Remember when you had those thoughts that were best kept to yourself? When privacy meant something and was a sacred, heavily guarded, and fortified construct? Well, let me jog your memory a bit, by cutting to your so-called (teenaged) life. How you had that special pen to champion your teenage angst as you wrote your troubles away in your diary? Though it may seem so very analog now, there was a time in the not-so-distant past when we had thoughts [...]

Comic Timing
Graphic novels (you know them as comic books) are increasingly taking to the digital domain

The 25th anniversary of the game-changing graphic novel Maus: A Survivor’s History is an apropos time to look at how the form is continuing to evolve. And there’s much to see: More and more graphic novels are coming soon to an e-reader near you. Though we certainly don’t rank it with Maus in terms of content, a considerably lighter-weight graphic novel, credited to the [...]

Tablet of Contents
Can going digital—or hopping to the iPad—save the magazine industry?

To many media types, the future of magazines has been in question for quite some time. Now though apps and partnerships are breathing new life into an industry looking to redefine itself. Savvy women’s mag Allure has incorporated—with great success—mobile scan codes into its issues, offering everything from spendy handbags to lipstick samples. And both Hearst and Conde Nast made deals with Apple this year, allowing [...]

The Latest on News
With the battle to keep print alive getting positively Darwinian, journalists look to digital to evolve

Are print newspapers going the way of the dinosaur? Probably. Is the industry itself in danger? Possibly—it’s facing the same dire issue that many industries are looking at in these lean times: how to monetize its digital/social/online offerings. Papers in the U.K. are that failing abysmally at it, according to a recent report that looked at publications in 66 U.K. cities. [...]

I am on page 60-something of the latest and greatest RFP (and no, I can’t tell you from where—it’s confidential, even in this age of radical transparency), and you might surmise that it’s because I ramble and can’t get to the point. While I admit that editing myself is a challenge, my bigger beef is with the lack of convergence between the world of new business and the age of social media. (In case you were thinking it, I realize [...]

Illegal Search?
Google’s legal woes continue to multiply—as does the number of sectors it touches

Many players in numerous industries are claiming the Joseph role opposite search engine giant Google’s Goliath these days. Though the company’s credo is “Do no harm,” a growing number of critics are questioning if that’s really how it operates. Google CEO Eric Schmidt will testify before a U.S. Senate antitrust panel, in a scenario being compared to Microsoft’s similar appearance in the ’90s—before it was hit [...]

This Digital Life
If the online habits of your teen(s) seem like observing life on Mars, here’s some things to look out for as the first fully digital generation grows up

We’ve been following teens in the social space since day one, but who could have predicted the ways in which SoMe would change…well, everything. Grownups are making efforts to wake up the first fully digital generation by teaching them to have boundaries and get social smarts. They offer warnings that [...]

Wielding Klout
As if we’re not self-conscious enough, enter Klout to analyze our online influence and reach

You know those people with thousands of Facebook friends and oodles of Twitter followers (#ashtonkutchercomestomind)? Well, now marketers and other newsy/nosy types will know about them, too, through Klout, a San Francisco–based company that provides analytics and stats based on your social media influence and how your friends and followers interact with the content you throw down. The newbie was just named by Time [...]

Option Overload
As the digital landscape gets more crowded with social networks, enthusiasts look to single channels to avoid burnout

Is it any surprise with the bevy of options out there that many of us are feeling the inevitable social media burnout? With new sites like Google+ popping up every day, it’s hard not to feel exhausted. In a new survey, more than 50 percent of Brits sometimes want to switch off phone calls, emails and text messages. And as if [...]

Young and Appy
App developers and marketers aren’t forgetting the youth demo, as demonstrated by a new crop of back-to-school applications

As tablets, smartphones and computer screens become more commonplace, parents are faced with a larger-than-ever array of apps to choose from in the back-to-school season. It’s no longer a question of if but of when children will receive their own cellphone, and, increasingly, the answer is skewing younger. So don’t be surprised if the back-to-school shopping list this year includes [...]