welcome to lightning round of show 19
let’s get started all right so
readwriteweb they sold for about 5
million what do you think this means
their tech blogs really that influential
are they worth this kind of money or or
not well let’s put the in context
five-million-dollar exit while it’s
great if I’m assuming first of all
congratulations to Richard McManus and
readwriteweb I think like I called them
a long time ago like the think tank of
amongst tech blogs it was always you
know a bit more serious was very deep
analysis and I think that is why however
readwriteweb never really caught on with
the bigger tech blog so if you just
quickly do a background of the tech
locks you really had paid content which
was more of a media new media but also
tech blog then to some extent TechCrunch
came along and stole and I love paid
content Andrew finally but it’s stole
paid content content TechCrunch became
the dominant player and then basically
you had Giga own readwriteweb Mashable
and all these guys Mashable now is
pretty massive but it’s an SEO play and
they cover so much and again props to
Mashable but but TechCrunch was sort of
the dominant one until Business Insider
came out I think once Business Insider
came out and was like heavily funded and
Henry Blodgett was very ambitious to
build a media company and I consider
Business Insider to be a very
entertaining site and I write for
TechCrunch so and I know a lot of these
guys I think we’re fat Sally great great
I think it sort of people realized that
there was a lot of noise and a lot of
hype and a lot of sort of influence but
within a very small crowd so it was
either you were going to be one of the
big ones like rifat sold to Guardian
TechCrunch sold to AOL Business Insider
wants to exit for a huge son I think for
the other guys like readwriteweb the
writing so so to speak was on the wall
so they had to exit I think it’s a great
exit because the guy Richards already
started another company and it’s really
hard to retain all these writers who
move around so i would say they are
influential because they do reach a very
5 million dollars of influence um well
the reality is it going to take to
recoup
investment I think same media which was
a result of six apart merging with video
egg this is part of their strategy I
know a few of the guys there this makes
sense for them and they brought in dan
frommer who used to be a business
insider to now become its editor I mean
five million as much as I hate to say it
is not that big of a sum realistically
when you consider that the kinds of
things so for them i think it was like a
low-risk bet and it was a gracious exit
for readwriteweb but it is an echo
chamber to some extent you know like
when I used to write hip mojo non-stop
before writing for media post on
TechCrunch I had a very very passionate
audience of like a thousand to 5,000
people that’s nothing but it it was a
great audience but it’s not really the
kind of numbers that you can really
monetize that you could really do much
on you know well like you say at that
point content is marketing right exactly
well it’s more open doors and leads to
other money but I’m not getting paid
much these are the questions but this
fits with stay media which is they want
very very targeted niche passionate you
know audiences but I’m just not sure
that the other problem is with these
blogs and I noticed as lightning round
it’s becoming a segment of its own but
just very quickly the problem of these
blogs is it’s based around a personality
when we’re finally brought on Stacy
Kramer was very talented it’s not the
same thing erick schonfeld is the best
editor I’ve ever written for he’s made
me a better writer in like the year
everton for TechCrunch but he’s not
Michael Arrington it’s like Eric
Schonfeld leading that is that better
publication in some ways because it’s
more of a you know sort of overall
cohesive Valerie doesn’t have that same
cult value but it doesn’t have to say it
I’m just saying it’s a different thing
you know it’s they’re both good that’s
very different so my point is this is
gracious exit for Richard and it’s a it
makes sense with what say media wants to
do okay Twitter launched these blended
pages brinded pages Randy sorry these
branded pages that they’re trying to
blend in does this make sense is this
the revenue model for Twitter or is this
yet another attempt to be a revenue okay
here’s the thing no it’s not the it’s I
don’t think it’s going to be the answer
for them and let’s take a look at this
quickly you know this is large over like
long overdue if you look at it you’re
like what took them so long to do this
so now brands can get pages with like a
custom large header they can have
featured tweets at the top they can have
all kinds of photo and video embedded
and they can separate out there
and just kind of have this cooler page
which which is fine it makes sense and
you got to pay for this the reason that
this won’t help Twitter I don’t think
too much is that Twitter doesn’t offer
that same kind of ecosystem that you
know Facebook or even Google Plus offers
because let’s face it you’re logged into
a google account probably all day you
log into Facebook to interact with
people and that’s why it’s valuable for
