Exactly four years ago my team and I launched a new online magazine for our local region called Hunter’s Best. It had a lot of big ideas, some of which were totally wrong, and proved to be a bit ahead of its time. While we enjoyed a certain amount of success, it wasn’t a sustainable model and we eventually let it whither and die.

However, in the back of our minds, we knew that one day we’d revisit the idea. Today is that day.

Welcome to Urban Insider – an insider’s guide to the city (of Newcastle and surrounding region).

Here you’ll find a much more polished version of our original idea whose time has finally come.

Urban Insider showcases the region and aims to unearth many of the the talented people living here; musicians, bloggers, writers, photographers, designers and more. Not only can you see what is going on, but meet the people who are making it happen – both the contributors and their subjects. Its an outlet for ‘citizen journalism and citizen reporting’.

Urban Insider is a genuine attempt to help identify and promote the emerging talent in this vibrant region.

And while my team and I are the publishers and editors, this is not about Sticky. We’re looking for contributors from all walks of life to get involved, pitch us ideas and get published on Urban Insider. It should be a great way to help build your profile and hopefully drive some traffic to your own sites.

Some of the initial contributors featured on Urban Insider are Gerry Bobson, Melissa Priest, Kaitlyn Green, Helen Henry, and Doug Hall. You too can join the team.

We’ve invested a considerable amount of time and our own resources to deliver something we hope many local and visitors can use, enjoy and participate in.

So…..

Pitch us your ideas

Provide comments and feedback

Help fill in the information gaps in each section

Tell your friends

Follow us on Twitter

Become a Facebook Friend

Subscribe to the RSS

Post your #urbaninsiderpic for us to share with the world

Write thoughtful (non-negative) opinion pieces on how to improve the region

Share. Urban Insider is for all us.

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the 5-star Oracle Resort

This is a test post for research into search results around apartments for lease at The Oracle Resort on the Gold Coast for holidays.

The Oracle is an ultra modern resort at Broadbeach on Queensland’s famous Gold Coast. These luxury apartments on total ocean front are contained in two spectacular waterfront towers, far removed from the streets below yet central to all the excitement and glamour of Australia’s favourite beachside escape.

Leasing an apartment at the beautiful Oracle Resort is as easy as contacting us via email or completing the enquiry form on this site.

Book your luxury escape now in an apartment at the amazing Oracle Resort and enjoy the sights and scenes of Australia’s famous Gold Coast on your next holiday.

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I strongly believe that we at a critical juncture for many businesses. It’s no longer acceptable to bury your head in the sand and ignore the massive changes that are happening in media and marketing due to rapid technological innovation. Those who do risk becoming dinosaurs. Only modern marketers will survive, adapt and thrive.

2011 is the year you must embrace change.

I have posted on this topic in more detail over at the Sticky website.

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A series of short posts with the latest facts about our digital economy and lives. Use them for your presentations, blogs, homework or trivia nights.

• Sales of music in the form of digital files grew by 9.2% to exceed a quarter of total sales during 2009. Source: The Economist.

• About 8 per cent of all Google queries are name searches. Source: Wired Magazine.

• There are more than 200 million active users currently accessing Facebook through their mobile devices. Source: Facebook.

• Apple recently announced that its App Store now offers over 300 000 apps which collectively have been downloaded more than 5 billion times. Source: Apple.

• It took Facebook 5 years to garner its first 150 million users but just 8 months to double that number. Source: The Economist.

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I can’t help thinking that what is happening with Wikileaks and the strident opposition Julian Assange and his cohorts are enduring from governments around the world is a significant moment in history.

will the wikiLeak become a flood?

While the traditional press have been fretting about copyright and free distribution affecting their business models a much bigger threat has been bubbling up via the Wikileaks model.

It seems to me that Wikileaks is to journalism what Napster was to the music industry.

Sure, Napster was shutdown, but only after interrupting an entire industry and spawning many copycats, some of whom still exist today. The damage was done and the music industry will never be the same again. Out of the ashes rose legitimate business models for easily buying music online, such as iTunes.

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image from mediaspy.org

The biggest game in radio at the moment isn’t “secret sound” or “5th caller through”. In fact, its not even on air.

Bets are being taken across the radio industry on how long the John Laws comeback will last on the Bill Caralis owned 2SM Supernetwork.

I wagered they might make it until September 2011 before Laws pulled the pin, but some insiders are saying it might not even get off the ground with word circulating a signed contract doesn’t exist. Either way, it’s going to be interesting.

It makes sense for Caralis to lure Laws back on air at 2SM. The station was rating less than 1% years ago when Caralis withdrew it from official Surveys, so the formerly high-rating Laws should have a good shot at improving audience numbers, and might even see 2SM being surveyed again.

But the real value for Caralis is networking Laws across his AM network throughout northern NSW and southern Queensland. The John Laws show used to be a good money spinner where he was relayed on the Supernetwork and Caralis would be keen to restore some of that old magic.

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Foursquare for Beer

A few years back I was involved in launching a new brewery and it’s initial beer brands. I had dozens of ambitious ideas about how to do something cool and original but after a while we realised the client had become risk averse and budget deficient. Most of the ideas just fermented, but never bubbled over into reality.

Today, I’ve come across a beer campaign that I wish I was part of. Its great and utilises all of the elements I’d love to have included in our efforts.

Sydney agency Droga5 recently launched a multi-platform strategic rebranding campaign for Cascade Brewery. It includes a quirky TV ad, slightly reminiscent of the one’s I have long admired in the USA for the New Belgium Brewery, an excellent new website and, best of all, an amazingly useful iPhone app.

Cascade Brewer’s Nose, is the quintessential beer-lovers free iPhone app, featuring tasting notes on over 500 Australian and international brews compiled by Tasmanian chef Rodney Dunn of the Agrarian Kitchen.

The application uses GPS technology to help beer-lovers search for their favourite stores, pubs and bars that stock Cascade as well as helping you keep tally of the brews that you’ve tried to date.

It’s like Foursquare for beer. Friends with the app can check out each others beer tallies on Facebook.

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What happens when Don Draper and his misogynistic, philandering Mad Men drink too much whiskey before creative meetings? They make advertising that shocks us now, but was apparently a sign of the times back then. Clearly most of these weren’t written by Peggy Olsen.

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A series of short posts with the latest facts about our digital economy and lives. Use them for your presentations, blogs, homework or trivia nights.

• In 2009, Facebook’s traffic grew by 66% and Twitter’s by 47%. Source: The Economist

• With 48 billion unique images, Facebook houses the world’s largest photo collection. Source: Time Magazine

• Facebook flashed more than 176 billion banner ads at users in the first three months of this year — more than any other site. Source: Time Magazine

• YouTube is expected to generate as much as $700 million in revenue this year. Source: Wired Magazine

• By 2020 the internet will add $3.8 trillion (£2.5 trillion) to the global economy, exceeding the gross domestic product of Germany. Source: BBC News

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via media release

Will Australians cut the cable?

Research released today by Free TV Australia revealed that one in four pay TV subscribers are likely to cancel or downgrade their pay TV subscription because of the increased choice offered by the new free-to-air channels.

The national survey, conducted by Jigsaw Strategic Research last month, was part of a broader quantitative study of more than 1,500 digital TV viewers that explored consumers’ attitudes towards the recently launched free-to-air channels (ie. 7TWO, GO!, ONE, 7MATE and GEM as well as ABC2, ABC3, ABC News 24, SBSHD, SBSTwo).

The study found that:

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