Welcome to the sixth episode of “The Mediatwits,” the new revamped longer form weekly audio podcast from MediaShift. The co-hosts are MediaShift’s Mark Glaser along with PaidContent founder Rafat Ali. This week’s show looks at the way the news of Osama Bin Laden’s death played out over Twitter and other new media, making minor celebrities of @ReallyVirtual and @KeithUrbahn.
Our guests this week were two vice presidents at Demand Media, Larry Fitzgibbon and Jeremy Reed, who talked about a new direction for the network of sites — moving away from user-generated content and adding longer features. Plus, Apple relented on some of its strict terms of service for magazine publishers who want to publish iPad editions, letting Hearst and Conde Nast get access to the data on subscribers. (Note: This show was taped yesterday, on May 5, so hence the references to Cinco de Mayo.)
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Intro and outro music by 3 Feet Up; mid-podcast music by Autumn Eyes via Mevio’s Music Alley.
Here are some highlighted topics from the show:
Rafat loves the Indian Film Fest
2:00: Rafat marks one year since leaving PaidContent
2:30: MediaShift hires new editors: Courtney Lowery Cowgill and Desiree Everts
2:49: Rundown of topics on the show
Bin Laden news via Twitter
4:10: Rafat watches White House video feed on mobile phone
6:20: Sohaib Athar becomes reluctant Twitter celebrity for live-tweeting raid
8:38: Debate on role of Twitter
Interview with Demand Media execs
10:30: Background info on Larry Fitzgibbon and Jeremy Reed of Demand
12:40: Demand removing many user-generated stories
15:30: Not everyone can write without an editor
17:50: Cracked.com is an example of social content
20:10: Demand pushing for more brand advertising
23:15: Mark and Rafat react to Demand’s moves
25:55: Rafat expects Demand to buy a company in the social space, maybe Digg?
Apple makes deal with Hearst, Conde Nast
27:00: Apple backs off demands to keep data from publishers
28:30: Rafat notes that tablets still won’t be the savior for mag publishers
31:30: Publishers need to have guerilla development teams for apps
More Reading
Why the Main Who Tweeted Bin Laden Raid Is a Citizen Journalist at Poynter
A Twitter Timeline on the Killing of Osama Bin Laden at PBS MediaShift
Panda Aftermath: eHow Loses 42% of Google Search Visibility at Search Engine Watch
Data: Demand Media’s Post-Panda Search Rankings Illustrate Why Their Stock Has Recently Plummeted at Conductor.com
Demand Media says traffic hurt on eHow.com at Reuters
Why Demand Media Should Focus on Profits Rather Than Page Views at Seeking Alpha
Live-Blogging Demand Media’s Q1 Earnings: Perky Perfecting! at AllThingsD
Hearst, Conde Nast Race to Sell Subscriptions on iPad at AdAge
Hearst, Apple Reach iPad Deal at WSJ
Weekly Poll
Don’t forget to vote in our weekly poll, this time about what you think about Demand Media:
Mark Glaser is executive editor of MediaShift and Idea Lab. He also writes the bi-weekly OPA Intelligence Report email newsletter for the Online Publishers Association. He lives in San Francisco with his son Julian. You can follow him on Twitter @mediatwit.