brands to get you there twitter is
something that most people use I’m going
to assume most people use primarily
through a client or their phone they’re
not in that ecosystem in the same way so
well Twitter Bravo to them they finally
like launched this I don’t think it’s
going to solve enough problems for them
that being said I don’t know what would
so yeah I think I think that the branded
pages are long overdue much needed and
appreciated but probably insufficient
okay upcoming segments down the road is
Twitter revenue model revenue solutions
will talk about that upcoming show okay
should the average user care about sopa
like all this anti piracy anti ugc site
mumbo-jumbo um I think yeah you know of
cnet published a great faq on like SOPA
and they keep updating it I think it’s
worth anyone checking out but if you go
through and read it it covers every
aspect from like how this is going to
affect businesses to how it’s going to
affect users and and pretty much sofa is
going to put the onus on ISPs to like
possibly spy on their users and and that
kind of Big Brother element is is really
scary and has really deep implications
down the line so I think they should but
what do you think well this such as well
okay I personally think that wrote an
article on this I think the onus has
been basically on the content owners to
protect their IP and that frankly I
think that’s crazy I’m not saying you
should automatically shut down a twitter
or youtube obviously if there is some
infringing material but I just think the
rules have been so in favor of the
disruptors at the expense of the content
owners that I understand why you need to
even it up a bit I don’t think you
should have this systematic you know
approach where you know
time warner can go out and just say oh
look there’s one video on youtube we
don’t like so let’s just shut down
YouTube you know I think it’s like
there’s a fly are you going to just flat
at it or are you going to nuke it but I
get it I think you know everybody is so
full of in that they only look at
it like well what’s in it for me and how
am I going to make money this is my
point of view which i guess is human
nature it would be good if people just
sort of understood both sides of it so
it’s broken you need to fix it now do
you need to fix it by creating another
broken system know which actually says
us to the last question and lightning
room all right um Big Brother they’re
clearly watching us there’s a few
examples do you think we should care
about that is it something we need to be
concerned of no I personally think this
might sound really odd I don’t really
care I assume I’m being watched not like
we’re following ash but I assume people
are being watched listen your
transactions they’re available not again
that somebody sitting there going oh my
god ash had a cheeseburger today again
but just that they’re like you know what
of course is being recorded you
know are you that naive to think in a
digital world nobody’s like keeping
track of financial transaction phone
logs whatever you say online it’s like
they say you don’t want a picture of you
doing a shot off a hooker’s ass you
don’t want people to see that don’t do
that shot of you know tequila off a
hookers ass you don’t want to have an
affair and you’re afraid that like some
girls going to go on facebook and ping
your wife saying hey man your husband
slept with me last night don’t go doing
that you don’t want to screw very much
your line is if you have nothing to hide
you have nothing to worry about yes but
I mean thinking one step further we’re
all like oh my god outrage until some
terrorists hijack you and you’re like
man I hope somebody is like
geo-targeting my email account no or or
like you know let’s say again you get
stuck in an avalanche and you’re like
man I hope Apple you know has this
software that will pinpoint where I am
come on it’s it’s a very vocal minority
that’s like outraged until their
daughter gets like you know kidnapped
and they’re like how come this stupid
folders its owner of a fud a hell of a
fun pitch yeah it is yep fear
uncertainty and doubt yeah this is my
concern you know when a concept
big brother was first kind of coin it
was it was quite in terms of this big
like socialist dictatorship that was you
know watching everybody I think that was
unrealistic I always thought brave new
world was more accurate than 1984 cuz
brave new world was a hyper consumer
culture but I think 1984 was clearly
like nuts i was like extreme I don’t you
know it’s like Animal Farm the pigs were
not really running the government right
I know but in nineteen eighty or just
the idea of always having perpetual war
and the enemy is always changing we’re
seeing that today when telescreens they
we carry them around in our pocket now
anyways that’s not the point can you
tell is not read it cover to cover what
concerns me the most and I don’t know
what’s worse but we conceived a big
brother as is one big evil entity now we
have like a whole bunch of big brother’s
google is one Facebook is another that
probably everyone in this room and
watching this is owned by because they
have so much data on us and the list
goes on and on and what scares me about
it going out to multiple peoples these
are private companies and they turn
