• YouTube’s Paywall: My take on HuffPostLive

    Well it’s official, YouTube launched a paywall around certain premium content. As I said in my HuffPost Live appearance today, it was inevitable. Once the darling of the User Generated Crowd, YouTube began the shift to professionally-produced content all the way back in 2008 when it realized that advertisers were skittish about supporting potentially pirated videos.…

  • Own your own media: content marketing goes supernova

    Even as we wrap up a successful Season 2 of our TV show, Four Peaks, we’re moving immediately into production for Season 3: “The Innovators,” thanks to a terrific new partnership with Seattle’s Museum for History and Industry (MOHAI). Amazon founder Jeff Bezos donated $10 million to create a new Center for Innovation at the…

  • The audience demands its voice: erasing the line between production and consumption

    That’s what I heard loud and clear at the SXSW Interactive session Creator vs. Audience: Next Chapter in Storytelling. I’m embarrassed that I was unaware of the incredible DeviantArt community and its young founder, Angelo Sotira. Session headline: this is an incredible time when remaining deep-pocketed media conglomerates vote with their money, once they see that the…

  • Attention-grabbing through storytelling at SXSW

    “The unthinkable has happened – a tornado touched down in the center of Austin at the height of SXSW. The epicenter is at the Austin Convention Center, which has been reduced to rubble. You have a flock of frightened conventioneers who don’t know the city, aren’t sure who to listen to or where they should go,…