The Jeff Beckham Weblog

USA Today’s consumer-created success
In one month, USA Today’s pages per visit have doubled and site registrations are up 380%. This comes after the paper added social networking features from Austin company Pluck.
Cisco: Scion Is #1 e-Tail Site
Scion has 80 percent brand recognition among consumers 35 and younger, according to a Cisco study (via MediaPost), [...]

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Two recent reports combine to give a look into how the landscape has been changing for newspapers.
First, Scarborough Research issued a report measuring the print, website, and combined (print and online) weekly audiences in 74 local markets. The Statesman got high marks in this report, tying the Washington Post in Weekly Website Audience, with 21 [...]

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The ratings and feedback cards are in from the South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive Festival, and my panel on “Designing for Convergent Devices” did … OK.
The panel scored 3.86 (on a five-point scale). The average overall rating for 2007 was 3.68, and the average rating for panels on Sunday, March 11 (when my panel was [...]

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I found the nicest email in my Inbox today from Austin Chronicle editor Louis Black. He’s given me permission to post it here:

Jeff,
I’ve been meaning to e-mail you for quite some time to offer you my deepest thanks. It really was your drive by consulting that mobilized me to really expand the Chronicle’s on line [...]

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This article in The Economist highlights a study that suggests that ostriches are either the descendants of dinosaurs or actual dinosaurs themselves.
This comes as no surprise to me, and validates my fear of giant, flightless birds.

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The excitement around Twitter, which exploded onto the scene at South by Southwest, continues to have local ties. Today’s Slate story calls Austinite Paul Terry Walhus, known on Twitter as springnet, the most popular person on the site with 8,789 friends and 1,722 followers. Congrats, Paul!
Paul was also featured in Omar Gallaga’s recent piece on [...]

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Here are a couple of things that have caught my eye in the past couple of weeks while I’ve been away. These and more are available on the linkblog.

Kare.com - The website of Susan Kare, who designed many of the early Macintosh graphics. (via Signal vs. Noise).
Drinks with Dell - Jeff Jarvis, in town for [...]

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I’ve been away for the last couple of weeks, serving jury duty in district civil court. I won’t say much about the case here, other than that it was a medical malpractice case involving a woman who died from a rare blood disease. The trial was both emotionally and intellectually taxing, and I think I [...]

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