e.Republic Blog by CEO Dennis McKenna

The Week: Back to the Future

2011-03-20T15:49:00.000-07:00

Amidst the news of the NY Times latest “pay-per-view” scheme the same paper ran a fascinating piece on an upstart newsweekly called The Week that’s meeting surprising, if modest success at a time when periodicals and certainly general newsweeklies are in steep decline.

If you haven’t seen a copy, The Week is a tightly edited digest of what happened in the world the preceding week. It covers hard news, politics, culture and more; mostly by citing, mashing-up, and sometimes excerpting content from other sources. While their model works better in print than online, here’s an example of what they do: What happens if a Japan-sized earthquake hits California?, or this on business news: Is Groupon really worth $25 billion?

Intriguing about The Week is that it is in many ways a reprise of the publishing strategy envisioned by Henry Luce and his original partner Briton Haden for Time magazine in 1923. A story well told in The Publisher by Alan Brinkley.

As access to news and information explode The Week is finding, as Time did in its day, that readers value both the utility and art that sharp editors bring to netting out the stuff they’re interested in.

Governing Magazine Takes 1st at Neal Awards

2011-03-20T12:11:00.000-07:00

Was very proud to receive word that Governing magazine took 1st place at the 57^th Annual Jesse H. Neal National Business Journalism Awards competition, in the “Best Single Article” category.

The article receiving recognition is an excellent feature by Governing senior editor Zach Patton and tells a clear, straightforward story about Colorado Springs, Colorado and what happens to a local government when driven by an ailing economy and tax adverse voters to do “less with less”. Published last September it’s a prescient piece now being played out by increasing numbers of states and localities throughout the country. It’s also a great example of the kind of reporting that Governing’s talented writers and editors consistently turn out.

e.Republic Moving to Cloud Based Technologies

2010-08-31T18:45:00.000-07:00

The July/August cover story of Folio magazine is about the increasing use of cloud based technologies in the publishing field and does a good job outlining various steps we have taken at e.Republic to move to an entire set of "Software as a Service" (SaaS) type applications for much of our technology infrastructure.

In this day and age a publishing firm's technology platform is a central to its overall business strategy and while any technology solution has tradeoffs we've been pleased with how this deployment has worked for us since we began this overhaul of our tech platforms two years ago.

The products we use include Clickability for content management, Eloqua for marketing automation and Salesforce for a whole range of apps including sales and customer relationship management as well subscription and event registration management.

The Folio article details some of the tangible benefits we've seen from this migration. Bottom line, it has allowed us to focus on using our technology to effectively meet business objectives as opposed to supporting an increasingly expanding IT shop.

Technology Giveth, Taketh and Perhaps Giveth Again?

2010-03-28T18:05:00.000-07:00

This week Apple’s IPad goes on sale and it got me thinking back to the debut of the original Macintosh computer in January 1984. I can’t remember what teams played in the Superbowl that year but I vividly recall the jaw dropping “1984” Apple ad that aired early in the game. At the time I was in the startup days of a small publishing firm. We were producing regional magazines the old fashion way with clunky typesetting machines, hot wax, pica poles and Xacto knives. Apple’s new computer got my attention.

It took a few years but before long the Macintosh revolutionized our company and the entire publishing industry, drastically driving down production costs and exponentially increasing creative capacity. The Mac ushered in something close to a renaissance in publishing and I don’t think firms like mine would have been able to grow and thrive without the revolutionary technologies that eventually came out of that new machine.

Well technology has no emotional attachments and hasn’t been kind to the publishing world in the last decade. Some debate if the newspaper or magazine will even survive.

In this context the release of the IPad and the next generation of tablet devices is a big deal. While it’s too early to say for sure, my bet is that devices like the IPad and the new software and apps they’ll usher in are laying the foundation for the next renaissance in publishing.

To get a sense of this check out this recent item from Paid Content that does of quick round up of 15 publishers and how they are re-thinking the magazine. Very cool stuff; especially the clips from Wired and Sports Illustrated.

