A modicum of self-promotion here: NewsGator has just been named to the inaugural class of "Colorado Companies to Watch" by the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade in association with private and public organizations dedicated to supporting second-stage businesses in the state.

The awards program honors 50 second-stage Colorado companies "that demonstrate high performance in the marketplace or exhibit innovative products or processes."  Second-stage refers to companies beyond the startup phase and facing growth, rather than survival, issues.

While you may know NewsGator for our content syndication services that proliferate published content to consumers, boosting public revenue, you may not know that we're also responsible for:

• FeedDemon, one of the most popular Windows RSS readers on the planet
• NetNewsWire, an RSS reader for the iPhone and one of Time Magazine's Top 10 iPhone apps of 2008
• Social Sites, an enterprise computing environment that lets companies activate "Facebook for the Enterprise"
• the internet's single largest repository of free RSS content -- as we add 9.1 million new articles to the repository every day, indexing and aggregating 4.6 million feeds and archiving 4 years of historical content

We're honored to have received this recognition.

Last week I told you the cool news that USA.gov has adopted NewsGator technology and expertise to create RSS breaking news and information feeds on their website. The tie-up has been receiving some good publicity, and I wanted to point you to a couple of articles on this news.

ReadWriteWeb has a story called "USA.gov Embraces RSS: Launches Breaking News Service."  It's worth a read.

Also, Information Week published a story today titled, "Feds' Internet Site Goes Web 2.0."  It quotes Beverly Godwin, the director of USA.gov's Web Best Practices division as saying, "using these Web 2.0 tools is a huge opportunity for government to be transparent and save valuable tax dollars. Tools such as RSS feeds and gadgets allow the public to directly access content from the original source, no matter which Web site they're on. It reduces duplication across government because an agency creates content once and makes it available for reuse by others."

We're just excited that the "Feds," as that second article refers to them, chose NewsGator to implement the technical challenges behind their entrance to Web 2.0.  Welcome, I say. :)

The current difficult economic environment has not slowed NewsGator's growth; in fact, we just concluded the strongest quarter in our five year history with record revenue and a long list of new customers!  These impressive results have helped us earn a new $10 million funding round from our investors -- Masthead Venture Partners, Mobius Venture Capital, and Vista Ventures -- all of whom have previouslly invested on NewsGator. 

In 2008, a host of industry leaders have joined our growing client portfolio, which produces some very impressive statistics that I'd like to share.  NewsGator products are now used by:

• Two of the world's top three banks
• Two of the three largest banks in the US
• The world's largest private public relations firm
• The second-largest advertising agency in the US
• Two of the top three US manufacturers of network & communications equipment
• The world's second-largest law firm
• Four of the top 15 US pharmaceutical companies
• Two of the  top seven US aerospace & defense companies
• One of the top five investment banks in Canada
• The fourth largest generator of electricity in the US

In addition, NewsGator's NetNewsWire RSS reader was also named one of TIME magazine's Top 10 iPhone Apps for 2008.

Indeed, the third & fourth quarters of 2008 were the most successful in NewsGator's history, with fourth quarter revenue the highest ever.  I'll leave you with a quote from Brad Feld, a NewsGator director and the managing director of Mobius Venture Capital & Foundry Group.  "The social computing models that have rocked the consumer world have equally important roles to play in the enterprise -- and now more than ever in the current business environment.  It's inspiring to see NewsGator tapping this rich vein of need and achieveing remarkable results to document the value of its approach."

In an exciting development, TIME has named NewsGator's NetNewsWire one of the top 10 iPhone applications of the year!  I would like to congratulate Brent Simmons – the creator of NetNewsWire.  (If you're not familiar with NetNewsWire, it is a free native iPhone application based on the market-leading, critically-acclaimed RSS feed reader for Mac.) Here's what TIME had to say:

"There's no better way to keep up with your daily perambulations on the Net than via an RSS reader, which basically pushes content from any website or blog to your computer in a format that resembles email. NetNewsWire is one of the best free programs for computers, allowing you to easily subscribe to any feed and synchronizing what you've read across any computers you use. This app adds your iPhone to the party, allowing you to read perfectly formatted text on demand, as well as offline."

This is high praise for a product all of us at NewsGator are proud of us, especially given that it syncs with NewsGator’s suite of RSS readers, including NetNewsWire for Macintosh, FeedDemon, Inbox, and NewsGator Online - providing users a lightweight, easy application to keep up with feeds on the go.

If you have an iPhone and consume RSS feeds, you should download a free version today!

Robert Murdoch, in comments from part of a lecture series sponsored by the Australian Broadcast Corporation, portrays the current environment for newspapers and media companies, not unsurprisingly, as difficult.  In particular, he calls out "some of the [obsolete] editors, reporters, and proprietors who are forgetting a newspaper's most precious asset: the bond with its readers."  However, Murdoch points to a potentially bright future for the space if newspapers and media companies can learn to adapt.

In short, Murdoch says that newspapers must embrace technology advances -- RSS content in particular -- to be successful in the changing media landscape.  He believes that the key challenge for success in the future will be to "use a newspaper's brand while allowing readers to personalize the news for themselves-and then deliver it in the ways that they want."      

These comments lend significant credence to the work we're doing here at NewsGator Media & Consumer Products with newspapers and media companies through RSS, widgets, and related content. In a general sense, the solutions that we offer at NewsGator help newspapers and media companies extend their brand's reach, improve traffic and monetization, and -- here's the key -- also enhance the end user's  experience through dynamic (and often customizable) content delivery platforms.

Indeed, If you read between the lines of his comments, Murdoch makes a powerful case for precisely the type of viral widgets that NewsGator provides, by referring to the importance of tools that allow, "a newspaper's brand...[to] deliver [content] in the ways that [readers] want" by "allowing readers to personalize the news for themselves."

You can read more about his comments in this article on CNET, but the main point I want to convey is that Murdoch's take away message strongly validates the type of solutions -- widgets, related content, etc. -- that NewsGator currently offers.  If you believe Murdoch, then widgets in the newspaper and media space have a very bright future. 

An article in DM News, "Widgets Enter the Limelight," profiles Newsgator Widgets -- and, more specifically, our relationship with National Geographic.  The article basically suggests that widgets have finally 'arrived' and profiles how, among other companies, National Geographic has successfully used widgets to fulfill specific marketing needs.

The story specifically cites National Geographic as a company that has "particularly embraced the world of widgets" -- which makes us happy, since NewsGator has helped them develop and launch a number of their most popular widgets (such as the "YourShot Puzzle Widget.")

Brendan Hart, National Geographic's VP of Marketing & Business Intelligence, explains that widgets allow his company to "reach key influences who will interact with the brand...and give our audience a chance to take National Geographic back with them to their social sites."

The article also cites Forrester's Jeremiah Owyang, who explains that one of the common reasons some companies are not successfully deploying widgets is their unwillingness to allow consumers to take control of their content.  He rightly adds, "a widget is not just a campaign -- it is an ongoing conversation that lives on within a social network." 

I think this is an excellent description of widgets, which can be launched to fulfill a variety of important marketing needs: extend brand, increase ad revenues (through monetizing content), drive traffic, and engage a company's audience through social features.

Are there any other other specific marketing needs you use widgets to fulfill?  Leave 'em in the comments section!