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Posted 11:21 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
The Shakeout Continues
Things will get a bit worse before they get better for the world of online content. Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. announced this week that it is closing its online division, and returning the Web sites it operated to their original divisions — Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox Sports Television Group, and Fox News Channel. The move results in the loss through attrition and layoffs of about half of the 450 jobs in the digital division, News Digital Media, over the next six months. Here's an AP report (via Editor & Publisher Online.) —Steve
Posted 11:11 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
'Mobile Phones Must Die!' —Nielsen
He's got his detractors, but I really admire Jakob Nielsen. In his latest Alertbox column, he writes, "The telephone has served us well for 100 years. It is time for it to go." Why? Because the tiny mobile phone is a lousy device for wireless Internet, and larger devices with more appropriate form factors are what will move the wireless Internet forward. Get rid of phone handsets, he suggests, and replace them with larger devices (PDAs like the Palm Pilot, PocketPC, or Blackberry) that can double as mobile phones. To receive a call on them, plug in a small headset.
If you agree with Nielsen's logic, then Europe — the leader in mobile phone market penetration — is not positioned well for growth in wireless Internet. Rather, in the U.S., because "the American cellular network is a national disgrace," more appropriate mobile Internet devices will have an easier time becoming widely used and mobile Internet content and services will evolve faster in the U.S. than in Europe. —Steve
Posted 10:59 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
A Change at Themestream
Themestream, the self-publishing content portal site that allows anyone to post their writing and then pays 2 cents each time someone reads an author's article, has changed its policies to limit the amount of money a writer can earn from any single article to $350. Previously there was no limit. The change isn't sitting well with some writers who have published their work on Themestream. M.A. Wehland is one who feels strongly that the earnings cap is a bad thing that will discourage quality writing from being posted to the site. He's written a scathing opinion piece about the new policy, which is published on Themestream. (So, when you read it you'll be sending 2 cents Wehland's way.) Until late last year, Themestream offered writers 10 cents per read, but lowered the amount after an introductory period.
Disclosure: Themestream is an advertiser on this Web site. Also, Amy Gahran and I are scheduled to judge the site's upcoming Wielding Words in the Web World Contest — which is a volunteer duty for both of us. —Steve
Posted 10:46 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Jesse Berst Is Moving On
One of the pioneers among online columnists, Jesse Berst, is leaving his post as editor of ZDNet's Anchordesk. In his column yesterday, Berst announced that he will soon depart the post he's held since 1996 to found a startup. He writes: "So why am I leaving? Because I've started a new company called IZ Inc. — a next-generation digital publishing firm that creates e-mail newsletters and Web communities around affinity topics." —Steve
Posted 11:08 AM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Blogger Bogged
The service that we use to produce E-Media Tidbits, Blogger, has been experiencing growing pains recently. Its gotten a lot of publicity for being a cool service, but the onslaught of new users has made the service very slow recently. Thursday, the service was unusable, for the most part, so I wasn't able to post any Tidbits items. I normally try to publish to this weblog daily during the workweek.
Blogger is a funny service, in that it's made available free. A commercial service charging a monthly fee reportedly is coming soon. Meanwhile, Blogger is asking for donations to help buy additional servers. (Here's a Wired News story about the Blogger beg-for-money campaign.) I made my donation, but frankly I'd much rather pay Blogger an ASP monthly subscription fee for a reliable commercial service. Despite these problems, Blogger is great and I'm confident that it will grow to be a reputable and stable service to Internet publishers. —Steve
Posted 2:39 AM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
I'm Faster Now ... Finally!
Wednesday was my birthday, and I got a present I'd long been waiting for — a fast Internet connection at my home. I've been trying for a couple years to get either DSL or cable modem service, but because I live a couple miles outside of the city limits of Boulder, Colorado, no provider could get to me. An order for a slow version of DSL (iDSL, at a whopping 144K) got canceled after 9 months. After much frustration, I settled for a 128K ISDN connection — overpriced and barely better than a dial-up modem connection. Well, today the installer for Sprint Broadband Direct spent the day at my house and completed the installation. I'm now a happy e-camper, at last. My broadband service is a wireless microwave connection between a 13-inch dish on my house and a tower on top of a nearby mountain. And it's plenty fast. Thanks for my birthday present, Sprint!
