As we begin the new year, you can expect technology to make further changes in the way your business and your customers interact, according to experts.
But a local expert says you need not fear the coming evolution because you are already a technology expert, though you may not know it.
“Most of you have become digital technologists, but you just haven’t realized it,” said Steve Bell, president of KeySo Global LLC in Long Grove. “But if you look over the past 30 years, you can see just how your life has changed inordinately.”
Bell, whose global consulting company tracks technology trends, says people tend to look at themselves as novices when new technology changes the way things are done. But when they step back and look at how they’ve adapted to technology over the decades, they can be more confident in taking advantage of the new developments that will affect their business and lives in the future.
Bell points to four developments in the 1980s that have significantly changed the way people live and work today: The creation of the PC computer and cellphone; the establishment of a global Internet, and the creation of the Sony Walkman. While the first three may be self-explanatory, Bell notes the Walkman opened the doors to the ability to carry “personal music” anywhere at anytime.
As the 1980s brought the introduction of these new technologies, the 1990s brought their integration into society, he said. For example, GSM cellphone technology (which Bell worked on when he was employed with Motorola), the development of the World Wide Web and Internet browsers, and the creation of TiVo with its ability to time-shift entertainment brought technology into the mainstream. Add to that the development of the iPod and iPhone and rise of social networking in the 2000s, and Bell said it easy to see just how well people have adapted to change.
“We help people recognize that they are much more technology savvy than they realize,” Bell said. “But it’s like the frog in a pot. You don’t know you’re being cooked until somebody shows you the water is much hotter than it used to be, so you have the opportunity to either jump out or continue to get cooked.
“We find once people look at it that way, they say ‘oh yeah, I never thought about it like that,’” he added.
Having that confidence to handle change will be even more important this year, as Bell believes 2012 will be a pivotal year in the integration of mobile technology into the business world.
“2010 brought everything together,” he said. “In device evolution, it’s the development of the tablets and cloud computing. The user experience is becoming more of a differentiator as touch screens are making things become more relevant. And social media is leveraging all these trends.”
As a result, he said. smartphone use and the growth of 4G LTE cellphone technology has already changed how consumers live, work, and shop — and that will change how businesses cater to their customers in the coming year.
“The confluence of LTE and smartphone devices is compelling because it gives an opportunity for the ecosystem that builds around them to not only grow and stimulate in relation to the U.S. economy, but potentially global as well,” he said. “But a more interesting element is that mobile devices, mobility and the power of the networks is fundamentally changing the business models for most companies and industries.”
We are already seeing this in the retail industry as more consumers are using smartphones to comparison shop — both online and in brick-and-mortar businesses (Bell estimates that 50 to 60 percent of all shoppers are already doing this). While in one store, they can use their phones to compare product prices among stores, and if they find a better deal, they can also check availability at that store before they leave one business for another.
But as digital wallets, smart cards and loyalty programs become more prevalent, businesses now have the opportunity to compile information on their customers, track their buying habits and even know what parts of their store they are frequenting. In turn, the business can develop and instantly push offers and opportunities tailored to keep customers in the store. Bell said having this technology gives the business the advantage to keep a customer from leaving the store if they find a better price elsewhere.
“On the one hand people are saying ‘can I get this somewhere else,’” he said. “But you can turn that around. You can push them a coupon (to their smartphone) that says ‘if you stay in the store and buy two items in the next half-hour, you can get a 25 percent discount on both items.’ It could easily match what they were going to get if they went elsewhere, but the positive thing is now they’re going to buy two items where before they would have bought none.”
While this is now being used by many national chains, Bell foresees the growth in 2012 of businesses that will help small to mid-sized retailers utilize the technology. He points to one company, Chicago-based Belly, as an example of firms helping small businesses develop customer loyalty programs that can compete with bigger players like Starbucks.
The key for the small business owner, Bell stresses, is to recognize what technology is doing, do some research, and take advantage of the opportunities that the changes will create.
“If you open your eyes and look at the technology that is around, if you use the Internet a little bit to explore, there is a plethora of opportunities to be very active and very flexible by utilizing some of the technologies to enhance your business, as well as enhance the experience of both the people who work in your company and the experience you can deliver to your customers,” Bell said.
For more information, go to www.keysoglobal.com.

