Commentary
Facebook’s Biggest Problem: It’s A Media Co.
GigaOM,
May 16, 2012, 3:48 PM EDT
Mathew Ingram: "While Facebook may look like and function like a social network for the majority of its users, on the business side it looks almost exactly like a traditional media company, and that is both good and bad."
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Commentary
Why Google Plus Hasn't Failed
Digiday,
May 16, 2012, 3:18 PM EDT
Steve Goldner, senior director of social media at MediaWhiz: "If Google is smart, it will turn Google Plus into more than just a social network. It will augment search and social in a way that establishes a social network/search monster that would radically change — for the better — the search marketing landscape."
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Industry Voices
The Great Banner Ad Debate
Digiday,
May 16, 2012, 3:08 PM EDT
David Cho, publisher of
Grantland: "I think it’s hard to argue with the fact that banner advertising, which hasn’t changed at all, really, in the last 10-12 years, is quickly becoming more and more exposed as being sort of flawed in how its conceptualized within the online publishing community."
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Commentary
Does Yahoo Know How To Be A Media Co.?
GigaOM,
May 14, 2012, 3:36 PM EDT
Mathew Ingram: "The biggest challenge [interim CEO Ross] Levinsohn and Yahoo face is thinking about media in a different way, and it is the same challenge newspapers face: just as they got used to being the main destination for people in search of content when paper was the dominant delivery system, Yahoo still seems to be stuck in a mindset that sees media as a game of scale — where the player with the most eyeballs wins."
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Commentary
Old Media Need New Approach To Web Video
Jim Louderback,
May 14, 2012, 7:56 AM EDT
Jim Louderback, CEO of Web TV network Revision3: "There are four [video] platforms that matter. Google/YouTube, Amazon, Apple and Microsoft. If you're not planning and building for each, you're limiting yourself big time. And if you're stuck on the cow path as you approach each of those four feedlots, you're sunk as well."
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Commentary
Ingram: 3 Reasons I Don’t Like Paywalls
GigaOM,
May 14, 2012, 7:44 AM EDT
Mathew Ingram: "Whether or not the newspapers that implement them are willing to admit it, one of the primary features of a paywall is that it keeps people in, not out. In other words, it makes it less likely that they will quit the paper and go digital completely, and thereby protects the printed newspaper."
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Commentary
Anti-Paywall Stance Will Hurt WashPo
Columbia Journalism Review,
May 11, 2012, 3:35 PM EDT
Dismal earnings, dividends and share buybacks, as well as an anti-paywall stance are hurting
The Washington Post's prospects for the future of the newspaper and the company as a whole.
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Citizen Journalism: Ready For A Rewrite
Street Fight,
May 11, 2012, 8:29 AM EDT
Tom Grubisich: "But what about going further and putting these [citizen journalism and professional journalism] together at the community level? There can be a synergistic 1 + 1 = 3. A site that can do that will attract readers and advertisers who want to reach them."
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Commentary: Election 2012
Will Online Vid Trump Text In 2012 Election?
PBS MediaShift,
May 11, 2012, 8:21 AM EDT
Mark Hannah, PBS MediaShift political correspondent, wonders if the amount of online video news for this election cycle isn't the beginning of a shift on the Internet from text to video: "Is this the beginning of a longer and broader trend? Will online journalism begin to take on more qualities of television than of print?"
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Commentary
WikiLeaks Finance Block Hurts Free Speech
Columbia Journalism Review,
May 11, 2012, 8:21 AM EDT
Dan Gillmor on media's silence over Mastercard, Visa, and PayPal cutting off service to WikiLeaks, putting the site into deep financial trouble: "By ignoring the implications of what had happened—a financial blockade of an organization engaged in recognizably journalistic pursuits—traditional media people demonstrated how little they understood or appreciated the information ecosystem in which they also exist. And by failing to object, loudly, they gave tacit assent to tactics that should chill people who genuinely believe in free speech."
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Commentary
Why Doesn't AOL Just Sell Huffington Post
Forbes,
May 10, 2012, 3:34 PM EDT
Jeff Bercovici: "In terms of the promised tranformative effect on AOL, then, HuffPost has under-delivered. It’s hard to escape the conclusion that AOL overpaid."
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Commentary
Newspapers Pin Hopes On Annoyed Readers
SF Weekly,
May 9, 2012, 3:37 PM EDT
Dan Mitchell on "frictionless sharing" apps: "it's not that people don't like to share news stories — it's the forced sharing that's the problem. If we want to share a
Washington Post news story that we've read, we will. It's not hard — you just paste in the link. What we don't want is to have everything we read to be automatically broadcasted to all of our friends."
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Pubs Start To Doubt Apps As Pay Model
GigaOM,
May 9, 2012, 7:29 AM EDT
Mathew Ingram: "When Apple's iPad arrived on the scene in 2010, many magazine and newspaper publishers saw it as a gift from the gods: a chance to turn back the clock and convince consumers to pay for their content in a new form. But for many, that dream has given way to the cruel reality that apps are at best a stop-gap measure, not a dramatic new business model."
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Ben Huh: Journalism Needs To Be Rethought
Nieman Journalism Lab,
May 8, 2012, 3:52 PM EDT
Ben Huh, CEO of Cheezburger (of LOLCats meme fame), on his news startup Circa and the state of journalism: "It pains me to see that journalism isn’t rethinking everything from scratch."
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Commentary
Why Your Website Is Not A Newspaper
The Media Briefing,
May 8, 2012, 3:35 PM EDT
Patrick Smith: "People don't read websites from the front to the back, which renders the concept of a uniform 'front' page somewhat redundant. It's odd to think that despite all the talk of social sharing and device-led disintermediation, many publishers' thought processes doesn't extend much beyond: 'Put link to 400-word thing on front of site, people read thing, advertisers happy, repeat ad infinitum...'"
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Commentary
At Risk: The Best Newspaper Ad Buyers
Reflections of a Newsosaur,
May 8, 2012, 10:48 AM EDT
Alan Mutter: "
There is good reason to fear that even the last, best customers for newspaper advertising are getting ready to take their dollars elsewhere — unless publishers act fast to develop a product mix that meets the rapidly changing needs of Main Street merchants." Link
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Commentary
Usher: Papers Are Being Falsely Optimistic
Nieman Journalism Lab,
May 7, 2012, 3:31 PM EDT
Nikki Usher, assistant professor at George Washington University’s School of Media and Public Affairs: "Newspapers are trying to avert economic disaster. And the steps that some are taking show signs of promise ... But my concern is that newsrooms are falsely holding on to the belief that their community members will continue to see them as their most important source of information."
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Commentary
Newspapers Still Have Value In Digital Age
Stdout.be,
May 7, 2012, 2:52 PM EDT
Stijn Debrouwere: "It’s a testament to the enormous value newspapers must have provided to readers before the Internet if, even after 20 years of seeing the value proposition of news media sucked away by other media and services, for so many people, even young people, visiting a news site is still the first thing they do every morning."
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Why Publishers Don't Like Apps
Technology Review,
May 7, 2012, 2:52 PM EDT
Jason Pontin: "When people read news and features on electronic media, they expect stories to possess the linky-ness of the Web, but stories in apps didn't really link. The apps were, in the jargon of information technology, 'walled gardens,' and although sometimes beautiful, they were small, stifling gardens. For readers, none of that beauty overcame the weirdness and frustration of reading digital media closed off from other digital media."
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Commentary
Will eBay Be The Next Giant In Local?
Street Fight,
May 7, 2012, 12:23 PM EDT
Auction site eBay has been "local" to some degree since the first Beanie Baby sold in '95. But it has accelerated its position in the last 18 months through a series of acquisitions, and is on pace for $8 billion in mobile transactions this year. The site could be on its way to dominating local commerce.
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Commentary
AOL And HuffPo: How Will The Saga End?
GigaOM,
May 7, 2012, 8:16 AM EDT
Mathew Ingram: "Arianna Huffington didn't get where she is by sitting quietly in the background while someone else runs the show. Either she takes Huffington Post private and becomes the master of her domain once again ... or she stays the course and makes the case to AOL's board and its increasingly frustrated shareholders that she is the source of virtually everything that has any value in AOL, at which point she takes control over the whole thing."
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Commentary
Twitter, WWII And Death Of Official Secrets
GigaOM,
May 7, 2012, 7:57 AM EDT
Mathew Ingram: "Imagine what might have happened during World War II — or Vietnam or any other global conflict — if soldiers and reporters and even government agents had had access to Twitter and Facebook and mobile phones. Would those wars have been fought differently?"
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Commentary: European News Startups
Irrational Imitation Of Online News Industry
Reuters Blog,
May 2, 2012, 8:09 AM EDT
Rasmus Kleis Nielsen: "All across Europe, journalistic online startups are launching, aiming to produce and disseminate news in new ways. In our brave new world, the nimble startups of tomorrow were supposed to be overtaking the lumbering dinosaurs of yesterday online. But nearly all of these startups, even the most impressive and innovative sites, are struggling to survive because they face structural and strategic challenges that are not always recognized upfront."
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Commentary
Pubs Need To Rethink Digi Distribution Plans
Digiday,
May 1, 2012, 3:20 PM EDT
Mario Diez, CEO of QuadrantOne: "Consumers were never really paying for the “paper” but, instead, for access to their daily information whether it was news, local, business, etc. Right now Google and Facebook own that distribution, and this market dynamic continues to move so quickly that its last owner, Yahoo, has already faltered into a lesser tier."
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Commentary
Should Papers Do Anything To Make Money?
GigaOM,
Apr 30, 2012, 7:14 AM EDT
Mathew Ingram: "If a paper erects a paywall that costs $15 a month, that's one thing — but what if it's a subscription plan designed for hedge funds and bond traders? If that is a newspaper's central focus, hasn't it given up any hope of being a public entity or keeping the interests of society at heart? In some ways, general-interest papers seem to be damned if they do and damned if they don't."
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Opinion: Robo Journo
Time To Embrace Journalistic Algorithms?
SteveOuting.com,
Apr 30, 2012, 7:14 AM EDT
Steve Outing gives a surprising answer to the 2012 Carnival of Journalism's prompt, “What is your most dangerous idea for journalism?” His answer: embrace journalistic algorithms.
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newsonomics of 99-cent media
Digital Content Wants A Fee ... But How Much
Nieman Journalism Lab,
Apr 27, 2012, 7:29 AM EDT
Ken Doctor: "In the digital era, pricing is confronting — and confounding — media companies. Just what in the digital world of vanishing manufacturing costs is digital media worth? Now with those 20th-century costs — printing, manufacture, distribution, shipping — passing into the night, the question of price, and value, is making itself loudly heard."
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Commentary
Are Robots, Content Farms Future Of News?
GigaOM,
Apr 26, 2012, 3:48 PM EDT
Mathew Ingram on the
Chicago Tribune's decision to
use Journatic for its TribLocal coverage: "For journalists ... the big news was probably the fact that about half of the 40 journalists who worked for TribLocal ... were going to lose their jobs, with the rest being reassigned elsewhere inside the Tribune. And who is replacing them? Much like so-called "content farms" such as Demand Media, Journatic appears to use primarily freelance contributors who are paid on a piece-work basis."
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Commentary
Should NYT Charge For Early News Access?
GigaOM,
Apr 25, 2012, 8:25 AM EDT
Mathew Ingram answers Reuters' Felix Salmon's idea that
The New York Times should charge for early access to some stories: "One of the things that bothers me about this idea is that I think there is still some kind of public-service or public-policy value in journalism, and especially the news — I don’t think it is just another commodity that should be designed to make as much money as possible."
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Could NYT Make Money From Its Scoops?
Reuters Blog,
Apr 24, 2012, 3:01 PM EDT
Felix Salmon: "I’m not suggesting that the New York Times Company should start buying out-of-the-money put options on Mexican corporates in advance of its own stories. But how much would hedge funds pay to be able to see the NYT’s big investigative stories during the trading day prior to the appearance of the story?"
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Social Curation Tools Are Great Fit For Local
Street Fight,
Apr 23, 2012, 3:41 PM EDT
Patrick Kitano on social curation tools such as Pinterest, Instagram and Tumblr: "With the continuing fragmentation of information on the Web, 'curation' is become more and more important — and it’s likely to change the way we view and experience local content online."
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Commentary
Crowdfunding Could Upend Hyperlocal
Street Fight,
Apr 23, 2012, 3:41 PM EDT
The new JOBS Act has opened the door for crowdfunding, a boon to hyperlocals seeking new ways to launch their businesses. Brian Dengler on what they'll need to know: "The SEC must decide this year whether it will impose strict or more relaxed standards on funding portals compared to other brokers. The rules will determine the ease in which business and investors can engage in crowdfunding."
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Commentary
The New York Times Co. In 2015
Columbia Journalism Review,
Apr 20, 2012, 3:15 PM EDT
Ryan Chittum: "Right now, for the first time in a long time, the company isn’t bleeding to death and it has added a fast-growing revenue stream to a stable, slow-growing one. But if print ads start tumbling 20% a year again all of a sudden, all bets are off."
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Commentary
Content Curators Are Web's New Superheros
Fast Company,
Apr 20, 2012, 3:01 PM EDT
Steven Rosenbaum: "One thing I'm sure of — the Web is going to keep growing fast. And the solution to making sense of the massive volume is a new engaged partnership between humans and machines."
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Commentary
Will Refunds Be The Death Of Groupon?
MSNBC,
Apr 20, 2012, 8:51 AM EDT
Rick Aristotle Munarriz on Groupon refunds: "It can't be a good sign if its customer service staff is so swamped that it's falling behind here. Are refund requests like mine pouring in?"
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Commentary
Should Patch Be An SMB Marketing Solution?
Street Fight,
Apr 20, 2012, 8:43 AM EDT
Kirk Caraway, founder and publisher of CarsonNow.org: "The real opportunity is to offer businesses a service that bundles together as many promotional vehicles as possible into a simple, low-cost package that makes it easy for them to communicate with their customers. ... [Patch] has the resources to build this kind of integrated system, and can use the power of its network to create effective marketing and sales programs to push out to all their sites."
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How To Engage Hyperlocal ‘Hard’ News Fans
Street Fight,
Apr 19, 2012, 3:56 PM EDT
Tom Grubisich: "Hyperlocal sites should not look at hard news as journalistic broccoli. The challenge is to serve up hard news appealingly — to connect it with each user’s gut-level self-interest."
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Commentary
Comments Critical To Success In Social World
Forbes,
Apr 19, 2012, 8:06 AM EDT
Lewis DVorkin on online comments: "The conversation has been and always will be at the heart of the media industry. As technology amplifies today’s strident and disparate voices, many of us in digital media are working to keep the talk productive — or at the very least civil."
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Commentary
The Value Of Journalism Prizes
Columbia Journalism School,
Apr 18, 2012, 8:23 AM EDT
Dean Starkman: "The fact is, though, we need contests more than ever. It’s not that The Huffington Post needs validation (thought it does) but that big, ambitious, risky public-service journalism needs it more. What you have to like about this year’s prizes—even if you quibble with this choice or that omission—is not that it rewards a certain kind of organization, but that it rewards a certain kind of story, and thus provides a powerful incentive to do them."
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Commentary
Physical Media Is Being Replaced By Apps
GigaOM,
Apr 18, 2012, 7:57 AM EDT
Om Malik on the shift to apps and the future of brand marketing: "In the post-broadband world, Internet is the truck, and app stores are the newsstand and book store. Result: the slow and steady decay of physical media as a container for content."
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Newsonomics of Small Things
Time For Sites To Find Smaller Golden Eggs
Nieman Journalism Lab,
Apr 13, 2012, 1:48 PM EDT
Ken Doctor: "It’s much better to move into the future with a half-dozen revenue streams — even if some are now just trickles — to stick with only two big-but-slowing ones. It should be more lucrative than selling the same old things. And maybe more fun, too."
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Commentary
Somebody Needs To Save The Village Voice
Capital New York,
Apr 13, 2012, 6:35 AM EDT
Tom McGeveran on the embattled alt weekly: "The Village Voice is not for sale. But somebody needs to save it, and that means somebody needs to find a way to buy it."
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Commentary
Finding Journalism's Future
Philly.com,
Apr 12, 2012, 8:08 AM EDT
Victor Pickard on the sale of Philadelphia Media Network and the future of journalism: "Too often, we see the news media as just another commodity. But despite its commercial devaluation, journalism is a public good that is essential to democracy. And the advertising-based model that's enabled it for 125 years is increasingly unworkable."
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Commentary
CNN's Zite Buy Proves Not All Takeovers Bad
AppAdvice,
Apr 12, 2012, 8:08 AM EDT
Bryan Wolfe on Zite's purchase by CNN: "Since day one, Zite has been committed in giving readers a new way to discover content online. And that hasn’t changed."
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What Does Bad Press Mean For Groupon?
VentureBeat,
Apr 9, 2012, 3:43 PM EDT
Rocky Agrawal: "The right way to think about Groupon is as a currency. Such constant bad press could create a confidence crisis in the Groupon currency. Small businesses who do the most basic due diligence will see the negative news and refuse to run new deals. It will exacerbate Groupon’s adverse selection problem, meaning only shakier and shakier businesses will run Groupons, increasing Groupon’s refund liabilities."
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A Newspaper Buying Spree
American Journalism Review,
Apr 9, 2012, 7:53 AM EDT
In the not so distant past, the more valuable newspapers became, the more eager sellers and buyers became to do deals. Today newspapers are far less valuable — by half or more — yet sellers and buyers are once again finding each other in great numbers.
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Newspaper Barons Resurface
The New York Times,
Apr 9, 2012, 7:53 AM EDT
Commentary
Is Next Issue Really A Netflix For Mags
GigOm,
Apr 6, 2012, 2:31 PM EDT
Mathew Ingram on Next Issue Media's tablet-based magazine newsstand and comparisons of it to Netflix and Hulu: "That analogy seems flawed in a number of ways. And while the single newsstand idea may be a better solution than the current profusion of competing apps from different publishers, does it really fit the way that people want to consume digital content now?"
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newsonomics of the Next Issue magazine future
Will Next Issue's Model Work For Papers?
Nieman Journalism Lab,
Apr 5, 2012, 2:02 PM EDT
Ken Doctor: "In one sense, newspaper titles are very different than magazines. Other than the U.S.'s three national titles, newspapers are by nature local, appealing only to tiny slices of the national population. Yet in creating a single place to buy subscriptions, or single copies — and then potentially packages of content — Next Issue is well ahead of the U.S. newspaper industry."
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Digital-Native Media Will (Almost) Always Win
GigaOM,
Apr 5, 2012, 2:02 PM EDT
Mathew Ingram: "Much of the traditional media business has been in the doldrums for some time now, a victim of declining circulation and the free-fall of print advertising that has sucked the oxygen out of many traditional business models. And yet, many of these companies still have only taken small steps (if any) towards trying to carve out a future for themselves by adapting to the digital world."
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Commentary: Instapaper, Readability
Monetizing Other People’s Content
GigaOM,
Apr 5, 2012, 8:41 AM EDT
Mathew Ingram on "read later" apps Readability and Instapaper: "Whatever you think of Readability's model, however, it is far from the only one providing this kind of service, and there is an argument to be made that its approach is actually better than some others. The bottom line for content creators is that users want to do this, and you need to figure out how to let them."
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Commentary
When Republishing Goes Wrong
BuzzFeed,
Apr 5, 2012, 8:41 AM EDT
Matt Buchanan on "read later" apps: "Essentially, reading on the Web can be unpleasant and people want to read stuff any/everywhere, but a lot of websites publishing original content can't afford to do so if nobody's seeing ads."
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To News Orgs: Stop Calling Them Blogs
Andy Boyle,
Apr 4, 2012, 8:07 AM EDT
Andy Boyle: "It’s time to stop bifurcating your content as blogs and news because they run on separate systems. It is all content, so why not call it that? Even if you have outside people writing posts on your website that are unmoderated by your staff — that’s still content that’s part of your media outlet’s website."
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Commentary
2012 Is The Year Of Mobile Advertising
Mobile Marketer,
Apr 3, 2012, 1:07 PM EDT
Justin Barr, chief operating officer of TapIt: "With technology allowing for a successful mobile ecosystem in 2012, the building blocks are now set in place to assist in bridging the gap between opportunity and capability. The time for mobile advertising is now."
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Commentary
Philly Papers Sold At 10% Of 2006 Value
Newsosaur,
Apr 3, 2012, 8:14 AM EDT
Alan Mutter: "
The stunning plunge in the value of the Philadelphia Inquirer and its sister properties reflects not only the continuing contraction of the publishing business but also provides a rare glimpse into how badly newspapers have fallen out of favor among investors." Link
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Commentary
Digital Publishers Need To Be Bold
Wired,
Apr 2, 2012, 7:48 AM EDT
Rob Grimshaw, managing director of FT.com: "For a decade, news publishers have given away their content in the pursuit of audience growth and ad dollars. But many remain far short of the scale they need to compete effectively online. Caught between rapid print decline and paltry growth in online revenues, publishers must find new ways to turn this situation around or face a future of cost cuts and much-reduced means."
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Commentary
Media Needs To Clean Up Web Layouts
Advertising Age,
Apr 2, 2012, 6:59 AM EDT
Matt Sanchez, CVEO of Say Media: "Too many media sites are beginning to resemble the houses of compulsive hoarders: a jumbled mess of headlines and stories piled on each other with links, icons and ads thrown on top. Put another way: Clutter is killing digital media. For media businesses to survive in digital, we need to clean up the Web."
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Industry's Digital First Shift A Delicate Dance
Poynter,
Mar 30, 2012, 3:26 PM EDT
Rick Edmonds compares the news industry's digital transformation to PepsiCo's recent strategy shift: "In most news organizations, print still drives 85 to 90 percent of revenues, and that imbalance has been slow to shift. Print is every bit the core product that the old Pepsi brands are at Nooyi’s company."
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Hyperlocals Need To Up Ad Accountability
Street Fight,
Mar 30, 2012, 12:21 PM EDT
Patrick Kitano, founding principal of BRand Into Media: "The divide between book rate and rack rate threatens publisher credibility at a time when local businesses are demanding two types of advertiser accountability. First, they want relevancy ... Second, they want to pay only for results."
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Commentary
How Far Should Paper Promos Open Paywalls
PaidContent,
Mar 30, 2012, 8:14 AM EDT
Jeff Roberts on the benefits and drawbacks of newspapers letting customers see content for free during promotions: "The lift-the-paywall gimmicks may produce higher page views and the potential for pulling in new subscribers. But the real value probably lies in ad money from the sponsorship themselves."
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Newsonomics of 100 products a year
Digital Gives Pubs Other Products To Sell
Nieman Journalism Lab,
Mar 29, 2012, 3:29 PM EDT
Author Ken Doctor: "We’re on the brink of news companies producing hundreds of products for sale each year. While digital technology hath taketh (the easy ability to make money on news distribution), digital technology also giveth back, with the ability to create hundreds and thousands of newsy products at small incremental costs."
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Commentary
Winer: Every News Org Should Have A River
Nieman Journalism Lab,
Mar 29, 2012, 3:29 PM EDT
Dave Winer on how news organizations can better take advantage of their communities: "To me it's self-evident that every news organization, like every blog, should define a community of bloggers. People who write with passion about their expertise. I've been writing about this, evangelically, since the mid-90s. Still there are very few rivers out there."
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Commentary
News Sites Mining Social Face Challenges
Poynter,
Mar 28, 2012, 3:50 PM EDT
Jeff Sonderman: "Whatever the applied topic, these news organizations are on a similar quest for a grail-like achievement — a computer system that can process thousands of natural-language messages, determine what they mean, and draw valid conclusions and connections."
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Commentary
WashPo Ombud's Paywall Analysis Is Faulty
Columbia Journalism Review,
Mar 28, 2012, 3:28 PM EDT
Ryan Chittum on
Washington Post ombudsman Patrick Pexton's column on
The New York Times paywall about the possibility of a paywall at the
Post: "You can't compare nine months of circulation-revenue changes to 12 months of ad-revenue changes and then say the former 'didn't even cover the decline in the latter.' That's like giving somebody a 100 meter headstart in the 400 meters and then talking about how the laggard couldn't even compete, even though they ran faster than the rest of the field."
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Commentary
Mobile And The Media's Imploding Biz Model
Guardian,
Mar 28, 2012, 2:11 PM EDT
Michael Wolff: "If the news business on the Web is depressing, contributing to the existential angst that has gripped every established news organization, mobile turns the story apocalyptic: there is no foreseeable basis on which the news establishment can support itself. There is no way even a stripped-down, aggregation-based, unpaid citizen-journalist staffed newsroom can support itself in a mobile world."
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Commentary
Forget Paywalls, Create Velvet Rope Instead
GigaOM,
Mar 27, 2012, 6:54 AM EDT
Mathew Ingram: "One answer is to think of the relationship with readers as being about more than just money, and then let the monetization flow out of that relationship, rather than the reverse."
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Has Social Media Past Journalism In Impact?
SteveOuting.com,
Mar 26, 2012, 3:50 PM EDT
Steve Outing: "The way I see it, traditional news organizations are seeing their “gatekeeper” roles usurped increasingly more often by the public’s use of social media. In other words, when editors do a lousy job of gatekeeping and keep important stories locked behind the gate, the public now has the power to become the gatekeepers and unlock an overlooked story."
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Commentary
Why Pruitt's Move To AP Makes Sense
Poynter,
Mar 26, 2012, 3:12 PM EDT
Rick Edmonds: "The ideal fit [for the AP] is a CEO with credibility among (and sympathy for) the newspaper crowd, but someone ready to do what needs to be done, as Pruitt often has said in talking about cuts at McClatchy."
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Commentary: Election 2012
Why Twitter Won’t Predict The 2012 Election
Talking Points Memo,
Mar 26, 2012, 7:57 AM EDT
Kyle Leighton and David Taintor on using social media to measure the pulse of the presidential campaign: "Claims that legitimate followers and retweets are “indicative of growing grass-roots support,” are likely too close for comfort, in the same way that lawn signs are no indicator of a winner. After all, rating the intensity of one candidate’s supporters means nothing if a rival’s supporters cast more votes."
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Commentary
The 'Sharing' Mirage
Monday Note,
Mar 26, 2012, 7:43 AM EDT
Frédéric Filloux on the benefits and pitfalls of teaming up with Facebook, Google and other content distributors: "Media should be very careful with their level of reliance on other content distributors such as Facebook, Google, Apple or Amazon. This can be summed up to a simple question: can we trust them?The short answer is no."
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Commentary
Is A Paywall Coming To Washington Post?
The Washington Post,
Mar 26, 2012, 7:29 AM EDT
Patrick Pexton, ombudsman for
The Washington Post, says that, at least for the short term, there will be no paywall for the newspaper. The
Post needs to accomplish two goals before putting up a paywall: Attract more readers and improve its information technology systems.
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Commentary
Paywalls Open Doors For Local News Sites
Howard Owens,
Mar 26, 2012, 6:57 AM EDT
Howard Owens, publisher of local Internet pureplay
The Batavian: "As a matter of business reality, when an incumbent business moves deeper into sustaining innovation it opens up opportunities for disruptors. In every market where a newspaper puts up a paywall, an opportunity is created for an entrepreneur to start a local online news business."
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Commentary
R.I.P., American Press Institute
JimRomenesko.com,
Mar 23, 2012, 8:26 AM EDT
W. Lawrence Winter, American Press Institute president and executive director, 1987-2003: "Let's be honest. This is not a merger. This is a takeover. And, from the ashes of API may someday rise a new NAA training organization of some kind, featuring, probably, Internet-based learning activities. But whatever it is, it will not be API."
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Commentary
A To-Do List For Gary Pruitt At AP
Newsonomics,
Mar 23, 2012, 7:42 AM EDT
Ken Doctor has suggested some items that should be at the top of
new AP chief Gary Pruitt's to-do list, including to embrace big storytelling, master advertising, leverage global connections and find where the news organiztion fits in with paywalls: "Figuring out where AP fits into the new paywalled world (and as more than in-front-of-the-wall, bulk-up-the-free content) has suddenly increased in priority."
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Commentary
Lessons Learned From Newspaper Turmoil
Nieman Watchdog,
Mar 22, 2012, 3:01 PM EDT
Amanda Bennett, former chief editor at the
Philadelphia Inquirer and Knight-Ridder: "It's much clearer that people — including young people — want news and that even physical newspapers have long lives ahead. We still have the challenge of redefining what news is, figuring out how people want to get it, and, crucially, how to pay for it."
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The Newsonomics Of Mr. Daisey’s Media Blur
TAL's Apple Retraction Result Of Blurry Journo Line
Nieman Journalism Lab,
Mar 21, 2012, 7:01 AM EDT
commentary: SXSW 2012
SXSW Delivered On Journalism
RTDNA,
Mar 20, 2012, 3:44 PM EDT
Kevin Benz, RTDNA chairman: "Journalism may not have been the most well publicized subject at
SXSW this year. That hilltop belonged to Bruce Springsteen and SXSW Music. But SXSW Interactive is the fastest, and now largest, segment of the SXSW Conference held in Austin every year. As SXSWi has grown (it’s now up to nearly 25,000 registrants) so has the number of panels and the depth of discussion regarding journalism."
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Commentary
Morse: Texas Trib's Model Hurts Journalism
Stephen Robert Morse,
Mar 20, 2012, 8:24 AM EDT
Journalist Stephen Robert Morse on The Texas Tribune's nonprofit business model and journalism: "Led by the success of the nonprofit news model represented by The Texas Tribune, the decline of the for-profit news ecosystem is being accelerated by competition from the nonprofit world. The role of a nonprofit should be to help increase the quality of journalism, but not at the expense of for-profit organizations."
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Commentary
Can TV Delay Impact Of Digital Video?
MediaPost,
Mar 19, 2012, 10:09 AM EDT
Roger Wood, VP of digital media and analytics for iCrossing: "2012 promises to be the most tumultuous year ever in TV media buying as digital video gives advertisers more choices and TV networks more competition. More than 40% of the total advertising expenditures in the United States are focused on traditional television. Can the TV industry delay the full impact of digital video?"
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Commentary: 'The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs'
Theater, Disguised As Real Journalism
The New York Times,
Mar 19, 2012, 7:21 AM EDT
newsonomics of targeted TV
Targeting Makes TV A Stronger Ad Competitor
Nieman Journalism Lab,
Mar 16, 2012, 3:11 PM EDT
Ken Doctor: "Targeting potentially makes TV — whatever we mean when we use that word five years from now — an even stronger advertising competitor. Further, it should act as a reminder to publishers that selling broad 'impressions' without better and better targeting may net them less and less."
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Commentary
NY Times Exec Pay Structure Isn't Fit To Print
Reuters,
Mar 15, 2012, 8:02 AM EDT
Commentary
Encyclopedias, Journalism Better When Open
GigaOM,
Mar 15, 2012, 7:56 AM EDT
Mathew Ingram on the
Encyclopedia Britannica's move to stop production of its print edition: "As professor Jay Rosen has noted many times, journalism gets better when more people do it, and the web provides the tools for a form of 'open journalism' that is arguably much more likely to arrive at the truth than any centralized approach. The same principle lies behind the growing campaign to open up academic publishing so that researchers can collaborate more easily."
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Commentary
It's Not Aggregation, It's Just How Web Works
GigaOM,
Mar 14, 2012, 8:15 AM EDT
Mathew Ingram on the
Curator's Code for bloggers and aggregators: "We already have a tool for providing credit to the original source — it’s called the hyperlink."
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Commentary
Marco Arment: I'm Not A 'Curator'
Marco.org,
Mar 13, 2012, 3:06 PM EDT
Instapaper founder Marco Arment on the
Curator's Code: "It’s completely misguided. First of all, readers aren’t going to learn what those symbols mean. The distinction between them is also unnecessary and will lead to more confusion."
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Commentary
MacArthur: Web Con Men Ravage Publishing
The Providence Journal,
Mar 13, 2012, 3:06 PM EDT
John R. MacArthur, publisher of
Harper's Magazine, on publishing and the Internet: "As the ever-more-demanding Internet God continues to bleed publishers and writers — you cannot imagine the huge sums of money that have been wasted in the pursuit of Internet advertising — the advantages of advertising on paper become more obvious."
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Open MIke by Don West
Don’t Alter Standards To Fit New Media
TVNewsCheck,
Mar 13, 2012, 3:06 PM EDT
From my point of view, it's all this adapting to new technology that's got us in the mess we're in, First Amendment-wise." The mess is propelled by the fact that the press has lost its professional — and essentially exclusive — standing. The new technology has made all the means of communication available to everyone. The only restraint is self-restraint and it doesn’t exist out there. Inside the profession it exists in ever lessening degree. if professional journalists in all media just
used the new technology, but didn’t
adapt their principles and honor to it, we’d all be better off.
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Commentary
We Don't Need Approval From Blog Police
Gawker,
Mar 12, 2012, 3:26 PM EDT
Commentary
What The Fetishization Of Social Is Costing Us
Huffington Post,
Mar 9, 2012, 3:54 PM EST
Arianna Huffington: "Fetishizing 'social' has become a major distraction, and we're clearly a country that loves to be distracted. Our job in the media is to use all the social tools at our disposal to tell the stories that matter ... and to keep reminding ourselves that the tools are not the story."
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Commentary
CNC Struggles Hold Lessons For Foundations
PBS MediaShift,
Mar 9, 2012, 8:43 AM EST
Michele McLellan on the Chicago News Cooperative's recent suspension of publication: "While some of the factors in play are complex and not particularly well-explained by the
CNC, what we know so far about the suspension does appear to put into focus some key lessons for funders who are stepping into the news and information space."
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Newsonomics of Paywalls All Over The World
Total Rev More Critical Than Digital-Only Rev
Nieman Journalism Lab,
Mar 9, 2012, 7:33 AM EST
Author Ken Doctor: "If you tell customers 'we’ll get you our content however, wherever you want it' — and deliver on that proposition with products that match the tablet and smartphone age — the creation of added value makes sense to readers. So it’s important to look beyond digital-only revenue itself, and look at the total reader-revenue-producing potential of smart pay plans."
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Can BuzzFeed Formula Work For Real News?
Adweek,
Mar 7, 2012, 8:38 AM EST
Ki Mae Heussner on BuzzFeed's recent move to hire serious reporters: "Every reporter believes their content is worth sharing. But as this new class of journalist attempts to remake BuzzFeed into a purveyor of consequential stories — not just catchy ones — what's to say that its scoops on politics and culture won't get lost amid the flood of posts labeled 'lol,' 'cute' and 'omg'?"
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commentary by Rip Empson
Aereo Has A Shot At Beating The Networks
TechCrunch,
Mar 6, 2012, 2:58 PM EST
While it may seem like a fool’s errand, Aereo is not the first online streaming startup to go down this road, nor will it be the last. Many of its predecessors have been sued out of existence by those very same broadcasters. But the stakes are high enough to be worth it, and Aereo is closer than those that have come before it to a model that could win in court.
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Commentary
Time To Retire FCC's Media Ownership Rules
Forbes,
Mar 6, 2012, 8:06 AM EST
Jeff Bercovici on the FCC rules banning the ownership of a newspaper and TV station in the same market: "The strongest reason for ditching the cross-ownership ban is that it’s not only outmoded and counterproductive but increasingly absurd. ... For the growing numbers of viewers who get their TV "over the top" ... there's no meaningful difference between something like WSJ Live and a CNBC show."
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Commentary
One Journo's Experience With Facebook Timeline
The Buttry Diary,
Mar 5, 2012, 8:57 AM EST
Commentary
Time Shifting Benefits Long-Form Journalism
Mark Armstrong,
Mar 5, 2012, 7:35 AM EST
Mark Armstrong, founder of Longreads and an editorial advisor for Read It Later, on how we consume content: "The way we are forced to consume devalues the content, it leads to diminishing returns for businesses that must see pageview growth year over year, and it leads to burnout of even the hungriest news staff."
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Newsonomics of Crossover
Good Metrics Will Ease Shift To Digital
Nieman Journalism Lab,
Mar 2, 2012, 2:49 PM EST
Author Ken Doctor on the crossover from a primarily print world to a primarily digital world: "With digital mobility upending conventional truths held as recently as a couple of years ago ('readers only consume news snippets online;' 'we’re stuck with the digital ad formats we have'), navigating the crossover is increasingly complex. What
will help us figure it out? For publishers, emerging crossover strategies should be based on good metrics"
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Commentary
Media Surveys Give Hyperlocals Short Shrift
Street Fight,
Mar 1, 2012, 3:29 PM EST
Tom Grubisich: "The
latest survey looking at the trustworthiness of media comes via Craiglist founder Craig Newmark, and ranks newspapers on top. But I’m skeptical of findings that also rank the Internet, including hyperlocals, so low."
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Commentary: Chicago News Cooperative
What CNC Fail Says About MacArthur, City
Chicago Current,
Mar 1, 2012, 3:02 PM EST
Geoff Dougherty on the Chicago News Cooperative's demise and the MacArthur Foundation's ties to Chicago's City Hall.: "Foundations across America make grants every day to organizations that are not yet approved by the IRS. ... As excuses go, MacArthur's is the nonprofit version of 'I have to wash my hair.'"
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Commentary
Of Course Twitter Breaks News
GigaOM,
Mar 1, 2012, 8:22 AM EST
Commentary
Can An Army Of Paywalls Buoy Gannett?
Nieman Journalism Lab,
Feb 29, 2012, 4:09 PM EST
Justin Ellis: "Since each site has the ability to determine the pricing for its subscription plan, there will undoubtedly be tension between what individual markets will bare and what the mothership needs to improve its bottom line. For Gannett, one paper’s success with digital subscriptions can be another paper’s failure."
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Why Warren Buffett Is Wrong About Paywalls
GigaOM,
Feb 29, 2012, 8:21 AM EST
Mathew Ingram: "A paywall may help stop print circulation from eroding, but that still makes it seem a lot more like a wall of sandbags than any kind of coherent digital strategy. And in any case, a paywall is almost inevitably going to appeal to only a small subset of readers."
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Commentary
Does WikiLeaks Still Matter?
GigaOM,
Feb 28, 2012, 7:18 AM EST
Paton Is Right, And Wrong About Paywalls
Paywall Times,
Feb 27, 2012, 2:46 PM EST
"[MediaNews Group CEO John] Paton’s derision of paywalls is misplaced. ... His focus on advertising is disconcerting for readers seeking independent content, neither state-sponsored nor advertiser-sponsored."
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Commentary
AP-Meltwater Shows Risks For Hyperlocals
Street Fight,
Feb 27, 2012, 12:28 PM EST
Brian Dengler, attorney with Vorys Legal Counsel: "The AP lawsuit is a reminder of the fine line between linking to content and copying a significant portion of someone else’s content."
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Is Linking Polite, Or Core Journalism Value?
GigaOM,
Feb 27, 2012, 8:27 AM EST
Mathew Ingram on spat between TechCrunch's MG Siegler and
The Wall Street Journal over the newspaper not linking to Siegler's story: "Failure to link is a crucial mistake that mainstream media outlets make, and also an issue of trust."
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Commentary
In Digital Shift Ad Dollars ‘Evaporate’
Screenwerk,
Feb 24, 2012, 7:18 AM EST
Greg Sterling, founding principal of consulting firm Sterling Market Intelligence: "As local business owners become more sophisticated over time these trends are likely to accelerate. But because the economics are so different in digital, traditional media companies can only hope to 'reclaim' a portion of the dollars 'lost' in the migration."
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The Newsonomics Of Hyperlocal's Next Round
Some Hope In Hyperlocal Biz Model Search
Nieman Journalism Lab,
Feb 24, 2012, 6:53 AM EST
Ken Doctor: "It’s easy to get cynical about hyperlocal news on the web. People have been working to figure out a scalable model to support it for years. But news-model fatigue shouldn’t be mistaken for permanent failure — it’s just that no one has yet found success."
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Commentary
Ethical Or Not, Sil Val Bloggers Tap VCs For Funds
The Daily Beast,
Feb 23, 2012, 2:40 PM EST
Commentary
What Does Google Fiber Mean For TV's Future?
GigaOM,
Feb 23, 2012, 8:44 AM EST
Commentary
Instagram Photos Cheat News Consumers
CNN,
Feb 23, 2012, 8:35 AM EST
News photographer Nick Stern: "A news photographer is there to record, not to produce works of art. ... Every time a news organization uses a Hipstamatic or Instagram-style picture in a news report, they are cheating us all."
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Is Aggregation Journalism? Wrong question
GigaOM,
Feb 23, 2012, 8:26 AM EST
Mathew Ingram: "Many journalists like to focus on sexier pursuits like foreign reporting and investigative stories, but the reality is that much of what we call journalism is very different. In the end, it has to serve the reader — either by informing them or entertaining them, or some combination of the two. That’s not something to be ashamed of."
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The IRS And The Chicago News Cooperative
Columbia Journalism Review,
Feb 23, 2012, 7:44 AM EST
CJR's Ryan Chittum: "The CNC’s problems and the stated reasons for them have just added that much more uncertainty to nonprofit news. Whether or not the 501(c)(3) holdup now has a body count, it’s past time for the IRS to give the sector, one of the few bright spots in hard news, some clarity."
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Commentary
Will Gannett's Paywall Plan Work?
PaidContent,
Feb 23, 2012, 7:35 AM EST
Jeff Roberts: "There are some wildcards here. These include Gannett’s capacity to develop and scale mobile and tablet applications for all of its properties."
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Public Editor: Many Voices, One NY Times
The New York Times,
Feb 22, 2012, 8:13 AM EST
Arthur Brisbane, public editor for
The New York Times, says the newspaper should create a news portal to protect its product: "Home base should be an anchor that not only offers content but also an institutional statement about what The Times stands for and what it thinks."
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Commentary
Aereo Will Ruffle Some TV Feathers
BIA/Kelsey,
Feb 21, 2012, 2:39 PM EST
Steve Passwaiter: "It has taken broadcasters nearly twenty years since the original Cable Act in 1992 and some hair raising standoffs with MVPD’s to finally get access to some cash for content. Don’t expect them to roll over on this one or immediately buy into the notion that they stand to increase profits thanks to Aereo. Aereo is a bullet clearly aimed at killing that current coveted model. Expect the federal court docket to be adding several new cases soon."
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Is Twitter A Newspaper, Or The Phone Co.?
GigaOM,
Feb 21, 2012, 7:30 AM EST
Mathew Ingram on lawyers in Australia asserting that the social network is like a newspaper —and not a dumb pipe, like a phone network — and can be sued for defamation: "Someone could argue that Twitter isn’t just an electronic information service, but is much closer to being a publisher — in part because it is the only one who controls the data and content that appear on the service, rather than being part of a larger, open Web ecosystem with many players."
