Cutting out Google ... may not be as bad for WSJ as it sounds
If you are associated with the media industry, you are watching this news very closely.

I have spoken with many people on what they thought about the Rupert's potential deal with Microsoft. Everyone either believes it is terrible idea or that, with their backs to the wall, the news media industry needs to do something drastic or be ready to be subjected to constant blood-letting over the next several years.

Here is why I feel that this may not be all bad for WSJ: If you are NOT a WSJ subscriber and search for and find a link to a WSJ article on Google, Bing or any other distributor of news, you are allowed to read that one article but not navigate to any other WSJ content. WSJ gives non-subscribers access to that one article for two reasons:

1. To get a chance to try and convert you to a subscriber. I am very sure that the conversion rate is dismal.
2. Monetize the click by displaying ads. The CPM rates on these ads must be terrible as the WSJ does not know you and your interests. The search engine provides the search term used by you to get to the story. However, click-through rates for ads determined by search terms must be very poor.

This is why the deal makes sense.

If you are wondering how it applies to the other News Corp properties, here is a Guardian article on how James Harding, editor at The Times, feels about putting their content behind a subscription.

Marketing in the Social World ... Listen before you speak
Read this article on the WSJ. Marketers are now scouring the web to determine what potential customers are talking about and aligning the message to what the customer is interested in. Fascinating!

The traditional - ask a focus group a bunch of questions and figure out what works is just too slow and, quite frequently, misses the mark.

If properly analyzed the volumes of data generated on the web can provide some very eye-opening insights. More and more, "I believe ..." is turning to "I know because ...".

Let users pick their Enterprise Technology?
A recent article in the journal has generated a lot of discussion around how to bridge the enterprise vs consumer IT gap. As usual, it is not as simple as the author makes it sound. The level of flexibility that an employee enjoys should strike the right balance between user productivity, security and cost to acquire and support. Each worker, team and business have different needs and each organization needs to make the right decision for each user. Adopt new technology at the pace that makes sense for your business.

It is important to evaluate a user's needs, determine the most appropriate solution and deliver it quickly. Be flexible and keep an open mind!

7 Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs
Interesting slide-show on CIO Insight.

Pricing the Cloud
Tony has captured a lot of my thoughts on how cloud computing needs to be priced and consumed in this article. Read the main CIO Insight article on Cloud's Sky High Hype here.

Me on Cloud Computing
I am third in this short video that Tony Kontzer shot for CIO Insight at the 451 Group ICE Summit on Cloud in Context.

The coolest part was that the video is shot using Cisco Flip - Video Camera for the internet age!