Once again, the 2-day We Media Conference proved to be inspirational and enlightening.

We Media happens to be one of my favorite conferences, mostly because I share lecture halls with a passionate journalism & media crowd who engage in debate and discussion on panels, in the audience, and even the hallways outside the sessions.

I am always intrigued by the caliber of the participants at the conference. Participants range from editors-in-chief and publishers of major newspapers to representatives of non-profit organizations who undertake interesting projects like providing platforms, publishing opportunities and education to journalists in less developed countries.

My takeaway from the conference? That the driver in the future of news media consumption continues to shift away from traditional publishers and into the hands of end users End users are choosing the news they consume, including from where they obtain it (sources) and when.

A few key factors that have made this possible are the social media movement, the growing demand for personalization, and advances in technology. It’s hard to say which of these forces have led the way, but it is clear that the media landscape is a very different game than we experienced even a year ago.

So I walked away from We Media with continued confidence in DailyMe’s vision of where news media is headed and feel inspired about the changes in the news media space.

2008 will be a big year for DailyMe in terms of new features, a new user interface and more sources.

As always we welcome your feedback.

-Lisa

Understanding what our users want and expect from their media is critical to DailyMe's success. For that reason we'll be attending this year's We Media conference www.ifocos.org/we-media-miami-2008/activities/ , which brings together leaders from both the new and traditional media worlds.

DailyMe will be present as both a sponsor and participant. We attended We Media last year and were very impressed with both the quality of the event and the people attending. That, of course, was prior to our Beta launch. We've come a long way since.

Lisa Lamb, our VP of Sales & Marketing and a key member of the DailyMe team, will be attending We Media. If you're at the event and want to chat about DailyMe, please look for Lisa and say hello.

RSS feeds are now available for DailyMe, providing an exciting addition to the licensed news content we offer subscribers.

This feature allows DailyMe subscribers to select any content carried by RSS feed -- such as blog posts -- and incorporate it into their personalized DailyMe digests. If you are a subscriber and want to take advantage of this feature, simply go to the "Edit Settings" link, select the Content tab and click the tab for RSS Feeds. Enter the appropriate feed addresses and they will automatically become a part of your DailyMe.

The RSS feed feature is significant because it exponentially increases the amount and types of news and information from which subscribers can assemble their DailyMe personalized digests. Importantly, they can enjoy this content through the DailyMe platform, allowing them to read it online, receive it by email, or print it out.

We had been planning this feature for some time but decided to push it out quickly based on requests from the DailyMe community. Please do give it try and keep the feedback coming.

I'm very happy to announce that DailyMe has received financing from Palladium Equity Partners, LLC, a private equity firm based in New York. Two earlier investors in DailyMe -- Miles Gilburne, a leader in digital media, and Jose Luis Suarez, an international investor -- are also participating in this financing round.

This new financing is important for two reasons:

1. It provides sufficient resources to continue developing DailyMe's personalized news and community features through our Beta period and beyond.

2. It acknowledges the importance of personalized, online news delivery as a space to watch as the transformation of the traditional media continues.

The Palladium team, lead by Gary Nusbaum, is terrific, and Miles and Jose have been tremendous supporters of DailyMe from the beginning. They are all as excited as we are about DailyMe and where it is heading, and we look forward to working with them.

I'm pleased to announce the launch of the DailyMe public Beta. This means our DailyMe news platform is now available to everyone.

We've been working hard to be able to make this day happen. I'd like to thank all of our early Beta testers for their commitment, feedback and patience over the past months. Much of the DailyMe experience we are launching today is a direct result of the feedback that we have compiled from our initial Beta test group.

For those new to DailyMe, all you need to do to experience DailyMe is create an account and select your DailyMe preferences. It's a short process that just takes a few minutes.

Briefly, DailyMe creates a personalized news digest based on your own preferences, using choices of news categories, keywords, individual news sources and pre-configured “picks.” You can choose to have DailyMe delivered on the web, sent via email or automatically output from your personal computer printer at a specified time of day.

Feel free to sign up and give DailyMe a try.

Lastly, one request. As you use and enjoy this Beta version of DailyMe, if you have any suggestions for the site, encounter any technical issues, or come across anything that is not 100% clear, please let us know so we can address it. We've set up a link on the sidebar where you can reach us directly.

Thanks for your interest in DailyMe.

-Eduardo