My first job came complete with a typewriter.
Computer? The office did have a mainframe that only one person could command. I remember I needed to give this manager 10 business days just to get a printout -dot matrix, of course - of mailing labels.
High tech? We did have in-house typesetting that spit out all of one column of news print that then had to be cut with a razor-sharp knife and glued – yes, glued – to a board.
Things changed.
But my line of work hasn’t seen anything like the past few years. The digital world has completely remade how I cover and how you consume the news. We can find information instantly on Google. Twitter and Facebook allow any of us to post news, share an insight, add our 2 cents and reach out to people all over the world.
We take it all for granted, but it wasn’t always the case.
Yesterday I read a tweet from a journalism pundit that led to a blog that led to a pdf of the original four-page memo written 20 years ago by a Washington Post executive after he attended an Apple-sponsored conference on “digital news.”
In 1992, "surfing the web" meant connecting with a screeching, dial-up modem to sites, such as Compuserve and Prodigy. If you had email, I bet you heard "You've Got Mail."
Now look at me. What are we doing digitally? Quite a lot. Here are a few simple, but powerful things that I can easily incorporate in this week’s e-newsletter – and for that matter, this week’s blog.
All of our stories include a “Related Content” feature that will drive you to further background on the issues. There’s a story on Fortbrand, for example, delivering a new vehicle to JFK. Curious about what it looks like? We’ve included a picture with the story. Want more info? Just click on the link I created above on “Fortbrand” and it will take you to our Online Buyer’s Guide.
I admit that’s pretty basic stuff - but think how much time it would take to do all the things mentioned above. (One of the articles on Fortbrand is from Airport Business, a sister publication that you might not even receive.)
Plus, I’ve also included video in past e-newsletters, such as this favorite.
Consider that Online Buyer’s Guide again. We have 9,697 companies and products listed at the moment and I bet there might be a few more products added before the end of the day.
It’s part of our news portal www.AviationPros.com, which is about to celebrate its first birthday. Care to see video of two GSE sessions we held at our convention this year? Want to know the latest news for the aviation industry? We’re constantly updating the site, which includes blogs, and sections catering to specific segments, such as Maintenance, FBOs, Safety, New Technology, and, of course, Ground Support.
As far as social media goes, my colleague Brad McAllister has done a stellar job pushing out news to our Facebook pages and Twitter followers.
By the way, Brad does a daily e-newsletter for Airport Business that drives an amazing 30 percent of the portal’s traffic. I've logged onto Google Analytics right after the e-newsletter is sent out and seen the instant spike we get. That share of traffic is equal to the same amount of traffic just from Google alone. That’s huge in these stakes – and one reason we will no doubt increase the frequency our of Ground Support Worldwide e-newsletter.
Meanwhile, our magazine’s LinkedIn Group has increased membership three-fold in the past 12 months, and it’s a great way to share your thoughts. Take a look at this recent post, which includes a video news report of a recent accident and tell me what you think went wrong. Plus, we’re continuing to pick up more followers on Twitter. If you’re not a part of either, please join today.
By the way, we haven't incorporated straight audio into any of our posts, but don't see why we couldn't. In the meantime, if you want to hear what a dial-up modem sounded like, click here. For "You've Got Mail," click here.
