It’s not the news, it’s Niiu.

It's kind of like those Choose Your Own Adventure books – newspaper style.

CBC Radio’s technology and culture program, Spark, recently talked to Wanja Oberhof, a 23-year-old German entrepreneur who is one of the co-founders of Niiu, the first “customized” newspaper in Europe.

Readers can design their own newspaper by selecting online the articles or sections they want to read from a variety of German and international newspapers. Their own Niiu is then printed overnight and delivered to their door, like any other newspaper, the next morning.

Photo credit.

It’s certainly an innovative idea, and definitely a daring move to step into an industry that’s enduring some hard times and looking for a face-lift.

Some are saying that the individualized newspaper is a solution to declining circulation because it eliminates the problem of newspapers having “useless content”.

With “useless content”, I suppose, meaning “stuff the reader isn’t interested in”. But that’s quite different from being useless.

When CBC rolled out it’s new format for The National last October, it included the new online option of a build-your-own newscast where viewers could pick and choose which news stories they wanted to watch and in what order.

I had the same unsettled feeling back then as I do now.

Sure, you can’t, and shouldn’t, be expected to pay attention to every bit of news that’s thrown your way, but at the same time, restricting your news consumption to only what interests you closes your mind to a lot of things.

Part of being a globally-minded citizen means going beyond your own self-interests and learning about the issues that affect other people.

Yes, I’m guilty of taking advantage of the National's business update or latest unrest-in-the-Middle-East story to go and brush my teeth, but I’m also one of those people who will sometimes sit through, say, a feature on the loyalty of Saskatchewan Roughriders fans – not because I’m particularly interested in the story itself, but because I’m interested in broadening my knowledge of the world around me.

And who knows? Maybe one day I’ll be seated beside someone who’s a big Roughriders fan and that information will come in handy.

Proof in point: today’s current events quiz in journalism taught me that I should read the FreeP for more than just the comics and Arts & Life section. If I had at least scanned the Business section, I might have known Disney is moving out of St. Vital!

Regardless, useless content was never really an issue for me. Old stories, however, are, and this is a challenge Niiu doesn’t seem to have met.

In fact, they seem to be approaching that issue in a bit of a backwards way, as Stephan Weichert, a journalism professor at the Macromedia University of Applied Sciences in Hamburg sums up nicely in Time:

“The Web offers news every second and gives the option to link to blogs and other websites. Why would people read and even buy a story or information, which they select on the Internet the day before? It's old-school journalism.”

Too much grit, with too much time: In the Chamber 2010

When it comes to the ugliness of systemic flaws, Gordon Tanner and Steven Ratzlaff have important stories to tell.

Unfortunately, the importance of their message is undermined in its presentation which relies heavily on exaggerated attempts to be ‘edgy’ and long-winded explanations.

Friday night’s performance of Theatre Project Manitoba’s fifth instalment in their series In the Chamber, showcased the talents of Gordon Tanner and Steven Ratzlaff. These local artists both penned and performed their 50 minute one-act plays, entitled Last Man in Krakendorf (Tanner) and Last Man in Puntarenas (Ratzlaff), which united under a common storyline of men experiencing an identity crisis brought about by the failings of certain social institutions.

(TPM)

Tanner’s character, Douglas, is an agriculture engineer dealing with the emotional aftermath of investigating a hog barn fire at a Hutterite colony. Upon realising that the systemic flaws in the agricultural industry were responsible for the death of the hogs, he tries desperately to explain the seriousness of the situation to his boss, via a video recording and Powerpoint presentation which Tanner enacts as his performance.

Tanner shines in his ability to portray a man on the very brink of emotional collapse: his unpredictable, energetic outbursts and frequent digressions from the presentation at hand weaves a complicated portrait of an employee trying to come to terms with the horrors his company creates.

Minimal props are used to maximum effect: Chinese takeout boxes describe quantum physics, pulled back bed sheets map out the cages in hog barns, and images of charred and exploded hog corpses are projected onto the set to give staggering visual impact.

Equally maximized, but less effective, are Tanner’s colourful language and analogy. While small theatre companies are known for pushing the envelope when it comes to their productions, Tanner’s attempts to push the boundaries feel stretched for controversy’s sake, and some audience members may find his jokes cross the line between artistic freedom and offensive commentary.

In addition to giving the 15,000 hogs killed names of various Christian martyrs, Tanner shows a slide of the infamous Falling Man photo from 9/11 alongside the caption “it seemed like a good idea at the time”, somehow trying to equate the hogs’ experience of burning to death with the fate of those who perished in the Twin Towers.

