The 2010 SIIA Information Industry Summit was held in January and brought together a variety of digital content industry professionals and experts.  The SIIA captured video interviews with several content industry thought leaders asking them to provide their insights on the future of the content industry.

You can view Newstex President Larry Schwartz’s thoughts on the subject in the video below, and follow the links at the end of this post to view more video insights.

More content industry future insights from:

• Henry Blodget, The Business Insider
• John Blossom, Shore Communications, Inc.
• Ken Doctor, Author, Newsonomics
• Barry Graubart, Alacra
• Daniel Mayer, TEMIS
• Robin Neidorf, Freepint Limited
• Jan Palmen, Innodata Isogen
• Deva Senapathy, Infosys Technologies Limited
• Webb Shaw, J.J. Keller & Associates, Inc.
• Anthea Stratigos, Outsell, Inc.
• Matt Turner, Mark Logic Corporation

The New York Times is the most recent publisher to give up offering free online content with the company’s announcement that it will revert to charging people to access its content in January 2011.  Rumor has it that you’ll still be able to access a certain number of articles per month for free, but once you go over that number, the fees will start (read more from eMarketer).

In a world where the social Web has nearly made traditional news media obsolete, it makes you wonder if The New York Times is taking a giant step backwards that will backfire or if they’ll be able to muddle through.  Well, The New York Times is a big player in the news industry, so it’s probably safe to say that they’ll survive.  The more interesting part of the story is the opportunity this decision opens for competitors to The New York Times.

However, the question isn’t whether or not online content should be available for free or for a fee.  The truth of the matter today is that with the speed of communication provided by the tools of the social Web such as blogs, Twitter, Facebook, and so on, news has become ubiquitous.  Breaking news turns into old news instantaneously.  People aren’t waiting to learn about current events from the daily newspaper.  They’re logging into Twitter and checking their favorite blogs.

The world has changed.  Will paid online content survive?  That’s the biggest question of all.

Image: Flickr

Is there even any doubt anymore that Twitter is here to stay?  It has become a key form of communication and authoritative content publishing and sharing, and events from the first month of 2010 only further solidify Twitter’s place as a vital tool of the 21st century.

The tragic earthquakes in Haiti have been a top subject on Twitter since the first tremor struck earlier this month and this week Twitter went down when a second earthquake hit and the site became flooded with traffic and tweets.  Twitter became a vital source for sharing breaking news, helping loved ones find each other, sharing information about donating money to help Haitian citizens, and more.  It’s truly amazing how Twitter has helped to shrink the world, and it’s hard to believe that the tool has only been around for a few years.

Even reporters are using Twitter to replace or supplement their work.  In a blog post published earlier this week on Web Ink Now, David Meerman Scott wrote about his trip to a senate rally where President Obama spoke.  David sat in the press area during the event and took a video (shown below) of a few of the many reporters he saw using Twitter to communicate news throughout the event.  He even spoke with a reporter from the Washington Times who shared her story saying she uses TweetDeck to keep track of her thoughts during events.  You can read more about David’s experience on his Web Ink Now blog.

So really, is there even any doubt anymore that Twitter is here to stay?  More importantly, is there any doubt that it now holds an important place as a vital source for communication, news, and authoritative content?

Did you know Newstex syndicates authoritative Twitter content?  If you’re a publisher, you can learn more about syndicating your Twitter content here, and if you’re a distributor, you can learn more about Twitter content syndication through Newstex here.

Want to know what the experts predict for online video trends in 2010?  Follow the link to view a slide presentation by Trendspotting (a trend research and consulting firm) or view it below to learn what online video influencers think is coming for online video this year.  It’s a really interesting read!

You can check out a few of the predictions below:

“Advertisers will invest in viral seeding strategies, promote their videos via online influencers, Facebook video-sharing app, and targeted, paid placements.” — Duncan Southgate, Global Innovation Director, Millward Brown

“Small businesses will embrace online video marketing as if it were going out of style.” — Mark Robertson, Founder, Reel SEO

“As more phones become live-video enabled, an increasing number of stories will break from first-hand, at the scene accounts.” — Chris Albrecht, Co-editor, NewTeeVee/GigaOm

“As online video becomes intertwined with with the living-room TV experience, download and streaming services will take on a prominent role in the home entertainment ecosystem.” — Paul Verna, Senior Analyst, eMarketer

“Mass consumption of video will transcend beyond media and entertainment into other markets, such as enterprise, education, healthcare, and government.” — Ron Yekultiel, Chairman and CEO, Kaltura

Is there any doubt that online video will be huge in 2010?

