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Posted 2:28 AM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
The Dark Side of the Daily Me
Norbert Specker on Republic.com
In his new book, Republic.com, Cass R. Sunstein, a professor at the University of Chicago Law School, makes the argument that the Daily Me/Internet makes it all too easy to customize media experiences, narrowing readers' minds and souls. Which in turn will be less able to deal with wider issues appropriately. The New York Times has a full account.
Posted 7:06 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Web Freedom in Italy
Norbert Specker on registering news sites
In an extension of the existing laws for press and periodicals, Web sites in Italy are by default considered a press product. They fall under a set of regulation (publisher and place of origin have to be stated). Stricter rules apply for sites and webzines that have a news section. They fall under the laws valid for newspapers and the periodical press which will force them to a) name a responsible managing editor (has to be a member of the official journalists guild, b) pay a tax, and c) be registered in the city where it is published. (Commentary by Manlio Cammarata and original law text, in Italian.)Understandably the law has met furious and energetic response, as a short correspondence with Andreina Mandelli, professor at the Bocconi University in Milano, reveals. Many of traditional journalists like the extension as it presumably offers them the same working conditions (including pay) on the Web as they are used to from the print world, while obviously pure Web publishers don't like it as it heightens the barriers to entry.
Mandelli says that "if we try to apply to the Web the same logic of the traditional journalism we kill the Web journalism," but she supports the notion "that we need rules of the game in order to protect the quality of journalism online."
Posted 9:14 AM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Newspaper Readership, Part II
Rich Gordon on Northwestern University research
The Readership Institute's study (which I wrote about yesterday) suggests that the decades-long decline in newspaper readership can be turned around. As someone who still loves newspapers, I think that's good news. But I'd suggest that the study also has some lessons for interactive media:
- The appeal of "intensely local" content;
- The importance of a product that's easy to read and navigate;
- The fact that advertising content does attract readers;
- The need to build a positive brand image;
- The value of telling readers/users about upcoming content.
Of course there is one unquestioned assumption behind the study: that the primary goal is to get people to buy newspapers. The goal really ought to be to get people to use newspaper companies' information (and advertising) wherever it's most convenient. But until there's a clear business model to support digital content delivery, it's understandable why print readership would come first.
Posted 7:36 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Blogger a Heartbeat Away From Demise
Steve Outing on weblog service's troubles
With E-Media Tidbits I use the wonderful Blogger service to maintain the weblog. From Wednesday night through Thursday afternoon, Blogger was down, which is why there were no Tidbits items posted this morning. Blogger is just barely hanging on, and as Blogger's Evan Williams explains in a note, he is now the company's sole employee. This is a sad state of affairs, because lots of people rely on the Blogger service. It would be profoundly disturbing to many of us should Blogger die. Let's hope Williams stays healthy. On the bright side, he is committed to turning Blogger (and parent Pyra) into a viable business. Blogger has a huge user base, and many of us are eagerly awaiting a commercial version of the service, ready to write checks to Williams. In the days of plentiful VC funding, Blogger would be a star by now. These days, a killer Internet app can barely survive. This is depressing!
Posted 7:23 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
NBA.com Tries a Webcast
Steve Klein on online sports content
The National Basketball Association will provide streaming video of its first live league webcast on Friday (April 13) beginning at 8:30 p.m. ET, when the Dallas Mavericks play host to the Sacramento Kings. RealPlayer 8 (there's a free download available) is required to watch, and a 56k-or-faster Internet connection is suggested. You can choose to watch the game with either the Mavs, Kings, or a Spanish radio audio feed and experience the action in 360-degree controllable video using "Be Here" technology. "This is an experiment to find out what fan-usage patterns are because that's something we really don't know yet," said Brenda Spoonemore, NBA vice president of Internet services. "Our goal Friday is to let the fans tell us what works and what doesn't."The NBA hopes to appeal to an international audience with the broadcast. The teams feature several international players: the Mavericks' Steve Nash (Canada), Wang Zhizhi (China), Dirk Nowitzki (Germany), Eduardo Najera (Mexico), Obinna Ekezie (Nigeria); and the Kings' Hidayet Turkoglu (Turkey), Vlade Divac (Yugoslavia), and Predrag Stojakovic (Yugoslavia).
