Panelists for the Future of Media: 2013 event included HuffPost Live president and co-creator Roy Sekoff, BuzzFeed CEO and founder Jonah Peretti, New York Times CEO Mark Thompson, Salon Media Group CEO and CTO Cindy Jeffers, and Business Insider Editor and CEO Henry Blodgett.

On an interesting side note, three of the five panel participants have worked for the Huffington Post in some capacity during their careers (Roy Sekoff, Jonah Peretti, and Cindy Jeffers).

Positive Response to the Yahoo! Acquisition of Tumblr Overall

Overall, the panel members praised Yahoo! and CEO Marissa Mayer for the acquisition of Tumblr.

Blodgett referred to the acquisition as “a very smart thing for Yahoo! to do. Yahoo is getting tackled in its own end zone, and time is running out. In that situation, you can either fall on the ball and lose the game, which would be shutting down the company, breaking it up, and sending back the cash, or you can throw the ball down the field and you’ve got a receiver running down the field who can complete the pass and win the game. That’s what Marissa Mayer was hired to do and that’s what she’s doing. It’s a very aggressive move that could work.”

HuffPost Live Banks on Web Video

Panel members also agreed that web video is a key component of the future of media.

When asked what works in web video, Roy Sekoff of HuffPost Live explained that his brand is “making our big bet on engagement. That’s our thing. It’s about participation. It’s about bringing people into the conversation. It’s about using tools like Google Hangouts, Skype, and Facetime to allow people who you normally wouldn’t see on television to be part of the conversation, and I think we’re trying to redefine what an expert is. It’s not just someone sitting in an ivory tower who comes in and tells you statistics, but it’s somebody who has skin in the game—somebody who has an experience with the topic that you’re talking about. We found that to be incredibly rich and engaging.”

The Shift from Search to Social Is Giving Original Content a Second Life

Panel members offered insights into the ongoing discussion of original and rewritten content with Thompson suggesting that each publisher needs to find the sweet spot between keeping original content on your own site to retain traffic versus allowing that content to be quoted, rewritten, and published elsewhere where it can extend your reach.

Peretti focused on the shift from Google and search to sharing as a traffic source to your original content. He explained, “In the shift in traffic in the importance of Google to Facebook or from search to social, you’ve seen original content have a second life now. When you Google search a big news story, often the first result will be a story that’s rewritten and has all the keywords in it and is SEO’d to the max. That’s because Google is a robot. It doesn’t know what the authoritative source is. … But on Twitter, people want to retweet the authoritative source, so if someone breaks a big news story, even if it’s three or four hours old, you’d rather retweet that than the aggregated piece or the rewritten piece from the AP or whatever it is. So I think social is creating an opportunity to invest more in original content.”

You can view the complete panel in the video below.

Image: Felipe Wiecheteck

Traackr used its Influencer Network Analysis feature to identify the top people who are influencing content and conversations about women and leadership online. Based on its analysis, Traackr identified and ranked the top 49 women and leadership influencers. Susan Gunelius tops the list and her blog, Women on Business (syndicated by Newstex), is also included in the Interactive Women and Leadership Influencer Map.

The 49 influencers on the list include writers and editors like Andrew Sullivan of The Daily Beast, Susan Adams of Forbes, Shyam Panchavati of the Harvard Business Review, Andrew Ross-Serkin of The New York Times, and Manoush Zomorodi of WNYC Radio. It’s a diverse group of thought leaders who publish and share content and engage with and influence people about topics related to women and leadership.

To develop the women and leadership influencer ranking, Traackr used its tools and analysis capabilities to find people who create and share content including terms like leadership, women, careers, mentors, women executives, and working. From the list of individuals identified with these terms, Traackr identified who these people were highly engaged with. Finally, Traackr pulled that data together with full online profiles for each influencer and created its visual influencer map. The map is interactive so users can see how influence dynamics work online.

You can visit the Traackr blog to learn more about the creation of the women and leadership influencer ranking and the interactive influencer map.

Of course, influence ranking isn’t an exact science, but the Traackr list of the top women and leadership influencers offers a great opportunity to find, follow, and connect with people who are making significant contributions to the online conversations about women and leadership.

Michael Sebastian of Ad Age explains that Newsweek sees the reimagined Newsweek.com as the first step toward developing a new “long-form, immersive and multi-media experience in the web browser.”

At launch, the redesigned Newsweek.com includes seven key elements:

1. Publishing Schedule

Most websites publish new content continually. Newsweek.com will publish new content (or a new “edition”) just once per week on Wednesdays when three to five stories from the week’s new edition of Newsweek Global will be published on the website. Both the tablet and online editions will publish at the same time. In other words, Newsweek.com simply offers a different way for people to consume the content available in the tablet edition.

