A new study by Sysomos uncovered an interesting relationship between blog authority and YouTube.  According to the study results, blogs with more authority link more frequently to news and politics videos on YouTube while blogs with less authority link more frequently to music and entertainment videos.  Check out the chart below for details.

Furthermore, North American bloggers are more likely to link to news and politics videos on YouTube than bloggers from other parts of the world.

But that’s not all the study revealed about the relationship between blogs and YouTube.  57% of all YouTube videos in blogs are embedded or linked to by bloggers between the ages of 20-35.

It was also reported that the average video viewed lasts between 4-5 minutes.

There is no doubt that online video is hot in 2010.  For bloggers who want to establish themselves as authoritative sources, video is an excellent option, but why just link to online videos when you can create your own?  Follow the link to see some great examples of the authoritative content being produced by Newstex video publisher partners.

Is there even any doubt anymore that Twitter is here to stay?  It has become a key form of communication and authoritative content publishing and sharing, and events from the first month of 2010 only further solidify Twitter’s place as a vital tool of the 21st century.

The tragic earthquakes in Haiti have been a top subject on Twitter since the first tremor struck earlier this month and this week Twitter went down when a second earthquake hit and the site became flooded with traffic and tweets.  Twitter became a vital source for sharing breaking news, helping loved ones find each other, sharing information about donating money to help Haitian citizens, and more.  It’s truly amazing how Twitter has helped to shrink the world, and it’s hard to believe that the tool has only been around for a few years.

Even reporters are using Twitter to replace or supplement their work.  In a blog post published earlier this week on Web Ink Now, David Meerman Scott wrote about his trip to a senate rally where President Obama spoke.  David sat in the press area during the event and took a video (shown below) of a few of the many reporters he saw using Twitter to communicate news throughout the event.  He even spoke with a reporter from the Washington Times who shared her story saying she uses TweetDeck to keep track of her thoughts during events.  You can read more about David’s experience on his Web Ink Now blog.

So really, is there even any doubt anymore that Twitter is here to stay?  More importantly, is there any doubt that it now holds an important place as a vital source for communication, news, and authoritative content?

Did you know Newstex syndicates authoritative Twitter content?  If you’re a publisher, you can learn more about syndicating your Twitter content here, and if you’re a distributor, you can learn more about Twitter content syndication through Newstex here.

Have you ever gotten lost in “Internet time” trying to find reliable content from credible sources that you need but having little or no luck at all? If you had easy access to Authoritative Content, your problem would be solved and you’d have a lot more time to spend on more productive activities than searching the Web haystack for the prized needle.

What is Authoritative Content? A free ebook from Newstex, Authoritative Content – Because All Content is Not Created Equal, answers that question and explains how Authoritative Content is closing the gap between traditional and new media sources.

The problem most professionals face is searching through the overwhelming online clutter to find the useful, meaningful and trustworthy content that respected Authoritative Content publishers produce. This free ebook also reveals how Newstex helps professionals in the fields of business, law, government, journalism, academia and more access that Authoritative Content, which they need to do their jobs everyday.

You can follow the link to download a free copy of Authoritative Content – Because All Content is Not Created Equal now. Feel free to share it, tweet it, link to it, blog about it, and talk about it.

Earlier this month, the U.S. Treasury Department acknowledged that blogs provide authoritative content when they invited approximately 20 financial bloggers to a two-hour round table discussion.  Eight of the invited financial bloggers attended the round table on November 2, 2009 with the Treasury secretary, Tim Geithner, and other senior Treasury Department officials.

Among the financial bloggers in attendance were several whose authoritative content is distributed through Newstex, including:

• Michael Panzner of Financial Armageddon (read my interview with Michael from earlier this year here)
• Yves Smith of Naked Capitalism
• David Merkel of The Aleph Blog
• Accrued Interest

You can read their blog post recaps of the round table discussion with the Treasury Department officials in the following posts:

• Curious Meeting at the Treasury from Naked Capitalism
• My Visit to the Treasury from The Aleph Blog Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7
• A Few Observations of My Own from Financial Armageddon
• Financial Regulation: How Would You Have It Work? from Accrued Interest

According to an article in The New York Times, the financial blogger audience surprised the Treasury officials who found them to be better informed than the groups the Treasury officials are used to talking to.

That’s just one more verification of what we already knew — bloggers can produce highly Authoritative Content!

Image: Flickr

Google has officially launched its new YouTube Direct, which allows organizations to better manage reader video submissions.  The Huffington Post, San Fransisco Chronicle, NPR and Politico have all signed on to use YouTube Direct as a resource.

The process for organizations to use YouTube Direct is simple.  Individuals can upload their own videos related to content found on client Web sites, such as Politico, and flag their uploaded videos for review by that organization’s editors.  Those editors can either approve or reject submissions for inclusion or referencing on their Web sites.  The goal is to connect media and news organizations with individual, citizen journalists.

According to an article in The New York Times, Steve Grove, head of news and politics for YouTube, states that YouTube Direct allows “news organizations to control their experience with users while tapping into the community where that activity is taking place.”