around they sell it to everyone else
like do you know how much info Zynga has
just because you use facebook it’s
ridiculous and I think then don’t use it
if your stat offended like people have
always acted corporations have always
acted for profit but it’s just we didn’t
know about it because we’re stupid or
media didn’t sort of communicate it so
quickly like propaganda like back in the
day should happen by the time the
newspaper went out you could basically
spin things the way you want now it’s
like there’s a guy filming is like a
look it up he’s dead and I killed them
you’re a desert so it’s a very different
dynamic I’m gonna give you two examples
of why I don’t care we had a little
discussion with the PR or the ad agency
of pure later so I had to write them an
email and I had to search for them long
story short for the next three days
non-stop Google is serving me you know
through behavioral targeting I’m not a
consumer I was pissed at then but you
know they’re fine company we settled it
you know but but and then another one I
stayed at the Vista Roy in Santa Monica
great hotel three weeks after I’ve
stayed there still serving the ads Oh
what anything happens to me and I have
one client and I communicate them with
them through my gmail account and now
like literally fifty percent of the ads
I see no matter what kind of site Ahmad
is for this company and I’m like this is
kind of weird if you’re targeting was
that good you know
not show me the odds well speaking of
targeting email the email of the week um
I’m gonna regardless what you say I’m
gonna pick a bone with you here do you
think ok so the email of the week is
coming from Dave I don’t know where
Dave’s from it was a tweet i got when i
was a digit a because i wrote an article
for media post okay that was a tweet it
was they’ve tweeted me a question to go
on alright i will technology fully
replace humans on madison avenue / in
the advertising world okay so i wrote an
article for media post where I basically
compared this you know a lot of
advertisers now sorry a lot of like ad
networks and technology companies they
target ads based on audience they sort
of don’t care about the content and they
don’t care about the publisher but
they’re like oh you know if you’re
looking for such-and-such demo we’re
going to give you this audience
regardless of where they are and you
know I don’t want to say this because it
sounds like sour grapes but I’m like how
is this different from basically taking
a bunch of crappy mortgages bundling
them together and saying oh look this is
a you know triple-a asset it’s the same
thing right it’s like if I tell you oh
there’s this guy you know who’s going to
come across your ad but that ad might be
on a porn site or it might be below the
fold somewhere or he could be on a
message board or he could totally be
going taking excuse me a dump you know
while your ad is loading but we targeted
my audience it’s the same thing it’s
like putting a lipstick on a pig so I’m
just saying we are basically doing these
things that sound great but anyone from
the outside little the echo chamber that
is online media and technology any
person my grandma she was around if I
described her the that goes on and
half these companies she’d be like with
that is going on here she’s like go take
a shower this isn’t this doesn’t make
sense so I’ll bunk a shower like you
should feel dirty for working this
industry yeah so my point is a lot of
the stuff that we saw so this I was a
digit a basically I guess a competitor
of media post so I asked this question
but I guess at that same time the media
post article hit everybody’s inbox so a
bunch of people ask me about it hence
the emote a week now let me ask you one
let me ask you do you really think that
technology put that American that
coca-cola cup on the American Idol desk
no it’s two guys or two girls who go out
have a four martini lunch who say let’s
get this done right ecology is half of
the equation I i I’m with you there but
I think it’s really going to disrupt and
we touched upon the Senate earlier show
a huge chunk of advertising agencies is
not creative it’s it’s media buying it’s
going to really disrupt that aspect of
the business I don’t think that’s
necessarily a bad thing you know there
used to be a lot of things that machines
now do and I don’t think the world is a
worse place for it but yeah so I think
it’ll disrupt them but not in a way
where it’ll threaten the industry it’ll
just probably change the industry you’ll
have less media buying folk as one
person with a little bit of a software
could do the job of like 10 20 30 people
that’s a good thing it frees people up
to do other stuff good stuff alright
that’s been show number 19 votes give us
feedback on the company of the year at
hip mojo calm to send us your
suggestions if you got any otherwise
next week on show 20 will announce who
was the company of the year last year
was Groupon and the first one back in
1994 was a Oh up you know we should do
we should make them an award and send it
to them so they can be like yeah exactly
i’ll just take the digit a in all likes
liquid paper and i’ll i’ll just engrave
it all right come back next week same
time same place thank you very much
