Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

Intriguing story on what makes the news. I’ve been pondering this lately as it seems every time I click on the New York Times i see another image of Iraq.

The Project for Excellence in Journalism,
a not-for-profit research group, launched a weekly News Coverage Index
earlier this year. It examines some four dozen news outlets to
determine what is being covered and what is not. In the first three
months of this year, the PEJ found that the war in Iraq dwarfed all other news stories, receiving more than three times the coverage of any other single story.

Well worth a read. Great post on leadership.

Focusing on his suggestion that media be better regulated and description of them as “feral beasts” – most of the media live up to his description of them, and intent to print what sells. Most fail to report his broader comments on the transformation of communications today.

He said fierce competition for stories meant that the modern media now hunted “in a pack”.

“In
these modes it is like a feral beast, just tearing people and
reputations to bits, but no one dares miss out,” he said. The result
was that the media was increasingly “and to a dangerous degree” driven
by “impact” which was, in turn, “unravelling standards, driving them
down”.

But then goes on to say…

“Newspapers fight for a share of a shrinking market. Many are now read on-line, not the next day. Internet advertising has overtaken newspaper ads. There are roughly 70 million blogs in existence, so I’m told, with around 120,000 being created every day. In particular, younger people will, less and less, get their news from traditional outlets.”

This one is really great:

“The reality is that as a result of the changing context in which 21st Century communications operates, the media are facing a hugely more intense form of competition than anything they have ever experienced before. They are not actually the masters of this change, they’re in many ways the victims.”

Andrew’s 20 years experience across business-to-business and consumer sectors spans leading award-winning programs and teams for Fortune and Times 100 companies, global brands, start-ups and the world’s hottest advertising and communications agencies. During his career he has worked and lived in the majority of the world’s major markets and developed a reputation as a highly creative executive, reputation turn-around specialist, and, marketer. He is a prolific writer, blogger and speaker on marketing, emerging business strategies, marketing/communications measurement, and Web 2.0.

LogLogic’s chief marketing officer – a hot technology start-up backed by Sequoia Capital and growing at tripple digit rates. LogLogic provides breakthrough technology for collecting, storing and analyzing log data from systems of all kinds. Andrew leads all marketing activity and the company’s business efforts in Japan, Australia and New Zealand. As a member of LogLogic’s leadership team he is charged with growing the sales pipeline and driving business performance globally Parallel to his leadership role at LogLogic, Andrew still plays an active role as Chairman of Group Lark – a consulting firm focused at the nexus of traditional and participatory technologies. Operating under the mantra “activating communities”, Group Lark advises enterprises on strategies related to Web 2.0 technologies including new product development, product extension and deployment of large scale, commercial blog, wiki, podcast and vcast projects. The company has completed consulting engagements for companies such as Southwest Airlines, Entrust, Palamida, Esphion, Visa, Textron, and Fleishman-Hillard.

Andrew played a key role in the development and launch of journeytotorino.com – Visa’s first foray into the blogosphere and blog for its Olympic athletes, and, Southwest Airlines two hot blog properties. Andrew has worked closely with a wide variety of startups through Group Lark and in his role as a director of Number 8 Ventures, New Zealand’s leading venture capital firm. Recent assignments have included restructuring and relaunching Esphion, launching Palamida and developing ‘guerilla-marketing’ strategies for Entrust.

Prior to starting Group Lark and joining LogLogic, Andrew was a senior member of Sun Microsystems’ global marketing leadership team. As vice president of worldwide marketing and communications his responsibilities spanned corporate marketing, global media and analyst relations, research, messaging and positioning, advertising and branding, product launches, tradeshows and events, publishing, and executive communications – including that for the offices of the CEO and COO; emarketing, Sun.com – including its industry-leading news site, and industrial design.

Andrew made the move to Sun following a successful career at Nortel Networks where he led all corporate marketing and communications and was chief marketer for Asia Pacific. Andrew joined Nortel from Fleishman-Hillard, the world’s largest public relations agency, where he was a senior vice president and partner consulting to global leaders such as Dell, Microsoft, IBM, and Sony. His achievements have earned him multiple awards and recognition including being named by PR Week as one of technology industry’s “Most Influential” communicators. In 2001, the corporate communications team he built and led at Nortel Networks won the Corporate Communications Team of the Year in PR Week’s inaugural US awards. He also won a Silver Anvil – the PR industry’s highest recognition for communications excellence – for Dell’s global consumer PR campaign, “PCs for People”. In leading communications programs for ID Software and Ensemble Studios, Andrew played a key role in launching some of the best selling PC gaming titles of all time. While at Fleishman-Hillard, Andrew pioneered breakthrough measurement techniques and systems including the new media performance metric, opportunities-to-see and the consultancies Balanced Communications Scorecard.

Andrew sits on the boards of Endace and Esphion; and, the advisory board of Right Hemisphere and Eurekster and recently served on the board of Argent Networks. In 2003 the New Zealand Government awarded him the inaugural World-Class New Zealander Award for his contributions to New Zealand. Today he chairs the New Zealand Government’s Technology beachhead in the US market. SiliconValley.com recently named him as one of the communicators to watch in Technology. Unlimited Magazine recently highligted Andy as one of New Zealand’s top influencers. Andrew’s blog was recognized by AdAge as one of the Top 100 marketing blogs in the United States.

A native of Auckland, New Zealand, Andrew holds a BA from Auckland University. When he is not immersed in work, he expends his spare energy as a competitive sailor, avid reader and wine enthusiast.  He also enjoys cycling, windsurfing, writing, travel and design.  Andrew is married with a delightful 28 month-old daughter, Sophia. He has no interest in golf

– ends –

I’m technically no longer a Yuppie – but in spirit I’m definitely so. When traveling its rare I don’t use Tablet Hotels to see what is new.

My loyalty to airlines is unconditional – mainly motivated by a greed for points. One of the great things about airlines is they are universally bad – with a few exceptions.

Hotels tend to be more consistent and competitive in terms of services. So, take a look at Tablet. I’ve only had one screw-up with them – in the early days — and they fixed it on the spot. On occasions I will find the hotel on Tablet and then skip over to Hotels.com to see if there is a better rate.

If you travel lots, there is nothing better than discovering that cool new hotel that is priced just right.