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Commentary
Bill Keller: WikiLeaks, A Postscript
The New York Times,
Feb 20, 2012, 3:14 PM EST
Commentary: the Chicago News Cooperative
Jarvis: Journalists Don't Know Business
BuzzMachine,
Feb 20, 2012, 8:42 AM EST
Jeff Jarvis: "I'm not against not-for-profit, charitably supported journalism any more than I'm against pay walls. ... But I do not believe that begging for money from foundations, the public, or especially government is the solution to journalism's problems."
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NY Times Letter To The Editor
Newspapers Need To Serve Nich Auds
The New York Times,
Feb 20, 2012, 7:40 AM EST
Rachel Davis Mersey, an assistant professor at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, in response to
The New York Times story "
A Newspaper, and a Legacy, Reordered": "Newspapers aren’t in trouble because the digital space is more competitive. Newspapers are in trouble because they have defined their missions as being everything to everyone."
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Commentary
Papers' Problem: 'Crappy' Execs, Not Web
Digital First,
Feb 20, 2012, 7:27 AM EST
Journal Register Co. and Digital First Media CEO John Paton from his speech to the Canadian Journalims Foundation on Feb. 16: "Crappy newspaper executives are a bigger threat to journalism’s future than any changes wrought by the Internet."
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Newsonomics Of Ads That Go Bump In The Night
News Orgs Not Taking Advantage Of Tablets
Nieman Journalism Lab,
Feb 17, 2012, 3:24 PM EST
Author Ken Doctor on news organizations losing trailing Google, Yahoo, Facebook, Microsoft and AOL in digital advertising and how tablet apps have the potential to turn the tables: "News companies may have been slow to the parties of search, social, video, and mobile, and most have unfortunately taken a go-slow approach to the tablet — but platforms like the iPad offer a way out of the ad desert."
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Commentary: News Int. Phone Hacking Scandal
News Int. Needs To Decontaminate The Sun Brand
Guardian,
Feb 17, 2012, 8:21 AM EST
The AP Vs. Meltwater
Is AP Suing An Aggregator Or Search Engine?
Nieman Journalism Lab,
Feb 16, 2012, 12:38 PM EST
The Associated Press is heading into court to defend its copyright against Meltwater, but its leaders swear they’re not on a crusade against aggregators. How the case evolves could pivot on how a court considers the site AP is suing — as a news clipping service or as a search engine.
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Commentary
Investing In Better Tech May Beat More Staff
Street Fight,
Feb 16, 2012, 12:33 PM EST
Tom Grubisich: "Fast-improving digital technology can lead to better content, more engaged users and open the way to new advertisers, including sponsors. Technology is also less expensive than staff."
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Commentary
Will Facebook Advertising Fail?
MediaPost,
Feb 15, 2012, 3:36 PM EST
Tracy Gross: "There are some potentially exciting opportunities ahead for brands. New targeting opportunities, new advertising products, additional reach through mobile, and hyper-localization are all potentially positive outcomes. On the other hand, increased clutter, higher costs and backlash from users could negatively impact the social giant’s reputation and audience base.
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Commentary
Twitter: Often First, Not Always Right
CNN,
Feb 15, 2012, 7:49 AM EST
Pete Cashmore on breaking and verifying news in the Twitter era: "This, I think, is the role of news organizations in the social era — to establish trust, to verify, and to make sense of the chaotic flood of information we receive from social networks. Sometimes that means seeking confirmation, but much of the time it simply means to curate the stream of Tweets and Facebook messages — to craft them into a meaningful story."
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commentary
Did AP Declare War On News Aggregators?
GigaOM,
Feb 15, 2012, 7:40 AM EST
Mathew Ingram on the AP's lawsuit against aggregator Meltwater News: "It's clear that the newswire is threatened by the web and the democratization of distribution, but putting up walls and filing lawsuits is a waste of time and money ... All it does is make the AP seem like a frightened, cornered animal."
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Commentary
Twitter And The Shrinking News Cycle
GigaOM,
Feb 14, 2012, 7:42 AM EST
Mathew Ingram: "Now the news is just as likely to appear in a tweet or to be posted as a status update by someone who is directly involved in the event. In a nutshell, this means that the value of a simple 'scoop' or breaking news report is declining rapidly — and that might just be a good thing."
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Commentary
Twitter Is All In Good Fun, Until It Isn’t
The New York Times,
Feb 13, 2012, 8:12 AM EST
David Carr: "Big media companies love when their employees hit Twitter. After all, the short-form social media platform gives consumers direct access to media personalities, and along with it, an intimate connection that large media organizations, and the public, revel in. Until something goes wrong."
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Commentary
Fight Advice For Patch’s New Content Chief
Street Fight,
Feb 10, 2012, 2:54 PM EST
Alex Salkever offers up some advice to Patch's new chief content officer Rachel Fishman Feddersen on how the AOL property can dominate the hyperlocal arena: "My first piece of advice. Patch should dominate local sports. And I mean dominate. Not just high school but also kids leagues and junior leagues."
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Commentary
Publishers Are Flubbing The iPad
Reflections of a Newsosaur,
Feb 10, 2012, 2:54 PM EST
Alan Mutter:
"Publishers have to start doing better, because iPad owners, who represent the vast bulk of the tablet computing market, look an awful lot like newspaper readers." Link
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Commentary
How The Press Is Characterizing The Martin Tweets
The Washington Post,
Feb 10, 2012, 8:12 AM EST
The newsonomics of California news
The Death And Life Of California News
Nieman Journalism Lab,
Feb 9, 2012, 8:32 AM EST
Author Ken Doctor on the recent changes at several California news organizations: "We Californians like to believe we're always at the birth of the new new, from Hollywood to Silicon Valley. Certainly, that's been true of news change — and now that change has greatly accelerated, doing spins, free falls, reversals of fortune, and lots more. It's not really change — it's chaos. No one can tell what the journalistic landscape of the state may look like in, say, 2014. All we can say with certainty: we're witnessing the death and life of California news."
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Commentary
To BBC, Others: Twitter Is Not Competition
GigaOM,
Feb 9, 2012, 7:58 AM EST
Mathew Ingram: "I think news outlets that encourage their employees to break news on Twitter... see the value of having journalists who become sources of news for their followers, many of whom may already be readers of their journalism, and others of whom may be potential readers. Whether that news comes after it has hit the wire, or after it has appeared on a BBC website, or whether it is even a retweet of someone close to the events, doesn't really matter to most people."
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Commentary
Web Editor Sterotypes Are All True
Salon,
Feb 7, 2012, 3:52 PM EST
Kerry Lauerman, Salon.com editor in chief: "There's a terrible stereotype about Web editors, that we just care about traffic. Page views, unique visitors, clicks, hits, eyeballs, drivebys, furtive peeks, longing glances and everything in between. ... And it's true!"
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Commentary
Debunking The 'Original Sin' Of Online Papers
GigaOM,
Feb 7, 2012, 8:10 AM EST
Mathew Ingram on newspapers' "original sin" of not charging for online content when the Web was new: "Success in the news business isn't going to come from staring longingly into the past and thinking about some mythical Golden Age in which newspapers all charged for their content and the Internet was not a disruptive force. The disruption has happened, and the business has been irrevocably altered — if they want to survive, newspapers should spend more time thinking about how to adapt, and less time dreaming about how much better life would be if only they had put up a paywall 10 years ago."
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Commentary
People's Jounalism Isn't 'Citizen Journalism'
Steve Yelvington,
Feb 6, 2012, 2:05 PM EST
Steve Yelvington: "We have, through forums, story commenting, blogging, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, G+, Tumblr and other venues a free-flowing conversation covering everything from today's lunch plans to the horrors of state brutality in Tahrir Square. We can apply traditional definitions of 'newsworthy' and 'journalism' if we like, but there's really not much point. This new news will flow of its own accord, propelled by people's interests. There are no gatekeepers in this environment."
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Commentary
NYT Needs More Than Just A Paywall
GigaOM,
Feb 6, 2012, 8:13 AM EST
Mathew Ingram: "There's nothing wrong with having a paywall — although in many cases it amounts to building a wall of sandbags around the print newspaper edition, which provides most of the ad revenue — but if a paywall is your only strategy for responding to digital disruption of the media business, then you are almost certainly doomed, whether you are
The New York Times or not."
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Commentary
Could Pinterest Follow Yelp On Local Path?
Street Fight,
Feb 3, 2012, 3:09 PM EST
Alex Salkever: "I am fairly certain, however, that a class of local [Pinterest users] will begin to emerge who have followers and who specialize either in a city or a part of a city and, most likely, down to a specific specialty. And this will happen because pinterest is an extension of blogging and tweeting, really."
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Commentary: Facebook IPO
Does Facebook Have A Local Future?
BIA/Kelsey,
Feb 3, 2012, 7:20 AM EST
Jed Williams: "Facebook has never shown the propensity to build a sales force of the mass and scope necessary to exhaustively address local markets and SMBs. Even its deals play was an aggregated approach through partners. However, it does collect much of its advertising revenues from small and mid-market businesses that self-serve on the platform."
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Commentary
YouTube: What TV Executives Still Don't Get
PaidContent,
Feb 1, 2012, 8:12 AM EST
Will Richmond, president of market intelligence firm Broadband Directions: "There are many exciting things happening in the online video industry, but to my mind, none is more noteworthy than the radical transformation of YouTube. YouTube is shedding its scruffy adolescence and seeking to redefine what entertainment means in the online video era."
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Has Open Journalism Finally Arrived?
Knight Foundation,
Jan 31, 2012, 3:45 PM EST
Former
Sacramento Bee editor Melanie Sill: "Open journalism offers a framework for building journalism capacity and support for journalism’s aims. It focuses first on the needs of customers and citizens and looks at journalism as actions to meet those needs."
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Commentary
Ingram: Twitter Is Definitely A Media Entity
GigaOM,
Jan 31, 2012, 3:10 PM EST
Mathew Ingram on Twitter CEO Dick Costolo's claim the company is not a media entity: "In most of the ways that matter, Twitter definitely qualifies as a media entity, which is why its decision to selectively censor the user-generated content that flows through its network is so important."
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Commentary
Web Second, Mobile First
Mark Suster,
Jan 30, 2012, 8:01 AM EST
GRP Partners' Mark Suster on a mobile-first, Web-second strategy: "I think many recent companies make the mistake of not investing enough in web products, if they invest anything at all. ... But there are some things you just can’t do with mobile app."
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Commentary
Aggregation Is Deep In Journalism's DNA
Nieman Journalism Lab,
Jan 27, 2012, 4:11 PM EST
David Skok, citing
Time's start as an aggregator nearly 90 years ago, says aggregation and their desire to march up the value chain are nothing new: "We shouldn’t be surprised in the recent developments at the Huffington Post and Buzzfeed — nor should we be surprised when, in the coming months and years, other sites disdained by some make similar moves."
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Commentary
Problem With Seperate Digital Sales Teams
Mel Taylor Media,
Jan 27, 2012, 3:48 PM EST
Mel Taylor on the problems with the strategy of hiring a separate digital sales staff: "This strategy is not only a money loser, but it’s a massive time suck too. Newspapers waste precious resources on trying to make this work, while pure-plays like Reach Local, Google and the Yellow Pages actively steal local dollars right from under [their noses]."
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Commentary
Consolidation Means Growing Up For Deals
Street Fight,
Jan 27, 2012, 2:45 PM EST
Steven Jocbs on what Gilt Groupe's recent round of layoffs could mean for the daily deals industry: "It appears for now, that the honeymoon period is over, and the deals space is finally coming back to the hard reality of the street. The industry isn’t dying; it’s finally maturing."
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Commentary
Can Good Journalists Be Good Capitalists?
Steve Outing,
Jan 27, 2012, 10:11 AM EST
Steve Outing: "More new graduates will want to build new journalism businesses, because they’ve grown up to see lone bloggers starting on a shoestring build sizable media enterprises."
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Newsonomics of global media imperative
It's Time For Media Firms To Think Global
Nieman Journalism Lab,
Jan 27, 2012, 10:11 AM EST
Author Ken Doctor: "It’s a stark fact for what once were nationally defined media businesses: If you don’t go global, you’re at an increasing disadvantage to your competitors — and who isn’t a competitor for audience or advertising? If you stay nationally focused, you’re trying to wring as much revenue out of a much smaller market, while competitors are building their top line and their capability to innovate with global revenues."
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Commentary
Supply, Demand Are Out Of Media's Hands
GigaOM,
Jan 26, 2012, 4:46 PM EST
Mathew Ingram: "The bottom line is that whatever control media companies and advertisers once had over the supply-demand equation is gone ... The easiest way to move forward is probably to forget that such an equation ever existed — and to focus on figuring out what success looks like in the new media universe."
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Radio
Google Changes Let Radio Sites Reassess
Radio-Info,
Jan 25, 2012, 6:24 AM EST
Daniel Anstandig, co-founder of Listener Driven Radio, on Google's algorithm changes that will penalize sites for having too many ads at the top of the page and what it means for radio sites: "This is a good opportunity for managers to evaluate their site design and examine it for usability. While a lower amount of clutter isn't the only determining factor in how useful or repeat-visit-worthy audiences will deem a site, it's definitely a big one."
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Commentary
Has Huffington Post Really Failed In The UK?
The Media Briefing,
Jan 24, 2012, 3:20 PM EST
How Sharing Disrupts Media
Reuters Blog,
Jan 23, 2012, 7:59 AM EST
Felix Salmon: "In the future, the most viral stories are going to have a life of their own, being shared across many different platforms and being read by people who will never visit the original site on which they were published."
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Commentary: SOPA/PIPA
We All Deserve Better Than SOPA, PIPA
Steve Yelvington,
Jan 20, 2012, 1:58 PM EST
Steve Yelvington: "[Copyright laws] should be written by representatives of the people, not by lobbyists. ... The very existence of SOPA-PIPA demonstrates how corporate money has corrupted Congress. We all deserve better."
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The Newsonomics Of Signature Content
News Orgs Should Keep Eye On Netflix, Hulu
Nieman Journalism Lab,
Jan 19, 2012, 4:19 PM EST
Author Ken Doctor says the news business needs to pay attention to Hulu and Netflix: Name-brand content is worth investing in: "Netflix is planning to spend 5% of its expenses — or $100 million a year — on original, Netflix-defining content. Hulu is spending about a quarter what Netflix's total ... With its other forays, it will probably spend closer to 10% of its content budget on original content. Curiously, many newspaper newsrooms constitute only 10-20% of the overall expenses of a daily newspaper company."
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Clay Shirky: Why SOPA Is A Bad Idea
TED,
Jan 19, 2012, 2:28 PM EST
New York University professor Clay Shirky explains the Stop Online Piracy and Protect IP Acts and why they are a bad idea in a recent TED Talk.
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Commentary
Why Boston.com Got Into Sports Tickets Biz
Nieman Journalism Lab,
Jan 19, 2012, 8:10 AM EST
The separation of BostonGlobe.com and Boston.com paved the way for latter to try out revenue ideas that some newspaper brands might not be OK with, including
selling sports tickets.
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Hyperlocals Should Have An Exit Strategy
Talk About Local,
Jan 18, 2012, 3:07 PM EST
Nicky Getgood, communications manager at Talk About Local, on a hyperlocal exit strategy: "If there's one piece of advice I'd offer to hyperlocal website managers it would be to start thinking of how you'd hand it over now, even if you've no intention of doing so in the near future. New businesses are always told to consider their exit strategy when starting up and I'd suggest it would be a good idea for website managers to do the same."
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Commentary
Web Reporting Is Often A Game Of Telephone
Adweek,
Jan 18, 2012, 8:34 AM EST
NewsRight Is Not Another Righthaven
Nieman Journalism Lab,
Jan 18, 2012, 8:23 AM EST
Former newspaper executive Martin Langeveld says the AP's NewsRight will deliver new content packages, niche audiences and revenue: "NewsRight has the potential to create revenue for any content creator large or small, and to enable a variety of new business models around content that simply can't fly today because there hasn't been a clearinghouse system like it."
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Commentary
For News Orgs, Fact-Checking Is Worth Cost
Nieman Journalism Lab,
Jan 13, 2012, 4:15 PM EST
Craigslist founder Craig Newmark: "The news outlets making a strong effort to fact-check will be acting in good faith and trustworthy, and profitable. However, this seems like a good way to start restoring trust to the news business."
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Commentary
Newspapers, Mags Need Better Apps
Advertising Age,
Jan 13, 2012, 8:38 AM EST
Rebecca McPheters, CEO of McPheters & Co.: "Publishers have been successful in getting many consumers to again realize that content is something of value for which they must pay. Now they must take pains to ensure that the quality of the products they put forth justifies the expenditure."
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The newsonomics of the Long Goodbye
The Decline Of Sears, Kodak, Newspapers
Nieman Journalism Lab,
Jan 12, 2012, 3:59 PM EST
Author Ken Doctor: "Let’s call the slow disappearance of familiar brands the newsonomics of the long goodbye. Take companies that have huge imprints in our culture and habits — and cashflows to match — and their disappearance from our lives can seem like it is moving in glacial digital time. But that disappearance is no less real. It is a fact of the news landscape that newspapers, and to some extent consumer print magazines, will disappear over time."
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CES 2012
Five Things To Know About CES
Advertising Age,
Jan 12, 2012, 3:38 PM EST
David Berkowitz, VP of emerging media and innovation for digital ad agency 360i, lists five things to know about the Consumer Electronics Show:
- The Convention Center is for pure technological sensory overload.
- Nothing truly groundbreaking debuts at CES.
- Keynotes are self-promotional performances with little to no impact.
- Meetings matter more than products.
- Follow-up meetings matter even more.
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Commentary
Page: Digital First? Not So Fast
News & Tech,
Jan 12, 2012, 8:37 AM EST
Douglas Page on why newspapers shouldn't ditch their print editions just yet: "If you kill off that print thing, then there's little difference — other than the numbers of users, page views and time spent on-site — between you and any other website."
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Commentary
Rise Of Citizen Journalism Is A Positive Force
GigaOM,
Jan 12, 2012, 8:31 AM EST
Mathew Ingram on
New York Times writer
Nicholas Kristof's views on citizen journalism: "Journalism gets better the more people there are doing it. That's not to say every citizen journalist or person with a smartphone and a Twitter account is going to be right or fair ... but it means that there are more sources of information, and that is almost always a good thing."
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Three Laws For Journos In The Digital World
PBS MediaShift,
Jan 11, 2012, 3:41 PM EST
Journalist Tristan Stewart-Robertson riffs off Isaac Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics to propose Three Laws for Journalists in the Digital World:
- 1. Digital systems must be designed to protect and ensure, to the fullest extent possible, personal data and its exchange and communication.
- 2. Journalists must pursue all stories deemed to be in the public interest, even where that may require challenging the security of digital systems.
- 3. Journalists must protect their sources as well as the innocent public to the same extent as the digital systems of the First Law, where it would otherwise render the impossibility of the Second Law.
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Commentary
Innovating Too Quickly Is Not The Problem
GigaOM,
Jan 10, 2012, 8:22 AM EST
Mathew Ingram on
The Washington Post ombudsman Patrick Pexton's column suggesting that
the Post is innovating too fast: "The last thing the
Post (or any newspaper, for that matter) needs to worry about is whether it’s moving too quickly. If anything, the pace of change in media is speeding up rather than slowing down."
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Commentary: Paywalls and Pay Strategies
How FT, NY Times Will Crack The Paywall
Monday Note,
Jan 9, 2012, 3:27 PM EST
Frédéric Filloux on how the
Financial Times and
The New York Times can make their paywall efforts successful: "With pre-existing and different audience segments such as an individual and corporate users, pricing decisions become more complicated and a diversified price list can prevent cannibalization.
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Commentary
Three Ways To Cut The Cord On Cable
The Wall Street Journal,
Jan 9, 2012, 8:25 AM EST
NewsRight: Carrot Or Stick For Aggregators?
GigaOM,
Jan 9, 2012, 8:13 AM EST
Mathew Ingram on last week's launch of AP's news registry and licensing service NewsRight: "For NewsRight, the big test will come when it offers onerous licensing terms to an aggregator: What happens when an organization like The Huffington Post says no thank you? That’s when it will become obvious how much of NewsRight’s business model is based on carrots, and how much of it is about waving a big stick."
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The Newsonomics of the News Dial-O-Matic
Taking Control Of Our News Diet
Nieman Journalism Lab,
Jan 6, 2012, 3:18 PM EST
Author Ken Doctor: "Everyone in the media business wants to do this simple thing better: serve their customers more of what they are likely to consume so that they’ll consume more ... It’s not a bad goal in and of itself, but sometimes it feels like it is being done
to us, rather than for us. ... Let’s think of three simple news reading controls that could right the balance of choice, the social whirl and technology."
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2011: Not Really Year Of 'The Great Paywall'
GigaOM,
Jan 6, 2012, 8:29 AM EST
Bobbie Johnson: "There has been a lot written about paywalls over the past year or two. ... As far as I can see, the jury is still out on the issue. It's not that paywalls can't work — there are countless examples of success over the years. Still, we should be very careful that when they succeed, people take away the right lessons."
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Commentary
Baltimore Sun Paywall Should Emulate NYT
Baltimore Magazine,
Jan 6, 2012, 8:29 AM EST
Evan Serpick: "ne aspect of the paywall that I have been critical of from the start is that, unlike
The [New York] Times,
The [Baltimore] Sun requires its print subscribers to pay an additional fee to access the website. This just feels like to insult to the paper's core customers, those who have stuck by it while others fled."
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Cerf: Internet Acces Is Not A Human Right
The New York Times,
Jan 6, 2012, 6:46 AM EST
Vinton Cerf, Google VP and chief Internet evangelist and one of the Internet's creators: "Improving the Internet is just one means, albeit an important one, by which to improve the human condition. It must be done with an appreciation for the civil and human rights that deserve protection — without pretending that access itself is such a right."
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What 2012 Has In Store For Mobile
MediaPost,
Jan 5, 2012, 8:47 AM EST
Voice search, better analytics and more respect for tablet computers are only a few of the things on the horizon as the mobile revolution continues into 2012.
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Commentary
Newspapers, Paywalls And Core Users
Clay Shirky,
Jan 5, 2012, 8:05 AM EST
Clay Shirky: "Against this hugely variable audience behavior, a paywall was all-or-nothing: 'If you won’t give us any money, we won’t show you any ads!' Offered this all-or-nothing choice, most readers opted for ‘nothing’ ... This isn’t a problem with general-interest paywalls — it is
the problem, widely understood before the turn of the century, and one to which there has never been a convincing answer. The easy part of treating digital news as a product is getting money from 2% of your audience. The hard part is losing 98% of your advertising base."
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TVB commentary
Mobile Will Be Big For Local TV In 2012
TVB,
Jan 4, 2012, 8:00 AM EST
The TVB sees 2012 as a banner year for broadcasting and one of the biggest reasons why will be mobile: “One of the most important areas that will invigorate Local Broadcast Television is likely to come from a somewhat unexpected place: Mobile. Smartphones, tablets, and their portable brethren all are ever-present consumer tools that will help to lead the local media revolution. Owners of these devices are not only consuming content — on a local and national basis — but they’re also creating their own content.”
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Commentary
How Groupon Will Expand In 2012
Street Fight,
Jan 3, 2012, 3:26 PM EST
Jeremy Mims, co-founder of OwnLocal: "Andrew Mason and company are far too smart to rest on their laurels. Saying Groupon is only daily deals and can never be anything else is vastly underestimating this team. Groupon’s future will look far more diverse than many pundits are giving them credit for."
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Commentary
Journalism Needs Tintins To Invigorate Field
Huffington Post,
Jan 3, 2012, 8:18 AM EST
Sara-Ellen Amster, National University journalism professor, says the field needs more reporters with the intrepid spirit of Tintin, the star of the 80-year-old comic book series: "As a journalism educator, I know the future of journalism is incredibly strong and filled with opportunity, even as the news and publishing industries undergo reinvention online. ... Yet it is clear journalists need even more training and clarity than they ever did."
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Commentary
Choose Your Own News, Be Less Well Read
Guardian,
Jan 3, 2012, 7:38 AM EST
Peter Preston: "The easy thing is to serve up a dish of the day you know will sell, because it sold just this way yesterday and the day before. A reader's little pot pie. The difficult thing is to offer readers things they didn't know and can't be interested in until they stop and sample: that essential news bargain."
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Commentary
Newspaper Stocks Deserve Another Look
Seeking Alpha,
Dec 29, 2011, 3:13 PM EST
Could A 'Reverse Pay Meter' Work For News?
BuzzMachine,
Dec 29, 2011, 8:35 AM EST
Jeff Jarvis on changing the pay strategy for newspaper sites: "My idea for the reverse meter values the engaged reader over the occasional reader — and even rewards greater engagement. And therein lies, I think, the key strategic skill for news businesses online: understanding that all readers are not equal; knowing who your more valuable readers are; getting more of them; and making them more valuable."
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How Digital First Succeeds At Making Money
The Buttry Diary,
Dec 29, 2011, 8:35 AM EST
Steve Buttry: "Newspaper advertising revenues have dropped by 64% (after adjusting for inflation) from the third quarter of 2005 to the third quarter of this year. After 21 straight quarters of dropping ad revenues, the news business needs a new revenue approach."
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Commentary
Why Local Media Opposes SOPA
Cal Coast News,
Dec 28, 2011, 8:42 AM EST
Bill Macfayden, founder and publisher of local news site
Noozhawk: "The escalating risk will most certainly mean fewer Internet startups and less Web development. Don't get too comfortable using tools like Dropbox, Flickr, Scribd, Shutterfly or Storify. Or resources like Flipboard, Google Docs, Wikipedia and WordPress. Or try to get your head around the concept of cloud computing."
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Patch's 2012 Goal: To Be Local 'Application'
Street Fight,
Dec 27, 2011, 3:09 PM EST
Patch President Warren Webster on the hyperlocal network's plans for 2012: "2012 will be another big, important year for local. ... Patch aims to be not just a news provider in 2012, but a local
application that makes living life in your neighborhood ridiculously easy."
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Commentary
2012 To Bring 'Retrenchment' For Papers
Nieman Journalism Lab,
Dec 27, 2011, 6:45 AM EST
Dan Kennedy: "In fact, there are reasons to hope the traditional newspaper industry might have a bit more life left in it than we thought a few years ago.
The [Boston] Globe and
The New York Times, both owned by The New York Times Company, are pioneering the use of flexible paywalls that keep much of their content open to social networks and blogs while imposing a fee on regular readers."
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The Future Of News
The Problem With Future Of News Theory
Columbia Journalism Review,
Dec 27, 2011, 6:45 AM EST
Dean Starkman on the future of news debate: "[NYU proressor Clay] Shirky might ask, yes, but how do you finance all this fabulous bureaucracy? I say, well, you might start with a freaking pay wall. But, really, I don’t pretend to know, and I have a lot of company since, as Shirky agrees, nobody does."
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Commentary
New Rules For The Ways We Watch
The New York Times,
Dec 27, 2011, 6:45 AM EST
David Carr: "Big media companies still rely on huge, well-entrenched assets that include brands, distribution and capital. But even if the sky is still aloft, there are visible, portentous cracks appearing. The inertia that has kept consumers from bolting from traditional content providers is beginning to erode as a new generation remakes media in its own image."
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Commentary
OTUS And Golden Age Of Political Reporting
Reuters,
Dec 27, 2011, 6:45 AM EST
Jack Shafer on political news site: "Not to oversell the current scene, but the proliferation of political news sites ... means we’re living in a bit of a golden age of political reporting. At least when it comes to national politics and national government, there have never been more reporters competing to break news. Not everything on the menu tastes great, but there’s no denying it’s a feast."
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Commentary
WellCommons Shakes Up News Model
Knight Digital Media Center,
Dec 23, 2011, 7:43 AM EST
Jane Stevens, former digital director at the
Lawrence (Kan.) Journal World who founded the newspaper's Eppy Award winning health news vertical
WellCommons, on social media and local news: "Much of journalism is stuck in the quicksand of trying preserve the print or TV or radio platform on a very different digital medium that has its own idiosyncrasies. The main difference between WellCommons and any other news site is that social media is baked into the DNA of its content management system. It is a social media site."
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Commentary
NYT Paywall 'Isn't Cutting It As A Strategy'
GigaOM,
Dec 21, 2011, 7:55 AM EST
Mathew Ingram, suggests some things he would do if he were CEO of
The New York Times, including reassessing the paywall: "The NYT wall is bringing in some revenue, which is good, but it's probably not going to grow much beyond the levels it has reached already. ... It's also fundamentally backward-looking, in that it is aimed primarily at shoring up print revenue. The new CEO shouldn't kill it, but shouldn't focus on it either."
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Commentary by Robert Hernandez
For Future Of News, Killer App Is Credibility
Nieman Journalism Lab,
Dec 20, 2011, 3:42 PM EST
Robert Hernandez, an assistant professor of professional practice in journalism at USC Annenberg: "With technology empowering everyone with the ability to create and to distribute, I predict — and wish — that in 2012 the new dominating factor will be Credibility. Actually,
earned Credibility."
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2012 Could Be Big Year For Local Online
Nieman Journalism Lab,
Dec 20, 2011, 8:03 AM EST
Carrie Brown-Smith, assistant professor of journalism at the University of Memphis, on how 2012 could play out for local television and other media: "In addition to the election-year advertising boon, local television, with its recognizable personalities, also has a clear opportunity in the digital space."
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Commentary
Defining Journalism Is Easier Said Than Done
Business Insider,
Dec 19, 2011, 8:02 AM EST
Mathew Ingram on the blogger versus journalist debate: "I think we have to resist the temptation to restrict our definition of journalism, just because there is some bad journalism out there (something there was plenty of before the Internet and blogging came along)."
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Newsonomics of the magic formula for 2012
News Orgs Seek Formula For 2012 Success
Nieman Journalism Lab,
Dec 16, 2011, 6:30 AM EST
Author Ken Doctor takes a look at some of the numbers that will determine how news organizations will adjust to new digital realities: "There’s an algorithm out there, we can be sure. It’s got all the components of business success for news-creating companies, each value carefully computed and relational to the others. Yet, approaching 2012, the algorithm hasn’t been found."
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Commentary
Piracy Laws Must Preserve Web Freedom
CNN,
Dec 15, 2011, 8:32 AM EST
Ivan Sigal and Rebecca MacKinnon on the Stop Online Piracy Act before Congress: "It is only reasonable to expect that Internet-related legislation should be consistent with Congress' repeated commitment to uphold and protect rights of Internet users globally."
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Can Outbrain Find Value In Content Linking?
Reuters Blog,
Dec 15, 2011, 8:10 AM EST
Felix Salmon on Outbrain's $35 million funding round: "Essentially, the question is this: can algorithms really compete with humans when it comes to finding great links? Outbrain’s links aren’t that great, but Outbrain is hobbled."
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Commentary
Multinational Cos Are YouTube's Real Pirates
Guardian,
Dec 14, 2011, 8:01 AM EST
Cory Doctorow on ContentID, a YouTube service intended to automatically police copyrights on the behalf of rights holders: "One titanic problem with ContentID has received little attention: the use of ContentID by those who falsely or incorrectly assert ownership over public domain works — works that have no copyright at all — and then either block access to the videos, or collect the advertising revenue from these videos."
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Commentary: Bloggers Vs. Journalists
Info, Not Writer, Subject Of Press Freedom
The Atlantic,
Dec 13, 2011, 3:47 PM EST
Rebecca Rosen, on the blogger versus journalist argument: "It's the quality and content of the information that matters to press freedom, not the people spreading it."
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Commentary
Digital Giants Close In On Local Media
Newsosaur,
Dec 13, 2011, 8:30 AM EST
Alan Mutter: "Next year will be the year that the big technology companies go after local publishing and broadcasting businesses more fiercely than ever before. Most local media companies have no idea what's about to hit them — much less a plan to respond."
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Commentary
New SOPA Is Less Of A Threat To Local Sites
Street Fight,
Dec 12, 2011, 3:48 PM EST
Brian Dengler on Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Calif. Republican Rep. Darrell Issa's SOPA alternative the OPEN act: "The OPEN Act holds less risk for hyperlocal news publishers, because it does not give a rights owners an immediate, fast solution to blacklist a site."
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Commentary: Hyperlocal Strategy
One Strategy Won't Work For All Markets
Street Fight,
Dec 12, 2011, 3:28 PM EST
Don Buckindail, community website station liaison at Gannett Media: "One reads a lot about small hyperlocal start-ups and what they need to do to survive. Big groups of local sites need to steal pages from their playbooks. ... You also can’t lay out blanket requirements for every station and community."
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Commentary
When Truth Survives Free Speech
The New York Times,
Dec 12, 2011, 7:35 AM EST
David Carr on Crystal Cox, the blogger who earlier this month was
found guilty of defamation and ordered to pay $2.5 million to investment firm Obsidian Financial Group when a judge ruled that she was not a journalist: "In the pre-Web days, someone like Ms. Cox might have been one more obsessive in the lobby of a newspaper, waiting to show a reporter a stack of documents that proved the biggest story never told. The Web has allowed Ms. Cox to cut out the middleman; various blogs give voice to her every theory, and search algorithms give her work prominence."
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Commentary
For Globe, Two Brands Isn't Better Than One
Nieman Journalism Lab,
Dec 12, 2011, 7:07 AM EST
Joshua Macht, group publisher for the Harvard Business Review Group, on
The Boston Globe's split-site Web strategy: "So often, we still create a false dichotomy online between paid versus free. The fact is that the two models can — and in fact must — live together in order to widen the audience and then simultaneously discover what makes your brand special online. For the
Globe, separating the brands with different URLs may solve a few problems in the short run, but in the broader scheme, it’s a recipe for limiting growth and opportunity."
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Commentary
Google Doesn't Get How Media Works
GigaOM,
Dec 12, 2011, 6:38 AM EST
Mathew Ingram on
Google Currents: "Google’s app, while well-designed in many ways, lacks much of the polish and user-interface elements that make Flipboard so compelling. And at least in my limited usage of it so far, it doesn’t even manage to rise to the level that Zite provides."
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Newsonomics of Google's Retail Push
Google's Retail Goals May Hurt News Orgs
Nieman Journalism Lab,
Dec 9, 2011, 9:52 AM EST
Author Ken Doctor: "Is the replacement of newspaper as advertising-oriented middleman inevitable? Probably, but over a longer term. Since the dawn of the web, people have been chasing the perfection of commerce, and it’s been a tough slog with far more losers than winners."
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Commentary: Crystal Cox Defamation Case
Journos May Not Want Cox In Their Camp
Forbes,
Dec 9, 2011, 9:40 AM EST
Forbes' Kashmir Hill on Crystal Cox, the blogger who earlier this month was found guilty of defamation and ordered to pay $2.5 million to investment firm Obsidian Financial Group when a judge ruled that she was not a journalist: "Obsidian’s tech team found dozens of sites that appeared to have been created by Cox to write about Obsidian, says Padrick, and over 1,900 others that she had created to write about other people and companies. This is not the work of a journalist, but the work of someone intent on destroying reputations."
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Advertising Money Shifting To Promotions
Terry Heaton's PoMo Blog,
Dec 8, 2011, 3:34 PM EST
Terry Heaton on the spending of marketing dollars on things other than traditional advertising: "So dramatic has the growth been in this category — and what’s projected to come — that the gouge it takes out of advertising budgets won’t be a small bite."
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opinion
Computers Will Write 90% Of News In 15 Years
Just To Clarify,
Dec 8, 2011, 8:21 AM EST
Commentary
Cox Case Doesn't Fit In Broader Journo World
GigaOM,
Dec 8, 2011, 8:17 AM EST
Mathew Ingram on the
Crystal Cox case: "The court's decision that freedom of the press protections only apply to journalists with traditional or mainstream entities seems out of step with [earlier] rulings ... which suggests journalism — and the idea of who is a journalist — is a much broader concept than it has been in the past."
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Is It Time To Remove Wall Between Biz, Edit
PBS MediaShift,
Dec 7, 2011, 3:13 PM EST
Dorian Benkoil: "I'm not proposing a free-for-all money-grab that destroys journalistic imperatives. I am calling for those who make the 'product' to learn how it's sold so they can better do their jobs and
contribute to the bottom line."
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Commentary
The Paradox Of Social Television
MediaPost,
Dec 7, 2011, 8:49 AM EST
Sam Vasisht: "While the appeal of the second screen is in its potential for advertising — and highly targeted, interactive advertising to boot — one of the primary adoption paths of such second screens will be through social features."
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Commentary
In Digital Age, New Info Gatekeepers Rise
GigaOM,
Dec 6, 2011, 6:46 AM EST
Mathew Ingram: "These new information overlords [Google, Facebook, Apple and Twitter] have been in the news recently because of their control (or perceived control) over certain information, and the reaction from users has reinforced the tension between the freedom these companies provide and the hoops through which we have to go in order to achieve it."
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Commentary
Why Local Will Dominate Mobile Ad Spend
Street Fight,
Dec 5, 2011, 2:26 PM EST
Mike Boland, BIA/Kelsey senior analyst: "[Click-through rates] and CPMs shouldn’t go away, but we’ll see more metrics around these secondary actions. They’ll also evolve with “closed loop” efforts like bar code scans, deals and payments."
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Commentary
The Erosion Of The Paid Media Pyramid
Seth Godin,
Dec 5, 2011, 6:52 AM EST
Seth Godin: "Media projects of the future will be cheaper to build, faster to market, less staffed with expensive marketers and more focused on creating free media that earns enough attention to pay for itself with limited patronage."
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Commentary
TV Ownership Down: Has The Internet Won?
Yidio,
Dec 1, 2011, 3:01 PM EST
Journalist Sean Comer on Nielsen's report that
television set ownership has declined for the first time since it has been tracking data: "
College mass communications courses may one day look back on this year as the first verifiable proof that broadcast and cable television was entering obselecence." Link
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Commentary
Yelp IPO Will Test Flaws In Its Biz Model
Harvard Business Review,
Nov 30, 2011, 3:17 PM EST
Personalizing Helps Economist Win In Digital
Nieman Journalism Lab,
Nov 29, 2011, 1:56 PM EST
Megan Garber, on how
The Economist is winning over digital fans: "What The Economist has managed to capture — to recapture — is, I think, the sense of self and self-containment that defined media brands before those brands became social. It is not just clever content, cleverly packaged. It is also an outsourced worldview."
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Nonprofits Need To Boost Community Efforts
PBS MediaShift,
Nov 29, 2011, 1:56 PM EST
Rich Gordon, associate professor at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism: "Nonprofit news organizations will survive only if they find and build a community: Identify people who believe in their mission, engage them online and in person, and make them want to provide financial support. This is not a new model. It's pretty much the same thing that public television and public radio have done for decades. But the recent research reports suggest that most of the new non-profit news startups have made only a little progress in this area."
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Can We Trust Web Ad Biz To Regulate Itself?
PaidContent,
Nov 29, 2011, 1:56 PM EST
Jeff Roberts: "People are increasingly uneasy about the volume of data they reveal to third parties every time they use the Internet. And the reality is that the ad companies’ new guidelines are unlikely to reassure them."
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Building Biz Models Based On Local Influence
Street Fight,
Nov 29, 2011, 8:24 AM EST
Patrick Kitano, founding principal of advisery firm Domus Consulting Group: "Leveraging local influence will eventually become a powerful marketing tool, but it will likely take the field sales forces of social media marketing agencies and companies that channel local influencers like Yelp to develop these new business models."
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Commentary
LA Times: SOPA Is Not The Right Answer
Los Angeles Times,
Nov 29, 2011, 7:42 AM EST
Commentary
NYT: Congress Overreaches With SOPA
The New York Times,
Nov 29, 2011, 7:38 AM EST
Commentary
Meehan: Joining Print, Digital Key To Survival
InPublishing,
Nov 28, 2011, 6:55 AM EST
John Meehan, media consultant and former editor of the
Hull Daily Mail: "Let's integrate print and digital, but it must be done intelligently. Throwing all of our print content on to the Web — or even the best of it — is total madness. It's simply cannibalizing unnecessarily our already under-pressure print sales and readership. We simply have to develop differentiated, complementary and cross-promotional print and digital platforms — many consumer touchpoints, united by brand."
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Big Picture Stories Raise Hyperlocals' Value
Street Fight,
Nov 23, 2011, 2:03 PM EST
Tom Grubisich: "The big picture is the big challenge for hyperlocals everywhere. At one- and two-person operations — which most sites are — the temptation is powerful to focus on granular, topical stories. These stories are an essential part of the DNA of hyperlocals — most of them won't get attention anywhere else. But if they want to be valuable, hyperlocals have to take enough time to sketch out their community's big picture."
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Ex-Legislators: Rural U.S. Needs Broadband
The Columbia Basin Farmer,
Nov 23, 2011, 8:56 AM EST
Former U.S. Sen. Byron Dorgan and Former U.S. Reps. George Nethercutt and Charlie Stenholm: "In short, rural America needs modern information technologies as much, if not more, than the rest of the country. And while we enjoy the benefits of GPS and other technologies, we continue to lack broadband."
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Commentary
An Opt-Out Law Could Lead To More Paywalls
Huffington Post,
Nov 23, 2011, 8:03 AM EST
Author and journalism professor Jeff Jarvis reacts to a
New York Times editorial that calls for Congress to establish a system that would allow consumers to opt out of online tracking: "If the
Times gets its wish and Do Not Track passes, enabling too many consumers 'to effectively opt out of all tracking of their online activities,' then I fear we will get less content or more paywalls or both."
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Commentary: PaidContent Sale
Is There A Market For Media Intelligence?
The Media Briefing,
Nov 22, 2011, 3:35 PM EST
Patrick Smith: "If there is no market for paidContent’s impartial, informed and honest reporting, while so much lazy, uninformed, linkbait-driven, speculation-heavy tech/media reporting remains, then we really are in a pickle as an industry."
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Commentary
Why Netflix Buyback Worked — Until It Failed
All Things Digital,
Nov 22, 2011, 2:53 PM EST
Ben Parr Says Goodbye To Mashable
BenParr.com,
Nov 21, 2011, 3:58 PM EST
Sites Need To Be Careful With Attribution
Street Fight,
Nov 21, 2011, 2:43 PM EST
Brian Dengler, an eMedia attorney and journalist: "Hyperlocal news publishers that rely on aggregation or content from other sites need to think carefully about how they present it. Threats by large media companies over aggregation of their content and this month's highly profiled spat at the Poynter Institute over attribution highlight the perils that publishers face when they rely on third-party content."
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Commentary
What The Groupon IPO Means For Daily Deals
Street Fight,
Nov 21, 2011, 2:28 PM EST
Martin Tobias, founder and CEO of Tippr, says that history shows that Groupon's recent IPO success is good news for the daily deals industry: "While red flags remain about Groupon’s specific business model, a successful IPO of the industry leader forces the market to recognize it and other players. Case and point: Internet search."
