|
Posted 8:22 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
We're Taking Monday Off ...
Steve Outing on E-Media Tidbits
Due to the Memorial Day holiday in the U.S., there will be no Tidbits items posted on Monday (May 28). We'll resume our normal publication on Tuesday.
Posted 8:17 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
txt msg pom / rime while U roam
Amy Gahran on SMS poetry
Short text message service (SMS, a way to send and receive text messages using mobile phones) is really catching on — in very strange ways. Recently, London's Guardian newspaper sponsored an SMS poetry contest. (See Wired News, Don't Go Gently Into That SMS, by Elisa Batista.) SMS messages cannot exceed 160 characters, so SMS poets are developing creative and challenging ways to express themselves. Julia Bird authored this poem, which won the "most creative use of SMS shorthand" prize:14: / a txt msg pom. / his is r bunsn brnr bl%, / his hair lyk fe filings / W/ac/dc going thru. / I sit by him in kemistry, / it splits my @oms / wen he :-)s @ me
Posted 7:09 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Online Olympic Video: When Hell Freezes Over?
Steve Klein on online sports content
Stories in the Toronto Globe and Mail and the Toronto Star on Friday make it clear that if you're hoping to see some live video over the Internet from the 2002 Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City or the 2004 Summer Games in Athens, then Athens is more likely to freeze over first. "We're waiting for someone to come with a pocket load of cash and a plan to make some," said Dick Ebersol, chairman of NBC sports, during a panel discussion on convergence of different media forms in sports at the International Sports Press Association conference in Toronto. "Just because there's a new kid on the block (the Internet), we are supposed to give (broadcast rights) to them? Who the hell are they?" Ebersol's network owns the U.S. broadcast rights to the Olympics through 2008. "The real issues all come back to one thing and that's cash," Ebersol said. "This cannot be a charity."If that's not clear enough for you, Dick Pound of the International Olympic Committee said, "We are not going to replace television with a medium that has no power and no economic model."
Posted 4:51 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
When — and When Not — to Charge
Rich Gordon on the "content conversation"
This week's Editor & Publisher features an article about the hot topic of the day at newspaper Web sites: Whether, how, and when to charge for content. The article offers "10 pay-for-play strategies." Some thoughts on a few of them:
- A leaner free online edition. The idea: Put some existing content behind a subscription curtain, such as "longer investigative pieces or obituaries." My opinion: Never make people pay to see your best enterprise journalism — the brand enhancement you could get with people who don't (yet) subscribe far exceeds any direct financial gain you might accrue. And while obituaries are valuable unique content that's tempting to charge for, I bet you'll make more money by selling ads to florists or funeral homes.
- Enhanced e-mail specialty news packages. The idea: The Boston Globe's @bat Insider newsletter for Red Sox fans. My opinion: A good idea, for at least three reasons: (1) It offers content that goes beyond the print edition; (2) There are few topics that generate more passion than sports; (3) $9.95 per year is cheap (though that also means this service probably won't bring in a whole lot of money).
- Bonus classifieds from eBay. The idea: The Minneapolis Star Tribune and St. Petersburg Times have decided that they can't beat eBay, so they've joined the auction giant in a partnership. The newspaper gets a co-branded auction site and makes money through the sale of classified ads to online sellers. My opinion: An excellent idea, though I'm not sure it amounts to "charging for content."
Posted 1:56 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Research Backs Pay-Per-Content Model
Carla Passino on paying for content in the UK
British Web users are prepared to pay for online content, according to a recent survey by e-payment company Mondex International. Predictably, financial information is what the majority of people would pay the most for, but there also are prospective buyers for news, horoscopes, and — this being Britain — weather reports.Mondex estimates that paid online content could be worth upward of £2.6 million a month (US $3.7 million). This could be excellent news for struggling British e-publishers, but can the pay-per-content model really work? After all, saying that you will be prepared to pay for news is one thing — actually forking out the cash is quite another. I think that people will only ever pay for information that helps them make — or save — money (a la WSJ.com) or for extremely compelling content they cannot find anywhere else on the Web (qualified veterinary advice springs to mind).
