Introducing Jeff Reine, Our New GM of TypePad

Today we are pleased to announce the latest addition to the SAY Media team: Jeff Reine, General Manager of TypePad.

As GM of TypePad, Jeff is responsible for guiding the business and product strategy of theTypePad platform. His first priorities include bringing to market the next generation of the TypePad application and furthering investment in its fundamental capabilities to optimize the user experience of the valued TypePad community.

Jeff is returning to SAY Media as GM of TypePad, having previously worked at the company’s predecessor, VideoEgg, as Director of Business Development. Jeff has more than a decade of leadership experience in the digital and social media space and has held management positions at leading technology companies including Skype, PayPal and imeem. As a longtime TypePad user and fan of the platform, Jeff, with support from the SAY team, will ensure the interests of the TypePad community of publishers are at the forefront of every business decision. 

SAY Media content and ad platforms are central to the development of a modern media company and TypePad is an important part of that evolution. We’re committed to supporting the TypePad ecosystem with technology and services – whether through the formation of better content creation and management tools, or support building audience and making money. That's why we’re thrilled to have Jeff back in fold. Stay tuned for more on our plans for TypePad and its bright future. 

via blog.saymedia.com

Comments

[Bri]

Welcome to the team, Jeff! :)

[Sandra]

Welcome!

[BusinessReadsToday]

This is really great to hear -

[serge the concierge]

I would like to read a less run of the mill statement
The Typepad ecosystem definitely needs a boost
I like the people and support I get from Typepad
Not sure when but it seems that at a certain point things fell behind.
Where is the vibrant Foodies community or Design hub or Wine buffs group?
Chez Pim who is is still offered as a standard bearer for food blogs has now moved to Wordpress.
We can do better

[On Leadership]

Jeff, please do something to bring a robust Comments section to blogs. Right now a commenter must dig out his reading glasses to find the word Comments in agate in order to leave a comment. There should be big blanks for names, emails, links, and the comments themselves immediately following the display of a post. Readers should have a prominent switch to turn on or turn off the display of comments. Bloggers should continue to have management authority over posting of comments, but let's make this a robust community. As it now stands, I have Comments turned off because it is so difficult for people to leave a comment that no one does.

[Sandra Hale]

Welcome, Jeff! Nice to meet the new GM!

I must be one of the few bloggers who came FROM Wordpress TO Typepad. While the focus of my blogging has switched from strictly food to now including a creative ideas & resources blog, I have never regretted the switch.

(the rest of this note applies more to serge the concierge's comment & those who have been disgruntled with Typepad for whatever reason (seen it in other threads), so bear with me)

What I love about this service: Typepad allows me to publish a competently running, professional looking, and customizable blog without dealing with the constant upgrades and technical side of WP. I'm not preoccupied updating the platform, making sure there are no incompatibilities, looking for conflicting plug-ins, updating plug-ins etc. Instead, hosting my blog(s) on Typepad allows me to focus strictly on the blogging aspect (as I am a one-woman show & my time is valuable).

Have there been trade-offs in flexibility, or my ability to customize the blog & my site? Sure, but I've noticed nothing that warrants me moving back to Wordpress and dealing with the endless issues of being self-hosted. Honestly, if WP didn't have the reputation of being "the" blogging platform, I'm sure more bloggers would move to Typepad just to be free of the hassle of self-hosting (not referring to WP-hosted blogs). Of course there's always Movable Type for the self-hosting option as well, but I digress.

I'm not sure why Typepad isn't more widely used & promoted. I enjoy the service and hope it only improves. I don't think building a vibrant community is the only answer---the bloggers I know are overwhelmed with "community" as it is: on their blogs, Facebook, Twitter, BlogFrog, other forums, conferences, etc. Most bloggers are looking for something to make their lives & blogs better, easier, more functional & complete without their time input going through the roof. They want stability, assurance, technical help when warranted, and a support team who knows more about servers and coding then they do.

Really, when it comes down to it, Typepad is all about service & support. I hope it only improves from here!

[Sandra Hale]

Nicely said! I second everything Minding Gaps just wrote.

[jeff reine]

Serge - thanks for the thoughts! I think there's a lot we can do to invigorate TypePad and foster community and appreciate your thinking on the topic. Lots more to come as the year progresses. Don't hesitate to contact me via my TP profile.

[jeff reine]

Duly noted!

[jeff reine]

Thank you for such a thoughtful and complimentary comment, Sandie. It's always great to hear from a happy user :)

[Tyler Meeks]

Welcome!

[RobiNZ]

Hi Jeff, Looking forward to Typepad forging ahead with your leadership. While I like the platform it needs a push as has gotten a bit stale, especially features like media integration which has been sadly lacking (even in comparison to Vox!).

