Newspapers have been in trouble for some time.  The surge in free online news sources put a strain on all print media, especially newspapers.  Jokes have been made on sites like The Onion where they “reported” that The Boston Globe had tailored its print edition to its three remaining subscribers.  Due to the vicious cycle of low subscriber bases and lower ad rates, newspapers across the country—and even the world—have been laboring to stay afloat.

While many solutions have been posited including forcing very frequent readers of online news to pay a fee or integrating online and print advertisements, no one has found the solution to arguably the newspaper industry’s largest threat ever. Earlier this month,  The Times decided to place a “paywall” on their site after having had enough with providing premium content to readers free of charge. The Times’ paywall works very simply.  When one logs onto the site, it appears as it did in the past.  The top stories of the day grace the opening screen along with categories to go into the “paper” and an average amount of advertising.  As soon as any story, category, picture, video etc is clicked on, an interstitial pops up informing the reader that this site is now available only by subscription.

This type of window is usually dismissed as simple nuisance of online advertising, but in this case, it is no joke.  If the window is closed, the user is returned to the homepage with no hope of finishing that story about the Sri Lankan cricket player or the Prime Minister David Cameron’s latest policy.

By being the first major newspaper in the world to enact such a system, they may have given the rest of the online newspaper community an example of one way not to solve their monetization problem.  After only three weeks, metrics taken by Experian Hitwise show that readership has dropped by an astonishing 90% since February.  (This was all reported in an article in The Guardian, which did not cost a pent to view).  Media mogul Rupert Murdoch, who owns The Times, believes that if the new business model takes off, it could prove to be much more lucrative than the advertising model that most online news sites currently run on.

While it remains to be seen what the newspaper industry will do to keep itself alive, it looks, at this early stage at least, like a paywall for any and all information on a newspaper website is a better way to keep people away than attract them.

Unless you’ve been in a cave for the last week you’ve read about one of the largest media deals in history – Comcast’s acquisition of NBC Universal from GE. And while those three may read simply as the names of corporate behemoths separately, in this instance they may as well be the leading characters in a story.

Because while everyone from CNBC to the Chattanooga Times Free Press speculated on the business viability and the consumer impact of the deal, The New York Times focused on the story behind it. In a great piece, the Times shared the rich detail, including the attire and the attitudes, of GE CEO Jeff Immelt and Comcast patriarch Ralph Roberts, of a secretive July meeting in Sun Valley that saved the deal.

Reading the piece you felt as if you were there. You got a rare glimpse into the inner workings of the negotiations between two of the country’s most successful executives as they put together one of the most significant business deals in recent memory.

The piece demonstrated the power these two businessmen wield, but it also demonstrated the power of story. Stories are one of the oldest forms of communication. And while it may sometimes be perceived as a soft delivery method, the hard numbers from studies show that stories deliver the greatest impact and the greatest information retention.

Remember that the next time you are considering how to deliver your next marketing message. Because the power of story is unmatched. Besides people are much more likely to remember the color of Ralph Roberts’ bow tie than they are the share price of the deal. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Michael Schwalbe writes about a lesson he learned as an alpine ski racer known as the “40-30-30 Rule.” His instructor explained that for most sports, success was only 40% physical training, and the other 60% was mental. Of that 60, 30% was technical skill and and experience and the other 30% was the willingness to take risks.

“To improve at anything, we must at some point push ourselves outside our comfort zone.”

This statement is true for many professions. As Harvard psychologist Daniel Gilbert notes, it’s more than just building on our skill sets where we learn the most. It’s when we take risks, put ourselves outside of our safe zones, push the envelope, that we truly reach our “highest level of performance.” Because learning how not to do something, then figuring how the right way to do it, is better than not having risked it in the first place.

The Burberry raincoat has been a fashion icon for over 95-years, even in this recession remains Burberry’s best-selling item.  Yet like all industries during these tough economic times, the luxury retail industry is being hit hard, and even companies as successful as Burberry need to reevaluate their approach, as they come to the realization that their highly affluent but aging customers are cutting back on their spending.

So Burberry’s CEO, Angela Ahrendts, is attempting to bring Burberry online, and reach a new generation of shoppers, through, yes, you guessed it, social media.

On Monday, Burberry introduced a social networking site, called artofthetrench.com.  The site encourages people to share their own trench coat stories, and describes itself as “a living document of the trench coat and the people who wear it.” The site shows everyday people wearing Burberry trench coats and the company invites photographers and trench coat owners to participate and will then add the best of the submitted shots to add to the site. Users are encouraged to comment on and share photos, with the site linking directly to Facebook Connect.

Burberry’s step into the social media stratosphere reflects a growing trend in luxury goods companies.   Traditionally, these companies have scoffed at the idea of taking to the web, seeing it as a place for shoppers looking for a cheap deal, who are searching for knock-offs or counterfeits.  Today, however, these companies are throwing previous perceptions out the window, realizing that if they want to reach a younger audience, they have to get online and into the social media space, as quickly as possible.

In September, Fabergé, creator of the Imperial Easter eggs, started selling its new jewelry collection almost exclusively on the Web. In October, Gucci launched its own iPhone/iTouch app and micro social networking site, Salvatore Ferragamo Spa launched and online store, and Giorgio Armani unveiled plans for a mobile commerce site.

After an eight percent decline this year, the $226 billion global market for luxury goods is expected to grow again next year as younger consumers and working women replace retiring baby boomers, and it appears as if Burberry and these other luxury goods companies will use there presence online to help ensure these sales.

To date, Burberry has more than 699,000 Facebook fans and is also attracting customers via Twitter and Youtube, and far the company is doing well, with the price of its shares doubling during the past year.  Of course much of this is due to Ahrendts’ business savvy, but it appears as if connecting with the next generation of buyers is also a key factor.

At Braithwaite we are in the business of story telling, and one of the ways we help our clients get their stories out, is online and through the social media space.  So we would like to say, hats er coats off to Ahrendts, for telling the untold story of the trench through the web, Facebook, and Twitter.

The media loves surveys.  And as this one proves, the funnier and more entertaining – the better.  This article showed up on the BizJournals website today.  The lesson: even if your results are uninteresting, your responses may be enough to get you media coverage. Just don’t be too suntanned.

Think you’ve heard some strange complaints from employees about their co-workers? A recent survey of more than 2,600 hiring managers by CareerBuilder highlighted some of the oddest complaints about others in the office.
The complaints include:
* Employee is too suntanned
* Employee has big hair
* Employee eats all the good cookies
* Employee is so polite, it’s infuriating
* Employee suspected co-worker was a pimp
* Employee is trying to poison me
* Employee’s body is magnetic and keeps de-activating my magnetic access card
* Employee is personally responsible for a federally-mandated tax increase
* Employee was annoyed the company didn’t provide a place for naps during break time
* Employee only wears slippers or socks at work
* Employee’s aura is wrong
* Employee smells like road ramps
* Employee breathes too loudly
* Employee wants to check a co-worker for ticks
* Employee wore pajamas to work
* Employee has bells on her shoes and it’s not the holidays
* Co-worker reminded the employee too much of Bambi
* Employee spends too much time caring for stray cats around the building
* A male employee keeps using the ladies’ room because the men’s room is not as tidy.

The survey was conducted online by Harris Interactive among 2,667 hiring managers and human resource professionals.