Since newspapers and media companies represent a substantial base of clients for NewsGator's Media & Consumer products, and since nearly every day recently we hear of another newspaper either on its death bed, or being shuttered all together -- along with some seemingly sounding the death knell of the entire industry -- I stumbled along an article today that I think is highly pertinent to the discussion of this topic.

A this year's SXSW, author Steven Johnson said, "I am bullish on the future of news.  I am not bullish on what is happening in the newspaper industry; it is ugly and it is going to get uglier. Great journalists are going to lose their jobs and cities are going to lose their newspapers."

However, Johnson makes sure to say that he believes that "panic that newspapers are going to disappear as businesses," is unfounded.  He adds, "then there is panic that crucial information is going to disappear along with them. We spend so much time figuring out how to keep the old model on life support that we don't figure out how to build the new one."  This serves no purpose either, according to Johnson.

To read more about what he has to say on this compelling topic, and some of his predictions for the future of the industry, check out the full AFP article here.

More importantly, perhaps, check out the full text of the speech that he gave at SXSW, available on his website.

The Denver Business Journal has a nice feature on our recently launched AdBurner program that I mentioned previously on this blog. They explain how AdBurner automates advertising placement across NewsGator's entire suite of Media & Consumer products, whether it be display ads, video pre-roll and overlays, widget ads, or iPhone display ads. The article, with quotes from NewsGator's CEO, J.B. Holston, also provides good context on the reasons why we decided to launch this offering.

You can read the full article here.

Michael Leis, over at iMediaConnection, has an interesting piece on four particular brands that he believes might benefit from creating desktop widgets to add to their marketing efforts. 

He lists Costco, CoverGirl, Starbucks, and Bang & Oulfsen as companies he thinks should go this route.  Do you agree with him?  Can you think of other companies for whom going in this direction would enhance the end user's experience? 

Or, perhaps more importantly, are desktop widgets even the right direction to be going in -- period?  Leave your thoughts!

Check out the full article here.

If you didn't have a chance to read Adam Ostrow's article, "The Governator Takes to Twitter and Widgets to Pass California Budget" up on Mashable a few days ago, take a look; it's an interesting read.   

In a particularly interesting intersection between governmental policy decisions and the use of new technology (widgets in particular), Ostrow points to the "Legislature's Failure to Act" widget available on the California Governor's home page, which features a moving clock of how many days the state has gone without having a budget passed.

In my estimation, government + budget policy + widgets = interesting

You can check out the full article here.

There's a short article up on BMighty.com, which bills itself as a site for "practical technology expertise for growing companies," that provides a couple good examples of companies (somewhat outside the traditional online media space) using widgets to successfully market their products. 

There's a quote from Liza Hausman, VP of Marketing over at Gigya, who says that the key to a successful widget is to spread the word about it and encourage downloads; in her words, "Create something that's relevant and makes consumers want to interact with you."  Well said.

You can read the article in its entirety here.

Joe Marchese has an article over at MediaPost, where he explains that the widget is not an effective marketing or advertising strategy, at least not by itself.  While you might initially question why I'm linking to a post thats seems to splash cold water on widgets, his thinking almost exactly squares with our own mantra at NewsGator Media & Consumer Products.  His comments, which I agree with, don't discount widgets offhand, rather they affirm the need to step back and take a look at your current marketing strategy before you (blindly) launch a widget campaign.  He says,

"The widget is not your strategy. Making the widget itself central to your strategy would be like saying that video is the center of your strategy, which begs the question; "Great, now what?" So we are going to make widgets; what widgets are we going to make? How are we going to distribute them? Why would people take them? Why would people share them? What do we hope to gain by getting people to use them? How are we going to measure success? These are the questions that will keep agencies gainfully employed for the decades to come -- at least, those that figure it out."

These points very much reaffirm one of the best practices that we tell our clients: don't develop a "widget strategy"; instead, determine if widgets hep you to achieve your the objectives and goals in your existing marketing plan.  If they do, then figure out how to implement widgets into this plan to further these goals.  In short, Joe is absolutely right that you should definitely think about some of the questions he mentions above before embarking on a widget campaign.

There's an article up on iMediaConnection that's definitely a worthwhile read.  The author, Sheila Mooney, talks about the importance of using localized content to build a global audience.  Since the type of content media publishers decide to widgetize and distribute through different avenues is as important as how they go about packaging, and disseminating, it, the points made in this article are quite pertinent.

The crux of the piece?

"Consumers will seek out brand content, but only if it appeals to them on a local and personal level.  That's why your content strategy needs to factor in context as well."

I think the suggestion that content must appeal to people on a "personal" level is a very important one here.  You can view the entire article here.

If you haven't had an opportunity to read Virginia Heffernan's piece, "Content & Its Discontent," which appeared in last week's New York Times Magazine, do yourself a favor and check it out.  Her article is highly relevant to the current content "climate," and while not explicitly mentioning widgets, is highly pertinent to anyone packaging, distributing, consuming, or analyzing online or digital content.

"...We have to change. We have to develop content that metamorphoses in sync with new ways of experiencing it, disseminating it and monetizing it. This argument concedes that it’s not possible to translate or extend traditional analog content like news reports and soap operas into pixels without fundamentally changing them. So we have to invent new forms"

Check out the entire article here, and let me know what you think about it.

I stumbled upon a somewhat unusual post on an SEO company's blog.  The author, Ben Finklea, (presumably an employee of Volacci, whose site the post appears on) provides an interesting, colorful look at widgets:

"Oh, the opportunity of online, driven by digital, but what wonderful ways to win their attention can we communicate carefully? Why, what about the widget? A whatsit?! A widget is just like those pesky pens, those magical magnets that have been done digitally. These compact, portable little software applications, from video players to countdown clocks, are inexpensive to use and always delivering the ad message. A magical connection between the marketer and the consumer, not only replacing the keychain but drastically outperforming it. Have you heard that airline’s ‘DING!’ like Pavlov’s dog to millions of wanderers? Face it, there are 500 million socially-networked marketing consumers who gaze 1,200 times a month at their screen, generously generating 600 billion basic opportunities for your widget to wedge itself into their money-spending memories."

What do you think of his widget "poetry"?  You can read his full post here.

Bob Garfield, over at Advertising Age has an interesting article examining widgets, especially in the advertising space, which seem to be underutilized. He highlights several different widget campaigns as well as the topic of audience migration.

It's a nice read, which you can view here.