Monthly Archives: July 2011

Hot Spot

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So, what is the hottest spot in business today? The place where the most investment and development and hype and interest has coalesced?

It is the point of intersection where “local meets social and mobile and real time.”

Every big player in commerce – tech – payments – media – and venture capital is exploring this mashed up space.

While I am reading all about the travails of newspapers, from arrests to layoffs, to scandal and contraction, I can’t help think that the noise is getting in the way of the signal.

Aren’t newspaper publishers positioned well into this new space? Isn’t this the space they originally created so many years ago?

Local is all about local merchants and neighborhood relationships; and local commerce and local news and info consumption. Creating marketplaces between merchants and consumers; right on your street! Delivering news that matters as all politics is truly local!

Social is all about community and delivery platforms; and activating conversations and reviews and people to people info exchange and communications; and news feeds! “News feeds” people; news feeds! And publishing platforms; “publishing platforms” people! Who invented these terms? These concepts?

Mobile is all about consuming information on a third screen and being available on computers; on televisions and on devices/phones; accessing and then being able to communicate and activate and consume in a digital manner; being available in your pocket and being one click away from everything!

Real time is all about “NOW”. I want it now-info-deals; news; special offers; what you are thinking and saying; Tweet this- update news feed that; blog away; express away. Be fast-and short and sweet! Subscribe. Subscribe people…subscribe! Who invented that concept?

It seems to me that the newspaper industry invented the space. Invented the vocabulary; perfected the concepts and is well positioned; it just needs a focus and an investment thesis to go after this new large market place; organize around it-go for it-. Stay away from noise and focus on signal. Reinvent. Reorganize. Refresh. Walk away from the past. “Headless Man In Topless Bar”; and go towards the future….Thanks for letting me rant.

Great Progress

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A Saturday in July – rookie development camp.

To the rafters filled with fans. I love this photo. Click here.

98 percent renewal rates. A waiting list to buy season tickets. A top 5 largest sold season ticket holder base in the NHL. We have to add 56 additional seats via mini loge boxes to help meet demand. Record TV ratings.

Every game sold out again for next season. 4 years in a row that we have had this kind of turn out.

I remember an ESPN column predicting we would be a team that would be “contracted” because of lack of fan interest.

Thank you for making DC a town that deeply cares about hockey! We will never take this kind of fan interest for granted. I promise. Go Caps!

Spirit of America at Verizon Center

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Free of charge. September 9th and September 10th!Support our troops. Come see a stirring show. Be a patriot for free. Bring the family and friends.

Go to Ticketmaster to get tickets for free. Click here. Organize your school trip for a visit.

Hear great music and see our Armed Forces show their true colors. This is a great show. I hope to see you all at our arena…and did I tell you it is all FREE of charge. Come on out and enjoy!

Grateful and Fortunate

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We have added some new small suites at Verizon Center. They are called loge boxes and they have either six or eight seats within. In total these boxes add about 56 new seats to the arena. I want to make sure we don’t over crowd our arena and am hopeful these new boxes will add to the ambiance of the arena and help us to generate more fans for our teams plus additional needed revenues.

They are of high quality and have great sight lines. They are aimed at small businesses that wanted suites but didn’t want the expense of a large box in our arena.

I think these boxes will be of great value to small and medium sized businesses. We have sold 4 of the 8 already. If you are interested in these suites let us know ASAP please. Thanks again for all of your support. We are very grateful and appreciate the interest in this new set of products from Verizon Center.Click here for an article about this new development.

An Open Note to Sarah Palin’s Filmmakers

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After reading this article, I had the following thought.

We at SnagFilms will happily distribute your film. We can digitize it; promote it on SnagFilms; and get it distributed via sharing to all interested bloggers and news sites. Many people will see the film. Many people can then make donations to whatever causes you would like to support.

We will sell some ads in it and share that revenue with you.

We can even work our relationships and get the film into the pay-per-view window.

We could quickly build an audience for the film.

We could build context around the film for content.

The film could be personally shared via book mark and email too by groups.

The film would virally get out there and find a massive audience.

This film won’t make money or build an audience in theatres.

We believe in sharing and streaming all films to all audiences. This is the future. We want to build a big tent and show all views and promote all documentaries. Your most passionate fans would quickly and easily see the film. The critics of your work could also be exposed to the film too and perhaps you can shine the light on your work in this way?

If the point is volume and finding a big audience and supporting charities, we can help.

The old way of doing things, in many cases, simply doesn’t work anymore.

Leave a comment on the blog. We are here to help. We are here to serve. We will distribute your film in a more modern digital and successful manner.

SnagFilms is a better way to show your work than going the traditional route in theaters. Let us know if you want to take us up on our offer. Thank you.