Media in the Middle

2010-02-07T11:54:00.000-08:00

In a recent interview with Naomi Reiter of eMedia Vitals I talked about the need for B2B media companies to increasingly focus on building and sustaining professional communities. Certainly the need for a media firm to be a trusted source for credible and relevant news and analysis remains vital. But the future of this business requires much more:

eMV: In what direction do you see the industry moving?

McKenna: The entire nature of B2B media is changing. In the past, it was largely built around a model of “informing” markets or readers. Magazines and events were largely built around disseminating information, and “social networks” were a secondary consideration. But the Web has made information a commodity. News distribution and analysis is not, in itself, a competitive advantage any longer.

The future of the business is more about “communitizing” markets. I’m not talking about social media, but using all elements of a media platform—both high tech and high touch—to effectively engage with audiences to help them solve their business and professional challenges.

eMV: Can you give an example?

McKenna: e.Republic has launched several very narrowly focused “gated communities” of government IT professionals. These communities address specific business challenges faced by their members. Our role is to facilitate this community of professionals through a number of different services, including conducting specific research on topics of concern to them, providing expert analysis and hosting both online and in-person forums or leadership networks. By building these communities in a way that dynamically engages both readers and advertisers, we’ve been able to effectively monetize these efforts.

Yes, publishing information remains important, but the future of business media centers on being much more engaged with our audience and delivering greater practical value to them. Media comes from the Latin word for “middle”. I like to say that the new model is about “media in the middle,” meaning that the role of media brands should focus on building and sustaining professional communities. Successful media companies have always done this to some degree; however, it is central to our mission going forward.

eMV: Has the paradigm shifted permanently?

McKenna: No question. A media company can’t just assume that it is delivering value to its audience. All the discussion over what or if readers will pay for content is evidence of this. What is the real value my media company brings to the market? It’s a tough question to ask. A media firm needs to have a clear-eyed view of what value it’s delivering to both readers and advertisers. Once you start down the road in answering this question, you’re looking at entirely new business models.

The entire interview can be found here.

Media Predictions for 2010

2010-01-04T13:42:00.000-08:00

Shortly before Holidays Folio ran a collection of predictions for the magazine and media business in 2010. Contributed by a slew folks in the industry the comments are all over the map and worth a look.

Clearly the media business will continue to be driven by dynamics that demand companies undertake substantial change if they are going to win going forward. As I note in the Folio piece, publishers will see increased competition for audience attention from new sources that are springing up with accelerating frequency on the web and are amplified by the growth of apps like Twitter and Ning and increasingly versatile and ubiquitous mobile technologies.

More and more competition for readers and members of our "communities" are coming from non traditional sources and upping the pressure on publishers to re-think what's truly unique and important about their businesses. Also,while money is tight for most of us these days, this is time when its critical to invest in technology, content and intelligent new media programs that provide the strategic platforms and initiatives that position our companies for future success.

The Media Value Equation

2009-11-05T00:15:00.000-08:00

David Carr had a good column in the NYT this Monday on the impact the economic crisis is having on the business press.

Among a number of great insights Carr writes:

"There are several technical reasons underlying the collapse — and that’s what it is — of business journalism. Business wisdom that is imprisoned in printed pages, already locked in the past, increasingly seems like a curio. Who cares what happened yesterday or last week, when the fortunes of a stock can change in millisecond? Most business people already know what happened today, and what they really care about is tomorrow."

News, like all kinds of information today is hyper-commoditized. Not long ago news of any depth or specialty came in a magazine delivered to your mailbox or newspaper tossed on the font lawn. Most people had limited and dependable sources for news on topics from business and politics to art and culture.

Those days are long gone. For example, this week, elections where held in states around the country. I was able to get results from scores of sources near instantaneously, even on obscure races and ballot measures.

As someone who runs a media business, the ubiquity of information is a big concern. Fairly specialized, it used to be our publications were the only place you could easily get the kind of news and information we provided. So, while the business press have their own unique problems, this commoditization of information challenges all of us in media.

