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Posted 3:01 AM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Publishers May Lose @Home Subscribers
Steve Outing on cable Internet woes
If Excite @Home's cable operation indeed goes dark, as is possible this weekend due to the company's financial woes, e-mail publishers could lose substantial numbers of subscribers — as they lose their e-mail addresses. I wish I'd thought to recommend this earlier, but it could be worth letting your @Home subscribers know that they should pick up another e-mail address (perhaps on a free service like Hotmail or YahooMail) and change their subscription accounts with you, so they continue to receive your e-mail publications. But if @Home goes down today (Saturday), it'll of course be too late for that. Let's hope @Home users get their access back, and their same e-mail addresses. Otherwise, some e-publishers will be singing the lost-subscriber blues.
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Posted 2:06 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
AOL in the Living Room
Rich Gordon on new media's 800-pound gorilla
AOL Time Warner is on the move. Wired News outlines the company's strategy with a focus on the role of Time Warner Cable, now the second-largest cable operator in the U.S. Comments from CEO Bob Pittman suggest that cable was the real jewel in the company's acquisition of Time Warner. Meanwhile, reports suggest that AOLTW is one of several prospective suitors for AT&T's cable operations. You can see the future taking shape here. If AOL can become the gateway to broadband content in the living room, with cable's strong subscription-based revenue stream as the foundation, the company will be as dominant in home entertainment as it is in online services. And any company that wants to reach consumers with broadband content (or advertising) will have to share revenue with Steve Case, et al.
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Posted 1:46 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Concentrating on Classifieds
Rich Gordon on newspapers and the Web
A CNET News.com piece about the battle for online classifieds indicates that newspaper interactive divisions are relying more and more on classified revenue. Tribune Co. reports that classifieds make up 70-75% of online sales; the comparable figure for Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive is 50%. Both companies report sizable increases in online classified revenue this year at a time when banner ad sales — AND print classified ad sales — are down sharply. Meanwhile, as Forbes reports, New York Times Digital has been profitable for two quarters — and presumably online classified revenue is a big part of the reason. All of this means good news for newspapers' online operations, but the trends are ominous for newspaper companies as a whole (because a shift of the classified business from print to online means lower overall profitability). And the prognosis for newspapers' online news operations isn't cheery either — because there's no evidence that news is necessary to build a successful online classified strategy.
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Posted 1:16 AM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Journalists: Crank Up Your Search Skills
Steve Outing on removal of government information
Since Sept. 11, many American government agencies have been taking information that they deem "sensitive" off of their websites. While that may make it a bit more difficult for terrorists, it also is inconvenient for the public and especially journalists. But the government can't get rid of the information it's posted on the Web so easily, as David Colker reports in the Los Angeles Times. The information lives on in a variety of other sites that have copied it, as well as in the enormous Internet Archive (a non-profit project that stores a history of the Web).Where journalists (and the public) will likely suffer is with information that's created from now forward. Agencies aren't publishing as much information on the Web due to security concerns, so reporters will have to work much harder to gain access (or even learn about it). (Thanks to search/new media guru Nora Paul for pointing out the Times article. She urges journalists to use the OMB Watch website, which is tracking the disappearance of government documents online.)
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Posted 5:32 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Gator Succumbs to Pressure
Steve Outing on online advertising
One of the more loathed forms of online advertising has been that from Gator.com, which produces software that overlays ads of its clients on paid-for ads on websites. (A Web user must be using Gator's software — which does other useful things, as well as contains its own advertising scheme — to get the overlaid ads.) As the Wall Street Journal reports, Gator has succumbed to pressure from the Interactive Advertising Burea and will rewrite its software — stopping a practice of which many Web publishers have been highly critical (to put it mildly).
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Posted 3:43 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Micropayments On the Way — at Least In Denmark
Katja Riefler on an initiative of the Danish online news media
The discussion on paid online content has been ongoing here in Europe for months, but I haven't met anybody yet who's tired of it. The Danish online news media now get a lot of attention because they joined forces to introduce a common micro-billing solution that could be used by sites all over the country starting in February 2002. Among the supporters are old and new media, like the well respected newspaper Politiken, the TV station TV 2, and portal sites like Yahoo Denmark. The group is quite active. It just invited 12 vendors of micropayment systems to present their solutions during a two-day workshop. A committee is in charge to decide on the next steps. More information can be found on the website of the Federation of Danish Internet Media (sorry, Danish only).