Tanner’s monologue is also littered with profanity that comes off as an attempt to be “edgy”, rather than – presumedly – to communicate his frustrations. But what makes the turn to vulgar language more disappointing is that Tanner’s theatre experience is evident in his focus and delivery (making the audience feel like eavesdroppers on a life changing confession), yet he chooses to do with four letter words what he easily could have expressed through tone and emotion.

Ratzlaff uses his share of cursing too, although Tanner’s generous use in the previous act dulls any impact that Ratzlaff might have hoped to achieve in his own performance.

His character, Hugh, is a middle aged man who uses his retirement dinner as a chance to come to grips with the death of his infant son due to flaws in the healthcare system which he claims disables, rather than supports, its patients.

(Trevor Hagan, WFP)

Ratzlaff's performance employs the creative use of balloons tied to the tops of dinner chairs to act as the heads of his gathered audience. One by one they depart (with Tanner, returning as a waiter, to march them off backstage) sometimes fed up, often times offended by the remarks made by Ratzlaff’s character.

Like Tanner, Ratzlaff impresses with his theatrical abilities, portraying a man who, despite the celebratory setting, is obviously still dealing with his own ghosts. A carefully crafted script gradually develops his character from prostitute user to grieving father and husband. Ratzlaff even manages to slip in a few quips about Winnipeg, voicing aloud his suspicions for those who come to the city with no connections, remarking “if you’re any good, why did you end up in the middle of Siberia?”

But it is Ratzlaff’s character that also detracts from the story. He is the typical distracted professor - trying desperately to make a point, but who’s insistance on covering every detail, and tendency to go off on tangents, makes that point a long time coming. And when it does come, the realisation that it could have been summarized in a few sentences is of little satisfaction to the weary audience.

Tanner and Ratzlaff deserve to be commended for tackling these hot-button issues; however, such issues have enough of their own edge, and can be discussed succinctly to avoid too much flash and losing audience interest.

**/ *****

Faceless people, supermodels, and happiness machines, oh my! (Or, the fun of guerilla marketing)

Two Jedi walk into a mall and start fighting with light sabres.

Does it grab your attention? Do you whip out your cell and start sending pictures or videos to your friends? Do you search Google to see what it’s all about?

That was one of the publicity tactics that many of our groups pitched as part of an in-class activity to promote – in theory – Pablo Hidalgo (CreComm grad and artist/writer of numerous Star Wars material) coming to our college.

We seemed to agree that using guerilla marketing tactics like flash mobs – groups of people who assemble in a public place, perform an unusual action, and then quickly disperse – are effective ways for whatever you’re promoting to “go viral” through word-of-mouth and videos of the event that get posted to Youtube.

Since reading Cindy’s blog post on the T-Mobile flash mobs, I’ve been hooked on this entertaining form of viral marketing, and others like it, that seem to be quite popular in Europe.

In 2008, people in the U.K. were intrigued when a pair of “faceless” people (who, oddly enough, looked like the faceless people in that Doctor Who episode) began to appear at various events including Elton John’s party , Wimbledon, and Harrod’s Summer Sale.

Those who did a little searching on the Internet discovered it was a campaign for Lotus to create buzz about their new car, the Eagle, which used the marketing slogan “True character in a faceless world.”

In today’s world where the average person is bombarded with thousands of ads daily, it seems this form of public entertainment which sparks curiosity about what’s being promoting is the way to go .

Traditional print advertisements, like billboards, posters, and banners are now so ubiquitous in our daily routine, they’re easy to tune out. Even TV ads – although still holding a large portion of the market – are getting a little stale.

With fewer young people watching TV (turning to the Internet instead), and cable companies like Shaw and Rogers offering PVRs that allow you to skip through commercials, more and more avenues are becoming available for the consumer to avoid watching TV ads.

That’s not to say that advertisers and publicists can’t still benefit from traditional media – they can. And that’s also not to say that new social media is suitable for all advertisers – it isn’t.

But in order to get noticed and shout above the din that is today’s advertising scene, creativity and surprise where people least expect it are some of the most potent ingredients.

This flash mob ad for SKY TV used creativity, surprise (to the bystanders in the Sao Paulo airport in Brazil), a supermodel, and big money ($4 million worth to be exact), to promote high definition TV in their campaign “TV is now real”.

