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Posted 4:24 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
A Forbidden Peek Into Pop Divas' Dressing Rooms
The Smoking Gun practices an unusual form of journalism, often publishing source documents that expose and embarrass. Currently on the site are confidential documents of the fun variety — contracts between celebrity performers and concert promoters, which specify the terms under which the artists agree to appear on stage. For example, Britney Spears must have in her dressing room a variety of goodies, including 8 bottles of grape and orange Gatorade, a bag of Altoids, and two bags of Doritos (Cool Ranch and Wow flavors). Christina Aguilera has more esoteric taste. Her contract calls for a bottle of Flintstones vitamins, one bottle of echinacea capsules, Oreo cookies, and a liter of full-fat vanilla soy milk.
This is confidential stuff! Spears' contract includes a confidentiality clause that's supposed to prevent public disclosure. As the Gun says, "Oops! We did it again!" Who says investigative journalism can't be fun? —Steve
Posted 12:57 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Content Management Systems Still Suck
That was the message coming out of the IQPC conference, Web Content Management for News & Media, this week. According to this report in Information Week Online, speakers and participants complained that current content management systems are too expensive and difficult to use. Said a speaker from Philly.com about the content management system it was using, "At first we thought it was wonderful, but eventually we realized it was ruining our lives and taking away our will to live." Philly.com and its parent, KnightRidder.com, subsequently developed an in-house system. A common experience is that big publishers are building their own rather than deal with the hassles of customizing vendor systems. —Steve
Posted 12:19 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
The Cult of Free May Be Dying
Clickz's Andy Bourland in his weekly column offers a compilation of thoughts from his readers about free vs. paid Internet content. The theme of the column is that we are now out of the period where venture capital money is allowing Internet sites to give content away free. More and more e-publishers are figuring out how to charge for content, for to give it away and expect online advertising to float a business is folly, in many cases. Writes Bourland, "I'd go so far as to say that we as an industry blindly adopted the premise of 'free' to such an extent that it damn near killed us." —Steve
Posted 10:38 AM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
'Dot Tragedy': No Need to Weep
ABC's comedy show Dot Comedy appears to have been cancelled after one airing (according to an item in ZEntertainment). You may recall an item here commenting on the show's attempts to get the public and Internet content creators to send them funny Internet material. The submission process included the most oppressive contract terms I've ever seen, seeking all rights for any media without offering anything in return (except perhaps a tiny bit of "fame"). The contract read like an April Fools Day joke, but the show's producers were serious. It appears that wasn't the only thing objectionable about Dot Comedy, and ABC dumped it. Good riddance! —Steve
Posted 1:18 AM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Audiotext Gets an Upgrade
A press release came across my desk today from the Arizona Republic, announcing that it is modernizing its audiotext service. Audiotext is a system where consumers dial a phone number and navigate a voicemail-like system to get desired audio information (such as a weather forecast, horoscope, etc.). The Republic's PressLine audiotext service, which debuted in 1989, will now be handled by TellMe Networks. The new system replaces punching in keys to navigate with voice recognition. For instance, you can get a stock quote by saying "Stocks" and then the name of a publicly traded company. The service is free; call 602-271-5656. —Steve
Posted 1:11 AM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Digital Rights Management: It's Gonna Be Hot
MIT's Technology Review magazine has come out with its top 10 predictions of what's going to be hot in the coming year. The one that pertains to publishing is Digital Rights Management, which TR's editors believe will be a super-hot issue in 2001. DRM can work and be accepted, the article suggests, if it's simple and easy to use. Think Napster ease of use, but with protection for content owners. That's a tall order, but it's what must happen. Consumers want flexible access to content, so if content protection schemes force people to jump through too many hoops, they'll fail. —Steve
Posted 1:54 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
iCopyright: $10,000-$30,000 in Income Per Month?
According to an article in ContentBiz.com, high-traffic content sites that use iCopyright.com as a content permissioning service can expect to make $10,000-$30,000 per month from selling digital reprints to consumers and other publishers. Of course, that would depend on lots of factors, such as the usefulness of your content, the amount of marketing you put into selling reprints, etc. But using the service to facilitate your users buying reprint rights for your content is a great idea, even if the income is less than that. It may not be the dominant revenue stream, but digital reprints are one of those no-brainer revenue sources.
iCopyright is close to unveiling a system that will allow publishers to sign up for and use its services online, without going through the current process of negotiating with the company individually. This will allow even small Web publishers to participate in iCopyright's programs. —Steve
Posted 1:19 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
What Do Others Think of You? Find Out
Here's an interesting new Web site that could be useful for writers (and publishers who wish to hire them): RepCheck.com. As explained in this New York Times article today, the site allows anyone to comment on and rate your personal and business reputation. It's useful for, say, a landscape architect to have previous clients rate how good he is. Potential clients could then use the site to check out the architect before making a decision about hiring him. (The system also will be nice for checking out the reputation of babysitters. There are lots of cool potential uses for RepCheck.)
