ChasNote

Brands — by way of their ad budgets — have always made publications possible. Publishers know how to create great content and get it into the hands (or browsers or feeds) of readers. In exchange for riding publishers’ distribution coat-tails, brands fund content creation and dissemination by running ad messages near the editorial content.

More and more, brands are recognizing that they need to become publishers themselves. But publishers (and their content creating teams) are still, in most cases, better at that kind of work. So, while the Internet and other digital platforms are changing how and what we read, the publisher / brand advertiser partnership is no less vital. From Techdirt:

“For example, American Express has been using Insight Community content on its own award-winning Open Forum blog discussing trends and issues related to small businesses. American Express does not have editorial control over most of the content, and the content is pretty clearly not specific to or slanted by American Express’s sponsorship of the endeavor. And, as some people are noting, that blog is full of such wonderful content, that plenty of other mainstream publications, including the NY Times and the Financial Times, are noticing that such a publication really is no different than a small business trade publication now.

“Except, rather than American Express having to buy ads in random small business trade publications, it gets to sponsor the whole thing — while ceding much of the editorial control to others. Obviously, we’re a bit biased here, because we believe this is a tremendously viable model, but if you read the content on that site — or, say, the content on the Digital Nomads site sponsored by Dell, that runs under a similar model, you can judge the quality of the content yourself — and recognize that for all the whining and complaining about the old models going away, there are tremendous new opportunities opening themselves up, as well. “

Someone Like You… release

Marc Farley, a Dell blogger at Inside IT blog, shows the rest of us how it’s done. Dell is tapping the Techdirt Insight Community to foster a conversation among IT pros on storage, and what storage vendors like Dell need to be developing. (Here’s the site, The Future of Storage.)

EMC’s Chuck Hollis blogs his discontent about the project, namely that Dell’s role in the project isn’t disclosed clearly enough. That’s good feedback and always worth listening to. It’s Dell’s intention to be transparent; if certain visitors are confused, fix it.

Farley, a storage expert and Dell employee, admitted that he could relate:

“I didn’t understand myself for several days, including the whole posting process and was wondering what the %$#% was going on. In fact, I put up a completely wayward, post — wondered why it wasn’t being posted, then found out it was way off base. FWIW, there is a blog post that is pretty critical of Techdirt for the way the initial entries (insights) are handled. Mike Masnick’s reply to that review is good enough for me that they are working on improving things. But I don’t want to throw out the baby here, I think Mike is really onto something that is very, very good and that could fundamentally change the analyst business — something that Chuck would probably be very interested in also.”

That alone is refreshing — a representative of the brand (Dell) who publicly voices criticism of the brand or marketing practices. Then he goes on to articulate the project’s intent:

“So here’s how it’s working: Dell opened an Insight (request for blog entries) with Techdirt and they invited members of their community to contribute. These entries were screened by Techdirt editors for suitability (no Dell influence in this process) and then published on a Dell sponsored site called the Future of Storage, as a way to expand the discussion. We now have some of that going on and people can contribute there. Just keep in mind that the entries are moderated by Techdirt and it takes a little time for them to be published. I think if you look for the usual wolf in sheep’s clothing ads here, you won’t find any (at least that’s the goal). The point is not to pimp our stuff but to establish dialogue –- and this differs in a very major way from most blogs, including Chuck’s and mine.”

Techdirt’s Mike Masnick adds a comment to Farley’s post:

“On the issue of independent analysis, we actually think the Insight Community model works even *better* because you’re getting multiple viewpoints from multiple independent parties — and given how we recruit people, you can rest assured that there are always a varied set of opinions. The folks in the community are *passionate* and don’t back down. That’s what we like, and that’s why the Community generates such interesting output. As I’ve said before, the Insight Community model is designed to make you find out what you *need* to hear, rather than what you *want* to hear.”

An unusual conversation is underway: Editors, sponsors and their business partners are engaged in an open and professional argument over the important issues in digital media, and learning from each other. My hat is off to Dell, Farley, Hollis and Masnick.

Dell taps Techdirt’s Insight Community on a project that’s somewhere between a virtual focus group and a sponsored forum. As Techdirt’s Mike Masnick puts it:

“we’ve put together a site, sponsored by Dell, on The Future of Storage, which is powered by the Techdirt Insight Community. We’re building an ongoing conversation around the future direction of the storage market. You can join in the conversation itself just by heading straight to the site and commenting on the posts, but if you have experience with storage area network technology, you should join the community itself and submit your insight on where you think the market is heading. The best insights not only get published to the site, but can earn you quite a bit of money. Basically, you can be smart, earn a bunch of money and get recognition for being smart all in one shot. Tough to beat that. “

At the same time Dell has partnered with Ars Technica to sponsor the roll out of Ars Technica’s first-ever enterprise IT forum, The Server Room — “a dedicated place where discussion could take place around IT matters of interest to business and enterprise gurus”. Full transparency provided by Ars’s Ken Fisher:

“Effective immediately, we are opening The Server Room to the public (registration is required for posting access). We are proud to announce that Dell is sponsoring the launch of this new resource, and I encourage you to visit our sponsor, Dell’s The Future of Storage: ‘Insights into the rapidly evolving storage area network market.’”