My 2010 blog review (link below) listed the "TypePad takeover" as a concern as it has been very quiet since the announcment. It would be good to hear more about Say's strategy & how TypePad will be developed.

http://rcd.typepad.com/rcd/2010/12/2010-blogging-highlights.html

[Kofla Olivieri]

Welcome, have been using Typepad for a year now. It's working great so far!

[Account Deleted]

Welcome Jeff Reine, Your profile on LinkedIn seem very nice. Experienced in a wide variety of business development deal structures. All the best.

Online Colleges

[Ricky]

Welcome, Jeff. Hoping that your arrival means great things for the TypePad platform.

It really could use a lot of upgrades to bring it up to par with other blogging platforms. Like adding tags, sorting posts by author, an attractive-looking most popular posts widget, etc.

[Adam]

I second all of those, and throw in a decent asset manager for photos, too. :-)

[Cookie!]

Welcome, Jeff!

[jeff reine]

Thanks so much for all the kind welcomes and thoughtful suggestions. We're working hard as I type to plan for 2011 and bring the right experience to the TypePad community. I've got a lot to learn *quickly*... so please stay tuned to everything.typepad as we will have more to say over the coming weeks.

Blog on!

[Account Deleted]

Namaste Jeff...Welcome!

[Adam Elliott]

thank you jeff

[Charlie Watson]

TypePad is OK as far as it goes. It meets our main criteria. We could do a much better site using something like Drupal, but then we would have the hassle of backup and version updates. And dealing with modules that are abandoned or behind in supporting the newer versions. And TypePad is quite inexpensive and it is very easy for our authors to use. They can concentrate on content and not how to write HTML.

TypePad also has lots of annoyances and things that are implemented wrongly or poorly. For example, I think the fact that TypePad has implemented a Twitter link, but it only works with blog posts made by the site admin and not people with author privileges constitutes something that has been done wrong. (Of course, there is a work-around. Using Feedburner you can do a link to Twitter. But that removes the reason to even have this feature.) An example of a poor implementation (IMO) is the post by email feature. The fact that all posts appear under the name of the site administrator is a problem. A much better solution would be if an email comes from an authors email address it gets published under that authors name. All others could go to the site admin (or be rejected). This is not an issue however, since our authors do not know about capability. Because of this issue. (The site admin is the organization president. He gets pissed if something he didn't write get posted under his name.)

There's a new annoyance at TypePad, the fact that the editor changes the code entered when you go into HTML mode. We post LOTS of video to our site (2-3 per day). But the editor centers things by wrapping them in a div tag with a center-text style. That does not center objects. But if you go into HTML mode and surround the object with a center tag the editor strips that out. You have to really search hard to find the CSS to use to center an object. And if we want to take the much easier route of using the center tag I think this should be left alone even if this is deprecated. It works and it will be decades before browsers stop supporting it. LEAVE OUR CRAPPY NON-STANDARDS COMPLIANT CODE ALONE!

Hopefully a new GM will make some of these issues go away.

[Account Deleted]

Congrats to the new GM. I definitely agree with all the concerns here...Typepad is OK but it still lacks a lot of features like the one Charlie Watson mentioned. For my account, we have 2 authors, and it's annoying that the other author/administrator cannot integrate his feed to his Twitter feed account. Another thing that annoys me so much is the lack of a list of Typepad users. All you have are your featured users which Typepad staff prefer. There are a lot of unnecessary features you are developing which we really don't need or find useful like your Typepad toolbar and the Commenter profile which is in Beta version currently. We don't need those useless features.
But I give a thumbs up to customer service---prompt and courteous.
I do hope that your management will address these issues.

[Account Deleted]

welcome man i hope to make a good work... :) this is a good blog

pensiuni bacau

[Publisher]

Welcome Jeff,
Typepad had been solid, but recently I have felt a lack of innovation and integration with the rest of cyberspace.
In no particular order - this is what i would be looking for-

stats that last more than one day(if there is a solution i dont know about let me know)

smoother integration with fb and twitter

integration with other ecommerce platforms (i'm using shopify)

also, maybe affiliate hub for typepad content providers and stores within typepad to meet each other and create a typepad bazaar within typepad users- there are a bunch of blogs in typepad that i would like to have a potential partnership with in the green, environment, self help genre.

ditto for all the concerns mentioned above.

thanks and good luck

Steve

[Account Deleted]

welcome :)

[JM Cozzoli]

Welcome aboard, Jeff. Stock up on coffee and pain-killers (or Jack Daniel's and Southern Comfort ;) and we can get this party started.

[Think Tanked]

This is great news, Jeff!

I agree with everybody above who said that TypePad has the most outstanding customer service--it's absolutely true.

