From today's Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette:
Published: February 7, 2013 3:00 a.m.
Campus paper’s future in jeopardy
Sarah Janssen | The Journal Gazette
FORT WAYNE – IPFW’s student newspaper, The Communicator, could cease to exist or publish less frequently without additional financial support, its publisher says.
The publication, which has won national awards, started a letter-writing campaign to secure grants and donations from alumni, organizations and local businesses, Publisher Matt McClure said.
It needs about $20,000 to finish out the year, but McClure hopes to adopt a new operating model so The Communicator can continue to operate in the long term.
The Communicator functions as a nonprofit with an operating partnership with IPFW Student Government Association. The agreement provides a yearly allocation of money from student fees while maintaining the publication’s independence from the university.
Beyond that funding, the publication relies on advertising revenue to pay employees, rent and other expenses. But it has seen a dip in ad revenue since the recession, and last year the Student Government Association cut funding to the publication to fund other programs, McClure said.
The university is also facing budget problems, with a deficit of at least $4.2 million. That figure could rise as high as $9 million depending on enrollment and state funding, which will be determined after the General Assembly passes a two-year budget. IPFW officials have said a significant part of the shortfall is caused by declining enrollment.
The newspaper’s budget crisis comes just two weeks before the launch of a new online initiative, which McClure said would be yet another tool for student training and professional development but wouldn’t bring in enough extra revenue to support the publication.
“To keep going, we’ll need support directly from the university,” McClure said.
McClure is hoping a commitment for the additional funding comes before the end of the month. But with IPFW dealing with its own deficit, additional money from the university is up in the air. Attempts to reach administrative officials Wednesday night were unsuccessful.
The publication’s board of directors – which includes students, faculty and professionals – has offered different proposals to move forward. One is to shut down in March. Another is to go from publishing print and online editions weekly to publishing them monthly for the rest of the year.
McClure hopes the final decision includes a two-year transition plan that changes the operating agreement for The Communicator to ensure it can continue.
“Our organization is very strong, it’s just that the operating arrangement needs to be renegotiated,” McClure said.
McClure tried to make changes to that agreement about two years ago, but talks about changes were stalled, then halted, during the transition from one chancellor to another, he said. Then-chancellor Mike Wartell was forced to retire under Purdue University’s mandatory retirement age of 65. Vicky Carwein became chancellor in September.
Since the letter-writing campaign started, the publication has seen an outpouring of support from alumni, academic departments and state press associations, McClure said.
Kristan Mensch has been involved with the publication for three years and is currently editor-in-chief. She said she has put in as many as 50 hours a week in the newsroom but wouldn’t trade her experience.
“The Communicator is an incredibly important resource for students,” she said. “It provides a unified voice for the campus while also serving as a learning lab for those associated with it.”
McClure said the university hasn’t shown any malice, and he hopes it values the work of The Communicator enough to keep it going.
“If the university chooses to value free speech and media education; … I see there’s immense potential to keep going. But if it’s not something the administration values as a service, as a tool, then we are expendable.”
Thursday, February 7, 2013
The Great Oreo Debate
From Digiday:
It’s now been four days since the Super Bowl, and the digital marketing industry is still talking about Oreo’s quick response to the blackout. But not everyone’s convinced that the fast move by Oreo is a great example of real-time marketing. Some brand and agency executives are claiming it’s only resonating in the insular digital marketing world.
Digiday reached out to brand and agency executives and asked them whether the Oreo quick response is a sign of the future of marketing or a one-time, circumstantial event that didn’t have that much impact anyway?
Anonymous Brand Exec A
This is nothing new. Brands do this more often than they get credit for. The Super Bowl just happens to be a huge event that gets the attention of a lot of people, so the Oreo effort was amplified because of that. At the end of the day, who’s going to complain about 17,000 retweets? And the effort was worth it just for all the press they’re getting. In fact, the PR value alone probably did a lot for them. But other brands, like Tide and Jim Beam, also responded super fast to the blackout and Oreo is the only one getting the attention.
Ian Schafer, CEO of Deep Focus
I think making too big of a deal out of the one tweet, or the result, is misguided. I think when talking about the retweets, it’s such a small number in the context of the Super Bowl audience. The reality is, the whole thing is big and Oreo should not be getting praise for just this one tweet. Oreo should be praised for its overall commitment, and it’s been doing this for a while. I have created a group within the agency to do [real-time marketing] cost effectively. The results we’ve seen from doing this for clients are substantially higher numbers, in the millions. I think we’re focusing too much on this one action.
John Leeman, CMO of FreshDirect
If Oreo’s brand was suffering because of its old-school, non-digitally savvy image, I suppose this kind of a reaction might have helped make a positive difference. But since Oreo is a timeless brand that most people probably hope will never change, it seems unlikely this would help much, beyond the fact that you are publishing an article to your readers about it for free.
