-
Looking for inspiration? 17 quick quotes about leadership
Here are several of my favorite quotes about leadership.
-
Meet the Most Wanted U.S. Cyber Criminal
Joshua Samuel Aaron (aka Mike Shields) is wanted for a litany of crimes stemming from a scheme right out of the movies. He and his associates are charged with manipulating stock prices, driving them up artificially, and then dumping them for profit. The US Attorney for the Southern District of…
-
Google Maps renames “Trump Tower” in NYC as “Dump Tower”
If you googled “Trump Tower” for a while this weekend, you’d find this… Instead of this… Yup, somebody re-named Trump Tower as Dump Tower on Google Maps.
-
Cyber Criminals now spreading ransomware through Facebook, LinkedIn
If you find a graphic or image on your computer and you don’t remember downloading it, stop before opening! Experts have seen a dramatic increase in what’s Locky Ransomware being shared by unsuspecting victims, now through social media platforms LinkedIn and Facebook. Ransomware is insidious. It locks up your computer…
-
A symbol of the Civil Rights Movement, group charges copyright fees to use “We Shall Overcome”
Should the song be Public Domain? The same law firm that succeeded in getting “Happy Birthday” into the public domain is now trying to get “We Shall Overcome” released from copyright. This week, a federal court ruled to let the case move forward. The song became a galvanizing force in the…
-
Media, Pollsters get failing grades
There’s no question it was a nasty election season. The losers? According to a poll by the Pew Research Center, just about everyone. The press got blasted… even more than the candidates themselves.
-
New Facebook feature: Adding live video tab to mobile app
I opened up my Facebook mobile app and found something new today: a little video icon at the bottom next to my newsfeed button.
-
President-Elect Trump slips the press pool twice; media goes crazy
Media folks fight with each other every day. They’ll do all sorts of things to beat their competition. So, when 18 media organizations get together to unite on a common goal, it might make you wonder what they’re all worried about. It appears they are worried about President-elect Donald Trump’s…
-
Turkish government jails hundreds of journalists, shuts down 170 TV and newspaper companies
If you work in journalism, be thankful you’re not working in Turkey. Journalism there is under attack at unprecedented levels. The government has forced the closure of more than 170 broadcasters, newspapers, magazine and media-related companies. Courts have ordered censorship of more than 30 news websites. The government has revokes…
-
Don’t be in a hurry to get that big job
I had success early in my career. It put me on a fast track to management and I wanted more. After several years of quick, upward movement within my industry, I started to get frustrated when I couldn’t make that big jump to upper-level management and felt like I got…
-
Were the Presidential polls really wrong – or was it just the way they were interpreted?
Pollsters have gotten a lot of grief over getting the election results wrong. There’s reason to criticize, but I think some people are placing blame when it’s not as clear cut as they might think. First, it appears that although Trump won the electoral college, Clinton won the popular vote. …
-
Are newspaper endorsement irrelevant in today’s world?
USA Today is the most-circulated newspaper in the country and until this election year, had never taken sides in a Presidential election. In 2016, it asked readers not to vote for Donald Trump. The Arizona Republic supported Hillary Clinton, the first time it had endorsed a Democrat in 126 years.…
-
YouTube struggling to get paid subscribers
You really have to wonder about that whole “give it away for free and then later we’ll charge for it” model. Here’s yet another example: YouTube is the world’s largest video streaming service and streams more music than anyone else. It’s been free from inception, but YouTube has been touting…
-
The Nausea rule of advertising
Think of your brain as a giant hard drive. It can hold a lot of information, but it does have a limit. And, like a hard drive, the limit is reached frequently. So when new information comes in and there’s no room left, it often pushes out the other information…
-
Should internet providers be held liable when its users illegally download content?
“In this copyright action, the putative owners of more than 1,400 musical composition copyrights seek to hold Cox Communications, Inc. and Cox Com, LLC (collectively, “Cox”) contributorily and vicariously liable for alleged copyright infringement taking place over its high-speed internet service.” With those words, the court’s opinion in the case…
-
How a cracked fish tank created a chain reaction
My fish tank leaked. Forget about the dead fish for a minute, but this cracked glass case caused a chain reaction in our house. Sure, the tank was easy enough to replace, and dead fish aside, so were the occupants. But the carpet was stained (and you don’t want to know about…
-
Civil Rights lawsuit targets Facebook for race targeting ad options
UPDATED 11.7.2016: Three people have fled a class action lawsuit claiming they looked at Facebook for housing and jobs and that the ad targeting options Facebook allows violate the Fair Housing Act and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Mediapost). “Facebook has operated and is operating an advertising platform … that publishes,…
-
How Advertising Works
The first time a man looks at an advertisement, he does not see it. The second time, he does not notice it. The third time, he is conscious of its existence. The fourth time, he faintly remembers having seen it before. The fifth time, he reads it. The sixth time,…
-
When did we become an opt-out world?