Personally, I prefer this type of interactive advertising that provides entertainment over the street giveaways from companies like Stride gum and Coke (and other various treats that have been shoved into my hands in various big cities).

Although if they can combine the two like Coke did for these students as part of their Happiness campaign, I’d definitely reconsider:

A Panda in Paris

Ah.... Paris.

The city of lights, love, and – for at least for a short period in 2008 – pandas.

Imagine yourself strolling through the cobblestone streets of Paris, and at every turn seeing a sea of black and white fuzzy bears surrounding a prominent French landmark.

(all photos from WWF France unless otherwise noted)

At the Hôtel de Ville,

Le Grand Palais,

And, of course, the Eiffel Tower.

Photo credit

The invasion of the pandas was a publicity stunt put on by the World Wildlife Fund to create public awareness about the endangerment of the species. 1,600 paper-mâché pandas were placed strategically in some of Paris’ most visited areas to represent the estimated 1,600 pandas left in the wild.

The sight alone was enough to peak curiosity, and situating the bears in areas where people would normally walk, like the staircase of le Grand Palais, or in the middle of a beach in southern France, made them impossible to miss or ignore.

Even I would have to tear my eyes away from the beauty of France if I saw this little face looking down at me:

Much cuter than our Bears on Broadway, don’t you think?

Magazines anonymous (and endangered?)

Hello, my name is Heather and I’ve never purchased a magazine. Ever.

When I was younger, I read Chickadee and Owl, then browsed through many a Reader’s Digest at my grandma’s when there wasn’t anything good to watch on her two-channel TV.

But for some reason when I hit the age when I could afford to purchase my own magazines, I never jumped on the bandwagon.

Not even one CosmoGirl.

Although, way back in high school, we created our own magazines and I spent around $20 for publishing. So I’ve kinda paid my dues to the magazine world.

(And to think that three years ago I was so proud of this. Now, five months of CreComm has revealed the blaring spelling mistakes, poor type choices, and layout disasters. Sigh.)

I’d never given it a second thought until I was assigned a blog post on magazines and magazine publishing, and then I thought: “Huh, why don’t I read magazines?”

Besides the fact that I get most of my in depth news and discussion from CBC, I think the answer lies with that traditional-media-disrupting fiend: the Internet.

Magazines are known for providing information on a specific topic to specific niche markets, but the Internet has this mastered too.

There are websites, webzines, blogs, message boards, facebook groups, and various online communities which offer the information I need fast and free.

On the Internet, I have access to a whole world of people with the same interests as me, rather than just the select few who contribute to a magazine. And more importantly, the Internet can act as a forum for consumers around the globe.

While magazines can offer tips or how-to articles, the Internet can hook you up (instantly) with other consumers who may have had the same problem with a product as you do and figured out how to solve it.

There’s also the benefit of being in control of what you want to read.

Whenever I do find a magazine in my hands, it’s always when I’m trying to kill time and the only thing in the room is a stack of mags. In the latter case, I’m browsing aimlessly, hoping something will catch my eye, and – more often than not – doing more flipping through truckloads of ads than reading articles.

But other than when I’m at the doctor’s, dentist’s, or hairdressers, I have little time for browsing, which I suppose is representative of today’s instant culture in that when we want something, we want it now. The Internet provides.

If I want to know whether I should buy the latest operating system, Snow Leopard, for Mac, I won’t wait until Macworld decides to publish an article on it – I’ll go look it up on the Internet. (And even if Macworld does publish a review, I might just be able to read it on their website, for free. More on that later.)

But it’s not all selective reading. The glory of hyperlinking means that articles, blogs, and message board postings will have links to other sites of interest which you can browse if you so choose, often categorized in those handy “related topics” or “other people interested in _______ have read” sidebars.

As as result, it may be people like me, who prefer the endless boundaries, convenience, and gratis of the Internet, who are causing magazines to face the same problem as newspapers.

In the U.S., magazine subscriptions and newsstand purchases are plummeting: in mid-2009, mags like Vogue and Allure were down over 30%, and Maxim and GQ down 33.5% and 32%, respectively.

To keep up with the evolving playing field, many magazines – like newspapers – are going online, using social media tools to expand their readership and special online features to peak reader interest.

And it’s working for me. I wouldn’t buy magazines like Macworld, or SANDBOX (editor is CreComm 2nd year Jeffrey Vallis) but I have checked out their online version.

The bottom line that applies to newspapers, then, applies to magazines too: you’ve got to go where your current and potential readers are, and most of those readers are migrating to the Internet.