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AP Tries To Figure Out Wire In Twitter Age
Mediaite,
Nov 21, 2011, 7:10 AM EST
Philip Bump: "Getting it first has always been a large part of the value proposition for the AP. The AP wire was once issued over teletype, sending out news flashes ('KENNEDY SERIOUSLY WOUNDED—') as they occurred. In 1963, it was Twitter, verified. People paid the AP to get it first."
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Commentary
Are Recent Patch Traffic Bumps Enough?
Nieman Journalism Lab,
Nov 18, 2011, 8:33 AM EST
AOL's hyperlocal Patch network saw a 75% increase during September's Hurrican Irene and a 50% increase at some sites last week due to election coverage. Justin Ellis: "All news organizations know a fair chunk of their visitors come by once, never to return again, but if you're a metro paper or site with a national audience, the drive-bys can fit well into the larger audience mix. ... If you're a Patch site covering a town between 30,000-40,000 people, there aren't a ton of potential regular readers around — which makes converting drive-bys into long-timers is even more important."
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Commentary
How SOPA Could Impact Journalists
10,000 Words,
Nov 17, 2011, 6:58 AM EST
Jessica Roy: "If SOPA passes, these sites would be entirely responsible for the actions of their users. That means that if just one user posts content deemed illegal by SOPA, the entire website could be blocked. Platforms that are integral to both citizen journalism and successful multimedia journalism could effectively cease to exist."
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Memo To AP: Twitter Is The Newswire Now
GigaOM,
Nov 17, 2011, 6:58 AM EST
Mathew Ingram on the Associated Press's reaction to its staffers tweeting news of the Occupy Wall Street arrests before it was sent out on the wire: "If a 140-character post or two by one of your reporters on Twitter is a threat to your news service, then you have a problem that can’t be fixed by simply enforcing your social-media policies more stringently."
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Outing: News Will Shed Brands In 20 Years
SteveOuting.com,
Nov 15, 2011, 8:27 AM EST
Steve Outing on what online news will look like 20 years from now: "This 'news' will not be tied to a single news brand, but rather some 'news+information system' or 'agent' (with a brand) will find and deliver all that’s relevant to me, from many media brands."
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Salmon: Online Ad-Driven Models Inevitable
Wired,
Nov 15, 2011, 8:15 AM EST
Reuters' Felix Salmon: "One of the big reasons why online advertising has done so well is simply the negative one: online micropayments were a disaster, and never took off. But they’re much more compelling as a business model, and there’s a decent chance that at some point in the future the financial system as a whole is going to get its act together and put together something which actually works and which people are happy to adopt."
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Commentary
What Steve Jobs Would Do If He Ran A Paper
Mel Taylor Media,
Nov 14, 2011, 8:18 AM EST
Mel Taylor on what Apple co-founder Steve Jobs might have done if he had headed a newspaper company instead: "Steam would be blowing out of Steve Jobs’ ears when he found out that some newspapers are creating separate sales forces or so-called digital divisions."
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Commentary
Publishers Need To Focus On Facebook
Editor & Publisher,
Nov 11, 2011, 7:00 AM EST
Alan Mutter: "There’s nothing wrong with newspapers participating in the Facebook ecosystem, if those activities are part of a thoughtful and strategic plan to benefit the publications. Because such plans to date generally have been in short supply among editors and publishers, newspapers at the moment are doing more for Facebook than they are doing for themselves. And that’s not good for newspapers."
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Newsonomics
Papers Could Use Some Silicon Valley Fervor
Nieman Journalism Lab,
Nov 11, 2011, 6:46 AM EST
Author Ken Doctor explores why newspapers glorify the past, hate the present and fear the future — the exact opposite of Silicon Valley.
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Commentary: Future of News
Philosophizing Fine, But Action Saves Papers
Columbia Journalism Review,
Nov 10, 2011, 2:57 PM EST
Emily Bell,
director of Columbia University's Tow Center for Digital Journalism: "When faced with the decline of print sales (inexorable) and the disruption of your industry, you cannot always stand back and wait to see who wins an intellectual argument. You have to make decisions, organize newsrooms, and build technology."
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Commentary
Twitter And Journalism Shouldn't Be Hard
GigaOM,
Nov 8, 2011, 3:36 PM EST
Mathew Ingram: "By pretending that their journalists don't have opinions, when everyone knows that they do, mainstream media outlets are suggesting their viewers or readers are too stupid to figure out where the truth lies, or too thick to consider the facts of a story if the reporter happens to have retweeted someone or joined a Facebook page."
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Ira Glass: 'Who Cares If Radio Survives?'
Nieman Journalism Lab,
Nov 7, 2011, 2:01 PM EST
This American Life's Ira Glass on radio's future: "I think the question of, “Is radio going to survive?” — it’s disturbingly nostalgic. I mean, who cares if it survives? Who cares if radio survives? Something else will happen."
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Commentary
Buttry: The Name Doesn't Make The Brand
The Buttry Diary,
Nov 7, 2011, 2:01 PM EST
Steve Buttry: "Print newspapers are a declining business, and news organizations should spend time, energy, focus and money on building a successful digital business for the future, not trying to rebrand the product of the past."
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Commentary
YouTube Channels Complement What Works
All Things Digital,
Nov 7, 2011, 7:45 AM EST
YouTube has become a big business pulling in serious money
— the site could generate as much as $1.6 billion this year
— and it's now adding professionally produced content channels. But are they really necessary? Peter Kafka: "The channel strategy is a big focus for YouTube, but it doesn’t mean the site is abandoning what’s already working."
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Commentary
Wall Between Edit, Sales Needs A Few Gates
Steve Yelvington,
Nov 7, 2011, 8:01 AM EST
Steve Yelvington: "Newsrooms need to collaborate in appropriate ways with the rest of the company to gather the kind of audiences that advertisers need to address."
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How Twitter's 'Top News' Will Help, Hurt Pubs
Poynter,
Nov 4, 2011, 7:46 AM EDT
Jeff Sonderman on Twitter's new Top News section: "With this change, Twitter also moves from being a passive conduit for messages toward actively curating Web content based on tweets. Many third-party services already attempt to analyze Twitter data to find trending news stories, but this is the first time Twitter is doing so itself."
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Commentary
Google Policy Does Not Filter 'Better News'
Emily Bell(wether),
Nov 4, 2011, 7:32 AM EDT
Emily Bell on the announcement from Google, that it is going to allow journalists to become more visible in its Google News service, as long as they have a profile on the Google Plus social platform: "The reason the move to promote journalists who use the service rather than those who don’t is wrong, from Google’s perspective as well as the consumers, is that it does not help filter ‘better news’ it confuses the picture. It promotes one type of journalistic activity which has pretty much nothing to do with the quality of reporting."
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The Newsonomics of Yahoo Livestand
Aggregators Beating Local News To Tablets
Nieman Journalism Lab,
Nov 3, 2011, 3:29 PM EDT
Author Ken Doctor on tablet news readers: "Ironically, local should be a green field for the tablet news aggregators. ... If aggregators can aggregate local on the tablet faster than local publishers claim their own tablet turf, they’ll be a long way down the road in the battle for local digital ad dollars, a battle coming to the tablet in 2013."
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Commentary
The Bloom Is Off Groupon's IPO Rose
BIA/Kelsey,
Nov 3, 2011, 1:58 PM EDT
BIA/Kelsey's Peter Krasilovsky reassesses Groupon prior to its scheduled Nov. 4 IPO: "The bloom has come off for a number of reasons. Groupon has almost no barriers to entry and has had to contend with dozens and dozens of copy cats — apparently 600 at the peak. The glut of services has led to consumer and merchant overload, and perhaps fatigue."
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Commentary: Paywalls and Pay Strategies
If Paywall Is Your Only Tactic, You're Doomed
GigaOM,
Oct 31, 2011, 2:04 PM EDT
Mathew Ingram: "there is no guarantee that those paywall subscriber numbers will continue to grow, and in fact there is reason to believe (given the history of similar attempts) that they will soon level off and stop growing. So it is by definition a stop-gap strategy, which is why newspapers that are relying solely on a paywall to save their bacon are likely doomed."
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Commentary
Twitter Succeeds In Spite Of Lousy Tech, Service
The Buttry Diary,
Oct 31, 2011, 8:42 AM EDT
Commentary
Apple TV Needs To Be A TV, Not Just A Box
SplatF,
Oct 31, 2011, 8:01 AM EDT
Technology writer Dan Frommer on why Apple TV should be more than just a set-top box: "An Apple television may not look or work
that much different than today’s TVs. But Apple’s combination of hardware design, software and platform depth, services like iCloud, a novel user interface like Siri, and the overall Apple experience could set it apart from today’s TVs."
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Commentary
News Sites Bear 'Burden Of Messy Ads'
Monday Note,
Oct 31, 2011, 7:26 AM EDT
Frédéric Filloux on Web page design and advertising: "The graphic evolution of the Web must deal with two negative forces: its language framework doesn't evolve fast enough, and it faces the burden of messy advertising."
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Commentary
Will Tablets Help Save Newspapers?
Los Angeles Times,
Oct 31, 2011, 7:10 AM EDT
James Rainey on the Philadelphia Media Network’s
plan to sell tablets with subscriptions to the
Philadelphia Inquirer and
Daily News: “It's admirable, and about time, to see a newspaper company (one that happens to have a proud tradition of public-service journalism) reaching aggressively for new customers. Too many other print publications have dawdled while their core audience moved to their free websites or slipped away entirely.”
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Commentary
Future Of Journalism Belongs To Local Indies
Howard Owens,
Oct 28, 2011, 3:29 PM EDT
Howard Owens, publisher of New York hyperlocal The Batavian: "The future doesn’t belong to the insta-chains. It belongs to the independents. Like the newspaper publishers of the 19th Century and early 20th Century, they are building real businesses, forging alliances in their communities, defining the future of journalism, serving their communities and building the foundation of long-term profitable businesses. They are doing it through hard work, with little to no investment capital and showing real progress."
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Newsonomics of Paid Content 2.0
Why Paywalls Aren't Boosting Sunday Circ
Nieman Journalism Lab,
Oct 28, 2011, 3:05 PM EDT
Ken Doctor on why many papers with paywalls have not reaped benefits from a Sunday-plus-digital model: "Even if the print decline is not significantly affected, charging for digital access remains a prime strategy going forward. What we’re looking at, entering 2012, is paid content 2.0 for many publishers, a new rev that will push the faster-adopting among them to a fuller alignment of business model, product, and analytics."
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Commentary
Could Siri Make Hyperlocal Hypervocal?
Street Fight,
Oct 28, 2011, 2:47 PM EDT
Alex Salkever on Apple's new voice recognition application, Siri, for the iPhone and its implications for daily deals: "As people move more towards an environment of hypervocal navigation and data immersion in the audible realm, local deals will actually become far more powerful."
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WikiLeaks Pay Blockade Sets Bad Precedent
Guardian,
Oct 28, 2011, 7:43 AM EDT
Dan Gillmor on the move by the Bank of America, Visa, Mastercard, PayPal and Western Union to block payments for WikiLeaks: "If this was happening to any traditional media company, it would be a scandal, and the media in general would be screaming about the threat to free speech it represented."
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Commentary
Exec: Marketing Mistakes Killed Myspace
CNNMoney.com,
Oct 26, 2011, 1:56 PM EDT
Commentary
Apps Need A Nonmobile Component
CNET,
Oct 25, 2011, 8:00 AM EDT
CNET's Rafe Needleman: "The small paradox I'll leave for developers is this: A mobile app can become more valuable to users when it has a strong nonmobile component."
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Why Newsstand Is Boosting Paper App Subs
Poynter,
Oct 24, 2011, 6:34 AM EDT
Jeff Sonderman: "Empty shelves beg to be filled. ... Newsstand exploits this instinct. Its dynamic icon shows what currently rests on your virtual shelves. ... As you fill the first shelf, another empty one appears below it, beckoning you further."
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Commentary
Are Wikipedians Reluctant Journalists?
PBS MediaShift,
Oct 24, 2011, 1:20 AM EDT
Commentary
Ingram: Newspapers Are 'Data Platforms'
GigaOM,
Oct 24, 2011, 6:34 AM EDT
Mathew Ingram on newspaper experiments with open application programming interfaces: "It’s not so much that [open API's are] going to generate huge sums of money for a newspaper that offers it, but it allows for experimentation outside the traditional confines of the publication itself — and that can generate valuable ideas and feedback."
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Commentary: Radio
Stations Need To Keep It Simple With Mobile
Radio Ink,
Oct 21, 2011, 3:17 PM EDT
Ivan Braiker, president of Hipcricket+Augme Technologies: "Keep it simple. When creating the site it is important to keep in mind that no mobile phone is created equal. New technologies are available to ensure that your mobile site renders correctly across all mobile devices — but still, simplicity is key. Using flash, videos and sound, while great tools for the traditional Web, do not work for mobile."
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Jessell At Large
Mobile DTV: Would You Believe Xmas 2012?
TVNewsCheck,
Oct 21, 2011, 3:11 PM EDT
It’s looking like it will be at least another year before TV stations will be able to offer over-the-air programming to smartphones, tablets and netbooks. Much progress has been made, but there’s still a lot of work to be done. But broadcasters don't have all the time in the world. They are in a competition with broadband. If broadcasters drag this out too long, the broadband carriers will come up with their own "broadcast" solution and broadcasters won't get their chance.
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Commentary: Future of Media
Engagement Is Currency Of Media's Future
MediaPost,
Oct 18, 2011, 2:38 PM EDT
Brendan Condon, CEO of REVShare: "This is what we will see in the future: smart digital integration of media assets that create a unique connection between your advertisement's messaging and the media brand's equity and value to a consumer."
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Engagement Is Most Important Digital Metric
Newsosaur,
Oct 14, 2011, 12:54 PM EDT
Alan Mutter: "Large and undifferentiated audiences don’t matter in the digital realm as much as ones that are homogeneous, engaged and readily targetable for advertisers."
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Commentary
News Apps Should Be Products, Not Content
Poynter,
Oct 14, 2011, 12:51 PM EDT
Chase Davis, director of technology for the Center for Investigative Reporting and California Watch, and Matt Wynn, reporter and Web developer at the
Omaha World-Herald, on thinking about news apps as products rather than content: "The combination of journalism and software development still holds much unrealized potential, particularly in terms of engagement and revenue."
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Commentary
Why Isn’t Local News More Open?
Bloomsburg Daily,
Oct 14, 2011, 12:40 PM EDT
Penn State University librarian Ellysa Stern Cahoy on the Bloomsberg Press Enterprise's paywall and the Northern Pennsylvania floods earlier this year: "I’m sure that their motivation for keeping such tight control over their archives is tied to retaining their profits. But why not allow companies to pay them for access to their backfiles so that researchers could benefit and create new research from their extensive reporting and historical coverage? This is a question that I can’t answer, because as a librarian, access to information is always my primary hope."
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Newsonomics of 100% Reach
Conn. Paper Builds Membership Model
Nieman Journalism Lab,
Oct 13, 2011, 3:32 PM EDT
In Connecticut,
The Day is pushing a membership model for readers that’s built around harnessing customer data. Ken Doctor on the notion of 100% reach — the idea that newspaper companies, with wide-ranging news, information, and commercial utilities: "The Day’s new
membership-centered program aims to extend the paper’s touch and reach. It can already report modest gains in that reach, but I think the real story here is in its potential and its worldview."
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Commentary
Big Brands Are Eying The Hyperlocal Space
Street Fight,
Oct 13, 2011, 1:10 PM EDT
Patrick Kitano, founding principal of Domus Consulting Group: "
We’re on the brink of seeing brands start to carve into the hyperlocal pie simply by providing an online space to offer localized content and capture the “neighborhood” conversations that locals want to see." Link
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Commentary
Monetization Is Top Obstacle For Hyperlocals
Street Fight,
Oct 12, 2011, 10:43 AM EDT
Clay Graham, CEO of hyperlocal publishing solutions startup
Welocally, says local independents may be trusted in their communities, but they still face a giant hurdle in raising revenue: "Getting mom&pop businesses connected to the referral chain is one of the biggest challenges facing the hyperlocal journalist who needs income. If you want your local referral site to thrive on more than your commitment to community, you have to find some way to monetize."
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Commentary
Peter Lewis: Gannett Serves Only Itself
Words & Ideas,
Oct 12, 2011, 8:46 AM EDT
Consultant and former Gannett reporter Peter Lewis on Craig Dubow's $37.1 million retirement and disability package and the company's recent pledge to continue to provide news an information to its audience: "These people are lying. The corporate goal is not to serve the consumer; it’s to maximize profits and pay packages for top executives. Can anyone argue that Gannett newspapers and journalism are better today, and that news consumers are better served?"
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Commentary
Hybrid Media Challenge For News Dominance
Advertising Age,
Oct 12, 2011, 7:59 AM EDT
Steve Rubel, executive VP of global strategy and insights for Edelman, on an emerging class of digitally native and entrepreneurial class of 'hybrid' media outlets: "Hybrid media are transformative not only because they take chances, but also because they have incredibly loyal followings. They're both trusted and disruptive. And that's a recipe for success. The category is comprised of three distinct groups: aggregators and curators, personality-driven blogs and incubated disruptors."
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Journos Need To Spend More Time On Social
Wannabe Hacks,
Oct 11, 2011, 3:33 PM EDT
Student and freelance journalist
Jonathan Frost: "The idea that there is resistance to shifting a work focus to accommodate social media is disappointing. Journalists need to be flexible and open to new ideas in a rapidly changing industry. If people aren't buying a paper, it seems logical that you'd want to sell your content in some other way, on Facebook, for example."
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Commentary
News Biz Is Being Played By Social Media
The Miami Herald,
Oct 11, 2011, 3:14 PM EDT
Ex-
Miami Herald executive business editor Edward Wasserman: "What's under way is a deliberate marketing campaign to deputize the rising generation of journalists as auxiliary recruiters for an industry of social media giants whose business requires assembling vast populations for advertising targeted by age, location, interest, taste, preference, alignment — and dozens of other factors that can be inferred from the news they watch and the comments they post."
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Commentary
Papers Should Let Readers Behind Curtain
GigaOM,
Oct 11, 2011, 7:41 AM EDT
Mathew Ingram on The Guardian's decision to collaborate with its audience: "The bottom line is that the secrecy that newspapers used to operate under no longer works. Not only is there more competition for stories, but mainstream media outlets no longer have a monopoly relationship with their readers, who can find the same information from dozens of alternative sources. Either newspapers develop a more balanced relationship with the people formerly known as the audience, by allowing them to contribute to the process, or they will find their audience has gone elsewhere."
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Getting 'Digital First' Right In The 'Newsroom'
Steve Yelvington,
Oct 10, 2011, 3:43 PM EDT
Steve Yelvington: "Digital First is about making the future your first priority, with everything that implies. It requires restructuring all your priorities. Not just when you do it, but what you do and how you do it."
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How Long Can AOL Stay Course On Patch?
GigaOM,
Oct 7, 2011, 2:23 PM EDT
Mathew Ingram: "AOL’s management may be committed to Patch for now, but the company can’t continue pouring money into an unprofitable entity forever, no matter how much [Patch president Warren] Webster talks about a 'long-term' investment."
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Commentary: The Death Of Steve Jobs
Jobs And The Continuing Disruption Of Media
GigaOM,
Oct 7, 2011, 2:11 PM EDT
Mathew Ingram: "Even if [Apple's] devices hadn't generated hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue and turned Apple into one of the most valuable companies on the planet, the long-term effects of that disruption have created a legacy that puts Steve Jobs and Apple miles ahead of almost any other company in recent memory."
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10 Things Thoughts On Mobile, Tablet News
Steve Yelvington,
Oct 6, 2011, 1:35 PM EDT
Steve Yelvington on 10 things publishers need to know about news on tablets and mobile phones: "Tablets are cool. Tablets are significant. But phones are cool, too, and smartphone sales dwarf those of the iPad. Take the pocket-size format seriously."
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Newsonomics of F8
Publishers Look To Win In Facebook's Game
Nieman Journalism Lab,
Oct 6, 2011, 1:35 PM EDT
Ken Doctor: "As leading-edge publishers move away from destination-only strategies, they seek to colonize other habitable web environments; Facebook now looks like the friendliest clime, allowing publishers to keep all the revenue from ads they are selling within their Facebook apps."
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Commentary
Radio Finally Starting To Embrace Digital
Radio Ink,
Oct 5, 2011, 4:04 PM EDT
Greater Media chairman and CEO Peter Smyth: "
It seemed to me that we’ve finally moved beyond the question of whether we need to retool radio and expand our digital relationships, and are now focused on how to do it." Link
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Commentary
Web Vid May Finally Be Ready For Primetime
NewTeeVee,
Oct 5, 2011, 2:59 PM EDT
Ryan Lawler: "For the first time in a long time, it seems that non-traditional programming may finally begin to make a dent in the content people watch and the ad dollars that come with it."
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Commentary: Future of Investigative Journalism
Rosenthal: Money, Creative Need To Align
California Watch,
Oct 5, 2011, 7:49 AM EDT
Robert Rosenthal, director of the Center for Investigative Journalism, on the need for a new model to sustain investigative journalism: "Before I joined CIR, I understood that for the future models of journalism to succeed, the 'money side' and the 'creative side' would have to align."
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Commentary
Marketers Get Primed For A Mobile Future
ClickZ,
Oct 4, 2011, 1:42 PM EDT
ClickZ's Anna Maria Virzi, who moderated "The Future of Mobile Marketing: Where Are We Headed?" panel at an event hosted last month by PR firm Morris + King: "Instead of obsessing over desktop browsers, marketing and development teams are more focused on operating systems (Android vs. Apple's iOS) and devices (tablets vs. smartphones). Like web marketing, however, success will hinge on a company's marketing chops and technology prowess, its audience, and more."
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Commentary
News Site-Local Blog Team-Ups Need Prep
Poynter,
Oct 4, 2011, 8:53 AM EDT
According to Eugenia Chen, founder of
Muni Diaries, there are four things every news site should do before partnernering with a local blog: Ask local blogs what they need; be prepared to show specific mockups and plans; understand the business of the Web; and get support from your advertising and marketing departments.
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commentary
The Internet Could Save Newspapers
The New York Times,
Oct 4, 2011, 8:35 AM EDT
New York Times columnist Bill Keller: "Technology upended the music business -- except that today there are more musical choices, more widely accessible, at a reasonable price. ... I think the same may well prove true of the newspaper business -- that, having assisted in the death of many newspapers, technology will save those that adapt."
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Social News Readers Need Opposing Views
PaidContent,
Oct 3, 2011, 3:34 PM EDT
Union Square Ventures partner Albert Wenger: "If all you can do is 'like' or 'favorite' items, it becomes very hard to express that you care about something but have a different opinion."
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Facebook Changes Give News Orgs Big Ideas
Nieman Journalism Lab,
Oct 3, 2011, 3:34 PM EDT
Gina Chen: "Like them or hate them, there is much that news organizations can learn from the Facebook changes. ... Facebook’s changes offer news outlets an opportunity: not just to distribute their work on Facebook, but, even more importantly, to bring the lessons of Facebook to their own platforms."
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Commentary
TBD Lesson: Transparency Is Best Approach
The Buttry Diary,
Oct 3, 2011, 2:41 PM EDT
Steve Buttry: "In the news business especially, transparency is always the best approach (recognizing that some matters, such as personnel and pending decisions, might justify exceptions). You shouldn’t shine the spotlight elsewhere in the community if you can’t handle the heat of the spotlight yourself."
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Commentary
Groupon Still Challenged Even After Rewards
Street Fight,
Oct 3, 2011, 11:58 AM EDT
Derek Webster, founder and CEO of LocalBonus: "Groupon Rewards promises increased visibility into whether Groupon customers are coming back to their store. This increased transparency is a step in the right direction, but it's hard to say whether merchants will be happy with what they see."
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Block By Block Summit
Five Stages Of Grief For Local News Startups
Reynolds Journalism Institute,
Oct 3, 2011, 8:27 AM EDT
Michele McLellan on the emerging chaotic local news ecosystem: "Today, even publishers who are doing a good job with revenue are finding it difficult to find capacity to expand, even as they identify good growth opportunities -- like offering new services or launching sites in neighboring communities."
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Commentary
Publishers Dream About Kindle's Potential
Monday Note,
Oct 3, 2011, 7:22 AM EDT
Monday Note's Frédéric Filloux: "[Apple and Amazon's] strategies can't be more diametrically opposite. Apple is in the hardware business and all other product lines exist for the sole purpose of raising perceived value and units volume. ... By contrast, Amazon is a digital retail company in which all forms of media account for about 40% of its sales. Its hardware strategy is designed to funnel customers to its retail business."
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Commentary
Ingram: A Facebook App Is Not Innovation
GigaOM,
Sep 30, 2011, 2:16 PM EDT
Mathew Ingram on the Facebook-integrated social reading apps launched by
the Washington Post and
The Guardian: One "aspect of these [app] launches that's troubling, and that's the pride so many publishers seem to take in having produced a Facebook app, as though it's the pinnacle of media innovation.
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Commentary
Mernit: ONA Awards Shun Hyperlocals
Susan Mernit,
Sep 30, 2011, 8:44 AM EDT
Oakland Local founder Susan Mernit on the lack of hyperlocal sites among the Online News Association's award winners: "In a time when business models for journalism as we've known it are collapsing, ignoring hyperlocal and community media sites that don't aspire to be mini-
New York Times is just plain short-sighted."
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Commentary
Integration Must Make Sense For Print, Digital
Strange Attractor,
Sep 30, 2011, 7:55 AM EDT
Kevin Anderson: "Integration makes sense, but it has to be seen in the context of serving different and differentiated journalism products across print and digital media."
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Business Insider And Over-Aggregation
Reuters Blog,
Sep 29, 2011, 3:29 PM EDT
Newsonomics of disruption
Digital Disruption Puts Readers Up For Grabs
Nieman Journalism Lab,
Sep 29, 2011, 12:34 PM EDT
Author Ken Doctor: "The faster the disruption of print by tablet happens, the faster newspaper owners can jettison print expenses and get closer to sustainable (but not yet proven) mainly-digital business models."
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Commentary
Human Filters Are The Web's Future
Sparksheet,
Sep 29, 2011, 8:12 AM EDT
The IdeaLists' Karyn Campbell: "While algorithms once threatened to replace gatekeepers, online media will see a move back to the future: professional, human filters (the artists formerly known as editors) will play an integral role in the next Web after all."
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commentary
Papers Can Profit From Tabs...Without News
Editor & Publisher,
Sep 28, 2011, 2:16 PM EDT
Jeff Fleming on how newspapers can profit from tablet apps without using news content: "With large subscription numbers and a diversified advertising base, newspapers are in an ideal position to dominate the buyerlog [a newspaper’s answer to a catalog] market. Subscribers would no longer need to jump from one Web site to another, benefiting from a newspaper's ability to include multiple advertisers in one complete package."
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Commentary
Netflix Is Not Cable; It's A Video Channel
Wired,
Sep 28, 2011, 8:25 AM EDT
Tim Carmody: "It's a mistake to treat Netflix as if it were a substitute for cable, rather than what it's become: a premium pay network every bit the rival of Starz, Showtime or HBO. Netflix just has a distribution model that bypasses the cable operators altogether."
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Commentary
Facebook PAC Shows Social Media Is Big Biz
The Atlantic,
Sep 28, 2011, 8:25 AM EDT
Nancy Scola on Facebook's decision to launch a political action committee: "But the emergence of a Facebook PAC is worth noting for at least one reason. It's a reminder that Facebook, as well as Google, is a big corporation with corporate interests, when both have spent the last several years reveling in the conventional Washington wisdom that these companies simply are the Internet."
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Donohoe: WaPo Social Reader 'Unnerves Me'
Michael Donohoe,
Sep 26, 2011, 2:54 PM EDT
RealNetwork's Michael Donohoe on the drawbacks of
The Washington Post's new Social Reader: "
The Washington Post Social Reader app unnerves me. ... We are what we read, and sometimes we need to explore topics and subjects that need to stay in the private realm.
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Commentary
Patch Editors Should Run Their Own Sites
Howard Owens,
Sep 26, 2011, 8:18 AM EDT
Howard Owens: "[Patch editors] are expected to do all of the things they would have to do if they owned their own Web sites, but merely in service of building wealth for AOL shareholders. ... Patch editors should know that what they’re being asked to do on salary they could do for themselves far more successfully and with some chance of building a valuable business for themselves and their families."
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Commentary
Do Encapsulated Digi Editions Make Sense?
Monday Note,
Sep 26, 2011, 8:03 AM EDT
Frédéric Filloux: "By “encapsulated edition” I mean a decisive evolution away from the Zinio-like PDF replica of the paper product. Some publications have added XML layers that considerably improve the reading experience and allow numerous features -- creating files, sharing on social media. But very few are willing to get rid of the PDF’s bulkiness."
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Commentary
App Economy Could Be Killing Online Pubs
GigaOM,
Sep 26, 2011, 7:13 AM EDT
Yaron Galai, CEO and co-founder of Outbrain: "When developing a mobile app, a publisher technically becomes a node within someone else's platform -- namely Apple or Google -- and is bound by their rules and whims. ... Developing an app for someone else's platform might give the illusion of a new marketing channel, but in reality it means becoming a node in someone else's business model."
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Commentary
'Smoke, Mirrors' Help Patch Look Profitable
Business Insider,
Sep 23, 2011, 8:19 AM EDT
Nicholas Carlson: "AOL knows a $130 million loss on Patch is not a number that will make its remaining investors happy. So, it probably wants to come up with something it can tell them to keep them from pushing the stock even lower. To that end: [Business Insider's] source says that AOL is using 'smoke and mirrors' trying to get 10 sites profitable by the end [of 2011]."
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Commentary
Biz Insider And The Mad Grab For Traffic
Reuters,
Sep 23, 2011, 7:40 AM EDT
Reuters' Ryan McCarthy on Business Insider's $7 million investment round: "It’s worth noting that venture-backed media companies can very much be in a race against time for growth. Investors want a return on their money and, given the economics of Web news, that almost always requires exponential growth in uniques and pageviews. "
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Newsonomics of WSJ Live
WSJ Video Product Is 'Its Own Thing'
Nieman Journalism Lab,
Sep 22, 2011, 3:13 PM EDT
Author Ken Doctor on
The Wall Street Journal's new streaming tablet product: "WSJ Live, launched last week, is a milestone product. It's not Fox News. It's not CNN. It's not
New York Times news video. WSJ Live is its own thing, and a model for the news industry."
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Commentary
Pols Find New Ways To Connect With Voters
Columbia Journalism Review,
Sep 21, 2011, 3:43 PM EDT
Greg Marx: "Like sports teams, candidates for office crave media attention, and they've traditionally granted access, or consented to interviews, in exchange for coverage. And like sports teams, candidates are finding ways to connect directly with voters in ways that have the potential to disrupt that bargain."
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Commentary
Facebook Wants To Be Your News Filter Now
GigaOM,
Sep 21, 2011, 3:39 PM EDT
Mathew Ingram: "The repeated use of the term 'newspaper' makes it obvious that Facebook wants this new feature to be about more than just seeing updates from your friend's birthday party -- and it could become especially interesting when combined with another new Facebook feature: the launch of the 'Subscribe' service, which allows users to follow and get updates from people or sources they are not friends with, in much the same way that Twitter does."
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Commentary
Why Local Media Can Dominate Daily Deals
Street Fight,
Sep 20, 2011, 8:48 AM EDT
Matt Coen, president and co-founder of Second Street: "Unlike their competitors, local media companies do not need to embark on multimillion-dollar advertising campaigns to establish themselves. They already command large and relevant audiences that are interacting with their brands every day."
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Commentary
Netflix Is A Cautionary Tale For Newspapers
GigaOM,
Sep 20, 2011, 8:12 AM EDT
Mathew Ingram: "Unfortunately for newspapers and other publishers with legacy businesses, they have to make the transition somehow, and the glacial pace that most of the industry has taken -- which amounts to waiting for existing print subscribers to die of natural causes and thereby solve the problem -- isn't really cutting it. They can change quickly and risk the kind of customer uproar that Netflix is experiencing, or they can move slowly and be disrupted."
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TV News Needs To Get In A Mobile Mindset
NewsLab,
Sep 19, 2011, 3:45 PM EDT
Tim Blotz: "Our customers are changing and so are their mindsets. This year’s entering class of 2015 is symbolic of the new generation of emerging consumers. They no longer shop exclusively at stores with shelves and they will not wait until 9 p.m. to watch the latest news -- especially from a traditional TV set. Those of us in legacy industries trying to reach our customers through traditional platforms and channels are in peril of becoming irrelevant in our own mindset."
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Commentary
HBO-Style Content Could Help Web
Adweek,
Sep 19, 2011, 3:35 PM EDT
Michael Wolff: "And yet, there is content that works -- that remains unique and that commands premium pricing. That’s television -- or video. Put another way, what still works, what advertisers and audiences still seek, is superexpensive content."
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Commentary: Journalism
How Do You Convert Curmudgeons To Twitter
The Buttry Diary,
Sep 19, 2011, 8:17 AM EDT
Commentary
ONA 2011 Should Avoid These 5 Myths
Online Journalism Review,
Sep 16, 2011, 5:50 PM EDT
From not being able to support a publication on online ad revenue to paywalls being the best way to paid content oonline, the five myths that OJR's Robert Niles hopes you don't hear at the Online News Association's 2011 conference in Boston.
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Jessell At Large
Irene Illustrates Meaning, Value Of Hyperlocal
TVNewsCheck,
Sep 16, 2011, 3:06 PM EDT
The national and regional coverage of Hurricane Irene was fine before the storm actually passed through my suburban New Jersey town. But then, what I wanted -- and needed -- to know came from my local AOL Patch site. There were fresh updates, pictures and even a brief video tour of the damage. The lesson here for broadcasters dabbling in hyperlocal websites or mobile apps is that you can't do it on the cheap. Just like any kind of journalism, hyperlocal journalism takes well-educated, well-trained, responsible reporters and editors.
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Commentary
Freedom Of Press Is For Bloggers Too
GigaOM,
Sep 16, 2011, 12:08 PM EDT
Mathew Ingram: "The advent of social news-distribution tools like Twitter and Facebook, not to mention blogs and YouTube and other Web services and social networks, have powered a "democratization of distribution" that makes virtually anyone into a publisher. The ramifications of that are still becoming clear."
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Commentary
Team Sites Change Rules Of Sports Journalism
Poynter,
Sep 16, 2011, 8:52 AM EDT
Newsonomics of 1,2,3,4
A 'Digital First' Business Model In Four Parts
Nieman Journalism Lab,
Sep 16, 2011, 7:04 AM EDT
Author Ken Doctor: "What’s the
new business model -- that hybrid print/digital or digital/print -- going to look like? It’s clear to everyone at this point that while print has a significant role for as far forward as we can see, it’s receding in importance, and revenue, and that digital is the growth engine on which to focus."
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Radio Show 2011
Is Pandora The Future Of Radio?
Radio Ink,
Sep 15, 2011, 1:41 PM EDT
Ed Ryan: "Maybe, just maybe, Clear Channel's John Hogan has it backwards. Maybe Pandora is much more than a playlist on shuffle. Maybe it is a viable business model that offers consumers a radio experience they love without unbearable interruptions. Maybe it offers advertisers geo-targeted ads using sight, sound, and motion but more importantly, provides them with accurate and specific user numbers."
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Commentary
What Media Cos. Can Learn From Wal-Mart
GigaOM,
Sep 15, 2011, 8:14 AM EDT
Mathew Ingram: "What drove Walmart to [buy social media companies Kosmix and OneRiot] and create Walmart Labs is the same thing that plenty of other companies, and particularly media entities, should be interested in: making sense of all the data coming in from users on social networks and their sharing activity."
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Commentary
Small Town Weeklies Are Thriving
Los Angeles Times,
Sep 13, 2011, 7:27 AM EDT
Commentary
Large Publishers Turning Into Content Farms
SEO Book,
Sep 13, 2011, 7:47 AM EDT
Aaron Wall: "The only difference between the 'content farms' and the branded sites engaging in content farming is the logo up in the top-left corner of the page. The business process from how the content is created, to who it is created by, to what they are paid to create it, to the interface it is ordered through, on to how it is published is exactly the same."
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Commentary
Is It Time To Take Tumblr Seriously?
Lost Remote,
Sep 12, 2011, 3:26 PM EDT
Commentary
How 9/11 Helped To Change Media Landscape
GigaOM,
Sep 12, 2011, 8:12 AM EDT
Mathew Ingram: "In many ways, September 11 was the 'CNN moment' for the Web ... In the days that followed the attacks on the U.S., the Web arguably became the No. 1 source of information about those events, and trained a generation to expect real-time news from hundreds or even thousands of Web sources."
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Commentary
The Blogosphere's Soft Corruption
Monday Note,
Sep 12, 2011, 7:56 AM EDT
Frédéric Filloux: "By construction, bloggers are more prone to serve third party agendas: many are penniless, young, untrained, unsupervised and their writing is unedited. A target of choice for manipulation."
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Commentary
Hyperlocal Mission Local Gets It Right
Street Fight,
Sep 9, 2011, 3:24 PM EDT
Alex Salkever on the public-private partnership that publishes stories in English and Spanish: "The stories are unique. The effort is clearly grass-roots driven. The editorial is not centered on the efforts of one 24/7 hero. It has captured some of the hyperlocal lighting in a bottle."
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Commentary
Ingram: Twitter Is A Media Entity Now
GigaOM,
Sep 9, 2011, 7:57 AM EDT
Mathew Ingram: "So what Twitter has is this ever-growing stream of text and links and photos. In a sense, it's an information distributor -- like a newswire -- except everyone who uses it is constructing their own stream of news."
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Is Vanishing Profit Good For Online Media?
PaidContent,
Sep 9, 2011, 6:18 AM EDT
At Cardiff University's Future Of Journalism conference, Columbia's Tow Center for Digital Journalism professor Emily Bell tried to argue against "the idea that the lack of revenue is bad for journalism" and instead for "lack of funding actually being a benefit rather than a negative."
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Media Companies Have 3 Ways To Innovate
Poynter,
Sep 9, 2011, 6:18 AM EDT
With revenue in decline, innovation is imperative for media companies and there are three clear avenues to that innovation: buying a startup, innovating from within and engaging in a joint venture.
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What A Delay Would Mean For Groupon IPO
The Local Onliner,
Sep 8, 2011, 3:47 PM EDT
Peter Krasilovsky: "A delay might allow Groupon to add heft from new programs that are important to the company’s future, such as Groupon Getaways travel, and the GrouponNow 'instant deals' program."
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Newsonomics of ComboCo
JRC, MNG Could Set Off Consolidation Wave
Nieman Journalism Lab,
Sep 8, 2011, 8:23 AM EDT
Author Ken Doctor: "Other newspaper operators may just conclude that Digital First has the stomach to make the painful changes they have resisted and that it’s time to get out of the game, as bargain hunter Alden creates the first truly national digital-first news company."
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Commentary
When Digital Ads Pay For Local News
Reuters,
Sep 8, 2011, 8:23 AM EDT
Felix Salmon on why Digital First Media is more likely to build strong Web-based local media than AOL's hyperlocal Patch network: "The first and most important reason is that local newspapers are, and always have been, the first best source of local ad-sales talent. They know their towns, they know their advertisers, they know their readers. Local advertising relationships are valuable and expensive things to build, and AOL doesn’t have any."
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Commentary
Is John Paton The Savior Of Newspapers?
GigaOM,
Sep 8, 2011, 8:10 AM EDT
Mathew Ingram on Journal Register Co. and MediaNews Group
uniting under the Digital First Media banner and John Paton's leadership: "Will Paton be able to show other newspaper owners how they can adapt to the digital transformation that is disrupting the industry, without simply throwing up walls of digital sandbags? ... The patron saint of 'digital first' will still have to provide some miracles before he wins over any more converts."
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Commentary: Click-Through Rates
The Metric For Missed Expectations
eMedia Vitals,
Sep 7, 2011, 3:45 PM EDT
Matthew Shanahan: "Here’s the problem: CTR doesn’t take into account audience engagement, not to mention the fact that other advertisers are competing for the click-through on the same page."
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Commentary
Digital Shift Only As Fast As Audience Habits
The Media Briefing,
Sep 7, 2011, 8:20 AM EDT
Patrick Smith onthe dangerous assumption that the migration away from analog to digital platforms will be a simple task of persuading readers and viewers to use new technology: "Media businesses need to invest and staff at every level need to understand how monetization and consumption is changing. But the transition to digital can only go as fast as the audience’s habits."
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Abramson Faces Tough Test As NYT Boss
Reflections of a Newsosaur,
Sep 6, 2011, 2:20 PM EDT
Commentary
Realtors Become Hyperlocal Content Producers
Street Fight,
Sep 6, 2011, 2:18 PM EDT
Commentary
WaPo On Right Track With Efforts On Social Media
The Buttry Diary,
Sep 6, 2011, 1:30 PM EDT
Commentary
Moving Hyperlocal Beyond Paper, Address
Street Fight,
Sep 2, 2011, 3:02 PM EDT
Alex Salkever on
The Washington Post's move to close most of its local bureau offices, yet keep its reporters: "I’d venture to say that real estate is something that the traditional dailies should ditch, pronto, as part of their transition into a new kind of news organization."
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Commentary
Are You A Media Co. Or A Tech Co.?
All Things Digital,
Sep 2, 2011, 8:28 AM EDT
Ben Elowitz, CEO of Wetpaint: "Digital technology has inserted itself inextricably into the guts of publishing, replacing ink with bytes and paper with pipes. And now, over the last two years, technology has transformed the basis of publishers’ relationships with their audience."
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Commentary
What Happens When A City Loses Its Paper?
10,000 Words,
Sep 2, 2011, 8:00 AM EDT
Maurice Cherry on MediaNews Group
consolidating its Bay Area newspapers: "The biggest issue at hand is what will happen to the communities which those papers served. In larger cities with other daily newspapers, chances are that the other newspapers will pick up the slack. Hyperlocal Web sites can also fill the gaps and bring news about and to underserved communities."
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newsonomics of gamification
With Games, Papers Can Engage Deeply
Nieman Journalism Lab,
Sep 2, 2011, 7:15 AM EDT
Ken Doctor: "Game dynamics isn’t about time-wasting. Au contraire: it’s about a seductive, powerful drawing-in of human habit. It’s about changing those habits, leading us to do new things (over and over again). This being America, those habits increasingly have a lot to do with selling stuff, with commerce. On the Internet, they increasingly help companies chase greater engagement with customers, be they buyers, readers, or
both."
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Commentary
Will AOL Go Private?
Reuters,
Sep 1, 2011, 8:28 AM EDT
Felix Salmon: "But there’s no precedent for the idea that throwing hundreds of millions of dollars at a Web content company will make it big and strong and self-sufficient. Expensive Web content is expensive, especially when you’re trying to build out a network of thousands of locally-staffed sites."
