Twitter continues to grow

So now there is Twitcam, which is....yep, you guessed it. You can capture video of yourself and Tweet it.

If you aren't on Twitter, you really should be. Fun stuff.

Maxim magazine survives

Private equity-backed Alpha Media Group, the publisher of Maxim magazine, will survive another day. They recently completed a debt-to-equity conversion that reduces its debt and increases its salary structure.

Without boring you death, it means that Maxim will hang around a little longer at a time when print media (and many media outlets in general) are getting killed.

Ad revenue for Maxim fell 31% so far in 2009 and it's making it very difficult on Alpha Media.

New York Times in trouble?

Our good friend Rebecca Crowley raises an interesting discussion on her RTC blog. Is the New York Times in trouble? Rebecca writes:

With the influence of The New York Times on the media world, how would this play out? In addition to losing their high-credentialed editorial, what about all the other newsources they own? With a circulation in the millions, it is not just New Yorkers who rely on The Times. In the PR World it is considered a national publication. Furthermore, with the state of the economy–we must think year’s ahead. 2012 is not that far off. So what do you think? Is it all hype? Is their truly a possibility that The New York Times would actually fold?

Our take is that the NY Times and other media outlets needs to adapt to the changing ways in which people get their information. They are still reading the content, but they are getting it online. It's not an accident that any daily newspaper worth a damn has blogs all over their site.

Traditional news articles may have to change. This is because while we still want the information, there is so much of it out there, that we don't need the old-school reverse pyramid format. People want the first 2-4 paragraphs and then they are moving on. We still need the credibility, integrity and responsibility that comes with traditional journalism, but we need it packaged differently.

For instance, if Michael Vick is getting off of house arrest shortly, that's the information we need to know. We don't need the whole back story on when he first went to jail and why he went to jail. We know that already. And if we didn't know that, we aren't interested in that story enough to have clicked on the link.

Four unique brand positions

Here are four examples of brands that did an excellent job positioning themselves. You should copy these examples and get rich. Just come up with a new and unique idea and sell a ton of whatever it is. Ok, but seriously, here are some neat examples from Bnet.com readers:

* 7-Up. The famous positioning of 7-UP as the “Uncola” perfectly positioned that product for those who did not want to consume cola drinks. For those who do (a confirmed Coca-Cola fanatic), the positioning of 7-UP had no appeal. But that’s fine, since I am not their prospective customer anyway (even though THEY might consider me a prospect).
- Courtesy of Steven “sbhoward” Howard
* Starbucks. I’ve been critical of Howard Schultz the turnaround CEO, but Howard Schultz the entrepreneur franchised “premium coffee,” forever upgraded the “coffee shop” experience, and created one of the world’s most powerful brands in the process.
* Swatch. The most famous example I can think of is Swatch. Created as a defense against low priced Japanese quartz watches that swamped the market, instead of competing on price, [parent company] SMH positioned the product as the famous “fashion watch,” thereby creating a whole new market, much larger in size than the original watch market.
- Courtesy of Ricky ” rdewerk” de Werk
* Hyundai. Another fantastic example is Hyundai, a company that understands how to consistently move upstream through intelligent product positioning. Hyundai is increasingly creating havoc in the market for their competitors and finding ways to innovate, and develop value propositions that resonate with their customers and prospects.
- Courtesy of Mikah “MikahDC” Sellers

Washington Post has marketing plan backfire

Apparently, the Washington Post was planning on sitting down with Obama administration officials, business leaders, politicians and other people that it shouldn't be sitting down with for off-the-record "salons" at the home of the Post's publisher.

Well, fliers got out that these "collegial" sit downs would be $250,000 and billed as "extensions of The Washington Post brand of journalistic inquiry into the issues."

Uh oh, this don't look too good. Well, the rest of the media pounced and the Post had no choice but to pull a mea culpa. And we wonder why the media gets ripped so often for being a waste?

"This should never have happened. The fliers got out and weren't vetted. They didn't represent at all what we were attempting to do. We're not going to do any dinners that would impugn the integrity of the newsroom," Post publisher Katharine Weymouth said.

"For a storied newspaper that cherishes its reputation for ethical purity, this comes pretty close to a public relations disaster," wrote Post ombudsman Andrew Alexander.

Oh indeed! You think your circulations are hurting now? How many people will question the credibility of the Washington Post (and many other papers) now?