Posted 1:05 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Is It Journalism? (Yes)
Steve Outing on weblogs
J.D. Lasica takes an in-depth look at weblogs in his piece for Online Journalism Review, "Blogging as a Form of Journalism." (You're reading a weblog, of course.) He interviews three webloggers for today's installment, with another three scheduled for a follow-up article next week.
PITCH LESS, WRITE MORE
Correspondent.com is a dedicated secure environment connecting the worldwide community of independent journalists, editors and publishers.
Apply today at www.correspondent.com.
Posted 12:23 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
When Internet Moves TV
Katja Riefler on the future of advertising
It's fun to see that sometimes even European Internet ideas make it to U.S. TV. When I recently read about the new ABC reality show "The Runner" that is scheduled for autumn I immediately thought of an Internet game that took place last summer in Berlin: In the RealityRun the "Runner" was supposed to hide for 24 days in Berlin and solve assigned tasks. A microphone broadcast every move of him 24 hours a day to the Internet. Unfortunately he was detected after 8 days and a reporter of Bild got the US $10,000 he had hoped to earn.This quite innocent game now sees some interesting transformation while moving to TV. The most significant in my eyes is not that either party now can hope to earn a million dollars, but the role of sponsors. While the Berlin Runner had to solve tasks like counting books in a specific row in a library, the ABC-Runner on his way across the whole U.S. within 28 days probably will have to buy a pair of trousers and a t-shirt in a GAP store in New Jersey. The products therefore are completely interwoven with the plot — an ideal situation for the advertiser. You can avoid the products only by dropping the show. I suppose that we'll see much more of this kind of advertising in the future on the Net and elsewhere. Have a look at some new examples of "Advergaming." At least here in Germany we have had a tremendous acceptance of this kind of entertainment. The famous "Moorhuhn" game that meanwhile lives a life of its own has started as a promotion for Johnny Walker Whiskey.
Posted 11:32 AM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Writing for E.T.
Jade Walker on new content venues
Vinton Cerf does not plan to keep the Web earth-bound. In fact, he and several others have developed a set of blueprints to build an interplanetary Internet. According to this story in New Scientist, the first extraterrestrial messages may be sent to Mars in 2003. Imagine the new market possibilities!
Posted 1:34 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Sports Sites Look to Broadband
Steve Klein on online sports content
Sports sites still haven't given up on the subscription model, but without widespread broadband, opportunities for paid sports content are limited. That was the main message coming from last week's Interactive Sports West Conference in Los Angeles, according to a story by Terry Lefton in the Industry Standard. "We have to stop giving everything away if we want to have a real business," said Ross Levinsohn, senior vice president and general manager of FoxSports.com. Mark Marianni, head of sales and marketing for CBS SportsLine, added: "Until you've got a high-speed network in place that most of your customers can use, you've got a problem."One possible model would be to design a subscription package around streaming audio sports programming, something Yahoo! Sports could do with the content it acquired from Broadcast.com. Yahoo would package radiocasts of collegiate sports with appropriate editorial content.
Posted 12:05 AM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Interesting ... But It Won't Work
Rich Gordon on the "modest proposal"
Steve Outing's idea for a "multi-site subscription program" is intriguing. The concept of the "cable TV model" for Web content comes up periodically — including some discussion at a recent gathering of online editors at the Medill School of Journalism, where I teach. (Incidentally, those editors said ad revenue at their sites hasn't dried up — it's still increasing, though not as quickly as the sites had budgeted.)But I'm having a hard time imagining how Steve's "modest proposal" could work. Unlike cable TV, there's no single company that controls most people's "front door" to the Web. Unlike satellite cable, there's no expensive hardware to buy (payment for which could subsidize content providers). And while people might subscribe to HBO or adult Web sites, I just don't think most will pay for journalistic content. (See commentary by Michael Kinsley and William Powers.) Even if some third-party intermediary were to rise to Steve's challenge, a lot of publishers would have to rally behind it quickly — which is unlikely in such a Balkanized business. My view: Advertising remains the key to the future of new media publishing — but online ads have to get a lot better than what we've seen to date.
