Newspaper Support Group

JC Penney is under new, focused leadership. CEO, Ron Johnson, is looking to translate his success creating Apple stores over to the tired department store world.

This is bad news for newspapers status quo, but very good news for those looking for innovation. JC Penney is about to lead other department stores away from the constant sales that have been their bread and butter for decades. We’re almost certainly going to see fewer newspaper inserts.

I wouldn’t be surprised to watch the other stores follow.

According to Ad Age:

“The strategy will trim JC Penney’s promotions to 12 a year from 590. In an homage to the promotional noise, presentation attendees walked down a hall plastered with old ads and circulars to the accompaniment of a raucous soundtrack that included a cat fight. Mr. Francis called it the “Hall of Hell.” Instead of spending $2 million per promotion, Mr. Johnson said, JC Penney will spend $80 million a month promoting all its products.”

That’s a reduction of about $220 million from their current budget and will require less space to let everyone know what will be on sale.

Newspapers need to be thinking not only about how they’ll capture this new money, but how they’re going to grab it all at once. Since the department store market (desperate for leadership) will likely follow suit, we see a big dip in department store spending plus a conscious and performance-based reallocation of advertising dollars in the coming year.

We live in exciting times.

And one of the most exciting products I’ve seen in the long time is this contraption:

What is it? Well, it’s a Raspberry Pi. It’s a little computer with specs from a decade old computer and I’d bet that this little guy will end up changing the world.

It’s $25 which means that much of the world can scrape together enough money to afford it. It uses HDMI for video which means it can connect to most modern televisions, it has ethernet for internet, and USB for connecting to peripherals and wireless cards. It’s also the size of a credit card.

I love that they’re shipping it without a case (which means you’ve got to build your own). I love that they’ve built it to be hacked on. I love that the operating system most people will choose to run for this little machine is free. I love that the execution and branding is so thoroughly competent and friendly.

This computer won’t be for everyone. But like the Apple I, the Altair, and many other early computers, the kids who hack on this computer will grow up to change the world. This is what the One Laptop per Child should have been.

It’s an utterly brilliant development.

Alexis Ohanian, cofounder of Reddit, angel investor, and member of OwnLocal’s advisory board makes a correct and passionate case against the pending SOPA legislation on Bloomberg TV (in a suit!).

I read TechCrunch nearly every day, but the decline of the book publishing industry seems to have sparked a rare bit of truly enjoyable writing in John Biggs as he waxes on the glory days:

“As much as I want the halcyon days of Raymond Carver sending off his ream of short stories to Gordon Lish in New York to return – the old bear-man sighing contentedly as he finishes his last bottle of gin, burping gently as his eyes caress the waning sunlight falling over the hood of his new hard-won Cadillac as the publishing industry churns in that vast belly of the East Coast Moloch – let’s be serious. The real money makers – cookbooks and crossword puzzles – are clearly not even making B&N much cash, which suggests that the other publishers who depend on fast-turnaround, low-cost content to support the grand publishing pyramid where The Corrections is supported by sales of Kim Kardashian’s tips to a better marriage, are pretty much sunk.

The long tail is curling up on itself. Books that never would have seen the light of day, full of vampires, florid prose, and covers that look like they were done by a medicated third-grader, are selling like Dickens for 99 cents a pop. Back catalogs are being decimated by digital reprints and even the dream of print on demand is reaching it’s obvious conclusion. There is no such thing as vanity publishing anymore, just writing that is good and writing that is bad. The market then decides.

Pour out a little strong coffee for B&N’s book stores, folks. The captain is disembarking ship.”

Brian Deagon of Investor’s Business Daily Makes an absurd prediction for the new year:

“1. Apple will lose its cool factor.

With the iPod, iPhone and iPad, Apple (AAPL) redefined markets and defined cool. But what’s left? The iPhone is boxy, flat and feeling stale. The Samsung Galaxy smartphone seems cooler. With Google’s (GOOG) Android platform now the fastest-growing mobile OS, Apple’s software advantage will diminish. Smartphones and tablets will become commodity items and Apple will be eaten by the collective Android gang. Apple’s next big hope is the TV market, a tough nut to crack and where Samsung is king.”