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Commentary
It Is Right To Curtail Web Anonymity
Financial Times,
Sep 1, 2011, 8:28 AM EDT
John Gapper: "Anonymity should not be banned in every corner of the Internet any more than it is in the physical world in democracies -- it would breach civil liberties. But there are good reasons to discourage it. Most users would gain if anonymity were the exception rather than the rule."
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Commentary
Finding The Barriers To Failure
DigiDave,
Aug 31, 2011, 7:50 AM EDT
Writer David Cohn on the good things about failure: "We talk a lot about barriers to success. But we also say that we can only succeed on the shoulders of our many failures. ... If we don’t fail early and fail often we won’t push forward."
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Commentary: Radio
Apple Changes Mean Changes To Streaming
Radio Ink,
Aug 30, 2011, 2:10 PM EDT
David Palmer, CEO and co-founder of ChristianNetcast.com, on changes to the Apple operating system: "What broadcasters are discovering is that if you are streaming WMA to apps or Apple devices, your stream is no longer working on those devices. This is yet another example of Apple's global war on Microsoft and any other operating system that might threaten their dominance."
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Commentary
Why Facebook Killed Deals
Street Fight,
Aug 30, 2011, 8:23 AM EDT
Doug Stephens: "Facebook might have simply found the deal space overcrowded. Between Groupon, LivingSocial, Yelp, and what seems like a daily stream of new entrants, there’s very little novelty left in the daily deal phenomenon."
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Commentary
How To Reboot Slate
Reuters,
Aug 30, 2011, 7:21 AM EDT
Paul Smalera: "Here’s the solution: spin it off. Slate doesn’t deserve to be slowly whittled away to the bone, or to be publishing link-bait, traffic-gaming pieces, no matter how witty the conceit. Slate is an established, valuable brand, with a lot of smart people (still) working on the editorial side. But the business side of Slate has not kept pace with the desires or the needs of the editorial team."
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Commentary
Will Providence Paper's Paywall Work?
GoLocalProv,
Aug 29, 2011, 3:45 PM EDT
Jeff Derderian on Belo's paywall plans at Rhode Island's
Providence Journal: "Do you really think people are going to shell out $400.00, $500.00 or $600.00 per year here in little Rhody to read
The Providence Journal in printed and online form? This writer says no way."
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Commentary
Google's Schmidt Isn't Going To Save TV
Guardian,
Aug 29, 2011, 3:26 PM EDT
Dan Sabbagh: "Google represents the apotheosis of what happened when advertising was decoupled from content. Profits for search, chaos everywhere else."
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Commentary
Should Public Money Support Ailing Media?
Monday Note,
Aug 29, 2011, 3:11 PM EDT
Frédéric Filloux: "Two important questions in our times of large public debt and lagging economies: Is it effective to inject public money in support of the ailing media industry? And, in order to ensure the best readers' bang for the taxpayer's buck, are some models better than others?"
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Commentary
Placing Facebook’s New Location Plans
Street Fight,
Aug 29, 2011, 3:11 PM EDT
Facebook is revamping its location-based service, and the new version could accomplish this "mainstreaming" of location more than the old one ever could.
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Commentary
Has 'High Quality Content' Experiment Failed
TechCrunch,
Aug 29, 2011, 7:59 AM EDT
Paul Carr on what Slate's woes say about online media: "The blunt truth is, online advertising is a numbers game. And, even on niche sites, the number of salable page impressions required to even break even is huge. There are just too many pages of content being produced for advertising to remain a viable long-term business model."
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Commentary
Papers Must Focus On Appealing To Readers
Editor & Publisher,
Aug 26, 2011, 2:16 PM EDT
Burlington (Vt.) Free Press associate editor Michael Kilian: "Newspapers must shed rote reliance on commodity news and instead do what we can do better than anyone else: tell stories that matter to our readers."
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Commentary
Does Slate's Model Still Make Sense?
Forbes,
Aug 26, 2011, 7:35 AM EDT
Commentary
The Twitter Effect: We're All In Media Now
GigaOM,
Aug 26, 2011, 7:58 AM EDT
Mathew Ingram: "Journalism of all kinds has now become something you do, not something you are. Anyone can do it, whether they call themselves a journalist or not. And that has repercussions for all forms of media."
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Commentary
Ghostwritten Op-Eds: An unacceptable Decision
Guardian,
Aug 26, 2011, 6:54 AM EDT
Commentary
The Disintegrating Economics Of Paper Circ
PaidContent,
Aug 25, 2011, 3:48 PM EDT
Jeff Jarvis: "The myth of legacy media [is] that every reader sees every ad thus every advertiser pays for every reader … thus every reader is equally valuable and it’s worth losing money holding onto any reader. Those aren’t the economics of online, where advertisers pay only for the readers who see (or click on) their ads, and where abundance robs publishers of pricing power over their once-scarce inventory."
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Newsonomics of Loss
Communities Lose Out When Papers Close
Nieman Journalism Lab,
Aug 25, 2011, 2:08 PM EDT
Author Ken Doctor on MediaNews Group's decision to consolidate its Bay Area newspapers: "It isn’t simply the sad loss of middle-class journalism jobs, as lamentable as that is, just as so many other good jobs that have disappeared in recent years. It’s a community loss, and points to the wider impact of news cuts on the society in which we live. That’s often forgotten as we focus too narrow on
industry loss."
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Commentary
Should Netflix Be Subsidized?
San Jose Mercury News,
Aug 23, 2011, 8:15 AM EDT
Former Sen. John Sununu and former Rep. Harold Ford Jr.: "
Broadband networks are delivering more than just the latest sitcom episodes and hottest movies. They facilitate telemedicine, education, job training, telecommuting and many other functions. It hardly seems fair to make users of these services pay more in order to subsidize Netflix's costs of delivering their videos online." Link
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Commentary
Why AOL Should Double Down On Patch
Harvard Business Review,
Aug 22, 2011, 8:01 AM EDT
Maxwell Wessel, member of Harvard Business School think tank Forum for Growth, on AOL's Patch: "Patch is AOL's last, best chance to build a growth engine. Investors shouldn't be calling for AOL to back off the business. They should be calling for AOL to double down ... by increasing commitment."
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Commentary
Why Print Papers Still Trump Online News
Slate,
Aug 22, 2011, 6:39 AM EDT
Jack Shafer: "What I really found myself missing was the news. Even though I spent ample time clicking through the
Times Web site and the Reader, I quickly determined that I wasn't recalling as much of the newspaper as I should be. Going electronic had punished my powers of retention. I also noticed that I was unintentionally ignoring a slew of worthy stories."
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Commentary
News Orgs Should Use Innovation As Tool
Monday Note,
Aug 22, 2011, 6:39 AM EDT
Frédéric Filloux: "News organizations ... should view innovation as their main weapon against direct competitors and emerging players such as tech startups."
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Commentary
Facebook Comments A Double-Edged Sword
GigaOM,
Aug 22, 2011, 6:39 AM EDT
Mathew Ingram writes that Facebook comments come with a downside: "Facebook ultimately owns one of the most important elements of your interaction with your readers: namely, the interaction that comes with reading and responding to comments. Obviously you can do all the same things with those comments as you would have previously, but Facebook controls what happens to them."
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Commentary
Bloomspot Guarantees And Deals' Future
Street Fight,
Aug 19, 2011, 8:37 AM EDT
Alex Salkever on Bloomspot's guarantee of profitability for daily deals: "This is a clear signal that the daily deals business will quickly morph into something else and that the balance of power has shifted to the merchants."
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Commentary
The Truth About Scoops In The Blog Age
GigaOM,
Aug 19, 2011, 7:27 AM EDT
Om Malik answers
Felix Salmon's thoughts on business news scoops in the age of blogs: "What is also important for us to remember is that the idea of a scoop today is much different from the idea of a scoop ten years ago. Today, the news -- and scoops -- are more a process than one big news release. The process means someone first breaks what is essentially a tiny component of the story, and pretty quickly the whole picture becomes clear, as other reporters and media outlets join in."
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Commentary
3 Ways Google-Motorola Doesn't Make Sense
PBS MediaShift,
Aug 18, 2011, 3:05 PM EDT
Newsonomics of what to read next
Knowing Reader's Wants Could Help Papers
Nieman Journalism Lab,
Aug 18, 2011, 2:51 PM EDT
Author Ken Doctor on the new batch of news-oriented tech companies that claim to better understand -- and help news publishers act on -- what readers are more likely to read next: "In macro terms, if the U.S. newspaper industry could use these newer technologies to improve revenue by 10%, that would be worth about $300 million a year, collectively. That’s a big number in the new no- to low-growth era we’re in."
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Commentary
Online, Long-Form Journalism Is Worth More
Online Journalism Review,
Aug 18, 2011, 8:19 AM EDT
Robert Niles: "Consumers have told us what they believe the value of journalism to be. And in a market economy, consumers' word is law. Incremental, commodity daily news reports have close to no cash value to the consumer. Longer, more in-depth magazine-style pieces have small but significant value, but almost always under a dollar and usually just a few cents. Only book-length journalism has substantial per-unit value, in excess of $1 and often much more."
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Commentary
Exec: Newspapers Should Learn From GM
Common Sense Journalism,
Aug 17, 2011, 2:28 PM EDT
Jeff Fishman, publisher of the Tullahoma News, in the Tennessee Press Association's monthly publication compared the newspaper industry to the auto industry: "Let’s stop building SUVs and listen to our customers and respond with relevant, thoughtful, engaging, vibrant products that meet the needs of our readers. The public’s desire for credible information has not and will not change even though the delivery method might."
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Commentary
How The Phone Co. Can Save Journalism
MinnPost,
Aug 17, 2011, 8:36 AM EDT
John Reinan: "If Verizon, AT&T, Comcast and anyone else who provides Web access were assessed a fee for transmitting the intellectual property of journalists, photographers and other artists, it could help keep substantive journalism alive."
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Commentary
A ‘Community Service Model’ For Hyperlocal
Street Fight,
Aug 16, 2011, 4:01 PM EDT
Patrick Kitano, founding Principal of Domus Consulting Group, on creating a new business model that lets merchants create content and engage with local audiences: "Community service media is disruptive because it puts advertising power into the hands of the advertisers."
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Commentary
NYT's 'Leaky Paywall' Is An Effective Formula
Poynter,
Aug 16, 2011, 3:45 PM EDT
Jeff Sonderman: "It turns out people will pay for things even when payment is not required. Motivations such as convenience, duty or appreciation are more compelling than coercion."
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Commentary
Newspapers Need Some Tech DNA
Editor & Publisher,
Aug 16, 2011, 8:31 AM EDT
Alan Mutter: "Newspapers now must find new ways to cost-effectively create content; build new Web, mobile, and social audiences; and monetize their traffic as profitably as Facebook and Google do. To do that, they will have to bring the creative chaos of Silicon Valley into every corner of their businesses."
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What Reddit Says About Journalism
GigaOM,
Aug 16, 2011, 7:42 AM EDT
Mathew Ingram: "Obviously, Reddit and its ilk aren’t a replacement for investigative journalism, or foreign reporting, or any of the other valuable things that major newspapers like
The New York Times or
The Washington Post provide. But they can be players in a much broader journalistic ecosystem, and they have lessons to teach traditional media players, if they want to listen."
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What Google's Motorola Buy Means For News
Nieman Journalism Lab,
Aug 15, 2011, 3:36 PM EDT
Joshua Benton: "The move likely won't have any significant impact on news organizations or how they view the Android platform for news apps. But it is an interesting signpost for one of the biggest dichotomies any Internet-centric company faces: the tension between being modular and being interdependent."
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Is The Web Giving Rise To A Post-Idea World?
The New York Times,
Aug 15, 2011, 3:24 PM EDT
Author Neal Gabler: "It is certainly no accident that the post-idea world has sprung up alongside the social networking world. Even though there are sites and blogs dedicated to ideas, Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, Flickr, etc., the most popular sites on the Web, are basically information exchanges, designed to feed the insatiable information hunger, though this is hardly the kind of information that generates ideas."
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Commentary
Future Of Digital Journalism Is Transactions
Forbes,
Aug 15, 2011, 3:04 PM EDT
Lewis DVorkin: "On the Web, the author connects one at a time with individual readers, right down to the IP address. That means journalists now must engage, or' transact,' accordingly.
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Reddit And Community Journalism
Joho the Blog,
Aug 15, 2011, 8:25 AM EDT
Commentary
Ingram: NYT Paywall Is 'A Line Of Sandbags'
GigaOM,
Aug 15, 2011, 8:00 AM EDT
Mathew Ingram: "[
The New York Times paywall is] just charging people nickels and dimes for their paper ... In that sense, it’s not really a strategy at all; it’s more like a line of sandbags designed to shore up the print business and squeeze as much money out of it as possible as it declines. A wise move? Perhaps. Something to get excited about? No."
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Commentary
Web Wrecked Market For Papers, Film, Music
Guardian,
Aug 15, 2011, 8:00 AM EDT
Robert Levine, author of
Free Ride: How the Internet Is Destroying the Culture Business and How the Culture Business can Fight Back: "The problem is that, although the Internet has expanded the audience for media, it has all but destroyed the market for it.Over the past decade, much of the value created by music, films, and newspapers has benefited other companies -- pirates and respected technology firms alike."
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Commentary: 40 Years In The News Biz
Steve Buttry Reflects On How News Has Changed
The Buttry Diary,
Aug 12, 2011, 1:13 PM EDT
Commentary
How The NY Times Paywall Is Working
Reuters,
Aug 12, 2011, 12:43 PM EDT
Felix Simon on
The New York Times paywall: "[The NYT] paywall marks a new model and very promising in getting consumers to pay for content. It’s not a completely free pay-as-you-wish approach: the NYT nudges people quite hard to pay quite a lot of money. But I’d wager that the majority of people buying digital-only subscriptions are doing so only after bypassing the paywall at least once or twice."
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Is Groupon's Valuation Too Good To Be True?
Slate,
Aug 12, 2011, 8:50 AM EDT
Wall Street seems poised to reward Groupon with an initial public offering valuing the company at as much as $30 billion. But are all these big numbers based on questionable metrics? And can the deals service really keep up the soar-away growth justifying that fantastic valuation?
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Newsonomics of the next recession
Next Recession Could Doom News Industry
Nieman Journalism Lab,
Aug 11, 2011, 1:59 PM EDT
Author Ken Doctor: "If, in fact, we do dip or tumble head over heels into another recession, all bets are off. The wheels may come off the wobbling industry."
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Commentary
What Comes After Reading On iPad
Subtraction.com,
Aug 10, 2011, 2:36 PM EDT
Khoi Vinh: "I think it’s still too early to know exactly how these devices are going to shape the next ten years. We’re all still discovering and exploring how different a multitouch tablet is from laptops and desktops."
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Commentary
Multimedia Management Important For Sites
Editor & Publisher,
Aug 10, 2011, 8:43 AM EDT
Keith Jordan, managing director of Upstream Digital Media: "I would not suggest that any but the largest media companies build their own video hosting and streaming services. The benefits are minor compared with the costs, since there are plenty of good options you can integrate with instead."
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One Year Later:
Lessons From The TBD Experience
The Buttry Diary,
Aug 9, 2011, 1:57 PM EDT
Steve Buttry reflects on the lessons learned from Allbritton's failed hyperlocal news experiment TBD one year after its launch date: "If you’re going to start as big as TBD did, you need a few years to become profitable. If you don’t have the patience for the long haul, you’d better start small."
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Commentary
HuffPo Would Be Better Off Without AOL
Forbes,
Aug 9, 2011, 8:19 AM EDT
Jeff Bercovici: "Back in February, Arianna Huffington said that selling her company to AOL was like 'stepping off a fast-moving train and onto a supersonic jet.' In terms of creating value for shareholders, however, it's been more like stepping onto an airport people-mover -- in the wrong direction."
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Commentary
Can A Newspaper Think Like A Startup?
GigaOM,
Aug 9, 2011, 7:39 AM EDT
Mathew Ingram on whether
The New York Times can devote resources to its beta620 experiment: "
The New York Times may be a digital leader, but the reality is that the vast majority of its revenue comes from the printed product it has been manufacturing for a century and a half, because that contains the advertising that is its bread and butter -- and even though many see the paywall as a success, its contribution to the bottom line remains relatively minuscule."
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commentary
Mobile Payments Are On The Horizon
Newsosaur,
Aug 9, 2011, 6:47 AM EDT
Alan Mutter: "The arrival of mobile payments ... is almost certain to lead to further disruption for media companies, unless they can figure out a way to nose into the action -- which already is well under way."
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Commentary
The Stupidity Of Our Current Media Age
SteveOuting.com,
Aug 8, 2011, 7:08 AM EDT
Steve Outing on forcing customers to purchase a print subscription to get an iPad subscription: "It pisses me off that in this media transition that we find ourselves in, print publishers resort to discouraging the digital transition and encouraging subscribers to continue receiving a product that consumes physical resources (trees) and pollutes the environment (trucks and delivery)."
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Commentary
Use Care When Relying On Twitter For News
Huffington Post,
Aug 5, 2011, 7:35 AM EDT
Journalist and lawyer Larry Atkins on the use of Twitter for breaking news: "[Recent] incidents serve as another reminder that news consumers need to verify breaking news through multiple sources in this new world of instant news."
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Commentary: Online Video Advertising
Making Online Video And TV Work Together
MediaPost,
Aug 4, 2011, 3:53 PM EDT
Brian Mandelbaum, AdoTube vice president of platform and product development: "
The most important aspect to remember when planning an in-stream campaign is that online video is neither simply an extension of TV nor Display. It is its own unique medium that deserves to be respected, studied and understood." Link
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Newsonomics of ARPU
ARPU Is Revealing When Analyzing Big Sites
Nieman Journalism Lab,
Aug 4, 2011, 3:01 PM EDT
Author Ken Doctor on average revenue per unique visitor (ARPU): "ARPU basically says: Don't tell me how many customers you have; tell me how much money you are making on each of them."
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Open MIke by Preston Padden
Stations Need To Stream Their Signals Now
TVNewsCheck,
Aug 4, 2011, 2:27 PM EDT
Stations need to begin streaming their live signals, and to offer streams of past programs, before the future passes them by. The first steps are to fashion a business model and secure the necessary rights from broadcast networks. It's in the networks' interest to extend those rights to affiliates, which are still the strongest distribution platform around.
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Commentary
Hyperlocals Struggle To Build Audiences
Street Fight,
Aug 3, 2011, 2:46 PM EDT
Kael Goodman, founder of BlankSlate: "In order to build a community with sustained attention and co-creation a publisher must tend the site carefully as you go, cultivating behavior that you want to encourage and discouraging activities that veer the site away from its core purpose. You can accomplish a portion of this task with technology ... but you must also plan on some level of human attention."
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Commentary
Why Editors Should Be Active On Twitter
The Buttry Diary,
Aug 2, 2011, 3:01 PM EDT
Steve Buttry: "For better or worse, Twitter has become a leading current indicator of a newsroom’s -- or an editor’s -- willingness to change. You don’t lead change from your comfort zone. You lead change by showing your staff that you are willing to learn a new skill and suffer the discomfort of learning publicly."
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Commentary
Will Biz Model ‘Stabilize’ For Newspapers?
Newsosaur,
Aug 2, 2011, 2:46 PM EDT
Alan Mutter: "It is unrealistic to think the newspaper business model will stabilize, because we are in the midst of profound and fundamental changes in the way people get information -- and marketers connect with them. The model cannot stabilize, either, because the traditional strengths of the newspaper business have been turned into liabilities in the new order of things."
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Commentary
Looking For A Programmer-Journalist Job
Michelle Minkoff,
Jul 31, 2011, 11:04 PM EDT
Commentary
DeRosa: Getting It Right Is Platform Agnostic
Reuters,
Jul 29, 2011, 3:14 PM EDT
Anthony DeRosa on the false Piers Morgan tweet: "While Twitter is different things to different people, as a journalist it is more important to get it right rather than be an enabler of false information."
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Commentary
Can News Pubs Learn Anything From Netflix?
GigaOM,
Jul 29, 2011, 6:59 AM EDT
Mathew Ingram on whether news organizations should copy Netflix during its own transition to digital: "Yes and no -- publishers shouldn’t get their hopes up too much about copying the Netflix model, because the two businesses are very different."
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The newsonomics of Netflix and the digital shift
News Orgs Should Look At Netflix Playbook
Nieman Journalism Lab,
Jul 28, 2011, 3:51 PM EDT
Ken Doctor on how news organizations can learn from the Netflix DVD price hike: "We can hear the great resonance in this transition for news and magazine publishers. First the principle: Spend your time on tomorrow, not today. For print publishers, that means moving as much of the thinking and as many of the resources to digital as possible -- now."
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Commentary
Hyperlocals Are Making Anonymity Obsolete
Street Fight,
Jul 28, 2011, 7:49 AM EDT
Tom Grubisich: "The social media revolution is helping to push anonymity to the margins. Millions of Internet users willingly put their names and biographies out for public view, and attach to them an often uninhibited testament of their likes and dislikes. The conventional argument for anonymity -- that public identification will discourage people from speaking out -- doesn’t seem to apply to the 750 million users of Facebook or the 200 million on Twitter."
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Commentary
Social Media Won't Kill Traditional Journalism
The Next Web,
Jul 28, 2011, 7:49 AM EDT
Deborah Mackay: "There is without doubt a place for social media in news production but it shouldn’t, and won’t, signal the end of traditional journalism."
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Commentary
If News Site Isn't Social, Design Won't Matter
GigaOM,
Jul 27, 2011, 2:50 PM EDT
Mathew Ingram on Andy Rutledge's critique of NYTimes.com: "The biggest blunder Rutledge commits is when he argues that news sites should avoid social-recommendation elements, when the opposite is true."
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Commentary
Journos Rethinking Relationship With Auds
Reportr.net,
Jul 27, 2011, 8:24 AM EDT
Alfred Hermida: "The way newsrooms have adopted participatory journalism continues to change and evolve as they try to meld a culture of openness and collaboration with an editorial model of hierarchy and control."
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Commentary
New York Times Paywall Is Working
Reuters,
Jul 27, 2011, 8:02 AM EDT
Felix Salmon: "The media business has never been about denying access to people who want to read your publication, but the paywalls at News Corp, as well as the one at the [
Financial Times], are based around that model. [
The New York Times], by contrast, has proven that people will pay even if the paywall is extremely porous."
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How Badges Help News Sites Make Money
Poynter,
Jul 27, 2011, 7:45 AM EDT
Jeff Sonderman: "Badges are a potentially powerful tool for understanding a news audience and shaping its behavior. ... Badges can serve many purposes, but the biggest is to help a news organization define and grow its relationship with each reader. Those reader relationships are the most valuable assets of your business."
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News Site Design About More Than Beauty
Nieman Journalism Lab,
Jul 27, 2011, 6:57 AM EDT
Joshua Benton disagrees with
Andy Rutledge's thoughts on redesigning The New York Times and news sites in general: "While there are no doubt lots of pages on nytimes.com or any other news site that could use a once-over, the problems of large-scale information architecture for news sites are really hard problems. Smart people think about these problems. And their solutions require more than a nice slab-serif typeface and some white space."
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Commentary
Digital Media Blurs TV, Radio, Print Difference
Newsonomics,
Jul 26, 2011, 8:12 AM EDT
Author Ken Doctor: "We used to be able to think of TV news, radio news and newspaper news distinctly. Digital media is rapidly blurring these long-established boundaries. We need to think about video, audio and text (not TV, radio and newsprint) because it is clear that the journalism-producing companies of 2015 must be proficient in producing all of them."
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Commentary
AP Linking Policy Has Problems
10,000 Words,
Jul 26, 2011, 7:39 AM EDT
10,000 Words' Lauren Rabaino: "I’m all for hyperlinking. It’s the fabric of the Web, what makes the Web functional, and I think more newspapers should be doing it -- and more often. ... But [the AP's] solution of including bit.ly links -- in parentheticals -- isn’t the way to credit newspapers or drive traffic."
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Why Journalists Need To Build Brands
Reflections of a Newsosaur,
Jul 25, 2011, 3:42 PM EDT
Alan Mutter: "Given the steady fragmentation of the media, the growing paucity of jobs and the nano-ization of freelance pay, it increasingly is up to people who want to be journalists to take affirmative action to promote their work to build audiences they can monetize so they can have satisfying and remunerative careers."
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Lavrusik: 5 Key Elements To Rethink Stories
Nieman Journalism Lab,
Jul 25, 2011, 3:42 PM EDT
Facebook journalist program manager Vadim Lavrusik: "Stories, for the most part, are coded with a styled font for the headline, byline, and body -- with some divs separating complementary elements such as photographs, share buttons, multimedia items, advertising, and a comments thread, which is often so displaced from the story that it’s hard to find. It is only scratching the surface of the storytelling that is possible on the Web."
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Commentary
Lack Of Biz Expertise Hurts Indie News Sites
Street Fight,
Jul 25, 2011, 8:23 AM EDT
Michael Meyer, head of the
Columbia Journalism Review's News Frontier Database: "I worry about the future of my profession when I see large segments of the online news industry failing to rigorously test the kinds of revenue models journalism needs to survive."
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newsonomics of U.S. media concentration
Economy Has Reshaped Media Ownership
Nieman Journalism Lab,
Jul 22, 2011, 1:44 PM EDT
Author Ken Doctor: "Sheer economic change is rapidly re-shaping who owns the news media on which we depend. The fast-eroding economics of the traditional print newspaper business are changing the face both of competition and of journalistic practice faster than any government policy can affect."
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Commentary
Ingram: Web Is Good And Bad For Journalism
GigaOM,
Jul 22, 2011, 8:23 AM EDT
Mathew Ingram says both sides are right in the debate over whether the Internet is good or bad for journalism: "To me, the debate comes down to a battle of optimism vs. pessimism."
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The Elusive Definition Of "Journalist"
Chicago Reader,
Jul 22, 2011, 7:54 AM EDT
Commentary
Is Facebook On The Way Out?
Robert Cringely,
Jul 21, 2011, 2:28 PM EDT
Robert Cringely on the possible decline of Facebook's dominance: "Facebook is a
huge success. You can’t argue with 750 million users and growing. And I don’t see Google+ making a big dent in that. What I see instead is more properly the fading of the entire social media category, the victim of an ever-shortening event horizon."
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Commentary: Marshall McLuhan's 100th Birthday
McLuhan's Chilling Vision Still Matters Today
Guardian,
Jul 21, 2011, 7:07 AM EDT
Author Douglas Coupland on how Marshall McLuhan's message is still relevant today, 100 years after his birth: "The medium is the message seems like a timeworn cliche, yet in recent years it has flipped and become one of the most germane of statements. In his poetic and elliptical ways, McLuhan foresaw a fluid melting world of texting, email, YouTube, Google, smartphones and reality TV."
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Commentary: Hyperlocal Media
Should Sites Use Content From Merchants?
Street Fight,
Jul 20, 2011, 8:12 AM EDT
Patrick Kitano, founding Principal of Domus Consulting Group: "Business is integral to engaging the community because they have the commercial incentive to create content that builds their brand equity, directly or indirectly."
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Commentary
Online News Design Needs Refreshing
Design View,
Jul 20, 2011, 7:35 AM EDT
Graphic designer Andy Rutledge on the design of news sites: "In digital media -- Web sites in particular -- news outlets seldom if ever treat content with any sort of dignity and most news sites are wedded to a broken profit model that compels them to present a nearly unusable mishmash of pink noise … which they call content."
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Commentary
Is JRC Buy A Prelude To More Consolidation
Nieman Journalism Lab,
Jul 18, 2011, 3:23 PM EDT
Media consultant Martin Langeveld on Alden Global Capital's purchase of the Journal Register Co.: "It's not hard to imagine an east-west strategy, with newspaper properties flowing into a western-U.S. consolidation led by MediaNews and an eastern grouping led by JRC. Even without mergers, there are places where Alden could encourage strategic partnerships between companies it owns or has invested in."
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News of the World Phone Hacking Scandal
Murdoch Scandal Strains Rest Of Media
Newsosaur,
Jul 18, 2011, 3:17 PM EDT
Alan Mutter: "Even if the hacking scandal is found to be a problem unique to the wild and wooly News Corp. operation in the United Kingdom, it comes at a time that trust in the press is near an all-time low."
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Commentary
In Hyperlocal, Mom-and-Pop Shops Will Win
Street Fight,
Jul 15, 2011, 2:59 PM EDT
Street Fight's Alex Salkever says big companies such as AOL are too large to build the personal relationships it takes to make hyperlocal news succeed: "Local advertising sales is truly about relationships. Small merchants want to support businesses and people they like. Patch knows this, but is struggling to make headway because of the amount of territory it assigns to each of its reps."
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Commentary
Radio Needs Visuals For Online Success
Radio Ink,
Jul 14, 2011, 3:23 PM EDT
Mike Stiles: "Pay attention to whether your posts have pictures, and pay attention to how interesting those pictures are. Cool as your logo may be, just using that as the image beside all your posts is better than nothing, but it ain't gonna get clicked."
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Commentary
Aggregation Is Part Of The Future Of Media
GigaOM,
Jul 14, 2011, 8:14 AM EDT
Mathew Ingram: "There are so many sources of content available, from blogs to traditional sources to Twitter and everything in between, that aggregation is almost a necessity. Anyone who thinks that they can retain anything like a 'scoop' for more than a matter of minutes in this environment is deluding themselves."
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Commentary
Google+'s Future Is About Sharing Content
Advertising Age,
Jul 13, 2011, 3:06 PM EDT
Ian Schafer, CEO of Deep Focus: "There is a path that Google+ is headed down, with or without our complicity: a media-sharing and discovery powerhouse. Its tight integration with Google's own suite of content creation and consumption products and properties make Google+ a wonderful real-time content-sharing and discovery engine."
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Commentary
How Patch Can Draw More Hyperlocal Traffic
Street Fight,
Jul 13, 2011, 8:44 AM EDT
Rick Robinson on how Patch can draw more hyperlocal readers: "If we asked Patch’s unofficial guiding light Huffington Post, it might come down to a simple equation: more + sexiness <+ success> = successiness."
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Opinion
J-Schoolers Should Learn News Web Development
Andy Boyle,
Jul 12, 2011, 7:30 AM EDT
Commentary
Heaton: Pre-Roll Ads Not A Good Strategy
Terry Heaton's PoMo Blog,
Jul 12, 2011, 7:18 AM EDT
Terry Heaton: "Many studies reveal a depth of anger over pre-rolls. ... Over one-fourth of women exit before the ad finishes along with one-third of the men, and that includes 15-second ads. No ad view. No content view. Pissed off people. This is not a scalable strategy, folks, and publishers need to step forward, because Madision Avenue doesn’t give a crap and has no reason to want to change."
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Commentary
Storytelling Is Not Dead In Journalism
The Buttry Diary,
Jul 11, 2011, 3:46 PM EDT
Steve Buttry: "Some of the reaction to [Jeff Jarvis's]
post romanticized the long-form narrative as something marvelous that was being squeezed out of today's journalism. But my recollection from decades working in multiple newsrooms is that great storytelling too often was a victory over newsroom default settings."
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Commentary
Hyperlocals Need To Control Distribution
Scripting.com,
Jul 11, 2011, 3:29 PM EDT
Dave Winer, visiting scholar at NYU's Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute: "The No. 1 bit of advice -- is to be sure you control your own publishing and distribution."
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Commentary
Deals Sites Find Strength In Niches
Street Fight,
Jul 11, 2011, 3:04 PM EDT
Justin Cener, founder of sports tickets deals site Crowd Seats: "Perhaps the greatest advantage niche daily deal sites have is the ability to tailor the services they offer to meet the needs of their niche."
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Bergman: Google+ Is Great For Sharing
Inside Breaking News,
Jul 8, 2011, 7:09 AM EDT
Cory Bergman of msnbc.com's Breaking News on Google+: "On G+ users share most news items more times than they “plus” and comment on them. This is likely fueled by the G+ audience right now -- social influencers who love to share -- but I think it’s an early sign of how viral stories can rocket throughout the network."
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Commentary
Tracking Could Help News Site Accountability
Poynter,
Jul 6, 2011, 7:03 AM EDT
Changing and deleting content from news sites has become easier than ever, now Scott Rosenberg, project director of Mediabugs, thinks those sites should save and publish previous version of stories to enable people to see what was changed from one version to another.
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Commentary
What Google+ Adds To News
BuzzMachine,
Jul 5, 2011, 1:52 PM EDT
Jeff Jarvis: "If Google gets its synergistic act together and incorporates Google Docs -- and some of the tricks from Wave -- into G+, then this could be a very good collaboration tool for communities to gather together and share what they know. That’s the basis for news."
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Commentary
Why Newspapers Can't Stop The Presses
Reflections of a Newsosaur,
Jul 5, 2011, 1:27 PM EDT
Alan Mutter: "With their legacy Internet ad strategies looking increasingly threadbare, publishers know they have to find bold, new ways to leverage the power of their brands, content-creation capabilities and large local sales teams to win in the digital world. ... Until those new initiatives achieve critical mass, however, print will continue to be the lifeblood of the newspaper business."
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Using Location To Build Better Ad Campaigns
Mashable,
Jul 5, 2011, 7:53 AM EDT
David Staas, JiWire senior vice president of marketing: "The combination of mobile and location advertising is already transforming media, content, services and commerce. Location media is achieving mass market adoption, and raising consumer awareness around the value of location services and advertising."
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Commentary
Pexton: Social Media Could Hurt Reporting
The Washington Post,
Jul 4, 2011, 10:37 AM EDT
The Washington Post columnist Patrick Pexton"[Engagement is] using Twitter and Facebook to build a tribe or family of followers, even disciples, who will keep reading you. The potential downside here is a diminution of quality. If reporters are setting aside a portion of their days for social media, that leaves less time for thinking and traditional reporting. And if the chase in journalism becomes one for the greatest number of page views, Twitter followers and Facebook friends, instead of the great story, we all lose."
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Digital Editions Need Better Applications
Monday Note,
Jul 4, 2011, 10:37 AM EDT
Frédéric Filloux on a survey on digital readership released last week by Havas Media: "Digital editions carry more of the brand attributes; but as long as they are not supported by better applications, and able to provide real time news updates, they will remain a relatively small market."
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Time Is Now To Shift TV Ad Cash To Web Vid
MediaPost,
Jul 1, 2011, 3:04 PM EDT
Mike Sullivan: "
Online video viewership is reaching new highs each month, presenting a perfect opportunity for media buyers to tap into the massive video audience." Link
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Commentary
Can Groupon Succeed in China?
Forbes,
Jul 1, 2011, 2:20 PM EDT
Google+ Positions Itself For Local Ad Success
Street Fight,
Jul 1, 2011, 1:06 PM EDT
Alex Salkever: "if Google+ takes off, then Google has a trifecta play in all three of the major online zones for hyperlocal ads. Add in mobile and Google is clearly looking to hit all the bases in hyperlocal and hit them hard."
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Newsonomics of the British Invasion
UK Media Outlets Target American Readers
Nieman Journalism Lab,
Jun 30, 2011, 3:40 PM EDT
Author Ken Doctor: "The huge audiences that the distance-defying Internet has given UK news companies has not yet, largely, been accompanied by huge, even significant, pots of revenue."
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Meeting Hyperlocal News Users' Wants
Street Fight,
Jun 30, 2011, 3:40 PM EDT
Local America editorial director Tom Grubisich: "The data explosion offers plentiful opportunities to develop new news. But to blend that data into a compelling content cocktail, hyperlocals have to be continually innovative, and that’s not happening."
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Commentary
Radio Needs To Bite Into Local Mobile Ad Pie
Radio Ink,
Jun 30, 2011, 8:38 AM EDT
Securenet Systems' Kerry Brewer: "Radio stations that don't already stream to mobile should get on the ball ... and get on the mobile app trend too, if you haven't already done so. Just as over-the-air advertising drives terrestrial radio, mobile advertising drives mobile streaming."
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Commentary
Are Mobile Apps The Future Of Daily Deals?
DailyDeal Media,
Jun 29, 2011, 3:32 PM EDT
DailyDeal Media's Kris Ashton: "While Groupon Now isn’t the first and certainly won’t be the last mobile app for the daily deals and group buying industry it may represent a moment in time when reality showed us just how much we rely on mobile devices for the basics in everyday life."
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Commentary
Shafer: Is Hyperlocal A Waste Of Time?
Slate,
Jun 29, 2011, 3:25 PM EDT
Jack Shafer on Patch's hyperlocal efforts: "I can't imagine many users abandoning Facebook for Patch, no matter how good Patch becomes, in part because the sites overestimate the affinity people have for the geographical territories defined by their local Patches."
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Commentary: Twitter For Newsrooms
New Service More Promotional Than Helpful
The Buttry Diary,
Jun 28, 2011, 3:47 PM EDT
Steve Buttry: "Frankly, I was disappointed with Twitter’s guide. It strikes me as more promotional than helpful (when being more helpful would actually be better promotion, especially with as tough a crowd as journalists)."
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OJB Learns From Facebook Page Experiment
Online Journalism Blog,
Jun 28, 2011, 8:29 AM EDT
Paul Bradshaw recently concluded his month-long experiment of running his Online Journalism Blog entirely through Facebook and found that while publishing on the social network is great for short term traffic, it’s bad for traffic long-term.
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Commentary
Ingram To Media: We're All Brands Now
GigaOM,
Jun 28, 2011, 8:03 AM EDT
Matthew Ingram: "Branding is now an inescapable part of new media. If journalists are using social media to any extent (which they should be), then they are in the process of becoming a brand whether they like it or not."
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Commentary
The Guardian: Burning Platform Is Burning
Strange Attractor,
Jun 27, 2011, 3:48 PM EDT
Commentary
Pirzad-Allaei: Daily Deals Can Be Lucrative
TechCrunch,
Jun 27, 2011, 3:24 PM EDT
Arash Pirzad-Allaei, co-founder of KASA Capital: "While Groupon may sometimes structure lousy deals for merchants, it doesn’t mean the entire daily deal business model isn’t sustainable or beneficial for small businesses. When done right, the daily deal can actually be very lucrative for everyone involved: Merchants, customers and the daily deal sites themselves."
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Commentary
What 'Digital First' Means For Journalists
Guardian,
Jun 27, 2011, 7:31 AM EDT
Jeff Jarvis, City University of New York professor of journalism: "Going digital does not mean merely putting articles online before the presses roll, as then print still rules the process. No -- digital first means the net must drive all decisions: how news is covered, in what form, by whom, and when. It dictates that when journalists know something, they are prepared to share it with their public."
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Commentary
Sites Work To Create News Communities
Nieman Reports,
Jun 24, 2011, 7:32 AM EDT
James O'Shea, cofounder and editor of the Chicago News Cooperative, on the changing community of news readers: "Reporters at newspapers, magazines, websites and on airwaves face a far more daunting challenge: The community they exist to serve is more elusive, diverse, fractured and, it seems, reluctant to pay even a small price for the news and information that journalists deliver to their laptops or mobile phones."
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Commentary
NY Times Paywall Could Work Better
PBS MediaShift,
Jun 24, 2011, 6:54 AM EDT
Teeming Media's Dorian Benkoil: "[
The New York Times] could boost its revenue further by using ad targeting technologies to try to get more page views from people who are of more value to high-priced advertisers. The same ad targeting technologies could be used to identify users to show them relevant ads, and let people identified as having higher income and education levels through without showing them the gate after they've reached a 20-article limit."
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Commentary
Taking 'Broccoli Journalism' Hyperlocal
Street Fight,
Jun 23, 2011, 2:59 PM EDT
For local sites that want to go beyond just pointing out the best pizza in town and tackle some weightier issues, a little effort and a dash of creativity can keep it from becoming merely news that is good for you but not very appealing -- "broccoli journalism," as Jeff Jarvis calls it.
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More Disgruntled Patch Staffers Speak Out
Business Insider,
Jun 22, 2011, 4:07 PM EDT
Radio
Streaming Helps Reach More Radio Listeners
Radio Ink,
Jun 22, 2011, 3:04 PM EDT
Securenet Systems senior managing director Kerry Brewer: "More and more of your listeners are looking for you now on their desktops and mobile devices, and as this market grows, so does your ability to reach more people at more times of the day than you could previously without the Internet to stream your signal across."
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Curation Has A Place In The Future Of News
Nieman Reports,
Jun 22, 2011, 3:04 PM EDT
Magnify.net CEO Steven Rosenbaum: "Skillful sharing of information through channels of community filtering and personal recommendations will fulfill people's sense of digital identity as content curators. And this leads to a different kind of content consumer, one who will do less surfing of the Web and instead turn to curated content delivered by trusted sources."
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Commmentary
Big Media Could Learn From NY Library
The Atlantic,
Jun 22, 2011, 8:09 AM EDT
The Atlantic's Alexis Madrigal: "The logic of protecting offline revenue pushed most media companies away from aggressively reevaluating their role in the information ecosystem. Something you hear a lot in the magazine business, for example, is that you 'can't trade print dollars for digital pennies.' That's kept many of us from innovating online. No such pressure exists at the NYPL."
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Turntable.fm: A Good Idea, But Is It Legal?
All Things Digital,
Jun 22, 2011, 7:36 AM EDT
Commentary
Will Groceries Be A Good Fit For Groupon
BIA/Kelsey,
Jun 21, 2011, 8:45 AM EDT
Peter Krasilovsky on Groupon's efforts to enter the grocery coupon space: "It’s really about driving traffic into the stores. And the groceries might be willing to pay for that, especially if they can steer consumers to take out dining items, which are their high margin plays, and also provide a a linkage with their loyalty cards."
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Commentary
Green Lantern, Batman's Take On Journalism
SnarkMarket,
Jun 21, 2011, 8:22 AM EDT
According to Wired's Tim Carmody, the Green Lantern is cosmic and interplanetary, part of a larger group, similar to journalist writing for a large publication. Batman, on the other hand, is hyperlocal, representing the journalist going it alone online.
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Commentary
'AOL Way' Doesn't Have Impact On Writers
Benjamin Robert Gilbert,
Jun 20, 2011, 3:22 PM EDT
Joystiq's Benjamin Robert Gilbert: "In the approximately four months since that supposed leak [of 'The AOL Way' document], I’ve seen zero change in our editorial policy at [AOL-owned] Joystiq."
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Commentary: NY Times Vs. HuffPo
Content, Conversation At Heart Of Difference
Poynter,
Jun 20, 2011, 3:22 PM EDT
Stev Myers on the difference between Huffington Post and
The New York Times: "I don’t think the key difference is aggregation, traffic or employees. It’s that one site values content in the service of conversation; the other values conversation in the service of content."
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Commentary
Google Offers: Not Quite A 'Groupon Killer'
Street Fight,
Jun 20, 2011, 8:43 AM EDT
BIA/Kelsey's Michael Boland: "Offers will be similar to Groupon in some ways, but its economics and mobile integration are quite different. Comparisons aside, the real story is how Offers plugs into Google’s massive distribution network of search, Gmail, mobile and about 26 other products."