Taking this a bit further I recently came across a 1999 Atlantic article by Peter Drucker in which he compares developments between the Industrial and Information Revolutions. Drucker notes:

“…The Industrial Revolution in its first half century only mechanized the production of goods that had been in existence all along. It tremendously increased output and tremendously decreased costs. “

That was some hundred years ago with things like textile and agricultural products. Today the web is doing this same thing to content creation. The Internet has become the Wal-Mart of media, expanding distribution and driving down costs, creating major headaches for publishers and those who work for them.

All this comes back to Carr’s artilce. What do readers really care about? That’s a question of VALUE and getting a clear sense of that with respect to readers. Our aim at e.Republic, far from fully realized as yet, is to continually refine our value, aiming to be relevant, career critical and at our best, truly indispensable to our audience.

Digital Textbooks Gain Momentum

2009-08-09T15:15:00.000-07:00

An article in the Sunday, August 9th New York Times by Tamar Lewin takes a detailed look at the move to digital textbooks that is gaining traction around the country.

The story quotes Marina Leight from e.Republic's Center for Digital Education and Converge magazine and gives a good overview of developments in the still nascent but probably inevitable move away for traditional text books. This trend got a big shove earlier this summer when Governor Schwarzenegger announced a California initiative to move to digital math and science resources for students.

Not mentioned in the NYT article and worth a look: Scott McNealy of Sun Microsystems has been an outspoken champion of free open source educational resources for many years. More recently, Aneesh Chopra, currently U.S. Chief Technology Officer, was working towards a physics digital flexbook in in his previous job as Secretary of Technology for the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Chopra outlined his views on Virginia's digital flexbooks in the video below, filmed in the fall of 2008.

Bring the Love Back... Will Advertising Survive?

2009-06-17T10:45:00.000-07:00

Its not just old school media that's feeling the evolutionary pressures these days. The advertising industry is fraying at the edges and struggling to find its way in a world of new media.

I saw this clip at a recent American Business Media conference. As they say, picture is worth a thousand words.

Watch this - its great!

Three e.Republic Titles Annouced as ASBPE Finalists

2009-06-16T14:14:00.000-07:00

Three of e.Republic's national magazines were named as finalists today in the American Society of Business Publication Editors' (ASBPE) annual Awards of Excellence.

The publications included Government Technology, Public CIO and Emergency Management. The awards will be announced at ASBPE Awards of Excellence banquet to be held July 16 in Washington D.C.

We are excited and honored to be among such a prestigious group of magazine finalists. Members of the e.Republic team will be in D.C. on the 16th to celebrate!

e.Republic Wins Four Magggie Awards from the Western Publishing Assoc.

2009-04-28T12:17:00.000-07:00

Received word this week that e.Republic received four major recognitions at this year's Maggie Awards sponsored by the Western Publishing Association.

This is a competition among hundreds of national and regional magazines published in the Western U.S.

e.Republic came home with awards in the following categories:

Best Overall Design/Trade Magazine -
Public CIO

Special Theme Issue/Trade -
Emergency Management
November 2008

Best Public Safety/Trade
Emergency Management

Best Non-Paid Circulation/Trade (circulation under 50,000)
Public CIO

We are very proud of our editorial and design teams for their consistently awesome work on these and all our print, web and video media products!

Can Great Design Save Print?

2009-04-09T12:25:00.000-07:00

Came across this insightful presentation from European newspaper designer Jacek Utko. He's doing amazing stuff and taking a fresh look at an old media. If you love print it's worth a look.

Snapshots From The (Media) Revolution

2009-03-31T17:22:00.000-07:00

Whether intentional or not, the Business Day section of each Monday’s New York Times has become a great collection of snapshots on the conflicted landscape of old and new media.

This was especially true this week and is worth a quick review if you missed it:

An article by Ashlee Vance details a new service from Hewlett-Packard called MagCloud which hooks vanity publishing up with cloud computing. The service allows content creators to plug into a network of high speed, high quality digital printers and produce their own short run glossy magazines. Similar technology can also be used for short run book publishing. The Long Tail comes to print.