All I have to say is, unless the broadband industry can make getting fast Internet access a lot easier and faster than what I experienced, the promise of broadband Internet will be limited to an elite few. The cable and telco industries have proved to be incapable of rolling out broadband to significant numbers of people. My experience seems to indicate that wireless broadband providers may just kick their butts! —Steve
Posted 2:35 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Seth Godin 'Gets It'; Book Publishers Still Don't
Author Seth Godin has a wonderful article on Inside.com today. He is a staunch believer in the power of the Internet to sell printed books — by giving them away free online. He cites his own success with his latest book, Unleashing the Ideavirus, which he released freely, trying to get a digital copy into as many hands as possible. Later, a print version of the book was published, costing US $40. Within a week of print publication, the book was No. 5 on the Amazon.com best-seller list.
Godin says he would have loved to have had his publisher do what he did for him. But book publishers tend to be scared of tactics such as giving away their content, so Godin did it on his own. Eventually, book publishers might figure out that the Internet is their friend, not the enemy. How many more Godin-like success stories will it take? —Steve
Posted 1:57 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
My First Pet Peeve for the New Millennium
I've been doing a lot of Web surfing lately — judging news Web sites for the annual EPpy Awards (produced by Editor & Publisher). One thing that I keep noticing — and it bugs me every time I run across it — is that so many sites don't include dates on links to news content. On a table of contents page, with headline and story blurbs meant to entice online users to click, there should be in small type an indication of when a story was posted. When I visit a site, I'm often looking for the freshest news — so it's annoying to click on a story link and then discover is a couple days old.
Here's an example of why you need to include dates. On Inside.com's home page, several top stories are featured. Each of them includes a date and time stamp. But lower down on the page, there are links to additional stories in various sections of the site. Those headlines lack date stamps, so when I visit the site (as I do daily) I have to remember if the headline is for a story I've seen already, or not. To be "user friendly," let your Web site users know when a story was posted. —Steve
Posted 9:51 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Satellite Radio for the Car: I Want it Now
If this isn't the first time you've read this weblog, you know that I don't think much of (U.S.) commercial radio. (Too many commercials, lowest-common-denominator programming, disc jockeys that insult the intelligence of anyone over the age of 19, etc.) For those who think similarly, Internet radio is a salvation. And so is satellite radio, which for a monthly subscription fee will beam dozens of "stations" to your home or your car (wherever your car might be). Here's an AP report on two companies that are launching paid satellite radio in the year 2001. I'm ready to sign up if it means fewer commercials and non-mainstream music selection in a wide variety of genres. That's what the companies are promising. —Steve
Posted 9:35 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Sports Content Sites Get Acquired or Die
Here's an interesting piece in Business 2.0 that suggests that online sports content sites will be in trouble if they're not acquired soon by larger media companies. Writing in "It's Fourth and Long for Online Sports Sites," Susan Thomas says that major independent sports sites are getting phenomenal traffic — but they've not been able to translate that into enough revenue to survive over the long haul. She predicts that even the biggest independent sports sites will soon be cozying up to big-media suitors. —Steve
Posted 11:28 AM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Stalwart APB Editor Finally Bows Out
Through the turmoil experienced by award-winning crime-news Web site and news service APBNews.com, executive editor Hoag Levins has weathered it all. One of the first employees of the New York-based start-up, he stuck it out even when the company ran out of money, laid off most of its staff, and was being published by non-paid volunteers while APB executives sought new investors. When Safetytips.com bought APB at its bankruptcy sale, Levins stayed on. Now, the ever-patient editor has put himself on the job market.
Jim Romenesko's MediaNews weblog published Levins' letter announcing his departure today. Silicon Alley Daily also reports of two other departures in concert with Levins' resignation, leaving 18 employees. APB and its new parent again missed payroll and are seeking investors to keep the site going.
I used to work with Levins when he was executive editor of Editor & Publisher, before he took the APB job. I can say from experience that he'll be a good "catch" for some other Internet media company — one that can pay its payroll, preferably. —Steve
Posted 10:44 AM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Is Your Site Stuck in the Old Millennium?
On the first work day of the new millennium, it's worth checking the footer files and copyright notices on your Web site. Are you stuck in the previous year with copyright notices on every page stating "©2000"? It's an easy thing to forget. (I'm pretty sure I covered this on Content-Exchange.com; let me know if you see an outdated copyright notice that I missed.) ... And happy new year. —Steve
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