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Articles from Diggings

The Golden Compass Will Be The Best Movie In 2007 2007-09-02 16:28:55 For anyone who has read the books (Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials Trilogy), there is little doubt that the Golden Compass will be the best movie in 2007. One look at the movie trailer or the extended clip shown at Comic Con and it’s clear that New Line Cinema and director Chris Weitz got it right. Even the movie’s web site is well done and a thoroughly entertaining place to spend 30 minutes or so. The movie looks absolutely phenomenal and appears to live up to all the potential of the books. Good thing too, given the $180 million budget that was essential in order to create talking polar bears, parallel universes, daemons for every character in the story, and a working alethiometer, the coolest device ever invented by someone other than Steve Jobs. If you haven’t read the books, I would highly recommend reading them. They are fantastically entertaining. Tags: His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman, The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, The Amber Spyglass, ...

Metro Daily Papers in 2020… 2007-08-30 18:05:02 In a piece entitled “What Will The Metro Newspaper Look Like In 2020?,” Dave Morgan writes a pretty good piece on the future of the daily newspapers in large metro markets in 2020. (See yesterday’s post here and a similar Slate piece here). As one of the comments on Morgan’s post points out, it’s hard enough to predict what they landscape will look like in 2010, let alone 2020. I applaud Morgan for bravely attempting to envision things 13 years from now. I also happen to agree with much of what he states, with the exception of a few points. I don’t think all media will be digital in 2020. While the vast majority of content may, in fact, be delivered digitally, there is still tremendous appeal in print. It is portable and requires no power, it’s inexpensive and highly tactile. I am reminded of the great comment made at the Slate media summit at the New York City Library a year or so ago that if, in the imaginary absence of daily newspapers, some ...

Obviously, Newspapers Are Dying, But… 2007-08-28 15:29:57 I regard it as a very good day for media consumption when one of my favorite web sites (Slate) writes a story about one of my favorite topics (the future of the newspaper industry). As is almost always the case, Slate’s analysis was dead on the mark. Jack Shafer’s piece, ‘Already Chewed News,’ is worth reading for anyone who wants to get a sense of how newspapers are going to have to position themselves in a drastically altered media landscape in the years ahead. Tags: Slate Magazine, Jack Shafer, Newspapers Are Dying, The Political Gabfest, Phenomenal Commentary ...

Jim Stroud Has Good Advice For Monster 2007-08-27 09:51:08 Following-up on my post from last Friday about Monster waiting 5 days to notify its users that 1.3 million records had been stolen, I found an excellent post by Jim Stroud on what Monster should have done in reaction to the security breach. Jim’s well-articulated response is actually a pretty good template for any company that wants to leverage the web in response to a crisis-like situation. Too bad Monster failed to act in a manner even remotely close to what Stroud outlined in his post and instead, cowered in the corner hoping that the crisis would blow over without anyone noticing. Tags: Jim Stroud, Monster, Monster.com, How To Handle Crisis, Leveraging The Web In A Crisis, Monster Fails To Protect Data ...

Monster Waited 5 Days To Disclose Data Theft 2007-08-24 11:36:44 Monster waited 5 days to disclose the massive security breach that resulted in the personal information on 1.3 million users being stolen. I couldn’t imagine a more perfect example of the regard Monster has of its users. What an absolute disgrace. Tags: Horrendous Corporate Malfeasance, Disgraceful Customer Service, Online Security, Monster.com, Monster, Online Recruitment Advertising, Job Boards, Abysmal Decision-Making, Poor Judgement ...

Doctors Needed In International Falls 2007-08-24 07:43:04 Since I’m not a journalist (in case there was any doubt), and blogging isn’t my full-time occupation, and I try to balance the time I spend on this blog every day with all the other things I have to do, I don’t really mind when I miss a story I’d like to have posted on first. But John Sumser has a story on his blog that I truly would like to have written on first - being a Minnesotan that covers the employment advertising industry and the U.S. labor market, as well as a decent fan of A Prairie Home Companion. THIS  SHOULD HAVE BEEN MY POST! Read the story here. Tags: Jealous Blogger, Scooped By John Sumser, International Falls, Doctors Needed, Garrison Keillor, A Prairie Home Companion ...

Is It Too Late To Short Monster? 2007-08-23 10:49:39 One look at Monster’s stock chart for the last 6 months and it’s obvious that some nice returns could have been generated by shorting MNST earlier this summer. Given what’s going on with the company, however, I’d make the case that it’s not too late to capitalize on Monster’s troubles. A few years ago, I listened to a very successful short seller discuss what at the time was his current favorite stock to short. It was Nautilus (NYSE: NLS), maker of the BowFlex home-gym system. His investment theme was that when Bowflex started increasing their advertising, it was time to increase his short position. As is the case with most short strategies, his position required nerves of steel and tremendous conviction because the increase in BowFlex ads, as they seemingly became omnipresent on TV, absolutely increased unit sales. But through customer interviews, store interviews, and basic research, this investor realized that customer returns of the BowFlex syst ...

Some Shameless Self-Promotion… 2007-08-22 10:13:08 JobDig was featured in the August/September issue of Dynamic Graphics magazine. The article focuses on leveraging characters to build a strong, memorable brand, and our iconic dog is highlighted as a perfect example of how to execute such a strategy. I try fairly hard not to be overly self-serving in this blog (I’ll let all 13 of my readers decide for themselves how I’m doing in that regard), but it was fun to see our brand get some attention in a nationally-recognized publication. Brad Norr, Molly Moseley, and Brad Squibb, the brains behind our brand, deserve huge credit for what we’ve built. Tags: Dynamic Graphics, Leveraging Characters To Build A Brand, The Value Of A Strong Brand, Marketing, Effective Marketing, The Next Pillsbury Doughboy? ...

