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Posted 6:32 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Free Is No Longer Cool
Steve Outing on Internet business models
Blogger, a weblog service that we use as part of publishing E-Media Tidbits, is no longer a purely free service. It's just introduced a "Blogger Pro" version, which costs $35 a year ($50 after the charter rate goes away). Blogger, which is used by many thousands of webloggers to publish, has been so popular that the tiny service couldn't keep up with demand. Founder Evan Williams took a long time to do it, but finally implemented a paid-service strategy. The free service remains, but to get reliability (which Blogger users have not had in recent weeks) you'll need to pay up. After Feb. 28, anyone using Blogger for commercial services will have to pay up. It'll be interesting to see what kind of conversion rate Williams gets. My bet: it will be impressive.
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Posted 5:43 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Hotjobs.com Back at the Super Bowl
Steve Klein on online advertising
Talk about staying power: Hotjobs.com is back at the Super Bowl, for a fourth consecutive year. The 30-second television spot will air during the third quarter of the game (Feb. 3 on Fox). The commercial opens at a job interview in progress as the candidate repeats each question, verbatim. It closes with the candidate on the job as a court stenographer. The message: "Find Your Fit." (Sorry if I spoiled it for you.)Following the airing of last year's Super Bowl spot, HotJobs posted a record number of visitors to its site. On the day after the game, HotJobs.com hit an all-time high of more than 10 million page views, a 121% increase over the previous Monday and an 80% increase over the site average for the same period the year before. "The Super Bowl has enabled us to attract record gains in the number of visitors and resume postings to our site each year," said Marc Karasu, VP of advertising and marketing. "It's the one television event where as much attention is paid to the commercials as the program." In its first Super Bowl appearance in 1999, Hotjobs.com invested half its annual revenue on its Super Bowl ad.
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Posted 3:01 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Not Worth a Latte
Vin Crosbie on paying for online content
Yesterday, we ran an item about CNET's News.com reporting that webzine Salon.com has now generated 35,000 paying subscribers for its Salon Premium services. Fellow Tidbits writer Steve Outing curtly commented that this was "not bad." Today, Dotcom Scoop deputy editor Robert Loch debunks Salon's press release and News.com's fawning coverage. "Given the fantastic chance to receive Salon Premium content for as little as $2.50 per month, a staggering 3,770,000 of Salon’s reported 3.8 million readership have decided not to bother." Loch also notes that nearly a third of the income from this "hopeless" one-eighth of a percent response rate will be consumed by Salon founder David Talbot's $300,000 annual salary, then pay for only a minuscule fraction of the costs of the rest of his staff or Salon's more than $70 million debt.
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Posted 9:33 AM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Web Writing Books: Better Late Than Never
Steve Outing on new resources for online writers
Book publishing is at a snail's pace compared to that of the Internet. So, the (paper) books on the topic of writing for the Web that are now arriving on the market were commissioned back before the online media sector (and the rest of the Internet) plummeted downhill. Perhaps their timing will turn out OK, since the Web seems to be slowly heading back up, and more people will be seeking out advice on writing good Web copy. Recently, review copies of these online writing and editing books showed up in my mailbox: Hot Text! Web Writing That Works, by Jonathan and Lisa Price (New Riders, US$40); Web Word Wizardry by Rachel McAlpine (Ten Speed Press, US$11.95); and Net Words: Creating High-Impact Online Copy by Nick Usborne (McGraw Hill, US$16.95). Another recently arrived title: A Simple Guide to Writing for Your Website by BBC new media trainer Susannah Ross (Prentice Hall UK, £7.99).
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Posted 9:01 AM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
How to Unsubscribe From This List
Steve Outing on Internet humor
If you publish e-mail content or run an e-mail discussion list, you know that some Internet users can be a bit, well, dense. It's common to receive frantic, and often abusive, mail like: "UNSUBSCRIBE ME NOW! I'VE TRIED EVERYTHING! HELP!!!!" This will come despite simple unsubscribe instructions on every e-mail you send out. Internet humorist Randy Cassingham (whose This Is True e-newsletter reaches 160,000 subscribers) found this classic reply to clueless e-mail de-subscribers (origination unknown). Here's what you might send in response next time. (And no, I'm NOT recommending this.)"Here's how to unsubscribe: First, ask your Internet Provider to mail you an Unsubscribing Kit. Then follow these directions. The kit will most likely be the standard no-fault type. Depending on requirements, System A and/or System B can be used. When operating System A, depress lever and a plastic dalkron unsubscriber will be dispensed through the slot immediately underneath. When you have fastened the adhesive lip, attach connection marked by the large 'X' outlet hose. Twist the silver-coloured ring one inch below the connection point until you feel it lock. .." This goes on for several more paragraphs, but you get the idea. (Here's the full note.) As the proprietor of many e-mail lists and newsletters, I've often been tempted to send such a reply.
