Writing on paper as well

I've started to write about energy, building, business, entrepreneurship and regional development in Ostra Nyland which is a local Swedish language newspaper.

- Wood Building in Pernaja
- Broadband connections and fiber cable for the region
- Business development strategy in Loviisa and the region
- How are entrepreneurs doing in Liljendal?
- The Christmas Market and Ambiance in Loviisa
- Is there a future for wind energy in Finland and Loviisa?

Newsmagazines Commentary

Helge: I look at this from a corporate communication standpoint. What is the value of interaction for a company, sales organization or corporation blogging?

Suviko wrote on Jaiku: There is a relatively new phenomenon of big online newspapers providing a commentary function underneath their articles to give the audience the possibility to publish their opinions (cf. www.hs.fi, www.usatoday.com , www.sueddeutsche.de).

Helge: The media landscape is changing. We move towards a truly interactive society. Open, Interactive, Creatvie, Innovative are key words. The old way of “selling ideas or ads” is dead as CRM model (old school customer relationship management with the company in the driving seat is over). We’ve to engage people in a dialog. Added value comes through interactivity and “the wisdom of the crowd”.

Suviko wrote on Jaiku: This is a global phenomenon, and the frequency of daily published comments seems to prove that the readers appreciate this new possibility of being interactive. The phenomenon has so far received only little attention of researchers, although it raises questions like: Why do the publishers allow their readers to comment news coverage?

Helge: Why do they allow? Any media is measured by its ability attract readers, viewers and how much time they [readers] spend with the media. Feedback indicates that the content is valued by the readers. It’s still a minority that is writing commentary. This small F-B stream is also online market research at the same time.

Suviko wrote on Jaiku: Why do the readers want to do that, and, in which way and to what extend do these posts influence what journalists think and write? Will we have to revise the traditional theoretical models of mass communication in future in order to recognise a stronger role of feedback?

Helge: I think so…

Suviko wrote on Jaiku: In this workshop, we will learn the basic principles of the interview as a method of qualitative research and apply it on the field explained above. As it is a relatively unknown area, qualitative interviewing will fit the purpose best. Further, the students are asked to conduct interviews as well as analyze and interpret them within a research report. The workshop will take place in March 2008 in Helsinki.

Helge: Interview as a method…I did look at this from a corporate communication standpoint.

Marc Andreessen's newspaper death watch - Feb. 22, 2008

Marc Andreessen's newspaper death watch - Feb. 22, 2008: "'When you have an obsolete, inconvenient physical product that nobody wants in an era of universal online access, the appropriate strategy is clearly to raise the price,' he snarked. (He's not the only one gunning for the Times. A coalition of hedge funds just bought up 10% of the company and wants to install four of its own candidates on the board.)

Helge: The struggle of the newspapers is an issue for Finland as a leading paper manufacturer.

Andreessen has always been a blunt, plainspoken guy. He grew up in a tiny town in Wisconsin, and although he moved to California in 1993 to make his fortune, he maintains a Midwestern intolerance for pretense (and, apparently, fancy lunch spots).

He's a legend in Silicon Valley for having founded and sold, by age 36, two billion-dollar companies: Netscape Communications (unloaded on AOL (TWX, Fortune 500) in 1998 for $4.2 billion) and Opsware (a server-management company that HP (HPQ, Fortune 500) bought last year for $1.6 billion).

Helge: There was a mention about Flock and Ning.

Now he's going for a three-peat: He's co-founder and chairman of Ning, which makes tools to help users start their own social networks. His timing was perfect. Ning was launched just as the MySpace-Facebook phenomenon was taking off, and by last fall it had created more than 100,000 mini social networks..."

Helge: What does he say about managing a print company?

So what would he do if he were running the Times? Easy, he says. Kill the print product immediately and deliver the base line of news online only. "Take acute pain now in order to avoid years of chronic pain," he says. "Basic rule of thumb: Be on offense, not on defense." And the offense? Graft social networking features onto the online Times, of course.