Southern Boating Announces New Editorial Staff

 

 

 

 

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

JULY 15, 2011

Southern Boating Announces New Editorial Staff

July 15, 2011—Fort Lauderdale, FL—Skip Allen, Publisher of Southern Boating and Marine Business Journal, announced three recent appointments to the magazines’ editorial staff. The new additions include L.J. Wallace, who was named Executive Editor, and Nancy Birnbaum as Managing Editor.

“Southern Boating has enjoyed nearly 40 years as the South’s most popular boating publication,” Allen said. “In order to see us through the next 40, we’re renewing our commitment to providing excellent content. The combination of L.J.’s extensive experience writing about boats, fishing and the Eastern Seaboard, as well as Nancy’s proven ability to shape content that appeals to boating enthusiasts of all ages and interests, will surely keep Southern Boating at the top.”

Wallace, who hails from New Jersey, relocated to Charleston, South Carolina, where he started the popular Water’s Edge Radio Program featuring an eclectic potpourri of news, views and irreverent commentary on everything nautical from coastal living to boating and fishing. L.J. is a serious angler and seasoned skipper, editor, and writer with published work in Marlin, Seaworthy, and online at UsedBoats.com and BoatUS.com.

Birnbaum has been a Freelance Writer/Editor and Marketing Consultant for the past two years, and was Online Editor for the previous three years at Blue Water Sailing Magazine.

Nancy’s scope encompasses everything from boat and gear reviews to destination articles, which have been published in a variety of national and international marine media. A boating enthusiast since she was a child, sailing in the Chesapeake Bay, she has cruised extensively from Northern California to Florida and the Bahamas, and holds a USCG 50 ton Master/Mate (Captain’s) license.

The third new addition to the Southern Boating team is Laura Dunn, a journalism major from Wheaton College in Illinois. Laura was named Assistant Editor after working as an editorial intern for the magazine.

Look for L.J., Nancy and Laura at upcoming boat shows.

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Mobile Boat Ramp Application Receives Honorable Mention at NMMA Awards

The Boat Ramps Mobile App

The Recreational Boating & Fishing Foundation (RBFF) was honored today for innovative achievement by the National Marine Manufacturers Association (NMMA) and Boating Writers International (BWI) at the 70th annual Miami International Boat Show & Strictly Sail Miami. RBFF received an Honorable Mention in the 2011 Innovation Awards for its Take Me Fishing Boat Ramp App.

The National Marine Manufacturers Association (NMMA) and Boating Writers International (BWI) honored eleven marine products with 2011 Innovation Awards on Thursday and one as an Honorable Mention. The recognition took place during a State of the Industry Breakfast at the Miami International Boat Show & Strictly Sail Miami.

The Innovation Awards, organized by NMMA and judged by BWI, recognize products that best meet the following criteria: innovative distinction from other products currently being manufactured; benefit to the marine industry and/or consumer; practicality; cost-effectiveness; and availability to the consumer within 60 days of award receipt.

Among the winners for the Consumer Electronics and Software category, NMMA bestowed Honorable Mention to the Take Me Fishing Boat Ramp Mobile App. Available on iTunes and in the Droid Market, the FREE app allows users to search an impressive database of more than 35,000 launch points by city or zip code and even offers turn-by-turn directions. It’s already been downloaded by more than 27,000 mobile users.

BoatU.S. Mobile App

The app was developed by Derek Trauger & Associates who have a number of useful apps available for boating enthusiasts on both iPhone and Android phones. Traugers’ most recent: The BoatUS app that helps members call for a tow and includes helpful location and tracking features just for boaters, sailors and anglers. The moment you hit the App’s ‘Call Now for a Tow’ button, it automatically provides TowBoatU.S. with critical information before their crew even answers the phone.

Traugers’ other apps include Padi, Dive Spots, Bait Shops and iBoatShows. With over 60,000 downloads to date, Derek is on his way to becoming the top App Developer to the Marine Industry.

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Yes, They Do Get It! NMMA Goes Mobile at MIBS

Miami Beach Anchorage

MIAMI BEACH – The 70th annual Miami International Boat Show opened this morning riding a wave of renewed consumer confidence, with expectations that the industry will ride the big bow wake once again in 2011.