As we begin the new year, you can expect technology to make further changes in the way your business and your customers interact, according to experts. But a local expert says you need not fear the coming evolution because you are already a technology expert, though you may not know it.

“Most of you have become digital technologists, but you just haven’t realized it,” said Steve Bell, president of KeySo Global LLC in Long Grove. “But if you look over the past 30 years, you can see just how your life has changed inordinately.”

Bell, whose global consulting company tracks technology trends, says people tend to look at themselves as novices when new technology changes the way things are done. But when they step back and look at how they’ve adapted to technology over the decades, they can be more confident in taking advantage of the new developments that will affect their business and lives in the future.

Bell points to four developments in the 1980s that have significantly changed the way people live and work today: The creation of the PC computer and cellphone; the establishment of a global Internet, and the creation of the Sony Walkman. While the first three may be self-explanatory, Bell notes the Walkman opened the doors to the ability to carry “personal music” anywhere at anytime.

As the 1980s brought the introduction of these new technologies, the 1990s brought their integration into society, he said. For example, GSM cellphone technology (which Bell worked on when he was employed with Motorola), the development of the World Wide Web and Internet browsers, and the creation of TiVo with its ability to time-shift entertainment brought technology into the mainstream. Add to that the development of the iPod and iPhone and rise of social networking in the 2000s, and Bell said it easy to see just how well people have adapted to change.

“We help people recognize that they are much more technology savvy than they realize,” Bell said. “But it’s like the frog in a pot. You don’t know you’re being cooked until somebody shows you the water is much hotter than it used to be, so you have the opportunity to either jump out or continue to get cooked.

“We find once people look at it that way, they say ‘oh yeah, I never thought about it like that,’” he added.

Having that confidence to handle change will be even more important this year, as Bell believes 2012 will be a pivotal year in the integration of mobile technology into the business world.

“2010 brought everything together,” he said. “In device evolution, it’s the development of the tablets and cloud computing. The user experience is becoming more of a differentiator as touch screens are making things become more relevant. And social media is leveraging all these trends.”

As a result, he said. smartphone use and the growth of 4G LTE cellphone technology has already changed how consumers live, work, and shop — and that will change how businesses cater to their customers in the coming year.

“The confluence of LTE and smartphone devices is compelling because it gives an opportunity for the ecosystem that builds around them to not only grow and stimulate in relation to the U.S. economy, but potentially global as well,” he said. “But a more interesting element is that mobile devices, mobility and the power of the networks is fundamentally changing the business models for most companies and industries.”

We are already seeing this in the retail industry as more consumers are using smartphones to comparison shop — both online and in brick-and-mortar businesses (Bell estimates that 50 to 60 percent of all shoppers are already doing this). While in one store, they can use their phones to compare product prices among stores, and if they find a better deal, they can also check availability at that store before they leave one business for another.

But as digital wallets, smart cards and loyalty programs become more prevalent, businesses now have the opportunity to compile information on their customers, track their buying habits and even know what parts of their store they are frequenting. In turn, the business can develop and instantly push offers and opportunities tailored to keep customers in the store. Bell said having this technology gives the business the advantage to keep a customer from leaving the store if they find a better price elsewhere.

“On the one hand people are saying ‘can I get this somewhere else,’” he said. “But you can turn that around. You can push them a coupon (to their smartphone) that says ‘if you stay in the store and buy two items in the next half-hour, you can get a 25 percent discount on both items.’ It could easily match what they were going to get if they went elsewhere, but the positive thing is now they’re going to buy two items where before they would have bought none.”

While this is now being used by many national chains, Bell foresees the growth in 2012 of businesses that will help small to mid-sized retailers utilize the technology. He points to one company, Chicago-based Belly, as an example of firms helping small businesses develop customer loyalty programs that can compete with bigger players like Starbucks.

The key for the small business owner, Bell stresses, is to recognize what technology is doing, do some research, and take advantage of the opportunities that the changes will create.

“If you open your eyes and look at the technology that is around, if you use the Internet a little bit to explore, there is a plethora of opportunities to be very active and very flexible by utilizing some of the technologies to enhance your business, as well as enhance the experience of both the people who work in your company and the experience you can deliver to your customers,” Bell said.

For more information, go to www.keysoglobal.com.