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Posted 3:27 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Boxers Punch In
Steve Klein on online sports sites
Some things never change about sports on the Web. Take tennis player Anna Kournikova, for instance. Her website has been the No. 1 most visited site forever on Aaron Schatz's top 10 Lycos search stops (as of the Nov. 28 list), and basketball players continue to do well: Allen Iverson is No. 2, Michael Jordan No. 3, Vince Carter No. 6, and Kobe Bryant No. 7 (but where's Shaq?).What is new is two boxers in the top 10: Brit Lennox Lewis, who knocked out Hasim Rahman recently to reclaim the heavyweight championship, at No. 4, and Mike Tyson at No. 10. Rounding out the top 10: skateboarder Tony Hawk at No. 5, and baseball players Ichiro Suzuki and Derek Jeter at Nos. 8 and 9.
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Posted 11:43 AM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Dot-com Crash? What Dot-Com Crash?
Steve Outing on Internet usage trends
A new study by the UCLA Center for Communication Policy has some findings that should confirm the need for media companies (in the U.S., especially) to stay aggressive with their Internet strategies. Some significant tidbits from the study: 72.3% of Americans now have online access. Average hours per week people spend online continues to increase, up to 9.8 hours; that compares to 10 hours of TV watching spent by non-Internet users. Internet users watch 4.5 hours less TV per week than non-users — yet Internet users spend the same time as always on other activities such as playing sports. "The only social activity in American households that suffers significantly as a result of Internet use is time spent watching television," said the director of the Center.As David Osier writes in his CNN.com report, "Going online is now so entrenched in American life that not even the dot-com collapse and the subsequent economic slowdown have diminished the Web's popularity." Lesson for media execs: Don't give up on the Internet just because of temporary bad times and difficulties finding viable business models. The audience is strong; the challenge remains in profiting from it.
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Posted 11:20 AM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
When Best Could Be Better
Jade Walker on online resources
Forbes magazine just released the annual Best of the Web issue, highlighting its staff's favorite 140 websites. Categorized into 22 sections, these links were a rather disappointing lot. While each site was reviewed and hyperlinked, few of the choices came as a surprise. Many useful sites were ignored, particularly ones run by smaller companies rather than large conglomerates. Plus, each review included a pro vs. con feature, and yet some of the links included in this "Best of" issue had longer con descriptions than pro ones.
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Posted 9:29 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
News in Your In-box – Sometimes
Rich Gordon on an AP reporter's experiment
"Push" is no longer a hot buzzword in the online publishing industry — thank goodness — but news delivered via e-mail, pager, or handheld is one of the most important opportunities for online news sites. Anick Jesdanun of the Associated Press recently subscribed to a variety of these services and wrote about the experience. One thing Jesdanun found that I've noticed occasionally too: automated "spam filters" (such as the one built in to Microsoft Outlook) sometimes identify news alert e-mails as potential spam. Jesdanun also found that the same alert arrived at very different times — if at all — depending on which e-mail account was used to subscribe. Presumably, some ISPs that try to filter out spam on their mail servers also sometimes mis-identify these alerts as unsolicited e-mail — and delete them before the subscriber even sees them.
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Posted 3:10 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Online Memorials: Does Anyone Care?
Steve Outing on tributes to slain journalists
Online obituary site Legacy.com has created online tribute sites for the journalists who died recently covering the war in Afghanistan. (They're highlighted on this page on Poynter.org.) I'm disheartened to see that most of them have no entries; the pages invite people who knew the journalists to write tributes to their lives and share their experience of knowing the deceased. Of the eight journalists listed on the Poynter page, on six there are no comments contributed as I write this; on the other two, one person wrote a message of religious comfort. In comparison, the Legacy.com tribute page to San Jose Mercury News photographer Luci Houston has dozens of notes from her friends and colleagues.Why the disparity? These online tributes tend to be a word-of-mouth phenomenon. When newspaper colleagues of Houston's learned about the tribute page, they shared the information with other journalists. Those who knew the journalists who died in Afghanistan need to get the word out to others who knew the war victims. The empty tribute pages don't do justice to the sacrifice these journalists made.