Posted 7:17 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Yes, Newspapers Have a Future
Rich Gordon on a major study of print readership
The Readership Institute, a newspaper industry-funded research project based here at Northwestern University's Media Management Center, has issued its first findings (press release and 47-page summary in Acrobat format). This is a massive study, looking at 100 newspapers (designed to be a representative sample of U.S. papers) and 37,000 readers who answered a 450-question survey. A few of the key findings:
- 85% of adults use a newspaper at least once a week.
- The U.S. population is about evenly split between "heavy readers," "moderate readers," and "light to non-readers."
- "Intensely local, people-focused news" (community announcements, obituaries, and stories about "ordinary people") is the kind of coverage most likely to increase newspaper reading.
- A newspaper that's easy to read and navigate will increase readership.
- Newspapers need to do a better job using in-paper space to promote their own newspaper content.
Tomorrow, I'll have some thoughts about the study's relevance to interactive media.
Posted 7:12 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Boston Marathon Site Goes the Distance
Steve Klein on online sports content
The official Boston Marathon Web site will be up to speed with comprehensive coverage of the race, which begins at noon ET on Monday, April 16. The site will provide real-time information on thousands of runners utilizing a chip in each runner's shoelaces that will transmit information to the site. Finishing times will be based on that information. So you can follow your favorite runner or just catch up on the previous 104 Boston Marathon races.
Posted 6:46 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Who Owns What?
Andrew Nachison on media consolidation
Worried that independent media voices are being squeezed out because AOL-Time Warner-Vivendi-Disney-NewsCorp-Bertlesman-Viacom Inc. controls the world's data flow, or soon will? Here's a rather daunting overview of the world's big media conglomerates.
Posted 9:08 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Themestream Throws in the Towel
Jade Walker on content site struggles
Themestream, a pay-per-click Web site for writers, has announced its demise. In an e-mail to its contributors, the company said the site will close on April 13, and its content providers will probably not receive future compensation.According to the missive: "Themestream is in the process of trying to sell some or all of its assets and negotiating with its secured creditors. Although we won't know the outcome of these negotiations until they are complete, we believe it is very unlikely that we will be able to pay any other creditors — including contributors. We will inform you if the situation changes. Otherwise, you should assume you will not receive any further payments from us."
Posted 9:03 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
No Longer a Rival
Steve Klein on online sports content
The site had traffic, stickiness, and was even generating revenue charging for content. So why did the Seattle-based Rivals Network, better known in better days as Rivals.com, fold this week? According to a story by Luke Timmerman in the Seattle Times, it was the failure to close a deal with either Yahoo! or Nike and tough financial times. In its heyday, Rivals aggregated hundreds of sports sites to provide team and league news from high schools to college to the pros. It was particularly respected for its collegiate football and basketball recruiting news.So what major sports sites are still standing? The big guns continue to be the big brands: Disney's ESPN.com, Viacom's CBS Sportsline.com, Paul Allen's SportsNews.com, and AOL/Time Warner's CNNSI.com. Are we seeing a pattern here, sports fans?
Posted 12:16 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Learn From the Sex Sites
Steve Outing on online porn business models
My weekly column for Editor & Publisher Online looks at the business models of sex and pornography sites. As mainstream e-publishers get desperate to make money, the sex folks may offer some guidance. Online media business development managers could stand to do some (ahem) research by surfing sex sites. But perhaps it would be best to find a computer in a secluded place. The boss might not understand.
