Robert Scoble seems to have the impression that P.R. people provide Mike Arrington with breaking news on a regular basis. When it comes to product reviews he may be right. The only reason for this? Mike doesn’t have aggressive competition. That’s the difference between new media and old media and under Scoble’s description TechCrunch is becoming old media.

Prior to new media, newspapers were simply handed “breaking stories” by P.R. representatives. That’s no longer the case. For example, say that you are friends with the CEO of a large company and you run your own media company. If you talk to that person on a regular basis, chances are they are going to give you the story before anybody else. Breaking news now comes from (and may have always come from) building strong relationships with your sources. Additionally, investigative reporting helps to provide breaking news as well.

If you want to win in the new media landscape you better be aggressive. Rather than fighting for access to the P.R. representatives, you should be fighting for access to other employees within the organization. It sounds like some of these new media people have become spoiled with “access” to higher quality press releases. They are still press releases though. The real juicy scoops don’t come from building relationships with the communications department, it comes from knowing other people in the company. The bottom line here is that building relationships with people is going to beat out any form of informal public relations. It’s as simple as that. A combination of intelligence and aggresion will put you on top.

I’ve just learned that my good friend Gary Vaynerchuk is going to appear on the Conan O’Brien show tomorrow night. That’s huge! For those of you don’t know who Gary is, he was one of the sponsors of our past Tech Cocktail (which we will have news about the next one in the next day or so) and is the creator of Wine Library TV. If you haven’t seen his show, it is a must see. Gary brings his contagious personality and high energy to wine tasting. I have included a copy of yesterday’s episode below. Gary’s goal is to bring wine appreciation to the masses in the United States and it looks like he will have accomplished that with his appearance on Conan this Wednesday. Gary will officially have gone mainstream and if anyone deserves it, Gary does. He is always available for his readers and friends and is one of the most giving people I know. If you want to meet Gary, shoot him an email. I’m sure he’ll respond to you.

Last night I was pacing back and forth contemplating my plan for world domination. While I have yet to figure out how I’m going to do it, I will surely let you know when I figure it out. One thing that I figured out during my nightly pacing was how to expand my global media empire (that is said with a sarcastic tone). While as of now I am limited to two mediocre blogs, I am looking to expand into new forms of media. What’s next you ask? Video. I think it is time to start doing coverage of events, interviews and more. Although I haven’t planned my execution strategy, it is sure to come. Why do I have such renewed vigor for blogging and alternative media? One reason is this Forbes article from yesterday which describes the imploding media industry. Red Herring, Business 2.0 and PC Magazine are only a few of the magazines that are taking a beating.

The source of the pain for larger publications is citizen journalism. While some of these journalists may be more dedicated than others, they are truly a serious thorn in old media’s side. Sites like Techcrunch, PaidContent.org, Read/Write/Web and others are all major competition to large publications and are taking away readers. Not only are readers leaving but advertisers are running out the door as well. As the Forbes article highlights, Business 2.0 ad pages dropped 21.8% in March over the same period from a year ago and PC Magazine experienced a 38.8% drop in the same period. So just because Mike Arrington, Rafit Ali, Richard MacManus, Om Malik and others can do it, can someone else come along and do the same thing? Hell yes! That’s not to say that the majority of bloggers don’t experience a low volume of traffic, but if you pick the right niche you are sure to experience a boom in traffic. That’s when the fun starts. Late nights, non-stop networking, rinse and repeat. Becoming successful isn’t easy but who said starting your own business ever was. This is true guerrilla warfare at its best and there is still plenty of niche markets to capture.

So I have decided to enter the competitive landscape and will be releasing a few more media properties in the coming months. As you can tell from reading my blog I have ten thousand ideas but many of them I don’t have time to follow. New media though is probably the most exciting thing that I have been involved in and as such I’m going to dive in completely. There is some exciting new media ventures right around the corner. Also, I know I have been promising some exciting news. It is soon to come! How are you taking part of the new media revolution?

My friend Chip Griffin released a really great e-book last week that covers everything related to the evolving new media landscape. The two primary themes of discussion are convergence and the power of niches. I read the first iteration of this e-book and it was information dense. The most recent iteration is even longer and well worth the read. Just like Chip, I also have been relatively obsessed with the future of media. For me personally, blogs have had a huge impact on my life during the past 6 months and I have a feeling that it will continue to over the course of the coming years. Chip has compiled some great information including some insight from top bloggers including Jeff Jarvis, Mark Cuban, Chris Anderson, Dave Winer, Chris Garrett, and Jason Calacanis. Shel Israel also helped out Chip on this one. It seems that Shel helps out just about every serious blogger that is covering social media and emerging technology. How do you do it Shel? Anyways, you should definitely go check out the New Media Cocktail by Chip Griffin. Great job Chip!

