It was great to catch up with so many people last week at the Interactive Media conference in Las Vegas. Panels on the need for better metrics and “are we bold enough?” were among those I found energizing, and seeing the quality work showcased in the Eppy awards was inspiring. But, as usual, it was the hallway and exhibit floor conversations that were most interesting, especially because it gave me the chance to share with many editors and publishers what DailyMe is doing and how we work with news sites.

One topic that arose occasionally is how we license content for DailyMe. It’s a question we’re happy to discuss with news producers, because we believe the approach we take at DailyMe benefits both the creators of content as well as the users of DailyMe, and in the process increases the audience for good journalism.

Unlike the numerous aggregator sites that scrape original news sites and offer their publishers little in return except the occasional click back, DailyMe pays for content it licenses through consolidators and wire services. Much of the license fee we pay flows back to the original publishers, providing them with an additional revenue stream from their content. In most cases, the user reading a story on DailyMe would not have gone to the publisher’s site and found that story, so the publisher is not losing traffic that might otherwise have gone to its own site.

DailyMe users benefit because they can discover and consume some of the best news reporting available all in one easy-to-use interface that can be personalized to their interests. Our users can even have their DailyMe digest printed in a convenient format.

I’m looking forward to finding even more ways to work with top news publishers as DailyMe expands.

-Neil

I’ve been at DailyMe for just over a month, and it’s time to hit the road to catch up with friends in the online news industry.

I’ll be attending the Editor & Publisher's Interactive Media Conference this week in Las Vegas along with scores of editors and publishers from some of the leading news sites. Along with the annual Online News Association conference (this fall in Washington, D.C.), this will be a good event to re-connect with people and share what I’ve been up to since joining DailyMe.

If you’re attending the conference and want to learn more about DailyMe and how we’re working with news publishers, look for me in the corridors of the Rio on Wednesday or Thursday. If you don’t see me, drop me an email at neil@dailyme.com and we can connect.

- Neil

Eduardo and I are here at Yahoo’s headquarters in Silicon Valley at the NewsTools conference, which brings journalists, journalism students and professors together with the technology companies – like DailyMe – that bring news and content to end users. We’re a day into the conference and already we’ve engaged in many discussions and panels about the role of journalism both today and in the future. Lots of food for thought and lots of interesting points of view.

The very concept of DailyMe always brings about it’s own discussion. The crux of the issue is this: Individuals choosing their own content and the sources it comes from shifts power and control away from editors and publishers and into the hands of their audiences. Not everyone likes this approach. We, of course, think it is essential and represents the future of news.

Eduardo spoke after today’s conference lunch about DailyMe – what it is, why we created it and how it works. We also gave a sneak preview of some of the new features we’ll be incorporating in the upcoming weeks. The NewsTools group was very engaged and interested in our business model, and there was an active Q&A following Eduardo’s presentation. (And after lunch there was a DailyMe birthday-ish cake for dessert.)

Immediately following the presentation, we spent time meeting with Guy Kawasaki to continue the discussion of news aggregation and where it is headed. I’m not sure we resolved that issue but the conversation and company were good.

And now, we are headed back tonight after a whirlwind day with much accomplished.


-Lisa

I'm very pleased to announce that Neil Budde, former VP and editor-in-chief of Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance and Yahoo! Sports, has joined DailyMe as our new President, Chief Product Officer.

This is important for a number of reasons:

• As DailyMe continues to evolve, we are very focused on providing you, our users, with the news you want the way you want it. Neil brought Yahoo! News to No. 1 in the online news space and before that developed the concept for The Wall Street Journal Online and then built and ran that pioneering news site. He is the perfect person to guide our continued product development efforts.

• As a visionary in the online news space, Neil's decision to move across country to Florida and join our team underscores my belief that the news aggregation space is one of the most exciting out there. We know from your feedback just what you are looking for in news, and we are more convinced than ever that our direction is the way to the future.

• Lastly, as you'll see personally over the coming weeks and months, Neil is a terrific guy with a great eye for news and innovation. I'm sure you'll soon begin to feel his presence in the DailyMe community.

If you'd like to find out more about Neil, please take a look at his bio http://www.neilbudde.com.

We've got a lot of exciting plans for DailyMe and I'll bring them to you as soon as I can. For today, please join me in welcoming Neil to our DailyMe community.

- Eduardo

Today Jose, our beloved IT guru, treated the DM office to lunch with his new found savings from switching his insurance policies to Geico. He consolidated all of his insurance policies including his car, boat, motorcycle, desktop monitor and precious macbook air under one policy. This will save him hundreds of dollars.

Long story short, a good time was had by all and we are looking forward to his picking up the tab at Michy’s for our upcoming celebration dinner as well.

APRIL FOOLS DAY JOSE!!! (This is what you get for putting me as admin for the blog and testing the new features!)

- Lisa