let’s get started all right so
readwriteweb they sold for about 5
million what do you think this means
their tech blogs really that influential
are they worth this kind of money or or
not well let’s put the in context
five-million-dollar exit while it’s
great if I’m assuming first of all
congratulations to Richard McManus and
readwriteweb I think like I called them
a long time ago like the think tank of
amongst tech blogs it was always you
know a bit more serious was very deep
analysis and I think that is why however
readwriteweb never really caught on with
the bigger tech blog so if you just
quickly do a background of the tech
locks you really had paid content which
was more of a media new media but also
tech blog then to some extent TechCrunch
came along and stole and I love paid
content Andrew finally but it’s stole
paid content content TechCrunch became
the dominant player and then basically
you had Giga own readwriteweb Mashable
and all these guys Mashable now is
pretty massive but it’s an SEO play and
they cover so much and again props to
Mashable but but TechCrunch was sort of
the dominant one until Business Insider
came out I think once Business Insider
came out and was like heavily funded and
Henry Blodgett was very ambitious to
build a media company and I consider
Business Insider to be a very
entertaining site and I write for
TechCrunch so and I know a lot of these
guys I think we’re fat Sally great great
I think it sort of people realized that
there was a lot of noise and a lot of
hype and a lot of sort of influence but
within a very small crowd so it was
either you were going to be one of the
big ones like rifat sold to Guardian
TechCrunch sold to AOL Business Insider
wants to exit for a huge son I think for
the other guys like readwriteweb the
writing so so to speak was on the wall
so they had to exit I think it’s a great
exit because the guy Richards already
started another company and it’s really
hard to retain all these writers who
move around so i would say they are
influential because they do reach a very
5 million dollars of influence um well
the reality is it going to take to
recoup
investment I think same media which was
a result of six apart merging with video
egg this is part of their strategy I
know a few of the guys there this makes
sense for them and they brought in dan
frommer who used to be a business
insider to now become its editor I mean
five million as much as I hate to say it
is not that big of a sum realistically
when you consider that the kinds of
things so for them i think it was like a
low-risk bet and it was a gracious exit
for readwriteweb but it is an echo
chamber to some extent you know like
when I used to write hip mojo non-stop
before writing for media post on
TechCrunch I had a very very passionate
audience of like a thousand to 5,000
people that’s nothing but it it was a
great audience but it’s not really the
kind of numbers that you can really
monetize that you could really do much
on you know well like you say at that
point content is marketing right exactly
well it’s more open doors and leads to
other money but I’m not getting paid
much these are the questions but this
fits with stay media which is they want
very very targeted niche passionate you
know audiences but I’m just not sure
that the other problem is with these
blogs and I noticed as lightning round
it’s becoming a segment of its own but
just very quickly the problem of these
blogs is it’s based around a personality
when we’re finally brought on Stacy
Kramer was very talented it’s not the
same thing erick schonfeld is the best
editor I’ve ever written for he’s made
me a better writer in like the year
everton for TechCrunch but he’s not
Michael Arrington it’s like Eric
Schonfeld leading that is that better
publication in some ways because it’s
more of a you know sort of overall
cohesive Valerie doesn’t have that same
cult value but it doesn’t have to say it
I’m just saying it’s a different thing
you know it’s they’re both good that’s
very different so my point is this is
gracious exit for Richard and it’s a it
makes sense with what say media wants to
do okay Twitter launched these blended
pages brinded pages Randy sorry these
branded pages that they’re trying to
blend in does this make sense is this
the revenue model for Twitter or is this
yet another attempt to be a revenue okay
here’s the thing no it’s not the it’s I
don’t think it’s going to be the answer
for them and let’s take a look at this
quickly you know this is large over like
long overdue if you look at it you’re
like what took them so long to do this
so now brands can get pages with like a
custom large header they can have
featured tweets at the top they can have
all kinds of photo and video embedded
and they can separate out there
and just kind of have this cooler page
which which is fine it makes sense and
you got to pay for this the reason that
this won’t help Twitter I don’t think
too much is that Twitter doesn’t offer
that same kind of ecosystem that you
know Facebook or even Google Plus offers
because let’s face it you’re logged into
a google account probably all day you
log into Facebook to interact with
people and that’s why it’s valuable for
brands to get you there twitter is