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Should User Comments Dictate Web Content
The Next Web,
Jun 20, 2011, 8:16 AM EDT
Brad McCarty on online comments and their influence on editorial decisions: "There’s much to be said for allowing the comments of your users to guide your editorial direction, but there’s likely far more to be said for bringing people the news that is important for them to hear, whether or not they realized that that importance."
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Jessell At Large
Advancing Tech = Advancing The Business
TVNewsCheck,
Jun 20, 2011, 7:25 AM EDT
TV broadcasters are at war right now, not only with their long-time nemeses, cable and satellite, but also with wireless broadband, which is coming after broadcasters' spectrum and its viewers. To win this war, broadcasters have to innovate. They have to keep up with the competition. In fact, they should strive to get ahead of the competition. Creating a broadcast lab with an annual budget of at least $15 million to develop and test new broadcast technology would do just that.
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QR Codes: Dead End or On-Ramp?
ClickZ,
Jun 17, 2011, 9:07 AM EDT
Commentary
Local News Tries To Fit With National, Social
Mediaite,
Jun 17, 2011, 8:10 AM EDT
Columnist Philip Bump: "There are generally two things people care about: what everyone is talking about, and what’s happening to them. Local news is caught in the murky middle. For decades, they’ve tried to tie local news to national events (“The tornado in Joplin: could it happen here?!?”); the Web has allowed media to move closer and closer to home. In fact, this is where Facebook and Twitter shine: your curated community sharing news that’s important to you, as an individual."
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Commentary
Patch Fills Local Information Gap
Hellertown-Lower Saucon Patch,
Jun 16, 2011, 8:09 AM EDT
Hellertown-Lower Saucon, Pa., Patch columnist Margie Peterson on the hyperlocal net's place in the community: "Typically, the press spends a lot of time and space focusing on school budgets and test scores because they are important and affect lots of people, but also because they're quantifiable. What is more likely to be overlooked is what's hard to measure: the teacher inspiring students to be creative, the chorus making beautiful music. Patch catches people being good."
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Commentary
Monetization Is The Goal For New Media
GigaOM,
Jun 16, 2011, 8:09 AM EDT
Mathew Ingram: "It's great that your magazine or newspaper Web site has millions of page views or unique visitors a month, but those kinds of statistics mean less and less when traditional banner ads bring in virtual pennies for the media companies running them."
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Commentary
Could The Deals Space Be Worth Trillions?
BIA/Kelsey,
Jun 16, 2011, 7:17 AM EDT
Neal Polachek: "The U.S. economy is about $15 trillion. SMBs account for something in the order of $5 trillion. So if the deals space does serve as a new foundation for commerce, as [Yipit co-founder Jim] Moran and others suggest, we are, in fact, talking trillions not billions."
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Commentary
Why Groupon Is Poised For Collapse
TechCrunch,
Jun 15, 2011, 8:04 AM EDT
Entrepreneur Rocky Agrawal: "Groupon is not an Internet marketing business so much as it is the equivalent of a loan sharking business. ... In many cases, running a Groupon can be a terrible financial decision for merchants. Groupon’s financials also raise questions about its ongoing viability. Buying Groupon stock could be as bad a deal for investors as running a Groupon offer is for merchants."
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Commentary
New Tools Add Options To Journo Utility Belt
GigaOM,
Jun 14, 2011, 8:38 AM EDT
Matthew Ingram on
Jeff Jarvis and
Frédéric Filloux's differing opinions on the future of the news article: "None of these tools or approaches replace one another, any more than the web has replaced television -- ideally, they feed into and inform each other, and smart journalists (professional or amateur) use them to make our knowledge of an event more complete and more understandable."
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Commentary
YouTube Spawns 'Person As Distribution Channel'
Amanda Peyton,
Jun 13, 2011, 3:31 PM EDT
Commentary
Mutter: There Is Value In Journalism
Reflections of a Newsosaur,
Jun 13, 2011, 3:21 PM EDT
Alan Mutter on Journal Register Co. CEO John Paton's comments on the
value of journalism: "Paton is wrong to dismiss the intrinsic value to society of vigorous, ethical and independent journalism that is committed to comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable. There is no other institution to perform this function, making journalism -- and journalists -- not only valuable but also well worth saving."
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Commentary
Filloux: Articles Are Not A Byproduct
Monday Note,
Jun 13, 2011, 8:37 AM EDT
Frédéric Filloux on City University of New York journalism professor Jeff Jarvis calling articles a luxury: "Articles are more necessary than ever to understand and to correct excesses and mistakes resulting from an ever expanding flurry of instant coverage."
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Popova: Curation Is The New Authorship
Nieman Journalism Lab,
Jun 10, 2011, 3:05 PM EDT
Commentary
Hyperlocals Fall Short On The Big Issues
Street Fight,
Jun 10, 2011, 3:01 PM EDT
Tom Grubisich, editorial director of Local America: "When you look at most hyperlocal sites you don’t see much being done to engage audiences that are waiting to be engaged, or presenting content that emphasizes the local roots of the biggest national crises."
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Newsonomics of Defense and offense
Paywalls Help Newspapers Bolster Print Side
Nieman Journalism Lab,
Jun 10, 2011, 2:44 PM EDT
Author Ken Doctor: "Most of the papers that have launched paid tests have seen their print churn drop. People aren’t stupid. They do the math and say, okay, I’ll hold on to the paper, if you include “free” digital access. That stealth strategy is playing out."
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Commentary
Paton: Sharing With Crowd Brings Value
Digital First,
Jun 10, 2011, 2:44 PM EDT
Journal Register Co.'s John Paton: "Instead of paywalls, we see greater value creation in the open sharing of our content. Our approach is to treat content like an API -- available to any who want it."
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Ad Revenue Won't Come For Social Media
ieee Spectrum,
Jun 10, 2011, 2:19 PM EDT
Bob Garfield: "The endless supply of online content means an endless supply of places where ads could go, which by definition depresses demand and, with it, price."
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Commentary
Can HuffPo Or Patch Save AOL?
GigaOM,
Jun 10, 2011, 2:04 PM EDT
Matthew Ingram: "What AOL has right now is an aging legacy business that continues to produce cash but is declining rapidly, and two new businesses that have high costs -- especially in Patch’s case -- but have yet to show that they can produce anything like the kind of cash AOL is used to making. All we have is CEO Tim Armstrong’s assurances that eventually this will occur, which at this point seems to fall into the category of wishful thinking."
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Commentary
Is Online Advertising Hurting Publishers?
VentureBeat,
Jun 9, 2011, 2:55 PM EDT
Matt Marshall: "Not only are people spending more time online, the advertisers also saw excess online inventory being pumped out by the publishers, and they took advantage by buying it at bargain rates. In other words, advertisers are buying more ads, but there’s so much inventory that it’s depressing rates."
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Commentary
Native Apps Have An Edge Over Mobile Web
Mobile Marketer,
Jun 8, 2011, 8:38 AM EDT
CrowdCompass's Jonathan Toland: "With access to the device’s firmware, native [mobile apps are] down-to-the-bone, straight-to-the-phone fast: fast to start, fast to access data, and fast to close."
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Commentary: Twitter as media
What Happens When Anyone Can Publish?
GigaOM,
Jun 8, 2011, 8:10 AM EDT
Matthew Ingram on the case of a Florida rape victim tweeting messages about her attacker and the incident: "In a media-related sense, this is another example of what programmer and media theorist Dave Winer has called 'the sources going direct,' meaning that a potential source for a news story ... publishes their thoughts on Twitter or Facebook or in a blog post, without waiting for a reporter to interview them."
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Commentary
Pub Platforms Should Add Smart Correction Tools
PBS MediaShift,
Jun 8, 2011, 7:22 AM EDT
Commentary
It Could Be Time For Return Of P.M. News Product
Reflections of a Newsosaur,
Jun 8, 2011, 7:11 AM EDT
Commentary
Hyperlocalism Makes Marketing Noise
Huffington Post,
Jun 7, 2011, 4:09 PM EDT
8 Questions About The Groupon IPO
BIA/Kelsey,
Jun 7, 2011, 8:27 AM EDT
Groupon is gearing up for its upcoming initial public offering, but questions of profitability and sustainability are still swirling around the daily deals service.
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Commentary: Paywalls and Pay Strategies
Ingram: Paywalls Are Still A Bad Idea
GigaOM,
Jun 7, 2011, 7:05 AM EDT
Matthew Ingram: "The biggest flaw [in a paywall] from a business perspective, particularly for smaller newspapers, is that walling up your content is an invitation to free competitors -- from AOL's Patch.com and Huffington Post to Mainstreet Connect and Neighborhoodr and Topix.net -- to come and take away your readers."
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Commentary
Foursquare Needs To Change Local Biz Model
Street Fight,
Jun 6, 2011, 3:40 PM EDT
Trada CEO Niel Robertson: "While many types of businesses are self-service, local businesses are rarely sophisticated enough or have enough time to explore their options. ... Foursquare will have to redesign their own business on the premise that acquiring local businesses cannot be done with a self-service model."
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Daily Deals
Low Deals Marketing Could Hurt Hyperlocal
Forbes,
Jun 6, 2011, 3:19 PM EDT
Jeff Bercovici on Groupon's IPO filing that lowered marketing costs to claim profitability: "If the coupon market, once divvied up, is relatively stable, and Groupon and LivingSocial and all the other me-too players can cut way back on their marketing budgets in a year or two ... it’s going to put a major hurt on the burgeoning ecosystem of hyperlocal news sites."
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Commentary
Why Groupon is Worth $25 Billion Dollars
Steve Cheney,
Jun 6, 2011, 8:05 AM EDT
Consultant and entrpreneur Steve Cheney: "So the real end-goal for daily deal sites is in assembling a marketplace and exchange that has enough inventory and users to support these types of new online to offline behaviors at massive scale. And if Groupon doesn't figure it out, someone else will. There is way more money to be made in offline commerce than there is in online commerce."
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Commentary
Analyzing The Metered Model
Monday Note,
Jun 6, 2011, 7:46 AM EDT
French ePresse consortium general manager Frédéric Filloux: "For the meter, finding the right setting is far from trivial. ... Metered systems are the opposite of the one-size-fits-all."
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Commentary
Tablets May Not Be Newspapers' Saviors
Guardian,
Jun 6, 2011, 7:28 AM EDT
Peter Preston: "Is news a driving force on pads and smartphones? No: Apple's iTunes Store approved its 500,000th app the other day and only 3% of them fall into a category you can call news -- far, far behind games (15%), books (14%) and general entertainment (11%). In short, news sampled this way is an also-ran. ... At root, the statistics show the priorities of tablet use."
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Commentary
Is Twitter Like Speech Or Writing? Yes
GigaOM,
Jun 6, 2011, 7:17 AM EDT
Commentary
Why Investors Might Pass On Groupon IPO
Short Logic,
Jun 3, 2011, 3:04 PM EDT
David Heinemeier Hansson: "At the moment, it’s costing them $1.43 to make $1, and it doesn’t look like it’s getting any cheaper. They’re already projected to make close to $3 billion in revenue this year. If you can’t figure out how to make money on 3 billion in revenue, when exactly will the profit magic be found? 10 billion? 50 billion?"
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Commentary
What 'Community Engagement' Means
The Buttry Diary,
Jun 3, 2011, 2:35 PM EDT
Steve Buttry: "Community engagement doesn’t change the news organization’s responsibility to report what’s important, and sometimes what’s unpopular. A news organization that engages with its community should, in fact, have an easier time earning trust of the whistle-blowers who are key sources for such stories, and earning the trust of a community that might be skeptical of negative news."
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Commentary
For Groupon, What's Next After IPO
Street Fight,
Jun 3, 2011, 8:10 AM EDT
Laura Rich: "The daily deals game is hardly won, with Groupon and its main competitor, LivingSocial, together owning just a single-digit share of the $150 billion ad market. The key to these companies' future likely lies not in what they do today but how they leverage the relationships they're developing."
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Commentary
Radio Needs To Pay Heed To Online Growth
Radio Ink,
Jun 2, 2011, 8:21 AM EDT
Kerry Brewer, senior managing director at online radio streaming services provider Securenet Systems: "The online listener is also able to respond to multi-media interaction, calls to action, social media and other things that a listener has a hard time doing while driving. Plus, the ability to display media and target specific ads is one of the inherent features of a robust online presence. You have to be streaming online in order to reach these listeners, and you have to be doing it properly to make an impact."
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Commentary
Mobile Tech Is Breaking Up The News Article
Business Insider,
Jun 2, 2011, 7:17 AM EDT
Jonathan Glick, CEO of real-time media company Sulia, on how mobile technology is changing the way we consume news: "The classic article is a carefully crafted bundle of facts, photos, and quotes bolstered with historical background and analysis. But when the news is already known to the reader ... these bundles can become confusingly out-of-sync even when they are just a few hours old."
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Commentary
News Orgs Prefer In-House Web-Pub Tools
Martin Belam,
Jun 1, 2011, 3:11 PM EDT
Martin Belam: "In an era where turning to an alternative news source is only a click away, you want to seize any opportunity to be distinctively better that you can get. Even if it takes time and costs money to build."
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Commentary
Will Future Pulitzers Go To Cyborgs?
Editor & Publisher,
Jun 1, 2011, 8:36 AM EDT
Jeff Fleming: "
What's disconcerting to writers is that Narrative Science is expanding beyond sports stories. The technology can be applied to a broad range of content categories, and the company is branching into new areas every day." Link
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Commentary
Niche Media Will Need Pay Models To Survive
Advertising Age,
May 31, 2011, 4:05 PM EDT
Vindicia CEO Gene Hoffman: "Advertising businesses need 10's of millions of daily viewers to support a $10M annual business. Subscription and virtual currency businesses need but 100,000 subscribers paying an average of $10 a month to reach the same revenue."
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Commentary
Jann Wenner Is Wrong About Tablets
Forbes,
May 31, 2011, 3:34 PM EDT
Jeff Bercovici: "From any other publisher, these views would come across as mere cluelessness or head-in-the-sand-ism. Coming out of Wenner’s mouth, they’re more like self-parody. No other publisher has been so willing to assert, in the face of all evidence to the contrary, that the digital poses no true threat to print, that the Web is something that can safely be ignored."
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Ingram: Twitter Does Not Replace Journalism
GigaOM,
May 31, 2011, 7:41 AM EDT
Matthew Ingram: "Twitter doesn't replace any other form of media or journalism, any more than YouTube replaces television, or Facebook replaces the need for normal human interaction. Twitter is just a tool, like the telephone or the video camera -- it doesn't replace the need for traditional journalists. It may make their jobs slightly different, but we still need people to curate and make sense of that stream."
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Jarvis: News Articles Are A Luxury
BuzzMachine,
May 31, 2011, 7:41 AM EDT
Jeff Jarvis on the value of linking to stories via Twitter rather than writing articles: "In a do-what-you-do-best-and-link-to-the-rest ecosystem, if someone else has written a good article (or background wiki) isn’t it often more efficient to link than to write? Isn’t it more valuable to add reporting, filling in missing facts or correcting mistakes or adding perspectives, than to rewrite what someone else has already written?"
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Commentary: The Problem With Paywalls
Readers Have Never Paid For 'News'
Huffington Post Canada,
May 31, 2011, 6:59 AM EDT
Alfred Hermida on newspaper paywalls: "People have never really paid for the news. By news, I mean the political infighting in city halls or the violence in faraway foreign places -- the news that is important and matters but can be challenging to make relevant to a broad audience. Readers were paying for the sport results, the lifestyle section, diversions like the crossword and horoscopes."
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The Daily Keeps Its Affairs Secret
The New York Observer,
May 20, 2011, 3:25 PM EDT
Since its launch three months ago, News Corp. has kept the goings-on at tablet newspaper The Daily tightly under wraps.
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Commentary
Is LinkedIn A Hyperlocal B2B Play?
Street Fight,
May 20, 2011, 3:25 PM EDT
Alex Salkever argues that LinkedIn, coming off a highly successful IPO this week, has all the pieces in place to become a powerful hyperlocal advertising network.
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Commentary
Aggregators Endanger Media Brand Loyalty
Steve Rubel,
May 20, 2011, 2:53 PM EDT
Edelman executive vice president Steve Rubel: "It's almost a given that more marketers will begin to partner directly with these new curators or build their own mobile media platforms around niches they wish to own. If this happens then it can further erode the advertiser loyalty that perhaps many media brands take for granted."
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Commentary
NYT's Keller: Twitter Is Eating Our Brains
The New York Times,
May 19, 2011, 3:37 PM EDT
New York Times executive editor Bill Keller on the proliferation of Twitter, Facebook and other new technology distractions: "My inner worrywart wonders whether the new technologies overtaking us may be eroding characteristics that are essentially human: our ability to reflect, our pursuit of meaning, genuine empathy, a sense of community connected by something deeper than snark or political affinity."
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Newsonomics of the Missing Link
Newspapers Risk Missing The Tablet Boat
Nieman Journalism Lab,
May 19, 2011, 2:57 PM EDT
Author Ken Doctor: "The tablet is print-like, but it’s not print. It’s a new medium, first inviting -- and soon demanding -- that publishers make use of its interactive, video-forward, and smooth-as-silk social sharing capabilities. If publishers persist in “going slow,” sticking with cheaper-to-produce replica tablet products, they’ll squander the tablet replacement-for-print opportunity."
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5 Elements Of A Successful Hyperlocal Site
Street Fight,
May 18, 2011, 3:36 PM EDT
In order to find success in the hyperlocal arena, sites need to focus on their response to news, neighborhoods, social efforts and fear, as well as stir up competition.
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Mann: Twitter Is A 'Personalized Wire Service'
BBC College of Journalism Blog,
May 18, 2011, 8:36 AM EDT
Journalist Neal Mann: "Working on the newsdesk of an international news channel involves monitoring, filtering, digesting and prioritizing a vast amount of information. You have to be across picture feeds, wire drops, e-mails, and obviously reports from your journalists in the field. Social media has added another dimension to what I do."
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Commentary
Engagement Key To Hyperlocal Success
Street Fight,
May 17, 2011, 2:56 PM EDT
Freelance writer Kara Hodge: "To create a thriving hyperlocal site today, an editor needs to attract and hold the attention of an engaged readership. Even more importantly, to sustain a hyperlocal site with limited resources, that audience needs to play an active role in providing and responding to its content."
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Commentary
News Orgs Need To Link To Sources
Doc Searls,
May 17, 2011, 8:15 AM EDT
Doc Searls: "Even now, [mainstream media are] still trying to shove the Web's genie back in the old ink bottle. They do it with paywalls, with schemes to drag your eyes past pages and pages of advertising, and (perhaps worst of all) by leaving out hyperlinks. Never mind that the hyperlink is a perfect way to practice one of journalism's prime responsibilities: citing sources."
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Commentary: Paywalls and Pay Strategies
Paywall Lessons From Smaller Papers
Nieman Journalism Lab,
May 16, 2011, 3:35 PM EDT
Justin Ellis: "The size advantage for small and mid-sized papers may translate into a tighter connection with their readership, which in turn can help them explain their online subscription models to their readership."
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Commentary
Forbes' Digital Approach Should Be Mimicked
Telegraph,
May 16, 2011, 3:35 PM EDT
Emma Barnett: "The answer is not to look down or dismiss the importance of digital within any enterprise if a business or an individual is to survive, never mind thrive. It is tool up and keep on learning."
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the Business of Digital Journalism
Advertising Culture Has Dominated Online
Monday Note,
May 16, 2011, 8:22 AM EDT
Jean-Louis Gassée on last week's report from Columbia School of Journalism "The Story So Far": "Today’s obsession with the 'Unique Visitor' metric drives the advertising market -- and competition among news sites. Such fixation encourages an arms race in which, by all means necessary (games, fake URLs), news sites will shoot for an increase in their numbers of UVs and for the resulting ranking improvement. This is short-sighted: loyal readers -- roughly the top 10% that will generate 80% of the page views -- should be the measure of choice."
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Commentary
Digital Divide For Native Americans Is 'A Travesty'
PBS MediaShift,
May 13, 2011, 8:24 AM EDT
Commentary
Unplugging From Social Media Boosts Productivity
PBS Idea Lab,
May 12, 2011, 5:25 PM EDT
Commentary
Radio Industry Plays Catch-Up Online
Audio Graphics,
May 12, 2011, 2:59 PM EDT
Ken Dardis: "Despite the predictions of how far the radio industry will go, we've only seen half-hearted social media strategies, similar attempts at implementing current web site design and navigation, a strikingly poor attempt at using email to solidify audience relationships, no movement in defining what an advertiser is buying, and online programming that's designed for over-the-air."
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Newsonomics of the dipsy-doo
Readers Prefer Print/Digital Combos
Nieman Journalism Lab,
May 12, 2011, 2:59 PM EDT
Author Ken Doctor: "Readers have quickly figured out it's better to order some print edition and get 'included' digital access than to just pay for digital access. Lead customers one way -- and then do a quick turn on them."
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commentary
How Many Editors Do Hyperlocal Sites Need
Street Fight,
May 10, 2011, 3:58 PM EDT
Toby Murdock, founder and CEO of online newsroom provider Kapost, on the ratio of one editor for every four contributors: "It has been the model for the past, but hyperlocal media is a new evolution in editorial, one that often includes numerous community voices. Hyperlocal editors need the ability to manage as many community voices as their site can attract, without being bound by 1:4 restrictions."
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Commentary: 'Navigating News Online'
5 Problems With The PEJ Study
Steve Buttry,
May 10, 2011, 2:59 PM EDT
Media Oberserver Steve Buttry found that the Project for Excellence in Journalism's "Navigating News Online" study released yesterday was undermined by its failure to provide context for many of its points.
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Apps Won't Change Newspaper Economics
The Independent,
May 9, 2011, 6:47 AM EDT
The Independent's Stephen Glover: "Newspaper publishers who are banking on the iPad producing a torrent of new revenue that may transform their balance sheets are being over-optimistic. ... Apps offer some unhoped-for extra revenue in the digital age, though I would be astonished if they transformed the economics of newspaper publishing."
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Commentary
Paywalls Will Disengage Student Readers
The Hofstra Chronicle,
May 6, 2011, 3:03 PM EDT
Hofstra University student Andrea Ordonez: "Today's young people are not civically engaged in terms of politics and current events. How much less engaged will they be when all news outlets set up paywalls?"
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Commentary
What Makes Local Sites Tick
PBS MediaShift,
May 6, 2011, 3:03 PM EDT
Michael Wood-Lewis, founder of
Front Porch Forum: "When you're talking about a story of interest to only several hundred nearby neighbors, then the community's contribution to the story is crucial. Many aggregators and originators have space for user comments, while other successful sites put the community first, ahead of the stories."
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Commentary
Patch Trying To Be HuffPo Of Local News
GigaOM,
May 6, 2011, 8:19 AM EDT
Matthew Ingram on AOL's Patch featuring the work of local bloggers: "In a nutshell, [Local Voices is] an attempt to duplicate the Huffington Post approach -- namely, aggregating mainstream news and bloggers who are producing content for free. ... It remains to be seen whether this kind of aggregation is welcomed by local bloggers, or whether they react like some of Huffington Post's contributors did and later launch a class-action lawsuit looking to be paid."
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Commentary
To Mr. Armstrong: Patch Is No CNN, Amazon
Business Insider,
May 6, 2011, 7:50 AM EDT
Digital media strategist Diane Mermigas on AOL CEO Tim Armstrong comparing Patch to CNN and Amazon: "Infrastructures aside, the comparison was completely inappropriate. ... While hyperlocal is an untapped treasure trove, Patch is an elaborate, costly bet on what most local newspapers and TV stations have so far been unable to master in their own backyards."
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Commentary
Can Non-Profits Safeguard Press Freedom?
PBS MediaShift,
May 5, 2011, 3:42 PM EDT
Newsonomics of the ABCs Of Journalism
Newspaper Metrics Pass The Age Of Mass
Nieman Journalism Lab,
May 5, 2011, 3:07 PM EDT
Author Ken Doctor on the Audit Bureau of Circulations' new metrics for daily newsapers: "The big picture recognition here, as publishers and major advertisers have wrestled the new system to the ground, is that the age of
simple mass is gone. Counting is increasingly about niche."
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Commentary
Siegler: SEO Is Killing Tech Blogging
Paris Lemon,
May 5, 2011, 8:06 AM EDT
TechCrunch's MG Siegler on tech blogs exploiting Osama bin Laden's to generate Web traffic: "This is the state of tech blogging these days. It’s shifting more towards a mixture of quick-posted nonsense and pure SEO plays. ... Exploiting Bin Laden’s death is one thing. Just wait until we have a real national tragedy that the tech blogs contort themselves to exploit for the pageviews."
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Commentary
Hyperlocal Efforts Need Investors
Joseph Stashko,
May 4, 2011, 3:46 PM EDT
Joseph Stashko: "If [hyperlocal is] to be taken seriously as a part of the new journalism landscape it needs investment. While that hinges on those with money seeing it as something viable, it also requires hyperlocal bloggers to be willing to receive that investment and partner with bigger companies."
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commentary
Why 1-To-1 Ad Personalization Hasn't Arrived
Thought Gadgets,
May 4, 2011, 8:38 AM EDT
commentary
Getting The Osama Bulletin In A Moslem Land
Newsosaur,
May 3, 2011, 3:00 PM EDT
Commentary
Media Shifts In A Turbulent Decade
Mediactive,
May 3, 2011, 8:52 AM EDT
Author Dan Gillmor on how online news has changed in the years since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks: "The promise of the Internet was flowering in 2001. We saw only the possibilities and the immense freedom of this emerging sphere for communications and collaboration. The vision we shared then is in some real jeopardy today. Governments and private companies scheme to wrest control from us at the edges of the networks and pull it back into the center, where it manifestly should not belong. They may win."
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Commentary
Every News Org Needs To Be Live
Emily Bell(wether),
May 3, 2011, 7:45 AM EDT
Columbia University journalism professor Emily Bell: "If you are related to the world of news, as opposed to the world of analysis, if you don’t have a strategy for live stories and reporting, then you have a very limited future."
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Newspapers Help Readers Get To Heart Of Issues
The Cleveland Plain Dealer,
May 2, 2011, 3:59 PM EDT
Commentary
Mobile Location-Based Service Are Essential
PaidContent,
May 2, 2011, 3:55 PM EDT
Commentary
Tech Reshaping Our Scope Of Knowledge
Editor & Publisher,
May 2, 2011, 3:36 PM EDT
Jeff Flemin: "With the recent launch of Zite, touted as the app that thinks for you, we are blindly heading down a deep cavern of narrow-minded thinking." Link
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Commentary
Revisiting The Freemium Model For Apps
Monday Note,
May 2, 2011, 7:55 AM EDT
Frédéric Filloux: "Going for a single, full-featured and paid-for app carries several additional advantages: a single app means a single customer-support & maintenance process, and one schedule for upgrades. Most importantly, it puts revenue ahead of a costs."
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Commentary
Content Control In The Age Of AOL
The Next Web,
May 2, 2011, 7:23 AM EDT
Tech Blogger Alex Wilhelm: "Perhaps the current, and near-term future of digital content can be summed as follows: big interests are snapping up many of the best online publications, but their management plans for those companies are going to force out many of the writers that built them, or they will be forced out."
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To J-School Students: Storytelling Is Still Key
McGuire On Media,
Apr 29, 2011, 3:28 PM EDT
Tim McGuire of Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication: "No matter where technology takes media and society we are always going to require the nourishment of well-told stories. They make us a richer society, more appreciative of relationships, emotions and personal well-being."
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Commentary
New Rev Streams Vital To Paper Survival
Steve Buttry,
Apr 29, 2011, 3:13 PM EDT
Steve Buttry: "[Newspapers] need to unshackle themselves from their old advertising-and-circulation model and start serious pursuit of the dozens of ideas already presented for developing new revenue sources."
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Commentary
Can Social Media Help Boost Traffic?
PBS Idea Lab,
Apr 29, 2011, 3:07 PM EDT
Gail Robinson, editor in chief of New York City-based
Gotham Gazette, on using social media to help increase Web traffic: "If it is to increase visibility, the social media almost certainly can help. ... If, though, you hope that social media will increase your page visits, the answer seems less clear."
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Commentary
Ad Agencies Need A Variety Of Local Tools
Business Insider,
Apr 29, 2011, 8:19 AM EDT
CityVoter CEO Josh Walker: "The problem with local is that everything is local. No one online publisher is right. An agency should be able to talk intelligently about the combination of these approaches and be comfortable working with multiple vendors to reach the audience in the geography a client needs to activate."
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Newsonomics of Story cost accounting
News Creation Cost Now Topic In Newsrooms
Nieman Journalism Lab,
Apr 29, 2011, 7:59 AM EDT
Author Ken Doctor: "News creation used to be a sunk cost, with headcount a small and usually polite battle between editors and publishers. That was in stable times. In these times, knowing business drivers, down to the dollar, is going to be part of the new world."
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Commentary
Newspaper Ad Sales Still Suffering
Newsosaur,
Apr 28, 2011, 2:34 PM EDT
Alan Mutter: "Clearly, newspapers need new ideas. They need to develop a broad array of targeted content and advertising solutions to serve diverse audiences across the Web, mobile and social media."
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Commentary
5 Ws Important In Business Of Journalism
Steve Buttry,
Apr 28, 2011, 2:34 PM EDT
Steve Buttry: "Every journalist learned quickly in our first journalism class or newsroom lesson about the "5 W's": Who? What? When? Where? Why? How? ... The same questions are essential to survival and prosperity in the business of journalism."
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Mail Online Could Teach Rivals A Lesson
The Independent,
Apr 27, 2011, 3:33 PM EDT
U.K. newspaper Mail Online, which last month became the No. 2 Web site in the world according to comScore, could show its rivals that an online newspaper doesn't need to charge readers to be profitable. Stephen Glover: "The huge size of [Mail Online's] ever-increasing audience is becoming attractive to advertisers. ... Perhaps anyone who wants newspapers to survive and thrive should draw comfort from the apparent debunking of what was until recently received wisdom. It turns out that online newspapers which don't charge can be profitable, and their success need not be at the expense of print."
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Commentary
Google Can't be Trusted With Our Books
Guardian,
Apr 27, 2011, 8:21 AM EDT
Commentary
Adobe iPad Creator Will Cost Pubs A Bundle
Elliot Jay Stocks,
Apr 27, 2011, 7:36 AM EDT
Commentary
Papers Have Yet To Fully Exploit Mobile Tech
Poynter,
Apr 27, 2011, 7:19 AM EDT
Poynter's Damon Kiesow on the early days of newspaper tablet apps: "Media companies are not trying enough, quickly enough [to create innovative apps for tablet computers]. It is not that media cannot innovate, it is that media organizations have not been structured to encourage it."
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Hard Economic Lessons For The News
BuzzMachine,
Apr 26, 2011, 7:35 AM EDT
Commentary
White: Communities Need Quality Journalism
PBS MediaShift,
Apr 25, 2011, 3:32 PM EDT
The Daily Dot founder Nicholas White: "I trust that if we keep following people into the places where they gather to trade gossip, argue the issues, seek inspiration, and share lives, then we will also find communities in need of quality journalism."
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2011: The Year Check-Ins Reach Puberty
Street Fight,
Apr 25, 2011, 3:23 PM EDT
Ken Doctor: ‘The Play is for Tablets’
Street Fight,
Apr 25, 2011, 3:32 PM EDT
Author Ken Doctor: "If you could combine the best local news sources -- which would include local newspaper, local broadcast, public radio, best local bloggers -- into an easy to use format, essentially a local briefing -- and a tablet is a perfect platform for it -- I think people would pay something for that."
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At 2, The Awl Avoids Self-Aggrandizement
David Cho,
Apr 22, 2011, 2:35 PM EDT
The Awl's David Cho celebrates the site's second birthday with a post deriding the Internet trend of self-promotion: "The current rules in place to win at having a New York Internet publishing entity are stupid and wrong, both in terms of perceived and actual success."
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newsonomics of a single investigative story
Pubs Look Outside For Investigative Stories
Nieman Journalism Lab,
Apr 22, 2011, 2:35 PM EDT
Author Ken Doctor on California Watch's "On Shaky Ground" series that ran on six major daily newspapers, ABC affiliates statewide, public radio and Patch sites: "The economics of getting a well edited, well packaged series for a hundreth of that price is an offer few newsrooms can (or probably should) refuse."
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Commentary
WikiLeaks Protected Under First Amendment
Harvard Law & Policy Review,
Apr 22, 2011, 7:46 AM EDT
Attorney and Frank Martin Fellow at the Missouri School of Journalism Jonathan Peters: "The First Amendment does not belong to the press. It protects the expressive rights of all speakers ... To argue that the First Amendment would protect Assange and WikiLeaks only if they are part of the press is to assume (1) that the Speech Clause would not protect them, and (2) that there is a major difference between the Speech and Press Clauses."
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Opinion
Measuring And Increasing Accuracy In Journalism
Jonathan Stray,
Apr 21, 2011, 3:55 PM EDT
Commentary
Social Media Falls Short Of Web Personalization
Mashable,
Apr 21, 2011, 3:45 PM EDT
Commentary: NYT Paywall
Early Numbers Nice, But Growth Is Nicer
Nieman Journalism Lab,
Apr 21, 2011, 3:11 PM EDT
Nieman Journalism Labs' Joshua Benton on
The New York Times' claims to 100,000 digital subscriptions: "The most important question, I think, is one we're not any closer to answering: not where that number is today, but what the growth curve will look like over time."
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Christian Science Monitor Adjusts To SEO
Nieman Journalism Lab,
Apr 21, 2011, 2:57 PM EDT
Christian Science Monitor abandoned its daily print edition in 2009 and since has been on a mission to increase pageviews and aggressively pursue online advertising.
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Commentary
How Your Journalism Sausage Gets Made
Forbes,
Apr 21, 2011, 8:11 AM EDT
Commentary
Convincing Users To Buy In A Free Digital Era
Guardian,
Apr 21, 2011, 7:54 AM EDT
Cory Doctorow: "Whenever we talk about how to sell digital stuff, we freely and unsystematically mix up value propositions and product designs. By matching strategies with propositions, we might be able to avoid stepping on our own toes."
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America Is Vital To UK Newspapers
PaidContent,
Apr 21, 2011, 7:54 AM EDT
Efforts by titles like Guardian.co.uk and Mail Online to gain U.S. audiences are not just hubristic attempts at conquering America. For some, they may be a crucial last throw of the dice at making the news business work.
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Commentary
Designing A Newsgame Is Act Of Journalism
PBS Idea Lab,
Apr 20, 2011, 3:38 PM EDT
Bobby Schweizer, co-author of
Newsgames: Journalism at Play: "Designing a newsgame is about forming a model and executing on it to help people better understand a situation."
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Commentary
Flipboard-Like Apps Could Be Media's Future
GigaOM,
Apr 20, 2011, 7:04 AM EDT
Matthew Ingram: "With Flipboard and Zite and similar tools, content companies have a chance to find alternate ways to reach readers -- and possibly monetize that relationship in some way other than just an old-fashioned paywall, if apps are willing to license the content and/or share in the advertising and other revenue."
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Commentary
Creating A News App To Appeal To All
Nieman Journalism Lab,
Apr 19, 2011, 3:03 PM EDT
Andrew Phelps on designing a news app to appeal to news junkies and casual readers: "A traditional print newspaper was designed for the needs of different kinds of users. Want just the sports, or just the crossword, or just the hard news from city hall? The layout and sections of the newspaper made it relatively easy for different users to interact with the paper in different ways."
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Paywall Is Key To NYT's Survival
Adweek,
Apr 19, 2011, 8:17 AM EDT
The New York Times Co. will have good news to report at its annual meeting next week: It ended 2010 with $400 million in cash. But most of that money came from the company's decision to offload real estate and its stake in the Boston Red Sox. Many analysts believe the key to the Times' future success is its digital pay strategy.
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Flipboard: A Threat And Opportunity
Monday Note,
Apr 18, 2011, 7:59 AM EDT
French ePress consortium general manager Frédéric Filloux: "Flipboard is the product any big media company or, better, any group of media companies should have invented. ... For a large media company, inventing their own Flipboard would have yielded full control of the business model: smart advertising and/or a paid-for Premium Flipboard offering high-quality streams of articles (otherwise accessible behind a paywall) and curated third party content."
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'Three Ps' Still Right Paradigm For Local
BIA/Kelsey,
Apr 15, 2011, 3:35 PM EDT
Neal Polachek: "Presence, Performance and Permanence. I am more certain today than I was 24 months ago that this is the right paradigm for the next decade of local media. And the winners will be defined by the “trust” that those millions of SMBs assign to the media channels and the associated media consultants."
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Newsonomics of the digital cafeteria
Papers Move Toward A La Carte Digital Menu
Nieman Journalism Lab,
Apr 15, 2011, 3:35 PM EDT
Author Ken Doctor: "If newspapers were in the restaurant business, they’d be out of business quite quickly. That’s not much of a menu. There’s practically no à la carte, other than single copy, which is again the whole thing, but just once. It’s prix fixe, with early-bird specials for introductory signups."
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Requiem For Flip Cam, Newsroom Video In A Box
Nieman Journalism Lab,
Apr 15, 2011, 2:52 PM EDT
Commentary
No Bob Woodward, Google Didn't Kill Papers
The Atlantic,
Apr 15, 2011, 8:35 AM EDT
The Atlantic's Derek Thompson: "Blame the innovators, if you like. The decline of newspapers is Groupon's fault, and Craiglist's fault, and Zillow's fault ... but it's also the fault of newspapers who sat back and watched entrepreneurs invent Groupon and Craigslist and Zillow and cut costs out of desperation."
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Commentary
Twitter Ushers In A New Wave Of Journalism
ABC The Drum,
Apr 14, 2011, 4:03 PM EDT
Mark Clovin: "Social media is like a really big wave for journalists. If you get on it, and ride it skilfully, it'll carry you a long way. If you miss it, it'll dump you."
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Commentary: News Org paywalls
Paywalls Change Social Media Strategies
Mashable,
Apr 14, 2011, 8:08 AM EDT
Mashable's Meghan Peters: "Accessing news articles from social media, blogs and other sites has become increasingly common, making an unexpected paywall an unpleasant reader experience. Maintaining the happiness of subscribers and non-subscribers alike has fallen on the shoulders of community managers at these paywalled sites."
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Commentary
Newspapers Need To Rethink Print Products
Strange Attractor,
Apr 14, 2011, 8:00 AM EDT
Journalist Kevin Anderson says newspapers need to rethink and refocus their print product: "To start things off, I’d say cut the breaking (or rather broken because it’s yesterday news) news. Yes, there will be a major story of the day, but we really need to rethink how it’s presented on the front page."
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Traditional Media Outlets Resist Links
Reuters Blog,
Apr 14, 2011, 7:12 AM EDT
Anthony DeRosa on the reluctance of traditional media outlets to link to their sources: "The culture of current “old media” newsrooms does not have the ethical inclination to link. They’re still provincial and afraid that once someone has clicked a link to a referring source, they’re gone forever."
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Opinion
'Social Media' Phrase Outlives Usefulness
Advertising Age,
Apr 13, 2011, 11:51 AM EDT
Mobile Is Set For An Ad Revolution
Newsosaur,
Apr 13, 2011, 8:34 AM EDT
Alan Mutter: "The mobile ad ecosystem admittedly is a work in progress. As the still-evolving infrastructure matures and coheres, however, more advertising is bound to migrate to mobile because the intimate, personalized and immediate quality of the platform makes it, by far, the most targetable and effective of all media."
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Commentary
Cuban: Netflix Is Hurting YouTube
Blog Maverick,
Apr 13, 2011, 8:14 AM EDT
Mark Cuban, owner of HDNet and the NBA's Dallas Mavericks: "The reality is that both cable/telco/sat distributors on your TV and Netflix are moving faster in terms of the introduction of technology and the introduction of new and original high value content than Youtube."
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commentary
Journal & Courier: Newspapers Not Dead
Journal & Courier,
Apr 12, 2011, 3:41 PM EDT
Henry Howard, of Lafayette, Ind.'s
Journal & Courier: "The doomsayers claim that newspapers aren't migrating to the Web fast enough -- and there is some truth in that. However, the data indicates that readers are embracing news online, primarily local news."
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Skepticism Good Filter For Photojournalism
Nieman Journalism Lab,
Apr 11, 2011, 3:53 PM EDT
Skepticism may be the new equilibrium in photojournalism. It's hard to sell the idea of truth in photography when photo-altering products are being marketed so aggressively to consumers.
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Commentary
Patch Widget Could Help Site Pass Papers
Newsonomics,
Apr 11, 2011, 3:12 PM EDT
Among nine questions Ken Doctor asks about digital media is whether the new Patch Inside widget that can be posted on other sites will help the hyperlocal news service leapfrog past local newspapers: "The local news module widget is hardly a new idea, but it’s one that few local newspaper companies have made work, despite the economy of its potential costs and benefits. Will Patch leapfrog newspaper sites with this old-is-new innovation?"
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Commentary
Facebook Pages Adds Value For Journalists
Inside Facebook,
Apr 11, 2011, 2:59 PM EDT
While Twitter is quick and simple and Facebook requires journalists to craft compelling updates that stand out, Facebook's ability to post rich content such as photos or video content with previews adds value to the social net.
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Commentary
Job-Hunting Advice For Journos In Digital Market
The Buttry Diary,
Apr 11, 2011, 8:04 AM EDT
NYT-Lincoln Deal Is About Dollars, Traffic
Newsonomics,
Apr 8, 2011, 3:24 PM EDT
Ken Doctor says
The New York Times' deal with Ford Motors' Lincoln is more nuanced than it seems: "It’s just one deal, but it points to the fact that the new business model in creation will be based
more on digital advertising than digital circulation. Making that new interplay work is as important as setting prices and deciding how to restrict content accces for anyone putting up a paywall, pay fence or pay obstacle of any kind."
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Commentary
HuffPo, The Daily Are On Different Tracks
ClickZ,
Apr 8, 2011, 9:05 AM EDT
Author Bryan Eisenberg on how the Huffington Post and News Corp.'s The Daily are headed in different directions: "If I had to explain to [News Corp. head Rupert] Murdoch and his team why their paid subscriber to application download conversion rate is so low, I would tell them that while their content is beautiful, the experience of consuming it was painful and slow. People want speed, freshness, and variety."
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Commentary
5 Myths About The Future Of Journalism
The Washington Post,
Apr 8, 2011, 8:45 AM EDT
Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism director Tom Rosenstiel says that some misconceptions about the future of news need to be thrown out. Among them:
- Traditional news media are losing their audience
- Online news will be fine once advertising revenue catches up.
- Content will always be king.
- Newspapers are on the decline.
