Rest assured however, that the conference crew and content is just as focused on new media innovation as it ever was – and as of today we’re open for conference registration too. This year our venue will be Copenhagen’s new pride; Jean Nouvel’s Concert Hall in DR Byen.

We’re very excited to finally show you what we’ve been creating for the past months here at newmediadays.dk. The basic premise of our rebuild was to honor the 5 years of knowledge springing from past New Media Days. So we designed our archives to be intuitively searchable, facilitating our video material the best way possible.

Together with the blog – this alternating stream of conference news and linked arguments – and the conference part of the website, we hope that our visitors take some time to explore the flavor of New Media Days.

The great people behind our tasty new design are e-Types. Here’s what they have to say about the design:

“Like NMD we love new media. From being utter print nerds, scorning this thing they called “the internets,” e-Types has over the years embraced all things web-ish. And really, tech stuff aside, there is not that much of a stretch from designing for paper to designing for bits and pixels. In the end, its about new ways of seeing, communicating, sharing and creating.”

“Designing the website and identity, we wanted to reflect not only the mentality of the people who work around the clock to put the conference together, but also the mentality of the web itself. Dynamic and ever-changing, abstract and playful, the logo was designed to be hacked, pulled apart, mutated and remixed – because we believe it is in the mix of cultures, minds and ideas the true value of the internet is to be found. Potentially world-changing, definitely mind-altering NMD is truly golden!”

So there you have it: As much as we like latte, our new conference identity color is really GOLD! If you’re not quite convinced, secure your ticket for New Media Days 2009 and be prepared for showers of really sparkling Pantone colors. And exceptionally fantastic speakers! And some latte.

As with all things web, our site has built in room for improvement and we have plenty of nifty features scheduled ahead. Please don’t hesitate to comment on our flaws or fabulousness – here on the blog, on twitter, facebook or by good old e-mail

How is it possible for old media to stay relevant in a new media-world?

SPEAKER: Tyler Brûlé (UK), Founder and Editor-in-Chief, Monocle
MODERATOR: Mads Brügger (DK), journalist & studievært, DR

Tyler Brûlé has been able to successfully combine high-quality journalism and global trends with cuttingedge design and fashion. He is an expert in reaching the affluent opinion shapers across the world, and he is known as a sharp critic of mediocrity, not least in electronic and digital media. Hear Tyler Brûlé give his view on the current state of media, how to tap into international trends and why magazines are still cool in a global digital world.

N.B.: Tyler Brûlé requested not to be webcasted

The site I’m referring to is The Auteurs, a movie streaming service and social network, whose social object is auteur cinema. In Danish that’s Lars von Trier, Carl Th. Dreyer and Christoffer Boe. This in turn means no 007, no Frodo and no Bridget Jones. But if you belong to the cultural sub-species that thrive on exceptional cinematic experiences, earmark a portion of your salary for film festival tickets or love to cuddle up in front of TCM cable classics, then you’re going to love The Auteurs.

It came out of hiding and into public beta 10 days ago. In their own words The Auteurs is “an online movie theater and gathering place for film lovers.” This description could perhaps be fitting of some BitTorrent clients also, but The Auteurs is playing on the right side of the street in several respects.

• The site is a visual and navigational pleasure to visit. Great design.
• Online distribution rights for every streaming movie have been cleared (but downloads or embeds are not possible.)
• The site hosts some of the best auteur material that can be hard to find anywhere else than on back shelf DVDs or in cinematheques.
• The streams are fast and the content high-quality, quite good enough to be shown on your home cinema set-up.
• The social networking service is also well designed with easily customizable profile pages targetting the film aficionado.

In short: The Auteurs doesn’t have pirate written all over it and you can easily browse and watch with a clear conscience. And as this short introduction video they remind us: It’s (mostly) free!