Posted 11:29 AM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Ad Manipulations Not Catching on
Kerry Northrup on supposed "standards" in Internet ads
The new online ad size and location standards declared recently by the Internet Advertising Bureau are not catching on. Glad to hear it. These new "standards" have come about without any regard for readers and deserve to be ignored. When newspapers adopted Standard Advertising Units (SAUs) in the 1980s, it was done for efficiency in the advertising-print relationship. A one-column ad in one paper is now the same width as in every other paper, so only one ad has to be designed and sent to all publishers. Readers benefit from page layouts that look cleaner, easier to read, without all sorts of different size ad blocks jutting out here and there.On the surface, the IAB cites the same argument for issuing its new specifications. But everyone knows that is a crutch justification. The real reason for making ads bigger and putting them in the middle of news and other content on Web pages is to try to make them work better. And the real reason for some group such as the IAB declaring such ad handling as a "standard" is so that online publishers who adopt the intrusive scheme can pass off responsibility when readers complain: "Sorry. It's the standard." There is no benefit in the new ad standards for readers.
Want an online ad standard? How about: One ad per page, only one, and only ads with some real design and message to them, something that enhances the overall Web site the way those fancy ads in those fancy magazines contribute to the feeling that you are reading a publication that has class and style.
Posted 11:12 AM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
B.C. Busted
Andrew Nachison on online activism
Time to clear your minds of any worries about digital media as a business. Today, a reminder that the Web is a communication tool for activists of any political bent that enables them to circumvent or protest restrictive media, governments, or companies. The Jewish Defense League is trying to convince newspapers to cancel publication of a controversial B.C. comic strip scheduled for Easter Sunday, April 15. The JDL has posted what it claims to be an advanced copy of the strip so you can judge for yourself not only the strip but the judgment of your local newspaper. The protest itself raises all sorts of questions — about copyright, censorship, verification of the facts as represented by the JDL — but it also reminds us that, in the end, we have on our desks a profoundly powerful tool to disrupt traditional powers.
Posted 10:13 AM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
iSyndicate Lays Off 50% of Staff
Katja Riefler on content syndication
This is even a surprise to analysts: iSyndicate.com has just offered pink slips to nearly 50% of its employees. According to Dan O'Brien, a Forrester Research analyst who tracks content syndication on the Web, most content syndication services have been scaling back operations as intermediaries — the middlemen who set up syndication pacts between content providers and content purchasers — in the past six months. The step of iSyndicate might have a close connection to the NBCi case (see yesterday's Tidbits item by Kerry Northrup), for NBC was one of iSyndicate's investors. Read the full story at Newsbytes.
Posted 10:08 AM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Sports, Journalism, and Disintermediation
Andrew Nachison on sports "news"
News companies pretend that sports is news because that helps sell products that purport to be "news" products. Sports leagues could ban the transmission or publishing of game data, just like theaters ban the recording of plays or movies. Sports leagues are already taking just such a stance when it comes to digital broadcast rights. That's why you don't find live streams of any major global sporting event.Such a ban makes no sense in an analog world, but a total ban is plausible in a digital world if sports leagues can reach audiences without the help of news companies. Sports leagues are already big media companies in their own right. NBA.com competes with ESPN.com and CBS Sportsline. What's a news company to do? Play the game, of course. Buy a team, like the Chicago Cubs (Tribune Co.). Or start an entire league, like the XFL (NBC).
Posted 10:02 AM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Toxic Traps Cross Border
Norbert Specker on news site special sections
Who said the notion of the Internet advancing democracy and transparency is dead? In February, Dallanews.com took home the EPpy award for the best special section in a newspaper online site with Toxic Traps. The site allows Americans to find out which company in their back yard is polluting their environment exactly how much. The interactive database took over a year of planning, preparation, and programming and is a great success with community activists. Now, the over 150 million kilograms of toxic chemicals released by manufacturing facilities into Canada's environment each year are under pressure by PollutionWatch. For the full story go to the Globe and Mail. In planning your next "special section," maybe think of sustainability, think of shelf-life, and think of being examplary.
Posted 6:58 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Put This Quote on Your Wall!
