Baldacci’s books are all bestsellers, and have been translated into over 37 languages and sold in more than 85 countries.

Baldacci is national ambassador for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society and is very active with charities, even starting his own foundation for literacy, Wish You Well Foundation.

David joins Alan to talk about his latest novel, Divine Justice, and his upcoming projects. Don’t miss this show.

David Baldacci | Divine Justice | bestselling author | multiple sclerosis | absolute power

While BlogTalkRadio is best known to be the largest social radio network with more than 600 live original broadcasts per day, it’s our Branded Private Network offering which has created a lot of interest from major brands and organizations. Our clients include Harper Collins, the Pentagon, Woman’s Day Magazine, Sun Microsystems and more.

BlogTalkRadio enables anyone or any company to create two-way conversations which are broadcast live and then automatically recorded as a podcast. Our platform integrates the phone into the web, thereby creating a simple user experience.

Most of the large companies and brands we are speaking with are seeking innovative ways to reach their target audience. As noted in this Media Post article entitled – Facebook, MySpace aren’t making the marketing cut, “ … more than half (55%) of the 180 responding chief marketers–representing brands with revenues ranging from $250 million to more than $10 billion–indicated low current interest in actually incorporating the networking sites into their plans.

One-third said they’re “not interested at all” in getting Facebook and MySpace into their plans, and 22% said they’re “not too interested,” while 35% are very or somewhat interested.

Karlene Lukovitz goes on to say that “Other, more “traditional” social media scored far higher on the very/somewhat interested in integrating question. More than half (52%) ranked both Internet forums and Webinars in this category, followed by Webcasts and podcasts (47%), email (also 47%) and blogs (37%)”

Every day we hear our clients and partners say that they want their brands to be part of the conversation and that they want these conversations to be genuine and authentic. I fully agree with their assessment

What do you think?

Seth Godin makes many relevant points in his recent blog post entitled “Watching the Times Struggle and What You Can Learn.”  The marketing guru has come up with a series of innovative suggestions for The New York Times as they confront the most challenging environment in their history.

While there are no doubt many things the newspaper of record can do to stem its losses, can it be enough to offset the enormous structural gap between their online advertising revenues and their offline revenue model?

In my view, the answer is no.

In a recent article by The Times‘ own David Carr, David clearly explains that the revenue CPMs generated by nytimes.com is a fraction of the dollars generated by home delivery, advertisements in the actual paper and newsstand sales.  He goes on to say, “Newspapers, which began the race with a huge lead in terms of human assets, may end up just another part of the under-informed commodity of clutter.”

This problem is not simply limited to The Times; it’s one that’s impacting most major newspaper and magazine.

Please consider this: I still have The Times delivered to my home in New Jersey each morning. In fact, I am changing my delivery service to weekend only, simply because I never open the newspaper during the week, though I do enjoy the experience of reading the Sunday edition. That being said, back when when I subscribed to home delivery of a daily paper, I had two choices: The Bergen Record and The Times.  TWO CHOICES!

On the web, of course, I not only have hundreds (if not thousands) of responsible news outlets to consume much of the same content that appears in The Times, but I can read a more updated version of the paper for free from their site or via RSS - or even through my twitter alerts. Do I need to visit nytimes.com to read about Citibank’s recent bailout, or can I visit any number of world-class sites vying for my page view?

Again, newspapers have cannibalized their own base by offering the same content for free - and in a more timely manner - on their websites. Can they do anything different? Can they charge for this online content, much like The Wall Street Journal did prior to being acquired by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp.?

The answer is of course no. But this is precisely why The Times will need a major structural change to survive. Today, online news is a commodity and The Times, The Journal and every other major publication will ultimately look at themselves in the mirror and completely change the way they report news.

There is no turning back.

My Dad, Maurice Levy

Welcome to my blog. My name is Alan Levy and I am the co-founder and CEO of BlogTalkRadio.

This is actually the second blog I have created. My first blog, called Theinspirationalvisit.blogspot.com was created in April 2006 when my dad was diagnosed with non-hodgkins lymphoma.  My father died in May 2006. His illness spawned the idea of empowering and enabling anyone to create their own call in radio show.

I live in northern NJ, This Side of the Bridge; the George Washington Bridge. I spend a lot of time in NYC, which is just over the GWB, but I spend most of my time at home with my family and friends and working on BTR.

Prior to the spring of 2006, I knew nothing about blogs. In fact, when I created BlogTalkRadio, I knew very very little about podcasts, RSS feeds, social media.  In a little more than two years I have learned a great deal and have witnessed the development of a vibrant on-line community.

BlogTalkRadio, which I will often refer to as BTR, was built from scratch. We started with no hosts, no website, no technology, no listeners, nothing but an idea and a burning desire to build a legacy for my dad.

It’s not easy building a start up company. There are many ups and downs, lots of frustrating moments. On the other hand, there is nothing more exhilarating than building a company like this. I work with the most amazing dedicated people and each day I am surprised at their commitment. I simply love what I do every day.

I invite you to read my blog. With this blog, I hope to share some useful insights from This Side of the Bridge.