Over the past few weeks, I’ve been studying how the majority of the Mobile Industry Review audience ‘uses’ our service. I’ve talked to many readers about their habits, what they like, what they don’t like — and I’ve been looking closely at the myriad of usage statistics we generate.
And I’ve concluded one thing: Change is required.
When a quarter of a million folk view your Nokia N900 video in the space of a few days, it’s very easy to get sidetracked. It wasn’t the quality, the production speed or the on-screen chatter that resulted in those views. The device itself attracted the viewers; the smart information architecture of today’s Google world helped those viewers find Mobile Industry Review’s N900 footage.
That’s fine — it’s exciting, most certainly. But it’s incidental. There’s a lot of other things going on that I’d like to cover with a lot more time. Most of all, I think the daily publishing frequency needs to stop. Of the people I talked to, well over half simply don’t have the time to read our daily output here properly. That’s not any good, is it?
So I’m changing it around — again. MIR will now be published as a weekly email newsletter starting next week.
I’m relishing the opportunity to stop having to write every single day and to deliver a little bit more of a polished output once a week. Look for news and perspective on mobile app development, general industry news, profiles, an expanded marketplace section and product reviews.
I’ve picked Friday afternoon as the delivery time for the newsletter — although that, like the configuration of content, is subject to change and I’d very much welcome feedback and suggestions. You can either have a read immediately or save it for the weekend or the following week. I’ve been working hard to make sure the newsletter format works nicely on mobile email platforms.
You’ll also still see videos — particular product reviews and executive profiles. We’ll link them from the newsletter, rather than publish online.
I’ve picked Friday afternoon as the delivery day for the newsletter — although that, like the configuration of content, is subject to change and I’d very much welcome feedback and suggestions.
Subscription is free and you can sign-up with this form.
I’ll see you next Friday!
Ewan
MIR is changing to a weekly newsletter — details and sign-up (free!) here: http://bit.ly/2ytYjs
MIR is changing to a weekly newsletter — details and sign-up (free!) here: http://bit.ly/2ytYjs
Mobile Industry Review turns into a weekly newsletter next Friday … http://bit.ly/mV3w2
You get emails (!) from people when you haven’t posted by a certain time – sheesh, what is this radio (sarcaism in part)?
I’m all for posting at regular schedules, but really, life gets in the way. I would think that even with the readership here that people wouldn’t just understand that, but also to be fillers where needed.
Ah well; I’ll have to try that subscription, but I’m in the mode of ditching email; wish there was another way content could then be read.
"Mobile Industry Review turns into a weekly newsletter next Friday" – http://is.gd/4yCpK
Weird change; I get it, but weird.
Why not something more along the lines of write your normal pace, but just schedule the headlines of those items to post to your site once a week (or twice a week of you are writing a lot of smaller pieces in between).
Then, instead of an email newsletter, leave the onus on your users to use RSS-to-email services, or to subscribe to the major update via SMS/RSS/Twitter/whatever.
Seems like you are taking a step back where the technology has already been there to give you a step-up on how you manage the output of your postings.
Nevertheless, do keep up the good work; and I do hope that you feel more refreshed with the newer schedule.
I've tried that ARJ — the challenge is if I haven't posted something by, say, 11am, I start to get emails from folk wondering what's happening. So even though I could schedule posts, it gets a bit crazy. I'd sooner do a better job, once a week and see how that goes!
Mobile Industry Review turns into a weekly newsletter next Friday … http://bit.ly/mV3w2
I like the idea, but I gotta suggest Sunday, not Friday — the main reason being that all week my RSS and email goes apeshit – then on Sunday there's a huge dead lag — so having this to read on Sunday would mean I had a lot more time to devote to it, AND give me something to read on a slow news day.
cheers!
Oh I like that idea Olly… Sunday. Hmmm. I'll canvas opinion!