We’ve come a long way in terms of digital advancements over the course of the first decade of the 21st century, and this week, I came across a great wrap up of the past decade by Josh Bernoff on AdAge.com.  In his article, Josh offers a number of statistics to show just how far we’ve come digitally in the past ten years.

Check out some of those stats (based on U.S. consumers) below:

• 1999 – Google was virtually unknown; 2009 – Google is … well, Google!
• 1999 – 1 in every 40 homes had broadband cable connections for quick Internet access; 2009 – 2 out of 3 homes have broadband cable connections
• 1999 – 51 million households owned mobile phones; 2009 – 270 million (out of 307 million) U.S. adults own mobile phones
• 1999 – almost no one owns a portable digital music player; 2009 – 76% of U.S. households own a portable digital music player (the iPod debuted in 2001)
• 1999 – no one owned a digital video recorder; 2009 – 31 million homes have DVRs
• 1999 – no one had HDTV; 2009 – 51 million homes have HDTV

And here are a few more reminders of how the Internet morphed into Web 2.0 thanks to digital advancements over the past ten years:

• YouTube debuted in 2005 (Google purchased it in 2006)
• Twitter came on the scene in 2007
• Wordpress was introduced in 2003
• Blogger.com debuted in 1999 (Google purchased it in 2003)
• LiveJournal launched in 1999
• TypePad launched in 2003
• MovableType launched in 2001
• Facebook was created in 2003
• MySpace was created in 2003 and became a social networking site in 2004
• Friendster launched in 2002
• LinkedIn debuted in 2003
• Flickr launched in 2004

It’s been an amazing decade.  Today, information travels faster than ever before and people from around the world can converse in real-time thanks to the social Web.

Newstex also played a part in launching new digital services over the past ten years.  For example, during the first decade of the 21st century, Newstex launched the first full-text blog syndication service, the first full Twitter stream syndication service, the first full video syndication service to include transcriptions and added enhancements, and an iPhone app — all with the goal to help content distributors provide their customers with easy access to the Authoritative Content found in social media conversations.

The next decade can only be more exciting for digital technology, and Newstex is actively working to stay ahead of the digital curve by offering new and innovative digital content syndication products!  Subscribe to the Newstex blog, so you don’t miss anything!

2009 was the year of Twitter.  From news spreading faster and wider than ever before to the sharing of authoritative content and all the fun and entertainment that the tool brought to people around the world, Twitter grew bigger than anyone could have imagined.  Earlier this week, I wrote about Twitter’s explosive growth in 2009, and today I want to follow up by writing about the top Twitter trends in 2009.

According to the Twitter blog, the top Twitter trends of 2009 covered a wide variety of topics from news to entertainment, sports to technology, and more.  Most of the top news-related Twitter trends in 2009 were related to politics and a wide variety of Twitter users joined those conversations.  What I found particularly interesting in the list of the top 2009 Twitter trends is the inclusion of some topics that were most certainly discussed by Twitter users who publish authoritative content.

Consider the top 10 news Twitter trends in 2009 listed below:

1. #iranelection
2. Swine Flu
3. Gaza
4. Iran
5. Tehran
6. #swineflu
7. AIG
8. #uksnow
9. Earth Hour
10. #inaug09

It’s interesting to imagine what will dominate the Twitter conversations of 2010.  Will more and more authoritative conversations occur on Twitter in 2010 than 2009?  I think it’s safe to assume that will be the case, and Newstex will continue to syndicate more and more of that authoritative Twitter content in 2010!

Happy New Year from the entire Newstex team!

2009 was the year of Twitter.  According to a recent article on TimesOnline, written by Twitter co-founder Biz Stone, the site saw unprecendented growth and influence during the last year of the first decade of the 21st century.  Who would have thought just a decade ago that we’d be here today, in a world where information travels faster than James Bond could have predicted, thanks in part to Twitter?

As an example, Stone writes about the aftermath of the Iran election of 2009 and the integral part Twitter played in allowing people to communicate within and across borders — something that couldn’t have been done just a few years ago — when he writes about a planned maintenance for Twitter.com that was scheduled to happen on June 15, just after the Iran election.  A note was added to Twitter.com that morning warning users that the site would not be available while a system upgrade occurred.  Within minutes, the reach and influence of Twitter became clear.  As Stone writes:

“Immediately, we began to see a reaction in the form of tweets.  Then came the emails.  Then came the phone calls.  Even the US State Department contacted us.  The message was loud and clear: Twitter cannot rest while there is unrest in Iran.”