Hard work is obviously the foundation of this launch, but so is partnerships and business models. Drawing most attention to the public launch was the fact that The Auteurs has partnered with The Criterion Collection, a highly respected publisher of art cinema DVDs, to develop their new online cinematheque. Besides looking alike, the two partnering sites share a monthly selection of movie content. Some back catalogue movies that Criterion charges $5 to stream on their own site are made free to view on The Auteurs site – a move that has understandably garnered some critique during the past weeks, but it’s probably an issue hardly worth mentioning once both online libraries grow in size and users learn to benefit from the situation. This introduction video has more details on the Criterion ‘Rent before you buy’-scheme.

Other partners behind the launch are Costa Films and Celluloid Dreams, independent movie producers and distributors, working as strategic players in the continuous hunt for online distribution rights to art-house movies around the world.

However, the biggest challenge is probably not attracting international interest to the service, but distributing full site access to an international audience. We know this issue only too well from Hulu.com. Unfortunately, right now there are only few territories outside North America where you can watch most of the movies on The Auteurs. In Denmark (as in many other countries) we have to satisfy with the free selection from Criterion until further notice. But hey, that’s still a dozen high-quality movies for free every month!

And if everyone who reads this blog asks Santa for more free auteur movies, it might actually come true in a not too distant future. CEO and founder of The Auteurs, Efe Çakarel, seems to be buzzing around the globe, preparing deals and clearing rights issues so that more people can access the full library of auteur goodies. He is said to have been in Copenhagen just weeks ago, so who knows if we’re to become the lucky Scandinavian test subject?

Through the social forum I asked Melissa Miranda of The Auteurs’ team to work hard on the international rights issues. Quickly she replied: “We are!!! We’re going as fast as we can. Some distributors were waiting to see it launched first, so with the success of the last 2 weeks, the dominoes should begin falling.” That’s of course ‘global dominoes’, she reminded me, and we know who’s always first in line; the UK. But then Denmark!

I have $10 riding on it anyway…

Until then: Merry social cinema and look me up when you get there!

More Auterisms?

MUBI blog: MUBI partners with Sony and brings art cinema to the PS3 [May 2010]

indieWIRE: The Auteurs is now MUBI [May 2010]

The Auteurs: We Won a Webby! [May 2010]

Poder 360°: The Auteurs betting good films will translate into good business [April 09]

MIT Convergence Culture: “The Canon Goes 2.0″ [December 08]

NewTeeVee: Criterion Collection Does Web Video [November 08]

TechCrunch: New Indie Film Site To Make a Splash at Cannes [May 08]

The print ventures of Brûlé have however received as much praise for their innovative layout and modern journalism as they have scorn for their snobbish outlook. The controversial publisher has himself received both the British Society of Magazine Editors’ Lifetime Achievement Award (2001) and a listing among London’s most annoying residents (Time Out, 2008.)

Hate him or hug him, Tyler Brûlé should be respected as an active spokesperson for the resurgence of print media. While it’s true that many magazines and newspapers have made obituary headlines over the last decade, Tyler Brûlé has shown that it’s indeed possible to survive the maelstrom of digital content by transforming commodity news into customer experience:

Monocle is such a treat to hold in your hands that you almost forget the price-tag (once through Danish taxes it’s the equivalent of 30 USD) and the fact that issues arrive bubble wrapped continue to tempt my soft spot for subscriptions. How lavishly industrial.

It came more or less as a surprise today when the most read, free newspaper in Denmark was declared bankrupt. The reason seems to be financial matters, so it’s maybe unlikely that Brûlé’s sense-of-print could have saved Nyhedsavisen, had he been consulted. But for future reference his take on great newspaper ingredients can be found in this Monocle article, reprinted in The Independent online.

Spoiler alert: It’s smart thinking that makes the difference.

Tyler Brûlé will be on-stage at New Media Days 08 giving us a word of print media advice. I will be in the audience. Bubble wrapped in excitement.

More Brûlé?
Tyler’s ”Fast Lane” column in the Financial Times
Thorough account of how the Monocle website was designed [tak, Morten Gade]
Video: Brûlé at the Lead Awards Symposium 2008