This could be quite useful for writers (and other content professionals). Create an account with RepCheck (it's free), then invite past clients to rate you using the site's various criteria. Potential clients will have a way to "check your references" quickly and easily.
I created an account this morning. Feel free to rate me! (Just go to the site and search for my name.) —Steve
Posted 5:08 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
MightyWords Scrambles to Find a Business Model
MightWords.com appears to be struggling for its life. The written-content marketplace site is in the news again this week, announcing yet another major revamping of its business model. According to the Wall Street Journal, the company, which is partly owned by Barnes & Noble, will announce on Wednesday that it will syndicate the written content that it handles to other Web sites rather than sell titles to consumers mainly from its own site. This is a significant change, in that MightyWords gets out of the business of being a direct retailer of digital content. Now it will allow other Web publishers to sell its content, then split the sales revenues among the content creator, affiliate publisher site, and itself. (This eliminates the need for MightyWords to spend money on advertising and marketing to the general public.)
In recent weeks, MightyWords had announced that it would no longer accept and sell written content from any Joe or Jane Writer. Rather, it announced a plan to hire a team of editors who will select only the best content from well-known authors to be sold on the Web site. The Journal quoted CEO Christopher MacAskill: "We started out with a vision of self-publishing that was a little misguided on my part. It is the highly branded, highly credible, high-quality stuff that sells. Writing is hard. We are technologists who approached this and were perhaps a little naive about that." Writes Journal reporter Erin White, "The move is a blow to one of the early theories of electronic publishing, the idea that the Web would cut out middlemen and turn every no-name Joe into a self-publisher." —Steve
Posted 1:29 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
What's Next? News Wherever You Are
In my Editor & Publisher column this week, I take a look at the direction of all the wireless technology now hitting us in waves. A future of news being delivered to us on "Star Trek"-like wireless devices is near. The column examines what this will mean to news publishers. —Steve
Posted 10:20 AM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
New Media: Interesting Programs at Some (but not All) J-Schools
A December 2000 American Journalism Review article ("New Courses for New Media," by Chris Harvey) explores some of the more innovative efforts to teach new-media skills to today's journalism students – including programs at the University of CA (Berkeley), USC's Annenberg School of Communication, Columbia University, Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism, University of KS, University of FL, and the University of MN. (Thanks to Online-Writing List participant Stephanie Berger for that link.) This is great stuff – but my little bit of recent informal and unscientific research reveals that many (perhaps most) journalism schools still offer little or no training at all in new media. Just where do they think a large proportion of today's journalism students are going to be working? — Amy
Posted 6:02 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Moreover Expands into New Markets
Hats off to Moreover – one of the few companies that really understands how people want to receive and use online information.You may be familiar with their hundreds of topic-specific feeds of headlines with links. Well, Moreover recently figured out that they also can help companies track their own publicity or follow other topics, both on intranets and on the Web. (See "Moreover.com Pushes Real-Time News," The Standard, Dec. 11, by Elinor Abreu.)
Plus, Moreover just cut a deal to allow Inktomi to include Moreover's dynamic Internet database service in its own suite of search offerings – and similar deals with other major search engines appear to be in the works. (See "Moreover Inks Inktomi Deal, Interactive Week, Dec. 11, by Todd Spangler.) Keep this in mind while many other dot-com content businesses are crumbling – a true grasp of online media can make all the difference when it comes to your business model. —Amy
Posted 5:29 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Don't Tie Your Business to a Free ISP
Ever wonder how online companies like AltaVista were able to offer free services like Net access or personal e-mail addresses? They form co-marketing arrangements with free Internet Service Providers (ISPs). Sounds like a sweet deal – until those free services pull out. That's just what happened recently when 1stUp.com and Spinway decided to abandon the free ISP market, leaving their big-name co-marketing partners reeling and scrambling. The lesson: It's dangerous to lure customers by offering free services that aren't really yours to give away. See "Marketers reel after free ISPs exit business," Ad Age, December 2000, by Ira Teinowitz and Patricia Riedman. —Amy
Posted 12:24 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
The Real E-publishing Nightmare
That would be book publishers' paranoia about digital piracy, and how the software padlocks that they are putting on e-books are undermining the promise of digital publishing. So says Lewis Perdue in the article "Draconian Content Controls Are Real Horror of Today's E-Books" for the Wall Street Journal. I couldn't agree more. So much of the book industry is stuck back in the previous century, unable to come to grips with what is necessary to operate in a digital networked economy. Rule No. 1 (which the book and music industries appear to be clueless about): Make the experience of hearing music or reading books online easy, convenient, and give the consumer free choice to get what he/she wants, how he/she wants it. Draconian content controls hurt the e-market. Publishers need to loosen up, protecting their intellectual property without being unnecessarily paranoid. —Steve
Posted 11:40 AM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
The Contract From Hell ... I Mean, From ABC
There's a sucker born every minute. That appears to be the mission statement for the producers of the ABC television show, Dot Comedy, which seeks submissions of Internet humor to be used for the show. Take a look at the submission guidelines and contract that the show offers those who might have funny material and want a slice (an extremely small slice) of fame. It's so outrageous, I'm not entirely sure that it's not a joke. (Maybe the show's producers enjoy April Fool's Day so much that they practice it year round?)
