I agree with Abe’s comment on the post too. It’s nothing new. But as I mentioned, our whole organization has not moved beyond that ‘brand addiction’ or emotional connection to a product. I got caught saying to a colleague the other day that I thought we as a company have moved beyond certain things. Pacheco’s post was more of a reminder and I hope more people will dig into it and research quickly so we can move ahead. It goes back to what you said here that need to focus on the essential tasks.

Jason – if we don’t incorporate these objectives into our overall goal setting then we will be retarding our progress. I appreciated the links on your post on innovation. Did you and Mike find Pacheco’s post on your own?

Of course I agree with Steve. We need to create the joyful user experiences that generate economic exchange.

Rollin raises key points. We have to both invest in equipment and technology, but also different ways to use that technology. It is true that engaged groups can play well off each other, but all of the content creators for a community our size, both employees and community creators will not fit into one room. We have much work to do to reduce the tactical friction as we continue to produce our traditional products while changing our infrastructure to create the local ecosystem of information.

As noted in the post, we need to be able to develop that infrastructure to make better progress.

Seems to me the product staffs have been reduced to “’the least amount of people it takes to create‘” each of their products, to the point they are sometimes under staffed, and the content cannot be created in only raw form, but must be crafted into semi- and completely finished state for each of the product’s unique needs. Philosophically we can separate Content from Product, but practically we are just not a big enough operation and it is a credit to those who work here that are mentally jumping back and forth between the two mindsets.

We need more investment in equipment and technology.

On Bill Wyman’s #4 above, web traffic is a tool, and one of many factors that us in Content can use when making decisions, but again is wedding us to one Product area if we pay too much attention to it. We need to do good journalism on the “’talker’” stories and use all our strengths to lead on those stories.

As we develop the new ecosystem, we must include new ways of serving business customers in our thinking.

“Tell the reporters to find the “talker” stories in town—development battles, corrupt pols, anything with a consumer bent.”

we are well on our way to becoming the “media provider of choice”. I agree 100% with less of the “nice” stories. Let’s really focus on what is important from the consumer’s standpoint, not from our standpoint.