"Mobile Industry Review turns into a weekly newsletter next Friday" – http://is.gd/4yCpK
Oh no, please no email. Can I have the same content via RSS? Or twitter? Facebook? Friendfeed? I won't send you emails wondering what's happening. Promised! But please don't force me to read you in an email!
arent newsletters a bit 1.0 ?
not really. don't judge content by the method used for transmission.
RSS would be preferred, I agree. I signed up for the newsletter option anyway.
Interesting idea. Why email rather than a weekly summary on the site? Or – probably most likely – will the email content also be replicated online at the same time? That way you get the Google indexing and the “smart information architecture” which helped drive traffic to your N900 video.
I'll miss the immediacy and specificity of your pieces, tbh. I find I often don't tend to read the entirety of weekly-review-style pieces, I prefer to see each element as it happens. Perhaps there's a better balance between a one-off piece and long daily articles? A large portion of the interest and value comes from the discussions in the comments, so maybe some sort of “this is what Ewan's finding interesting” feed that could be as little as you flagging up news as it occurs, with a paragraph of your opinion and then open up the main picking-over of the news to the back-and-forth in the comments. That way you'd also get some early feedback which you could tie into your weekly summary article.
Anyway, I've subscribed to the newsletter so I suppose we'll see how it works out next Friday!
If email-only … where would feedback go?
Of course, people could comment via Twitter – but chances are that you would miss comments from people that are not on ones follow list.
Plus being able to sift through comments at leisure is much easier via web – and less likely to repeat in near identical feedback.
I don't want to be rushed, ARJ. Life does get in the way — big time, I've got a ton going on, but having to sit down and panic every morning about what I'm going to be posting (because I haven't got enough time to think) is not good.
Your comments about email are well made. I'm going to give that some thought.
I do agree with Stefan's response Ross — but I also think I'll be able to deliver greater value with a newsletter, rather than a site. It's an experiment. I don't entirely know and I'm reliant upon (and will act upon) feedback from everyone.
Thank you for taking a chance and subscribing, Chris.
I'd like to fatten-out your 'large value comes from the discussions in the comments' point. The MIR audience isn't a commenting audience. I actually took a look back at the posts vs comments ratio and it's very low. In the anecdotal evidence I've been compiling through chats with readers, this explained by:
a) Insufficient time to digest what I've posted
b) Insufficient time to post a comment
c) Too many posts leading to judging the content by it's headlines (in an RSS feed) and skipping everything but the most entirely pertinent
d) Concern about commenting (from an corporate policy perspective). A good example is Reda posting on behalf (or not, as it turns out) of Nokia Siemens Networks.
e) “I've never commented”
I like your idea of 'this is what Ewan's finding interesting' feed. Perhaps I could use Facebook or FriendFeed for that kind of 'immediacy' perspective. That would also allow easy commenting. What do you think?
One final point: I've got quite a lot of email from readers already. One of them comments, “great how you are keeping an open communication with your community.” In theory, email is actually 'closed'. But I wonder if readers will feel more 'connected' to me by email as apposed to on the web?
On the 'thanks for subscribing' email reply I say 'tell me what's on your mind' — and folk are replying to that right-away. Which is simply fantastic. When I do this on the web, it's rare — ultra rare — to get any feedback at all.
I've been thinking a lot about the feedback Paul. I was wondering if I could place a link at the bottom of each section that takes you to a page for that function. I do have a Twitter feed specifically for anyone 'atting' me with @ew4n or @mobileindustry so it's rare that I miss anything on Twitter.
That said, the ratio between readers and those posting comments is crazily, crazily low. Just as an indication — we had about 14,000 readers on the site yesterday and (I'm estimating) no more than, what, 20 comments?
What do you think of the likes of FriendFeed?
Getting people to comment is always difficult, and I think unless you're a huge site like Engadget or Gizmodo (or write something predictably ire-provoking, such as an Apple/Windows piece) the ratio of readers to comments will always be wildly skewed. It's interesting – and great – that you're getting email feedback; I'm just sorry that you and the sender are the only people getting to read it.
