The Guardian to provide multimedia platform for art institutions. Partners with YouTube

posted by Dave Allen, Leave a Comment

Guardian to act as platform for arts organizations #
Guardian announces multimedia partnerships with prestigious arts institutions #

There is so much to be excited about here that I don’t really know where to begin. It might be best to start with a clip from yesterday’s announcement:

The Guardian today announced partnerships with some of the most prestigious UK arts institutions to give audiences access to the best cultural performances, shows and events throughout 2012.

By partnering with Glyndebourne, the Royal Opera House, The Young Vic, Art Angel and the Roundhouse the Guardian will offer all more arts multimedia content than ever before.

Following our successful partnership with Glyndebourne last summer, the Guardian is working with the leading opera company again throughout this year to stream five operas. Janacek’s The Cunning Little Vixen, Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro and Ravel’s double-bill of L’Heure Espagnole and L’Enfant et les Sortilèges will be live-streamed direct from Glyndebourne in Sussex. In addition, the Guardian will also be streaming recordings to accompany two other productions this season – The Fairy Queen by Purcell and Rossini’s La Cenerentola. Each opera will be available to view again on the Guardian’s website, and each will be accompanied by a series of podcasts and videos as well as related editorial, blogs, picture galleries and live chat with the Guardian’s expert team of critics.

On Friday 23 March the Guardian is collaborating with Youtube to stream a full day of rehearsals from The Royal Ballet from the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, featuring live streams of two ballets currently in development – a piece by Wayne McGregor, Resident Choreographer of The Royal Ballet with music by Mark Ronson and costumes by Gareth Pugh, and another piece choreographed by rising star Liam Scarlett, to music from Rachmaninov.

That’s pretty explanatory. It’s great to see a newspaper approaching the web in such a way; the antidote to the paywall in other words. But what I’m really interested in is how the Guardian’s team got to this point. One word – strategy.

Before she moved to be the director of the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism, Emily Bell # spent more than a decade working on the Guardian’s digital media offerings, setting up Media Guardian # in 2000 and rising to director of digital content for Guardian News & Media by 2006.

She set out to do things the right way. Famously, she has said that she wanted the Guardian to “be of the web, not on it.” And she says that the core team followed these principles:

1. They put a high priority on technical excellence
“At the paper, however, there was a core of people “who really understood the web,” Bell notes. And having that technical expertise didn’t just mean understanding code and web design and all the rest; it also meant understanding, almost implicitly, user behavior — and transforming the Guardian into a digital-first proposition.”

2. They had a financial model that encouraged innovation
“At the Guardian, which until 2008 was owned by the Scott Trust #, the profit motive gave way to a broader emphasis on long-term thinking and experimentation. That led, in turn, to “a much higher tolerance for innovation” than the paper’s competitors, Bell said. The two most successful outlets in Britain, online, were the BBC and The Guardian, she noted — “neither of whom had to speak to shareholders.” Guardian staffers had greater financial leeway than most of their revenue-focused counterparts to experiment, innovate, and, importantly, fail.”

3. They had a clear aim in their innovation strategy
““I’m not a massive fan of PowerPoint,” Bell confessed. But! Part of what allowed for the Guardian’s nimbleness when it came to innovation, she said, was that it “developed a really clear strategy.” The paper took the original tenets of Guardian journalism # laid out by C.P. Scott and fused them, essentially, onto the networked infrastructure of the Internet. “Really, we’re about reaching as many people as possible in the world,” she said — and so the question for the Guardian’s staff became how to extend their reach using the tools of the web.

Part of that came down to a general openness to users. Bell created the Guardian’s Comment Is Free section # (“which I think some of the Guardian columnists would like to see me imprisoned for!”) based on the recognition that the future will be increasingly networked, conversational, and participatory.

This was the way that commentary would work under a collective brand for the foreseeable future.”

If you follow the links that I’ve posted above, the whole story will unfold. And that story shows how a media organization came to recognize that it’s not just them that are in the content business, as pointed out by the Online Journalism Blog #.

Disruption: Newspapers, TV and agencies edition

posted by Dave Allen, 1 Comment

The Washington Post – Recast for a Digital Future

Where we hold our breath and wish Mr Brauchli the best..

Mr. Brauchli refuses to be held hostage to the past. “There are a lot of nostalgia-drenched people in the journalism field who look back at what newspapers were and have a fairly static view of what they should be,” he said in an interview. “Just because The Washington Post used to be a certain way doesn’t mean The Washington Post has to be that way in the future.” [Link]

Agencies Show Their Age on Mobile

Fish where the fish are is a terrible phrase, but when it comes to Mobile e-commerce..

Mobile strategy is about more than just phones. Mobile platforms and engagement strategies in our digitally enabled world need to support all marketing initiatives, both offline and online, and be truly multi-channel. Mobile maturity is one area, however, where brands and agencies are playing catch-up with consumer demand. [Link]

Meanwhile..

This is not about the future, the future has already arrived. Just think for a moment about how you access the web..

Since 2009, the rate of mobile Internet use has consistently doubled every year. See the chart on the right. The global numbers reaffirm what we already know: the use of the mobile Web is permeating the everyday existence of people around the world. Developers and business can look at the numbers and be assured that the decision to go “mobile first” will eventually be the right choice. Companies that have built the foundation for success on the mobile Web now will be the future leaders of the space, from advertising to software deployment and every space in between. [Link]

New Service Will Stream Local TV Stations

Barry Diller back reinventing TV because the networks won’t or can’t..

“Nobody wants to buy a box,” Mr. Kanojia said. Clutching his white iPhone, he said, “this is what people want to buy. Make this into the box.”

In a demonstration on Monday, he seamlessly passed a station signal from his iPhone to a flat-screen TV using the Apple TV box. The Roku box will also be supported.

Exploiting the rapid growth of broadband, the service, in essence, makes broadcast TV easier to time-shift and place-shift. Whether it succeeds or not, it’s a testament to the intense pressure on traditional TV to either innovate, or be innovated around. [Link]

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North hires two new employees

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We’ve been hiring again! And promoting..

Effective immediately Megan Bassett has been elevated to Director, Brand Experience. In her new role Megan will be more focused on business development and setting strategy for NORTH’s event/tour/brand experience.

Also effective immediately, Meaghan Carlson joins NORTH as Assistant Brand Manager. Meaghan graduated from Loyola Marymont University in May 2011 but has already acquired some positive work experience with Mistress Creative where she worked on campaigns with Mattel and Red Bull, and at Wild Alchemy where she did qualitative research.

Effective January 16 Erin Barnes will be officially joining our team as full-time Project Manager, Brand Experience. Erin is currently out there somewhere wrapping up a project with Backroads where she is Trip Leader, Trip Specialist and Regional Support Specialist. Erin graduated from the University of Florida, Gainsville where she attended the Health and Human Performance College. She graduated with a BS, cum laude, in Exercise & Sports Science. She has been an all around Fitness Expert, Exercise Specialist, a business owner and a Lifestyle Expert. I get the feeling we’ll have to all shape up when she joins the team..