- Hyperlocal news is the solution.
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Why NYT Paywall Rev Estimates Are Wrong
Scout Analytics,
Apr 8, 2011, 8:36 AM EDT
Acout Analytics Matt Shanahan says the primary logic used by the naysayers of
The New York Times paywall is that not enough people will pay the minimum $195/year. But predictions of revenue based on consumer payment is simply wrong. By ditching the anchor price of free, the NYT paywall creates at least three new sources of revenue.
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Journalists Need To Lead Online Engagement
Online Journalism Review,
Apr 8, 2011, 7:46 AM EDT
Robert Niles: "Writing in any interactive environment is an act of leadership. Your words, your tone and your style not only inform your audience, they provide a model - an example - for those in the community who will write for that community, as well. And your silence creates a vacuum of leadership that others may fill."
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Newsonomics of WashPo's Reader Dashboard
Post Examines How News Is Consumed
Nieman Journalism Lab,
Apr 7, 2011, 3:11 PM EDT
Author Ken Doctor: "
The [
Washington]
Post is starting to get a handle on its core customers, as the news business increasingly groks -- witness much paywall strategy -- that those core readers are the building blocks of the new business, while Google-fed fly-by traffic is paling in value."
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Commentary: HuffPo Vs. NYT
Why Huffington Is Keller’s Somali Pirate
Aaron Bady,
Apr 6, 2011, 2:44 PM EDT
Commentary
Ingram: Papers Still Don't Get Social Media
GigaOM,
Apr 6, 2011, 8:31 AM EDT
Matthew Ingram on
The Toronto Star's social media policy: "Social media is powerful precisely
because it is personal. If you remove the personal aspect, all you have is a glorified news release wire or RSS feed. The best way to make social media work is to allow reporters and editors to be themselves, to be human, and to engage with readers through Twitter and Facebook and comments and blogs."
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International Symposium on Online Journalism
Engagement Among The Main Topics At ISOJ
Mark Coddington,
Apr 6, 2011, 6:54 AM EDT
Journalist Mark Coddington on engagement, on of the main themes at this year's International Symposium on Online Journalism: "All reader engagement, magical as it seems, is not equally useful. This idea runs counter to newsroom conventional wisdom, which seems to have adopted the “We’ll take whatever we can get” philosophy."
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Commentary
Pubs Need To Focus On Quality, Not Whining
Online Journalism Review,
Apr 5, 2011, 3:29 PM EDT
Robert Niles is tired of the whinig that publications are doing over aggregation and says those publications need to focus on delivering quality reporting to their readers: "No one outside of the field of journalism cares if you consider your reporting more original or more worthy than others' collection of information. They only care if your reporting delivers them more value than what those others offer. And the readers will make that decision for themselves."
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Commentary
How To Avoid The Pitfalls Of A New Tech Bubble
Bloomberg,
Apr 5, 2011, 10:31 AM EDT
Commentary
Who’s Afraid Of Arianna Huffington?
BuzzMachine,
Apr 5, 2011, 8:25 AM EDT
Photojournalism In The Age Of New Media
The Atlantic,
Apr 4, 2011, 3:48 PM EDT
Commentary
Talbott: NYT Interview Unfair To Huffington
Huffington Post,
Apr 4, 2011, 3:45 PM EDT
Study: Papers Get 3x Too Many Ad Dollars
Newsosaur,
Apr 4, 2011, 3:27 PM EDT
Alan Mutter: "If publishers can’t catch up to their digital competitors, the staggering erosion in newspaper advertising in the last five years could be the prelude to something worse."
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Commentary
Google Not To Blame For Journalism's Woes
BBC College of Journalism Blog,
Apr 1, 2011, 7:55 AM EDT
Google executive and former BBC journalist Peter Barron: "If Google didn't exist, the problems of the loss of classified ad revenue, the economic crisis and the decline in subscriptions would all still exist."
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Commentary
5 Teachable Lessons From WashPo's Mistake
PBS MediaShift,
Mar 31, 2011, 3:56 PM EDT
Earlier this month,
The Washington Post accidentally published online a draft version of a story, which included detailed editor's notes. But the newspaper's mistake offers some important journalism lessons.
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Newsonomics of Oblivian
Extinction Fears Motivate Changes At Papers
Nieman Journalism Lab,
Mar 31, 2011, 3:11 PM EDT
Author Ken Doctor on the fear of oblivian motivating systemic change in the newspaper industry: "It has been 20 quarters since the U.S. newspaper industry experienced a quarter's performance that was better than that same quarter a year earlier.
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Commentary: NYT Paywall
Is Jumping The NYT Paywall Stealing?
Nieman Journalism Lab,
Mar 31, 2011, 8:51 AM EDT
Megan Garber: "The paper's public establishment of a certain 'kind of people' -- a class who not only read the
Times, but pay for it -- is interesting for several reasons, one of them being its suggestion that there is also a 'kind of people' (potentially adolescent, probably unemployed, and possibly morally bankrupt) who wouldn't pay but would still consume
Times content beyond the newspaper's stated bounds."
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Commentary: NYT Paywall
Keller's Argument For Paywall Unnecessary
Capital New York,
Mar 30, 2011, 3:04 PM EDT
Tom McGeveran: "Bill Keller's first two columns have irritated me, as a
Times reader, by breaking two rules: They have sought to explain to me a paper I believed I knew pretty well already, and the explanations don't match my perception; and they sound discordant notes of apology and belligerence that make me feel embattled on behalf of this newly strange institution against a horde I never much cared to bother with before, and somewhat resent being bothered with now."
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Commentary: NYT Paywall
Ulanoff: NYT Paywall A Good Idea
PCMag.com ,
Mar 30, 2011, 2:22 PM EDT
PCMag's Lance Ulanoff: "Without another consistent and significant source of revenue, no company, not even [a company] as big as
The New York Times, can afford to give away its best stuff for free indefinitely. That's not business, it's charity."
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Commentary
Tracking Web Vid Viewers Poses Challenges
NewTeeVee,
Mar 30, 2011, 2:22 PM EDT
NewTeeVee's Janko Roettgers on tracking the attention of online video viewers: "In practice, tracking attention is becoming more and more challenging. ... Viewers that consume online video on their computers may be even less attentive."
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Commentary: NYT Paywall
$40M Could Have Been Used Elsewhere
Bnet,
Mar 30, 2011, 7:37 AM EDT
The New York Times reportedly spent some $40 million developing its new paywall. Journalist Erik Sherman posits that
The Times may have been better served investing that money in startups: "That could have been the tidy start of a venture capital fund whose purpose was to keep pay for the NYT news operations. ... If run correctly, that $40 million returns $100 million. Put $40 million back to work again and $60 million is now left for the news business."
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Commentary
Salmon: NYT Editor Doesn't Do Transparency
Reuters,
Mar 29, 2011, 2:48 PM EDT
Felix Salmon on New York Times executive editor Bill Keller's criticism of a column from former
Times writer Peter Goodman on The Huffington Post: "The NYT needs to make its mind up: is it going to stand up for openness and transparency and human reporters who dare to have opinions, or is its beef with HuffPo going to force a retreat to some unobtainable halcyon past where reporters handed down the news from Mount Olympus to a grateful public which had no means to effectively respond?"
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Commentary
Journalism Needs Bloggers
Anna Tarkov,
Mar 28, 2011, 3:31 PM EDT
Anna Tarkov says journalism needs bloggers much like flowers need bees: "Blogging, tweeting and all the rest of it is simply the modern version of a perfectly natural desire to share with and inform those around us. You would think journalists of all people would be sensitive to this instinct since they've made it into their life's work."
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Commentary: NYT Paywall
NYT Paywall’s Biggest Foe Is Perception
PaidContent,
Mar 28, 2011, 8:22 AM EDT
Staci Kramer: "The clearest aspect [of
The New York Times' new pay plan] so far is how hard it is to cut through preconceptions, particularly when flexibility and complexity are involved.
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Commentary: NYT Paywall
NYT Paywall Arrives And It's No Big Deal
ClickZ,
Mar 25, 2011, 3:30 PM EDT
Isobar vice president of social media Gary Stein: "The good news, however, is that this paywall is pretty forgiving. It's the sort of paywall that a publisher who is deeply aware of the way that online networks have changed the ways in which people keep up with what's going on and find interesting news to read."
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Commentary
Solmssen: The Daily Is 'Oddly Addictive'
ClickZ,
Mar 25, 2011, 8:31 AM EDT
Possible Worldwide's Andrew Solmssen on News Corp.'s iPad-only newspaper: "The Daily's not just important symbolically; it's oddly addictive. The mix of fluffy entertainment and sports content with world news and events totally works, and it's a curatorial and editorial voice that I've grown to appreciate and, yes, love."
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Commentary: NYT Paywall
Silver: There Are Few Good NYT Substitutes
The New York Times,
Mar 25, 2011, 8:20 AM EDT
Nate Silver, author of the FiveThirtyEight blog now found on
The New York Times, weighed in on the paper's paywall: "I’m less sympathetic to the notion ... that there are a lot of good substitutes for
The New York Times. Certainly there are some good substitutes: depending on the type of coverage you’re looking for,
The Washington Post or
The Wall Street Journal or CNN or ESPN.com. Of course, some of these substitutes already charge for digital access, are also having trouble balancing their budgets, or both."
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Commentary
Journalism Online Moves Into The B2B World
Newsonomics,
Mar 25, 2011, 7:42 AM EDT
Ken Doctor on the sale of Journalism Online and the realities of the newspaper business that Steve Brill and his partners faced: "Nothing -- meaning no one thing -- is going to 'save journalism.' This is a long-term struggle, and the Press+ notion ... is simply a piece of the puzzle. We're all like kids with blocks, and we've got to endlessly figure out how to reconstruct the hollowed-out cities of journalism.
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Newsonomics
Sunday Paper/Tablet Plans Could Be Future
Nieman Journalism Lab,
Mar 24, 2011, 3:50 PM EDT
Author Ken Doctor on dropping daily editions for a Sunday print and daily tablet model: "The math is clear, and aspirational. Keep the Sunday reader, the Sunday reader income, and the Sunday ad revenue. Keep the daily
attention of readers through digital access."
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Commentary: NYT Paywall
NYT Pay Plan Promotes Mobile Web
Poynter,
Mar 24, 2011, 2:55 PM EDT
Poynter's Damon Kiesow thinks that
The New York Times' new pay plan is trying to promote the mobile Web over native apps on tablet computers: "Rather than favoring print, perhaps the
Times is moving to de-emphasize native mobile apps and the stranglehold Apple has over that ecosystem."
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Commentary
Papers Need Online But Not Print
The Eastern Echo,
Mar 24, 2011, 2:55 PM EDT
Neil Weinberg on why newspaper paywalls won't work and why papers should phase out print: "If you want to read about a recent news event, you’re likely to check out a few sites. ... A pay wall takes us back to 1900 when you needed to buy 11 different papers to see 11 different perspectives. Today, you just need an internet connection and some spare time."
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Commentary
The Web Hasn't Given Way To Apps Yet
Reuters,
Mar 23, 2011, 3:32 PM EDT
Wired.com New York bureau chief: "When it's crunch time, when the world is fixated on a breaking news tragedy, like Japan or Libya, you will go to the Web, period. You won't open The Daily and you won't access
The New York Times app.:
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Commentary: NYT Paywall
NYT Paywall Could End Up A Success
Reuters,
Mar 23, 2011, 8:26 AM EDT
Felix Salmon: "I’m beginning to come around to the idea that the paywall can make good financial sense --
if everything goes according to plan. ... The NYT will surely proclaim the paywall to be a success no matter what happens. But if total pageviews don’t fall and digital advertising revenue increases, then it’s going to be pretty hard to make the case that the paywall was a bad idea."
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Commentary: Paywalls and Pay Strategies
Buch: Charging For News Is A Bad Model
Bob Buch,
Mar 23, 2011, 7:40 AM EDT
AOL vice president of business development Bob Buch: "
The business model of news distribution is changing dramatically, and we all agree that journalists need to get compensated if we want them to continue the important work they do.
But I would argue that charging consumers to read news articles is not only bad for consumers, it’s also bad for journalists."
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Commentary: NYT Paywall
9 Questions As NYT Paywall Preps For Global
Newsonomics,
Mar 22, 2011, 3:02 PM EDT
Author Ken Doctor says
The Times' pay plan announcement "raised as many or more questions than it answered," including several pricing questions.
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Commentary: NYT Paywall
Paywalls Help Support Journalistic Efforts
The New York Times,
Mar 21, 2011, 3:53 PM EDT
New York Time media writer David Carr defends
The Times and its effort to support quality journalism with its new pay plan: "It seems an odd time to argue against a business initiative that aims at keeping boots on the ground during a time of global upheaval."
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Commentary: NYT Paywall
Finding A Fair Price For The NY Times
Monday Note,
Mar 21, 2011, 8:24 AM EDT
Media consultant Frédéric Filloux: "Intellectually stimulating as the exercise might be, when analyzing readers’ migration to digital, you can’t reach useable conclusions through a mere extrapolation of the eroding print model. Nor can you reliably model price elasticity in an electronic medium where 'free' is the rule, 'freemium' the minority, and paid-for the exception."
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Commentary: NYT Paywall
Kramer: I'll Pay For NYT, Not The Daily
C-Scape,
Mar 21, 2011, 8:07 AM EDT
Larry Kramer: "In the case of [
The New York Times], the content has already proven it's value to me over the many years I have consumed it, in print and on line. ... Contrast that with The Daily, which still needed to prove the value of its content to me."
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Commentary
NYT Model Won't Work In Other Markets
Newsosaur,
Mar 18, 2011, 3:26 PM EDT
Alan Mutter warns that while The New York Times' new pay plan may turn out to work well for the newspaper, it might not be the answer for other publications: "Most newspapers in the rest of country lack the substantial body of compelling, exclusive content and the unparalleled concentration of wealthy readers that are enjoyed by
The Times."
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Commentary
Choosing A Print Subscription Over Digital
Vator.tv,
Mar 18, 2011, 8:40 AM EDT
Faith Merino: "When I read the newspaper, I want to relax with it. I like waking up on a Sunday morning, making a big breakfast, and sitting down at the kitchen table with my coffee and the Sunday edition of my local newspaper. By the end of the week, my eyeballs are so drained from staring at a computer screen for 14 hours a day, five days a week, that I don't want to be anywhere near a computer on my weekends. The last thing I want is to prop up a tablet over my plate and stare at another LCD screen while I'm getting my grub on."
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Commentary
Media Reinvention Faces Tough Road
Terry Heaton's PoMo Blog,
Mar 17, 2011, 4:21 PM EDT
Terry Heaton: "Even the most optimistic media executive ... realizes that the road ahead is an extremely rough one. There’s been no real growth in years, and something’s happening that’s beyond simple maturation. We must remember that no matter how nice those new revenues feel, if they’re based on old forms and formulas, we’re deceiving ourselves."
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Commentary
Rising User Expectations Will Test News Orgs
Knight Digital Media Center,
Mar 17, 2011, 3:46 PM EDT
Michelle McLellan: "A much more pressing problem for journalists and news organizations was abundantly evident at SXSW. It’s not bloggers vs. journos any more. It’s the technology, and the way technology is raising expectations for customized, on-demand services."
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Commentary
How Blogs Have Changed Journalism
Reuters,
Mar 17, 2011, 3:20 PM EDT
Felix Salmon: "News sites are becoming bloggier, with more assiduous editorial standards, while big blog sites are becoming newsier."
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Newsonomics of The NYT Pay Fence
NYT Faces Tests Charging For 'General News'
Nieman Journalism Lab,
Mar 17, 2011, 3:07 PM EDT
Author Ken Doctor: "Though the [
Financial Times] and
The Wall Street Journal have long operated successful pay models, [
The New York Times'] leap is a big one:
The Times isn’t mainly a business newspaper. If it can succeed charging readers for 'general news,' that’s a milestone for newspapers around the world."
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Commentary: NYT Paywall
Outing: NYT Blew It With New Pay Model
SteveOuting.com,
Mar 17, 2011, 2:15 PM EDT
Journalist Steve Outing:
The New York Times' new pay plan is "a backward-looking strategy that hobbles the potential success of the digital side. I contend that no news organization -- even
The New York Times -- can succeed long term when it makes decisions based on looking over its shoulder at the dying legacy product."
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Commentary: The New York Times 'Pay fence'
NYT's Pay Launch Comes At A Good Time
Newsonomics,
Mar 16, 2011, 2:54 PM EDT
Author Ken Doctor believes the timing is perfect for
The New York Times to put up its somewhat porous pay fence: "As news of the roll-up of 'community dailies' by hedge fund owners seeps into the culture,
The New York Times can better play its legacy 'trust us' card, with some effect."
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Commentary
Is Netflix the Next HBO?
Mashable,
Mar 16, 2011, 8:21 AM EDT
Commentary
Online News Growth Faces Challenges
24/7 Wall St.,
Mar 16, 2011, 8:14 AM EDT
Jonathan Berr: "Paywalls may drive more readers to aggregation sites such as Huffington Post which offer them summaries of articles or to blogs."
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Commentary
Augusta Chronicle Gets The Paywall Right
Reuters,
Mar 16, 2011, 7:59 AM EDT
Reuter's Felix Salmon: "In other words, the idea here is that people who read the [
Augusta Chronicle’s] Web site are now being told quite explicitly that they’re reading valuable journalism. That, in turn, means that they will value and respect it more than they would some free sheet."
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State of the News Media 2011
3 Things People Want On Mobile
Poynter,
Mar 15, 2011, 8:34 AM EDT
The Project for Excellence in Journalism's "State of the News Media" survey found that weather, along with local news, traffic and public transportation information, are key interests of the local mobile audience.
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AnnArbor.com Lays Off Staffers In Newsroom Reorg
The Ann Arbor Chronicle,
Mar 15, 2011, 8:12 AM EDT
When Is An Online Comment Defamatory?
Online Journalism Review,
Mar 15, 2011, 6:37 AM EDT
Financial Times interactive editor Rob Minto: "So, to sum up: if you post something libellous on Twitter about a local rival politician, and have only 30 followers, you can get sued. If you say something potentially libellous, using a pseudonym, on a UK newspaper site, with page views in the millions, you’re fine."
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The Daily Fails To Live Up To Its Hype
Advertising Age,
Mar 15, 2011, 6:27 AM EDT
Simon Dumenco: "Right now, the paper is just so erratic and unfocused that reading it is like witnessing a new identity crisis every day. In fact, when it suddenly crashes ... I sometimes suspect that what The Daily really needs, besides cleaned-up code, is a nice long session on a therapist's couch."
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Commentary
Ads Supports Bad News During Doldrums
Xark,
Mar 11, 2011, 3:25 PM EST
Dan Conover: "The danger to the profession and our industry arises in what we do on the slow days ... our traditional advertising subsidy for news creates the structure that produces the crap that people say they hate. It's why we get so much Sheen and Lohan right now, even as viewers protest about the relative lack of coverage given to U.S. soldiers killed in Afghanistan."
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Commentary
Why Knight, Mozilla Bet On Open Source
Nieman Journalism Lab,
Mar 11, 2011, 2:53 PM EST
Justin Ellis: "If we consider that, for a large majority of newsrooms, there is no R&D lab for new apps and tools, creating an open-source community for the development of journalism tech makes a lot of sense."
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Commentary
Why Anonymous Comments Need To Go
Slate,
Mar 11, 2011, 6:55 AM EST
Farhad Manjoo: "Your purpose, in posting the comment, is to inform the world of your point of view. If you want to do something so public, you are naturally ceding some measure of your privacy. If you're not happy with that trade, don't take part -- keep your views to yourself."
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Commentary: Paywalls and Pay Strategies
Ad Walls Could Help Paywall Efforts
Folio,
Mar 10, 2011, 3:41 PM EST
Scout Analytics senior VP of strategy Matthew Shanahan: "Unlike interstitials that are frequently dismissed, the adwall requires viewing and acknowledgement or no access is provided. ... Ad units like adwalls are unlikely to erode any existing paywall revenue because the fans that would pay for access would also likely pay to avoid the adwall for convenience sake. It actually has the chance to generate paywall revenue."
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Commentary
LinkedIn Could Become WSJ Of Social News
TechCrunch,
Mar 10, 2011, 3:26 PM EST
Mrinal Desai: "I think LinkedIn could become the
Wall Street Journal of social news -- not Twitter or Facebook."
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Commentary
All the Aggregation That’s Fit to Aggregate
The New York Times,
Mar 10, 2011, 3:06 PM EST
New York Times executive editor Bill Keller: "Buying an aggregator and calling it a content play is a little like a company’s announcing plans to improve its cash position by hiring a counterfeiter."
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Commentary: AOL's Patch
What Hyperlocal Sites Say About Patch
Reynolds Journalism Institute,
Mar 10, 2011, 7:49 AM EST
Reynolds Journalism Institute asked editors of hyperlocal news sites what effect AOL's Patch has on the segment. Altadenablog's Timothy Rutt: "There is very little local control for Patch. Most decisions are made in New York … I have more depth in the community."
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Commentary
The End Of SEO Will Be Good Thing For News
Nieman Journalism Lab,
Mar 10, 2011, 7:13 AM EST
ProPublica general manager Richard J. Tofel: "Search engines remain deeply imperfect. That is because SEO, when reduced to its essence, is aimed at directing searchers not to the information they seek, but to where the publisher wants them to go; any overlap of the two is coincidental. Remember, it's called 'search engine optimization,' not 'search optimization.'"
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Commentary
Facebook Is 'AOLifying' the Internet
Gizmodo,
Mar 9, 2011, 3:21 PM EST
Sam Biddle on Facebook turning itself into a Web portal similar to the AOL of the 1990s: "What Facebook hasn't stuffed into its maw by its own will, it's given developers plenty of incentive to do so themselves. The consequence? Over a decade after the Web portal stopped making sense, Facebook is trying to assemble itself, like some ill-conceived Voltron, into the next."
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Commentary
Small Ad Agencies Need To Focus On Hyperlocal
Advertising Age,
Mar 9, 2011, 12:05 PM EST
Commentary
Limited Local Paid-Content Models Can Work
Adotas.com,
Mar 9, 2011, 8:15 AM EST
Using the example of fans paying for local sports coverage, Adotas.com's Gavin Dunaway notes that local readers would be likely to pay for content from a local newspaper if it has credential. But not enough people care to use the model on all local content: "Despite credential, most local content does not have the demand to warrant a subscription, a truth that has existed for a long time."
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Commentary
Fallows Ignores 'Atlantic's Aggregation Efforts
The New York Observer,
Mar 9, 2011, 7:56 AM EST
Daniel D'Addario: "Granted, Gawker's big hits are crasser, and less informationally nutritious, than the Atlantic Wire's, but [
James Fallows' column's] lack of mention of
The Atlantic's less high-minded, long-lead reporting is a bit odd, especially given that the article seems almost to strain to explain its magazine and their new-media efforts."
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Commentary
Hacking Old News Systems To Build New
Nieman Journalism Lab,
Mar 9, 2011, 6:40 AM EST
News technologist Matt Waite: "All this talk about a digital future, about moving journalism onto the web, about innovation and saving journalism is just talk until developers are allowed to hack at the very core of the whole product."
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Commentary: News Site Participation
Candy Jar Provides Metaphor For News
Daniel Victor,
Mar 8, 2011, 3:47 PM EST
Daniel Victor's candy jar at his TBD desk demonstrates that news sites need to consider the incentives they’re offering readers to contribute: "Emotional appeals and guilt-pushing wouldn’t work, as that would simply turn people off. No, you have to give them non-financial incentives to participate."
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Commentary
Learning To Love New Media
The Atlantic,
Mar 8, 2011, 3:19 PM EST
Journalist and author James Fallows: "Perhaps we have finally exhausted the viable possibilities for a journalism that offers a useful and accurate perspective. If so, then America’s problems of public life can only grow worse, since we will lack the means to understand and discuss them."
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Commentary: Facebook Comments
Facebook Is Not A Cure For Bad Comments
GigaOM,
Mar 8, 2011, 8:23 AM EST
Commentary: Digital Subscription Plans
Apple Takes Big Bite Out Of Small Mags
PBS MediaShift,
Mar 7, 2011, 3:40 PM EST
California State University, Fresno assistant professor Susan Currie Sivek: "Independent magazines finely hone their content and advertising to attract a specific readership. That makes Apple's iPad subscription plan a particularly hard sell for small magazines. Apple requires readers to opt into sharing their personal data with publishers, and many readers will likely choose not to share. Indies need that information for marketing, promotions and customizing content."
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Commentary
Filloux: Forget Web, Go Mobile First
Monday Note,
Mar 7, 2011, 7:30 AM EST
Media consultant Frédéric Filloux: "Forget about the typical Web site: Go mobile
first. With a smartphone app, or a mobile site, you’ll have room to maneuver. Unless you are concocting a clicks machine targeted at a huge audience, there no longer is money to be made in classical Web advertising.
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Commentary: Righthaven Copyright Suits
Suits Unlikely To Change Excerpting Online
PBS MediaShift,
Mar 4, 2011, 3:51 PM EST
Proskauer Rose LLP partner Jeffrey D. Neuburger: "Even if Righthaven is reasonably successful overall in its litigation campaign on behalf of its present and future newspaper clients, as a practical matter it is unlikely to put a dent in the practice of re-posting online news content and linking to its source."
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Commentary
Mobile DTV Shows Promise, Has More To Prove
LostRemote,
Mar 4, 2011, 8:52 AM EST
Five Digital Media Trends to Watch
Mashable,
Mar 4, 2011, 8:22 AM EST
From the new aggregation and curation models to multiplatform subscriptions, Mashable takes a look at the five digital media trends that are shaping the industry's future.
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Commentary: The Fall Of TBD
TBD Was No More Community Than WashPo
Scripps School of Journalism,
Mar 4, 2011, 7:55 AM EST
Ohio University journalism professor Bill Reader: "The TBD.com experiment failed, I believe, because for all of the brilliance and talent and hard work of the people who spent more than a year developing it, they never really did get a grasp on what community (or communities) TBD.com would be serving."
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Commentary: The Fall Of TBD
Buttry: TBD Did Understand Community
The Buttry Diary,
Mar 4, 2011, 7:55 AM EST
Journalist Steve Buttry responds to Ohio University professor Bill Reader's assertion that TBD didn't understand the community it was serving: "I want the world to know that they
did and do understand their community(ies), and that this person who says otherwise didn’t bother to check his facts."
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'Bloggers Vs. Journalists' Is Still With Us
PressThink,
Mar 4, 2011, 8:11 AM EST
New York University journalism professor Jay Rosen: "But I’ve noticed something else over the years. The
issue may be fading, but the
conflict remains. ... Bloggers irritate and provoke journalists into blurting out what they think (and fear) about the Net."
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Commentary
Kachingle Not Likely To Save Journalism
PBS Idea Lab,
Mar 4, 2011, 6:56 AM EST
WindyCitizen.com founder Brad Flora: "You can't build a company around behavior that you wish existed. You have to build it around behavior that already exists or that will exist in the near future. Simply put, tip jars make sense for coffee shops and baristas, not for online publishers and journalists."
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Facebook Comments: Good Or Bad For Pubs
Newsosaur,
Mar 3, 2011, 3:10 PM EST
Alan Mutter: "While the comment plug-in could prove in the long run to be more beneficial to Facebook than to publishers, can publishers afford to forgo this rare chance to knit themselves deeper than ever in the growing Facebook ecosystem?"
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Four Things TBD Did Right
Zombie Journalism,
Mar 3, 2011, 7:27 AM EST
Much has been written about the collapse of TBD, but the local news site did get a few things right. Those stories, according to former TBD social media producer Mandy Jenkins, "ignore a few critical points, the biggest of which is that TBD didn't fail, per se."
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Papers Took Too Long To Copy Groupon
GigaOM,
Mar 3, 2011, 6:59 AM EST
The New York Times' new Groupon-like service, TimesLimited, raises the question: What took it so long? Daily deals and group deals seem like a natural space for newspapers, but the industry as a whole has been relatively late to the table.
GigaOm's Matthew Ingram believes it may be too late for papers to catch up: "The problem now is that Groupon and LivingSocial have become such behemoths ... that they can offer a size and scale newspapers can’t hope to compete with."
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Commentary: Digital Subscription Plans
Apple Takes 30% Because It Can
Daring Fireball,
Mar 2, 2011, 2:36 PM EST
Daring Fireball's John Gruber: "Apple doesn’t give a damn about companies with business models that can’t afford a 70/30 split. Apple’s running a competitive business; competition is cold and hard."
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Commentary
Media Needs Hard Work To Build iPad Base
American Journalism Review,
Mar 2, 2011, 2:36 PM EST
McGraw-Hill Broadcasting director of digital media Barb Palse: "History and other evidence suggest that once the novelty wears off, traditional media will need to work a lot harder to retain those early adopters and to interest a broader consumer base."
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Commentary
Incremental Change Not Helping Newspapers
GigaOM,
Mar 2, 2011, 8:04 AM EST
Matthew Ingram: "If anything, online advertising just keeps getting cheaper (newspaper companies are forming private ad networks, but this seems both too little and too late) and that means newspapers are fighting the law of diminishing returns."
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5 Groups That Should Win Google's J-Prize
Fast Company,
Mar 1, 2011, 3:53 PM EST
Fast Company's Gregory Ferenstein offers up five groups he thinks should win Google's $2.7 million contest for innovative online journalism.
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Commentary: Online Comments
Real Names Can Help Restore Civility
Los Angeles Times,
Mar 1, 2011, 7:31 AM EST
The ugly response on comment boards to the Tahrir Square assault of journalist Lara Logan renewed the debate about how much latitude to grant the public when it comments on news stories online, including commentaries by the reader's representative at the
Los Angeles Times and the ombudsman for National Public Radio.
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Commentary
Kachingle Tries To Create 'Tip Jar' For News
The Atlantic,
Mar 1, 2011, 7:02 AM EST
Kachingle, which helps users donate money to any news site or blog that features Kachingle's medallion widget, continues to struggle for acceptance two years after its release. But is the service's "tip jar" enough to convince news organizations not to erect paywalls?
The Atlantic's John Hendel: "Ultimately, Kachingle falls prey to the 'Wouldn't it be nice?' school of thought. On paper, it sounds terrific; the reality doesn't lend much confidence. Behavioral, branding and design hurdles likely stand in the way of mainstream success."
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Social Media 'Shares' Will Influence News
Nieman Journalism Lab,
Feb 28, 2011, 3:50 PM EST
Nieman Journalism Lab director Joshua Benton: "We'll soon be at a point where social media is a more important driver of traffic than search for many news organizations."
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Commentary
Social Media Makes Life Hard For Dictators
PBS MediaShift,
Feb 28, 2011, 3:41 PM EST
Commentary: The Fall Of TBD
TBD Failure More A Result Of Allbritton Issues
The Bay Citizen,
Feb 28, 2011, 3:21 PM EST
The Bay Citizen's Jonathan Weber: "The trajectory of TBD suggests that its shutdown had little to do with its accomplishments, or lack thereof, and everything to do with internal issues at the parent company, Allbritton Communications."
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Commentary
Papers Losing War Against 'Disruptive Tech'
Monday Note,
Feb 28, 2011, 7:33 AM EST
Frédéric Filloux: "I don't see any newspaper surviving without a major structural change in its business. An example: Being published every day will make less and less sense as most of the developing and breaking news is read on a smartphone."
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Commentary
New Media Doesn't Follow Old Media Rules
GigaOM,
Feb 25, 2011, 7:40 AM EST
Matthew Ingram on Deadline.com's cease-and-desist letter to The Wrap: "Breaking news may have been a defensible game in 1918, but it isn’t any more -- and the sooner content companies get used to that, the better off they will be."
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Commentary
Forget Brands: Online Is A Different Audience
LostRemote,
Feb 25, 2011, 6:45 AM EST
Steve Safran: "Then there's this: your online audience is different that your broadcast audience. If you had a radio station and a TV station, you wouldn't run the same programming. You're trying to get to different people. If you decide that you will only replicate the broadcast experience on your Web site, then you'll only get -- at best -- part of your existing TV audience."
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Commentary
Hyperlocals Like TBD: More Hype Than Hope
Newsosaur,
Feb 24, 2011, 3:54 PM EST
Alan Mutter on TBD's failure and hyperlocal news in general: "TBD faltered for the same four reasons its esteemed predecessors could not get off the ground. For the record, these are the same reasons that most ill-conceived media start-ups fail" ... Small audiences, big expenses, small revenue and big losses.
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Commentary
Content Farms Have Benefits, Risks
GigaOM,
Feb 24, 2011, 2:38 PM EST
Commentary
Old Media Facing Same Fate As Telecom
GigOm,
Feb 24, 2011, 8:45 AM EST
GigaOm's Om Malik compares what's happening to traditional media today to the unbundling of telephone services after the Telecom Act of 1996: "In the media industry, we’re seeing an unbundling of a highly vertical business, with the most lucrative parts being siphoned off by Internet-based low-cost rivals."
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Commentary
No Surprise Papers Turning To Pay To Play
American Journalism Review,
Feb 24, 2011, 6:42 AM EST
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel investigative reporter Cary Spivak on newspapers charging for access: "With all the pressure that the Internet era and the economic downturn have placed on the beleaguered newspaper industry, it's hardly surprising that many news outlets are frantically searching for new revenue streams."
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Commentary
Why Video Is So Hard To Monetize
PaidContent,
Feb 23, 2011, 4:46 PM EST
Opinion
Why Apple Should Pay $100B To Buy Facebook
Silicon Alley Insider,
Feb 23, 2011, 4:13 PM EST
If Blogging's Dead, It's Living Healthy Afterlife
Marx Layne,
Feb 22, 2011, 7:12 AM EST
Marx Layne & Co. digital architect Matt Schuler in an answer to yesterday's
New York Times article that said blogging was fading: "I’m fully ready to admit that sites like
Facebook and
Twitter are immensely popular. They offer fantastic services, but there’s a limit on consciousness at each. Twitter’s limit is 140 characters, while Facebook’s status updates limit you to 420 characters. If I want to share something that’s more substantial, like for instance this very post, I have to look beyond Facebook and Twitter."
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How The Internet Has Affected Journalism
Guardian,
Feb 22, 2011, 6:48 AM EST
Aleks Krotoski: "The Web's effect on news reporting is considered the most clear evidence that this is a revolutionary technology: news editors -- and in some cases, the governments that they observe -- are no longer the gatekeepers to information because costs of distribution have almost completely disappeared. If knowledge is power, the Web is the greatest tool in the history of the world."
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Finding News On Twitter Worth The Search
Advancing The Story,
Feb 21, 2011, 3:43 PM EST
Deborah Potter: "Yes, there's a lot of worthless chatter out there, but every so often you can find a pony [a worthwhile news item]."
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Reimagining Book Stores For The Digital Age
Online Journalism Review,
Feb 21, 2011, 3:30 PM EST
Robert Niles: "Imagine entering a store where there are no (or very few) books on the shelves, but an open WiFi network that allowed you to connect to and read, watch, play and listen to that store's entire inventory of books, newspapers, magazines, games, movies, TV shows and recordings. So long as you physically remained within range of that network, you could read and watch all you want, but nothing would stay on your device after you left unless you purchased it."
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Opinion
Is The iPad A Worthwhile Investment?
Slate,
Feb 21, 2011, 1:55 PM EST
Slate's John Swansburg turns to his colleagues to help him figure out what he's missing that's keeping him from enjoying his iPad and convince him he didn't make a $600 mistake.
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Commentary
Heaton: The Web Is Our Friend
Terry Heaton's PoMo Blog,
Feb 21, 2011, 7:03 AM EST
Commentary
Newsbound's Reason For Going For-Profit
Columbia Journalism Review,
Feb 18, 2011, 4:07 PM EST
Josh Kalven, founder of San Francisco-based Newsbound, on why he decided to go the for-profit route with his startup:"My hypothesis is that the right mix of explanatory editorial content and tools that allow users to personalize their interactions with that content will provide the basis for a strong subscription model."
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Commentary
News Orgs Need To Adapt To Create Apps
Poynter,
Feb 18, 2011, 2:44 PM EST
Steve Myers: "News apps aren’t like other kinds of journalism, and they’re not like other kinds of programming. Editors who understand how to craft compelling narratives can’t necessarily envision an engaging, useful news app. IT departments set up to support the manufacturing and distribution of a daily newspaper may not know how to handle deadline-driven software. And although computer-assisted reporting -- which has been around for years -- is in news apps’ DNA, many journalists don’t really understand what developers do."
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Commentary: Digital Subscription Plans
Apple, Google Cut Of Subscriptions Too High
PaidContent,
Feb 18, 2011, 2:44 PM EST
Forrester Research's James McQuivey: "The most important outcome of this week's emerging tussle between Apple and Google is that we are about to have an intense and financially difficult conversation about what a fair price is for delivering customers to developers, publishers, and producers.
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Newsonomics of Apple/Google/Press+
Sub Plans Spark Paid Content Free-For-All
Nieman Journalism Lab,
Feb 17, 2011, 3:40 PM EST
Author Ken Doctor: "If Apple’s business strategy here is divide and conquer by muddle, misunderstanding and mix-up, it couldn’t have done a better job."
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Commentary
Dataist: A Case For Journalists Learning To Code
Dan Nguyen,
Feb 17, 2011, 10:22 AM EST
Commentary
Trio Of Mags Say Yes To iPad Sub Terms
Advertising Age,
Feb 17, 2011, 8:52 AM EST
Many magazines are staying away from Apple's new iPad subscription system, which threatens to keep publishers in the dark about their own subscribers, but a small, diverse group of magazines has emerged to accept Apple's terms, including Hachette Filipacchi's
Elle, Bonnier's
Popular Science and independent
Nylon.
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Commentary
Kindle Made Single-Story Sales Reality For Mags
PBS MediaShift,
Feb 16, 2011, 3:39 PM EST
ITunes Subscriptions Won't Stop Free News
Newsosaur,
Feb 16, 2011, 3:08 PM EST
Alan Mutter: "[Apple's new subscription service] is not going to throttle the flow of free news on the web any better than iTunes has stopped the torrential consumption of pirated music."
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Commentary: Content Creation
It's Not About Content, It's About Value
BuzzMachine,
Feb 16, 2011, 7:43 AM EST
Jeff Jarvis in response to
David Carr's New York Times column on unpaid bloggers: "Why do people write on Huffington Post? Because they can. Because they like the attention and conversation. Because they couldn’t before. Why do they sing their songs on YouTube? Same reasons. Is there still a role for the journalist, the professional, the artist in this? Perhaps. I think so."
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Commentary
HuffPo Is A 'Digital Sandcastle'
Monday Note,
Feb 15, 2011, 3:42 PM EST
Frédéric Filloux: "What ailing AOL bought is vapor. About 35% of the HuffPo’s users come form Google. They land on cleverly optimized content: stories borrowed from other (and consenting) medias that mostly generate blogging and comments. This is the machine that drove 28m unique visitors in January, which makes the HuffPo close to
The New York Times/
Herald Tribune audience of 30m UV."
Frédéric Filloux
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Commentary
Glass Half-Full For Tablet Magazines
PaidContent,
Feb 15, 2011, 9:02 AM EST
PaidContent's Adam Hodgkin, responding to
Andrew Losowsky's blog post at the Hospital Club that concluded the world of magazine apps was bleak, writes that the technology is still in its early stages and tablet sales will only climb: "Only 15 million [iPads sold] in the nine months! Since Apple will sell perhaps another 40 million this year, and no market analyst predicted, prior to launch, that Apple would sell more than 7 million in the first year, this is a glass rapidly filling up before-we-can-get-organized, point."
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Commentary
Ingram: Web Media Not Really A Sweatshop
GigaOM,
Feb 15, 2011, 8:31 AM EST
The AOL-Huffington Post deal has raised concern about the economics of online media, specifically about how contributors are -- or aren't -- compensated. But Matthew Ingram points out that this is nothing new in the media world: "Some people are more than willing to write for the recognition and reputation value and sheer passion (or other intangibles) rather than for money. And there will always be media entities like The Huffington Post that take advantage of that."
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Commentary
Twitter, Facebook Play Gutenberg In Arabia
BuzzMachine,
Feb 14, 2011, 2:58 PM EST
Jeff Jarvis: "It occurs to me that Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube may be the Gutenberg press of the Middle East, tools like his that enable people to speak, share and gather. Without those tools, could revolutions occur? Of course they could. Without people and their passion, could revolutions occur? Of course not."
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Commentary
New Media Sites Build Value Off Free Work
The New York Times,
Feb 14, 2011, 2:58 PM EST
Sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Huffington Post are being valued in the millions, even billions. Most of the value for those sites was created by people working free.
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Commentary
The State Of Play For Paid Content, 2011
Newsosaur,
Feb 14, 2011, 8:14 AM EST
Alan Mutter: "Speed bumps are exactly like the complicated new approaches that publishers have concocted to try to get paid for the stories they port from their papers to the digital media. These complex plans are bound to confound consumers as never before, raising the question of whether the consternation and ill will they engender will be worth the modest revenue they bring in."
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Commentary
Can Google Ever Be A Neutral News Provider?
Guardian,
Feb 11, 2011, 3:47 PM EST
Emily Bell: "The idea that Google will ever be a neutral player in a world where information is so highly political has always been nonsensical. Google in truth has as much a claim to being a 'stateless news organisation' as WikiLeaks, not through secrecy but through highly distributed regional power and large corporate profits."
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Daily Back Issues Vanish Into Thin Air
Wordyard,
Feb 11, 2011, 3:47 PM EST
Back issues of News Corp.'s iPad-only newspaper merely disappear the following day. Scott Rosenberg: "This looks like just another way in which the Daily, even as it’s asking for your subscription dollars, seems to offer you less than standard, free news websites -- which figured out a decade ago how to archive and preserve their back catalog."
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Commentary
Local Players Have Edge In Hyperlocal News
Nieman Journalism Lab,
Feb 11, 2011, 2:48 PM EST
Lance Knobel, cofounder of Bay Area news site
Berkeleyside, believes that despite the challenge from networks like
Aol’s Patch, sites at the grassroots level have a better chance to succeed in hyperlocal news: "The truth is the bulk of the experimentation, the stretching of form, the innovative thinking is happening on sites like Berkeleyside,
West Seattle Blog,
The Rapidian, and many, many others."
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Commentary: The Future Of Newspapers
Print Has A Place In Tablet-Heavy Future
Nieman Journalism Lab,
Feb 10, 2011, 4:01 PM EST
Newspaper Nation Network president and CEO Jason Klein: "With its broadsheet format, print is an ideal vehicle for both scanning and in-depth reading, and reading a newspaper from front-to-back is a complete experience a tablet environment finds hard to duplicate. Our research with dual print/digital newspaper consumers also suggests that consumers still trust print more than digital. While the tablet has invaded print’s turf, it’s not filling all the needs that print does."