Anonymous Brand Exec B
I’m a bit neutral. I think it’s good for any marketing team to be constantly thinking out of the box, being timely and being relevant. That said, one in several of these types of efforts will really hit home. While I have my doubts that this was one of those “success stories,” it certainly was worth the minimal cycles it most likely took to execute.
Brian J. Maynard, director of Jenn-Air brand marketing at Whirlpool
Reacting quickly to a real-time incident isn’t anything new; you don’t have to look hard to find good and bad examples. I do think there is more opportunity to do so in today’s “always on” world. Having a team in place to react to something that might happen during an event like the Super Bowl is really smart. Just think of the possibilities if there had been another wardrobe malfunction. So what if this time they only received 17,000 retweets. They should get credit for reacting quickly. And it is 17,000 more retweets than they would have otherwise. I am assuming they have learned from this, and next time they may hit on something that really gains traction. I say bravo for the effort.
Anonymous Agency Exec
This is definitely a sign of the future of marketing. Yes, this one tweet received under 20,000 retweets, but once compared to Oreo’s normal activity, its performance was far above average. If anything, this is a case study as to how much more engaging a brand’s content becomes when the focus is on real-time relevance. The present challenge for brands is identifying cost-effective ways to execute this regularly. I think it’s feasible to see a marketing landscape 10 years from now where brands are competing hourly for this kind of attention and personally tailoring such content to the consumer.
It’s now been four days since the Super Bowl, and the digital marketing industry is still talking about Oreo’s quick response to the blackout. But not everyone’s convinced that the fast move by Oreo is a great example of real-time marketing. Some brand and agency executives are claiming it’s only resonating in the insular digital marketing world.
Digiday reached out to brand and agency executives and asked them whether the Oreo quick response is a sign of the future of marketing or a one-time, circumstantial event that didn’t have that much impact anyway?
Anonymous Brand Exec A
This is nothing new. Brands do this more often than they get credit for. The Super Bowl just happens to be a huge event that gets the attention of a lot of people, so the Oreo effort was amplified because of that. At the end of the day, who’s going to complain about 17,000 retweets? And the effort was worth it just for all the press they’re getting. In fact, the PR value alone probably did a lot for them. But other brands, like Tide and Jim Beam, also responded super fast to the blackout and Oreo is the only one getting the attention.
Ian Schafer, CEO of Deep Focus
I think making too big of a deal out of the one tweet, or the result, is misguided. I think when talking about the retweets, it’s such a small number in the context of the Super Bowl audience. The reality is, the whole thing is big and Oreo should not be getting praise for just this one tweet. Oreo should be praised for its overall commitment, and it’s been doing this for a while. I have created a group within the agency to do [real-time marketing] cost effectively. The results we’ve seen from doing this for clients are substantially higher numbers, in the millions. I think we’re focusing too much on this one action.
John Leeman, CMO of FreshDirect
If Oreo’s brand was suffering because of its old-school, non-digitally savvy image, I suppose this kind of a reaction might have helped make a positive difference. But since Oreo is a timeless brand that most people probably hope will never change, it seems unlikely this would help much, beyond the fact that you are publishing an article to your readers about it for free.
Anonymous Brand Exec B
I’m a bit neutral. I think it’s good for any marketing team to be constantly thinking out of the box, being timely and being relevant. That said, one in several of these types of efforts will really hit home. While I have my doubts that this was one of those “success stories,” it certainly was worth the minimal cycles it most likely took to execute.
Brian J. Maynard, director of Jenn-Air brand marketing at Whirlpool
Reacting quickly to a real-time incident isn’t anything new; you don’t have to look hard to find good and bad examples. I do think there is more opportunity to do so in today’s “always on” world. Having a team in place to react to something that might happen during an event like the Super Bowl is really smart. Just think of the possibilities if there had been another wardrobe malfunction. So what if this time they only received 17,000 retweets. They should get credit for reacting quickly. And it is 17,000 more retweets than they would have otherwise. I am assuming they have learned from this, and next time they may hit on something that really gains traction. I say bravo for the effort.
Anonymous Agency Exec
This is definitely a sign of the future of marketing. Yes, this one tweet received under 20,000 retweets, but once compared to Oreo’s normal activity, its performance was far above average. If anything, this is a case study as to how much more engaging a brand’s content becomes when the focus is on real-time relevance. The present challenge for brands is identifying cost-effective ways to execute this regularly. I think it’s feasible to see a marketing landscape 10 years from now where brands are competing hourly for this kind of attention and personally tailoring such content to the consumer.
Wednesday, February 6, 2013
Can a Blogger be Sued for Publishing Tweets?
