Welcome to 19th edition of The Three Things, the weekly update of three links, podcasts, videos, or books you can’t miss from Michael Schechter (Honora, A Better Mess), Howie Goldfarb (Sky Pulse Media, Web Choice Consulting), and me!
For those of you new to this series, The Three Things arrives in your inbox on Sunday mornings (unless you don’t suscribe, but that can easily be fixed if you hurry over and enter your email address or add to your RSS feed) so you have some extra time to spend perusing the obscure content we’ve curated for you (and one another) before your week begins and deadlines, meetings, and work takes over.
This week we have thoughts on how your industry must change and adapt to new customer needs, the death of the news release, and the glorious English language.
Happy Gini birthday reading to you!
Michael on Change. I love technology and am often fascinated by the effect it’s having on the way we do business. I work at a 66-year-old jewelry company and we spend a fair amount of time balancing new sales channels and changing customer expectations with what we still know to work. It’s a delicate balance. It’s also one that makes it very easy to relate to the kind of change the music business is facing. Different as they may seem, the struggle both industries face is much the same. You have an established infrastructure clashing with emerging opportunities. You have loyalties, strengths, and familiarities that still work, but are often ripe for disruption. The equilibrium of creators, distributors and consumers is in flux. There’s a reluctance to change what’s still working, fighting a strong sense that it won’t keep working that way for long.
As a music fan, I’ve always sensed there were similarities between our evolving industries. Myke Hurley’s interview with indie rocker and polymath extraordinaire John Roderick of Long Winters fame, showed just how similar a struggle we have. Not only was this the best interview I’ve heard in a long time, it was a highly relevant one. While it starts on a personal note, it quickly turns into an examination of the way the music industry used to be, the way it could be and the way it currently is. Myke did a wonderful job as always and John offered such a balanced perspective on the evolution he is witnessing. It’s a fascinating look at the change many industries are facing through the lens of someone looking for the best possible way to make a living despite it all.
Howie on News Conferences. The real highlight of this article is how the Mayor’s Office issued the warning and link on Twitter. While maybe 15 percent of people have Twitter accounts, mobile allows those who do click the link and send to a contact list immediately. In the past a news conference or statement would be staged, TV stations would break to it, and we’d all wait with bated breath for journalists to tell us what was happening. Now any one of us can get the same information provided during a news conference through the social networks. But there is a drawback. There is no way for journalists to question authorities during a news conference (live or via phone) so it provides less accountability.
What You Think about Grammar is Wrong
Gini on Writing. I love the English language. I’m OCD about following the rules. Words such as utilize, irregardless, impact, that, and over (when you mean more than) or under (when you mean less than) drive me absolutely insane. I can’t help it; I have an English degree, which has served me very well in this content-rich technology age. This article puts an end to myths, such as you can’t end a sentence with a preposition (I’ll still make my team follow that rule, even if it’s my own), in a way that makes you think, “Well, crap. Now I have to change my writing.”
Now it’s your turn. Is there a podcast, video, book, or article you think we need to see?