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Posted 12:00 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
The Forms of Online Journalism
Steve Outing on storytelling examples
It's not new, but we've never mentioned it here, and it's recently been updated. Jonathan Dube's CyberJournalist website has a nifty feature and tutorial that explains the different forms of online storytelling. He includes lots of examples of how to use the capabilities of the Web to present stories. The Web is capable of so much more than "shovelware," and Dube provides links to a bunch of good examples of online storytelling. If you haven't spent time learning from this Web page yet, I urge you to do so.
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Posted 1:16 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Watching (Ahem) the News
Steve Outing on headlines for your wristwatch
A news-receiving video chip implanted in the brain might be where this is leading to, but for now you'll have to settle for breaking news headlines arriving on your wristwatch. As George Mannes writes for TheStreet.com, the newest Timex watch can receive breaking-news headline alerts. While this early version of wristwatch news is far from perfect, it does show where we're heading — with news delivered to us wherever we may be, on a variety of devices. Can a watch ever be a rational choice for news delivery? I have my doubts because of the tiny screen space on a watch's LCD. It's more likely to be a novelty rather than a useful news receiver.
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Posted 12:48 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
What Does the Future Hold for the Internet?
Steve Outing on Kurt Andersen's view
IWantMedia.com today published an interview with Kurt Andersen, media maven and co-founder of Inside.com and Spy magazine, about all things media. It's an interesting read. Here's Andersen on the post-recession/post Sept. 11 Internet: "Well, it ain't going away. I think it's more or less as huge and transformative as everyone said it was five years ago. And this war will, if anything, increase the general dependence on networked digital communication — for instant news, for e-mail instead of toxic paper mail, for teleconferencing instead of flying, for telecommuting instead of gathering in downtowns, maybe even for video-on-demand instead of going to movie theaters."
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Posted 11:37 AM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Protesting Takes to the Internet
Steve Klein on protesting online
Not every American approves of the Bush administration's response to the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11. So, many groups are turning to the Internet as a powerful tool for reaching other dissenters, according to Amy Harmon in an article in the New York Times. "The character of political action organizing has completely shifted since the gulf war," says Brian Becker, co-director of the International Action Center, which was founded in 1992 by Ramsey Clark, a former U.S. attorney general. "Instead of a physical location like our office, the website has become our mobilization headquarters." According to Andrew Carvin, who runs an online discussion forum for the Washington-based Benton Foundation, many participants use free, disposable e-mail addresses and do not identify themselves.
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Posted 11:31 AM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Internet Content Services Via Satellite in India
Madan Rao on expanding Internet's reach
Download a website via your radio? This is soon to become possible across India when satellite-radio broadcaster Worldspace enables its receivers with data-downloading capabilities, at 128 Kbps directly to a computer. To do this, the "listener" has to connect a specially built receiver to a computer using a Digital Data Adaptor that is expected to cost around US$40, according to WorldSpace India head Mathewkutty Sebastian. "When we launch this service, an Indian consumer would be able to receive 25 channels of crystal clear audio plus around 50 websites," he said. This would possibly include informational sites like the Encyclopaedia Britannica, HowStuffWorks.com, NationalGeographic.com, and some Indian sites, including Bollywood film sites.
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Posted 7:05 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
IOC Protects Its Streaming Video
Steve Klein on online sports content
Here we go again. The International Olympic Committee is so concerned about illegal video of the 2002 Winter Olympic Games showing up on the Internet that it has hired a company just to monitor violators, according to Vince Horiuchi of the Salt Lake Tribune. The IOC will use Copyright Control Services to make sure that video of any events does not illegally show up on a website. "We're the guys that can actually track and trace where the infringement is taking place and contact the ISPs or the owner of the website of the infringement," said David Powell, managing director of London-based CCS. Olympic officials have been concerned about illegally distributed video since the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta. NBC, which has the rights to broadcast the games in the U.S., paid more than $280 million to show the Games on television.