2. Design Format

Newsweek.com will be image-heavy and will include images from photojournalists as well as pictures from social media platforms like Instagram.

3. Content Focus

The new site will focus on long-form content for a target audience of people who want to consume more in-depth stories than they’re likely to find on other “quick-hit journalism” sites.

4. Continuity

As a visitor scrolls down the page on Newsweek.com, he’ll find previous weeks’ editions in reverse chronological order, similar to sifting through a stack of magazines.

5. Content Creation

Content will be created by the Newsweek editorial staff, but issues will also include content from writers at The Daily Beast and contributors who don’t work for Newsweek.

6. Price

Newsweek.com is currently free, but fees will come in time once the pricing model has been decided. Subscribers to Newsweek Global will not have to pay an additional fee to access Newsweek.com content.

7. Advertising

At launch, Newsweek.com does not include ads, but they will come in the near future. However, brands will sponsor articles and display “high impact units” rather than sticking to standard banner ads and digital advertising opportunities. Sponsors will rotate each time a visitor views an article.

You can follow the link at the beginning of this article to browse through the new Newsweek.com. What do you think of the redesign?

Image: Newsweek

With the growth of social media and citizen journalism, accessing news and information is easier for audiences than ever, and the role of newsrooms and journalists is in a state of flux. However, veteran magazine editor Ann Friedman shares four reasons why she believes it is the best moment to be in journalism on the Columbia Journalism Review website. She explains:

“Creative risk-taking is now a core journalistic job skill, and it needs to be prioritized. Learning how to adapt and evolve is just as important as preserving hallowed crafts like editing and writing. And if journalism is going to survive, the tension between preservation and evolution has to become a source of fun and inspiration, not gloom and doom.”

What makes 2013 a great time for the journalism industry? Check out Ann’s top four reasons below.

1. Story reach

Today, journalists’ work can be seen by a larger audience than ever, and for most journalists, being read by a global audience is a very big deal that didn’t exist a decade ago.

2. Audience access

Today, journalists can communicate directly with their audiences to learn what they like and don’t like, adapt their techniques, and gauge the impact of their stories. This type of access is something journalists never thought would be possible years ago.

3. Sources

Today, journalists have more access to sources than ever through mobile devices, email, social media, and so on. Of course, with that access comes additional concerns related to vetting those sources and confirming the accuracy of information provided by those sources, but the days of trying to connect with a source via a single landline are over.

4. Creativity

Today, journalists are faced with more chaos than ever but with chaos comes creativity, something that Friedman believes is vital to pushing the journalism industry into a new model to match the changing world and audience.

Rather than lamenting days gone by, journalists that are adapting, pushing the envelope, and thinking creatively are staying motivated during this unsteady time in the journalism industry. Journalists and content publishers in general can learn from Friedman’s suggestions. Follow the link at the beginning of this article to read her full insights, and start thinking differently about journalism.

The old ways aren’t coming back, but how can we make the future even better?

Image: Jenny W.

Associated Press employees, particularly journalists, have a responsibility to report unbiased, fact-based news, so many of the requirements in the new Social Media Guidelines for AP Employees are included to ensure the general public doesn’t confuse fact with opinion.

For that reason, there are some requirements that may not apply to other online publishers who publish editorial content and whose reputations are based on opinion. However, the guidelines document is worth a perusal for any content publisher. It can serve as a great template for Authoritative Content publishers to create their own social media guidelines.

For example, the Associated Press requires that employees identify their affiliation with the AP company and brand if they use their social media accounts for both personal and professional purposes. Employees are also expected to understand that anything they publish online could be seen by the general public and must not damage the AP reputation. In other words, employees must tweet, post, and share with great care.

The Associated Press also instructs its employees to link to AP content whenever possible and never publish a story or AP content directly to a social media account. Instead, employees should link to the original AP story from their social media accounts. The purpose of this requirement is to increase engagement and conversation on AP stories at the original source, not via individual social media accounts.

Furthermore, AP employees are encouraged to link to AP content, but they’re also allowed to link to content from other media organizations as long as the content published by those organizations is factual and appropriate.

Associated Press employees are expected to publish new content and stories via the AP first — before they talk about them on social media or publish anything about those stories anywhere else. Any content that the Associated Press chooses not to publish after the employee submits it, may be published and shared as the employee chooses (within all other social media guidelines, of course). Finally, once a story runs on the AP site, employees can share a sampling of it on their personal websites and blogs, but it must be clearly labeled as AP content.

You can follow the link above to read the complete Social Media Guidelines for AP Employees to determine if there are any rules that might be useful for your team to follow.

Image: Jason Howie

Official Facebook News Feed Screenshot

Facebook has released a new Facebook Brand Resources website and brand guidelines that provide do’s and don’ts for how to use Facebook assets in content, advertising, and so on. According to the website, the new Facebook brand asset guidelines are intended to protect Facebook’s trademarks and ensure consistent use of the Facebook brand.

