ldsWebguy

According to a recent survey of worldwide marketers by ICOM, some traditional media choices are on the decline as a result of new media choices. For example:

• 42% of marketers say they use newspapers less.
• 20% use radio and television less.
• 18% use magazines less.

Fastest growing media?

1. Blogs, e-mails, group sites
2. Viral marketing
3. Internet
4. Commercial messages on handhelds

But don’t take survey results like this at face value. There’s more to the story than jumping to the conclusion that newspapers, radio, and TV are dying. eMarketer.com reminds us that “taking these survey results at face value is shortsighted. The idea that old media is a collection of monolithic business models doomed to death by static inaction misses the fact that these formats are changing to keep with the times. For one, all the alarmist claims that digital video recorders and video-on-demand will cause the death of TV and the loss of billions of dollars worth of advertising are just plain wrong. More people will watch more TV and video content in the future, not less. They will just be doing it in different ways via the Internet, the PC and portable devices.”

A November 2006 study by the American Advertising Federation found that U.S. advertising executives are highly interested in integrating online media with traditional media.

A colleague of mine who is an experienced public relations man agrees with this analysis: “The writer is spot on. New media is forcing old media to change and develop a different kind of style and relationship with their audiences. Old media will be around for a long time, but it’s certainly starting to look and feel different, even in our day-to-day working relationships with them. A fascinating time to be in the business.”

According to the latest “Home Technology Report” from Nielsen Media, more U.S. households now own DVD players (81.2%) than VCRs (79.2%).

Social networking sites such as MySpace, Facebook, and may others are beginning to go mobile. According to the “Mobile Social Communities” report from ABI Research, many social communities are now based on the mobile phone and other portable wireless devices in addition to computers. In a world that must constantly be in touch, you’re no longer tied to your computer; you can network over the phone 24×7.

Worldwide, there are almost 50 million members of “mobile social communities,” and projections say there will be 174 million in 5 years.

We have placed three podcast links on two pages of LDS.org for testing and evaluation purposes as we simultaneously develop a strategy and approach for podcasting.

Two of the podcasts are audio files and one is PDF. We invite you to subscribe to these podcasts and share with us your perspectives and thoughts. They will only be available for a limited time.

Broadband is no longer about the size of your pipe, but how you use it.

Now that about half of US households have broadband, the issue to think about isn’t just high-speed connection, but what value-added services can use the broadband connection to increase our quality of life. I’m talking about things like voice over Internet protocol (VoIP), Internet protocol TV (IPTV), and paid audio and video content.

In-Stat reports that more than 9 million US households have 1+ active VoIP users, and 49% of them have no land phone line. I want to get rid of my home land line as soon as I can convince my wife that her cell phone can work just fine at home. (All my kids have their own cell phones and they never use–or answer–the land phone.) I’d also like to get rid of my work land line as soon as our IT department finds a cost-effective way to jettison our land phones and issue VoIP cell phones to all employees; about half already have work cell phones.

On the hardware side: I want to reduce the number of gadgets I use (personal cell phone, work cell phone, home land phone, work land phone, work computer, home computer, iPAQ, etc.) and get better productivity in the process.

On the content side: I want to reduce the number of e-mail accounts, phone numbers, bank account numbers, utility bills, consumer credit accounts, and merge them all into one.

We are pleased to announce that the beta version of the redesigned Newsroom site of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) has been launched at http://beta.lds.org/newsroom. [Note: This beta site is no longer active, since the new site is now launched at newsroom.lds.org.]
The present site, developed a year or so before the 2002 Winter Olympic Games, contains feature and reference material written in part for the hundreds of journalists who then flocked to Salt Lake City looking for human interest stories.

The new site contains information in easily digestible form to suit not only journalists but other researchers and members of the public who are looking to find factual material on the Church quickly and easily. It is written in non-ecclesiastical language that they can readily understand.

The site will include a much more powerful search engine as well as more multimedia. For example, The World Report, a six-monthly summary of what is happening in the Church around the world, will have a permanent presence.

The newsroom site will contain links to other reliable Internet sources of information, and will include a feedback section to constantly monitor user use and make improvements. The site will be beta tested before taking the place of the present site some time in January or February.

Kevin Maney writes an article in today’s USA Today about new media and user-generated content. He talks about major events in 2006 around user-generated content, then wisely comments that the “flavor of the week” usually doesn’t change the world radically. (Remember how artificial intelligence, interactive TV, portals, community sites, and social networking were going to change the world overnight?)

They do tend to change our worlds over time, but the change is more evolutionary.

Check out ldsoss.org, which is organized “to help advance God’s purposes using our knowledge of technology and science… We attempt to provide affordable technological aids to individuals attempting to live as disciples of Christ in a modern world. We sponsor Open Source software projects and advance the adoption of Open Standards in an effort to make our technologies accessible to all people.”

They have a Wiki and a Mailing List.I would encourage the members of ldsoss to participate in the upcoming tech talks with the Chief Information Officer of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

According  to the Internet Video Audience report, more than one-third of the total US population ages 3+ will have viewed video on the Internet at least monthly during 2006.  But it’s growing fast, meaning that at this point in the year, nearly 60% of all Internet users watch video regularly. That will increase to 80% by 2010.

In 3 years, more than half of all Americans will be part of the online video audience.

Since you need broadband connections for a good video experience, you’d expect that broadband users watch more video than average. Yup. 86.6% of broadband users are now in the U.S. Internet video audience. Today, that audience is 65% male and 35% female, but that should even out soon according to an Online Publishers Association survey.

Joel Dehlin, the Chief Information Officer of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, has begun a public blog. He plans to talk about the technology used at the Church, what it’s like to work at the Church, and random musings.
He is planning to have discussions about the technologies the Church uses. The audience is intended to be software and system engineers who have an interest in what we’re doing at the Church.

He invites comments on topics you would be interested in.