Perhaps what you need is a way of tying in emails to articles on the site: if people hit reply to your newsletter, then – after some moderation, perhaps – their email gets excerpted as a comment on the site. Then everyone else can read those opinions, and maybe they'll then have comments of their own.
On Facebook/FriendFeed, I'm only speaking for myself here but the former I always prefer to keep more to my personal life (rather than consuming editorial/news/article stuff there) and the latter I don't use at all (so am not the best person to comment on it). Overall, though, I think it adds another level between you and people engaging: it's much easier just to hit reply to an email newsletter, or type in the site url.
How much of what will be in the newsletter will also be on the site?
Chris, I completely agree with you on this point:
'I'm sorry that you and the sender are the only people getting to read it'
It's a frustration I share. I often ask if I can quote parts of the feedback on a post — and most readers are usually happy for this to happen, sometimes on an anonymous basis. But then I run out of time and I'm back to having to deliver the next day's update. I think the real challenge is that the MIR audience doesn't generally like public discourse. When we get a load of readers together at our events, the conversation is fantastic. But it doesn't replicate on to the web, mostly I think, because people are concerned about or unwilling to make their comments 'in public'.
I was originally going to avoid putting any newsletter content on to the site. I was going to make the site frontpage a subscribe form (but ensuring that old content can still be accessed as before).
You're a smart coder – could you not have a tick box or something which people can mark or unmark depending on whether they mind their email-reply feedback being used as comments? That would mean you wouldn't have to chase people up for permission after the fact, and it would hopefully automate some of the process so it wouldn't be dependent on you doing it all.
I'm semi-aghast at the thought of it all being in the newsletter and not on the site. Won't you then lose out on people searching for keywords that you might have written a kick-ass editorial on?
I see what you're saying Chris — and I particularly understand your 'semi-aghastness' at the concept of the content being in email form. Over the weeks whilst I've been considering this it's been my biggest issue — the fact that the stuff we publish is now going to be only immediately consumable by those who've subscribed to the email. But then I like that. I like the exclusivity of it.
The big problem with writing for a wider audience is that you invariably are forced to change. For example I published the N900 videos for the core MIR audience and then — with so many others piling in to watch — felt I needed to produce even more. Ridiculous. The core audience want to have a look, want to read a bit of perspective, want to see the odd video. But they don't want 15 videos on the N900. Whereas if I was properly responding to the audience feedback (and the bucketloads of Youtube comments) I'd have published an N900 vid every 10 minutes for a week.
Perhaps there's a third way? Maybe I could archive the newsletters here on the site, on a delayed basis?
That's an interesting way to view it – the “exclusivity” thing – and I'm aware that I'm coming at it from an angle of wanting as many people to read what I write on a daily basis. I'd disagree that you “have” to respond to the demands from readers; it's better to lead – that is to say, to deliver something interesting and hopefully innovative in some way, and thus set up the “promise” that you'll continue to surprise and enchant if people continue to read. Those who want eight hundred videos on the N900's cursor are always going to be a minority, but they're also going to be a vocal minority because they know that if they don't ask for it, and ask for it in a loud voice, then nobody is going to deliver it for them.
My concern (if I were you, which of course I'm not, because then I'd be talking to myself and that would be bizarre) is that your core group “exclusively” consuming the newsletter is always going to diminish: people will unsubscribe, or not actually read them, or email addresses will lapse and expire. Will you have enough fresh blood to counter that? Perhaps you're confident that your audience is sufficient for that to not be an issue (only you know that, really) but from my experience many people soon forget what isn't put in front of their faces regularly. Without those occasional appearances in Google News or search listings, where will the fresh-to-MIR people come from?
I actually think that the Fresh-to-MIR people will come from recommendations and forwards of the email. That means that we can't immediately capture a ton of new readers or be 'scobleized' (i.e. 50,000 people visit, read, then leave, within an hour). For other sites, there's a critical requirement to be as publicly available as possible.