Here is a confusing--but quite interesting--case of legal wrangling over what's publishable and what is not, from social media. See if you can figure out (a) what the main issues are and (b) what kind of guidance this situation provides.
To read the background and string of posts, click here.
To read the background and string of posts, click here.
Why Are Journalists Liberal?
Marvin Olasky has a very interesting analysis of the changes in news coverages in the current issue of WORLD magazine. Here is an excerpt--to read the entire piece, click here.
Liberal media bias is so obvious that it’s hardly worth writing about it anymore. I had also thought the trend obvious: At least conservatives have Fox News now, and its ability to nudge the public conversation a little rightward. But Pete Wehner in Commentary last week put forth the interesting proposition that Fox may be making liberal journalists less subtle in their tilting.
Here’s what Wehner wrote, “For decades progressives had a monopoly on news, which meant they were content to slant the news but not routinely cross the line into advocacy. But now that Fox News has offered not only a different perspective, but a popular one, journalists may feel they must, in order to compensate for their loss of influence, increase their liberal advocacy.” I suspect that’s true.
The question remains: Why are the overwhelming majority of big-time journalists liberal? Wehner writes, “more and more ‘objective’ journalists seem to feel that liberalism is synonymous with social justice and they want to be in the midst of the fight to advance it. Hence we see people like Bob Schieffer and Tom Brokaw–who once upon a time would have actually tried to keep their biases reasonably in check–frame the issue over gun control as if we’re in Selma in 1965.”
Liberal media bias is so obvious that it’s hardly worth writing about it anymore. I had also thought the trend obvious: At least conservatives have Fox News now, and its ability to nudge the public conversation a little rightward. But Pete Wehner in Commentary last week put forth the interesting proposition that Fox may be making liberal journalists less subtle in their tilting.
Here’s what Wehner wrote, “For decades progressives had a monopoly on news, which meant they were content to slant the news but not routinely cross the line into advocacy. But now that Fox News has offered not only a different perspective, but a popular one, journalists may feel they must, in order to compensate for their loss of influence, increase their liberal advocacy.” I suspect that’s true.
The question remains: Why are the overwhelming majority of big-time journalists liberal? Wehner writes, “more and more ‘objective’ journalists seem to feel that liberalism is synonymous with social justice and they want to be in the midst of the fight to advance it. Hence we see people like Bob Schieffer and Tom Brokaw–who once upon a time would have actually tried to keep their biases reasonably in check–frame the issue over gun control as if we’re in Selma in 1965.”
Monday, February 4, 2013
Billy Graham Facebook Page Reaches 1 Million
BGEA Social Media Reaches Million Milestone
June 3, 1973 may go down as one of the most significant dates in the history of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.
Preaching on the final day of a historical crusade in Seoul, South Korea, Billy Graham drew more than a million people, mostly by foot, to the airstrip at Yoi-do Plaza.
Koreans in attendance can still recall the exact spot they were sitting that day.
Nearly 40 years later, another million milestone was reached at the BGEA—the organization’s Facebook page reached one million fans.
Just as Mr. Graham’s ministry spanned the globe, BGEA’s Facebook audience is international as well. People from more than 40 countries currently “like” BGEA at facebook.com/BillyGrahamEvangelisticAssociation.
And fittingly, the city of Seoul, South Korea makes up one of BGEA’s biggest online fan bases, along with Nairobi, Kenya; Houston, Texas and Atlanta, Ga.
"One of the most interesting facts to me about the Internet is that it now reaches some of the most remote corners of the world — including countries that are otherwise closed to the preaching of the Gospel," Billy Graham once said in his “My Answer” column. "I can't help but think of Jesus' words concerning what will happen before His second coming: "And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come" (Matthew 24:14)."
Perhaps the fact that 75,000 people made decisions for Christ during the 1973 Seoul Crusade—igniting a megachurch movement across South Korea—continues its ripple effect through social media.
The BGEA Facebook page, which began in 2009, aligns with the BGEA mission statement to “proclaim the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ to all we can by every effective means available to us.”
"Pray for us, and for all who are seeking to find new ways to reach our world for Christ," Mr. Graham continued via “My Answer”. "Pray too for those who are coming to Christ every day through the witness of others on the Internet, that they may find fellowship and grow strong in their faith."
Content on the BGEA Facebook page includes Scripture, ministry updates, spiritual growth and evangelism content as well as posts relating to the life of Billy Graham and Franklin Graham, the president and CEO of BGEA.
Mr. Graham’s daily devotional can be found at Billy Graham’s page, facebook.com/ReverendBillyGraham, which is managed by the BillyGraham.org staff.
Other social media: You can also follow both BGEA and Billy Graham on Twitter as well as Pinterest and YouTube.
Click here to read the original article on BillyGraham.org.
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