The MagCloud piece was opposite an item detailing the troubles that may soon see shuttering of the San Francisco Chronicle, which lost 30 percent of its circulation between 2003 – 2008, while another article details how daily papers in Europe are allegedly doing a better job than their U.S. brethren in weathering the internet storm.

Struggling to maintain a hold on eyeballs isn’t just limited to newspapers. Media analyst David Carr has a column on what he calls the “hyperbolic rhythms” of cable news as they try to retain viewership numbers after the flush of November’s TV-friendly election campaign.

Next to Carr’s is a feature entitled “Why Pay For Cable?” which outlines how rapid gains in online viewing of television programming is shifting the ground beneath cable and network TV operators...

where have all my subscribers gone?... Uh, check Hulu and Boxee... (Can we cut a deal with those guys?).

There’s an article by Matt Richtel on how the video game industry (one of the $$$ bright spots of the media world) is under assault from the proliferation of free or low cost games on the web and the explosion of new hand-held devices. “The model as it exists today is dying,” says one video game industry exec.

But wait, there’s more: An article about how Skype, the internet calling service is moving aggressively to bring cheap calls to mobile devices like the iPhone and Blackberry. Another on the chatter on how microblogging wonder-site Twitter might monetize and an Associated Press story on a Huffington Post initiative to fund investigative journalism on the nation’s economy. There’s also, a short item on a big deal between Sony and AMC Entertainment to bring digital projectors to movie theaters; this means that movie houses will soon down load movies direct from satellites or the cloud and goodbye film. Such a move has the potential to reshape the traditional movie theater.

Someone said that newspapers are the first draft of history. When it comes to the evolution of the media world NYT's business section has been doing a lively job of late. This is (advertising subsidized) content I would (an do) pay for and would much rather read on newsprint while having breakfast. Keeps crumbs off the keyboard.

A Most Perfect Invention

2009-03-21T15:16:00.000-07:00

As newspapers, television and periodicals are under continued assault by the digitization of almost everything, I sometimes wonder about the future of one of mankind’s most perfect inventions: the book.

While devices like the Kindle are useful but niched riffs on the real thing the book (whether hardback, paper or pocket) has a great future.

I’m biased. I generally adore them and enjoy their company.

For a recent birthday I received a copy of William Manchester’s biography of Winston Churchill, The Last Lion. An excellent read that spills over with gems.

Here’s Churchill on books:

“If you cannot read all of your books, at any rate handle, or, as it were, fondle them – peer into them, let them fall open where they will, read from the first sentence that arrests the eye, set them back on their shelves with your own hands, arrange them on your own plan so that if you do not know what is in them, your will at least know where they are. Let them be your friends; let them at any rate be your acquaintances.”

GovtechTV Wins Best-in-Class for Online Video

2009-03-02T15:38:00.000-08:00

We were jazzed at e.Republic when we got word that Media Business recently named GTtv best-in-class in their inaugural Online Video Awards. An exciting recognition for this new venture. You can see our promo spot here.

We kicked off GTtv about a year ago as a launch and learn experiment and were not sure what to expect. Its been a success on several fronts.

I’ve been especially impressed with how our editorial team, with no prior video experience, has taken to the medium. Armed with video cameras and backed by a couple of talented producers/editors they have turned out original and interesting work that has given govtech.com an entirely new approach in covering the public sector technology field.

We made the jump into online video because the future of the publishing business (do we still call it publishing?) is very much online and multimedia and we needed to get into this sandbox fast.

We’ve learned a lot in the year plus we’ve been at this and know that on-line video is a core element of e.Republic’s content platform as we go forward.

Tune in for exciting things ahead.

Internet Sales Tax On The Horizon?

2009-02-13T18:02:00.000-08:00

Government Technology ran a news item today about legislation introduced in the Florida legislature to begin taxing internet sales made in the state. With state and local jurisdictions facing tough budget times expect this issue to soon appear in other state capitals. This may lead to a situation in which online companies like Amazon face a range of differing tax requirements from state and local governments around the US.