something that most people use I’m going
to assume most people use primarily
through a client or their phone they’re
not in that ecosystem in the same way so
well Twitter Bravo to them they finally
like launched this I don’t think it’s
going to solve enough problems for them
that being said I don’t know what would
so yeah I think I think that the branded
pages are long overdue much needed and
appreciated but probably insufficient
okay upcoming segments down the road is
Twitter revenue model revenue solutions
will talk about that upcoming show okay
should the average user care about sopa
like all this anti piracy anti ugc site
mumbo-jumbo um I think yeah you know of
cnet published a great faq on like SOPA
and they keep updating it I think it’s
worth anyone checking out but if you go
through and read it it covers every
aspect from like how this is going to
affect businesses to how it’s going to
affect users and and pretty much sofa is
going to put the onus on ISPs to like
possibly spy on their users and and that
kind of Big Brother element is is really
scary and has really deep implications
down the line so I think they should but
what do you think well this such as well
okay I personally think that wrote an
article on this I think the onus has
been basically on the content owners to
protect their IP and that frankly I
think that’s crazy I’m not saying you
should automatically shut down a twitter
or youtube obviously if there is some
infringing material but I just think the
rules have been so in favor of the
disruptors at the expense of the content
owners that I understand why you need to
even it up a bit I don’t think you
should have this systematic you know
approach where you know
time warner can go out and just say oh
look there’s one video on youtube we
don’t like so let’s just shut down
YouTube you know I think it’s like
there’s a fly are you going to just flat
at it or are you going to nuke it but I
get it I think you know everybody is so
full of in that they only look at
it like well what’s in it for me and how
am I going to make money this is my
point of view which i guess is human
nature it would be good if people just
sort of understood both sides of it so
it’s broken you need to fix it now do
you need to fix it by creating another
broken system know which actually says
us to the last question and lightning
room all right um Big Brother they’re
clearly watching us there’s a few
examples do you think we should care
about that is it something we need to be
concerned of no I personally think this
might sound really odd I don’t really
care I assume I’m being watched not like
we’re following ash but I assume people
are being watched listen your
transactions they’re available not again
that somebody sitting there going oh my
god ash had a cheeseburger today again
but just that they’re like you know what
of course is being recorded you
know are you that naive to think in a
digital world nobody’s like keeping
track of financial transaction phone
logs whatever you say online it’s like
they say you don’t want a picture of you
doing a shot off a hooker’s ass you
don’t want people to see that don’t do
that shot of you know tequila off a
hookers ass you don’t want to have an
affair and you’re afraid that like some
girls going to go on facebook and ping
your wife saying hey man your husband
slept with me last night don’t go doing
that you don’t want to screw very much
your line is if you have nothing to hide
you have nothing to worry about yes but
I mean thinking one step further we’re
all like oh my god outrage until some
terrorists hijack you and you’re like
man I hope somebody is like
geo-targeting my email account no or or
like you know let’s say again you get
stuck in an avalanche and you’re like
man I hope Apple you know has this
software that will pinpoint where I am
come on it’s it’s a very vocal minority
that’s like outraged until their
daughter gets like you know kidnapped
and they’re like how come this stupid
folders its owner of a fud a hell of a
fun pitch yeah it is yep fear
uncertainty and doubt yeah this is my
concern you know when a concept
big brother was first kind of coin it
was it was quite in terms of this big
like socialist dictatorship that was you
know watching everybody I think that was
unrealistic I always thought brave new
world was more accurate than 1984 cuz
brave new world was a hyper consumer
culture but I think 1984 was clearly
like nuts i was like extreme I don’t you
know it’s like Animal Farm the pigs were
not really running the government right
I know but in nineteen eighty or just
the idea of always having perpetual war
and the enemy is always changing we’re
seeing that today when telescreens they
we carry them around in our pocket now
anyways that’s not the point can you
tell is not read it cover to cover what
concerns me the most and I don’t know
what’s worse but we conceived a big
brother as is one big evil entity now we
have like a whole bunch of big brother’s
google is one Facebook is another that
probably everyone in this room and
watching this is owned by because they
have so much data on us and the list
goes on and on and what scares me about
it going out to multiple peoples these
are private companies and they turn
around they sell it to everyone else
