Hello again! And yes, it's been a while. Sated by the success of the Future of Journalism summit this poster has been strangely quiet for the past couple of weeks while reflecting on "what it all meant". For one thing, as Chris Warren said in his closing address, we may not have answered all the questions, but we got the questions out there. It was worth the price of admission to hear Campbell Reid say he dreams of the day when he is released from the millstone of having to physically print newspapers. This from a News Ltd senior editorial executive and former editor of two of its flagships, The Australian and the Sydney Daily Telegraph.

Wake up you sleepy heads

Talking of newspapers - and specifically of media sections - we appeared to get more press coverage in the UK than here in Godzone. At this point our thanks go out to Roy Greenslade who knows a good media story when he sees one. But I can't help thinking out loud that some of the cohorts of media writers in Sydney missed an opportunity to get in front of some of the top names in the business.

Kudos, frankly, to Matthew Ricketson of The Age who blagged his way into a VIP lunch hosted by Mark Scott of the ABC and Chris Warren of this parish for the likes of Michael Elliott, John Hartigan, Greenslade, Max Uechtritz, Bambang Harymurti of Tempo, K Kabilan of malaysiakini plus a bit of a who's who of local ABC identities.  He may not have got a heap of coverage on the day, but Ricketson has at least got his business card to some big hitters, which is one of those things media writers like to do, if I recall my stint as a media writer correctly.

Falling values

Jeff Jarvis has this piece in his Buzzmachine blog today highlighting something we've previously touched upon - the seeming freefall of newspaper values which is hitting the US and UK markets. We've already seen the UK's Johnston Press, one of that country's most influential regional owners (The Scotsman, Manchester Evening News, etc) writing millions off the value of its assets.

This is serious., especially if you are in the business of private equity investing. Your money wants to go where revenues, profits and values are holding up, and they ain't doing that in print.

Blair niche project

Terrific to see Tim Blair back from surgery with no adverse effects on his bile duct by the looks of things. Tim's been blogging at a variety of domains for about a decade - he was one of the early adopters and has built a pretty significant following. So much so that - just last week - the Daily Telegraph made him an offer he can't refuse and he moved his blog into the news Ltd stable.

A smart move by News and one that may turn out to be seminal. News can recognise that people like Tim have built up fairly loyal and linked-in networks of regular readers. He's becoming a "brand" (how I hate that word!) and news appears to have heard the  Emily Bell mantra: "reach equals revenue". The strategy: identify online communities and bring them into your network. There may not be much money in it right now, but down the track - who knows. So kudos to news and good luck to Tim.

(As a footnote, however, there have been stirrings on Tim's blog that suggest some of his regular posters are not happy about being branded as a News Ltd community. These are mavericks from the loony right (sorry Tim but you know they are) and some of them don't like being part of a corporate business plan.

Cool move from Reuters

Reuters is clearly beginning to think about life after its traditional clients. The news agency has opened its content up via an API (application programming interface) which essentially turns i into a platform as much as it is a content provider. Reuters has been one ofthe more innovative media companies in the past year or so. A couple of months ago it announced its intention of using its 70,000-odd financial subscribers to build a social network for traders, analysts and fund managers.

Business news being one of the places it's at - certainly in terms of being able to "monetise" your content, this is a smart move by the platform formerly known as a wire service agency. It creates another of those networks we were talking about - although this one will be made up of high net worth people with advertisers fighting to get in front of them.

Wired Journalists

Joined this network just now. I'm told that the earlier one gets on board with these online "communities" the better for both you and your community. There's a lot of good stuff to be read but the real value, I gather, is in meeting online to swap ideas, links, etc. We'll see...

We're all doomed... aren't we?

This just in from Princeton's Future of News conference - as covered by the Grauniad. More hand wringing about the future of print. Links to a strong piece in The Economist which looks at the decline in circulation and ad revenue in US papers and notes the rise and rise of the Huffington Post from an internet agggregator to  "a fully fledged online newspaper with liberal sensibilities close to those of the New York Times".

So-o-o, perhaps we are not all doomed after all. How is the Huffington Post keeping its head above water?  It doens't have all those pesky printing costs, for a start. Here is a roll call of the advances that have made newsprint the problematic proposition it has apparently become.

Keep your eyes on this

This conference is probably worth keeping up with, given that Stanford produced a lot of the geeky types whose innovations are now set to revolutionise the way we go business. I'll be watching it closely, so stay tuned...

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