I have to admit, though, I've been feeling a little out of the loop about what's been happening since the acquisition/merger (just look at the infrequency of posts on this blog, for example), it would be great (and easier to be understanding) if you could take a little time to write a post to fill us in a bit. It would be helpful to all of us.

I have two items for my wish list:

1) The spam has gotten out of control lately. I hope there is something that can be done about this. If somebody emails me, I can give specifics about how the spammers locate TypePad sites if you don't already know this.

2) So many of us have been asking for this for years that I hope you're the man who takes care of it. We *really* need to be able to put captions/credits on photos to use them legally in many cases. Can this please, please happen?

I felt bad, Jeff, as I read the comments and saw all these users welcoming you and giving you marching orders all in the same breath. Looks like I just did the same thing.

Sorry about that--and thanks!

Allen

[Brian Hines]

Jeff, I'm a long time TypePad blogger who also is looking forward to more innovation and features on the "meat/tofu and potatoes" blogging platform. The social networking stuff is fine, but TypePad shouldn't forget that a blog in itself is (1) social and (2) a network -- through interactions between the author of posts and commenters on them.

For many years I've been asking, pleading, and begging for more flexible and blog-visitor friendly commenting options. Sometimes posts on my two blogs get dozens, or even hundreds, of comments. But only the most recent ten comments can be listed in the sidebar, and there is no way for anyone to know which posts are getting the most commenting action.

For a long time, TypePad hasn't brought out a new feature that has markedly improved my blogging experience, or that of blog visitors. As others have noted, cyberspace and technology (think Apple) are marching on, while TypePad seems to have been content to saunter more or less in place.

Hopefully you can bring more vitality and pizazz to TypePad. I too much appreciate your excellent customer service; I'd just like to have TypePad's core blogging platform evolve more rapidly.

[Account Deleted]

And another thing , I wish your management could also consider to give users the privilege to block certain ISP's from viewing our pages. My blog is "controversial" and often it attracts miserable people out to diss me in every way they can. With the current feature of Typepad, I am able to block ISP's from commenting, even certain words. However, there are certain ISP's that I don't want to allow access to my blog. I don't want to password protect it since I am also promoting it to a whole vast audience but once they attack me, I would like to block them from reading my pages.

[Vicki Wardwell]

Congratulations Jeff,
Years ago I would put gray hair color in the temples
of young bankers so they would be perceived as older & thus wiser.
The IT business does not expect an older appearance
just the wise. I'm certain that you can & will do 'wise' well.
Best Wishes from Smalltown, U.S.A.

[jeff reine]

I'm more of a Makers Mark guy, myself, John :)

[jeff reine]

Thanks, Brian! How do you like Apture?

[jeff reine]

@everyone - I really do appreciate all the warm welcomes that continue to stream in. There's a lot to take in so please do give me a little bit to digest all the information and your feedback. We'll try to be more communicative about our thoughts and plans for the future. We know how invested all of you are in your Typepad blogs so we'll do our best to have a real dialogue.

[Liz@ThisFullHouse]

Like Sandie, I also came to Typepad FROM Wordpress and really am not looking to go back. However, the lack of posts and/or information to Typepad customer via Everything Typepad is a concern.

[Maxwell Talks!]

Welcome!

[On Leadership]

Thank you. Also, I would like to see very large Facebook and Tweet buttons by each post, so that a reader can just tap that button and immediately post a reference to my blog.

[Teresa]

Welcome, Jeff. I hope that you can restore some of the old fun in blogging that Typepad used to represent. When the "New Typepad" came out a year and a half ago, the whole thing turned into work. Not only has it lost the simplicity and user friendliness that led to its name "Typepad" to begin with, but the explanatory information on All Things Typepad is either too complex for most bloggers to follow or is not there at all. That has made learning the New Typepad an unpleasant chore. I want to blog, not get a Master's Degree in computer science. Please restore the fun and user friendliness of Typepad that have gone in the past 2 years. I don't want to have to move my blog. I have extensive archives that I want to keep. But, after 1-1/2 years, I still can't figure out the new system, and I'm frustrated. Thank you. And best wishes!

[Dr. William J. Ward aka DR4WARD]

Welcome Jeff.

Typepad does not allow Rich Text editing with the iPad. This basically makes it impossible to use the iPad to blog.

With 14.8 million iPads sold so far Typepad has the potential to make a lot of Typepad customers happy.

Please make this one a priority.

Thank you,

Bill (Dr. William J. Ward) aka DR4WARD

[Amal Karmaker]

congratulations to my dear young strong new GM...may god blees you...

[Account Deleted]

hi.

[Account Deleted]

hi. your blog very nice.