I’m not sure what world he’s living in. Buying Apple products isn’t just about being “cool” the way it was “cool” to wear your jeans backwards for the few months when Kris Kross was popular in 1992. It’s a trend thirteen years in the making.

iPhones and iPods are relatively inexpensive status symbols. It’s hard to think of any other area where the very best thing you can buy (even if you’re a billionaire, the president of the United States, or a movie star) is exactly the same thing anybody can walk into an Apple store and buy for $200. The Ferrari of phones is still an iPhone.

For years now, newspapers have been looking for people to cut. I’ve written before that this is the wrong focus. The real mark of a successful organization is who they hire, not just who they fire. After all, the people who are actually at your company are going to have a bigger effect on its performance than those who aren’t.

The way your organization behaves a year from now is going to be the average of the people working for you today.

Are they curious? Do they solve problems? Do they come up with great ideas? Are they passionate? Do they create high quality work? Are they inventive? Do they demand excellence from their peers?

What about you?

So instead of spending your time on who you’re going to cut to meet your budget, focus on hiring the people who will make your company great.

Great companies will be around in the future.

It’s short and correct. We don’t live in the world we were born into.

“Of course, this isn’t a problem. It’s a huge opportunity. There is that 12 year old that is imagining what we can’t. Another that is combining elements into something new we should have seen, but did not. It reminds me of one of my favorite sayings. “If you are looking where everyone else is for the next big thing, you are looking in the wrong place.’”

It’s up to us to invent the future.

Read the whole post.

From the article:

“And small businesses need a revolution in the way they do almost everything. I should know. At OwnLocal, we work with thousands of these merchants every day. Everything from accounting software to inventory management to social media could use an overhaul from the small business owner’s perspective.”

Happy New Year!

AdForge Everywhere

AdForge has been making some big moves lately. It’s fully integrated into your website, your directory, and AdForge ads now automatically show up on OwnLocal created websites.

It’s the most seamless way for your advertisers to keep their own customers up-to-date with current advertisements.

In the paper. On the web. And now on your clients’ websites.

It’s just one more way OwnLocal is innovating.

How It Works

Who says that a newspaper ad must only be viewed in print?

AdForge is already the easiest and most advanced way to bring your print ads online, integrate them with your newspaper’s website, and let your users share them on Twitter, Facebook, and more.

Even better, if you’re using OwnLocal’s Local Hero Directory, print ads will automatically show up on the corresponding business’s page so your visitors will always see the most up-to-date information, coupons, and special offers.

But we’ve decided to take it one step further. Print ads should automatically show up on your print customer’s websites. It’s a great way to help your customers always display the most recent information on the web and yet another reason to invest in regular print advertising.

Starting early next year, AdForge ads will automatically show up on all OwnLocal created websites.

If you’d like to learn more, schedule a training with OwnLocal by calling (512) 501-6265.

Forbes mentions OwnLocal in their article about the “4 Megatrends in Social Media and Social Business“. Haydn Shaughnessy

From the article:

“OwnLocal offers a suite of SEO and related social tools to rural and semi-rural business owners via local newspapers, as well as daily deals functionality. WordPress owner Automattic invested in OwnLocal back in October – giving WordPress a leg up into highly local social.”

You can read the whole thing here.

Ever since Apple released Cover Flow as a method of music discovery on their iPhone and iPod Touch lines, the world has sought to copy this idea. At first blush it seems really nifty, almost groundbreaking. It’s like a jukebox in a diner. It reminds you of the pleasure of flipping through a milk crate of records. It’s just the kind of thing you’d think you’d love.

And then reality sets in.

It is quite simply the lowest density of information with the most work to come about in computer interfaces in 30 years. For each swipe or press, you’re rewarded with very little new information. As an efficient method of discovery, it’s a disaster. You use it a few times and you try to never rotate your iPhone or iPod horizontally ever again.

Even though almost no one actually likes Cover Flow, it’s everywhere now. The metaphor has metastasized to Apple’s MacOS X. It’s somehow wedged itself into Netflix (especially the made for television versions) where it has rendered navigation a laborious chore. Versions of it are the key views in Pandora and on the Amazon’s Kindle. Everywhere I look, this utterly lousy interface has spread.