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NewTrust Takes Media Literacy Local
Nieman Journalism Lab,
Feb 10, 2011, 2:59 PM EST
NewsTrust, which endeavors to help readers find “good journalism” by giving people the tools to separate good from bad, is turning its focus to the local level with its latest effort NewsTrust Baltimore.
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Commentary: TBD.com
Community Portals Should Stand Alone
Terry Heaton's PoMo Blog,
Feb 10, 2011, 7:20 AM EST
Terry Heaton: "While I’ve always been a fan of community portals, I’ve been outspoken about letting the TV station keep its own brand-extension site, for the reasons Albritton is now stating. Local media companies need sites to which they can refer and have those sites associated with their brands. Community portals should be stand alone businesses, and it’s sad to see something as far along as TBD.com lose its hard-fought footing in trying to accomplish something it never should have been expected to accomplish in the first place."
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Commentary
Not All Content Is King On Wall Street
Newsosaur,
Feb 9, 2011, 3:49 PM EST
Alan Mutter: "Recent deals like the Facebook financing, the Demand Media IPO and the Huffington Post sale show that investors put far more value on companies aggregating cheap or free content than on dedicating generous resources to original, high-quality journalism."
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Commentary
Journalism Loses In AOL-HuffPo Deal
Los Angeles Times,
Feb 9, 2011, 3:30 PM EST
Tim Rutten on the implications of the AOL-HuffPo deal: "Whatever the ultimate impact of AOL's $315-million acquisition of the Huffington Post on the new-media landscape, it's already clear that the merger will push more journalists more deeply into the tragically expanding low-wage sector of our increasingly brutal economy."
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Commentary
Now That AOL Has Huffpo, Where's Video?
Advertising Age,
Feb 9, 2011, 8:50 AM EST
AOL made a point of focusing on video assets through the purchase of Studio Now, 5min and GoViral, as well as a number of high-profile content distribution agreements. Advertising Age's Keith Richman notes that while AOL is a large player in the video space, it is far from dominant and the Huffington Post is not going to help get it to the top of the Web video heap.
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Commentary
Big Media Turns To Locals To Go Hyperlocal
Bennington Banner,
Feb 9, 2011, 8:35 AM EST
Consultant Charles Putney: "The irony is that online news sources often depend on local print and broadcast media to provide day-to-day coverage. Much of what passes for news and commentary on the Web, is culled from local media outlets. Many newsbloggers get their news by reading the local paper. They are not likely to go to town meetings, fires, candidate forums, police departments or special events."
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Cillizza: Journos Should Serve Buffet Of News
Beet.tv,
Feb 8, 2011, 3:16 PM EST
Chris Cillizza,
The Washington Post political editor, blogger and video personality, at last week's Beet.TV Online Video Journalism Summit at
The Post said journalists need to try as many things as possible, similar to a Las Vegas buffet.
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Commentary
PDF Is Digital Publishing's Worst Enemy
Monday Note,
Feb 8, 2011, 10:48 AM EST
Commentary
Internet Is Easy Prey For Governments
CNN,
Feb 8, 2011, 8:05 AM EST
Media theorist Douglas Rushkoff: "Services such as Twitter and Facebook give activists the means to organize as never before. But the more dependent on them we become, the more subservient we are to the corporations and governments that control them."
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'Robot Boss' Seeks To Replace Journalists
Technology Review,
Feb 7, 2011, 3:41 PM EST
An experiment being conducted by an alliance of journalists and computer scientists, dubbed My Boss Is a Robot, aims to combine the distributed human brainpower of Amazon's small-task outsourcing engine, Mechanical Turk, with a software boss pre-programmed with all the logic required to stitch myriad discrete human-accomplished tasks into something resembling the work of a single person.
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Commentary
The Daily Offers A Glimpse Into The Future
Newsosaur,
Feb 7, 2011, 3:22 PM EST
Alan Mutter: News Corp.'s iPad-only newspaper The Daily is "a living, breathing glimpse into what digitally delivered news, entertainment and advertising will look like in the future."
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Commentary
Will U.S. Government Crack Whip On Web Privacy?
PBS MediaShift,
Feb 7, 2011, 3:10 PM EST
How To Monetize Mobile Video
Mobile Marketer,
Feb 7, 2011, 8:44 AM EST
Ian Foley: "While payment models offer higher per-unit pricing, advertising provides an opportunity to scale usage. The existing players in the mobile video ad market have proven that the advertising concept is attractive."
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Newsonomics: Apps and HTML5
Moving Beyond Apple vs. Adobe
Nieman Journalism Lab,
Feb 4, 2011, 3:50 PM EST
Author Ken Doctor: "Now companies, from
The New York Times to NPR to
National Geographic, are rapidly building out both staffs and products based on HTML5 ... They’re also determining how that new, expected, pervasive interactivity -- witness The Daily’s debut -- will be accomplished most efficiently. The technology, they say, is the essential foundation for next-generation products, Web and mobile, more elegant and faster than previous HTML in its presentation and more flexible in its implementation."
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Commentary: The Daily
iPad Paper Flashes Back To The Mid 1990s
Wordyard,
Feb 4, 2011, 8:02 AM EST
Salon co-founder Scott Rosenberg: "The Daily’s designers are eager to show off sparkling graphics, integrated video, and the swipe-ability that the iPad allows. Unfortunately, they are defining 'interactivity' the way the lost pioneers of the 1994-era CD-ROM 'multimedia revolution' defined it." Dan Kennedy's Media Nation
digs up the following very prescient video from 1994, in which Knight-Ridder futurist Roger Fidler lays out his vision of a tablet newspaper.
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Commentary
What Patch Could Mean For Hyperlocal News
Reynolds Journalism Institute,
Feb 2, 2011, 2:53 PM EST
Tram Whitehurst: "Patch could even improve the market for local advertising. By bringing in advertisers who have never worked with small local sites, it might create new customers for everybody. The pessimist of course would argue just the opposite: That Patch is committed more to profits than to journalism, and that it will cause others to fail if it doesn't also go bust itself."
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Commentary
Will Branson's 'Project' Take Off
News & Tech,
Feb 2, 2011, 2:43 PM EST
Virgin wasted no time catching the attention of consumers with the launch of its iPad-only Project magazine in November. But does Project represent a new era of iPad-only pubs?
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Commentary
U.S. Local News Efforts Far Ahead Of UK
PBS MediaShift,
Feb 2, 2011, 2:43 PM EST
Local news providers in the United States and the United Kingdom have been hard hit by the changes in news provision and consumption, each having relied so heavily on classified and recruitment advertising, but the reactions of the two countries have been very different. The
U.S. is starting to see a future for local news in the digital era while the
U.K. is still mired in the soup of its analog past.
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A Computational Journalism Reading List
Jonathan Stray,
Feb 2, 2011, 8:31 AM EST
Commentary
Papers Should Take Side On Net Neutrality
PBS MediaShift,
Feb 1, 2011, 7:26 AM EST
Investigative Reporting Workshop project editor Kat Aaron: "Without an open Internet, all the creative crowdsourced projects are castles built on sand. Despite journalism's increasing reliance on a neutral network, most journalists and their trade associations have been silent on this issue."
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Commentary
The Rise And Fall Of Content Farms
SearchEngineLand,
Feb 1, 2011, 7:16 AM EST
Stone Temple Consulting president Eric Enge: "Even though lots of quality content comes out of these content engines, the problem is that there is a lot of created content which is not of decent or better quality. This puts these companies at direct odds with Google."
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Not Every Journalist Can Be an Entrepreneur
Tony's Journalism Blog,
Jan 31, 2011, 3:30 PM EST
Author Tony Rogers: "There's a reason newspapers have long kept newsrooms separate from the advertising and business offices: The pursuit of profit, more often than not, is at odds with the pursuit of truth. It's not the job of journalists to sell the news; it's their job to fulfill what many of us still consider an important, even sacred responsibility -- to inform the public and serve as a watchdog on government."
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Commentary: Web TV
Comcast/NBCU Could Hurt Web TV Efforts
Huffington Post,
Jan 31, 2011, 3:16 PM EST
The wedding of Comcast and NBCU could create an environment in which ISP providers like Verizon and AT&T feel compelled to merge with content companies like ABC/Disney and CBS/Viacom to control how the majority of content, even those of its competitors, is delivered and new options would be tactically omitted from the competitive landscape.
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Commentary
Why The Daily Will Succeed -- Or Not
Newsosaur,
Jan 31, 2011, 2:42 PM EST
Alan Mutter on the prospects of News Corp.'s iPad-only newspaper The Daily: "The Daily, like any other start-up, will have to cross the chasm of anonymity and consumer indifference in order to amass the critical number of readers it needs to generate adequate subscription and advertising revenues. The longer The Daily takes to break even, the more expensive the venture will be for News Corp."
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Commentary
Ongo A Good Start, But Not Perfect
Monday Note,
Jan 31, 2011, 2:24 PM EST
Frédéric Filloux: "Up to a point. I see Ongo as too much of an automated aggregator as opposed to an edited news product. In this respect, Ongo might be a good start, supported by a neat tech implementation (both on the Web and on the iPad), but we’re not there yet."
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Commentary: Quora
Quora Is 'A Horrid Service For Blogging'
Scobleizer,
Jan 31, 2011, 7:32 AM EST
Robert Scoble: "Turns out I was totally wrong. [Quora is] It’s a horrid service for blogging, where you want to put some personality into answers. It’s just fine for a QA site, but we already have lots of those and, in fact, the competitors in this space are starting to react."
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Commentary
Digital Mag Ads Moving Toward Personalized
ClickZ,
Jan 28, 2011, 3:45 PM EST
Eisenberg Holdings managing partner Bryan Eisenberg on the future of publishing and advertisng: "It won't be long until advertisements in digital magazines will be personalized based on a reader's past participation with content and ads, location, time of day, etc."
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5 Key Characteristics Of Mobile News Users
PBS MediaShift,
Jan 28, 2011, 3:32 PM EST
Smartphones are ushering in the next wave of news consumption and a new breed of news consumers who are impulse users, using multiple platforms and want to contribute.
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Commentary: 'Smart' TVs
Smart TV Returned Because Of Dumb Apps
NewTeeVee,
Jan 27, 2011, 4:03 PM EST
Chris Albrecht: "Here’s something I didn’t imagine when I hooked up my brand-new Vizio XVT553SV TV last week: It crashed. Again. And again. And again. The culprit? Turns out the 'smart' internet apps made my television really dumb."
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Newsonomics of the do-over
Newspapers Call Do-Over On Paid Content
Nieman Journalism Lab,
Jan 27, 2011, 3:47 PM EST
Author Ken Doctor on newspapers turning to paywalls after years of giving away content for free: "In 2011, we’ve got a convergence of factors beginning to create a new sense of where traditional news publishing may go. They may, collectively, provide an inflection point, a point at which the news industry sees itself differently and consumers are suddenly confronted by numerous paying choices. Together, these factors offer a newsonomics of do-over, the ability to unwind what many call the original sin of giving away news content for free, and creating a new business model for how news is distributed and paid for."
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Commentary
Social Media ROI Is Still Missing
PaidContent,
Jan 27, 2011, 3:36 PM EST
NBC head of business development and marketing Lulu Phongmany: "We’re not yet seeing consistent evidence of significant ROI outside of retail and gaming."
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Commentary
In Mobile World, The Interface Matters
LostRemote,
Jan 27, 2011, 3:24 PM EST
Steve Safran: "Do we know exactly how to engineer the best app possible? No. But we’re starting to get an idea of what presents a news and information experience that is rich and rewarding on the tablet. There’s a bonus to having a great news and information app: people have more reasons to stay longer. A great news interface presents a compelling experience when you 'poke around.'"
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Content, Context, Code: Verifying Info Online
Online Journalism Blog,
Jan 27, 2011, 7:26 AM EST
Commentary: Paywalls and Pay Strategies
Dropping The Paywall For Pay
Mike Orren,
Jan 26, 2011, 7:32 AM EST
Media consultant Mike Orren: "What if you let a person or company featured in a story pay to have it placed outside the paywall? In some cases, a business might be willing to pay several hundred dollars to see their story hit a wider audience. Might a proud parent whose child is featured pay $100 so they can email the link to all their friends and relatives?"
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Commentary
Salon Retracts Vaccine Story, But Shouldn't Delete
PBS MediaShift,
Jan 25, 2011, 8:23 AM EST
Commentary
Papers Need To View News As Software
Andrew Spittle,
Jan 25, 2011, 7:28 AM EST
Automattic's Andrew Spittle: "News organizations need to begin promoting the use of their product instead of its consumption. ... News as software requires a fundamentally different mindset. Software provides a sense of utility to users. It does something for them. More importantly it does that function over and over."
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Commentary
Is Groupon The New 'Jesus Startup'?
Dave Troy,
Jan 24, 2011, 3:46 PM EST
Software developer Dave Troy: "Groupon has emerged as the 'Jesus Startup' of 2010-2011. The industry always needs one, and they tend to conform to an archetype and have a mythical story: the visionary CEO who experiences a remarkable rise to greatness. For this story and for these 15 minutes, we have Andrew Mason, the humorous and self-deprecating everyman."
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Commentary
What If Google Labels Patch A 'Content Farm'?
Online Journalism Review,
Jan 24, 2011, 3:25 PM EST
Pekka Pekkala: "The big question is how will Google judge who is doing spammy, search-engine inspired headlines and who is doing real customer research with Google Analytics. Let's take Patch.com ... Patch.com sites create a lot of content about wide variety of topics on their own neighborhood -- something that an algorithm could think as trying to match the long-tail queries in your area. And Google emphasizes that there is no human judgment involved, just computers calculating the odds of junk content vs. not junk."
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Commentary
Apple's Bet On Publishing
Monday Note,
Jan 24, 2011, 2:58 PM EST
Frédéric Filloux: "One of the most interesting questions is Apple’s underlying strategy. In a nutshell, Cupertino is betting on 'many small' rather than on 'few big ones.' ... Small publishers can’t come up with the resources required to go after subscribers. The new App Store is designed for them."
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Commentary
Excess Hype Will Be Quora's Undoing
TechCrunch,
Jan 24, 2011, 8:47 AM EST
Academic Vivek Wadhwa thinks the tremendous amount of publicity Quora has received will lead to its downfall: "The excess hype is destined to make Quora a victim of its own press. The quality of answers will decline."
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Commentary
SEO Real Reason AOL's Content Is 'Piffle'
TechCrunch,
Jan 24, 2011, 7:51 AM EST
TechCrunch's Paul Carr says Ken Auletta's
New Yorker profile failed to to point out that AOL's content is no worse than any other portal's, primarily due to SEO and catering to users' whims: "Let’s assign the blame where it really belongs. If most Internet content is horseshit, it’s because most Internet users want it to be."
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Commentary
The Brutal Truth From The Twitterverse
PaidContent,
Jan 24, 2011, 7:27 AM EST
Mindshare's Paul Armstrong, creator of @themediaisdying on Twitter: "News organizations are still interrupting and disrupting and not integrating and engaging. In these changeable times, that’s what I call 'paddling against a tsunami with a toothpick.'"
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Commentary
Fewer Ads Equal More Money
Online Journalism Review,
Jan 21, 2011, 3:12 PM EST
Robert Niles: "You might think that online advertising works linearly: More ads = more money. (This equation certainly seems to reflect the thinking behind many ad-laden newspaper websites I read.) But placing more ads on your website might actually hurt your ad network earnings -- and not just because you'd be driving readers away with a lousy site experience."
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Commentary: NYT Paywall
New York Times Paywall Is 'Doomed'
Minyanville.com,
Jan 21, 2011, 2:55 PM EST
Mike Schuster: "Why would anyone pay for online news when there are countless other outlets providing coverage -- ranging from adequate to transcendent -- for absolutely free? ... Not only is this a phenomenally bad idea that has proven to be many newspapers' ruin, the [
New York]
Times has witnessed the experiment fail firsthand. Its TimesSelect section put several columns behind a paywall in 2005 and came crashing down in 2007. And that was only for $7.95/month."
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Commentary
MediaNews Shakeup Could Lead To Consolidation
Nieman Journalism Lab,
Jan 21, 2011, 8:06 AM EST
Newsonomics of 'The Daily'
Murdoch's iPad Paper To Show Way For Pubs
Nieman Journalism Lab,
Jan 21, 2011, 7:31 AM EST
Author Ken Doctor: "It is impossible, of course, to make much sense of
The Daily until we can actually read it. With iPad products, we’re often into that crazy first blush associated with any new digital device, confusing the device itself with the product."
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Commentary: Social Media For Media Cos.
Facebook Should Be About Social, Not Ads
GigaOM,
Jan 21, 2011, 6:57 AM EST
GigaOm's Matthew Ingram: "The reality is that media in the web era is a distributed thing, and that includes the community aspect. Conversations about your content are going to occur on Facebook because 600 million people use it, and they are going to occur on Twitter because 200 million people or so use that. If you want to build a relationship with your users -- which is about the only thing you have left, since scarcity of information and control over the distribution channel is no longer working -- then you have to be there too. And not just shoving ads or content at them, but talking to them."
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'Gamifying' The Digital News Experience
PBS MediaShift,
Jan 19, 2011, 2:55 PM EST
Chris O'Brien: "I've come to believe that over the next decade gamification will profoundly reshape the way we experience the Web, to the same degree that social media and networks redefined the Web last decade. To that end, I've been thinking in the broadest terms what that could and should mean for how we can reinvent digital news."
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Commentary
2011 Could Be The Year Of Paid Content
Poynter,
Jan 19, 2011, 8:04 AM EST
Rick Edmonds: "The strategy, logistics, and metrics of success remain sketchy, but I think I see the beginning of a consensus: an online pay wall should be not too high, not too porous, but just right for preserving light traffic while persuading heavy users to become buyers."
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What A Twitter Correction Might Look Like
Regret The Error,
Jan 18, 2011, 7:09 AM EST
Craig Silverman: "In my vision, the Twitter correction function would let the owner of an account notify all retweeters that a corrected tweet has been issued."
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Commentary: Fast-Paced News Cycle
Time Fueled Errors In Shooting Coverage
The New York Times,
Jan 17, 2011, 8:04 AM EST
Arthur Brisbane: "In the 1440/7 news cycle, and in the environment of the newsroom on Jan. 8, time seemed unavailable. On this particular day, things were happening quickly and simultaneously, and a mistake was made."
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Commentary
News Orgs Need To Fix Incorrect Tweets
Columbia Journalism Review,
Jan 14, 2011, 3:50 PM EST
RegretTheError.com's Craig Silverman: "We have a responsibility to follow up on our correction tweets and help give them the push and distribution they require."
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Commentary: The Next Big Media Battle
Publishers Will Win Fight Against Ad Agencies
Huffington Post,
Jan 14, 2011, 8:41 AM EST
Story Worldwide CEO Kirk Cheyfitz believes the next big media revolution will be an escalating and increasingly bitter competition between content creators -- especially newspaper and magazine publishers -- and traditional ad agencies, and "the traditional ad agencies are going to lose because creating great, engaging content is emerging as the key skill in marketing. And they don't have it."
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Commentary
Why Smart TVs Should Be More Like PCs
SnarkMarket,
Jan 14, 2011, 8:33 AM EST
2010's 50 Most Influentual Media People
Business Insider,
Jan 14, 2011, 8:19 AM EST
Commentary
Quora: Journalism's Evolution Or Time Sink
Newspaper Death Watch,
Jan 14, 2011, 8:15 AM EST
Commentary
Mobilizing For Mobile Before It's Too Late
Newsosaur,
Jan 13, 2011, 4:18 PM EST
Alan Mutter: "Now that the move to mobile is giving publishers their last, best chance for a do-over, they are doing exactly the same un-strategic things they did on the Web in hopes of achieving a different outcome. No less a figure than Albert Einstein considered this sort of thinking to be a form of insanity."
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Commentary
In Today's World, Who Owns Your Data?
Mashable,
Jan 13, 2011, 7:09 AM EST
Commentary
Loophole Puts Journalistic Sourse At Risk
Mashable,
Jan 12, 2011, 8:17 AM EST
Twitter has become a place for interaction between whistle-blowers and journalists, and the recent disclosure of the government's subpoena to access the accounts of several Twitter users raises issues of how to protect journalistic sources on social media. Mashable's Vadim Lavrusik: "The privilege of shield laws should also extend to the social platforms hosting the information that is shared between whistle-blowers and journalists. And until there is a federal shield law for reporters, protection for such newsgathering will be nonexistent."
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Twitter Useful As Source Discovery Service
Nieman Journalism Lab,
Jan 11, 2011, 3:52 PM EST
Justin Ellis: "Twitter has proven its usefulness to the media in breaking news as a real-time search tool, an instantaneous publisher, and a source discovery service. It’s that last point that is often of most use."
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Commentary
Are Ad Nets The Answer For News Sites?
Online Journalism Review,
Jan 11, 2011, 8:19 AM EST
Robert Niles: "The journalism industry's traditional ethical 'wall' dividing advertising and editorial has left some journalists so frightened by the idea of selling to potential advertisers that they choose not even to try launching their own news Web sites."
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Commentary
Twitter Needs Its Own Cronkite
The Next Web,
Jan 10, 2011, 8:40 AM EST
The Next Web's Chad Catacchio says that Twitter needs human intervention to prevent misinformation from remaining as a top tweet: "I now feel that while the point that Twitter is the place to go for breaking news is beyond question, I think that saying that Twitter
is the new Cronkite is going a bit too far -- I think that Twitter actually needs it’s own Cronkite, either standing alone or preferably with the aid of crowdsourced volunteers.'
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Things Tech Journalists Should Learn
Steve Yelvington,
Jan 10, 2011, 7:57 AM EST
From the difference between the iPhone and iPad to Web traffic reports, Steve Yelvington runs down a list of the things he thinks tech journalists need to be better informed about.
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Commentary
Web Fills User Desires To Be Consulted
Ftrain.com,
Jan 10, 2011, 6:58 AM EST
Journalist Paul Ford: "Media properties are migrating into apps, where boundaries between reader and publisher can be defined and enforced. TV is migrating back to TV, but 'smarter.' To read a book people will turn to their phones. But the Web is where they will go to complain."
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Commentary: Citizen Journalism
Web Spurs Primary Source Journalism Rise
Jennifer 8. Lee,
Jan 10, 2011, 6:39 AM EST
Journalist Jennifer 8. Lee: "Basically, we are seeing the rise of primary source materials -- documents, video, photos -- as cohesive units of consumable journalism. Turns out, despite the great push for citizen journalism, citizens are not, on average, great at journalism, but they are good conduits for raw material."
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Commentary
Journalism Enters An Age Of Collaboration
Huffington Post,
Jan 7, 2011, 3:44 PM EST
Don Tapscott and Anthony Williams: "Journalism will surely survive, just not in its present form. People will not pay for commodities, whether it's news or other content. But they will pay for compelling, differentiated value, as
The Economist, Thomson Reuters, and
In-Style Magazine show. The key will be to develop new business models, offer distinctive value and not get too hung up on trying to defend a legacy business being killed by the digital age."
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Commentary
Net Neutrality Fight Far From Over
CNET,
Jan 7, 2011, 8:28 AM EST
Consultant Larry Downes: "Just days into the new Congress, there are already indications that reversing the FCC's new rules is a priority for Republicans."
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Newsonomics of Tablet Computers
Papers Need To Prepare For Digital Future
Nieman Journalism Lab,
Jan 6, 2011, 3:33 PM EST
Entering 2011, no U.S. news company makes more than 16% of its total revenues from digital; all depend on print for 84% or more of their journalist-paying income. Author Ken Doctor asks what will happen if readers drop print for tablet editions faster than expected: "It’s great that readers want -- and may pay for -- news on the tablet, but if they flee print more quickly, how will that play havoc with the business model of news and magazine publishing?"
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Commentary
Gap Widens Between National, Local Papers
Boston.com,
Jan 6, 2011, 9:01 AM EST
Mark Leccese: "While the three national newspapers [The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and USA Today] have emerged as a category to themselves over the course of several years, the strongest category in journalism at the moment is online local -- or, to use the buzz word, hyperlocal -- news."
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Commentary
Quora Is A Useful Tool For Journalists
Journalism.co.uk,
Jan 5, 2011, 3:04 PM EST
Kristine Lowe: "If your beat is among those discussed there, the site can be extremely useful for access, ideas, story leads, networking and crowd sourcing. In other words, much of the same things as Twitter, but not confined to 140 characters."
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The Missourian Changes Copy Editors' Role
Reynolds Journalism Institute,
Jan 5, 2011, 2:46 PM EST
Nick Jungman: "Most of [the
Columbia Missourian's] copy editors, most of the time, would have no involvement with the print product. Instead, they’d become 'interactive copy editors.' They would focus on getting stories to our Web site quickly and accurately, on finding ways to increase reader engagement with our work online, and on making sure the Web site is always putting its best possible foot forward."
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Journalism's Problem Is Its Attitude
Online Journalism Review,
Jan 5, 2011, 2:20 PM EST
Gearing up for Knight Digital Media Center's News Entrepreneur Boot Camp in May, Robert Niles takes a look at what he feels is really wrong with journalism today: "Too many people in our industry, from publishers to cub reporters, are wallowing in a culture of failure, bringing a fatalistic attitude to their jobs, one that has been and will continue to become self-fulfilling."
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Commentary: Comcast-NBCU
A Television Deal For The Digital Age
Columbia Journalism Review,
Jan 4, 2011, 3:58 PM EST
John Dunbar, director of "The Media and Broadband Project," part of American University's Investigative Reporting Workshop: "Neither Comcast nor NBC is an Internet neophyte. They haven’t waited for the online barbarians to reach their gates; rather, each controls a user-friendly path for its content to migrate to the Web."
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Commentary
Why Journalists Aren’t Defending WikiLeaks
Newsweek,
Jan 4, 2011, 4:12 PM EST
Ben Adler: "In the face of such an assault on press freedom, you might expect the American media to respond assertively. But the pushback has been piecemeal and somewhat muted.
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Commentary
Wall St. Hard On Newspapers In 2010
Newsosaur,
Jan 3, 2011, 4:16 PM EST
Alan Mutter: "The divergent performance of newspaper stocks in 2010 suggests that at least some investors are willing to put their money on companies with low debt burdens in the belief that the publishers will have the ingenuity, revenue and cash flow to morph their companies into successful players in the digital age."
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Review: Google TV
The 'Google-ification' Of Television
MediaPost,
Jan 3, 2011, 3:56 PM EST
Steve Smith: "
While I wouldn't say that adding a familiar search box to the TV interface is revelatory, I can see how it accelerates an existing shift away from TV's traditional emphasis on schedule and towards a consumer-orientation towards content. You start thinking less about 'what's on' and more about 'what's accessible?' " Link
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2010's Best WikiLeaks Coverage
John Bracken,
Jan 3, 2011, 7:43 AM EST
Commentary
IPad Won't Salvage Today's Journalism Model
Measuring Measures,
Jan 3, 2011, 7:39 AM EST
Bradford Cross: "The iPad is a delightful device, but it can't salvage the existing model for journalism. ... A modern approach to news needs to regain the homogeneous experience we had with the newspapers of old. But it needs to do so with much more focused relevance from a much broader pool of content. It also needs to integrate with social, which is more or less important depending on the content."
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Commentary
Hollywood Needs To Buy A Game-Changer
The Wrap,
Jan 3, 2011, 6:53 AM EST
Sharon Waxman says the entertainment industry needs to invest in companies that will keep it relevant in the new media and tech worlds, with Netflix and Huffington Post being at the top of the list: "We could reasonably ask why a studio didn’t buy Netflix early on, which was within the grasp of several of them, including Warner Brothers. ... Someone still should, even if they end up overpaying; they’re buying the future. ... Here’s a more modest, but potent idea: Why hasn’t a traditional media company bought The Huffington Post? Arianna Huffington and Ken Lerer’s new media juggernaut proves day after day that they understand how the intelligent consumers seek to communicate and engage with information."
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Commentary
New Media Ethics, Same As Old Media Ethics
Zombie Journalism,
Dec 31, 2010, 8:49 AM EST
Commentary
IPad Offers 3 Lessons For Media Companies
Poynter,
Dec 31, 2010, 8:31 AM EST
The rise of tablet computers hasn't yet proven to be a savior for magazines and newspapers, but it has provided some insight into design, innovation and paying for content.
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Commentary
Digital Ads Are Big Opportunity For TV
iMedia Connection,
Dec 31, 2010, 8:10 AM EST
Television will still be advertising's medium of choice in 2011, but STRATA CEO John Shelton says that TV has the chance to be out front, with digital, mobile and other platforms supporting ad campaigns: "Digital continues to make gains, but TV is making more money and presenting opportunities for digital to be part of an integrated campaign. We are seeing a merging of platforms, and TV will hold the lead in conjunction with the use of digital sub channels and internet platforms to extend programming and local outreach."
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Commentary: iPad Publications
An App Is Not A Digital Content Strategy
GigaOM,
Dec 31, 2010, 7:29 AM EST
Matthew Ingram: "Simply wrapping your content in a shiny package designed by Adobe isn’t going to convince vast numbers of people to pay you every month for it, especially when it costs as much as or more than the print version. Having audio and video clips and other interactive doo-dads is nice, but it simply isn’t worth the premium some publishers are charging. As we have pointed out before, many iPad apps look an awful lot like the early days of CD-ROM editions."
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Commentary
Web Commerce Firms Not Really Social
All Things Digital,
Dec 31, 2010, 6:44 AM EST
Liz Gannes: "Sites like
Gilt are supposedly exclusive discount fashion communities, but the reality is they will take anyone who will pay.
Groupon is a glorified email list. ... Linking social with commerce is tricky. Besides user reviews and accounts, which have been around forever, much of social commerce is very basic."
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Commentary
Twitter Makes You A Better Newspaper Reader
AllTwitter,
Dec 30, 2010, 3:33 PM EST
Commentary: Digital Newspapers
Forget Form, Concentrate On Content
PaidContent,
Dec 30, 2010, 2:57 PM EST
CEO of London-based startup Timetric Andrew Walkingshaw say for newspaper tablet apps, form is not nearly as important as content: "[News Corp.s
The Times iPad app] doesn’t have a form problem: it has a content problem. I don’t care about its content nearly enough to pay. I didn’t care enough when it was free, and now it’s trying to charge me money in a saturated market for an inferior experience. ... If I care enough about your content, you can give it to me on stone tablets in cuneiform and I’ll find a way to use it."
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Commentary
Top Media Stories Of 2010
PBS MediaShift,
Dec 30, 2010, 2:12 PM EST
MediaShift editor Mark Glaser runs down the top media stories of the year including Groupon, paywalls, the iPad, online ad revenue surpassing newspapers, location-based services and the ubiquitous debate over WikiLeaks.
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Commentary
Quora 'Business As Usual' For Blogging
TechCrunch,
Dec 29, 2010, 3:22 PM EST
Jessell At Large
Give Us A Break On New Media
TVNewsCheck,
Dec 29, 2010, 2:52 PM EST
Admit it, you're about as interested in implementing the latest mobile app as you are on who is in the Franklin American Mortgage Music City Bowl. When it comes to new media, we don’t have time to distinguish the winners from the losers. So, we do nothing. Or, we end up doing the wrong thing, squandering precious time and resources. This is precisely why we need a breather -- a three-year breather -- so we can figure out one thing before being forced to move on to the next.
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Commentary: WikiLeaks
Journos, Politicos On Same Page In Debate
Salon,
Dec 29, 2010, 2:52 PM EST
Glenn Greenwald: "From the start of the WikiLeaks controversy, the most striking aspect has been that the ones who are leading the crusade against the transparency brought about by WikiLeaks -- the ones most enraged about the leaks and the subversion of government secrecy -- have been ... America's intrepid Watchdog journalists. What illustrates how warped our political and media culture is as potently as that?"
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Commentary
Top 3 New Media Legal Battles Of 2010
PBS MediaShift,
Dec 29, 2010, 12:20 PM EST
Commentary
How Online News Evolved In 2010
The Next Web,
Dec 29, 2010, 2:52 PM EST
Paywalls, hyperlocal sites, WikiLeaks, Twitter and iPads changed the way news was researched, reported and consumed online during the past year.
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Commentary: Privacy vs. Security
Personalized Ads Spark Concern
ClickZ,
Dec 29, 2010, 8:31 AM EST
Commentary
Rifkin: Let Me Surf Without My Friends
TechCrunch,
Dec 28, 2010, 2:28 PM EST
Adam Rifkin longs to leave Facebook behind every once in a while and have some alone time with the rest of the Web: "I’ve made my peace with the idea that Facebook will be the biggest service on The Open Internet; what we all should want to avoid is a future where Facebook is the Web. That would be as lame as spending eternity in a 1971 Ford Pinto with all of your friends."
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10 New Year’s Resolutions For Newsrooms
LostRemote,
Dec 28, 2010, 7:15 AM EST
Mobile sites, apps and expanding social media presence are on Lost Remote's list of 10 New Year's resolutions to help news organizations succeed in 2011.
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Commentary
Twitter Loses Out By Not Collecting User Data
Penn Olson,
Dec 28, 2010, 6:35 AM EST
Penn Olson's Willis Wee: "In contrast to Facebook’s ad platform, Twitter doesn’t use users’ information for ad targeting. To me, this may be an opportunity lost. Advertisers love Facebook because they are able to target specific users within a few clicks. It’s real simple."
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Dartmouth Prof: Groupon's Mason A Bad CEO
NPR,
Dec 27, 2010, 4:04 PM EST
Dartmouth business professor Sydney Finkelstein told NPR that Andrew Mason's decision to turn down Google's $6 million offer put him near the top of the list of worst CEO's of 2010.
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Commentary: News Consumption
Pubs Need To Heed To Reader Behavior
(Re)Structuring Journalism,
Dec 27, 2010, 1:31 PM EST
South China Morning Post editor in chief Reg Chua: "Many of us are too focused on what we want to produce and how we expect people to consume news that we’re not spending enough time looking at how behavior and consumption patterns are changing."
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Commentary
Quora Could Be Blogging's Top Innovation
Scobleizer,
Dec 27, 2010, 8:30 AM EST
Blogger Robert Scoble: "I find that there’s something addictive about participating [on Quora] instead of here on my blog. Why? Because when you see people voting up your answers or adding their own replies in real time it makes you realize there’s a good group of people reading your stuff. I don’t get that immediate rush here (here I have to wait for comments to show up, which isn’t nearly as immediate)."
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Commentary
Extinction Imminent For Non-Smartphones
Asymco,
Dec 27, 2010, 7:57 AM EST
LA Times Celebrates Media Heroes Of 2010
Los Angeles Times,
Dec 27, 2010, 7:47 AM EST
Commentary
Could Videogames Serve As Newspapers?
Forbes,
Dec 27, 2010, 7:44 AM EST
Michael Humphrey: "Fiction, history and hybrids thereof, will always be an important part of games’ story lines. But since there’s a community ready-made in such games, why not add an element of right-now for that group to discuss and play around?"
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Commentary
Is What WikiLeaks Does Journalism?
GigOm,
Dec 27, 2010, 7:25 AM EST
Media theorists and critics are debating whether WikiLeaks' release of classified diplomatic cables qualifies as journalism and if the site should be protected by the First Amendment. GigOm's Matthew Ingram: "In the current era, media -- a broad term that includes what we think of as journalism -- has been dis-aggregated or atomized; in other words, split into its component parts ... In some cases, these may be things that we didn’t even realize were separate parts of the process to begin with, because they have always been joined together. And in some cases they merge different parts that were previously separate, such as the distinction between a source and a publisher."
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Commentary
Magazines Begin Slow Transformation In 2010
PBS MediaShift,
Dec 27, 2010, 7:13 AM EST
California State University, Fresno, assistant rofessor Susan Currie Sivek: "It's been a year of high expectations but little fulfillment for those who thought 2010 might forever change the way we read magazines. We've seen that disappointing uses of new tools, limited audience interest, and small initial financial returns are going to result in a gradual shift, not a sudden transformation."
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Commentary
Kedrosky: Local Doesn't Scale
Advertising Age,
Dec 24, 2010, 8:24 AM EST
Tech business analyst Paul Kedrosky says that there may be a billion dollar hyperlocal ad market, but the right way to look at it is as a $15,000 local ad market and to tap into those markets takes a lot of effort: "The reason hyper-local stuff breaks all the time is because you have to have so many people on the ground. No one's wanted to do that before, having all those people wandering around selling. You have to have all these extra people signing deals."
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Commentary
Hyperlocal News Sites Are Here To Stay
BIA/Kelsey,
Dec 23, 2010, 3:31 PM EST
Peter Krasilovsky: "One assumes there will inevitably be a shakeout and shutdowns [in the hyperlocal space] in the coming year. And there will also be smarter ways to economize via user-generated content and aggregation. The all-purpose use of the 'hyperlocal' term will also fall by the wayside. But if more of us find our guilty pleasures from checking out the hyperlocal news on our smartphones and our iPads, and sneaking peeks on our PCs during the day -- there is simply no reason to think it will generally fail."
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How To Add Local Info To Mobile Content
PBS MediaShift,
Dec 23, 2010, 2:35 PM EST
Melissa Ulbricht: "If you're a journalist or blogger, adding location information to your content can add value to your work ... because it makes content more accessible for users searching for information regarding specific locations. Location information lends itself to aggregation, and content with location information can be put on maps and other visualizations, which makes it more appealing for audiences to examine. Finally, location information can leverage social media."
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Commentary
Conventional News Wisdoms To Test In 2011
Newsonomics,
Dec 23, 2010, 2:03 PM EST
Author Ken Doctor takes a look at 11 conventional wisdoms about topics important to news organizations -- including paywalls, brand advertising, tablets, aggragation and Patch -- and how they could pan out in the new year.
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commentary
25 Reason To Leave A Site In 10 Seconds
eConsultancy,
Dec 23, 2010, 1:14 PM EST
From poor fonts and typos to interstitials and autosound, eConsultancy director of innovation Chris Lake runs down the 25 reasons he hits the back button within 10 seconds.
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Commentary
Pubs Can Outdo Groupon At Local Ad Share
Online Journalism Review,
Dec 23, 2010, 8:47 AM EST
Robert Niles: "There's no need for any news publisher to be afraid of something such as Groupon. Every great idea can be improved upon. And, more importantly, every great execution of an idea could be executed even better."
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Commentary: AOL's Patch
NY Site Accuses Patch of Dishonesty, Theft
Talk of the Sound,
Dec 23, 2010, 6:50 AM EST
Talk of the Sound managing editor Robert Cox claims that
AOL's New Rochelle, N.Y., Patch has has put out false or misleading information about him or stolen his site's content six times in the past three months. Cox detailed his claims in a long blog post that called AOL's hyperlocal site, among other things, "evil."
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Commentary
What Groupon Should Do Next
Business Insider,
Dec 22, 2010, 2:40 PM EST
Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry: "To decide what Groupon should do next, it should keep in mind what it is: the best-ever advertising platform for small and medium businesses. Its job is to serve small and medium businesses to reach consumers better and more cost-effectively. Or to put it more succinctly, its mission is to help small businesses get the most out of the Internet."
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Commentary
5 Digital Makeovers That Had An Impact
eMedia Vitals,
Dec 22, 2010, 8:34 AM EST
Review
HuffPo's iPad App Elegant And Image Rich
Mashable,
Dec 22, 2010, 8:29 AM EST
Review
Boxee Delivers A Disappointing Experience
San Jose Mercury News,
Dec 22, 2010, 7:01 AM EST
Commentary
Searching For Sustainable Journalism Habits
Groundswell Blog,
Dec 21, 2010, 4:28 PM EST
Josh Stearns: "Instead of searching for sustainable business models, what if we were searching for sustainable practices. ... It’s time to dedicate some time and energy to thinking through how we change the culture of news itself. There is not going to be one business model, the future of news will be diverse and multifaceted, but there will be some core practices and habits that should infuse what we do. I believe these new news habits can help create a more sustainable journalism."
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Commentary
How Copied Articles Can Be Fair Use
TechDirt,
Dec 21, 2010, 4:27 PM EST
Berkeley law professor Jason Schultz in an amicus brief in one of the many Righthaven lawsuits notes: "The Supreme Court, the Ninth Circuit, and this Court have all found the use of entire copyrighted works to be consistent with the fair-use doctrine. Those rulings recognize that copyright law balances two important public interests: promoting creative expression and encouraging the use of copyrighted works for socially beneficial purposes."
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Why Julian Assange Is A Journalist
Editor & Publisher,
Dec 21, 2010, 3:30 PM EST
Commentary: News Syndication
Desktop Web Model Not Good For News
Nieman Journalism Lab,
Dec 21, 2010, 2:31 PM EST
Scott Karp: "With the immersive, hands-on experience of a tablet news app, the value of syndication changes entirely. Apps that deliver nothing but one news organization’s content will not compare favorably with the content richness of the Web, no matter how good the UI is. And apps that bounce users around from site to site with an in-app browser, mimicking the traditional desktop Web model, will fail for precisely the reason why users chose the app in the first place."
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Netflix CEO: The Short Sellers Are Wrong
Seeking Alpha,
Dec 21, 2010, 7:00 AM EST
Netflix CEO Reed Hastings: "I have to agree with [investor Whitney Tilson] that there are many risks ahead for Netflix, that our valuation is substantial, and that it is possible that one could make money shorting Netflix today. But shorting a market leading firm as it is driving a huge new market is a very gutsy call. On balance, I would rather have my co-philanthropists on the long side of this particular bet."
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Commentary
Future Of Local News Will Come Out Of TV
LostRemote,
Dec 20, 2010, 3:54 PM EST
Cory Bergman: "With newspapers bleeding jobs, local TV stations in many markets now have more journalists on staff, combined, than the major daily newspaper. And as the world of network and syndicated programming becomes more clouded, local TV stations will ramp up production of new local programming -- across multiple platforms -- to fill the gaps. Meanwhile, the lines are blurring between TV video and Web video, bringing the industry into a new world of Web-enabled social TV."
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Commentary: Site Design
HTML5 Could Save Sites From Poor Design
Monday Note,
Dec 20, 2010, 2:45 PM EST
Frédéric Filloux says HTML5 could bring a brighter future to many news sites that suffer from poor design that hampers ease of operation for users and load speed: "Most of the news sites I measured are painfully slow to load, especially the ones with ads-saturated home pages. Speed matters of applications as well. ... Over time, I saw my usage becoming directly related to the app’s swiftness: start-up time, fluid updates and content navigation. Intense competition for user time on the smartphone scene makes speed a key success factor."