Steve Outing on media executives' impatience
Here's an excellent quote from Merrill Brown, editor-in-chief of MSNBC.com, at a recent conference (as reported in Editor & Publisher's e-Letter): "It's instructive to look at cable television and think of the early '80s, a point in time when groups involving NBC, ABC-Westinghouse, and CBS all launched cable networks, only to walk away when the short term picture looked difficult. This is such a time in the Internet's evolution when some media enterprises large and small are either tempted to walk away or are dramatically scaling back. They would, in my view, be leaving behind opportunities of significant scale. It's fair to suggest that had ABC-Westinghouse stuck with their cable news channel nearly 20 years ago, they would have had a $10-$20 billion asset today."
Posted 3:28 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Making Content Portable
Rich Gordon on the importance of Internet appliances
Last week, I and my master's students in new media journalism spent a day at Comdex Chicago. Press coverage (Chicagotribune.com; requires registration) of the event suggested that it had been hit hard by the dot-com shakeout. But there was one part of the show that was flourishing: products and services for non-PC devices. Among the products displayed at the show were the Honeywell WebPad and of course Palms, Handsprings, and Blackberry pagers. In my view, at least part of the solution to the "online content problem" is that content has to reach people where they are — rather than make them come to their desk to find it. Ultimately, the question is, will consumers buy these things? David Coursey of ZDNet says they're too expensive. For a more bullish view, check out the webcast (Windows Media format: broadband or modem) of a Comdex keynote speech by Brian Halla, chairman of National Semiconductor. (You'll want to ignore the short Comdex promotional speech at the beginning.)
Posted 2:01 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Content Crazies: A Rant
Andrew Nachison on Salon's misadventures
OK, at the risk of offending some of my fellow E-Media Tidbits bloggers (see Steve's item yesterday), not to mention, apparently, most of us in the online content field, not to mention some fine writers and editors who have done some great work, toiled for the good of the universe, for the betterment of mankind and the uplifting of the human spirit ... I don't love Salon. There, I said it. I don't hate Salon (well, maybe a little). I don't anything Salon.I've spent more time with a paperback collection of "Mothers Who Think" essays originally published on Salon than I have with the site itself. Great writers, great essays. Do we have to call these fine pieces of text "online content"? Can't we just call it good writing and leave it at that? To me Salon is another bloated, over-ambitious Web publishing fantasy driven by the same greed and financial avarice that drove so many Web sites up, up, up and then down, down, down. An IPO? For an online magazine? What were the people who said "go for it" snorting, and what about the people who bought the stock?
Other than publishing original work online first, rather than in print, I fail to see how Salon is notably different from an offline magazine, other than that the offline magazines I read are infinitely easier on my eyes and they move from room to room with me, in my hand, when I'm home trying to squeeze in some reading time.
Aren't there plenty of smaller, more modest online magazines that deserve more sympathy and support than Salon? Remember when Salon went public and it called itself a "network" of Web sites. Yes, that was creative, but hardly heart-warming. I'll take Suck over Salon any day. I'd really like to hear and read more about small sites worth saving or, better yet, small sites that don't need saving because they've kept their publishing operations small enough to survive. Comments? Feedback? Links? Please! anachison@americanpressinstitute.org.
Posted 12:26 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Why NBCi Is Shutting Down
Kerry Northrup on portal lessons
In the end, NBCi still doesn't get it. The broadcast network has announced that it will close its standalone Internet subsidiary. The reason cited by company officials is the "sharp declines in the Internet advertising market." It doesn't seem to occur that maybe the site should have focused on content, rather than just on marketing and technical gimmicks. NBCi, like so many so-called portals, never made a real case for why people — versus consumers — should go there.
Posted 12:23 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
E-Ink Makes Some Progress
Steve Outing on digital ink technology
E-Ink Corporation is reporting some significant progress today. It says in a press release that it has developed the first active matrix electronic ink display capable of producing high-resolution illustrations and text. Its prototype is a 12.1-inch screen with a resolution of a typical laptop computer monitor "and is capable of creating high quality images, including illustrations." Electronic ink is vitally important to the future of portable wireless content devices, because it is similar to reading ink on paper. There's still a long way to go, however. The new E-Ink prototype uses only black ink on white background; color remains a distant goal.
Posted 12:04 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Who Controls Sports News?