We all know that nobody reads Terms of Service on anybody’s website, or User Agreements when downloading an app. We have just come to accept that there’s probably bad stuff in there that we won’t want but it’s the price we have to pay. I say enough! It’s time to…
-
Define your Weapon of Mass Distinction: Avoiding “We do it too” advertising
Advertising lessons learned from working in the news business For several years, I worked as a strategic consultant and trainer at some of America’s top television stations, including those owned by Gannett Broadcasting, Hearst-Argyle, Post-Newsweek, Cox, Raycom Media, Journal Broadcasting, Freedom, and Fox. I have worked on projects for Entertainment…
-
Bulls-eye marketing: Finding the sweet spot
To maximize the effectiveness of your advertising, you have to place it squarely in the target for consumers. You already know it’s not enough to have a great product. It’s not enough to assemble your unique selling proposition – what I call your Weapon of Mass Distinction. It’s not…
-
Why did Columbus take three ships?
When William “Bud” Post won $16.2 million dollars in the Pennsylvania lottery, he had less than $3 in his checking account. It was life changing, but maybe not in the way you would think. He got hit with lawsuits. Oh, and his brother tried to hire a hit man to…
-
If you want customers, you’ve got to invite them to buy
Before you can make a sale, you’ve got to get people in your store. Before you do that, they’ve got to know about you, what you offer, and what makes your business different. Imagine this: You’re a salesperson and you walk into a business for the first time to make…
-
It’s Really About Thinking “Inside the Box”
In the mid-90’s, I used to teach a seminar called “Thinking Outside the Box.” But that was way back when “thinking outside the box” really was a new way of thinking. It’s not so new now. In fact, it’s a cliché. I realized that it’s really about thinking “inside” the…
-
If you’re blaming poor performance on the economy, read this
A friend of mine owns a one-location mattress retail store and provides outstanding customer service and inspires customer loyalty. She’s one of those “always positive” types. Well, I was on the phone with her the other and asked how business was going. “We’re down 8 percent year-to-year,” she said. I…
-
What I learned about firing people… from the time it happened to me
I remember being fired for “philosophical differences.” It was an ugly time for me and my family. It wasn’t about my performance, I was told, they just wanted to “go in a different direction.” Just a few months earlier, everything had been great. Our company was performing at a high…
-
What’s on your ballot? Easy way to find out before going to the polls
OK, so you know who’s running for President and maybe the local school board (maybe). Do you know what statewide initiatives are on the ballot and what the language means? It might help to look at the info ahead of time so you’re not trying to decipher legalize in the…
-
Instagram appears to be readying live streaming by users
Is it any surprise that Instagram would be playing around with the idea of live streaming in its app? Some users have seen a Live icon pop up according to Russian website, TJournal (Thank goodness my browser will translate Russian), which published pictures showing a “Go Insta” button on the…
-
Google News adds Fact Checking to top stories
In the world of social media and online aggregation, the one thing that is most rare is truth. Every day I come across stories and posts that stretch the truth or obliterate it completely. I believe it’s a big part of why the trust in media in general has plummeted…
-
Comcast gets caught charging customers for stuff they never ordered and hit with largest FCC fine ever given
Comcast hit with the largest civil penalty ever given to a cable operator about consumer complaints and ordered to put in place a compliance plan “In some complaints, subscribers claimed that they were billed despite specifically declining service or equipment upgrades offered by Comcast. In others, customers claimed that they…
-
Majority don’t trust media, but one source does better than all the others
We’ve all heard that people don’t trust the media anymore. Heck, I’m in the media and I view everything through a skeptic’s lens these days. Through it all though, one media source continues to do better than all the others:
-
The incredible number of people making $100,000 or more a year that have nothing in the bank
40% of Americans earning $100,000-$149,000 a year say they have less than $1,000 in savings! 18% say they have NOTHING saved. How much money do you have in the bank right now? If you answered more than $1,000, you’re in the minority. That’s both crazy and sad. It’s true though,…
-
Does a newspaper have an ethical obligation to reveal the source of its advertisers?
A controversial mailer and newspaper ads have the folks in Allentown, PA upset. It’s led to resignations of a school’s CEO and teachers and has been condemned by educators and public officials. The local newspaper knows who paid for it. Do they have an obligation to reveal who’s behind it?…
-
Are DVRs going the way of VCRs?
