A long day in the office. There was reading and recruiting and renting a van and finishing the last plans for a trip and grading. lots and lots of grading.
I’m not even sure that I left the building until dinner time.
ComScore says if you aren’t mobile you aren’t anywhere:
(T)he effects of a movement toward mobile are everywhere, from shopping to media to search. According to the report, “2013 could spell a very rocky economic transition,” and businesses will have to scramble to stay ahead of consumers’ changing behavior.
Here are a few interesting tidbits from the 48-page report.
The mobile transition is happening astonishingly quickly. Last year, smartphone penetration crossed 50 percent for the first time, led by Android phones. People spend 63 percent of their time online on desktop computers and 37 percent on mobile devices, including smartphones and tablets, according to comScore.
[…]
As mobile continues to take share from desktop, some industries have been particularly affected, and they are seeing significant declines in desktop use of their products as a result. They are newspapers, search engines, maps, weather, comparison shopping, directories and instant messenger services.
Oh, and this is a hint about what is going to happen to television in the next year or two:
There has also been a turning point for video ads. They cost more than typical ads, and have always lagged behind viewership. But in 2012, 23 percent of videos were accompanied by an ad, up from 14 percent the year before. More TV ad dollars are coming to online video, comScore concluded.
From the Student Press Law Center: Journalism groups express frustration with NCAA policies affecting media.
Ten media organizations sent a letter to the National Collegiate Athletic Association last week expressing its frustration with the athletic group’s unwillingness to discuss journalists’ concerns about credentialing and other issues.
“The undersigned organizations are writing to express our profound disappointment with the NCAA’s recent actions affecting journalists’ ability to cover your member institutions’ activities,” reads the letter, which was signed by representatives from the American Society of Newspaper Editors, the Society of Professional Journalists the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and the Student Press Law Center, among others.
“In short, our concerns and frustrations are mounting, with a long period of unproductive interaction leading to this follow up letter.”
Restrictions placed on media credentials is the main concern raised in the letter, a situation that has become more onerous in recent years, said Kevin Goldberg, an attorney who represents ASNE.
The letter cites instances where reporters have been faced with “unduly restrictive credentialing conditions” with regard to social media use and other coverage efforts.
More and more you see programs doing more and more of their own media, in inventive and more direct ways than the media outlets are providing. They are going directly to their audience with an effective aspect of branded journalism. Programs are going around the media filter, utilizing their hyper-control of their access to the on-field product and speaking directly to their fanbases.
This is a big deal for the media outlets, of course, who are presently getting edged out. They’ll need to find a way to deliver a new and compelling aspect or version of the product to the wider audience to compensate.
In some respects this is not unlike what is happening with political reporters. Poynter reports: White House press complain about access to president.
President Obama’s staff “often finds Washington reporters whiny, needy and too enamored with trivial matters or their own self-importance,” Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen write in Politico. So they limit the president’s availability to the White House press corps, hand out photos and do document dumps on Friday afternoons. “Media across the ideological spectrum are left scrambling for access,” VandeHei and Allen write.
Bo knows Samford! He’ll be doing a little fund raising in April:
The Samford Athletics Department will hold its fourth-annual Bulldog Bash dinner and silent auction, presented by BB&T, April 25 at the Pete Hanna Center on Samford’s campus. Heisman Trophy winner and former National Football League and Major League Baseball star Bo Jackson will be the featured speaker at this year’s event.
The Bulldog Bash is a silent auction event hosted by Samford University to raise money for the athletics department and its 17 teams. Tables can be purchased for $1,500, with each table seating eight people. Individual seats are also available for $250. A limited number of premium tables which included a private meet and greet with Bo Jackson are available for $3,000.
I bet fellow Auburn alum and Heisman trophy winner Pat Sullivan, the football coach at Samford, helped make this good news happen. Pretty cool stuff.
On the other blog I linked to a nice piece from Prof. Mindy McAdams. It is about learning code. You should check it out.
Tomorrow: We take a field trip to AMG in the Birmingham News building. Should be fun.
