RSS Industry

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RSS Industry OpportunitiesAn Overview for
the Beyond Blogs Conference
Brought to you by
Steve Semelsberger Sr. Director, Business
Development semels_at_pluck.com
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Pluck Introduction

• Launched in 2003
• Consumer Web 2.0 services (RSS Readers,
  FeedFinder, Shadows, Easyjournal, etc.)
• Empower publishers to embrace and monetize open
  content models
• Suites of products services for online
  publishers
• Content syndication, aggregation and generation
• Editorial controls, community management, and
  site integration
• Founded run by seasoned industry executives
• ex-Spyglass, iChat, Question.com, Motive,
  Netscape, MTV, Excite, Ask Jeeves
• Funded by Austin Ventures and Mayfield Ventures
  (10M)
• Numerous awards, more than 50 partners, including

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RSS is Early but Shows Breakout Potential
12 of US Internet users are aware of RSS, 4
have knowingly used. 27 of users consume RSS via
portal start pages without realizing it. -
Ipsos 10/05
Browsers- built-in RSS reading
Portals- find subscribe to RSS feeds
Integrated into OS also part of Office 12
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RSS Aggregator Example (IE Plug-In)
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Convenience is Driving RSS Usage
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Market Overview Adoption Timing
Content Sources
Specialty Marketers
ecommerce Marketers
Mainstream Marketers
Bloggers
Publishers
Content Consumers
Digerati
Information Junkies
Tech-savvy Youth Early Tech Adopters Enterprise
IT
Mainstream Online Consumers Enterprise Users
Specialty Markets Technology Laggards
RSS ADOPTION CURVE
We are here
TIME
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Early Adopter RSS Marketing Sampler
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Expanding Use of RSS-based Delivery
RSS is growing up fast along with complexity for
content creators
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To Aggregate or Solely be Aggregated?
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Editorial Filtering Mashing Options
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User Generated Content Continuum
High
User Participation Requirements
Low
High
Engagement Editorial Value
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Comments Ratings
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User Submissions
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Dynamic User Profiles
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Community Blogging
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Community Publishing Segments
EXPERTISE
Authority figure writing on their area of
expertise Examples Golf pro, elected official,
High School Principal
Individual chronicling a broadly-relevant topic,
complementary to existing news content Examples
Entertainment writer, bar/dining scenester, local
sports fanatic
TOPIC FOCUS
Interested individual chronicling a hyper-local
group or topic Examples Booster club mom,
volunteer coordinator, local musician, military
spouse
Interested individual portending opinion and
commentary on a topic of local, national or
international relevance Examples Political
junkies, activists, concerned parent
Individual chronicling everyday life Examples
Students, Parents
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Content Relevancy Patterns by Segments
CONTENT RELEVANCE
Events, controversy, major stories
Publisher
Professionals, Aficionados
Journalers, Observers, Scribes
TIME
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Community Management
Search, Review Community
Blog Entry Review
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Case Study

• 300K registered users, 1M Uvs/mo.
• Community blogging went live in Sept.
• Initially launched around major events - music
  festival and sports
• Two sites - Statesman.com Austin360.com
• Four tiers of bloggers staff, official, featured
  and community
• One month later hundreds of bloggers, creating
  1000s of new pages, increasing time on site,
  enhancing editorial
• Business case based on
• Increased registrations
• New ad/sponsorship inventory
• Increased page views
• Next my.statesman.com
• Open news personalization/aggregation service
  based on RSS
• Launching late Q4/early Q1

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User Generated Content Summary
Easy-to-Use Publishing Environment
RSS/XML Content Models
Powerful Community Management
Intelligent Content Integration
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RSS Powers the New News Experience
Online News 2.0
Traditional Online News
Full Editorial Control of Aggregated Headlines
Traditional Story-Based CMS
Select/Render External Sources
Select/Render Internal Sources
Personalized News from Publisher and External
Sources
Paper Adapted to Web
News Personalization
Source Discovery
Content from Sister and Partner Properties
Islands of Content
Internal Syndication
External Syndication
Community and User Content
Limited Reader Participation
Integrated Blogging
Feedback and Contributions
Citizen Journalism
Blogs in a Separate World
Integrated Blog Streams
Niche/Specialty Content
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Thank You
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