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07 Oct 2009 20:17

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Biz, Tech: Google: We made it through the worst of the ad slump just fine

  • The worst is behind us. We’re clearly seeing aspects of recovery, not just in the U.S. but also Europe.
  • Google CEO Eric Schmidt • Speaking to room full of journalists about the state of his company. He says that his company has started to hire again in anticipation of a major rebound. Big question: Will newspapers recover along with Google? • source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

05 Oct 2009 21:53

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Biz, Tech: Knight Foundation: Everyone (not just EveryBlock) should benefit

  • Oops, this open source code isn’t very useful on its own! The Knight Foundation, which has been funding startups for a few years as part of their Knight News Challenge, was quite excited at the sale of EveryBlock to MSNBC in August. But now it’s having second thoughts. Why? Because it was released to the public as a piece of open-source code – not a plug-and-play package that newspapers can easily use. So they’re getting a new team to finish up the EveryBlock code which so it can be rolled out simply. Other startups will get treated the same way. We imagine some applicants to the Knight News Challenge (deadline coming soon!) might get turned off by this, but the goal was always to help journalism in general. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

03 Oct 2009 22:07

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World: Is Italy’s Silvio Berlusconi on a mission to suppress the press?

  • We ask the prime minister to stop the campaign of accusations against journalists and to tell the truth.
  • Italian Press Federation head Franco Siddi • On the lawsuits Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has been filing against major newspapers in Italy. The PM, who either owns or is related to the owners of many major Italian media outlets, has been suing newspapers covering the major sex scandals against him. Silvio Berlusconi says the protests are a joke. • source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

22 Sep 2009 10:52

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Biz: The online news micropayments debate begins anew

One one side: Folks like NewsCloud’s Jeff Reifman, who say micropayments can work. On the other: Smart guy Clay Shirky, telling everyone they’re dreaming. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

15 Sep 2009 10:44

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Politics: Michael Moore: Newspapers sided with the GOP at their own peril (?!)

  • These newspapers slit their own throats by siding with the group of politicians – I mean, it would be like General Motors funding candidates who promised to get rid of Driver Education.
  • Michael Moore • Discussing the fate of the American newspaper. To further emphasize his point, he says that “we live in a nation of 40 million functional illiterates,” and this was caused by cuts in education that Republican leadership led to. While we don’t think that point is particularly sound, we’ll get behind this one regarding capitalism: “Same theory of General Motors that I watched twenty years ago. How can we get rid of half the employees but still put out the same number of cars? We’ll just make everybody work twice as hard and we’ll save money doing that. And that’s what happened to our newspapers.” • source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

06 Aug 2009 11:10

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Biz: Rupert Murdoch is talking about charging for content, too

  • He has slightly more sense about it than AP, though. Murdoch, smarting from huge declines in News Corp. this quarter, wants to start charging for all of his news products within the next year. But rather than simply a blanket “let’s screw everyone” approach (though he’s saying that, too, suggesting “furious litigation”), he wants to do it by differentiating the content of his products from what you can get for free. He should have an easy time with that, as his products tend to break a lot of big stories, especially when it comes to celebrity news. Still, though … don’t just close the doors, man. Figure out ways to let the outside world in. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

26 Jul 2009 22:37

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Politics: Worth reading: Slate’s in-depth Web-vs.-newspapers smackdown

  • The Web side Web proponents feel that newspapers are a product of an era that no longer exists – the media gatekeeper as primary news source. We’re in an era where everything’s decentralized. We don’t need the big source of news anymore. Who needs the New York Times when you can get news from 50 bloggers in an RSS reader? source
  • The Web side Web proponents feel that newspapers are a product of an era that no longer exists – the media gatekeeper as primary news source. We’re in an era where everything’s decentralized. We don’t need the big source of news anymore. Who needs the New York Times when you can get news from 50 bloggers in an RSS reader?
  • The print side One point that newspaper proponents can make pretty easily is that much of what shows up on the blogosphere originally appeared in various news sources. And there are many benefits to that whole organizational center that a newsroom provides. And newsprint is tangible in your hands in a way that a laptop isn’t. source
  • The Web side Web proponents feel that newspapers are a product of an era that no longer exists – the media gatekeeper as primary news source. We’re in an era where everything’s decentralized. We don’t need the big source of news anymore. Who needs the New York Times when you can get news from 50 bloggers in an RSS reader?
  • The print side One point that newspaper proponents can make pretty easily is that much of what shows up on the blogosphere originally appeared in various news sources. And there are many benefits to that whole organizational center that a newsroom provides. And newsprint is tangible in your hands in a way that a laptop isn’t.
  • What Slate did Rather than go for the Clay Shirky-style final word, they let Web news junkies and newspaper junkies say their piece (and there are many opinions, all of which are worth reading), tested them on their knowledge, then had them debate on a podcast. It’s an entertaining debate where – best of all – nothing’s settled. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 6 Comments • Permalink
 

07 Jul 2009 21:30

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Biz, Tech: The sad fate of The Printed Blog, an idea loaded with optimism

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  • What it was Right around the time ShortFormBlog launched back in January, a fairly original twisting of the newspaper medium called The Printed Blog launched. We were fast fans, in part because the idea was so loudly original and because it partly felt like the kind of idea we’ve played with in the past. source
  • What it was Right around the time ShortFormBlog launched back in January, a fairly original twisting of the newspaper medium called The Printed Blog launched. We were fast fans, in part because the idea was so loudly original and because it partly felt like the kind of idea we’ve played with in the past.
  • Why it’s dying It’s a victim of the economy and the idea didn’t work. Founder Joshua Karp announced the publication’s fate today, blaming it on a lack of venture capital support. Some, like Gawker (shut up, jerks), are claiming it was because it was a backwards idea. It was crazy, but it wasn’t backwards. source
  • What it was Right around the time ShortFormBlog launched back in January, a fairly original twisting of the newspaper medium called The Printed Blog launched. We were fast fans, in part because the idea was so loudly original and because it partly felt like the kind of idea we’ve played with in the past.
  • Why it’s dying It’s a victim of the economy and the idea didn’t work. Founder Joshua Karp announced the publication’s fate today, blaming it on a lack of venture capital support. Some, like Gawker (shut up, jerks), are claiming it was because it was a backwards idea. It was crazy, but it wasn’t backwards.
  • What we’d do We liked the idea but felt it could have used refinement. We would have used the publication as a guidepost to blog content online rather than straight-up printing blog items. It should’ve used its role as gatekeeper to edit and refine the content – like a newspaper! It might have gotten there, sadly. :( source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

01 Jul 2009 23:29

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Biz: Deciding furloughs weren’t enough, Gannett lays more people off

  • 1,400 employees will disappear into the nether-regions source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

23 Jun 2009 10:37

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Politics: Columnist: Subsidize news … by making information more free

  • We care about these things because they provide information that improves public welfare and allows for more effective democratic decision-making. Why not make it easier for the news business to do its job?
  • Atlantic columnist Conor Clarke • Playing off the oft-discussed idea of government-subsidized news and instead using it as an argument that the Freedom of Information Act should be followed more closely by government bodies. He also notes that, when this data is easier to get, “it gives news organizations an incentive to write about those issues rather than Britney Spears’s hair or Michelle Obama’s arms.” And wouldn’t that be awesome? • source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
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