And what’s in it for YouTube?  That’s simple, too.  With YouTube Direct, YouTube.com can position itself as a source for finding useful content rather than amateur videos created solely for entertainment purposes.

This move by Google’s YouTube and its media Web site partners represents one more way that individuals are publishing authoritative content online as well as the continued challenge in finding that useful, meaningful and trustworthy content.  With YouTube Direct, media organizations can cut through some of the clutter to find that authoritative content and incorporate it into their own news offerings.

It’s an exciting time for authoritative content publishers and distributors!

Read more about Newstex Authoritative Content.

In the November 2009 issue of Information Today magazine, writer Barbara Brynko offers an article called “Newstex: The Voice of Authoritative Content”.

In the article, Barbara discusses the new Newstex branding that I announced here on the Newstex blog last month (read about it here) as well as the new Newstex iPhone app (you can read about that on the Newstex blog here).

As Newstex President Larry Schwartz says in the Information Today article, “As the web gets more cluttered everyday, Newstex cuts through the clutter.  We give end users reliable content.”  And as Larry explains, since the content comes “from the experts like the Associated Press, Gawker, the McClatchy-Tribune, and the Digital Journal,” end users have easy access to the trustworthy content they need to do their jobs.

You can follow the link to read the full article about Newstex Authoritative Content in Information Today magazine.

The secret to measuring the success of your online content publishing efforts through a blog, Twitter, video, podcasts, and so on is simple.  There is no secret.  At least no one has figured it out yet.

So where does that leave Authoritative Content publishers?  How can you measure the success of your efforts?  Authoritative Content publishers invest a lot of time and sweat equity into creating meaningful and useful content.  How do you know your efforts are paying off?

I think Joe Pulizzi, founder and chief content officer at Junta42, summed up the evolving secret to measuring Authoritative Content success quite well in a recent interview with B-to-B Magazine.  When asked how the measurement of custom media (such as Authoritative Content) differs from traditional media spending, Joe said:

The biggest difference is that every custom program is measured differently, which is also the problem. There are no silver bullets to custom media measurement. It all starts with your marketing objectives. Once you know that, use whatever tools necessary—readership studies, transaction reports, online behavior—to develop what I call an “ROO” or return on objective. The ROO is the custom media measurement plan based on the specific marketing objectives you have for the plan.

So there you have it.  Determine your objectives for your content publishing efforts and measure your success against your path to reaching those objectives.  So many of the benefits of being an Authoritative Content publisher are intangible that it can be difficult to get lost in trying to track elusive statistics and nail down specific metrics.  Each Authoritative Content publisher has his or her own goals for publishing amazing content online.  Measuring ROO sounds like a logical solution.

Today, Newstex announced the release of a new Authoritative Content iPhone App that delivers authoritative content to consumers at their fingertips and at anytime.

The Newstex Authoritative Content Distribution System (“CDS”) for iPhones® is an end-to-end system that enables distributors and publishers to private-label their own content, as well as Authoritative Content from Newstex, on the wildly-popular iPhone and iPod Touch devices from Apple.

The Newstex iPhone CDS offers distributors and publishers the following features:

• Distribution of proprietary content, as well as Authoritative Content from Newstex.
• A private-label iPhone App that fully integrates with any distributor’s or publisher’s corporate brand
• Support for text, images, audio and video, including active hyperlinks
• Remote configuration capability for enabling/disabling content and customizing the private-label App’s look-and-feel
• Enterprise-grade, back office reporting, accounting and analytics

Here’s how it works:

1. Distributors and publishers that partner with Newstex to deliver Authoritative Content to their professional customers via Newstex’s revolutionary iPhone CDS can customize the Newstex app to provide a uniquely-branded experience to end-users.
2. Professional customers simply download the distributor’s or publisher’s private-label app to their iPhones or iPod Touches and give their end-users an activation code to access a custom content set.
3. End-users can immediately begin accessing proprietary content from the distributor or publisher, as well as Authoritative Content from Newstex.
4. Using the advanced capabilities and rich user interface of the iPhone and iPod Touch, Newstex’s private-label app syncs via WiFi or cellular network and downloads the latest full-text news, blogs, twitters and video from Newstex directly to the device.

The Newstex iPhone App—available free from the Apple App store—demonstrates how the basic App will function when deployed on private-label basis.  You can get more details here, and be sure to check it out in the Apple App store (you must have iTunes installed on your Mac or PC to view the app demo).  You really do have to see it to believe what it can do!

Welcome to the new Newstex website, which has been updated to reflect Newstex Authoritative Content.

Newstex Authoritative Content is a new brand concept for the news, commentary, opinion and video content that Newstex collects from respected publishers and delivers to top distributors.   Authoritative Content is the useful and meaningful information published by experts, professionals, industry thought leaders, knowledgeable individuals and organizations that end users such as businesspeople, academics, journalists, attorneys, and others can trust.