Posted 2:28 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Package Paid Content, or Fail
Steve Outing on paid-content networks
You might want to read my current Editor & Publisher column, "A Modest Proposal for News Web Sites," for it suggests a model for paid content that I think needs to be discussed. My premise is that paid online content is proliferating because of e-publishers' desperation to find a viable business model. But when thousands of Web sites start charging for some of their content, the paid model breaks down because there will be so many publishers all fighting for online consumers' cash. The answer, I think, is for content networks to be set up, which will offer subscriptions to broad categories of premium content from many sites. Such networks also will eliminate the annoyance of registering at multiple sites to get their premium content. (In the adult/sex content world, such networks already exist; e.g., Adult Check.) What do you think? E-mail me if you have an opinion.
Posted 11:13 AM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Some Parts of Digital Divide Narrowing
Amy Gahran on who's getting online today
One thing that's always kind of bugged me about the evolution of the Internet is that, so far, it's mainly been a medium for the "haves" of the world. Finally, that has begun to change. According to a new study by ComScore Networks, between April 2000 and April 2001, U.S. households with an annual income of less than $25,000 increased their numbers online by 28% — more than any other income segment. Total household online penetration in this income sector is now 36%. The second-fastest growing U.S. income segment online was households earning $25,000 to $50,000 — up 17% from 2000, with a total household penetration rate of 56%. Also, according to Nielsen/NetRatings, home Net access among blue-collar workers skyrocketed 52% from March 2000 to March 2001 — faster than any other occupational group. Power to the people, baby! See: Minority, Low-Income Internet Use Increases, CyberAtlas, May 17.
Posted 10:14 AM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Don't Call Me a Dot-com
Andrew Stroehlein on dot-com stigma
A few months ago, we ran a story in InternetContent.net about a company offering a unique software solution, and the story referred to the company as "companyname.com." Yesterday, however, I received an e-mail from someone in the company, informing me politely yet firmly that the firm was in no way a "dot-com" and should not be referred to as such. As we've noted here in E-Media Tidbits before, the term "dot-com" has become a stigma.
Posted 10:10 AM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
AOL at Odds With Advertisers
Paul Grabowicz on online advertising
The merger of AOL and Time Warner has not brought the advertising windfall that some predicted for the company, according to a story in Business 2.0. The company is resisting the new "rich media" ads because they crash the systems of some AOL subscribers. And "cross-media" opportunities for placing ads in various Time Warner properties haven't taken off yet because the company's ad sales operations are so fragmented.
Posted 1:21 AM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Online Journalism Awards: Get Your Entries In
Steve Outing on ONA competition
Now's a good time to start thinking about your entries for the second Online Journalism Awards. The competition, sponsored by the Online News Association and Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, is taking entries now through July 16. The winners will be announced at the University of California at Berkeley in a ceremony in October.
Posted 8:30 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Multimedia Struggles on Internet
Paul Grabowicz on broadband
Beyond the generally poor quality of video on the Web, streaming video sites also find that even when they attract a large audience it only adds to their costs. A piece in Technology Review explores the current limits on broadband content.
Posted 7:45 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
The Consumer-Business Online Disconnect
Steve Outing on online content
My E-Media Tidbits colleague, Andrew Stroehlein, this week published an interview with online pioneer and former CNN Interactive president Scott Woelfel. This quote ran particularly true for me: "First, there are the financial markets and how they're treating online content businesses. And there's no question that's in a downswing. There's a 'disconnect' between the business world and the consumer world. But when you look at how consumers are using online sites — getting their information there and really living a lot of their lives online — that's only continuing to grow. So there's a 'disconnect' between the business world and the consumer world, and I think that, because consumer demand is so strong and continues to grow, you're going to see the business world turn around relatively quickly."