The DVR is a wonderful device. Digital Video Recorders let you record all the TV shows you want and watch them on your schedule. It’s kind of like Netflix… before Netflix existed. But new research shows that DVR use is down dramatically.
-
Sunshine Law request results in $82,000 bill for public records search
Group seeks information on how dogs are being used in research by Universities The Beagle Freedom Project is an animal rights activist group that’s filed a lawsuit against the University of Missouri. The suit has to do with its claim that the University is violating the state’s Sunshine Laws. The group’s been…
-
Americans spend 47% of time awake on TV, PC, Tablets, or phones
According to new research from The Diffusion Group (TDG), consumers spend a lot of time each week using a ‘screen’ — a television, personal computer, tablet, or mobile phone. It now tops 50 hours with TV topping the list.
-
Leadership should be easy
After all, there’s a lot of information out there. Just Google it. There’s not just one way to do it: different styles seem to work. And the people you want to lead, want to be led. “Even Ray Charles could see this,” said Major General Vincent Boles. So what gets…
-
Olympic streaming is up, TV viewing down – NBC doing “make goods” for advertisers
TV ratings from the summer Olympics are down. Live streams across various platforms, though, are way up. NBC reports a 232% increase in live streams on August 10th versus the same day of the Olympics in 2012. On that day in 2016, live streaming topped ONE BILLION MINUTES through the…
-
Customers dumping satellite & cable TV at an ever-growing rate
There’s no denying this cord-cutting thing is real. BTIG Research is the research arm of BTIG brokerage and fund services company which advises investors on key markets. They looked at the top MVPDs – that’s industry jargon for “multi-channel video programming distributor. In other words, what people know as cable…
-
Olympic rule 40 prohibits athletes from marketing themselves during the Olympics
Yet many Olympic athletes live below the poverty line Despite the TV glory, a surprising number of Olympic athletes live below the poverty line. They typically self-fund their training and efforts, scraping together an income from limited prize money, part-time jobs, and sponsor contracts. Selling sausages to train for the Olympics…
-
Vast majority of search is mobile
How are people searching for your content or business? These days, it’s all about mobile. Hitwise says that about 58% of all search is done on mobile devices. They came to that conclusion by analyzing 100s of millions of online searches during April and May, 2016. For news and sports…
-
Washington Attorney General sues Comcast over 1.8 million violations of Consumer Protection Act
Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson says Comcast isn’t playing fair with its customers. In fact, he says Comcast committed more than 1.8 million violations of the state’s Consumer Protection Act, citing improper credit screening practices and charging fees for service calls. In addition, Ferguson says Comcast deceived customers for…
-
I watched Team USA beat China… live on Facebook
I had the most surreal experience last night. I was watching Team USA (you know, the team made up of NBA All-Stars that will represent the US in the 2016 Olympics) take on China. But I was watching the game Live… on Facebook.
-
Initiative focuses on wireless speeds that are 100x faster
The Advanced Wireless Research Initiative, led by the National Science Foundation (NSF), will attempt to advance the next generation of mobile technology. It’s backed by the US government, a consortium of private companies, and a $400 million dollar war chest to start. 5G on the way This news comes on the heels of…
-
For $86 Billion Dollars, you can get TV stations to go off-the-air
Phase 1 of the Spectrum Auction has been completed. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is trying to clear 126 MHz of broadcast spectrum for use by the wireless industry. The spectrum would come from TV stations currently broadcasting in that spectrum. They’d give it up in exchange for a one-time…
-
GfK Study: 25% of homes are without cable or satellite TV
In recent years, it’s been typical to find cable and satellite penetration numbers reaching into the low-to-mid 90% range in most metro areas. That’s changing. According to a study released today from GfK, this cord-cutting thing is real. I know, people have been talking about this for a while, but…
-
Facebook sued for $1 Billion, lawsuit claims they support terrorism
The families of five American victims in terrorist attacks in Israel have filed suit against Facebook. The lawsuit, reported first by Bloomberg, claims the company should be held liable for providing a platform for Hamas. Hamas is recognized as a terrorist organization by the United States, Israel, and the European…
-
Music industry continues to change dramatically
The mid-year report on the music industry by the folks at Nielsen has some shocking numbers and shows just how much consumer consumption continues to change. Vinyl is back on the rise. Digital sales are down (way down). More people are consuming music than last year, but all the growth…
-
If a town has social media pages, does it have the right to remove comments that are critical?
We may soon find out. The ACLU of Indiana is suing Beech Grove (an Indianapolis suburb) on behalf of two people who say the city deleted their critical comments on the PD’s FB page. The lawsuit says it violating the two women’s First Amendment rights.
Paul Dughi.com 