This interface is good for exactly one thing: The ten second demo where you get to be amazed at how responsive the software is.

Past that, what’s the point?

Note: We actually use a Cover Flow style widget to augment our AdForge software. The primary view is (and will remain until something better comes along) a browsable list.

This is an amazing piece of news.

You can read about it here.

The thing is, I can’t tell whether choosing Cornell was a larger blow for Stanford… or for New York City.

The sad but imminent news today is that Christopher Hitchens has passed away at the age of 62.

He was a brilliant writer, sophisticated thinker, and no matter which side you were on, a gifted ally or worthy opponent.

Hitch’s writing tended towards the dry but humorous, subtle but damning.  And even as there were those who prayed for his eternal salvation, he was not one of them.

He was among the last of the hard-drinking, hard-smoking, hard living journalists out there. He died as he lived, seemingly without regret, apparently without illusion, and fundamentally dedicated to truth and reality. Whether you believe he was foolish or enlightened, he made death a study and his last moments courageous ones.

He will be missed by all.

OwnLocal was recently featured in Editor & Publisher. It’s incredibly gratifying to see our work viewed favorably by the newspaper community.

You can read the full article here.

I’m sure most of you are familiar with the story of Stone Soup. If not, it goes something like this:

A few wanderers show up in a village.

They stop at a few houses and politely inquire with the residents if they would be willing to share some food with them. Each one says no. Discouraged, the wanderers come up with a plan. They fill a large pot with water, drop a stone in, and place it over a fire in the center of the village.

As the villagers become curious, the wanderers inform them that they’re making stone soup. It’s delicious but it would be so much better if they only had a carrot, a potato, a bit of celery, etc. They agree to share a bowl of their concoction with the one who helped their soup reach ever greater delectability. One by one, the villagers participate in the creation of this stone soup by adding little bits of food. At the end, the whole village shares in a delicious stew unaware that each small contribution added up to a meal for all.

In our travels at OwnLocal, we often feel like those wanderers must have. It’s not always easy to encourage people to do what’s good for themselves and ultimately good for their community. We like to say a rising tide lifts all boats. Nowhere is that more true than on the Internet or in small town dynamics. A great business downtown benefits all businesses. Businesses that can be found on the internet drive more customers to that neighborhood. When many businesses outperform what’s typically possible, it can feel a little like magic.

One of the most gratifying part of what we do is seeing amazing transformations happen.

One day, we’ll be setting up a cooking pot in your town. We’ll provide the stone. Come and bring some friends… and you know, this soup would taste just amazing with a carrot in it…

See you soon!

It’s that time of year again.

Thousands of startups applied to Y Combinator. Just a tiny fraction were accepted. By my calculations it’s at least three times harder to get into than Harvard.

To those that got in, congratulations! It’s time to buckle down and get to work. Make these the most productive months of your entire life.

To those that didn’t, well, it’s still time to get to work. You’ll need to buckle down and get to work. Go ahead and make these the most productive months of your entire life.

If you want to understand the Y Combinator experience, it’s quite simple really. Shut the door, block out all distractions, make something people want, and launch something within 3 months. Once a week, get together with the smartest people you know for feedback and advice.

Seriously, that’s the secret sauce. Incredible, right?

Whether you got in or not, you don’t need anyone’s permission to build the next big thing.

Good luck!

OwnLocal is proud to present:

Just had the startling realization that a map of where all the McDonald’s restaurants are in the United States looks eerily similar to our OwnLocal client prospect map…

All startups start off as roller coasters. Highs and lows, dips and drops. Soaring heights, stomach churning falls. Twists and turns that would pummel risk-averse folks into jelly. Most startup founders would be lying if they told you they had never physically felt ill from one development or another at their startup.

But the dream of every startup is to get off the roller coaster and become a carousel. Less excitement for sure. Not the thrill of acceleration, the experience of speed.

Sure, there’s still going to be bumps and jostling, but a lot less dry heaving.

It’s been a great year for OwnLocal (though a tough year for Tone).

In honor of our weekly Thursday happy hour (and bad puns the world over), a little “Wild Thing” seems to be in order.