This quarter Strategy + Business spotlights the restructuring of media and marketing industries in their Field Guide for the New Marketer cover package (registration required). Booze Allen Hamilton consultants focus on “engagement media” as the core disruptive change to upend the marketing world as we know it. The guide also carries a primer on the anatomy of the 21^st century marketing professional that’s a worthy read. If you don’t sense the extreme changes occuring in our business consider this anonymous quote from an US auto company CMO: “Two years ago 10 percent of my advertising budget had an online component. Today it’s 30 percent. Two years from now it will be 50.”

Technorati Tags: social media, marketing, media, public relations, advertising

Red Herring reports today that Yahoo plans to tap an army of citizen media equipped to cover breaking news literally as it breaks. While details haven’t been released from Yahoo, RH reports they will incentivize consumers to submit content and remove technical barriers by allowing contributors to upload video and still images directly to the news service via their mobile device.

Technorati Tags: Yahoo, consumer generated content, citizen media

Newsweek’s looks into the revival of the tech scene thanks to the rise of peer-to-peer poster companies like MySpace and Flickr. While Steven Levy and Brand Stone primarily cover both in the article, their lead-in captures the current state of affairs in a compelling and apocalyptic way for those not with the program:

“What makes the Web alive is, quite simply, us. Our presence, most often conducted at the speed of broadband, is constant and mandatory. Thanks to our activity, the Web has replaced phone books, and is in the process of replacing phones. It’s the place that answers our questions in four tenths of a second and ships us funny clips that mix the “Back to the Future” guys with the “Brokeback Mountain” soundtrack. It’s the main news source for the non-arthritic population, and a megaphone for those who make their own media. As we keep offloading our activities to the Web and adding previously unmanageable or unthinkable new pursuits, it’s fair to say that our everyday exist-ence is a network effect. That has made some splendid opportunities for smart, nimble new companies, and threatened the existence of old ones now afloat in the mainstream.”

Technorati Tags: Social Media, Consumer Generated Content, Web 2.0

Adrants reports on an emerging trend – hiring consumers to live lifestyles that embody brands then report back on their experiences. As this 55DSL gig shows, these are nice jobs if you can get them.

Technorati Tags: Social Media, Consumer Generated Content

New York Times Sunday paper remains a must-read to stay up to date on all things media and culture. A sample of great articles today – all which showcase the force of social and technological advances:

In Sunday Styles: Warren St. Johns covers the curious rise of a personal favorite, Bill Simmons – AKA “The Sports Guy.” With no formal journalism training, and shunned from traditional newsrooms, Simmons created a site that today gets a half a million monthly readers and is described as something between a freewheeling blog and a traditional newspaper column.

In Business: Saul Hansell profiles that latest Shawn Fanning venture called Snocap – this one a peer-to-peer media space that functions like Napster, but willl allow music sellers to name their price for tunes shared on the network.

Also in Business: Randall Stross writes about Google’s impact in transforming web-based advertising. 

In Sports: Selena Roberts’ front page piece highlights the rise of Internet hit artists blogging about wrong-doings of college players, coaches and university officials.

In a similar vein as Found.com, the PostSecret confessional site is gaining a huge following online (currently #2 on Technorati rankings). The site’s creator, Frank Warren, developed PostSecret as an art project in November 2004. He distributed a few thousand blank postcards in Washington restaurants, train stations and other places with high foot traffic. He asked that people write something true and secret on the card and send it to his home address. After showing the postcards in an art exhibit last winter, he kept receiving cards and launched the Web site in January. Since the site’s launch, Warren says Post Secret has gone from receiving about 3,000 to 2 million hits a month, according to article published today by The State.com. Another example of odd and creative expression generating attention on the web.