Why Magazines are still out there
Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at May 29th, 2007
It is no secret that new media is not so slowly taking a bigger role in viral marketing efforts as well as being included in the business models of publishing companies. There is usually the “online version” of a publication that contains stuff that magazines cannot achieve such as running commentaries, reader to editorial conversations, and daily news updates.
But given all this, magazines are still out there – and for good reason too! (read: not just for your pet to poop on)
Not everything can be read on a blog. You won’t print out a blog entry to show your friends the latest camera or cellphone in the market. You’d show them the magazine or product catalog. In the same light, it is much easier to appreciate a two page spread or specially executed pages (triple folds or advertorial pop-ups with music) from the perspective of a print publication.
To read a blog, you need a computer. Or a PDA with a feed reader. You won’t really bring your laptop with wireless connection to the throne either (because if you do, then you’re really geeky and gross).
Quality Content. This is perhaps the main differentiator, at least for the more established titles. Blogs don’t require an editorial hierarchy. Magazines do. It helps ensure quality control, as well as making resources available to bag that next big story.
Like it or not, we’re still in some sort of bubble. Not everyone reads blogs or looks at the Internet to find pertinent information. They still resort to television, radio and print. I feel that for the entire trimedia to go fully digital, businesses have to collapse and generations should pass before any such revolution will occur.
There are some class A titles better suited for print. Great titles such as Esquire, GQ, and Tattler find some sort of comfort zone by being seen on the news stand and not purely online. It’s meant to be read, and maybe even read in public. It’s a status thing I guess.
Image taken from the Esquire Cover Gallery
Book Recommendations May 5 2007
Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at May 5th, 2007
I’ve been scouring the bookstores for this particular title. All of the Fully Booked and Powerbooks branches in the metro either have never heard of the book or have it on order basis. Fans, Bloggers, and Gamers by Henry Jenkins takes a look at how media influences the geek culture with focus on the digital age. The estimated price of the book is about P1,200.00 on order basis from Fully Booked.
Bringing together the highlights of a decade and a half of groundbreaking research into the cultural life of media consumers, Fans, Bloggers, and Gamers takes readers from Jenkins’s progressive early work defending fan culture against those who would marginalize or stigmatize it, through to his more recent work, combating moral panic and defending Goths and gamers in the wake of the Columbine shootings. Starting with an interview on the current state of fan studies, this volume maps the core theoretical and methodological issues in Fan Studies. It goes on to chart the growth of participatory culture on the web, discuss blogging as perhaps the most powerful illustration of how consumer participation impacts mainstream media, and debate the public policy implications surrounding participation and intellectual property.
Another book – this one I have on the shelf – is Dominic Gettins’ How to Write Great Copy: Learn the Unwritten Rules of Copywriting. It is an easy-to-follow book about .. err .. writing great copy. I appreciate the way Gettins tackles copywriting also from a technical standpoint, knowing when to apply which grammar rule to a particular situation for maximum effectiveness.
…”a shortcut to the sort of knowledge gained by trial and error over many years by the icons of the advertising business.”
Bloggers aren’t journalists – they’re bloggers!
Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at April 28th, 2007Many months ago I entered the new media industry with a lot of assumptions about blogging and journalism. Having been in both sides of the fence, the blogging industry and the media are two sides of the same coin, yet have really not been tossed into the fire — this was back in 2007. One year does a lot to people.
Now that I run a blog advertising network I can lay several assumptions to rest as I’m learning so much about the blogging industry. We’re learning so much because we’re actually making things happen with the BlogBank. I’ll probably post a few of these learnings soon. They are, actually, very surprising.
Guesting at Rock Ed Radio Tonight at NU107 FM
Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at April 22nd, 2007Today is Sunday here in the Philippines and I’ll be guesting later tonight on NU107 for Rock Ed Radio, hosted by Gang Badoy of Rock Ed Philippines and Lourd De Veyra of Radioactive Sago Project.
Guests are photographers Jose Enrique Soriano, Tammy David, Brutal Grace, Greyhoundz bass guitarist Nino Avenido and myself. We’re going to talk about blogging, photography and all things beautiful. Catch us tonight in your family room!
The Two Sides of Photography
Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at April 19th, 2007Sometimes I argue that photography has enshrined the superficiality of experience. It has contributed to the over-valuation of appearances to a point where image has (subconsciously) replaced the reality as reality. – Gang Badoy
I get excited whenever someone calls me over the landline. It is partly attributed to the surprise that the caller assumes I’m home coupled with the mystery factor of not knowing who that person is (I don’t have caller ID). in an age where we’ve replaced our landline with mobile phones, we hardly get surprised by who’s on the other line. We can reject the call if we don’t want to talk to the other person and make up some excuse like “hey I was at the spa and had cucumbers in my eyes so I couldn’t answer.”
In a similar light…
Is it better, as a tourist to have never seen a picture of your destination so that there are no pre-conceived notions of what the place looks like?
European Food Festival @ Serendra March 2007
Can the same be said for photography? I see many great pictures of the sights – that look so much better than the actual image itself. Is picture perfect an oxymoron? Here’s a simpler analogy: food stylists for instance try as much as possible to make the dish look really good on camera. Take for instance how appealing a Big Mac looks on the product shot. Not that it has anything to do with Sharon Cuneta, but does the real image justify what the consumer was led to believe?
This isn’t a bash on photography. It is actually a reaction to a post made by Gang Badoy about photography and how it can be used as a double edged sword. The first side is here. And the “>other side here.
