Posts for 'VideoNuze'

As Thanksgiving approaches, it's time to pause and say a few important thank yous. First, thank you to VideoNuze's readers, the executives who are on the front line of the broadband and mobile video revolution. You are inundated each day with announcements and other news sources competing for your attention, so I appreciate you taking time to read VideoNuze, comment on it, pass it along to colleagues and provide me with ideas for further posts.

When I started VideoNuze 2+ years ago, my goal was for it to become the main online source for busy industry executives looking for daily analysis that goes beyond the headlines often found elsewhere. I wanted to provide fact-driven, well-reasoned arguments for my positions, and when being critical, explain why constructively, without being snarky. VideoNuze is all about executive-level, clear-headed analysis plus aggregating the most important industry news from other sources. Your feedback that VideoNuze has indeed become an authoritative voice for understanding key industry initiatives has been very gratifying.

A big thanks also to VideoNuze's loyal sponsors, whose support makes VideoNuze possible. Current sponsors Akamai, Brightcove, Microsoft Silverlight, Twistage, ActiveVideo Networks, Digitalsmiths, ExtendMedia, Jambo Media and Visible Measures are all making key contributions to the broadband video ecosystem, and I encourage you to check them out.

Back in the summer of '07, when I originally pitched the idea of VideoNuze to a small group of broadband video companies, I relied on an executive summary and assumptions about audience growth. Eight companies came on board as charter sponsors, and as VideoNuze's email distribution and site traffic have grown, another 40+ companies have become sponsors. These companies gain strong branding and lead generation at an extremely cost-effective CPM (if you'd like to learn more about sponsoring, please contact me).

Thanks also to the many industry executives who have taken time this year to brief me on their companies' activities and also to help educate me about the industry. I learn a ton from these conversations, and they help me road-test and synthesize different ideas I'm developing. Often there are hard-working PR professionals facilitating these briefings, being persistent about getting the calls set up. I appreciate how really good PR people understand VideoNuze's editorial focus and know when their clients' news is a good match.

In 2009, VideoNuze stepped up its event calendar, hosting 2 VideoSchmooze events in NYC and a breakfast at the CTAM Summit in Denver. I've received lots of positive feedback on these as being targeted, cost-effective and high-quality networking/educational opportunities. Thanks to the hundreds of you that attended. There's lots more planned next year, which you'll be hearing about soon.

In 2009 I also spoke at more than a dozen private company meetings - at executive off-sites, all-hands meetings, customer outings and sales/marketing strategy sessions. I'm continually revising a presentation that I share which explains the broadband industry's key trends, data and upcoming technology/product shifts. These meetings are very interactive and they've been a great opportunity for me to get really deep with key players in the market (off the record) about what they're doing and what's ahead. If I can add value to a meeting you're planning, please let me know.

If you're on the road this weekend for Thanksgiving, travel safely and enjoy. VideoNuze will be back on Monday for the home stretch of 2009.

A quick note to mention that I'm always eager to hear your ideas for subjects for VideoNuze posts and analyses.

As a reminder, from an editorial standpoint, VideoNuze is all about broadband-delivered video. That's a lot of ground to cover given the amount of activity in the market, and I do my best to select what I believe will be most compelling to you. But there's no "editorial board" here at VideoNuze, so I look to the community of VideoNuze readers to give me their input. Either post a comment here or drop me an email at wrichmondATvideonuze.com.

Thanks!

Today, a quick digression from the daily routine of broadband video analysis.

It's been a little over 6 months since I launched VideoNuze. The question I've been asked most often (after "how do you crank all this out every day?!") is "How are things going?" So I thought it would make sense to take a step back and give all of you a brief answer to that question.

I started VideoNuze with a mission to deliver to busy executives each day a complete, yet highly digestible package of analysis and news about the broadband video industry. I thought an online publication that was relentlessly focused and written from the perspective of an analyst and former industry executive would meet a market need.

Six months later, there have been over 160 original daily analyses/posts and over 1,000 broadband video-related news items added to VideoNuze from multiple sources. To answer the earlier question, it takes a lot of discipline to crank out VideoNuze each day and I often joke that I work for a pretty tough boss! But I'm hardly complaining. Through the countless executive briefings I've conducted, I've continued to learn a ton about the industry from some really smart people. My key challenge is to synthesize this and present it in a way that's valuable to readers. It's stimulating and fun and I thoroughly enjoy it.