Despite the fact that the planned maintenance was critical, the team behind Twitter realized that the level of communication the site provided during a critical moment in history was more important than the risk.  The scheduled maintenance was delayed, and the world learned more about what was happening in Iran during the days following the Iran election of 2009 through Twitter than traditional media could possibly provide.

Did history change that day?  It’s hard to say, but the tables have certainly turned.

Stone also shares that in 2010, Twitter will support a billion search queries per day and will deliver several billion tweets per hour to people across the globe.  Considering Twitter went live in 2007, those are amazing statistics.

While Stone writes about 2009 saying, “the year is a blur, but that one summer morning remains fixed in my memory because it is a powerful reminder of why we find it meaningful to develop technology,” it makes me think in a slightly different direction.  It makes me think how powerful new media has become and the tools of new media, backed by authoritative content publishers, just might change the world.

You can read Biz Stone’s complete article on TimesOnline here.

Want to get people to watch your online video content?  Motivate them to talk about it.

That’s right!  A new study by Knowledge Networks reports that the majority of online video is viewed by people who heard about it from another person.  Check out the stats via eMarketer below:

When you combine the number of people who are led to online video content via online and offline word of mouth (verbal + social media), you get an even bigger audience.  Clearly, getting people to talk about your online videos is the first step to generating organic online traffic to them.  Of course, to get noticed by an audience of professionals, syndicating your online video content through Newstex is an important tactic.  But remember, growing your online presence and audience requires an integrated marketing plan, meaning your content should be accessible from a variety of sources.  In other words, word-of-mouth marketing is just one piece of the puzzle, but it’s a powerful one!  The more methods you pursue to get your content in front of more people, the better.

It’s not a secret that the newspaper industry is struggling.  In the 21st century, we can access breaking news anytime online, and often that news comes from non-traditional sources such as blogs (remember the breaking story of Michael Jackson’s death on the TMZ blog?) and Twitter (remember the real-time inside stories after the 2009 Iranian elections?).

News companies need to make a profit to stay in business, and the online world, which offers free access to more information than any person could ever consume, is a major threat to traditional media — so much so that Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation is considering an exclusive deal with Microsoft that would block all News Corp online content from Google searches and make that content available only through Bing searches.

The jury is out as to whether or not that strategy will work.  In the meantime, news organizations are trying to think out of the box and find creative ways to generate a profit from their online efforts.  It’s an uphill battle that doesn’t appear to have a chance of getting any easier in the near future, particularly given new survey results from Boston Consulting Group.

According to The New York Times, in a survey of 5,000 people from nine countries (the United States, Britain, Australia, Italy, Germany, France, Spain, Norway and Finland), it was determined that “charging for online access to news would not greatly increase a newspaper’s revenue, but since the cost of reaching Internet readers was very low, it could significantly increase profit.”

The survey results tell us a few very important things:

• American and British survey respondents are least likely to be willing to pay to access news online (48%)
• Americans and Australians are willing to pay the least to access online news ($3 per month)
• In every country surveyed, people who already pay to access news through newspapers are the most willing to pay to access news online.

Interestingly, The New York Times article quotes John Rose of Boston Consulting Group who said, “consumer willingness and intent to pay is related to the availability of a rich amount of free content.  There is more, better, richer free content in the United States than anywhere else.”

I might add, there is more Authoritative Content available online in the 21st century than ever before, too!

Image: Flickr

The secret to measuring the success of your online content publishing efforts through a blog, Twitter, video, podcasts, and so on is simple.  There is no secret.  At least no one has figured it out yet.

So where does that leave Authoritative Content publishers?  How can you measure the success of your efforts?  Authoritative Content publishers invest a lot of time and sweat equity into creating meaningful and useful content.  How do you know your efforts are paying off?

I think Joe Pulizzi, founder and chief content officer at Junta42, summed up the evolving secret to measuring Authoritative Content success quite well in a recent interview with B-to-B Magazine.  When asked how the measurement of custom media (such as Authoritative Content) differs from traditional media spending, Joe said:

The biggest difference is that every custom program is measured differently, which is also the problem. There are no silver bullets to custom media measurement. It all starts with your marketing objectives. Once you know that, use whatever tools necessary—readership studies, transaction reports, online behavior—to develop what I call an “ROO” or return on objective. The ROO is the custom media measurement plan based on the specific marketing objectives you have for the plan.

So there you have it.  Determine your objectives for your content publishing efforts and measure your success against your path to reaching those objectives.  So many of the benefits of being an Authoritative Content publisher are intangible that it can be difficult to get lost in trying to track elusive statistics and nail down specific metrics.  Each Authoritative Content publisher has his or her own goals for publishing amazing content online.  Measuring ROO sounds like a logical solution.