On hiatus

This will likely come as no surprise to anyone who read this blog back when I posted several times a week (how did I do that?), but I’ve decided to stop torturing myself and officially stop posting on this blog. It will remain here for SEO/archive purposes but there will be no more updates in the near future. But who knows? Maybe I’ll get inspired again. Thanks for reading.

Live-tweeting from MagNet 2012

I’m live-tweeting this year’s MagNet conference from @magnetcanada, and make sure to follow #magnet12 on Twitter for live updates from all the sessions. Lots to learn!

On Facebook, community and connections

A few longer reads that have appeared lately, proving that everyone loves to moan and groan about progress:

• The Flight from Conversation (New York Times)
On technology and the fear of interacting with other people. Personally, I think it’s a little overblown and too much of the blame is put on technology when there’s been so much other societal change (probably mainly rampant urbanization) going on. And the evidence shows that strong social media users have more and stronger offline ties, too.

• Facebook: Like? (Intelligent Life)
What is Facebook, and where is it going?

• Is Facebook Making Us Lonely? (The Atlantic)
Like the first story, I think this is much ado about nothing – there have always been lonely and out-of-place people, but now they have more outlets for communication, not less. Correlation and causation aren’t the same thing.

The future of media consumption (and why you can’t trust averages)

The general patterns of our research support what people are seeing and saying about, for example, the rise of social media, the rise of mobile, and that people are using voice less. But certain groups are using it a lot less — and that phrase, ‘the future is already here, it’s just unevenly distributed,’ applies. If you look closely at the youth segment, they are already quite different than the rest of us.

– Researcher Ewan Duncan speaks to MediaPost on the digital divide

Video: Twitter as a travel writing tool

If you’ve got a bit of time, watch this great talk by National Geographic Traveler’s “Digital Nomad” Andrew Evans on his first trip using Twitter to report on his travels.

Winter term Magazine and Web Publishing courses at Ryerson

Hard to believe November’s already over – which means it’s time to start planning for the Winter term at Ryerson. Want a New Year’s resolution you can keep? Resolve to take a class and upgrade your skills. Click on the image below for a readable version, or you can click this link to download a high-res, printable poster to put up in your workplace. (And while I’d love for you to register for my class, which runs in January and February next term, all of them are worth your time.)

John Gruber on the tablet game

Need to get up to speed on the tablet market and what spells success vs. failure? John Gruber of Daring Fireball posted an excellent analysis a few days ago when Amazon’s new Kindle tablets were released. Among his points:

The other guys — the Samsungs, HTCs, Motorolas, RIMs — can’t match Apple’s hardware design, don’t even try to match Apple in terms of original and differentiated software, and struggle to match Apple’s prices because they don’t have the economy of scale advantages Apple does. Those guys can’t match Amazon either, because they have no content to sell. Amazon can give away the razor because they’re already in the business of selling blades. The other guys don’t even have blades to sell.

3 Magazines Canada webinars this fall

Magazines Canada has three webinars coming up this fall. Only one is strictly web related but they’re currently offering a 3-for-1 deal ($40 for members) so you can save off the single-webinar price. Readers of this blog qualify for the member price – just select “MagsOnline” in the membership dropdown at this link.

(Disclosure: I’m on the professional development committee, which helps plan these webinars among other things. If you have ideas for more offerings, please leave them in the comments.)

Sales Secrets of Successful Integrated Ad Campaigns
Featuring Jacqueline Loch
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
2:00-3:00 pm EST

How can your magazine create must-buy integrated advertising opportunities? Join Jacqueline Loch, Vice-President of Client Solutions at Rogers Media, as she dissects some of her team’s recent wins and the lessons they’ve learned in creating integrated packages for clients like L’Oréal, Garnier and GM Canada.
Cost: Single Webinar $25.

Getting Closer to Your Readers
Featuring Lisa Murphy
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
2:00-3:00 pm EST

How can you use social media and your website to strengthen your relationship with your readers—and what’s the pay-off for that tighter bond? Find out how Canadian House & Home uses Twitter, Facebook and its own website to connect with its audience, and how they justify the time and energy spent on those efforts. Join Lisa Murphy, Online Director, as she takes us behind the scenes at House & Home. Cost: Single Webinar $25.

Generating Buzz for Your Small Magazine
Featuring Matthew Blackett
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
2:00-3:00 pm EST

Join Matthew Blackett, publisher, creative director and one of the founders of Spacing Magazine, for a session on making sure your small magazine gets noticed. From public debates on pressing local and national issues to buttons celebrating Toronto’s subway stations, Blackett and the Spacing team have been adept at getting Spacing onto the radar of other media, politicians and decision makers, and ultimately readers. Find out how they do it—and what you can learn from their success. Cost: Single Webinar $10.

On creating a great iPad reading experience

From an article from the New York Times:

The New Yorker, a magazine that has always been heavy on text, took a different tack from its peers. Instead of loading its iPad app with interactive features, the magazine focused on presenting its articles in a clean, readable format.

“That was really important to us: to create an app all about reading,” said Pamela Maffei McCarthy, the magazine’s deputy editor. “There are some bells and whistles, but we’re very careful about that. We think about whether or not they add any value. And if they don’t, out the window they go.”

Canadian Living’s Colleen Fisher Tully on life as a web editor

My friend and former colleague Colleen Fisher Tully, web food editor at Canadian Living, was recently interviewed by the people at Good Food Revolution about her job and making these work between print and web. I thought you’d enjoy the video for a look inside life as a web editor.