October, 2007
This month I'm pausing for a moment from sharing my observations about the broadband video industry to bring you all up-to-date on an exciting evolution of my firm Broadband Directions.
To improve our coverage of the fast-changing video landscape and better serve you, I am thrilled to introduce VideoNuze (as in "news"), a new online publication which is now available at www.videonuze.com.
VideoNuze content can be received via its web site, a daily email and RSS feeds. After a three-year run and a 25-fold increase in distribution, this newsletter will phase out, and you will begin receiving the VideoNuze daily email. I really hope you'll find VideoNuze to be a valuable resource, but if not, as always, you can easily unsubscribe.
VideoNuze: Tailored For Busy Video Executives
VideoNuze's mission is simple, and I believe compelling:
To deliver to busy executives each day a complete, yet highly digestible package of analysis and news about the video industry.
In short, VideoNuze is laser-focused on educating and informing busy video executives so they can be smarter, better prepared and more productive as they chart their company's direction in the broadband era.
As I developed the concept of VideoNuze over the last year, I have repeatedly heard two themes from executives I've spoken to:
Content is Must-Have and Up-to-Date
To address these needs, when you visit www.videonuze.com, you'll see two main components.
First, there is a continuously updated series of "Analyses" about significant industry happenings. For those of you who are blog readers, these will feel like "posts". While the topics will vary, they will always relate to broadband video. I will try to address areas that I perceive are most critical, but will balance these with other interesting subjects that may not have hit your radar. These analyses are written from an industry analyst's perspective. My goal is for them to be pithy, candid and data-driven, cutting through the spin and getting to the heart of the issues.
Over time, you'll notice that VideoNuze itself will become an even greater part of the news cycle. I continue to get advance and sometimes exclusive briefings from companies regarding their upcoming news and announcements, and I expect that this will accelerate. These briefings provide invaluable additional insights and data, which VideoNuze readers will be privy to.
The second component of the site is a filtered aggregation of news links ("News Roundup"), also focused on broadband video. As you'll see, News Roundup already has hundreds of recent items and is growing every day. I believe this section is the most comprehensive, well-categorized compendium of industry-related news available today. It is fully searchable and is invaluable to users whether they're looking to stay up-to-date (e.g. what's today's news), research a particular company's activities (e.g. what's NBC doing with Hulu), or gain perspective on an entire segment of the industry (e.g. what deals have portals struck to premiere broadcast TV programs).
VideoNuze: A Learning Community
A key to VideoNuze's success is active user participation. Building a sense of community among video decision-makers is one of my top goals, as I believe it is incredibly important to the success of the industry. Your comments are very valuable to others and I look forward to reading them myself!
In addition to exchanging comments, users are encouraged to pass along news and analyses through the "Send to a Friend" feature, print out items to pass on to colleagues and post VideoNuze links at popular sites like Digg and del.icio.us. Over time there will be a slew of additional features meant to foster even deeper user involvement and professional networking. With VideoNuze's purpose-built back-end and proprietary publishing platform, I envision seamless growth of new site features and capabilities.
Fabulous Charter Launch Sponsors
VideoNuze is available at no charge to readers and the site wouldn't be possible without the support of an incredible group of charter launch sponsors, so I want to acknowledge and thank them again. Each of them signed on when there was not so much as a VideoNuze logo or mockup to be shared. They made a bet on my concept — that an online publication that relentlessly focuses on informing and educating broadband video decision-makers would fill a real market need. I greatly appreciate their confidence.
These companies are all leaders in the fast-evolving video industry and I encourage you to take time to learn about how they can contribute to your company's success:
For sponsors, VideoNuze offers a highly targeted vehicle to reach thousands of busy industry executives. Since VideoNuze visitors are highly engaged and in "learning mode", they are receptive to well-placed and relevant sponsor messages that provide additional opportunities to learn.
If you are interested in learning more about sponsorships, please contact me.
Enjoy
Over the next few days you will begin receiving VideoNuze's daily email and I hope you'll find it valuable. As with all new initiatives, I'll be continuing to shake out the kinks. VideoNuze is a work in progress and I welcome your feedback. Please have a good look around and let me know what you think. What works well? What's missing? What's broken? No comment or observation is too small, I invite them all.
In the meantime, for those of you requiring more in-depth proprietary data, my firm's Broadband Video Focus annual market intelligence service will continue to be available. Since its introduction 2½ years ago, it has become a trusted resource for many of the world's leading media and technology companies.
Lastly, VideoNuze content will be ramping up in the coming weeks and months. I have a number of expert contributors coming on board soon and together we'll be refining our approach to ensure that you receive the highest-quality user experience.
Enjoy!