BtoB Media and the Hypercommoditization of Information

2009-02-10T09:59:00.000-08:00

This is a reprint of an article I wrote in March of 2008 for BtoB Media Business. While the focus of the piece is largely on the work we do at e.Republic, the challenge of the hypercommoditization of information confronts the entire media industry these days. I was reminded of this while reading Michael Kinsley's spot-on essay this am in the NYT: "You Can't Sell News by the Slice". More to say on this topic down the road.

Business Information and the Law of Unintended Consequences

Like many b-to-b media firms, e.Republic spent a fair amount of time over the last few years working to understand and exploit the disruptive dynamics unleashed on our industry by the webification of just about everything.

And while we aggressively move ahead in areas like Web 2.0 and broadband video, our most rewarding work to date has been in the development of business information or market intelligence offerings. It is here that we have been able to launch our most successful new ventures and, more important, build higher-value relationships with new and existing clients.

What precisely is business information? You can get as many definitions as there are publishers discussing the topic. American Business Media defines business information as “public and proprietary information gathered and linked in order to create valuable business intelligence which can be sold to customers for analytical, business development and operational purposes.”

It's an area that holds untapped potential for many media firms but is exploited by only a few.

Our foray into business information began several years back, when the Web's hypercommoditization of information was tearing up industries from travel to finance to daily newspapers. We were concerned that this trend posed a serious challenge to our firm as a traditional b-to-b “infomediary.” However, as we looked more closely at the characteristics of our market, what we originally saw as a threat was, in fact, a larger opportunity.

It was our view that the same technologies that were supercommoditizing data also made it possible to make information hyperrelevant in ways that were physically or financially impractical just a few years earlier. After taking a deeper look at the information ecosystem that existed between the buyers and sellers in our market, it was clear to us that the Web could be used to cost-effectively deliver sophisticated, high-value information to our customers—for which they would pay a premium.

E.Republic primarily serves the public-sector market. Our sellers are largely targeting buyers who work for government or educational institutions. This makes the sellers' marketing/sales lifecycle complex, fragmented and (due to competitive procurement) information-intensive and time-critical.

By aggregating both public information—such as published government bids, jurisdictional budget data and agency procurement procedures—and supplementing this with our own proprietary data harvested from our existing content streams and new research, we were able to create a high-value, premium information product for our commercial customers that we sell on an annual subscription basis.

Launched more than five years ago, the service has been through several iterations as we've learned more about which data sets our clients consider most useful. Additionally, developments in Web technology have enhanced our means of delivery, and we have been able to develop a set of solid add-on offerings, such as custom research for clients who require a more detailed look at a particular market area.

But aside from the services themselves, what is surprising about our journey into business information is how it is driving the evolution of relationships between us and our clients. We are finding that, as we understand more about the business information needs of our commercial customers, we develop better insights into the strategic and tactical challenges they face in how they market and sell to the buyers in our marketplace.

Call it the law of unintended consequences, but our move into business information is shifting our role with clients beyond a relationship weighted toward traditional branding and lead-generation services (advertising and events) to that of a high-value partner more closely attuned to a customer's entire marketing/sales lifecycle. Our role as a market intelligence partner is making us a more integral element in a client's “go-to-market” work flow, specifically helping them to more efficiently target and complete sales transactions and build deeper relationships with their customers. The essence of this role was echoed by Mike Reilly, CEO of Randall-Reilly Publishing, which runs its own $13 million premium information business. He wrote in a recent article: “We think that our business is to help our clients find and keep customers.”

From our vantage point, incorporating business information into our product platform demonstrates a subtle but powerful shift in the role a media firm can play in today's b-to-b market. It is a shift that provides the perfect counterpoint to hypercommoditization: hyperrelevancy.

If Prediction Was Easy We'd All Be Rich

2009-01-26T10:34:00.000-08:00

I love coming across old quotes predicting the social implications of new technologies. They are often gems of priceless insight.

This one, favored by an editor at Government Technology, is among the best:

“[Railroads will] only encourage the common people to move about needlessly."