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Commentary
Why Sunsetting Delicious Makes Sense
TechCrunch,
Dec 20, 2010, 6:57 AM EST
Commentary: Jeff Bewkes Vs. Netflix
The Studios Will Lose 'War' With Netflix
Terry Heaton's PoMo Blog,
Dec 17, 2010, 5:53 PM EST
Earlier this week, Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes declared war on Netflix, saying the DVD-by-mail and streaming video company's era was drawing to a close. Audience Research & Development's Terry Heaton is among those who think Bewkes is mistaken: "Bewkes will live to regret such a haughty dismissal of a rapidly growing power in video distribution, because Hollywood no longer has total control over the ability to make and distribute a film. The movie hegemony is filled with middlemen, and a hyperconnected universe abhors middlemen and routes around them. We’re on the cusp of a major film-making revolution, and Netflix is positioned as the disruptor."
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Commentary
News Orgs Need To Serve Readers' Needs
Nieman Journalism Lab,
Dec 17, 2010, 5:15 PM EST
Journalist Jonathan Stray: "In 2011, news organizations will finally start to realize that they need to be in the business of serving the consumer’s information needs, not just producing content, and any tool that allows them to serve those needs is fair game. There’s no getting around the fact that integrated products are beloved by users ... And being loved by users is essential, regardless of whether your revenue strategy is advertising, subscriptions, or philanthropy."
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Flipboard CEO Mike McCue:
Web Has 'Contaminated' Journalism
Los Angeles Times,
Dec 17, 2010, 2:56 PM EST
Flipboard CEO Mike McCue: "The problem with journalism on the Web today is that it's being contaminated by the Web form factor. What I mean is, journalists are being pushed to do things like slide shows -- stuff meant to attract page views. ... Journalism is being pushed into a space where I don't think it should ever go, where it's trying to support the monetization model of the Web by driving page views. So what you have is a drop-off of long-form journalism, because long-form pieces are harder to monetize."
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Newsonomics Of All Access and Apple
Will Apple Force Publishers To Set Paywalls?
Nieman Journalism Lab,
Dec 17, 2010, 2:36 PM EST
Author Ken Doctor: "Publishers must restrict browser access is some form. In other words, you can’t simply charge for digital content on the tablet and the smartphone and let it run freely wild through a browser. The pay models may not have to be the same, tablet to smartphone to browser (that’s unclear), but publishers can’t two use two opposite approaches and use the iTunes stores an initial access point to gain customers and keep all the resulting revenue."
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Commentary: Group Deals
Hyperlocal Deals Sites Bring Big Exposure
ClickZ,
Dec 17, 2010, 8:54 AM EST
Groupon's success has spurred a boom in deals sites and aggregators that represent a small number of limited-time, hyperlocal, group-buying opportunities primarily for offline businesses. NetPlus Marketing CEO Robin Neifield: "Part of the benefit to the smaller, local businesses is in the advertising reach and effectiveness. The e-mails get opened, the sites get visited, the tweets get noticed and retweeted, the offers are relevant (at least geographically), and the heretofore unknown business gets legitimized by association with the deal site."
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Commentary
3 Ways iPad Will Revolutionize Celeb Mag Covers
Huffington Post,
Dec 16, 2010, 3:57 PM EST
Commentary
Finding Traffic In A Post-Loyal Era
PBS MediaShift,
Dec 16, 2010, 3:09 PM EST
GothamGazette.com's Gail Robinson: "Any talk about sustainability has to consider traffic. Sure, a site can have readers and still not make it. But without readers -- not necessarily millions but at least success in reaching the intended audience -- can any site survive?"
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Commentary: AOL's Patch
Local Papers Should Feel Heat From Patch
Business Insider,
Dec 16, 2010, 8:51 AM EST
Consultant Mel Taylor: "It's easy to understand why many legacy publishers still scoff at Patch's effort to be a local, online newspaper. Cookie cutter sites, questionable traffic, editorial missteps and lack of early advertiser support provide some level of comfort for those that may feel threatened. But we think it's a beautifully executed smoke screen; a diversionary tactic to keep publishers at bay for just a little bit longer, while Patch quietly builds local business relationships."
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Commentary: Social Media
Social Is Not Just Friends, It's Society
Harvard Business Review,
Dec 16, 2010, 8:38 AM EST
Havas Media Lab Director Umair Haque: "The real promise of social tools is societal, not just relational; is significance, not just attention. You've got to get the first right before you tackle the second -- and that means not just investing in 'gamification,' a Twitter account, or a Facebook group. It means thinking more carefully how to utilize those tools to get a tiny bit (or a heckuva lot) more significant, and starting to mean something in enduring terms. The deepest test of a 21st century business isn't just whether it glitters, but whether it can create thick value, that endures, benefits, and multiplies: whether it matters."
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Dave Winer:
No Place For New Maginot Line In News
Nieman Journalism Lab,
Dec 15, 2010, 3:41 PM EST
Web pioneer Dave Winer: "The Maginot Line would have been a perfect defense in World War I. It didn’t help much in the second war. Analogously, there was a perfect paywall in the pre-Internet news business, the physical product of a newspaper. There is no equivalent in the new distribution system."
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Number Of Broadband Cutters Decreases
PaidContent,
Dec 15, 2010, 3:35 PM EST
Yet more evidence disputing cord-cutting came Wednesday in a year-end TV-ratings report from Turner Broadcasting: the number of consumers who jettison broadband access while holding onto their cable subscriptions is decreasing.
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Commentary
Why Death Of Syndie Is Good For Hyperlocal
Online Journalism Review,
Dec 15, 2010, 2:43 PM EST
Tech columnist Pekka Pekkala: "But all this is great news for small publishers, such as hyperlocal news or niche sites. You can be a part of that single Web page of Internet news. Concentrate on the original content instead of copying; create the one copy only you or your organization can create."
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Krasilovsky: Top 10 Takeaways From ILM: 10
BIA/Kelsey,
Dec 15, 2010, 7:57 AM EST
From group deals and Google to local content and location-based services, BIA/Kelsey's Peter Krasilovsky runs down his list of the big ideas that came out of this year's Interactive Local Media conference.
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Book Review: 'Mediactive'
A Journalism Primer For The 21st Century
Boing Boing,
Dec 14, 2010, 2:03 PM EST
Cory Doctorow on Dan Gillmor's
Mediactive: "The book left me feeling smarter and more doubtful about the things I think I know about media, which is a heady combination. But it's not an unusual one for my interactions with Dan Gillmor, who is truly a journalist's journalist for the modern age, unparalleled for thoughtfulness, critical thinking, and technical savvy."
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Commentary
The 7 Deadly Sins Of Journalism Companies
Steve Yelvington,
Dec 14, 2010, 1:48 PM EST
With all the talk of newspapers' "original sin" of not putting up paywalls early inthe Internet era, Steve Yelvington runs through the seven deadly sins and how they relate to media companies.
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Commentary
Google, Groupon And Value On The Internet
The New Yorker,
Dec 14, 2010, 8:14 AM EST
James Surowiecki: Is Groupon, "as CEO Andrew Mason suggested recently, a company that’s going to transform the way local business works? Or is it just another overpriced flash in the pan? The answer, most probably, is neither."
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Commentary: The New York Times Paywall
Will NYT's New Metered-Access Model Work?
Nieman Journalism Lab,
Dec 14, 2010, 7:23 AM EST
Various newspaper industry watchers and editors give their thoughts on why The New York Times new paywall -- set to be erected in January -- will succeed or fail.
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Commentary: Cord Cutting
Why A 'Hulu For Sports' Won't Happen Soon
PBS MediaShift,
Dec 14, 2010, 7:02 AM EST
Mark Glaser: "What sports fans need to cut the cord is a potential new service that I call 'Hulu for Sports,' a way for us to watch the games we want online or streamed to our TV. ... Not surprisingly, my bubble is easily burst in a world where massive TV sports contracts restrict leagues from offering up all these games online."
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Commentary: Journalism In 2011
Shakeup In News Syndication Seen For 2011
Nieman Journalism Lab,
Dec 14, 2010, 6:39 AM EST
Clay Shirky: "Linking, traffic driving, and credit are natively web-like ideas, but they are also inimical to the older logic of syndication. Put simply, syndication makes little sense in a world with URLs. When news outlets were segmented by geography, having live human beings sitting around in ten thousand separate markets deciding which stories to pull off the wire was a service. Now it’s just a cost."
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Commentary: Newspapers' 'Original Sin'
Newspapers Won't Find Safety In Paywalls
SteveOuting.com,
Dec 13, 2010, 3:37 PM EST
Journalist Steve Outing: "My expectation is that we’ll find out soon enough that paywalls on general news by newspaper Web sites truly don’t work (except perhaps in
some non-competitive small markets), but the result of some following Murdoch’s lead will be the death of more metro dailies."
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Commentary: WikiLeaks
5 Reasons The U.S. Press Isn't Outraged
Steve Yelvington,
Dec 13, 2010, 3:09 PM EST
Journalist Steve Yelvington: "Many journalists are horrified by the implications of letting
just anybody practice journalism. I've actually heard People Who Ought To Know Better -- journalists, educators, former editors of major newspapers -- call for certification and the
licensing of Real Journalists. It's as if freedom of the press is a privilege of professionals, not a human right of some mere computer nerd."
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Commentary: Net Neutrality
In Search Of Open Internet Access
Business Insider,
Dec 13, 2010, 3:04 PM EST
Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures: "We'd love to have an open and unregulated Internet access market. That will take a lot more competition in the last mile than we have now. We need policies that allow the spectrum and fiber to the home to become available and the capital to get invested in making that happen. Until that happens, we need some rules to keep everyone honest in the Internet acccess market."
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Commentary: Participatory Journalism
NYT Readers Chime In On News
The New York Times,
Dec 13, 2010, 2:24 PM EST
Arthur S. Brisbane: "The system of commenting at The Times owes much of its success to the human beings who actually moderate comments — read them, filter them and decide which ones to publish. This filtering process yields, in many cases, substantive commentary by a readership that feels empowered to participate online — a combination that I believe is of great value."
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Commentary
Video Will Be The Online Advertising Engine
Monday Note,
Dec 13, 2010, 7:07 AM EST
Frédéric Filloux: "As online advertising spending doubles over the next 10 years, video is likely to capture a large chunk of it. It will require a increasing amount of technology, both to refine the behavioral/targeting component, and to deliver it in real-time to each individually targeted customer."
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Commentary: Citizen Journalists
Filling The Gaps In Political Coverage
The News & Observer,
Dec 13, 2010, 7:00 AM EST
The economic downturn and layoffs have reduced the ranks of reporters covering local politics at major media outlets. Online media may offer new opportunities for politically motivated individuals to get their messages out, but for the average voter, it gets harder to hear reliable, trustworthy facts through the shouting.
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Commentary
5 Location, Mobile Tech Predictions For 2011
Business Insider,
Dec 10, 2010, 6:18 AM EST
Placecast CEO Alistair Goodman: "2011 is the year that carriers take back the lead in location-based mobile marketing, leveraging the trusted relationship they have with their subscribers in combination with access to location information."
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Newsonomics of 'Do Not Track'
Rules Could Have Big Impact On News Media
Nieman Journalism Lab,
Dec 9, 2010, 3:30 PM EST
Author Ken Doctor: "This isn’t an abstract debate about consumer rights or Big Brother. It’s a debate that could have profound implications for news media. If rules are re-written, we could see a re-balancing of power among news media, advertisers, ad agencies, and the ad networks. Therein may lie billions of dollars in ad spending -- and revenue splits -- in the years ahead."
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Internet Press Vulnerable After WikiLeaks
Honolulu Civil Beat,
Dec 9, 2010, 3:24 PM EST
Honolulu Civil Beat Editorial Board: "The WikiLeaks case exposes the vulnerability of any publisher on the Internet. What's happened to Assange and his Web site has deeply troubling implications for our society. And, no, we're not talking about the damage some believe he's doing to our national security by publishing classified records. We're talking about how democracy can be diminished when government uses its power to silence a voice it disagrees with. Even more worrisome is how this case has exposed how foreign governments may be able to use their own criminal investigations to hurt and potentially silence journalists beyond their own borders."
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Commentary: Journalistic Transparency
AllThingsD Shows What Ethics Can Look Like
Knight Digital Media Center,
Dec 9, 2010, 3:09 PM EST
Amy Gahran: "When journalists ponder how to be transparent, often they express concern about disclosing information about their political beliefs, personal lives, and other hot potatoes in the context of our increasingly polarized culture. Swisher’s ethics statement shows that a journalist can not merely disclose such sensitive information, but lead with it. Showing you have nothing to hide is one way to bolster personal and professional credibility."
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Commentary
5 Reasons Facebook Credits Will Save Papers
Dave Lee/jBlog,
Dec 8, 2010, 3:07 PM EST
BBC journalist Dave Lee thinks Facebook Credits are a "a massive development for the potential of selling content on the Web" and could be the answer to newspapers' quest to turn a profit in the digital age: "I’m not proposing all newspapers become Facebook apps instead of standalone sites. Rather, in a similar way to the 'Like' button that is appearing all over, it should be a system which is implemented neatly with the individual sites."
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Commentary: Instapaperfeed
A Good Way to Pull Reading List From Twitter
ReadWriteWeb,
Dec 8, 2010, 2:48 PM EST
Commentary
How WikiLeaks Has Woken Up Journalism
Emily Bell(wether),
Dec 8, 2010, 7:12 AM EST
Commentary
Gawker Has A Lesson For Sports Depts
National Sports Journalism Center,
Dec 7, 2010, 3:05 PM EST
Writer/media consultant Jason Fry: "It’s painful to say this, but the sports section is growing less and less important as a way of organizing the news. It’s a big tent, aimed at appealing to a general sports audience ... Our sports pages are increasingly our Facebook or Twitter feeds, and the job of organizing the news has been taken over by our peers. This doesn’t mean sports editors are out of a job ... But sports departments have to keep in mind that readers are less likely to come to an article through a home page or a section front, and less likely to be familiar with a publication."
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10 Trends Shaping Global Media Consumption
Advertising Age,
Dec 7, 2010, 2:34 PM EST
Ad Age runs down a list of 10 trends that are shaping the way the world consumes media, from declining newspaper circulation and Facebook's growing global presence to the increase in television consumption and the notion that TV is a necessity.
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The Best Media Launches Of 2010
The New York Observer,
Dec 7, 2010, 8:35 AM EST
This year brought several new media ventures -- including online expansion, upstart projects by those defecting from the old guard, risk-taking print venutures, and the will-it-or-won't-it-work tablet-based news apps.
The New York Observer looks back at 2010's biggest media launches.
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Commentary
The Future Of Media Comes Into Focus
Seeking Alpha,
Dec 7, 2010, 8:24 AM EST
Larry Kramer: "Newsrooms of the future are likely to be built around the topics they cover (Wall Street, Sports, New York City) instead of the medium they are in (newspapers, television, radio) because they will likely have to transcend any one medium and distribute on several so they can highlight their strength of coverage of their particular subject matter and bring in the revenue they need to support a healthy news organization."
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Commentary
Ries: iPad Good Example Of Divergent Thinking
Advertising Age,
Dec 6, 2010, 3:45 PM EST
Commentary: Paywalls and Pay Strategies
'Metered Access' Is Not A Paywall
Steve Yelvington,
Dec 6, 2010, 3:31 PM EST
Steve Yelvington: "An advertising-only business model has a dangerous characteristic that any farmer would recognize: If conditions shift against it, you're screwed. That's clearly happened as the recession that began in 2007 drove the ad business into the ground. Anyone who's been in the media business long enough eventually learns that some revenue streams are more affected by business cycles than others. Reader revenue is relatively less affected, and looking for ways to blend it into the mix is a healthy move."
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Commentary: Measuring The Nomads
New Media Brings Measurement Challenges
Monday Note,
Dec 6, 2010, 8:12 AM EST
Frédéric Filloux: "The first measure of an app’s success is its downloads count. In theory, pretty simple. Each time an app is downloaded, the store records the transaction. Then, things gets fuzzier as the application lives on and gets regular updates. Sometimes, updates are upgrades, with new features. At which point should the app be considered new -- especially when it’s free, like most news-related ones?"
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Commentary: Warning To Networks
Unbundled Distribution Of Local TV Is Here
Terry Heaton's PoMo Blog,
Dec 6, 2010, 7:55 AM EST
Terry Heaton: "Local broadcasting is in the midst of a perfect storm with only two opportunities for tomorrow: a successful MDTV strategy with the digital broadcasting chip in smartphones, and figuring out how to monetize local unbundled, on-demand content. Let's be real; the day is coming when program makers will distribute their stuff directly to consumers and share money with no network, and we’ve got to be ready."
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Commentary: TV Stations On the Web
TBD, NBC And Moving Past TV On The Web
LostRemote,
Dec 3, 2010, 5:20 PM EST
Cory Bergman: "The TBD brand change illustrates a struggle in local TV today. Brands built on call letters and channel numbers may not translate well to digital platforms if you’re striving to grow a unique online experience that goes beyond an extension of TV."
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Commentary: Mary Meeker's Internet Outlook
All Advertising Is Not The Same
Poynter,
Dec 3, 2010, 3:20 PM EST
Rick Edmonds: "[Analyst Mary] Meeker’s big picture measure seems to me to suffer from one critical oversimplification: the notion that advertising is more or less equally effective by platform. Give digital its due with the obviously potent search ad format, but display advertising is a different story entirely."
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Storify Weaves Social Streams Into Articles
PBS MediaShift,
Dec 3, 2010, 2:34 PM EST
Mediafin Internet and new media chief Roland Legrand: "Curation is a way for journalists and bloggers to help the public make sense of the overwhelming amount of information out there by carefully selecting the interesting bits and pieces and by providing context. In this new information environment, the thinking goes, we need fellow humans to make sense and filter for us."
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Paton: For Papers, Digital Must Be First
GigaOM,
Dec 3, 2010, 8:16 AM EST
John Paton, CEO of the Journal Register group of newspapers, said in
a speech he delivered Thursday at the Transformation of News Summit that newspapers need to be digital first in everything they do. He added that papers need to take the same approach to their businesses that many Web-based startups have, and that means being transparent, crowdsourced, collaborative and flat.
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Newsonomics of Google Grouponomics
Groupon Schools Papers On Selling Local
Nieman Journalism Lab,
Dec 2, 2010, 3:44 PM EST
Author Ken Doctor: "Groupon was an idea just waiting to come along; and the remorse being expressed in newspaper buildings across America this week is the same: Why didn’t we come up with that idea? The remorse should go deeper; check out the Groupon Merchant Services page, and try to find a similar one, with similar marketing support, offered by a newspaper company online. In fact, Groupon’s whole pitch to merchants is a textbook lesson in selling local."
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Commentary: WikiLeaks
Leaks Shift Away From Traditional News Orgs
Scientific American,
Dec 2, 2010, 3:33 PM EST
In the pre-Internet age, leaked information about the Watergate scandal or the Pentagon Papers went to places like
The Washington Post or
The New York Times. Now, technology is shifting news leaks away from traditional media such as newspapers. But rather than kill off mainstream media, such a shift could lead to a novel symbiosis, transforming how the public gets information.
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Commentary: Journalism
Analytic Approach Is Crucial For News Orgs
American Journalism Review,
Dec 1, 2010, 2:30 PM EST
There's no question that the Internet has had a profound impact on the tone of journalism and semi-journalism. Not all of it has been wonderful: Witness the nastiness and ad hominem attacks that ricochet around the blogosphere and the comments sections.
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Commentary: The Golden Age Of Content
Web Reaps The Benefits Of 'Content Curation'
Huffington Post,
Dec 1, 2010, 2:30 PM EST
Burst Media CEO Jarvis Coffin: "It is only two short years ago that Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, referred to the Internet as a 'cesspool.' He was courting the members of the Magazine Publishers Association at the time and obviously tossing them bits of raw meat. ... In the two years since Mr. Schmidt went courting magazine publishers the world has been working assiduously to create order out of chaos, a version of which is increasingly known as content curation."
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Commentary: The Future Of Journalism
Next-Gen Reporters Need Data Analysis Skills
The Washington Post,
Dec 1, 2010, 8:19 AM EST
Andrew Alexander: "Data analysis should become one of the accepted skill sets for new generations of journalists. Many colleges already offer elective courses or seminars in computer-assisted reporting. But all of them should think mandatory training in data journalism, as well as advanced degrees for that specialization."
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Commentary: Facebook Connect
How Facebook Connect Freaks Me Out
Daggle,
Nov 30, 2010, 2:49 PM EST
Search Engine Land's Danny Sullivan: "More and more sites I run into these days are offering a way for me to log-in using Facebook. That’s cool, if it means I don’t have to fill out yet another registration form. But the permission pages that come up sometimes are so scary that I decline the offer."
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Commentary
From Web Opponent To Online Journalist
Poynter Online,
Nov 26, 2010, 7:07 AM EST
Mallary Jean Tenore: "Once I got to high school, I discovered AIM and slowly began to peek over the wall I had built between myself and the Web. But as excited as I was about the opportunity to virtually connect with friends, I still wasn't convinced of the Web's importance in journalism. As an aspiring journalist, I viewed it as a threat to the profession I had always wanted to pursue."
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Sitebuilding
4 Drupal Tools That Solve 90% Of Challenges
Steve Yelvington,
Nov 26, 2010, 6:54 AM EST
Steve Yelvington: "There are two ways to solve problems when building a website. One is to find a specific tool for each problem. The other is to find and thoroughly understand how to use just a few very powerful, very general tools."
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Commentary
Zuckerberg Was Right: The iPad Is Not Mobile
Poynter Online,
Nov 24, 2010, 2:17 PM EST
Poynter Online's Damon Kiesow says Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was right about the iPad not being mobile: "Early studies show that iPad use is mostly confined to the home, the device is being shared among members of the household, and activity peaks in the evenings and weekends. In other words: leisure time, not mobile time. Almost every media app for the iPad fits this mold: designed for 'lean-back' consumption, not the active information-seeking behavior of a smart phone user."
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Why Media Apps May Not Be A Good Biz
Forbes,
Nov 24, 2010, 7:29 AM EST
Jeff Bercovici: "App-based publishing, like print publishing, is a cost-heavy, money-losing proposition."
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4 Major Sins Of News Site Design
10,000 Words,
Nov 24, 2010, 7:04 AM EST
Lauren Rabaino: "As new tools, gadgets, buttons, widgets, extensions and plugins are introduced to the news consumption scene, that once simple design becomes cluttered with bells and whistles that hold the content hostage."
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6 Ways Journalists Can Use Twitter Better
DNAinfo.com,
Nov 24, 2010, 6:48 AM EST
Sree Sreenivasan: "Too many journalists still don't understand Twitter. Some are critical without ever trying it out. Some tried Twitter a couple of years ago, found it lacking and never went back. Some look at folks like me, who advocate its use, as time-wasters who are somehow less serious about work."
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Commentary: Entrepreneurial Journalism
Journalists Need To Master Social Media
The Buttry Diary,
Nov 23, 2010, 3:47 PM EST
Steve Buttry: "Social media can be part of the solution for all three of the key challenges an entrepreneurial journalist faces: content, distribution and monetization."
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Commentary: Community-Funded Journalism
Learning From The Spot.Us Experience
Nieman Journalism Lab,
Nov 23, 2010, 3:43 PM EST
Justin Ellis: "In creating a new system to fund reporting directly by donations from a geographic or online community,
Spot.Us broke some of the traditional rules of journalism — namely that reporting is funded through a combination of advertising dollars and subscriptions."
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Commentary: Value-Added Journalism
Supporting Pro Journalism In A Digital World
Strange Attractor,
Nov 23, 2010, 2:06 PM EST
Journalist Kevin Anderson: "The key question in terms of value added journalism for major organizations has to be tactical. If strategically value-added content, products and services are the key to new revenue streams, what is the value-added content or services that organizations should develop with minimal cost and the best possibility of revenue?"
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Commentary
The 2010 Newsroom: Lean And Techy
Huffington Post,
Nov 23, 2010, 8:23 AM EST
American University of Beruit's Magda Abu-Fadil: "Newsrooms should be converged, integrated, flexible, lean and techy, to survive in today's fast-changing media landscape, but news organizations should still focus on good story telling."
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Commentary
Twitter Undermining Press Criticism
The Daily Beast,
Nov 23, 2010, 7:01 AM EST
The Daily Beast's Ben Crair: "On Twitter, every journalist is a press critic. This may sound like a good thing: Journalism, more than most institutions, would seem to benefit from self-scrutiny. But, trust me, it isn’t. Twitter opens a window into journalists’ minds and, often times, the view ain’t pretty."
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How Much Can We Trust E-Edition Circ Data?
Nieman Journalism Lab,
Nov 22, 2010, 4:04 PM EST
Josh Tapper: "As print circulation falls, e-editions swell in numbers. Not so startling. But the data can be misleading: Ballooning e-edition numbers don’t necessarily point to wholesale reader rejection of print, or even widespread usage of e-editions. For some local newspapers, if you want a print subscription, newspapers make it very financially agreeable -- and in some cases give you no choice -- to throw on an e-edition subscription as well."
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Fighting Online Pirates With Algorithms
Monday Note,
Nov 22, 2010, 7:10 AM EST
Frédéric Filloux: "Merely beefing up algorithm-based detection of unlicensed contents won’t be enough to solve the ruinous information piracy problem. ... This battle will be a long one. But it has to be fought. Serious legitimate money is at stake."
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Commentary: Google News Metatags
Metatags Fail to Give Credit Where Credit Due
PBS MediaShift,
Nov 19, 2010, 2:25 PM EST
Martin Moore: "Far be it for me to question the brilliance of Google, but in the case of its new news meta tagging scheme, I'm struggling to work out why it is brilliant or how it will be successful ... There are a number of problems with the meta tag scheme that Google proposes. Meta tags are clunky and likely to be gamed."
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Commentary: Twitter
The Power Of Giving People A Voice
GigaOM,
Nov 19, 2010, 1:58 PM EST
Matthew Ingram: "Yes, there is a lot of noise on Twitter, as Andrew Keen seems to argue in his recent debate with David Weinberger, but the point is that Twitter provides a firehose of both meaningful and non-meaningful data, in tiny bite-size pieces, and it’s up to you to figure out how to deal with it."
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newsonomics of news anywhere
News Orgs Need Focus To Usher In Next Gen
Nieman Journalism Lab,
Nov 19, 2010, 1:40 PM EST
Author Ken Doctor: "If news companies want to “own” the news customer (and be able to mine his data deeply), then they, large or small, newly minted or history-encrusted, have to bring their games to a new level."
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Commentary
Fair Use: How Much Is Too Much?
eMedia Vitals,
Nov 19, 2010, 8:44 AM EST
Prescott Shibles: "Every editor and publisher should be well-versed in fair use standards in order to take advantage of aggregation opportunities themselves while also protecting their copyrighted materials from story harvesters. The problem with fair use is that the criteria for determining fair use is vague."
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Opinion
In Asia, No Quick Fixes For Free Speech Online
The Wall Street Journal,
Nov 19, 2010, 7:27 AM EST
Commentary: Public Media 2.0
5 Trends That Give Hope For Public Media 2.0
PBS MediaShift,
Nov 18, 2010, 2:41 PM EST
Director of American University's the Future of Public Media Project Jessica Clark: "Public broadcasters have been facing intense heat this fall, from dodging flak after the Juan Williams firing to rebutting calls to defund the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, to defending the diversity of their news programming. But the negative coverage often misses a deeper story -- of the transition of this sector to a more innovative and varied set of Public Media 2.0 organizations that are finding fresh ways to network with users, partners and one another."
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Commentary
10 Mistakes Local Businesses Make Online
435 Digital,
Nov 18, 2010, 12:08 PM EST
Online media consultant Mel Taylor: "Don’t always think that search engine optimization is the most important thing. If I go to your site and it stinks, I will wonder what I am there for. That’s a mistake we see a lot."
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Commentary: Journalism
Should Objectivity Still Be The Standard In News?
NPR,
Nov 17, 2010, 2:26 PM EST
Commentary
Killing Newsweek.com Might Not Be Bad Idea
Advertising Age,
Nov 16, 2010, 3:18 PM EST
Ad Age's Matthew Creamer: "At this point,
Newsweek, with its 7 million visitors a month, dwarfs the Daily Beast's 4 million or so. However, a closer look at traffic loyalty shows the Beast's relative strength in community-building. On average,
Newsweek visitors come to the site about 1.5 times a month and click on just over three pages, according to Quantcast. Daily Beast visitors come to the site 2.3 times a month, looking at close to 7 pages each visit. All this suggests that the much younger site is doing a better job getting readers to hang around longer and come back."
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Commentary
7 Reasons Newspapers Are Still In Trouble
Poynter Online,
Nov 15, 2010, 5:15 PM EST
Poynter Online's Rick Edmonds: "Newspapers are solvent and profitable, often quite profitable on an operating basis. Only a handful went out of business during the great recession. Newspaper companies now are generating enough cash to pay down debt and finance robust exploration of potential new digital revenue streams. But I see at least seven signs of continuing trouble in the near term and a bumpy path to the mythical 'new business model.' "
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Commentary
Social Media Sites Offer Better Stimulus Than Pols
SunSentinel.com,
Nov 15, 2010, 4:00 PM EST
Commentary
The 5 Important Beats For Local Papers, Sites
Online Journalism Review,
Nov 15, 2010, 8:41 AM EST
Robert Niles believes that local newspapers and Web sites should concentrate their focus on five beats -- food, education, labor, business and faith -- to better connect with the community they serve: "These are the beats which best reflect the activities of readers' daily lives -- the ones most likely to elicit a connection between reader and publisher, which I believe is the primary requirement for success in news publishing. A publisher might choose to expand beyond these five beats, but these five remain a must for any publisher who wants the best chance at forging a strong connection with local readers."
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Commentary
Paywalls For Local Papers Are Not Evil
Seacoastonline.com,
Nov 15, 2010, 8:26 AM EST
J. Dennis Robinson,
SeacoastNH.com editor and
Portsmouth Herald contributor, on the Herald's decision to erect a paywall: "Reporters like to eat, too. They want to raise babies and drive cars and live in houses. It isn't easy. Journalism jobs pay poorly. ... So half of the critics I know agree it's about time the local daily started charging for its online edition. Maybe it will get better, hire more reporters, do more investigative journalism -- OK, let's not get carried away. But maybe they will stay alive and keep reporting the news."
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Commentary
Foursquare, Gowalla Need Coupons To Thrive
TechCrunch,
Nov 15, 2010, 7:29 AM EST
TechCrunch's Jon Evans: "Foursquare and Gowalla have done really well building ecosystems that attract early adopters. Unfortunately, the evidence indicates that they only attract early adopters. If they want to reach the majority who don’t care about making it to Mayor, they need to abandon their pretense of fun, stop pussyfooting around with silly slogans, and make their value proposition stark, simple, and profoundly unsexy: 'Check in and get coupons.'"
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Commentary
Why Boxee Doesn’t Matter -- And Why It Does
All Things Digital,
Nov 12, 2010, 3:23 PM EST
All Things Digital's Peter Kafka: "Boxee’s real plan is both clear and a bit undefined: It wants to get its software on as many devices as possible -- not just the Boxee Box but everything from Sony’s TVs to Microsoft’s Xbox 360s to Samsung’s Blu-ray players. And then it wants to build some kind of business based on advertising, consumer payments or both."
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Commentary: Mobile Business Models
'Freemium' Could Be The Answer For Papers
Poynter Online,
Nov 12, 2010, 3:00 PM EST
The "freemium" model for iPhone apps, or free downloads with in-app upgrades, have gained momentum with developers and consumers: about one-third of the top-grossing iPhone apps use that model, according to
a report in GigaOm. Poynter Online's Damon Kiesow believes freemium might be the answer for newspaper searching for a mobile business model: "If truly freemium experiences are becoming accepted and popular among consumers, newspapers would be smart to develop mobile apps that let readers get the basics for free, and charge for the full experience."
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5 Things That Could Doom Foursquare
iMedia Connection,
Nov 12, 2010, 12:12 PM EST
Things like digital clutter, niche competition and Facebook Places are three of the five things that are thretening to make location-based check-in service Foursquare obsolete.
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How-To
5 Ways To Get Good User-Generated Content
Poynter Online,
Nov 12, 2010, 9:58 AM EST
News organizations' experiments with user-generated content have shown them that users are capable of creating quality content. The task now is how to motivate people to submit the kind of content they're seeking. A panel at last month's Online News Association conference outlined five ways to get good contributed content, including avoiding the term "user-generated content," finding the right prompt, and rewarding contributors.
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Commentary
Morrissey: Blogging Provides Feedback Loop
Investors.com,
Nov 11, 2010, 6:38 AM EST
Hot-Air.com editor Ed Morrissey: "There are certain feedback circuits between the blogosphere and the media, especially in politics. But primarily, bloggers follow the mainstream media.
The New York Times exists because they send reporters into the field to get information that other people don't get -- the who, what, when, where and why. Blogs for the most part are opinion journalism."
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Commentary
Distinguishing Blogging From Reporting
SnarkMarket,
Nov 10, 2010, 9:38 AM EST
Tim Carmody: "Blogging is pretty easy to define as an activity. It’s writing online in a serial form, collected together in a single database. ... Reporting is a little trickier, but it’s not too tough. You search for information, whether from people or records or other reports, you try to figure out what’s true, and you relay it to somebody else."
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Commentary: Energy-Efficient Journalism
'Urban Planning' For The News
Nieman Journalism Lab,
Nov 8, 2010, 3:44 PM EST
Megan Garber: "While there’s certainly a systemic role for redundancy -- duplication in journalism provides a crucial check against error, exaggeration, and the like -- there’s something to be said for being more broadly collaborative in our thinking when it comes to the news that we -- we, the news system -- serve up to consumers."
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Reward-Based Efforts May Kill Social Sharing
PBS MediaShift,
Nov 8, 2010, 2:23 PM EST
Mya Frazier: "If the core of [Edward] Deci's theory of human motivation holds true in the fragmented and chaotic environment of the social web, it raises an important question: Can sharing for sharing's sake survive in an ecosystem that increasingly turns every sharing exchange into monetary reward?"
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The Location-Based Battle
Facebook Has The Upper Hand Over Google
Business Insider,
Nov 5, 2010, 4:08 PM EDT
Robert Scoble: "In the past, to find a business, we’d go to Google and type something like 'Palo Alto Sushi.' We’re heading toward a world where you’ll use location-based services to do the same thing. That is a HUGE disruptive threat to Google."
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Commentary
10 Reasons TV Execs Need To Start Tweeting
Mashable,
Nov 5, 2010, 3:15 PM EDT
Craig Engler, senior vice president of SyFy Digital, says it took him a long time to figure out how useful Twitter Could be to a TV executive, but now he believes "anyone in the business who has an interest should definitely consider joining."
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The Growing Role Of Google Place Pages
Search Newz,
Nov 5, 2010, 2:34 PM EDT
Frank Reed: "In the Internet marketing world, we tend to get hung up on rankings and pure numbers. Of course, that is one of the beauties of the Internet in that it can all be measured. Oftentimes though, we get hung up in the numbers and forget the business application of certain aspects of the Internet marketing fabric."
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Commentary
Outlook Is Bright For Hispanic Publishing
Portada Magazine,
Nov 5, 2010, 8:33 AM EDT
Insight Edge's Mike Cano: "In many cases, Hispanic publishers are better positioned to capture online revenue than their general market counterparts."
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Newsonomics Of Kindle Singles
Kindle Could Bring Something New To Papers
Nieman Journalism Lab,
Nov 4, 2010, 5:10 PM EDT
Ken Doctor: "Kindle Singles may open the door even further to wider news business application, for news companies -- old and new, publicly funded and profit-seeking, text-based and video-oriented."
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Commentary
Saving Journalism In The 21st Century
Huffington Post,
Nov 4, 2010, 8:06 AM EDT
Knowledge Mosaic's Peter Schwartz: "The media fuel of the 21st century is data. It is as valuable as coal in the 19th century and oil in the 20th century. Any company that manages, shapes, and disseminates the data -- on any subject or in any domain -- can power, drive, and direct the media economy."
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Commentary
The Rise Of The Gigabyte Phone
GigaOM,
Nov 4, 2010, 7:34 AM EDT
GigaOm's Om Malick: "Informa predicts that over next five years, there is going to be a staggering 700% increase in data consumption every month. I think they’re being conservative, and it might not take that long. ... We’re likely to cross the Gigabyte-per-month data consumption relatively soon, especially in the U.S."
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Commentary
Tapping Into E-Mail And Social Addictions
iMedia Connection,
Nov 3, 2010, 7:18 AM EDT
eROI's Dylan Boyd: "Publishers are starting to get it as well. Social is about sharing, and a majority of people who are sharing content are not simply sharing deals and sales...We live in an information society where people gain some social credibility by telling people first and being in the know. What amazes me is how often we see people simply scan and share content from an email -- at times more so than from the web page on which the full story resides."
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Commentary
Deal Sites Good Tool To Attract Customers
ClickZ,
Nov 2, 2010, 11:26 AM EDT
Hollis Thomases: "Anyone in retail marketing knows that coupons, deals, and rebates are indispensable tools to both acquire first-time customers and retain existing ones. This fact accounts for why deal sites have existed for so long and continue to have legs under almost any economic circumstance."
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Commentary
5 Secrets To YouTube SEO
ClickZ,
Nov 2, 2010, 9:29 AM EDT
Sage Lewis: "If you are looking to make a video about something people are interested in, you definitely want to check out the autocomplete function at YouTube."
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Commentary
Content Is Key To Driving Engagement, Sales
ClickZ,
Nov 2, 2010, 9:17 AM EDT
Commentary
The Future Of Local Commerce
TechCrunch,
Nov 1, 2010, 2:46 PM EDT
Zong CEO and founder David Marcus: "Companies like Groupon, Gilt, and other group buying and private sale startups are changing the money flow. People buy online, and redeem offline. But this is just the beginning of a perfect storm brewing that will change the way we discover, shop, and pay for things."
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Commentary
Gannett Blog's 'Water Cooler' Is Worthwhile
Nieman Journalism Lab,
Nov 1, 2010, 2:46 PM EDT
NiemanJournalismLab's Martin Langeveld on the open-ended, real-time "water cooler" forum on former Gannett journalist Jim Hopkins'
Gannett Blog, a watchdog blog -- or watchblog -- covering the nation's largest newspaper company: "I can’t think of other blogs that have created this kind of open-ended forum within the blog, at least not within a simple Blogspot format. Is a “water cooler” spot something that other bloggers should try out?"
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Commentary
How Facebook Erred Fighting CA Privacy Bill
Business Insider,
Oct 29, 2010, 4:32 PM EDT
Lobbyist Maury Litwack: "With [its] latest lobbying fight in California, Facebook won the battle on the actual legislation and being seen as a power-broker to be feared but lost the war in the longer-term regarding their credibility. Credibility which will be required for much-larger privacy discussions expected in the next Congress and throughout the Country."
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Commentary: Political Process
Social Media Digs Deeper Into Elections
NPR,
Oct 29, 2010, 2:28 PM EDT
Linton Weeks: "For politicians, the lesson may be clear: The media is not always the message. It is easy. It is relatively cheap. It may ultimately transform American politics. And the conventionally wise say a politician is a fool to not have a social media presence."
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Commentary
Nets Block Google TV But Can’t Stop Future
NewTeeVee,
Oct 22, 2010, 12:31 PM EDT
Ryan Lawler: "For broadcasters, picking a fight with Google TV, or Boxee, or holding their content back from being rentable on Apple TV TV isn’t going to change this fundamental shift in users behavior. What they need is a strategy that allows them to gracefully embrace — and monetize — the new ways that viewers are accessing their content."
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Commentary
From Paper Of Record To Website Of Record
Wordyard,
Oct 15, 2010, 5:11 PM EDT
Scott Rosenberg: "When you change a Web page, the older version disappears, unless you take active steps to save it. That, of course, is precisely what the Times — along with every other news outlet that’s committed to accountability — ought to do. Link
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Commentary
Why Yahoo & AOL Should Immediately Merge
Business Insider,
Oct 1, 2010, 3:14 PM EDT
Reason No. 2: "There are currently 4-6 big generalist destination web sites, and that's at least two more than there should be. "
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Commentary
Hazards Of Hyperlocal: How Much Demand?
American Journalism Review,
Aug 31, 2010, 8:08 AM EDT
Barb Palser: "However, as more companies crowd into the hyperlocal space, the question arises: Exactly how much consumer demand exists for neighborhood news?
"
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Commentary
Why Not Colors For Facebook Like Buttons?
Business Insider,
Aug 9, 2010, 7:33 AM EDT
Mark Cuban: "Liking something can have any number of meanings. Unless FB comes up with a solution for the problems caused by the misinterpretation of these meanings, the Like button will quickly become a nuisance."
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Commentary
The Paywall: Get Used To It
TechCrunch,
Jul 9, 2010, 6:49 AM EDT
John Biggs: "Micropayments are here, they work, and they will make up the bulk of media revenues in the next decade. Say what you want about the power of piracy – the laziness of the average user matched with their desire for new content will drive a paid content revolution."
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Commentary
There Is No Hot News - All News Is Hot News
BuzzMachine,
Jun 28, 2010, 3:15 PM EDT
Jeff Jarvis: "Hot news restrictions would be suicidal to news organizations — even though they foolishly think it would protect them — because it would restrict everyone’s ability to spread the news via links and send journalists audience."
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Commentary
Gov't Explores How To 'Reinvent' Journalism
Los Angeles Times,
Jun 3, 2010, 9:17 AM EDT
What hasn't been widely-known, until now, is that a year ago the Federal Trade Commission launched a major internal study intended to design a major government rescue plan for the nation's financially-troubled information media, primarily newspapers.
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Commentary
Non-profits Can’t Possibly Save The News
Newsosaur,
Mar 30, 2010, 12:56 PM EDT
Al Mutter: "The math, as detailed below, shows that it would take $88 billion – or nearly a third of all the $307.7 billion donated to charity in 2008 – to fund the reporting still being done at America’s seriously straitened newspapers."
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Commentary
BluePlanet Classifieds Makes Me See Red
AIM Group,
Mar 29, 2010, 10:06 AM EDT
Commentary
Why Books On iPad Just Might Work
SnarkMarket,
Mar 22, 2010, 10:49 AM EDT
"It’s better if you start thinking about it in terms of the geography of the human body. This is how the iPhone worked. ...It conquered your pocket."
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Commentary
Are Anonymous Comments Good Or Evil?
Mathew Ingram,
Mar 22, 2010, 6:11 AM EDT
"When I’m asked about comments, I often say that to me, comments and the ability to interact through them are like democracy. Most people support democracy and its various principles, even though in practice it is frequently ugly and brutal and betrays some of the worst elements of humanity for everyone to see."
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Commentary
6 Troubling Parts In iPhone Dev Agreement
Electronic Frontier Foundation,
Mar 9, 2010, 8:58 AM EST
Attorney's analysis: "Overall, the Agreement is a very one-sided contract, favoring Apple at every turn. That's not unusual where end-user license agreements are concerned ... but it's a bit of a surprise as applied to the more than 100,000 developers for the iPhone."
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