The Jacobs Media Blog

What happens when social media meets politics and creates an unintended consequence? That’s what happened to two of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s staffers – Alec Ross and Jared Cohen.   Both of these guys got their Twitter thumbs slapped for sending out colloquial tweets during a trip to Syria.  The State Department was embarrassed […]

Amazingly, there continues to be chatter throughout the radio trades about whether digital is really the place for the industry to concentrate its efforts.  After all goes the reasoning, newspapers have spent fortunes trying to shift to digital, and yet the results of their efforts have been unimpressive. The argument also suggests that perhaps radio […]

Welcome back from your holiday weekend. While we were watching fireworks, eating burgers and dogs, and hopefully not getting too sunburned, Apple was reinventing mobile advertising.   <FOR EMAIL RECIPIENTS: CLICK HERE TO VIEW NISSAN LEAF APPLE iAD>

  Best wishes for a safe, happy, and healthy 4th of July weekend.  JacoBlog will return on Tuesday, July 6.

As we have learned in our Technology Surveys, sometimes the winds of change are blowing so hard that we don’t notice some of the small changes along the way.  Today, jacAPPS’ Alex Young comments about how social media may be putting a damper on all those high school reunions – especially for the Gen Y […]

I was a featured presenter at last week's Wisconsin Broadcasters Association at Wisconsin Dells.  Attendance was solid, and as I've learned at these state broadcaster conventions, there's a great deal of enthusiasm and energy for radio in smaller and medium markets.  (On that note, I am sometimes amazed and perplexed why there aren't more representatives […]

"Sometimes when you innovate, you make mistakes.  It is best to admit them quickly, and get on with improving your other innovations." – Steve Jobs, 2009  So now we'll find out how Apple will handle complaints that holding the new iPhone 4 essentially cuts off or weakens its network connections.  We have one of these […]

It certainly won't shock you if you have children – especially pre-teens – but research continues to point to the power and influence they possess over the entire family when it comes to technology adoption and usage.   We know this anecdotally, especially from focus groups we conduct in the Classic Rock demo.  More and more […]

I was recently stuck on a long drive by myself through a less-than-scenic part of the country.  For a time, I plugged my iPhone into the AUX jack on my Dodge Caliber, enjoying some of the radio apps we've created for stations as diverse as The Coast in Mendocino, as well as WWOZ, the great […]

Forget about having a tight board, good pipes, and 3rd class FCC license. According to USA Today, MTV is in the process of redefining the VJ, and of course, social media is at the center of this initiative.  Now known as a Twitter Jockey or TJ, the search is on for someone who “gets” social […]

For the past 15 years or so, radio stations have been smart about aggregating email addresses for loyalty databases.  Our Technology Surveys show a consistent trend: listeners feel that being in these clubs creates a stronger bond with stations.  Given all the new media competition, this is clearly a good thing. But now, thanks to […]

There's nothing more challenging than being a huge global brand, and yet still finding a way to earn a strong reputation with consumers.  According to Forbes, a recent survey from the Reputation Institute set out to identify companies that have figured it out. They used a multi-tiered research model that marries revenue performance and consumer […]

As the industry continues to recover and the revenue picture has begun to improve, the pace certainly hasn’t slowed down.  If anything, broadcasters find themselves moving at even a faster pace, trying to keep up with the demands. The last couple of years of budget cuts have taken their toll on many departments of most […]

The news that Eminem is back with a new album is music to Motor City ears, as well as his long time legions of fans around the globe. The hype machine is already gearing up by pre-releasing photos of the album's cover.  And that news might surprise you right there. There's actually artwork.  And it's […]

There’s an old saying that you often hear in corporate meetings, sales get-togethers, and around the cubicles: Pigs get fat – hogs get slaughtered. When it comes to greed and simply taking advantage of a good thing, that’s been the Starbucks philosophy for many years when it comes to Internet access.   I love the place, […]

This is already becoming an amazing baseball season – some great rookies, perfect games, the "imperfect game," and now phenom Stephen Strasburg of the Washington Nationals who is the must-see player of the year – and he's only pitched two games. But fans know something special when they see it – and so do smart […]

The problems besetting the nation's newspapers are well-known.  Between iconic daily newspapers going out of business, moving to Chapter 11 status, or just becoming less viable as purveyors of local journalism, this industry is in a world of hurt. During the past two Jacobs Tech Surveys, we have trended regular newspaper readership (3-4 days per […]

A new piece at Forbes.com provides a nice follow-up to a recent blog post here – “A Hobby Or A Business” – that took on the question of whether traditional broadcasters pursuing digital initiatives might be wasting their time and money. This new article refers to many of the print casualties, along with the problems that […]

I knew that headline would get your attention, but it accurately describes a recent presentation that we made at the American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors, and Therapists conference in Pittsburgh.   AASECT, founded by Pat Schiller in 1967, has been putting together these conferences for 42 years.  This year’s theme – "Bridging Educational, Medical, and Clinical […]

While we've been enjoying the Spring, Ford and a team of engineering and design students from the University of Michigan were putting the finishing touches on an exciting automotive and digital journey across the U.S.  Called "American Journey 2.0," these two groups put together a cross-country tour of two digitally tricked-out 2011 Ford Fiestas to […]