to use AdWords Editor to migrate multiple campaigns before upgrading. To watch the full 20-minute Hangout on Air, visit the Google Business YouTube channel.


To learn more about how to get started with AdWords, visit our Help Center, check out the AdWords Community forum, or call us at 866-2-GOOGLE if you already have an AdWords account.

And remember to tune in to the live stream of our next Hangout on Air at 11 a.m. PDT, Wednesday April 10th, when we discuss location targeting and ad extension updates.

Stay tuned!

Monday, March 25, 2013

The Business March 27, 2013: The “Will you Durst with us?” Edition



We saved a spot on our Durst card open just for you.  Come join us!

Sweeping both sides of the aisle with a quiver full of arrows dipped in common sense, Will Durst transcends party ties, having performed at events honoring former Presidents Bill Clinton and George HW Bush as well as acclaimed appearances a column, daily website jokes—yet still finds time to perform hundredss of comedy shows every year. He has racked up more than 400 television appearances in 14 different countries while slinging jokes around the globe in his one man crusade to make people laugh out loud on purpose against their will. Hobbies include the never-ending quest for the perfect cheeseburger, while his heroes remain the same as when he was twelve—Thomas Jefferson and Bugs Bunny.

Also joining us, the fantastic Karinda Dobbins

Hailing from the Motor City and now living in the Bay Area, Karinda's humor is sharp, distinctive and infused with hilarious social commentary. Karinda has appeared at dozens of venues throughout the SF Bay including The Purple Onion, San Francisco Punchline and Cobb's. Karinda is a breakthrough talent with an unconventional perspective and colorful wit that engages and pulls you into her aggressively laid-back comedic style.


Hosting the evening’s boogie will be Matt Lieb

Matt Lieb is a comedian, writer, actor and street musician/Bone Thugs-N-Harmony cover band. He was the winner of the 2004 KZSC Comedy Competition, has performed with Brent Weinbach, Moshe Kasher, Mary Van Note, Ronna & Beverly and has opened for W. Kamau Bell, Jasper Redd and San Francisco’s premier sketch comedy troupe Killing My Lobster.

And featuring your regulars Caitlin “Mashed Potato” Gill and  Nato “Twerking” Green.

You can cut this rug for just $5!  You can even bring a friend for free with one of our handy 2 for 1 coupons! http://thebusinesscomedy.blogspot.com/

BYOBurrito and electric slide it down your gullet. 

Monday, March 18, 2013

The Business March 20th 2013: The “So a Bishop and an Old Lady Walk Into The Business…” Edition



With a set-up like that, you just KNOW you’re in for wacky hijinks!!

This week we welcome back an old favorite before she becomes worm food.  

At age 77, Lynn Ruth Miller is a renaissance woman who wears many hats. She entertains audiences of all ages with comedy and song. She is living proof that the older you are, the more fun you have.Lynn Ruth is the host on two television programs on public access television, Channel 26 in Pacifica: “What’s Hot Between The Covers” (book reviews and interviews in the arts) and “Paint With Lynn” (a hands on creative arts series)

We are also happy to have, all the way from LA, the fabulous Pat Bishop.
 
Pat Bishop writes, produces, and directs sketches and other content at Funny Or Die, and performs stand-up across the country. He's super into ginger ale.  So he and Lynn Ruth already have a lot in common!

All these wonderful guests, plus your Business regulars Bucky “Chicken Crossin the Road” Sinister, Nato “Stupid Blonde” Green, Sean “Knock Knock” Keane and Caitlin “Yo Momma” Gill.  

This whole show is just $5!!! And you can bring a friend for freeeeeee!  http://thebusinesscomedy.blogspot.com/

Get there early!  WE SELL OUT.


BYOBurrito cause I ain’t sharin’ mine.  NO JOKE. 

Friday, March 15, 2013

Help Desk Hangouts: Google+ Profile and Page Update

Editor’s note: Each week on the Google+ Your Business page, we’re putting you in touch with Googlers and users who can help you as a business owner get the most out of our products and features.

In our latest Help Desk Hangout On Air, we chatted with +Navin Kadaba, who works on Google+. We walked through the updates to Google+ profiles and pages that rolled out last week, learning about the new, larger cover photo, the refreshed look and functionality of the About tab, and the new customizable tabs for profiles.

Miss the event? You can watch the whole thing on the Google and Your Business YouTube channel.


Check out the video description on the YouTube page for a minute-by-minute breakdown.

Some of the questions we answered during the Hangout:
What size photo should I upload as my new cover photo?
We recommend that you upload an image that is 960 x 540 px (16x9 aspect ratio). At a minimum, please select a photo that is 480 x 270 px. For HD displays, we’ll take a maximum resolution of 2120 x 1192 px.

What does the update look like on mobile?
This is a desktop-only update for now.

Any tips and tricks to making my page look good?
We’d recommend keeping the essential aspects of your cover photo toward middle, vertically. The bottom fifth of the cover photo will sometimes be covered by a dark gray bar, and when people visit the page, the top portion of the cover photo may not be visible. We also recommend uploading a large, zoomed out profile photo, so you can crop the photo to appear as you’d like.