like do you know how much info Zynga has
just because you use facebook it’s
ridiculous and I think then don’t use it
if your stat offended like people have
always acted corporations have always
acted for profit but it’s just we didn’t
know about it because we’re stupid or
media didn’t sort of communicate it so
quickly like propaganda like back in the
day should happen by the time the
newspaper went out you could basically
spin things the way you want now it’s
like there’s a guy filming is like a
look it up he’s dead and I killed them
you’re a desert so it’s a very different
dynamic I’m gonna give you two examples
of why I don’t care we had a little
discussion with the PR or the ad agency
of pure later so I had to write them an
email and I had to search for them long
story short for the next three days
non-stop Google is serving me you know
through behavioral targeting I’m not a
consumer I was pissed at then but you
know they’re fine company we settled it
you know but but and then another one I
stayed at the Vista Roy in Santa Monica
great hotel three weeks after I’ve
stayed there still serving the ads Oh
what anything happens to me and I have
one client and I communicate them with
them through my gmail account and now
like literally fifty percent of the ads
I see no matter what kind of site Ahmad
is for this company and I’m like this is
kind of weird if you’re targeting was
that good you know
not show me the odds well speaking of
targeting email the email of the week um
I’m gonna regardless what you say I’m
gonna pick a bone with you here do you
think ok so the email of the week is
coming from Dave I don’t know where
Dave’s from it was a tweet i got when i
was a digit a because i wrote an article
for media post okay that was a tweet it
was they’ve tweeted me a question to go
on alright i will technology fully
replace humans on madison avenue / in
the advertising world okay so i wrote an
article for media post where I basically
compared this you know a lot of
advertisers now sorry a lot of like ad
networks and technology companies they
target ads based on audience they sort
of don’t care about the content and they
don’t care about the publisher but
they’re like oh you know if you’re
looking for such-and-such demo we’re
going to give you this audience
regardless of where they are and you
know I don’t want to say this because it
sounds like sour grapes but I’m like how
is this different from basically taking
a bunch of crappy mortgages bundling
them together and saying oh look this is
a you know triple-a asset it’s the same
thing right it’s like if I tell you oh
there’s this guy you know who’s going to
come across your ad but that ad might be
on a porn site or it might be below the
fold somewhere or he could be on a
message board or he could totally be
going taking excuse me a dump you know
while your ad is loading but we targeted
my audience it’s the same thing it’s
like putting a lipstick on a pig so I’m
just saying we are basically doing these
things that sound great but anyone from
the outside little the echo chamber that
is online media and technology any
person my grandma she was around if I
described her the that goes on and
half these companies she’d be like with
that is going on here she’s like go take
a shower this isn’t this doesn’t make
sense so I’ll bunk a shower like you
should feel dirty for working this
industry yeah so my point is a lot of
the stuff that we saw so this I was a
digit a basically I guess a competitor
of media post so I asked this question
but I guess at that same time the media
post article hit everybody’s inbox so a
bunch of people ask me about it hence
the emote a week now let me ask you one
let me ask you do you really think that
technology put that American that
coca-cola cup on the American Idol desk
no it’s two guys or two girls who go out
have a four martini lunch who say let’s
get this done right ecology is half of
the equation I i I’m with you there but
I think it’s really going to disrupt and
we touched upon the Senate earlier show
a huge chunk of advertising agencies is
not creative it’s it’s media buying it’s
going to really disrupt that aspect of
the business I don’t think that’s
necessarily a bad thing you know there
used to be a lot of things that machines
now do and I don’t think the world is a
worse place for it but yeah so I think
it’ll disrupt them but not in a way
where it’ll threaten the industry it’ll
just probably change the industry you’ll
have less media buying folk as one
person with a little bit of a software
could do the job of like 10 20 30 people
that’s a good thing it frees people up
to do other stuff good stuff alright
that’s been show number 19 votes give us
feedback on the company of the year at
hip mojo calm to send us your
suggestions if you got any otherwise
next week on show 20 will announce who
was the company of the year last year
was Groupon and the first one back in
1994 was a Oh up you know we should do
we should make them an award and send it
to them so they can be like yeah exactly
i’ll just take the digit a in all likes
liquid paper and i’ll i’ll just engrave
it all right come back next week same
time same place thank you very much
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