DailyMe’s Blog

I read a recent column by Nicholas Kristof in the New York Times that strongly criticized the concept and growing popularity of a “Daily Me” news product, which Kristof said would lead to readers seeking out “information that confirms our prejudices.” The original “Daily Me” concept dates back to 1995 as proposed by Nicholas Negroponte. True, that back in 1995 the notion of a user personalizing his news to create his own news digest seemed as foreign and far fetched as someone flying to the moon in the 1920s, but today this concept is real and has been successfully executed against. 

We as a society turn to TiVo as a platform to watch the programs we choose, at the times that fit our schedules, and TiVo suggests other programs that match our interests, though perhaps not our point of view. Pandora (a personal favorite) gives us a similar opportunity to choose the genres or artists we’d like to listen to, whenever we desire. And iTunes, gives us the ability to purchase one song instead of a full CD. So why would we believe that this trend would not carry over to the consumption of news? We wouldn’t. In fact, I would argue that our loyalty to news media, especially to newspapers, has delayed for too long the adoption of this trend in the news domain.

The “Me” media trend is here and growing in popularity among consumers. Consumers drive the demand, and suppliers step up to the plate to deliver – andDailyMe.com is no different.

Kristof makes a leap to assume that the decline of traditional news media and the rise of online personalized news will inherently lead to more filtering of contrary opinion and perspective on the news. Clearly, when given the tools to find it, online readers seem more willing to seek out news content from a variety of sources and different perspectives. I never heard the argument that giving people various perspectives on issues that matter to them is bad for them, for journalism or for democracy. DailyMe.com (our version of Daily Me) brings together hundreds of sources, giving people various perspectives on ‘their’ issues. We would prefer to help people become deeply informed on issues that matter to them, instead of helping them gain a superficial, one-sided perspective on a variety of topics that they may be unwilling to defend.

To my regret, I have had the opportunity to discuss ‘our DailyMe’ with Dr. Negroponte superficially, but I am willing to bet that he and I agree on many principles, especially now that almost 20 years have passed since he first thought of this. Personalizing your news is not about giving you only what you want from a single or handful of sources. True personalization should leverage your interests (gathered implicitly and explicitly) as a starting point, use means of algorithmic and collective discovery, and weigh them based on editorial values. The end result should be diverse (in terms of views and sources), dynamic (since it learns and adapts), multi-platform (extends well beyond online into print and other devices) and promotes the exploitation AND exploration of content. Oh, and it should compensate journalists for writing stories.

The truth is that most news consumers are not reading newspapers or online news ‘cover to cover’ and that they are consuming online news from multiple sources. The habit is the same, but the methodology is different, as has been argued by my colleague Bob Rountree, the editor in chief of DailyMe. Home delivery continues to fall and the state of traditional news media is in a place where acceptance and change is needed.

Our interpretation and execution of DailyMe is helpful for consumers and journalists alike. Although it does pose a challenge to traditional newspapers, this is a trend they should embrace, not fight. At the end of the day every player in the personalized news space is tiny as compared with NYTimes.com,Washingtonpost.com or the online version of most other newspapers. Personalized news will grow if, and when, newspapers adopt it and execute it well from the perspective of presentation and underlying technology. When that time comes, well be ready to help. These are realities, right, wrong or indifferent and as such, fighting reality or nay-saying it on the sidelines will leave you… well on the sidelines.

- Eduardo
DailyMe Inc. Founder and CEO

http://DailyMe.com

We Media ’09 has just wrapped up and as I collect my thoughts (and notes) from the past two days, several questions are left floating around. How do we satisfy news audiences with both the rich content and advanced technological capabilities that they desire, while sustaining a cash-positive business model to stay afloat? It’s a question that affects most, if not all, news organizations.

The reality is that the news media landscape has changed, is still changing, and the landscape of tomorrow’s news is largely unknown to us. Unknown in the sense of who will drive tomorrow’s news sites and channels? Will it remain in the hands of today’s news organizations? Will it change into the hands of users themselves? Will a new hybrid organization emerge that is run by both users and journalism organizations? Time will tell.

