Only if the app is better than the WSJ app. The News Corp. main man may not win any points for his paywall push or his insanely-slow Wall Street Journal app, but he’s going to make another run at the model, instead focusing on the general interest. “We’ll have young people reading newspapers,” Murdoch said during a recent earnings call. “It’s a real game changer in the presentation of news.” Just don’t make it take five minutes to download like the WSJ app. source
This system needs to be revised and its resources consolidated and augmented with those of NPR and PBS to create an American World Service that can compete with the BBC and other global broadcasters.
Columbia University President Lee Bollinger • Making the argument that journalism needs to find a happy medium between “freedom of the press” and “ability to survive capitalism.” Bollinger admits that the idea makes people uncomfortable, but notes that in the academic field, the most likely counterpart to a potential government-driven press, “there have been strikingly few instances of government abuse.” He even argues that corporate interests may prove even more dangerous than the government. Interesting take. source
He topped “Meet the Press” in the ratings on Sunday. Months ago, ABC decided to take their political roundtable show, “This Week,” and give it to Christiane Amanpour, a solid international journalist who might be a questionable choice for hosting a national political show. In that time, Jake Tapper, the interim host, has grown ever-more popular thanks to his fresh, social-media-friendly approach to the program. Now, his show, which ends in August, is topping even “Meet the Press” among political shows. Mediaite says they should just give him his own show. We agree. It seems like he could do a lot with it. source
We mentioned this to our boyCharles Apple last night, but it needs to be emphasized. This app makes photo-editing – a job that once required people to spend hours looking at dull Web pages – significantly easier. We used it and found the interface impeccable – it’s just easier than clicking through page after page of photos. We approve. (Do this with iStockPhoto next, guys. Please? You own it. You could do it.) source
From small news projects to ambitious advertising products, there’s some cool stuff here. Among the winners of this year’s Knight News Challenge – which means that the Knight Foundation gives tech-leaning journalists money to chase their dreams – are the Windy Citizen (which has a pretty cool real-time ads platform), CityTracking (which hopes to make city visualizations interesting and embeddable), The Cartoonist (which hopes to make editorial cartoon games), and LocalWiki (which is seriously the kind of idea we’ve heard bandied about more than a few times). Oh, and lots more. Check out the video and the full list to get the scoop. source
Smart synergy USA Today’s most brilliant move was brokering deals with hotels to give free copies of the paper to patrons. It helped them build their brand. Starbucks’ deal with the WSJ could be the modern equivalent of that, except more effective.
People do this already If you’ve ever been in a coffee shop, you know that copies of the newspaper are already sitting around for people to read if they so choose. This is the exact same thing without the paper waste. (Or the social elements, but alas.)
New business model If this works, it could effectively turn into a new revenue model for the newspaper industry, one that could be replicated in bookstores, restaurants and other public meeting places. Hope the WSJ is getting paid well for this.
If the FTC truly wanted to reinvent journalism, the agency would instead align itself with journalism’s disruptors. But there’s none of that here.
Journo-expert Jeff Jarvis • Regarding a recent Federal Trade Commission report on how to save journalism. He notes as sort of a key fact that the entire document only mentions the word “blog” once, despite the fact that many blogs are as “real content” as you’re going to get. And the document, overall, seems skewed in favor of establishment journalism, with suggestions that could seriously damage innovation in the industry. “Here, the internet is not the salvation of news, journalism, and democracy. It’s the other side,” he writes. source
Hey, it’s like we’re looking at us. Except not as good. Time’s new Newsfeed blog has a similar news+short approach to us, except with one major difference. (OK, two; it has a budget.) It’s super-cluttered. The headlines are too bold. There are too many images. The bar on the left gets in the way. And it doesn’t do anything interesting with the idea. There are other sites that do way more interesting things with this idea. The Atlantic Wire, for example. source
If you’ve ever seen the film “The Foot Fist Way,” in which Danny McBride stars as a kung fu master, just imagine kind of the same incredibly awkward thing, except with yo-yos. This guy clearly isn’t an expert at anything, especially not yo-yos. source
This bearded dude may not look like much, but he’s kind of a big deal. This guy runs a YouTube channel called MoxNews.com, which has posted hundreds of political videos like the kind we post here every week. He’s a bit of an obsessive about it (and argues the world might end after 2012), but he finds some really great news content. (And he needs money. You should donate.) The guy who ran the similar NewsPolitics YouTube channel got a job as a video editor for the excellent Mediaite and has turned that site into a huge hit. Why shouldn’t this guy get hooked up by Dan Abrams too? Just sayin’. Here are some recent clips from Mr. MoxNews’ YouTube channel.
Can Jesus be funnY? This priest on “Fox and Friends” seems offended by the idea that one can make fun of Jesus Christ, as Comedy Central is currently planning. He hurts his cause by suggesting a funny comedy couldn’t be made about presidential infidelity. Did this dude forget the Clinton years?
Oops, wrong guy!This MoxNews clip of a Seattle beating drew nearly 50,000 views in just two days. In the clip, police officers hold a man who was possibly a suspect in an armed robbery. Before they even know if he’s their guy, officers kick and stomp on him, injuring him. By the way, he wasn’t their guy.
Ron paul: I called it! The congressman and 2008 presidential candidate has been going on and on for years about overspending and too much debt causing the downfall of the world, so guess who Fox News called when they needed to talk to somebody about the Greece debt crisis? That’s right, Ron Paul.
