How time flies!  TechFlash celebrated its first birthday last week and we were there to check out the TechFlash Holiday Party & Birthday Bash. 

 John Cook was in his best Santa hat as he hosted the tech trivia challenge which included questions that we couldn’t even begin to guess the right answer –

• Robin Williams named his daughter after which video-game princess?

And others that we could –

• Season six of Donald Trump’s “The Apprentice” starred which Seattle entrepreneur as a contestant?

While the party was definitely hopping and the trivia competition was fierce, we found ourselves – as PR professionals – discussing how much the media landscape has changed in the last year, in the Seattle market and elsewhere. 

 We came to a common agreement about the evolution of the Seattle media market — Even though we’ve lost the traditional print version of the Seattle PI, there are increasingly more and more interesting and credible non-traditional news sources for our clients to reach and some that enable us to really zero in on a specific audience. 

 Take the blog MyBallard: not only has it become a credible source for the Seattle neighborhood of Ballard, it recently won an Online Journalism Award for community collaboration, beating out stiff, and in a sense, more traditional competitors such as the Los Angeles Times and Miami Herald!  For some of our clients, MyBallard has morphed into a better place for them to see stories posted about their company — because it’s hyper-local and the readership is quite obvious.

 This thought also led us to consider what the future holds for the Seattle media landscape and the PR industry.  From our perspective, it comes down to a couple of key takeaways:

1.  Hyper-local forums and blogs like MyBallard will grow in readership (Yes, even my parents will read them….if I can get my mom to use the Internet for more than finding recipes on the Food Network Web site…) and will increasingly be the first place readers stop for news that relates to their lifestyle and where they live.
2. ALL of our clients will one day ask to see coverage on their company in online outlets like TechFlash and MyBallard just as often as they ask for coverage in traditional outlets like the Seattle Times.  We’re not fully there yet, but we’re definitely seeing a shift!
3. While the newspaper industry appears to be dying a very slow death, newspapers will never go completely away. Just take a look at SeattlePI.com: while it has obviously changed, the site earlier this year boasted 4.3 million monthly unique visitors – not bad for a news Web site many people thought wouldn’t survive.

 Our conversations may have turned into a philosophical PR and media discussion, but I can honestly say that we all enjoyed the event, the refreshments, the food and the company!

 And, in case you’re wondering, the answer to the Robin Williams trivia question is Zelda and “The Apprentice” question is James Sun.

Was just reading a story by Chris Foresman at Ars Technica about the future of AT&T sans iPhone exclusivity.

There is no doubt that AT&T gambled (a lot) and won (a lot) with their bet on the iPhone. So let’s call it a success and move on.

What I think is a more interesting question to ponder: when will AT&T better leverages its quad-play (home phone, cell, Internet and IPTV) offerings to begin really owning the digital home. I am not talking about discounted package deals and single billing statements. Yawn.  What I am talking about is going into an AT&T store seeing a big, beautiful HDTV and getting it for free or near free (say $20 per month) for signing a 2 year commitment for new IPTV and Internet service.

When this happens, AT&T would not only drive up subscribers, but drive HDTV sales and services through the roof. I love going into Best Buy, but if AT&T was willing to off set the cost of a new HDTV like they do for cell phones, I’d be the first in line.

If you are a tech-nerd like me, take a step back before you blast me on the disadvantages of bundling. I know the customer service issues needed to be dealt with first! But most people don’t want to be CIOs of their house. They want a simple solution to bring everything together. And think — what’s the next logical step once all these things are connected together? Access to advanced content and services. Not just movies, but critically needed services such as remote home network management, off-site file back-ups (documents, movies, photos and videos), managed DRM so you can move content from one device to another (legally), and much much more.

I am not the first to prognosticate about the future of telco and cable companies (sorry satellite), so believe this isn’t a matter of if this will happen, but when. And when it does… that will be a hell of thing to be able to promote. Much more interesting than bundled billing!