An equally important recurring discussion at the conference revolved around the business model behind tomorrow’s news sites and channels. Ad-based revenue models by and large do not scale, at least in our current economy, to cover the overhead to operate a news organization. Flipping to a subscription-based or micro-payment type of model may not scale either – but for different reasons. So how will this too play out? Again, time will tell.

What I did walk away with, was a sense that we, the attendees, were one cohesive news community determined to continue reporting and/or distributing news. From the panelists to the moderators to the individual break-out session groups, there were many discussions around innovation; new ways of reporting the news, new ways to engage audiences, new ways to distribute the news and so on.

A personal conference highlight for me was simply getting to know the people that I happened to sit next to - and of course, the other attendees who participated in posting our #wemedia experiences from the conference onto Twitter .

My final thought post- We Media … is that being a part of shaping and building the future of news makes returning to my day to day work even more interesting.

http://DailyMe.com

Today was not lunch as usual at DailyMe. I attended an eye-opening IAB sponsored webinar with Neil, our President and Chief Product Officer, on a topic that left both of us, well, the opposite of speechless.

It was presented by the Progress and Freedom Foundation, an organization that has recently devoted time and resources toward the defense/protection of online advertising from proposed legislation. Special attention has been given to the “long tail” media, publishers like DailyMe that offer a large number of articles from a large number of sources, each in relatively small quantities, who may suffer greatly if the legislation goes through.

Throughout today’s session, two points came across clear: First, this proposed legislation could adversely affect both publishers, whose business models are ad-based, as well as consumers, who have grown accustomed to the free, timely and quality content delivered on the internet. Second, this policy, known as a “Do Not Track” registry has received some press, but not nearly enough, as Neil notes on his blog.

- Lisa
http://DailyMe.com

At this time of year, it’s typical that you decorate your house and make it look good for the holidays. We’ve been doing a lot of sprucing up at DailyMe, too. Among the changes you’ll find:

• New “front pages” for your personalized DailyMe section and the community-driven DailyWe sections. Users told us they wanted to see a snapshot of all their personalized news categories on one page, so we brought them together in the new DailyMe front page . Similarly, the DailyWe front page rounds up the most popular news items by views and by Meme-It emotion.

• A new Opinion section that rounds up our editor’s picks from among the editorials and columns we get from top newspapers and other sources.

• Revamped political coverage for the post-election period, offering news on the transition in a new Presidency section and updates on congressional activity in our Capitol Hill section .

• A special page on the troubled auto industry in our Money section to wrap up developments.

• A facelift on all our section pages to increase the readability of headlines and summaries.

And don’t forget to check out the Holidays page in our Lifestyles section for a sleigh full of recipes, tips and advice on surviving the season.

Have a Happy and Healthy Holiday Season!

http://DailyMe.com

A long and much awaited day has arrived: Select DailyMe feeds are now available through Amazon’s Kindle . The addition of the Kindle delivery platform supports our mission to deliver quality news to our audience – wherever, whenever.

The past few years have been an interesting time in media consumption. We have observed how technology has led the way in shifting control away from publishers and into the hands of end users. Kindle, much like DailyMe, exemplifies this shift by empowering readers to select their content, sources, delivery format and schedule. We see Kindle feeds as a natural extension of DailyMe’s delivery options.

Currently, DailyMe is offering four news feeds on Kindle with plans to increase this number over the year. These feeds include:

DailyMe Literati : A treasure chest of reviews and news about the wonderful world of books and literature

DailyMe Monitor : A sampler of today’s most interesting stories from hundreds of popular sources

DailyMe @Home : The best stories from landscaping and design to food and wine

DailyMe Better You : From personal finance and consumer news to self-improvement and career

Lastly, as a Kindle owner, I appreciate and recognize the benefits of using an e-reader for reading subscription based content, books and magazines especially when I am traveling. I have advocated the distribution of DailyMe through the Kindle since last fall when I first bought the Kindle. Thanks in large part to our editorial and technology teams, this vision has become a reality.

