Technology lets people talk back to media. So what does that mean? Advertising analyst Gordon Borrell likens the new media landscape to a hunt in which the deer can shoot back. That’s the punch line of an essay by broadcaster turned new media gurur Terry Heaton.

Heaton passes on some advice from Borrell, a local advertising research specialist, who says media firms need to get into the ammunition business — that is, they must create and aggregate the sorts of information, advertisements and amusements that get people talking. There are some interesting and prescriptive suggestions in Heaton’s essay, which I noticed via a roundabout path that included a cite by J.D. ( NewMediaMusings) Lasica that was reposted by Unmediated.org.

How do you monetize that? In an interview published in Paid Content, Martin Nisenholtz, senior vice president of digital operations for The New York Times Company revealed that the Times has purchased a site called BlogRunner, which, he said:

“(takes) the blogosphere and organizes it by article content, so if the top story in NYTimes is about social security, then it would take all the conversation around that on the Web and organize that. It creates this nexus of content and community which we think is very powerful. We are taking that and we are adding that back into our website.”

Web central, not profitable: In a related Item, here is a writeup from a forum on branding that was held at the Davos World Economic Forum. The following is excerpted from a Forum page:

“Arthur Sulzberger Jr, Chairman and Publisher, The New York Times, USA, explained how the 154 year-old Times, and now the International Herald Tribune as well, are no longer just print media businesses with digital enterprises. The Web presence of the papers has moved from being “ancillary”to being “core”. The print version of the Times still provides most of the revenue, however, despite the fact that there are today more readers of the Web version.”

How about deer with blasters? This last bit won’t make any sense unless you are a science fiction nut like me who fell in love with the campy Firelfy TV series that was canceled after a year only to return as the feature length film Serenity. Now some fans have banded together to try and acquire the rights and make a Firefly2. How quixotic is that? It’s like a real live Galaxy Quest.

Tom Abate
MiniMediaGuy
‘Cause if you ain’t Mass Media, you’re Mini Media