Ah, for the days of print gone by—when there was only one distribution mechanism to transmit information to readers—everything seemed so simple. But along came the Internet, and suddenly readers demanded our content via print, our Web sites and e-mail newsletters. Our once-simple content-distribution model suddenly became complicated, and disrupted the business models to which we were accustomed. My friends, we had better get used to it because the fragmentation has only just begun. Two major technologies have emerged that further complicate how we must connect our brands and content to...

I’m honored to be part of a panel speaking at an upcoming webinar by min called “Monetizing Content Online: Turning Editorial & Eyeballs into Real Revenue.” The topic is a bit generic, but the panel min has assembled is excellent: Kevin Gentzel, Chief Advertising Office, Forbes.com Jim Berra, Senior VP & General Manager, Rodale Interactive John Alderman, Publisher, Slate.com And, of course, yours truly Key issues will include: Using content to create unique advertising opportunities and other revenue streams Creating content that readers want to use and share The role of...

I am honored to be speaking at 3 online sales related sessions at the 2008 Folio Summit later this month in Miami: Monetize Your Reader – 11:00 AM on Thursday, Feb. 21. Chris Collins (VP of Multimedia Sales for Dow Jones), Jonathan Chalon (VP and Group Publisher for Penton Media), and I will be showing how to really monetize user generated content (UGC). Where are the opportunities and pitfalls? What kinds of social media work in different markets? And how can you make the most money from online social media? As you know, I am a huge fan of UGC and believe it is one of the keys for any...

NOTE: I wrote this article for the June 2007 issue of Folio. Here is the complete, unedited version… Just when you thought you had the hang of SEO and SEM to drive traffic to your publication’s web site, along comes another acronym for you to master: SMO. Social Media Optimization (SMO), was coined by Rohit Bhargava of Ogilvy Public Relations in 2006 and is a set of tactics to get more exposure for your site in social media (blogs, forums, social bookmarking sites, etc.). The goal of SMO is to make it as easy as possible for others to link to your content and thus get as many...

I had the honor of being on the “smaller publishers” panel discussing social networking at the ABM Spring Meeting in Naples, FL earlier this week. It was a great session with excellent questions and a great group of panelists. One of my fellow panelists was Steve MacMinn, CTO of Globalspec, an internet-based information company focused on engineering and industrial markets. Back in April 2005, they launched their version of a social network called CR4 (which stands for Conference Room 4, BTW). I enjoyed being on the panel with Steve as it was very obvious he knew what he was doing and had...