To subscribe to the DailyMe feeds or to learn more about the Kindle, click here.

http://DailyMe.com

The DailyMe editors usually devote most of our attention to our bread and butter – the top news and events of the day. But even we occasionally break to enjoy something other than bread and butter. Our latest foray into something more savory is our Holidays page in our Lifestyles section. While we created the page for Halloween, it’s really taken off with the approach of Thanksgiving and Christmas.

You’ll find a delicious mix of stories from leading newspapers on the page, giving you holiday travel advice, decorating tips, recipes and more. Don’t forget to check out the videos, where you can see tips for picking the right wine for Thanksgiving or keeping down costs as you entertain. Bon appetit!

In case you didn’t notice, we’ve added a couple of other new sections as well. Our Opinion page carries a selection of editorials and columns from top newspapers. With the election behind us, we’ve revamped our Politics section to provide coverage of the transition in our The Presidency section and a closer look at what Congress is doing in our Capitol Hill section.

http://DailyMe.com

The U.S. presidential election is but two weeks away and you may be feeling overwhelmed by the exceptional levels of media coverage. How do you stay on top of developments that people are discussing? That’s exactly the problem DailyMe was created to solve – help you discover the news that is important and useful to you.

Are you a political news junkie, just want the latest buzz or want to dig into the issues? Our Election section has a full slate of news and information for you. In addition to a main news page and candidate pages, we recently added a page on where the candidates stand on issues such as taxes, global warming and energy. And last week, amid all the chatter about Joe the Plumber, we even created a special page on that topic. Expect more breakouts as news warrants.

Across all of the elections pages you’ll find articles from our top sources, plus video reports and feeds of Twitter comments.

Check it all out in our Election News section.

http://DailyMe.com

On some sites, when you see a story you like you can vote for it. And this creates a “most popular” ranking. We’ve decided to take community voting a step further.

Now, when you are moved by a story you can Meme-It!

Meme-It lets you vote for stories based on how you reacted to them. Users can choose from six emotional descriptors by clicking on the Meme-It icon, which is a small graphic based on the smiley. The six descriptors are “insightful,” “tragic,” “humorous,” “uplifting,” “enlightening,” and “just weird.”

Then, on our DailyWe section, you can look at the top stories for each emotional category. For example, you can find the most enlightening stories or the most tragic stories of the day. We think putting the news in better context is always a good thing.

In addition, we’ve made two other enhancements to the site:

• We’ve launched video stories, which can be found across our category pages.
• In the email version of DailyMe (HTML only), you’ll find a redesign that includes better navigation and more content. If you aren’t getting daily emails, go to Edit Settings (link in upper right navigation) and click on Set Delivery to arrange for email delivery on the schedule your prefer.

As always, please try our new features and let us know what you think.

http://DailyMe.com

Mark your calendars – the DailyMe Official Launch Party is right around the corner. Come enjoy a night of cocktails, hors d‘oeuvres, and maybe even a little dancing.

Saturday, August 2, 2008, 7:00 PM
Opium Garden
136 Collins Ave
Miami Beach, Florida

Tickets are limited and have just been released on Eventbrite.

We are looking forward to meeting everyone & toasting this milestone!

- Lisa

http://DailyMe.com

We’ve just thrown the switch on the next step in the evolution of DailyMe – our DailyMe.com news destination.

This user-centric web destination brings the DailyMe experience to an even broader audience through three distinct editions:

• DailyMe, our original, personalized service;
• DailyWe, where stories are ranked by the community; and
• Top News, selected by our DailyMe editorial team.

All three editions include the robust content, both licensed and user-generated, that users of our DailyMe service have enjoyed for some time. They also bring together many of the technology components we’ve built: our personalization application, delivery platform, advanced news search, rules and processes for importing and classifying content, and RSS feeds. And, of course, users can continue to read licensed news stories without ever leaving DailyMe.

The three editions can be selected via tabs on the DailyMe homepage, where Top News will be the default. (Of course, existing users will continue to receive their DailyMe personalized edition without interruption across all delivery options.)

We’ve been working on this launch for some time and are very excited about the new site. So please test out our new editions and do let us know how you like them.

- Eduardo Hauser

CEO, DailyMe, Inc.

http://DailyMe.com