I don’t think you need to be an investigative reporter to unearth the reason I’m on a panel at this week’s IRE (Investigative Reporters and Editors) conference but not in the printed program.
The answer is in the location: Miami.

When another panelist canceled and they needed a fill-in, I think they decided it would be easier to get a South Florida-based online newsman as a last-minute replacement. Of course, I probably do have something to say on the topic: “Catching them in your Web: Making investigations viral.” In fact, I think DailyMe is part of the equation for getting great journalist work out to a wider audience by matching user interests with top-quality content.

- Neil

We think it's high time we celebrated the launch of DailyMe's public Beta.

So, DailyMe is teaming with Mashable’s US Summer Tour 2008 to put on the official DailyMe Launch Party. The event will held on Saturday, Aug. 2 from 7-10 pm at the Opium Garden at 136 Collins Ave, Miami Beach, FL. We'll be at South Beach’s hottest club with drinks, appetizers, models and, of course, what would a Miami party be without the beach!

If you're going to be in South Florida that week, please join us. You'll have an opportunity to meet with the DailyMe team -- including Eduardo, Neil & me - as well as others whose names you might not know yet but whose efforts have been critical to the successful launch and development of DailyMe.

So stop by and celebrate with us! Information on how to get tickets will be made available over the next several weeks.

- Lisa

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