For many of us boomers, it was our first real exposure to technology.
But we never really saw — or cared about — the relays, switches and other electronics inside the ornately-painted box on four steel legs. We were too focused on keeping that perfectly polished silver ball from mercilessly slipping between the flippers.
Pinball was the game elevated to royalty by rock ‘n’ roll and played by millions who plunked down countless quarters in a quest to capture the merciless machine’s top score.
In its heyday, several pinball manufacturers — many based in the Chicago area — built the complex and ornate machines for the world. But as video games became big in the 80s, and gaming moved into our living rooms in the 90s, the glamour and business of pinball faded into history.
But inside a nondescript building nestled in a Melrose Park industrial park, Gary Stern is keeping the legacy of pinball alive. His company, Stern Pinball, is the only manufacturer of pinball machines in the world.
Stern, who has been in the pinball business for the majority of his 66 years, talks about the game with the energy of a player who just took the high score on a Fireball game.
“My father started in the game manufacturing business when I was two,” Stern said. In the 1940s, his father bought the Williams Pinball Company in Chicago. In the late 80s, it was sold to the Japanese game company Sega. In 1999, Stern bought the company back from Sega.
The pinball machines Stern makes are more technologically advanced than their predecessors, but he noted the core of the game hasn’t changed since it was developed in the 1930s.
“It’s still a bat and ballgame,” he said.
However, the game play experience has been improved with the help of technology. For example, computer chip memory allows the game to remember where a player left off during a play. Digital electronics provides animation during play. Even the bells and chimes have been replaced with digital audio recordings. Stern notes the “Rolling Stones” game, for example, features the music of the iconic rock band, and the “Family Guy” game has more than two hours of dialogue recorded by the show’s creator, Seth McFarlane.
More so, he notes, technology has made the machines more reliable, providing the ability to “self diagnose” problems and fix issues ranging from circuitry issues to a lost pinball.
“The electronics have changed so much over the years and it’s given us a lot more capabilities,” he said.
Even making a game has gone high-tech. Stern said game playing fields that were once designed on drafting tables are now done on computer screens with 2D CAD software. Once the game is designed, the parts are then completed using a 3-D design software, which has made the entire process more efficient.
“They can actually see how the parts will fit together, if the ball will fit through, what the ball’s is going to do,” Stern said. “And when its all done, they push a button and print out an assembly drawing with a whole bill of material.”
Stern’s Marketing Director Jody Dankberg said the company’s next step is to expand the pinball experience through new technologies. For example, the new Transformers game released this year features a number of QR codes that players can use to tap into information about the game, company, or even get some codes to speed up play.
Dankberg said the next step is to bring in a social aspect for players, connecting them to Wi-Fi and using online networks to play against each other.
“Pinball used to be very social, guys would go to a bar to play,” he said. “Now you might have a couple of guys with games in their home. Maybe with a webcam, they can talk to each other and play against each other. There are lots of things to do with an online database.”
Stern sells the games globally and about 55 percent of the inventory is exported, he said. Their customer base is threefold: operators and distributors who place the games in entertainment venues such as arcades and movie theaters; pinball enthusiasts and collectors; and the home entertainment market.
Stern said the home entertainment market is fairly new as boomers who grew up with pinball buy the machines for the family. But with prices upward to $6,000, it’s still a high-end device that shares itself with items such as pool tables and home theaters. In fact, Stern pinball games are primarily sold to consumers through high-end home entertainment stores, although they can also be found online through retail sites like Amazon.com and Bestbuy.com.
But it’s that very market, Stern adds, that’s creating a new generation of pinball wizards.
“One thing about having these games in the home is that teenagers are playing them, and that’s our next audience,” he said.
It’s also why Stern is focused on developing current and new games based on pop culture icons. Creating a game based on the “Transformers” movies, for example, gains appeal from young people, while the older generation appreciates the gaming experience.
As the only manufacturer of pinball machines in the world, Stern and his employees take an exceptional pride in the work they do and the torch they carry for a game that has its roots in Chicago and an appeal worldwide.
“The world will continue to exist without pinball,” Stern said. “But we feel a bit of that fabric of life would be gone.”
And while technology, advances in design and links to pop culture have helped expand and deepen the pinball playing experience, Stern insists the key to a successful pinball game lies in a simple core fundamental.
“It’s got to be fun!”
For more information, go to www.sternpinball.com.