While Facebook does point out on the site that the company invests heavily in protecting its trademarks, it’s unlikely they’ll police every website and blog that writes about the Facebook brand or uses a Facebook icon in its sidebar.

Instead, it’s more likely that Facebook will follow in Twitter’s footsteps when it launched strict Twitter brand guidelines last year. Those guidelines are very specific, but Twitter doesn’t police the entire internet looking for violations. However, each publisher should understand the Facebook brand guidelines and know that adhering to them is always the best decision.

Using Facebook Brand Assets in Your Content

The Facebook brand guidelines address how Facebook logos, screenshots, and other assets, such as the Like button, can be used in your content. Following the guidelines to the letter, a content publisher would not be allowed to publish a screenshot from Facebook.com unless it’s one of the official Facebook screenshot brand assets (like the one at the beginning of this article). These official assets are available for download in various formats and with specific guidelines for each asset on the Facebook Brand Resources website.

In fact, the majority of Facebook social media icons that websites have in their sidebars and footers would violate the Facebook brand guidelines, just as most Twitter icons that are not the official icons provided by Twitter are violations of Twitter brand guidelines.

Here are some of the key Facebook brand do’s and don’ts for web publishers:

• Do capitalize the word “Facebook.”
• Do display the word “Facebook” in the same font size and style as the content surrounding it.
• Do use the official Facebook brand assets available for download from the Facebook Brand Resources website.
• Do keep enough space around Facebook brand assets so they’re uncluttered.
• Do request permission to use Facebook brand assets in broadcast, film, or books.
• Don’t use the Facebook logo or brand assets in merchandise or products.
• Don’t use Facebook logos and images found elsewhere on the web.
• Don’t use the Facebook logo in place of the word “Facebook” or the Like button in place of the word “Like.”
• Don’t pluralize the word “Facebook” or use it as a verb or abbreviation.
• Don’t use the Facebook brand in combination with your name, marks, brand, or generic terms.
• Don’t use trademarks, domain names, logos, or other content that could be confused with Facebook.
• Don’t present Facebook in a way that makes it the most prominent feature of the content or work you’re creating.
• Don’t violate any other Facebook terms and policies.
• Don’t modify Facebook brand assets in any way.

You can follow the links at the beginning of this article to download the official Facebook brand assets and review all of the guidelines.

Image: Facebook Brand Resource Center

As you might expect, younger people are more likely to read news via social media sites, but overall, television is still the most popular source of news content.

However, as the chart in the infographic shows, all sources other than digital and mobile news (i.e., television, newspaper, and radio) are declining in popularity. In 2011, digital and mobile news took over as the second most popular way to get news content, and it continues to rise while the rest show no signs of recouping lost audiences.

Digital, Mobile, and Multiple Screen Growth

Digital and mobile news consumption continues to grow along with smartphone and tablet ownership. One out of two Americans own a smartphone or tablet device and nearly two out of three smartphone and tablet owners use their devices to get news. However, 50% of people who use their tablet devices to read news also use computers and print sources to get news.

This data means that news consumption is part of the multi-screen lifestyle that more and more Americans are adopting each day. In December 2012, I shared an infographic from Morrison Foerster here on the Newstex blog filled with statistics that depicted how content consumption would change in 2013. One of the key points revealed through the data was that the increase in multiple screen usage would change content consumption and content marketing. At that time, research found that 65% of tablet owners surf the web while watching television. It’s safe to assume that the percentage is higher today and will be even higher a year from now.

Facebook and Social Media Are Hot Spots for News Consumption

Take a look at the Uberflip infographic and notice how dominant Facebook is in its position as the place where most people find news online. More than four times as many people used Facebook to read news yesterday (67%) than the next most popular online source, Twitter (16%).

These numbers are higher than the results revealed in The Pew Research Center’s Trends in News Consumption: 1991-2012 report that was released in October 2012. In that study, 19% Americans who responded to a research survey reported that they saw news or news headlines on social networking sites like Facebook and Google+ yesterday. That number was more than double the number Pew Research identified two years earlier.

The Pew Research study also revealed that the growth rate was even higher among people who identified themselves as regularly getting news or news headlines on social sites. Among that audience, the growth rate nearly tripled from 7% to 20% during the same time period.

Where did you get your news yesterday?

Image: Sean MacEntee

Heins made another bold prediction at the conference that is likely to surprise you based on his company’s performance in recent years. He said, “In five years, I see BlackBerry to be the absolute leader in mobile computing — that’s what we’re aiming for. I want to gain as much market share as I can, but not by being a copycat.”