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Posted 6:44 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
What Users Want
Carla Passino on online content that works
"What do our users want to read?" This was the single most debated question among online editors at a recent IPC Media conference. At a time when online publishing is in dire straits, it may seem strange that a bunch of Web editors would spend their time obsessing over content. But making content work for readers remains the foremost concern of any journalist. The general consensus at the conference was that — when online — readers are need-driven. They are after "must-have" content, that vital piece of information they can’t possibly do without, and they do not care much about the "nice-to-read" stuff.There and then, I had to agree. However, a closer look at the surfing habits of people I know made me reconsider. My addiction to a daily dose of Ken Layne, for example, can hardly be explained in terms of hard necessity. Nor can my husband’s obsession with the latest comments on Italian soccer. Were he after the scores and the latest news, well, perhaps that could be considered a need. But comments? To my horror, I am starting to think that my colleagues and I were wrong in our assessment — or, rather, out of date. Consumption of online content may have been need-driven in the past. When Internet access was more expensive and much slower, users went online to satisfy urgent information requirements. But as download speeds increase and connection costs decrease, editorial consumption is changing: Bye-bye, need-driven content, welcome interest-driven content.
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Posted 11:52 AM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
A One-Stop Olympic Website
Steve Klein on online sports content
The Salt Lake Organizing Committee for the Olympic Winter Games, NBC, MSNBC.com, and the MSN Network have launched what they say is the largest event website in sports history. The site is being produced by MSNBC.com and promoted through MSN to its 270 million unique users worldwide. The site also will be promoted throughout NBC's television coverage of the Games on NBC, CNBC, and MSNBC. The SLOC is the first Organizing Committee to fully integrate the Internet into its preparations for the Games. For the first time in Olympic history, users have one integrated source for all their official Games information and feature stories geared toward an international audience.During the February 2002 Games, the site will feature exclusive live results, "slide shows'' that will provide image captures from NBC, an in-depth broadcast schedule, and immersive storytelling. The website also will feature a "Meet the Team'" section that provides an analysis of every member of the USA Olympic Winter Games team. NBC's on-air Olympic commentating team will provide event analysis. "The website allows us to extend and complement the storytelling from our broadcasts in a way that was previously unavailable," says Dick Ebersol, chairman of NBC Sports and Olympics.
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Posted 10:29 AM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Online Advertising to Rise in UK
Andrew Stroehlein on one hopeful sign
Writing in today's Media Guardian, Claire Cozens highlights a new report that should bring some solace to our beleaguered (online media) industry. According to advertising research company ARC, two-thirds of Britain's biggest advertisers are still advertising on the Internet, and half of them are intending to up their online advertising budgets in the coming year. A meager 12% are planning to decrease Internet ad spending. The research was commissioned by the Incorporated Society of British Advertisers.
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Posted 10:11 AM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
European Union Debates 'Opt-In' for 'Cookies'
Vin Crosbie on IAB UK's campaign
The European Parliament this month voted to accept a draft of legislation that would require websites in its 22 countries to receive visitors' prior consents before placing any "cookies" onto those visitors' computers. Because "cookies" can track Web-surfing consumers but mostly without explicitly asking for those consumers' consent, Wim van Velzen, a Dutch member of the European Parliament, argues that "cookies" be prohibited under existing EU consumer data privacy protection laws, which indeed require consumers' prior consent to any form of tracking. The Internet Advertising Bureau of the United Kingdom claims that the EU legal amendments van Velzen has introduced would hobble the Internet advertising industry in the EU, possibly generating a £187 million annual loss in advertising revenues for UK websites alone.IAB UK chairman Danny Meadows Klue, the former publisher of the Electronic Telegraph, has formed a "Save our Cookies" campaign and asks that website publishers from EU countries write to their members of the European Parliament to protest van Velzen's proposal. The proposed legislation, which would also ban "opt-out" spamming, must go through a second round of parliamentary voting and be adopted by each of the individual EU countries before it can become law.
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Posted 9:42 AM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Chinese Online Ad Market May Hit US$100 Million by 2005
Madan Rao on media convergence
In the next 4-5 years, the total advertising revenue of China's market is estimated to hit US$10-12 billion, of which 1-2% will be from the online business, 10% from outdoor (advertising), and 30% or more from magazines and newspapers. Tom.com — formerly an Internet portal but now a "cross-media" company — is aiming to be No. 1 in its target markets for all its online and offline media businesses within the next few years. Tom.com, whose target markets are mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, has also been making acquisitions, such as Taiwan's largest print media group, PC Home, and e-mail service provider 163.net. Tom.com CEO Sing Wang is aggressively pursuing cross-selling of advertisements on its diverse mix of traditional and Internet-based media outlets.
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