What does the new generation of workers want most from you?
Money?
Job security?
Career advancement?
According to a new study from Cisco Connected World Technology, it’s none of these.
In their annual report on the next generation’s view of the Internet, mobile devices, social media and the workplace, the biggest thing people entering the workforce want from employers today is connectivity.
The study of almost 3,000 college students and recent graduates found that one in three felt the Internet was an essential need in life, ranking up there with such basics as air, water, food and shelter. More than half said they could not live without the Internet.
With that basis in mind, the study found that the importance of Internet-linked devices and the information they provide rivals the importance of money as college graduates seek new jobs.
Highlights of the study include:
• One in three would prioritize social media freedom, device flexibility and work mobility over salary in accepting job offers.
• Two in five would accept a lower-paying job with more flexibility with device choice, social media and mobility than a higher-paying job with less flexibility.
• Two of three college students plan to ask about social media usage during job interviews.
• One in four college students say social media usage would be a key factor in their decision to accept an offer.
• One in four said the absence of remote access would influence their job decision.
• Seven out of ten believe company-issued devices should be allowed for personal and business use because of the blending of work and personal communications in their daily lifestyles.
It’s that increasing demand to tie their work and personal lives that create new challenges for employers, according to Dan Croft, president of Mission Critical Wireless in Lincolnshire. As business and personal lives have become intermingled, so has data and information on the devices workers use to conduct both.
“We had much clearer boundaries between business and personal about 20 years ago,” Croft said. “That blurring is what we as managers and business owners today have to come to grips with.”
Croft noted, as an example, the smartphone he was using for our interview contained work data, but also personal pictures and music. As an employer, he said, you have to respect that your workers will not only want to use company tools for their work and personal lives, but also want to have remote access to company data to do their job.
But if an employee is using his own smartphone for work and personal business and resigns to go to a competitor, how does the business regain control over the sensitive data that might be on that phone? Croft notes this issue has created a new industry — mobile device management, which is one of Mission Critical’s major functions.
“We are able to differentiate what is personal information and what is corporate information on a device,” he said. “Then at the appropriate time, we are able to wipe the corporate data off the device but keep the personal data.”
Employers need to establish a clear policy with employees that they will grant access to company data and networks, but the company has the right to remove data and access from those devices when the employee leaves the company. That policy must be able to balance the company’s needs and the employee’s flexibility. Making a policy too strict, or even prohibiting the use of personal devices or network access, could have adverse effects.
“There needs to be an understanding between business necessities and basic wants, wishes and desires,” he said.
“Prohibiting this could have a significant risk, as it will encourage people to find a way, typically in a rogue fashion, to utilize a product as popular as the iPhone to gain access to employer data.”
Croft suggests talking to your employees about what their IT needs are and develop a plan that will be suitable to everyone.
“It may be OK that Angry Birds is on a company-issued phone,” he said. “Provided that I can still wipe the corporate information off the device. I really don’t care that Angry Birds is on that device.”
More more, go to www.missioncriticalwireless.com.

More tidbits
In addition to workplace issues, the Cisco study also provides an interesting snapshot of just how much the new workforce places on the Internet and connectivity. As mentioned before, more than half place the Internet as a basic need of life. Here are some more stats that you may find interesting:
• Two of three college students would chose an Internet connection over a car.
• Two out of five college students said they prefer using the Internet over dating, hanging out with friends, or music.
• One out of four college students prefer using Facebook over dating, hanging out with friends, or music.
• Sixty-six percent of college students, and 58 percent of new employees cite a mobile device as “the most important technology in their lives.”
• Seven out of 10 employees have “friended” their managers and/or co-workers on Facebook. Of those who use Twitter, 68 percent follow either their manager or co-workers, while 42 percent follow both.
• Only 32 percent prefer to keep their personal lives private.
• And, the one that hits closest to my heart: Only 4 percent say the newspaper is the most important tool for accessing information.

