The first 90 days

If you are moving into a new role (irrelevant of the level), this is a great book for providing new ideas about how to approach the challenge. It provides a wide range of ideas that will apply to leadership roles in a variety of situations. Since it is so well organised, it is possible to use it as a reference book and dip into the bits that are relevant for your particular situation. The examples and chapter summaries are excellent and make the material much more accessible.

The material applies to such a wide range of situations that I suspect others might find it useful. For example, it wouldn't surprise me if consultants will find this book useful when approaching a new engagement. It provides some useful tools and approaches to tackling new problems.

A really useful book that I will revisit time and time again. As another reviewer suggested, if you are serving out your notice before starting a new job, this would be a good book to read. One thing is for sure, once you start your new job, you will only have limited time to read!

Newspaper industry

I have long been an admirer of the Newspaper industry. There aren't many industries around that have been in decline for the past 40 years and yet, year on year, never seem to fail to turn in a profit. I think there are a few Telcos around that could learn a thing or two from the great Newspaper companies.

A new report in into the Newspaper industry in the US provides some interesting insights. You can download the full report here. Some of their key findings were:

• Newspapers are experimenting with user generated content. The study found that 58 percent of newspapers allowed for user generated photos, while 18 percent accepted video and 15 percent articles. Overall, 58 percent of newspapers offered some form of user generated content in 2008 compared to 24 percent in 2007.
  
• Research shows that the number of newspaper websites allowing users to comment on articles has more than doubled in the last year. Seventy five percent of newspapers now accept article comments in some form, compared to 33 percent in 2007.
  
• Ten percent of newspapers had social networking tools, such as user profiles and the ability to “friend” other users, built into their sites in 2008. This compares to five percent of sites that included this feature in 2007. It is surprising that this number isn’t higher.
  
• Seventy six percent of newspapers offered a Most Popular view of content in some form (Most Emailed, Most Blogged, Most Commented, etc.). This compares to 51 percent in 2007 and 33 percent in 2006.
  
• Integration with external social bookmarking sites like Digg and del.icio.us has increased dramatically the last few years. Ninety-two percent of newspapers now include this option compared to only seven percent in 2006.

The interesting thing for me is that we are seeing a reduction in the need for users to register to be able to access full stories (11% of the newspapers surveyed required registration as opposed to 27% in 2007). This illustrates that newspapers are having to explore alternative methods of generating online revenues. Simply getting users to register and then bombarding then with targeted online advertising isn't going to work. Now there's a surprise!

Monetizing Social Networking

Monetizing social networking sites is still proving problematic. This article in The New York Times summarises some of the issues that Procter & Gamble have been encountering using Facebook.

It is interesting that just 3 percent of Internet users in the United States would willingly let publishers use their friends for advertising. Yet there is research that users are KEEN to publicise their views and experiences with products. According to research from DEI Worldwide 63 percent of consumers would like to share their opinions about a brand or product with a representative, and 67 percent are likely to pass along information from a brand representative to other people. Bit of a difference between 3% and 63%!

Personally, I suspect the major problem for advertisers is that social networking sites are about social interaction and not product placement - when conversing with friends and family, banner ads just seem a little inappropriate. If we aren't careful, banner ads are just going to make users feel like shills.

Interestingly, many organisations seem committed to monetizing social networking sites (asides from the social networking sites themselves that is), but only time will tell if this will work. Either way, I suspect that it is going to take longer that anyone thinks. In the meantime, users will continue to wield new found consumer powers.

Online newspapers

According to Neilsen, the Guardian remains the UK's leading online newspaper, closely followed by The Times. However, the rising star this year has been the Daily Mirror that has doubled it's online readership in the last year.

Today, it is estimated that nearly one in three adults in the UK read online newspapers. More information here: http://www.nma.co.uk/Articles/40834/The+Mirror+almost+doubles+online+audience+to+13m+users.html

Outliers - Malcolm Gladwell

I am a great fan of Malcolm Gladwell and had high expectations of this book having read both Blink and The Tipping Point. However, this book isn't quite in the same league.

The point his is making is made very well (that success is as much to do with being born in the right place at the right time - it is about riding a wave) and the case put forward is compelling enough. However, it seems that the book presents the same line of thought through many different examples. For me, the thinking didn't seem to evolve through the book - once you got the idea, it didn't really evolve. I was expecting so much more. Part One is a bit slow and repetitive, but the book picks up towards the end. As well as the main theme of the book (the power of cultural legacies and being in the right place at the right time), I found the section on Power Distance Index fascinating (chapter 7).

Having said all that, it was still interesting reading and I like Malcolm Gladwell's style - compelling and accessible.