If only it could be the good ‘ol days again. At least that’s what I’m sure Cable TV executives are thinking to themselves. In the past couple weeks the Cable Industry has witnessed a wave of new technologies that plan on taking the industry head on. Just over a week ago, the New York Times published an article about a new technology called “Vudu”. What is Vudu?

Vudu, if all goes as planned, hopes to turn America’s televisions into limitless multiplexes, providing instant gratification for movie buffs. It has built a small Internet-ready movie box that connects to the television and allows couch potatoes to rent or buy any of the 5,000 films now in Vudu’s growing collection. The box’s biggest asset is raw speed: the company says the films will begin playing immediately after a customer makes a selection.

Not only are there start-up companies that are trying to completely revamp the landscape but even AT&T is trying to grab a piece of the market. According to a Wall Street Journal article, AT&T is planning to roll out a new TV system called “U-verse”, and they are planning to spend as much as $6.5 billion on the project between 2004 and 2008.

In addition to facing businesses that plan on taking cable television head on, the industry is vulnerable to emerging technologies, specifically IPV6 (or the new internet). IPV6 is the a project that will expand the number of IP addresses available to digital devices. They plan on providing enough IP addresses so that every device can have its own. Additionally, IPV6 could prove to be a much faster network. According to recent reports, a team of researchers were able to transfer packets at 9.08 gigabits per second across 20,500 miles of network. While these speeds will not be accessible via commercially available services (Comcast, Verizon, etc), it is a sign of things to come.

As network speeds increase, it will become easier for the common consumer to download full length movies and watch hd quality streaming media. Bottom line: tough times ahead for the cable television industry.

Hanging out in a bar and talking to a bunch of techies. That’s what I saw when I first turned on Justin.tv. Justin.tv is a new site that is covering Justin’s life 24/7. The main story is that there are 4 guys creating a new startup and this will document their experience through the eyes of Justin. Strangely enough I found myself listening in on the conversation for a good 20 minutes or more. Then I was surprised to see the girl at the table making out with Justin. This site truly appeals to our voyeuristic nature. The site launched a week ago and has quickly moved up the ranks. I am willing to bet that this site will skyrocket to the top 50 websites on the internet.

Justin.tv is the real-life Truman show. There have been others that have attempted to do the same thing, but this one looks like it is going to receive a lot of mainstream media coverage. Is it possible that many of us will start wondering what Justin is doing on a daily basis? While I’m not really concerned, it will be cool to see the uncensored highlights. Are you going to watch?

In response to Tim O’Reilly’s comments on the state of the San Francisco Chronicle, Dave Winer wrote a piece about what changes should be occurring in the journalism industry. He suggests that they should reform journalism school and then have the industry embrace bloggers.

While I don’t think that old media is crumbling, they need to embrace new media if they are going to stand any chance of continuing their media domination. Although the San Francisco Chronicle may be in trouble, you also have to figure that San Francisco is one of the most wired cities in the country. Additionally the city is right around the corner from Silicon Valley. As a result you would figure that this news organization would be one of the first to fall for not quickly adapting to the new media landscape.

A couple weeks ago I had the opportunity to speak with the Washington consulate for the largest Korean newspaper. Surprisingly he suggested that there is a clear differentiation between newspaper companies and new media companies. Ironically, his company has a website and most of the journalists have their own blog on their website. I think that this individual was simply not aware of how his company is adapting to new media. All of the newspaper companies should be following the lead of the New York Times if they are going to succeed in the new media environment.

This morning I was reading about the growth in podcasting over the past year. Surprisingly (or not), there was large growth in podcast awareness but small growth in use. Why has the growth in use been so small? I think much of it is due to the fundamental way that podcasts are used. In contrast to blogging, where the user determines their speed of consumption, podcasting limits the user to consuming the information at one rate. While podcasting cannot be skimmed like a blog entry, it can accompany an article or blog to make the content more meaningful. While there are users that subscribe to their favorite podcasts, most users will selectively pick those podcasts that they want to listen to on an individual basis.

I rarely listen to podcasts because I’d much rather skim through rss feeds. A couple days ago though I was browsing PRWeek and found an interesting interview discussing social media monitoring so I listened in. The segment was around 5 minutes and I listened for the entire duration. I found out about the segment via the article I was reading. This was a perfect example of effectively using a podcast. In this information hungry world we live in, there is no way that podcasting could ever experience the growth that blogging experienced, but it can experience a spike in usage through effective utilization.

I predict that more of the a-list blogs will begin to take advantage of alternative forms of media (video and audio) as they begin to compete with mainstream media for consumer attention. Much of the growth in podcasting will come from single segment users rather than full subscribers. The Edison Media Research report suggests that podcasters begin to sell their content. Not a bad idea. Who wants to work with me to make the podcast e-commerce marketplace?