As people increasingly move online for their news and entertainment, media providers and advertisers alike are seeking new ways to design these environments to maximize audience share, while successfully monetizing the (mostly free) content. In this evolving space, media companies are faced with the constant dilemma of maintaining the proper balance between content and ads; place too many flashy banners and risk losing your viewers, but not enough and your revenue streams suffer.
Until recently, achieving the right mix appeared to be more of a guessing game than anything based on scientific rigor, but all that might be changing as major [...]

The Internet Famous Class at Parsons New School is all about studying the art and science of getting hits.  Recently featured on Current TV, the course is dedicated to teaching students the most effective ways of leveraging social media to gain the largest possible audience online.
In order to test their theories and experiment with new strategies for gaining popularity, students are expected to develop their own projects, either collectively or on their own, utilizing any and all media in conjunction with the internet.
What makes the course particularly interesting is that students’ grades are based entirely on how much traffic they [...]

Michael Surtees, the man behind DesignNotes, recently posted an interesting piece on new media’s role in delivering breaking news.  He looked specifically at the interaction between different media sources with regards to the crash of Flight 1549 into the Hudson River.  Just by keeping up to date on his tweets, tracking down live video and photographs, Surtees was able to stay involved with the events as they took place.  In his article he highlights how one could follow events through a variety of sites as long as they know where to look.  DesignNotes reflects on the day’s activity:
Thinking about it [...]

Jason Oberfest, head of Product Strategy and Business Development at the Los Angeles Times reveals how they are working on building a content business in a digital era.

Click to play

Key Points:
- The LA Times, a paper with a weekly circulation of 3.6 million and 5-11 million unique monthly visitors to its website, still faces the issue of establishing itself as a dynamic online go-to source, as almost all papers do: “Newspapers are in an interesting time trying to reinvent themselves online – and there is a lot to be done. The fundamental issue is that engagement on the site [...]