“It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it.”
Warren Buffett uttered his famed quote well before the likes of Facebook and Twitter came onto the scene. But if the Oracle of Omaha were to factor in the impact social media is having on the way customers relate to business, he might revise his quote to “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and one tweet to ruin it.”
How your company is perceived on social media has become as critical — if not more — than how it is perceived in more traditional realms, according to Dale Obrochta, president of UnderstandingYourimage.com in Orland Hills. While many companies still look at social media as a fad — or even a threat — Obrochta points out it has become the next progression in the way business effectively deals with its customers.
“This is basically communication,” he said. “In the past, companies had a letter department. People would write letters to the company, and the company would have someone write a response.”
Letters gave way to the telephone and 800 numbers. Phones became replaced by websites and email. In fact, Obrochta predicts that in the next two to three years, businesses will be using social media the way they currently are using email.
“It is the email of the 21st century,” he said, “and businesses need to understand that.”
Because of the way social media works — primarily, groups of people who share similar interests among themselves in virtual ‘communities’ — businesses have a unique opportunity to establish and build reputation and credibility, which can help grow the customer base.
However, Obrochta said, it’s key that the business owner monitor how his company is being perceived on social media to assure the company’s brand and reputation are positive.
Again, he points out, this is a simple progression from more traditional methods.
“Social media is your comment card,” he said. “If you do a search of your company on social media, you can see what people are saying about you, both good and bad.”
Addressing “the bad” directly is essential in maintaining reputation, Obrochta said. If people are complaining about your product or service, but it is an issue that’s affecting your entire industry, you have the opportunity to respond by saying you are not like the others, he said.
But, if the complaint or criticism is about your particular business or product, you need to address the problem.
Obrochta recommends you directly contact the person on the social media platform where the complaint is posted. Once there, acknowledge the problem, then give the person a way to address the issue directly with you, either through a phone call or email.
“What you’ve just done then is pulled that hostility off the Internet and drawn it into a phone call,” he said. “It is now in an environment that is one-to-one, instead of one-to-a-million.”
From there, you can work on a solution to the problem. Obrochta stresses you do not have to admit fault or blame, as long as you acknowledge there is a problem.
If the issue is resolved to the customer’s liking, Obrochta notes it can also turn into a positive spin for you.
“The odds are that they are going to go back online and tell everyone you did for them, and now you’ve built that positive PR again,” he said.
Above all, he notes, when you see negative comments about your business or products, resist the gut urge to defend yourself.
“As a business, the key thing is to get into these (social media) and listen,” he said. “And you should listen to see what the problem is.”
Obrochta highly recommends checking the social media site Yelp, which invites customers to write reviews of businesses they’ve dealt with.
You should also regularly monitor Twitter and Facebook, although Obrochta notes the latter has limitations in that you’re only in contact with those who have ‘liked’ your page.
Doing occasional web searches of your company name can also help you keep an eye on what people are saying.
Obrochta stresses that monitoring your company on social media is vital to maintain a relationship between your business and customers. Ignoring social media, he said, is akin to ignoring your customers.
“These are your customers. They are your clients. Why wouldn’t you want to make time for them?” he said. “People get frustrated when a company says they don’t have time to listen to the customer. So the customer says ‘if I can’t reach you, I’ll go on my Facebook page and say your product is lousy.’”
How a business projects itself in social media is as important to its credibility as how customers portray it.
Obrochta says that as more employees use social media for business and personal use, it becomes more important that the company establish rules of engagement to protect its credibility and reputation.
The best way to do that, he said, is to create a social media policy which establishes an etiquette of use, then educate your employees to make sure they understand what can and can’t be communicated.
“You are not trying to control them, but trying to educate them on how to present information out there,” Obrochta said. “You are already doing this with customer service. This brings customer service to social media.”
When dealing with social media, whether internal or external, you must always remember that you are talking to a crowd, not one-on-one.
How you respond to the crowd is important in order to build credibility among the community, Obrochta said.
“We tend to look at Facebook as a one-on-one,” he said. “But we forget it’s really one-to-many. That’s what your employees need to understand.”
His suggestion: When posting a comment or responding to someone, imagine there is a 4-year-old child, a priest, or someone you admire in the room with you. Respond the way you would to them.
“When you post, you will communicate in a manner that will resonate at that level, and your image will be intact.”

