commbasics

I'm starting to wonder about how long EBNonline.com is going to last.  Brian Fuller was named editor in chief in February and left in April.  I met the new guy at Design West and before I could remember to look for his card to put him in the contact list, I heard today that they've hired someone from CNET to take over.  On top of that, they've cut back their flow of paid blogger content by half, meaning a cut in freelance expenses.  I talked to a couple of them today and they are already looking for other publications to supplement the loss in revenue. In the meantime comes word that the former EiC Bolaji Ojo is launching a new publication, Electronic Purchasing Strategies, and is actively looking for sponsors for a launch in the fall.  He's joined by another EBN refugee, Barb Jorgenson. There was time that I thought the new focus on EDN and EBN spelled trouble for the EE Times brand, but it looks like the latter is much stronger.  ...

Don't get me wrong. The UBM sites produce good content ... right now. But you need people who know what good content is to produce it. I don't know, maybe that's the plan: force the content creators to go to the advertisers and then make them pay to put it on your titles. But what's to stop the advertisers from starting their own titles. Why should they pay? We've been following a string of thought regarding the changes at UBM properties. I've personally avoided making any judgement on the philosophical approach the company has taken.  It is what it is.  However, the recent round of layoffs really cut into the bone of their content development .  Calling Nic Mokhoff, Barbara Jorgenson and Bolaji Ojo redundant... even when you have all stars like Alex Wolfe, Patrick Mannion and Brian Fuller still on the team... is mindboggling to me. UBM has had a habit of cutting back far too much and then having to rehire too fast.  (I remember when Dave Burskey was...

When you hear of journalistic treasures like Nic Mokhoff, Barbara Jorgenson and Bolaji Ojo going out the door at a media house, you tend to think the worse for the company.  I know I did after hearing about the "spring cleaning" at UBM.  Closer inspection, however, shows the reasoning behind the move. UBM Electronics seems to be in a constant state of change over the past decade because the media world has been evolving rapidly over that time.  The latest obvious change is the elimination of the print version of EE Times , in favor of an all online presence.  The problem is that there have been, essentially two staffs for the online and print operations.  When the latter was shut down, that left a lot of redundancy and unnecessary cost (from an accounting perspective). EE Times and EBN have built a significant infrastructure out of contractors, including Brian Bailey, Max Maxfield and Douglas Alexander, to provide content.  They are prolific...

In a continuation of my effort to catch up, EBN EiC Bolaji Ojo tipped me over the edge again bolstering my position, tangentially, my last post . Ojo, and his partner in crime at EBN, Barbara Jorgensen addressed the product of not doing social media right: Site Fatigue . "Each week," he wrote, "I receive a deluge of requests to Like companies on Facebook, follow tweets on Twitter, or be LinkedIn with others. Don't ask me to follow your tweets if they aren't worth following. Don't ask me to tag or recommend you if I can't justify the investment of my time." Which has been my point for many years.  Social media is not about mass marketing communication.  It's about building relationships and trust.  If you are posting links to poorly written and repetitive press releases and marcom material (that's pretty much everyone) then you are not using social media properly or even efficiently.  You're just pissing people off....