Kerry Northrup on sports leagues versus news organizations
The New York Times has reached a deal with the National Basketball Association so that it can sell access to archived game pictures over which the league claims perpetual control. (See the story.) Other sports leagues and even the Olympics committee are starting to assert similar new rights to control coverage of sporting events. As the Times story indicates, news organizations are being required to agree in advance to various limitations on their use of news content or be barred from entrance to the games. The situation is shaping up as a classic confrontation between business ethics and journalistic ethics, and it will be interesting to watch how far some news organizations will go in order to buy access to news events.
Posted 3:18 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Understanding Interactivity
Katja Riefler on the decline of third voice and the living magic card trick
Do you care about free speech? In 1999 I was really fascinated by the idea of Third Voice. Its software enabled you to "annotate" each Web site you visit with your comments, which could be seen by all other users but could not be changed by the site administrator. The comments were hosted on Third Voice servers and displayed together with advertisements. It earned a lot of criticism for the possibility of abuse and also because of the lack of security. Unfortunately, you had to install a client software application. But now it's not necessary to debate the usefulness of such a service: Third Voice has stopped its product support because far fewer than 1 million users really did use it. Maybe it's the installation of a client app that annoyed people; maybe the experience itself was too complicated and less rewarding. Interactivity has to be simple. It is perhaps not the best example, but in Germany we recently had the famous "Moorhuhn" game that addicted millions of people at home and at the workplace and still does. (Up and running is the third version; there is a Web-wide contest, fan pages, and more). Or enjoy something as astonishing as Magic Cardtrick. Perhaps the Web developers are into something purely entertaining? We'll see. It is also possible that someone develops a cool free speech software application sometime.
Posted 12:41 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Nationalize Salon.com? Not Such a Crazy Idea
Steve Outing on content site struggles
Most of us in the online content field have a soft spot for Salon.com. It's the pre-eminent star in the pure-play online content sky, and I'd certainly hate to see it fail. The web-zine, which is publicly traded, has been cutting back and fighting hard to become profitable — but let's face it, its future is not assured in the current market. If Salon actually died, it would be a serious, serious blow to the online content industry (in terms of the psychology of other online publishers, and in terms of making it difficult for content enterprises to raise money).Here's an interesting piece from Ironminds, "Nationalize Salon!," by David Propson. He suggests (tongue in cheek?) that Salon become a non-profit public media enterprise, like National Public Radio. "Some might see Salon’s move to non-profit status as an embarrassing admission of failure. I prefer to view it as a the liberation of content from its corporate paymasters," Propson writes. "... We should consider the possibility that there is no way for publications to make money or even survive producing high-quality writing on the Web."
Posted 12:20 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Lining Up With Myteam.com
Steve Klein on online sports content
Myteam.com is proving to be no amateur when it comes to making marketing deals. The Boston-based company,which along with Active.com make the only two players still standing in the amateur-sports Web site space, signed Dunkin' Donuts, Honda, Coca-Cola's Powerade, and Lego to deals that brought in about $1 million, according to Terry Lefton of TheStandard.com. In return, the companies gain access to Myteam's database of hundreds of thousands of amateur-league coaches and will use their new rights to run local marketing programs with Myteam's database of coaches, which includes Little League Baseball, the AAU, the Amateur Softball Association, and a consortium of state soccer associations. The online amateur sports space once also included Mysportsguru, Street Zebra, Eteamz, and EO Sports.
Posted 1:12 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Hack and Slash at About.com
Jade Walker on pay cuts and lay-offs
Due to its recent merger with Primedia, About.com has just informed its hundreds of writers (or guides) that all compensation packages are going to be drastically cut. Some pay cuts will be as high as 80%, and the basic stipend for new guides is now back to pre-1997 levels. Plus, at least 85 guide sites have been eliminated."This is a great blow to the guides, but the management believes this is the best way to progress in an era when advertising revenues on the Internet are decreasing. They consider this pay cut 'fair and reasonable and best for the company.' I'd give serious thought before applying to become a new guide," said one About.com guide, who asked to remain anonymous.
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