Spring Training: Practice Time

I've got an IAB Board meeting and annual conference in Phoenix starting today, and last week was winter break for my kids. So we combined the two and spent a few days as a family in Scottsdale, home of my hometown team. Yesterday my son and I walked over to the Giants' training facility and were pleased to find it open, with about fifty or so die hard fans taking in a glorious early camp practice. I shot a few pictures off my mobile phone, here they are, to warm your still wintry hearts.

My son Ian is stoked to be here.

Barry Zito (#75) is ready to have a better year. He lives in my neighborhood in Marin, and I'm told he's glad to have his transition year (from the A's to the Giants) over with.

Ah, baseball. Some things never change.

• Posted by John Battelle at 9:13 AM
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OpenRoadTV

Fun to do this quick piece with the Open Road TV folks....

• Posted by John Battelle at 5:32 PM
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You're In the Media Biz Now

I've been thinking about media for a long time now, and if asked to give advice to folks who are *not* in the media business, I often offer this chestnut: You're in the media business too, whether you like it or not. As part of a long term sponsorship, American Express asked me to opine over on their site, you can find my first post here. An excerpt:

Today, I’ll assert, no matter what business you think you’re in – be it making widgets or providing a service, you’re now in the media business, plain and simple. Those that recognize this shift will succeed, those that ignore it will atrophy and eventually become irrelevant.

Now, what do I mean by the media business? Well, let’s start where all good businesses start: with the customer. Your customer’s media habits have changed dramatically in the past ten years. More likely than not, your customers spend nearly 15 hours a week online – it’s where they play, communicate, interact with services, and shop and research major purchases. In short, your customer has developed a major new media habit. The question is: Has your business?

• Posted by John Battelle at 10:25 AM
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Get Yer Head Right

(Note: This is the first of a number of posts I'll be doing using mobile technology thanks to a sponsorship from Microsoft and FM. More here).

Sometimes you just need to go to a show (click on the pic for a larger image I shot while there). I certainly did after the past two months of four hour meetings, travel, and general madness. A good friend introduced me to Umphrey's McGee, a killer jam band out of Chicago. This was my third or fourth time seeing them, and they always just kill it, wherever they play. If you want a real treat, subscribe to their podcast here. What does this have to do with Searchblog? Well, as I've written before, I find the music industry very predictive of the media markets in general. Umphrey's is the kind of band that heralds a new approach to media, entertainment, and distribution. The band has a strong following in its native Chicago, but it has found another strong following online. The music doesn't lend itself to traditional packaged goods approaches to marketing, but that doesn't matter - online distribution and word of mouth has helped the band play to packed halls all over the country. I saw them at the fabled Fillmore, twice in fact, and they did the place proud. The third show is tonight, go see them if you can...

• Posted by John Battelle at 3:49 PM
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Slow...

I'm tied up in meetings as I was last week, and posting will be slow. I hope to chime in here and again, but...

• Posted by John Battelle at 5:06 PM
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