VideoNuze is now read each day by thousands of busy executives who either receive the daily email or RSS feeds or visit VideoNuze.com. I've been incredibly gratified by the response I've received. Readers now regularly tell me that VideoNuze's insights and exclusive broadband video news aggregation are indispensable to them. VideoNuze is still very much a work in progress with lots of additional features planned. I continue to optimize the topics of daily analyses trying to balance reader interest and important news and trends. But at the six month mark, I'm very pleased with the overall progress.

I'm particularly proud that 15 industry leaders have run, or are currently running sponsorship campaigns on VideoNuze, including ActiveVideo Networks (formerly ICTV), Adap.tv, Akamai, Anystream, Atlas Venture, Brightcove, Digitalsmiths, ExtendMedia, FAST, KickApps, PermissionTV, thePlatform, Tremor Media, Voxant and WorldNow.

In the coming weeks a number of additional companies will start VideoNuze sponsorship campaigns. I am extremely grateful for all sponsors' support, and encourage you to visit their sites to learn more about them. And if you'd like to learn more about sponsoring VideoNuze, please click here.

VideoNuze has also benefited from two important partnerships, one with NATPE (the National Association of Television Program Executives) and the other with The Diffusion Group, a leading analytics and advisory firm specializing in broadband media. NATPE now distributes the daily VideoNuze email to many of its members looking to make the leap into broadband delivery. And TDG professionals have become regular contributors to VideoNuze, adding a diversity of voices and opinions, while also lessening my work load a bit. To both NATPE and TDG, a huge thanks.

It's been a great first 6 months for VideoNuze. I really appreciate your support and as always encourage you to comment on the posts and add your voice to the community. Broadband video is an exciting and dynamic space, but only though our combined contributions will it reach its full potential.

(Note, tomorrow is a rare day off for me, see you next Tuesday)

My first post, from this past Monday, "My Rant About Super Bowl Ads" can be seen at the site. It is a real privilege to be selected for the "Voices" section, and I'm completely thrilled!

As Friday winds down, I wanted to share a few quick thoughts on VideoNuze's first week.

First, a huge thanks to the many of you who have emailed or called with positive feedback on VideoNuze. It looks like the site's analyses and news aggregation are addressing real marketplace needs, as I hoped they would. It's also been gratifying to hear favorable reactions to the site's design and usability, about which my development team and I sweated every detail. I'm a big believer that no matter how great the content, if it's not easy to find and digest, it just doesn't matter.

A number of folks have called out the "Categories" feature on the site as especially useful for doing research, while others have cited the Search feature on the main nav, which returns results from both the Analyses and News Roundup sections of the site, as very handy. Type your company's name in and see!

Meanwhile, on the "needs improvement" side, I've heard from a number of you that you're receiving multiple copies of the daily email. Please contact me if this is happening to you. I'm troubleshooting this now with my email vendor and it's possible that it's an Outlook issue. If so, there's a fix.

Some of you have contacted me about email formatting issues. Regrettably, this is an agonizing area which can never be 100% resolved. Outlook '07 does not support many basic formatting functions, while other email programs also have limitations. We're working to optimize as much as possible, but in the meantime, I've found Yahoo and Gmail seem to handle formatting the best. If you have an account with one of them you may want to receive VideoNuze there. Or you can sign up for the VideoNuze RSS feeds or just come to the web site (also good alternatives if a daily email is too much to handle).

I've received recommendations for analyses from quite a few of you. Keep those coming, I'm always eager to hear your ideas. I can't act on all, but will do my best.

Lastly, I've heard lots of positive reaction from current sponsors and expressions of interest from potential sponsors. Sponsor support is of course critical to VideoNuze's success, so if reaching a highly engaged, broadband video decision-maker audience is key to your business plan, by all means drop me a line.

I have lots more exciting things planned for VideoNuze in the coming weeks and months, so please keep on visiting. And don't be shy about giving me your feedback!