What I'd rather have is fewer people, thinking better. I'd rather have 2,000 of the world's most influential mobile executives and fanatics reading the newsletter, than a nominal 300 or 400,000 readers who:
a) can't dedicate the time to read most of what we're producing
b) aren't in our target demographic of executives or fanatics
c) are transitory
Last year we connected about £3 million quid's worth of venture funding. In the last month alone I reckon we've connected about £150k's worth of business (readers doing business with other readers via MIR).
I'm concerned that in it's current guise, the MIR service is continually diluted. You can't help but think 'wow, isn't it brilliant that all those folk watched our N900 videos' and then unconsciously start chasing views. I don't think it should be about that.
This will be put in front of the right faces — by email.
I think we'll need to RSS. Gahhhhh. I think we need to give the email a shot and see what folk think. Quite a few people I've spoken to have said words to the effect of 'I don't read long emails any more' — indeed @moof commented this on Twitter just a few moments ago. I think that's a minority opinion for those hyper-connected with social media. A lot of the executives reading rely on email.
How you react to @moof's suggestion of creating a forum for the Mobile Industry Review newsletter. I create a topic for each article/topic within the newsletter and provide a forum link in the newsletter?
The more we talk about it, the more obvious the differences between your audience and mine are (and the difference between how we cater to them). I can't criticise your wanting to have the “thinking better” people as your main audience; I'm also wondering – only partly to do with this – how many people actually do forward emails on, or click the “recommend this article/site/newsletter” and tap in a friend/colleague's address. Anyone know any stats on that?
You're right that the opinions of the Twittering sort are perhaps at odds with those of the mainstream folk. Ironically, that could be used as an argument to have as broad a spread of offerings – email, site, RSS, etc – as possible, but maybe your own need for a focussed way of delivering MIR counters that somewhat. In the end, of course, it's the content that's important: if doing things by email newsletter mean you feel comfortable to put out three kick-ass editorials that really add something of value to the industry, then that's got to be worth more than a daily output of par-for-the-course content (I'm not saying that's what you're putting out now, just talking in general). Hence my subscribing 🙂
I really appreciate you helping me work it out Chris. I'm going to sit back and have a think then I'll publish some more ideas for critique. What do you think about the forum concept (below)?
My comment about possibly missing tweets wasn't that you would not get them – but that others in the audience would not see them (unless they searched for @mobileindustry or everyone used a searchable tab like #mir)
As for FriendFeed (or even our own stuff) I think it could still suffer the same sort of problem since them comments are not coming from friends of mine but are from friends of yours.
Facebook can notify of other people's comments to a staus that one comments on – so there are ways of doing this.
However, I see you point re low level of feedback compared to audience size.
Well, never let it be said I'm not happy to stick my oar in!
The forum concept is an interesting one; it would certainly change the dynamic of the site as a whole. My concern (again) is that it might add a level or two of “burying” to each article, though I suppose it would be clearly linked from the newsletter itself. Casual browsers may find it a little confusing, though; people are used to being able to start their own forum topics, which I'm assuming in this case they wouldn't be able to do?
If the newsletter is going to come out on a workday, ie Friday, I rather get an email. Why?
Because with the amount of people whose employers have banned “not-working” sites (ie: facebook and twitter) while in the office, it seems only fair using good old email as delivery method. Also, through disqus, you can also respond to comments by replying to the email messages.
A newsletter in a format ok with mobile phones will also be a good thing.
I think it will also mean that you can get more advertisers for your information. And you'll land some quality consulting gigs. You'll also not be expected to turn up to events all the time (on your own time and money) so much. Not unless you want to anyway.
A lot of big companies like to use your site to pedal their products – without ever stopping to wonder how it's funded. A man's gotta eat though and if blogs today don't cut it for cash, go where the cash is…(so long as your readers still stay tuned that is.)
It's a great idea and this way you'll also know exactly who you're hitting up with your thoughts. It is web 1.0 but it's effective and emails are still bringing in the money.
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