Your small company is located in suburban Chicago.
Your managing partner lives half a country away in California.
Your designers and programmers live half a world away in Ukraine.
These logistics alone can be daunting for any business owner, but it’s a balancing act Alena Tsimis and Olga Weiss deal with every day.
Tsimis and Weiss are managing partners of I Imagine Studios, an advertising/marketing company the two founded 10 years ago. The Evanston-based company has had a successful decade developing web-based marketing and advertising strategies for mid-size companies, landing clients ranging from kefir-based products maker Lifeway Foods of Morton Grove and Mount Prospect-based Salton Inc. to the Midtown Athletic Club in Chicago.
About three years after the company started, Weiss married and moved to Southern California. Though the partners were separated by more than 2,000 miles, they were determined to make the long-distance relationship work.
For that, they turned to technology.
Weiss works with the Evanston team from her office in Santa Monica, Calif., through Skype, the popular web-based videophone system. During a recent strategy meeting, Weiss worked with Tsimis and the I Imagine team to fine-tune and finalize plans for promoting and hosting Chicago Ideas Week, a weeklong innovation forum held earlier this month.
In addition to Skype, Tsimis said the firm also uses the web-based project management system Basecamp to develop, coordinate and keep track of projects among the staff of 20 employees and contractors spread out the company’s three locations. The program not only helps everyone stay on the same page with the company’s many projects, but it also allows the team to communicate directly with their clients, updating them on projects and getting feedback.
“Unfortunately, we’re not big enough to have our offices function independently, where (Weiss) can have her team and I can have mine,” Tsimis said. “We’re very much dependent on each other, so we have to learn how to work smart.
“We tried to find something that allows our team to work as a virtual team,” she added. “Our entire lives are spent on the Internet.”
Life on the Internet has helped I Imagine meet the challenge of the time differences between the three groups. With Weiss living two hours behind the home office and the Ukraine team living nine hours ahead, the company’s web-based tools keep everyone updated at any given time.
In some cases, Tsimis notes, the time differences have been beneficial on time-sensitive projects.
“Our clients know this and it can work to their advantage,” she said. “We can submit a project into Basecamp at 4 or 5 in the afternoon, and the job can be done by the next morning.”
While the firm spends most of its working life in the virtual world, Tsimis and her I Imagine team pride themselves on providing a “high touch” approach in their marketing and promotion efforts. The firm focuses on developing custom-designed websites and tools for its clients, the majority of whom Tsimis said fit with I Imagine’s mission of promoting better lifestyles.
“We believe marketing has a purpose to serve, and it’s not in developing bad habits, but in developing good habits that help people live healthy and happy lifestyles,” she said.
About 20 percent of I Imagine’s work is done pro bono for nonprofits, helping with specific causes. Among the groups the agency has worked with are Rotary International, the Emergency Fund for Needy People and the Homeless Connection. Their work includes developing a site for Rotary’s Kick Polio out of Africa campaign, which allows visitors to virtually autograph a soccer ball.
Tsimis points out that the company’s commitment to nonprofits stems from personal experience. She and Weiss became unemployed during the dot.com bubble bust, and they did volunteer work with the Rotary. When they created I Imagine, they folded that commitment to volunteerism into the company’s mission.
Despite the recession, I Imagine’s business has grown about 30 percent over last year, Tsimis said. Down the road, she looks to get the attention of more Fortune 1000 companies, especially those that have a focus on healthier lifestyle choices. She cites work being done by PepsiCo to provide a healthier lineup of snack and food items as an ideal future client.
“What they are doing goes beyond potato chips and soft drinks,” she said.
Most recently, Tsimis said, I Imagine has contracted with Laila Ali, professional boxer and daughter of boxing great Muhammad Ali, to develop a strategy for her new line of all-natural food products and cosmetics.
“We have been fortunate enough to have really good clients in that vein of health and wellness,” she said.
Having clients that fall into your mission helps create a stronger relationship, Tsimis said, as well as enhances the “high touch” personalized level of service the I Imagine provides.
“There is a saying that you can’t take your business personally,” she said. “I can’t do that. We take our business very personally.”

But when I went out to get it after taking a shower and getting dressed, it was gone.

I guess that shows that, no matter what format it takes, some people just refuse to pay for news content.

* CNN this week reported that the Tribune Company is reportedly developing its own tablet device, which, according to sources, would be given to subscribers for next to nothing if they sign up for extended period subscriptions or partner with cellular services.

Give TribCo credit for finally looking up at what other industries are doing to maximize. Hmmmm. give the hardware to consumers at next to nothing, lock them into a long-term deal for services provided to the device, and make those services somewhat exclusive.  Sound familiar?