“The Web gets more cluttered everyday and finding reliable content from credible sources is challenging and time consuming,” explains Newstex president Larry Schwartz.  “In other words, all content is not created equal.  Authoritative Content cuts through the clutter by finding and delivering carefully chosen, superior content to people who need it.”

Newstex collects content from editorially-selected news organizations, bloggers, video publishers, and Twitter users.  Newstex enhances that content by standardizing it, adding useful tags, and categorizing it to assist with searches and delivers it to leading distributors who provide it to their customers.  Customers need quick access to trustworthy content, and Authoritative Content delivers it directly to them.

Authoritative Content publishers include newspapers such as the McClatchy-Tribune and the Associated Press; blogs such as Digital Journal, Gawker, Blogging Stocks and Engadget; video publishers such as SBTV and PRNewswire’s MultiVu; and Twitter publishers, including the content from all members of the U.S. Congress, U.S. Federal Agencies, and Canadian Parliament.

“The world has changed and the lines between traditional journalism and user-generated content have blurred significantly,” says Schwartz.  “Today, respected, meaningful and useful information can come from a variety of sources, including blogs, Twitter, social media, and newspapers.  Professionals who need access to credible information to do their jobs everyday understand that the sources for that information don’t exist only within the boundaries of traditional journalism.  Authoritative Content provides that trustworthy information from a variety of sources, which enables customers to access a wider variety of respected news, commentary and opinion than ever before.  It’s a full content package that customers can rely on.”

Newstex also released free ebooks about blog, Twitter and video licensed syndication, which you can download here and learn more about the process and benefits to publishers, distributors and customers:

• The Truth about Blog and Twitter Content Syndication
• The Truth about Online Video and Licensed Syndication

You can learn more about syndicating your news, blog, Twitter, podcast or video content through Newstex here, or if you’re a distributor interested in providing Authoritative Content to your customers, you can learn more here.

Newstex Launches Authoritative Content

Credible News, Commentary and Opinion from Respected Sources

Guilford, CT; October 14, 2009 – Newstex today launched Authoritative Content, a new brand concept for the news, commentary, opinion and video content the company collects from respected publishers and delivers to top distributors.   To support the announcement of Authoritative Content, Newstex launched a new Web site (www.newstex.com) and multiple ebooks (available from the Newstex Web site).

Authoritative Content is the useful and meaningful information published by experts, professionals, industry thought leaders, knowledgeable individuals and organizations that end users such as businesspeople, academics, journalists, attorneys, and others can trust.

“The Web gets more cluttered everyday and finding reliable content from credible sources is challenging and time consuming,” explains Newstex president Larry Schwartz.  “In other words, all content is not created equal.  Authoritative Content cuts through the clutter by finding and delivering carefully chosen, superior content to people who need it.”

Newstex collects content from editorially-selected news organizations, bloggers, video publishers, and Twitter users.  Newstex enhances that content by standardizing it, adding useful tags, and categorizing it to assist with searches and delivers it to leading distributors who provide it to their customers.  Customers need quick access to trustworthy content, and Authoritative Content delivers it directly to them.

Authoritative Content publishers include newspapers such as the McClatchy-Tribune and the Associated Press; blogs such as Digital Journal, Gawker, Blogging Stocks and Engadget; video publishers such as SBTV and PRNewswire’s MultiVu; and Twitter publishers, including the content from all members of the U.S. Congress, U.S. Federal Agencies, and Canadian Parliament.

“The world has changed and the lines between traditional journalism and user-generated content have blurred significantly,” says Schwartz.  “Today, respected, meaningful and useful information can come from a variety of sources, including blogs, Twitter, social media, and newspapers.  Professionals who need access to credible information to do their jobs everyday understand that the sources for that information don’t exist only within the boundaries of traditional journalism.  Authoritative Content provides that trustworthy information from a variety of sources, which enables customers to access a wider variety of respected news, commentary and opinion than ever before.  It’s a full content package that customers can rely on.”

About Newstex
Newstex LLC (www.newstex.com) provides Authoritative Content from thousands of top newspapers, publications, experts, professionals, government officials, and more.  Newstex editorially selects Authoritative Content producers from offline and online sources, enhances that content to make it easier to find relevant information, and delivers that content through respected content distributors to end-users in professional fields such as journalism, business, academia, law, government, and more.  Newstex delivers content from leading news organizations such as McClatchy Tribune and the Associated Press; top blogs such as Engadget, Gizmodo, Gawker, Blogging Stocks, Mashable, 24/7 Wall St., China Real News, and DigitalJournal; video producers such as PR Newswire’s MultiVu, WineLibrary.tv, Zacks Investment Research, SBTV.com, and Johnson & Johnson; and Twitter publishers.

Since the company’s inception in 2004, Newstex has been recognized for its innovation and contributions through numerous digital media and content awards and has been named to the EContent 100 list of companies that matter most in the digital content industry for four years running.  For more information, visit the Newstex site at www.newstex.com and the Newstex blog at http://newstexblog.com.