You've really got to be a total sucker to agree to this contract. It wants rights to do whatever it wants with your content, in any medium, in perpetuity. And what does the poor sucker who submits material to the show get? Nothing. No money, that's for sure. And not even a guarantee of receiving credit for the content or the idea. Oh, yes, and if your material is accepted, you're not allowed to publicize it (without the show's permission) and you'll have to sign indemnification, warranties, and rights of assignment documents.
Wow! My mind is numb. Are there actually adults in the world stupid enough to to submit material to Dot Comedy? I hope not. (Thanks to Sandy Lieberman, who pointed this item out in a post to the Online-Writing list.) —Steve
Posted 2:23 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Stephen King: 'Mama Didn't Raise No Fools'
In the December 18 issue of Time, Stephen King explains himself regarding The Plant, his voluntary-pay e-serial. The celebrity author claims to be having "fun" moreso than trying to make a financial killing — so don't read so much into his voluntary strategy and the perceived "failure" of it. King puts a good spin on the e-serials experience and declares the concept anything but dead. The pundits and media analysts are taking this far too seriously, he seems to be saying. (For a "pundit" view of King's Plant experience, see M.J. Rose's current essay in Content Spotlight.) —Steve
Posted 1:26 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
RCA E-readers: A Review
The Gemstar E-book reading devices produced by RCA have hit the stores, as I've noted here before. Wired News is among the first to review the devices, which aren't quite ready for the mass market yet (though the RCA brand name provides a good entry into mass market sales). The biggest problems, says Wired's reviewer, are the high price of the units, and the availability of books to read being limited to current best-sellers. Those problem have got to be addressed or the units will go nowhere. The real promise of these types of devices is to make niche and out-of-print titles available to their users. Also, education is a fantastic future market. Imagine that every college student has an e-book reader, which is used to consolidate every textbook needed for the current semester. (No more lugging heavy backpacks!) —Steve
Posted 12:12 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Fidler and Kent State Hook Up With Adobe
Kent State University has negotiated a long-term research contract with Adobe Systems to pursue research related to network publishing. Roger Fidler, director of Kent Statešs Institute for CyberInformation, says that the Adobe sponsorship will be used to fund research into the future production, dissemination, and display of electronic books (e-books), newspapers, magazines, journals, and other digital documents. "Network publishing" refers to the vision of making visually rich, personalized digital content available anywhere, anytime, on any device.
Those of you who've been around online publishing and new media for a while may recognize Fidler's name. A futurist and researcher for the newspaper industry for many years, Fidler has long advocated the idea of personal digital portable tablets, on which we would read interactive versions of newspapers and magazines. His vision is getting closer to reality as technology for e-book readers and digital tablets advances. —Steve
Posted 11:56 AM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Using the Web for Spin Control
The New York Times in its Sunday edition published the story "CMGI Can Defy Gravity Only So Long." Reporter Saul Hansell writes of the Internet incubator, "The prospects for the CMGI empire are not very beautiful." CMGI obviously doesn't like Hansell's analysis, so it's using the Web for a little spin control. The company has posted a Web page containing all the questions that Hansell asked of CMGI chairman David Wetherell, and Wetherell's responses. Let the public decide if the Times account is fair, CMGI executives are saying.
This kind of corporate behavior is becoming increasingly common. I see it as both good news and bad. It's good in that the public gets to see the full story behind the story — to see the source material that a reporter is using to make his or her judgments. The down side is that companies can manipulate the content. A less-than-scrupulous company might edit out certain comments that it deems potentially damaging from a Q&A transcript between one of its executives and a reporter, for example. The point is, can you trust companies to tell the whole story? Then again, many media critics would contend that you can't trust reporters to always get it right or be objective. —Steve
Posted 1:27 AM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
King Hasn't Killed E-serials; IOC's Inability to Deal With Future Media
I just released one of my bi-weekly "mini" editions of the Content Spotlight newsletter. We've got a couple good articles this week: A commentary by M.J. Rose about the effect of Stephen King's decision to uproot his e-serial, The Plant; and another commentary by online sports expert Steve Klein about the International Olympic Committee's inability to come to grips with the Internet (because it's so addicted to money from TV networks). —Steve
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