As the folks at Apple, AT&T, Verizon, Amazon and others have been showing us for the past decade, the money is not necessarily in the product (though Apple may be exempt from that fact), the real profits are to be made in the services provided and the timely and convenient delivery of those services.

Nice to see at least one newspaper company acknowledging they are looking at the success of others and trying to adapt that into a model that may work for them.

* The Business Insider recently ran a piece entitled “Facebook is Your New Local Newspaper.”  Now, while I agree I can get more gossip about friends and relatives off of Facebook than I can out of my local newspaper, I really question the logic behind the story.

Certainly, I can get ads and coupons off Facebook, but is the content provided by friends, relatives and  bloggers writing “just for fun.” (and I have to question whether they really are writing “just for fun.”) providing the care and non-partisanship that professional journalists put into their works?

In a few years, perhaps journalism will find its way onto Facebook (or whatever replaces it by then). But for now, when it comes to local news presented in a professional, non-biased fashion, I’ll take my local gazette over the Facebook one.

But, fortunately, there are a few out there that are willing to give it a try. One of them is the Orange County Register, which decided to run with some recent research on the habits of tablet owners and create a P.M. edition for the iPad. But instead of just turning back the clock 30 years and giving readers a newspaper with final stock prices, the Register team instead focused on a key demographic and is tailoring the content to fit what they are looking for.  So instead of an electronic newspaper for the masses, its more of a niche product for young South California professionals.

It’s being offered at a price. But, as the Knight Foundation researchers found, tablet users are willing to pay for content if they find valuable to their lifestyle, in terms of information and fit.

A  smart move by the Register, and an experiment everyone should keep an eye on.

Keep in mind that survival of individual news companies won’t be reliant on one big money-maker, but several smaller ones. A P.M. tablet edition tailored for that particular audience could very well be a step in that direction.

The future of paid content … in Slovakia?

As more traditional news outlets jump onto the pay wall wagon, media blogger Alan Mutter highlights one model that seems to be working overseas. Two takeaways he notes:

1. News organizations working together to make it work (though he doesn’t mention if they are in competitive situations)

2. It’s easy for customers to pay.

Would something like this work in, say,  New York or Chicago, where competition among news orgs is fierce? That is unsure,  but it would be interesting to see the lions sitting with the lambs for the sake of journalism’s future.

More Hype on Hyperlocal

Interest blog item from Erik Wemple of the Washington Post on AOL and hyperlocal site Patch.  It’s interesting that Forbes predicts AOL’s massive venture is expected to lose $100 million this year. Seems like Patch’s revenue model — which is very similar to the one that doomed other good ventures earlier in the decade — has yet to catch on for the majority of its 800 sites.

What makes it sad is that Patch was one of the largest employer of out-of-work journalists in the past year (notably at a lower pay scale than they were previously making). If AOL cannot build a sustainable revenue stream for Patch, these journalists will be back on the streets…and that’s the real tragedy.

If newspaper publishers ran Hyundai, we’d still be driving econoboxes that barely made it past their warranties.

If newspaper publishers ran NASA, we’d still be shooting monkeys into space.

If..well, you get the idea.

It never ceases to amaze me that in an industry that holds others’ to the fire for the sake of change, they are so adverse to it themselves. This becomes clearer after reading the Poynter Institute’s Rick Edmond’s post on the innovative  e “three-around”  printing   technology that is as innovative for print as it is efficient.

The process would mean a radical revamp of current newspaper formats, as Edmonds points out, and there would be some capital costs involved. Nonetheless, the company that developed the technology last year has said they are not getting takers to the new process.

Why? Edmonds quotes one of the developers: ““We have a lot of people who say they want to go second, but no one wants to be first.”

What we as an industry continue to realize is that the most successful companies are the ones that are willing to take the risk, make the investment in time and money,  to survive. Yes, Apple has the iPad and iPhone, but they also had the Newton (and, frankly, AppleTV is something they do not talk highly of today).

I agree with Edmonds’ assumption that it could be due to the industry focused so hard on a digital future that they do not want to put that kind of money into a print effort. But so many publishers still look at their newspapers as the flagship of their business. If they want to keep the ship afloat, they cannot leave it as is.

Hopefully, someone will step forward and take the risk on three-arounds to see if it will, indeed, provide a more efficient and economical alternative to the print industry.

It’s time to give the monkeys a break.