Posted 10:54 AM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Scientific Success Story
Katja Riefler on online-only publishing
Online-only is widely expected to be the future of scientific publishing. In times where universities and libraries are cutting budgets, the Internet might indeed be the way to survive. The big question is whether authors and readers will accept this new approach. If online-only articles aren't cited in the scientific community as often as their print counterparts, and don't bring the authors the reputation that they expect, there simply will be no future for online-only publishing. Pediatrics is one of the few publications thas has about three years experience with online-only peer-reviewed biomedical literature. A recent study now shows that online-only articles were nearly as well read, cited, used successfully in tenure deliberations, and used on author curricula vitae. The bad news: Even though one online-only article was the fourth most cited of all print and online articles, all authors see online publishing as a second choice and many aren't willing to allow online-only publishing any more. So in the end, authors are the key and will serve as the most effective advocates ot the Internet — or be its greatest detractors. Read more in the new edition of the Journal of Electronic Publishing.
Posted 10:49 AM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
The War of Words
Jade Walker on style issues
Every writing or publishing-related mailing list I've read has at some point gotten hung up on the issue of style. Is it "Website" or "Web site"? "E-mail" or "email"? The answers vary depending on time, venue, and personal taste. This week, New York Times reporter Anna Holmes learned which words are completely banned at certain magazines "in an effort to steer writers away from language that is hackneyed, imprecise or slangy." If you're pals with William Safire, or simply obsessed with the usage of the English language, definitely read this article. It's a hoot!
Posted 2:06 AM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Fake Death, Real Tears?
Steve Outing on can you trust what you read online?
Was Kaycee Nichole a real person who died of leukemia and up until her death wrote a weblog chronicling her final days? Probably not. The story is confusing, but what appears to be true is that a weblog portraying Kaycee's story was a hoax at least in part. The woman who claimed to be the 19-year-old's mother has confessed to making some of it up — possibly it's a complete fabrication; possibly it's based on the stories of other people the woman knew who had cancer. What is certain is that many people who followed the weblog genuinely believed that Kaycee was dying, and that some of them genuinely grieved. The moral: Be skeptical of all the strange and interesting content that's on the Web. That's especially important advice to journalists, who could have easily gotten hoodwinked by the Kaycee story. (The link above explains how a writer named Saundra got suspicious and investigated the affair, uncovering the ruse.)
PITCH LESS, WRITE MORE
Correspondent.com is a dedicated secure environment connecting the worldwide community of independent journalists, editors and publishers.
Apply today at www.correspondent.com.
Posted 7:34 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Salon Co-founder Returns to Newspapers
Paul Grabowicz on new media
Andrew Ross, one of several people who left the San Francisco Examiner in 1995 to found Salon, has gone back to the newspaper business — now as "associate editor of content" for the San Francisco Chronicle. The move was noted in a short announcement in Sunday's Chronicle on the appointment of several new editors.
Posted 11:04 AM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Chat Crackdown Threat
Andrew Stroehlein on the Internet in the UK election
As the BBC reported on Sunday, the Internet has entered into the UK general election campaign — again as an easy target for politicians of all parties looking to score "law-and-order" points. Labour Home Secretary Jack Straw and his Conservative Party shadow, Ann Widdecome, are trying to out-do each other with policy proposals aimed at curbing paedophiles' abuse of Web chat rooms. Both major parties are seeking to capitalize on the strong public mood on this issue, which has included violent vigilante attacks on people believed to be pedophiles. (In one case, semi-literate vigilantes even attacked the home of a pediatrician, confusing her job title with "pedophile.")The ruling Labour Party is promising to increase police powers even further than they are now under Labour's draconian Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000, and all UK Internet users, already suffering from the RIP Act, look set to lose yet more of their online privacy. The Conservatives say it is all too little, too late, and claim Labour is worried less about pedophiles and more about the Conservatives' proposal for a new criminal offense of "child enticement." Bashing the Internet as the home of drug-runners and pedophiles has long been popular here, as it is elsewhere, and while the new offense may indeed prove a vote-winner, it seems even more likely that no matter which party wins here on June 7, online privacy will suffer.
|