The Duke of Wellington, 1835

That Rowdy New Media

2009-01-24T15:06:00.000-08:00

“Not knowledge but libel and foolishness…No wisdom…just much posturing and gossip” is how NYT writer Edward Rothstein summarizes the point of view of Henry Peacham, an early critic of the new media.

Only thing - Peacham was making those observations in 1641 when print media was the next new thing.

Rothstein’s article is a review of an exhibition at the Foldger Shakespeare Library in Washington that I’d love to see, “Breaking News: Renaissance Journalism and the Birth of the Newspaper.” The review describes the exhibit as a “chronicle of chronicles, an account of how information about the wider world in 16th- and 17th-century England, including reports of wonders and horrors, wars and troop movements, murders and merchandise, gradually made its way from private journals or letters reporting on events witnessed, to publicly sold broadsheets and pamphlets.”

Like today, but more so, the emergence of a new media was part of a collision of factors that reshaped society. As Rothstein writes in his review, the “… story of how journalism became a public enterprise in Renaissance England is actually the history of how a public itself took shape; how out of a monarchical society in which great poverty and great wealth cohabited, another kind of identity evolved. It was based on slowly increasing literacy and impassioned written argument; it included curiosity about gossip and a taste for exotic tales; and it developed alongside a new commercial world in which written advertising, like the news it accompanied, helped shape taste and expectations."

As new technology disrupts the media world in the 21t century its good to hear from the ink-stained pioneers from the 1600’s.

21st Century Government For Real?

2009-01-23T18:10:00.000-08:00

e.Republic is a media and research firm focused exclusively on the public sector - primarily state/local government and education. Central to our mission is the idea that a dramatically new era requires new kinds of government and educational systems. We’ve stated this in many ways over the 20 + years we’ve been at this but they boil down to the belief that you can’t successfully run 21st century schools, cities, counties and states on 20th century “operating systems”.

Clearly public organizations are frustratingly slow to evolve. Much of the current economic crisis has its roots in governments overwhelmed by a world made smaller, faster and complexly interdependent by new technologies.

This week President Barack Obama was inaugurated as our 44th President. I watched the inauguration ceremony, streamed live over the web, with tremendous pride and hope as a citizen of both America and the world.

Politics aside, there is strong promise in the new administration in Washington. President Obama is a one of a new generation of leaders who get it - for real – it’s in their DNA. They know we won’t succeed in this new century with a 20th century government.

As President Obama said in his inauguration Tuesday: “The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works.” Also speaking about the scope and ambition required to meet the challenges ahead he remarked: “What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them…the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply.”

No doubt the obstacles and inertia to transforming our public institutions are nearly insurmountable, but a new spirit is loose in the land and here at e.Republic a recommitment to our goal of being at the forefront of informing 21st century government.

e.Republic

2008-12-17T11:33:00.000-08:00

Phone Number: 1.916.932.1300

Fax Number: 1.916.932.1470

E-Mail: e.republicinc@gmail.com

Dennis McKenna co-founded and directs the leading media company focused on information technology in the public sector, most specifically serving the state and local government and education markets.

Launched award-winning trade magazines in this field, including, Government Technology, Public CIO, Emergency Management and Converge. In 2007 e.Republic's Public CIO was named “Magazine of the Year” by the American Society of Business Publication Editors (ASBPE). In 2008, e.Republic titles won seven additional editorial and design awards with Government Technology named as “Best Overall Publication/Trade” by the Western Publications Association (Maggie Awards).

In 2007 e.Republic premiered Government Technology TV(GTtv), an online video news and information channel as part of govtech.com. In 2008 BtoB Media Business magazine awarded GTtv best "Overall use of Video, Small BtoB".

Designed and developed the Government Technology Conferences and Executive Event series, the largest intergovernmental events for public sector IT leaders, held each year in more than thirty jurisdictions around the US.

In 2008 launched the Conference on California’s Future.

Developed and oversees management of the Center for Digital Government - the first of its kind research and business intelligence consultancy focused exclusively on state and local government.

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