Heins is optimistic about the future of his company as it launches its new Q10 smartphone complete with a full keyboard for “crazy multi-taskers” and “highly-connected people.” You can see Heins talk about the Q10 in the Bloomberg video below.

Priced at $50 more than an iPhone, it remains to be seen if BlackBerry can carve a chunk of market share out of the smartphone market. According to the most recent statistics from comScore, the top smartphone platforms in the United States in February 2013 were:

1. Google = 51.7%
2. Apple = 38.9%
3. BlackBerry = 5.4%
4. Microsoft = 3.2%
5. Symbian = 0.5%

If forecasts from Gartner are accurate, BlackBerry’s chances don’t look good. Gartner predicts that Google and Apple will still dominate the smartphone market in 2017. Furthermore, Gartner doesn’t expect the tablet market to disappear anytime soon either. In fact, Gartner predicts that global tablet sales will more than double in the next four years. You can see this data and more in the April 4, 2013 press release from Gartner.

Of course, the world of technology changes quickly, and the launch of an innovative, industry-changing product could turn these predictions upside-down. If BlackBerry released an amazing new product, the market share percentages shown above could change very quickly. Surely consumers would welcome better products and more competition.

What do you think? Can BlackBerry make a comeback? Is Heins right about the future of tablets? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Image: BlackBerry

Lawyers report that they are using mobile apps to do their jobs in increasingly large numbers. For example, 85% of lawyers use practice management apps at least sometimes (66% use apps all the time and 19% use apps sometimes).

Interestingly, nearly one out of two lawyers (44%) who use practice management apps on their mobile device do so while they’re in court, and most of them are getting the information they need using an iPhone (49%).

There are many items that lawyers need access to via mobile devices when they’re away from the office, but a few are cited by the majority of lawyers. Those items ranked from most used to least used are:

• Calendar
• Time and expenses
• Documents
• Messaging
• Contacts information
• Case information
• Tasks
• Other
• Invoices and bills
• Reporting
• Client intake
• Accounting

One of the key benefits lawyers get by using mobile devices is increased efficiency. 88% of lawyers report that mobile connectivity and mobile apps help them streamline activities and “do more with less.” 60% of lawyers say the same thing about tablet devices. It’s safe to assume that this number will increase significantly within the next year considering that the use of tablet devices by lawyers rose from 14% in 2011 to 33% in 2012.

It’s also important to point out that 91% of lawyers who report using tablet devices to do their jobs refer to their tablets as iPads. In other words, it can be assumed that nine out of 10 lawyers who use tablet devices are using iPads.

Clearly, lawyers are no longer lagging behind in mobile adoption rates. The same is true of social media and content publishing. In March 2012, the 2012 In-House Counsel New Media Engagement Survey showed that both social media and content publishing had become mainstream among lawyers who used new media primarily as an “intelligent filter of useful information.”

Today, that information is available anytime and anywhere a lawyer needs it via his or her mobile device based on the data in the MyCase.com infographic shown below, and clearly, lawyers are leveraging that constant access to information.

The study was compiled using data from the Department of Labor and other government organizations and non-government associations. Each job was ranked using a set of four factors: environment, income, outlook, and stress.

CareerCast.com explains that newspaper reporter came in last place (down from position 196 in the 2012 list) and ranked as the worst job of 2013 as a result of shrinking budgets and shrinking newsrooms. The number of reporter jobs is expected to fall another 6% by 2020, and according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, reporter pay will decrease as well.

At the same time, traditional newspapers face increasing competition from online news sources, particularly authoritative content sources. Newspaper reporters are feeling the effects of that competition as more and more consumers abandon newspapers for real-time online news and information.

According to CareerCast.com, the Newspaper Association of America estimates the newspaper industry earned $23.9 billion in 2011, which is half of what it earned just five years earlier. During that time many newspapers shut down and others shifted to digital formats. Naturally, many reporters lost their jobs or saw their salaries cut as those earnings fell. According to The Wall Street Journal, the median salary for reporters in 2010 was just $36,000 and that number has declined each year since then.

It’s important to point out that some newspaper reporters can transition to other media, including online publications. However, online reporters face their own set of problems. CareerCast.com points out that digital reporters are often paid even lower wages and are required to produce larger amounts of content at a much faster rate. In other words, a digital reporter has a high-stress job with a disproportionately low wage.

On the flip-side, social and community managers ranked in 39th place on the list of Best and Worst Jobs of 2013. Again, this demonstrates the changing environment where consumers have become more dependent on online sources.

At the top of the list of best jobs of 2013 are actuary, biomedical engineer, software engineer, audiologist, and financial planner. At the bottom and ranking as the worst jobs of 2013 are newspaper reporter, lumberjack, enlisted military personnel, actor, and oil rig worker.

Image: Kay Pat