Back in December I wrote about my issue with the way The New York Times presented its “53 Places to Go in 2008” cover article for its Travel section. I explained how the digital version of the same article was far superior because of its clear and logical organization, not only in the presentation of the information but also the design.

Imagine my dismay therefore, yesterday morning, to flip to the Travel section to the “31 Places to Go this Summer” cover article to see a repeat violation. The headline grabbed my attention, but the design is another disappointment. It’s visually entertaining, creative and playful, but it doesn’t serve my need for access to the information in a concise way. I am not engaged. I quickly remembered that not all was lost as I quickly clicked on my nytimes.com bookmark. Sweet relief yet again. While the Times fails in print, it succeeds to surpass my needs with the online version of the article. The design copies that from the December article: All 31 places are presented with a small thumbnail image. Now, where will I go this summer?

A few weeks ago my two- and a half-year old Motorola Razor's screen turned white. After troubleshooting ended in failure, I was forced to make a trip to the Verizon store. As soon as I walked in the door, I was bombarded with questions: Was I looking for a phone with email capabilities? "No." What about MP3 capabilities? "No," I responded again. The salesperson's dismay was obvious. "What about the ability to watch TV?" At this point I simply replied, "I just need to be able to call people."

I consider myself a fairly technologically savvy person, thanks to colleagues Rex and Patrick R. who keep me up-to-date on the latest and greatest tools and products, but when it comes to my cell phone I just want the basics. What I realized after my shopping experience, however, is that these days wanting a cell phone that is just a phone puts me in the minority.

I’ve recently posted about how Rodale and Hearst publishers have taken advantage of the reality that most of us are literally physically attached to our phones. If you're like me, if I forget my cell phone at home, my day feels off until I’m reunited with it. With this reality in mind, and in an effort to serve the needs of advertisers who are demanding deeper levels of engagement, calls to action, new ideas and measureable ROI, these publishers have rolled out the SnapTell and ShopText technologies to many of their titles. These code-enabled advertisements allow readers to buy items or receive promotions via text.

Today, magazine readers utilize their cell phone’s camera and texting features to take advantage of the promotions offered by these text-enabled ads, but that's just the beginning. Based on the success of these campaigns to date, I predict there will be more to come—more publishers offering more technology and more advertisers buying in. If my cell-phone-buying experience is any indication, developers are already building the next advancement that will connect readers to the magazine print ad via cell phone, elevating the interactiveness of the magazine print ad and signaling the ad campaigns of the future.

According to a study recently released by Forrester Research, by 2013 the average person will watch five hours of video a day. That's a 25 percent increase from the average today of four hours. What makes experts predict this rise in video consumption? Forrester explains that the increasing availability of video programming through computers, phones and other devices will propel the growth. "People love their content and want to watch it no matter where they can get it. They'll even watch it on a small device, if that's the option they have," says James McQuivey, author of the study.

Other predictions from the study include:

• The percent of video viewed on demand will increase to 45% in 2013 from 20% in 2008.


• The percent of video delivered via the Internet climbs to 35% in 2013 from 10% in 2008.


• The percent of video consumed on mobile or portable devices increase to 15% in 2013 compared with 8% in 2008.

At Hammock, we believe video is powerful tool to keep in your communications arsenal. Video content engages your members or clients in a unique way that is a very effective complement to an organization's print and digital media content. That's why earlier this month, video was a focal point of the website we created for our client NFIB for its National Small Business Summit event. We posted video from the event to YouTube and pulled that, and content from other social and conversational media tools, into the Summit’s website.