Preparing for iBlog 3
Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at April 12th, 2007I’m preparing some slides for my presentation this Saturday. I’m supposed to talk about blogging as a profession in front of a couple of hundred people at the iBlog3 Summit in UP Diliman.
Last year, the same topic was given to Abraham Olandres who talked about (1) the different types of bloggers and (2) the many ways to monetize whether you (3) belong to a blog network or (4) work alone.
I’m trying to get input, and I hope its not too late, as to what type of things I can cover in the small span of 15 to 20 minutes, that has not been covered already. Leave a comment for suggestions and insights 
BuggedCast Episode 1 – “Lagalag”
Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at March 30th, 2007I was able to finally talk to Wil Pascual, the creator of the Lagalag Project, which is an experiment of sorts that features Filipinos around the world and two traveling moleskines. We enjoyed a good 20 minutes talking about photography, moleskines and blogs.
This podcast was recorded using Gizmo and edited using GarageBand on a Macintosh. I need to make an erratum. Gizmo does not save files in MP3 format. It saves them onto WAV first which allows you more options in terms of manipulating the audio file.
[display_podcast]
Wil and I were speaking in both English and Filipino. Would like to apologize for those who cannot understand some parts.
Show notes:
- Gizmo Project is way cooler than Skype because it allows you to record conversations
- Wil talks about the Lagalag Project and how it came to be
- Wil discusses his moleskine page for the project
- A short explanation on my picture of Foz’s smile that was captured on YouTube
- A short note on the Philippine Blog Awards and who’s going
- We love moleskine and Benedict Bueno
The Real Reason Why There Are So Few Philippine Podcasters
Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at March 22nd, 2007Here are personal opinions on why there are so few local podcasters compared to their bloggers. These can actually serve as the main reasons why podcasts are rarer than blogs, and a number of these reasons are quite obvious.
1. Unlike blogging, podcasting can be more expensive. Hosting fees, a microphone investment and other such expenses can turn you off, big time. So you lose even before you started.
2. Podcasting requires you to commit more. If blogging only lets you commit your ideas on the typewriter, podcasting forces you to commit your voice on the table, and rather forcefully as you can’t edit what you just said once its published unless you take the whole podcast down.
3. It sucks to talk to nobody. Finding a guest host or anchor can be a bit tedious. Talking to yourself can also suck. A solution here is to do what David Pogue does in his podcast — read your own blog posts out loud. Sorta like an interpretative oral reading contest.
4. Bigger language barrier. If blogs are much easier to do in English, this is not so with podcasting. In general, it would be more correct to say that the average Filipino in Manila speaks in Taglish, which is a combination of Filipino and English and this has been engraved in our culture, that it is very hard to change. Case in point is the Band of Bloggers podcast which does the show in Taglish.
All in all these are valid reasons why podcasting is sparse here. But then again, the real reason why podcasting isn’t so hot here is actually a misnomer.
(more…)
StudioNow: Online Video Editing While You Wait
Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at March 20th, 2007Minic Rivera wrote about StudioNow, a new service that allows the public to submit video editing jobs to a pool of editors worldwide.
The launch of StudioNow ushers in a new era of video production by directly connecting consumers with expert video/movie editors. The StudioNow Editor Network includes a range of expert editors, from film-school students to major-network TV and Hollywood feature film professionals. Editors can sign-up to feature their editing talents and are assigned projects matching their skill level through the StudioNow website.
In the social media scene …
This is especially helpful for bloggers who do not have the resources or knowledge to create good quality video shows. All they need to do is create the raw recording with a cameraphone and submit the content to the pool of editors who will execute your project with all the specific instructions taken into account.
StudioNow is also hiring video editors who can work from anywhere around the world
Band of Bloggers Podcast Episode 1
Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at March 18th, 2007
I had an idea. So did Yuga (it rhymes!). We had the same idea. And when you’re stuck in Davao for 3 days, weird stuff can happen. Like a podcast project. This is something that should have been done long ago, but with my lack of resources (my old iBook’s mic was shot — having it repaired proved unsatisfactory as GarageBand kept hanging when trying to record really long stuff with things in the background) the project never pulled through. This podcast was created using Garage Band and the built in microphone of my MacBook. Everything was recorded in the hotel room.
BoBCast, Episode 1: Breakfast with Piolo
Hosted by: Jayvee & Yuga
Guest: Aileen Apolo
Time: 20 minutes
Summary:
Davao Blog Party
Casa Leticia
Costa Marina Beach
Wifi in Davao
Bayan Telecommunications
Smart Mobile TV
Palm Treo Launching
Max’s Power Breakfast
Blog Awards
We’re thinking of starting a completely new site it as an entirely different project from our own personal ones. The niche of the PH Band of Bloggers is to talk about the online efforts in the Philippines including new media, internet marketing and the people behind it.
The BuggedCast Episode 0
Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at March 17th, 2007Show Notes:
- Welcome to Puerto Galera
- Yuga gets introduced
- Marc Macalua and Sharms get introduced. They’re getting … married??!
- Rico gets introduced.
- Sasha’s b5media jacket is waterproof
- Battery dies (deus ex machina)
Okay, this needs an explanation. I had always wanted my own podcast project. Unlike blogging though, podcasting needs a stronger push to implement so I decided to do a pilot recording of Episode 0 at the beach with a few friends.
To those listening from abroad, I apologize for the lack of coherence if you do not understand what we talked about. Listening to this now, I realize that we were really greased with social lubricant.
Thanks to Choy and Brian of Creativoices for lending me their portable Olympus recorder. Sad that it ran out of battery in the middle of everything.