“We have been here before and we have come out of it,” Thom Dammrich, president of the NMMA. Adding, “We have momentum on our side.”

In this morning’s industry breakfast, NMMA’s VP of Marketing, Carl Blackwell introduced the newly redesigned Discover Boating campaign which focuses on the mobile tech market.

NMMA has taken the lead once again and in an attempt to bring younger tech-savvy consumers to the sport, have just launched an app for the Miami Show for both Droid and iPhones. Also in the works is a new Facebook campaign to invite non-boaters to join in on the fun. The FB app will encourage those with boats to invite their friends to come out on the water and then hopefully “catch the bug!” Blackwell said he hopes the campaign will go viral.

Let’s give a big round of applause to the National Marine Manufacturers Assoc. for finally getting with the program and acknowledging the power of going mobile.

More than 2,000 exhibitors are at the Miami show this year, showcasing more than 2,500 boats, according to the NMMA. Along with Strictly Sail, the show runs through Monday.

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Social networking and Boating Blogs – musts for journalists

Social media is still new to the boating industry. And according to the leading journalists organization, they shouldn’t be overlooked as avenues for buying and selling product, and the all important “monetizing of information” (or turning stories into dollars).

The take-away lesson from the Boating Writers International (BWI) meeting at the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show: Journalists need to understand how to use these new media to their advantage.

Mega Yachts at FLIBS 2009

BWI hosted a panel discussion about social media – Twitter, YouTube, Facebook and Blogging. Panelists included Glen Justice, editor of online magazine MadMariner.com and former New York Times staff writer, Kim Kavin, author of the top charter blog – CharterWave.com and Rich Lazzara, vice president of Lazzara International Yachts. Rich has the distinction of having the top boating Twitter site with 1,100 followers. He’s been on Twitter since it’s inception and authored a “How-to” guide for Twitter called Twitter Rockstar. Rich knows how to monetize information.

“There are 20 million users of Twitter, 100 million YouTube users, and 250 million people using Facebook,” said BWI board member and panel moderator Michael Sciulla. “Let’s face it, the world isn’t cutting down trees and writing just in print anymore.”

Cruising Compass on Twitter

Internet journalism is one way for journalists, freelancers in particular, to broaden both their reader and income bases. “[But] if you’re going to do something that is Internet-related, you’ve got to think how you’re going to make money. Good ideas are simply not enough,” said Glenn Justice, editor of online magazine MadMariner.com.

Justice told a record turnout of members that the key to Internet success is generating traffic, and lots of it. “Of every 10,000 visitors to a Web site, 1 percent – about 100 – click on a product offering. Of those who click, just 1 to 3 percent – one to three visitors – actually buy something,” said Justice.

“It is a brutal equation to have to acquire tens of thousands of visitors and entice them to click,” he said. Justice uses all the top Web tools – Twitter, Flickr, YouTube and Facebook – to direct visitors to MadMariner.com.

He said Web journalism must be entrepreneurial. Journalists setting up their own Web sites can make money from Google ads, affiliate marketing (pay-per-click ads), selling ads for their own sites, charging subscription fees, syndicating blogs, and using sites to advertise services (writing stories, filming videos, writing content for others).

Kim Kavin writes two blogs and 12 to 15 stories a month, syndicates her daily blog, and is launching a blog site featuring the work of a dozen recreational boating journalists who are also members of BWI.

“BoatersMouth.com should carry 250 blog articles per month,” said Kavin.

“How many publishers do we have in the group today?”  Rich Lazarra asked us. I was the only one who raised a hand. “We’re all publishers these days,” said Lazzara. “If you’re not blogging today, it’s something you need to do.”

Breaking up into small groups enabled some members to garner more wisdom from the panelists. Speaking with Rich Lazarra, I asked him how one could take advantage of a large reader base.

“Start with a survey,” he told me. “Ask your readers what they most want to learn and how much they might pay to join a community that will offer them information, education, specials and exclusive content.”

Time to get to work, eh?

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