Employment Guide Completely Disregards Its Readers 2007-08-21 14:12:10 Speaking of media companies that give a higher priority to advertisers than their readers (see yesterday’s post), the Employment Guide is still running ads for work-at-home scams and bogus job opportunities. These sham companies, who thrive in part because of the blind-eye turned by second-rate publications that desperately need the advertising revenue, do nothing but steal money from people. Dominion Enterprises (formerly Trader Publications), which publishes the Employment Guide in about 55 markets around the country, apparently has no regard for its readership and will take money from any advertiser, no matter how corrupt, fraudulent, or criminal that advertiser may be. $5,000 to stuff 1,000 envelopes?!? And placing a weak disclaimer next to these ads does nothing to absolve Dominion of their guilt. The Employment Guide is, without question, aiding and abetting these hacks that prey on uninformed consumers. The postal ad is a particularly egregious example. This company has be ...

Why Daily Newspaper Web Sites Will Never Win 2007-08-20 09:12:12 I am still trying to recover from the nausea induced by the Star Tribune’s web site this weekend. Like placing ads on the front page of different sections of the paper or wrapping a 1/2 page ad over the sports section, the Star Tribune has somehow decided that it’s a good thing to have background ‘wallpaper’ behind their site featuring a local advertiser. What makes the decision especially appalling is that the wallpaper is particularly obnoxious…..I suppose in order to make it stand out and provide extra visibility (as if it needs it). What it does, however, is send me diving for my mouse to click away from the site as fast as I can to avoid throwing up. When will daily newspapers learn that their primary customers are their readers, not their advertisers? If you effectively serve your readership and place them first in the pecking order, advertisers and their revenue streams will be there to follow. When the pecking order is reversed and advertisers ar ...

5 Great Interview Questions 2007-08-18 13:00:39 Taken from Men’s Health Magazine: 1) When were you exhilerated about your work? 2) What major mistake from your past do you not regret? 3) What’s your favorite movie? 4) What’s a misconception people have about you? 5) In 5 years, how will you justify having taken this job? Tags: Great Interview Questions, Job Interviews, Preparing For Job Interviews, Identifying Great Candidates ...

More From Warren Buffett On The Dailies 2007-08-16 10:08:11 It’s slightly outdated (May, 2007), but the other day I came across some comments by Warren Buffett on the daily newspaper industry. They were taken from his annual meeting earlier this year. Q: Dow Jones, Murdoch, what advice to give to long-suffering New York Times shareholders? WB: I think the long-suffering shareholder has probably made a mistake – we’ve said for a good many years that newspapers were overpriced as valuation was based on a rear-view mirror, not a window. The woes of the newspaper business are not connected to the difference in how they structure the equity at the New York Times or other places. Assume that Gutenberg, instead of inventing movable type decided to run a hedge fund to really make something of himself. If his descendant, Gutenberg the 28th, came along today with an idea to build expensive presses that run all night to deliver pieces of paper so they can read about what happened yesterday, I don’t think we’d back him. The po ...

Some Pictures To Put A Smile On Your Face 2007-08-15 10:01:29 The new home for John and Timothy Rigas is the Butner Federal Correctional Complex in North Carolina. The father & son duo were sentenced to 15 and 20 years in prison, respectively, for using Adelphia as their personal bank account and robbing shareholders of hundreds of millions of dollars. They reported to prison on Sunday. Nothing has been more destructive to corporate America than the wave of corruption, fraud, greed, and theft that has swept across the pages of the Wall Street Journal over the past decade or so and it’s extremely gratifying to read about the felons finally reporting to prison. Tags: John Rigas, Timothy Rigas, Adelphia, Butner Federal Correctional Complex, Sweet Justice, Corporate Greed, Rotting In Prison ...

Free Copy Of Sweet Land DVD 2007-08-10 16:16:03 My offer of sending a free copy of the Sweetland DVD to the first 10 people who link to this blog apparently did not get  the attention of my thousands of readers. I have only received 2 emails (and shipped out 2 copies, even though the second person never even sent me the URL where the link could be seen). So the offer still stands: the next 8 poeple who link to this blog from their site (and leave me a comment on this post so I can send an email and get the mailing address to ship the DVD) will get a free DVD of one of the best movies of all time. Tags: Sweet Land, Free DVDs, Free DVD, Great Movies, Minnesota Movies, Immigration Stories, Love Stories, Incredible Offers, Bribing People For Links ... Dvd

Online Growth For Newspapers Slowing 2007-08-10 10:16:24 In an excellent MediaPost article today, Erik Sass highlights a disturbing trend for daily newspapers. On top of the erosion in real estate classifieds, an area that has long been one of the few bright spots for the industry, newspapers are seeing online job classified revenue drop. As Erik correctly points out in the article, newspapers have basically generated online job ad growth by upselling their print customers onto the web. While that generated growth for a period of time, and in some cases even those results were less than stellar, that particular revenue stream has been fully leveraged now, and the upsell opportunities are diminishing as print customers are fleeing the daily papers altogether. The trick for the dailies now is to start selling their online classifieds as a stand-alone product independent of their print offerings. Given the quality of their sales forces and their track record in the past, I wouldn’t put money on them. Tags: Daily Newspapers, Online Recrui ...