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Posted 6:09 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Wireless Internet Wisdom
Nora Paul on growth of the mobile market
This item from the Jan. 23 AIM (now named the Association for Interactive Marketing) newsletter has some sensible advice for those who are wanting to maximize the use of their products by the wireless Internet audience. Cahners In-Stat/MDR found in a recent survey of wireless Internet users that there are four key attributes that drive customer satisfaction: breadth of applications available, ease of use, quality of service, and reliability of service. While this advice was directed at carriers, I think this is advice good for those who are delivering content to keep in mind. The In-Stat/MDR analysts also found that "three out of four members of the survey group used a wireless phone to access the Internet wirelessly. Laptops with wireless modems and entry-level PDAs are runners-up. The majority of panelists access their wireless Internet service a few times a week, if not daily." The survey also indicated that new technologies like J2ME (Java 2 Platform, MicroEdition), BREW (Binary Runtime for Wireless), WAP 2.0 (Wireless Application Protocol), and 2.5G services will help stimulate the market. (See the report.)
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Posted 5:50 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Present the Trophy in Bankruptcy Court?
Vin Crosbie on newspaper advertising
Perhaps no story portrays the newspaper industry's current woes as well as this: On Monday, Kmart Corporation was named the Best Overall in the Newspaper Association of America's third annual Retailer of the Year awards competition. The following day, Kmart filed for bankruptcy, the largest such filing ever made by a retailer.The NAA Retailer of the Year awards were established to acknowledge those retailers that execute highly effective partnerships with newspapers in their markets. Kmart was nominated by the San Diego Union-Tribune and Gannett Co., for newspaper initiatives that resulted in a 24% increase in daily sales at Kmart stores and a 44% hike for Sunday editions. Kmart, the third-largest discount retailer in the U.S., continues to operate all 2,114 of its stores, but analysts say that several hundred stores will be closed after a corporate review is completed at the end of April, which could mean layoffs for thousands of the company's 240,000 workers. There is no estimate yet of how much newspaper advertising revenue could be lost.
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Posted 3:26 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Broadband Has the Bush Administration's Attention
Steve Klein on broadband deployment
Here's a news flash. Just in case you were wondering, the Bush administration is paying attention to broadband. Commerce assistant secretary Nancy Victory, speaking at the Broadband Outlook 2002 conference in Washington, D.C., addressed the importance of the government's role in broadband deployment: "As you know, broadband issues are a top priority for President Bush and his administration. As many of you know, the administration has been working hard to determine what the appropriate role is for the federal government in assisting the roll-out of broadband." So there you have it, as you, or many of you, know.What questions are the administration asking? According to Victory: "Is broadband a new medium for a new media? Would the widespread availability of high speed and interactive video highways into the living rooms, classrooms, and desktops of Americans spark a new media revolution? Is broadband a 'transformational enabler' of a leap forward in information services and capabilities? Are we just talking about bigger 'pipes' or 'pipes' that make a bigger difference?" And the answer(s)? "Americans' enjoyment of the full benefits of broadband appears to depend at least in part on a regulatory policy that eliminates unnecessary impediments to deployment and promotes full and fair competition — a regulatory policy that is comprehensive and coordinated, with all of its elements 'in balance.'" OK. Did you learn anything?
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Posted 3:19 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Fighting the Digital Divide
Carla Passino on the BorgouNET project
Borgou, in northern Benin, may well be one of the world's most deprived regions, but it has access to the Internet, reports El Pais. A group of volunteers, coordinated by the local archbishopric, runs Internet service provider BorgouNET from Parakou, the capital of Borgou. The ISP, which started eight months ago as an internal service for the diocese, currently offers e-mail access to more than 50 charities operating in the area "to aid them in their work to promote a fair and enduring development." BorgouNET is now applying for non-governmental organization status.At a time when anything you want to do on the Web — whether running a search or reading archived news — seems to come with a price tag, it is refreshing to hear that there is still room for no-profit initiatives to end the digital divide.
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Posted 11:19 AM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Salon Getting More Subscription Money
Steve Outing on paid content
CNET's News.com reported yesterday that webzine Salon.com has now reached 35,000 paying subscribers for its Salon Premium services. Not bad!
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Posted 10:56 AM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Save the Internet!
Steve Outing on lost information
Long ago before VCRs, TV networks figured there was no point archiving old programs (like the first Super Bowl!). "Today, we wonder how TV executives could have been so stupid, even as we repeat the mistake" on the Web, writes Hiawatha Bray in the Boston Globe. Today's Web publishers repeat the mistake, though not always for lack of foresight: companies go out of business, data is dumped to free up server space, etc. Bray writes about efforts to archive the entire Internet, which is all well and good. But online publishers and website operators need to think about the historical record themselves and not rely on others. Data or information published on the Web once but that now looks "worthless" could provide a useful historical record down the road. In Web publishing, it's OK to be a pack rack — indeed, it's encouraged.
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Posted 5:03 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Execs Subscribe Employees to the Right News
Jeppe Kruse on profitable online news
When two Danish journalists conceived the idea of building a website with regional news, they had only the hope that they were going to do better financially than most Scandinavian online news venues. Now, four months on, their wishes have been fulfilled with 3,000 subscribers nationally, and they're actually expecting to be in the black with the news service over the course of 2002. The positive results are not due to private subscribers, but mainly because of the multi-reader subscriptions sold to companies and public administration offices. Apparently, dk-news has hit a soft spot with executives who think their employees should be up to date.The rest of the recipe? Low costs (an editorial team of two and a few freelance writers) and a well-tailored news profile with a strong appeal to decision-makers both in public administration and in the corporate sector. Add to that something traditionally avoided online in a country with only 5 million potential subscribers: subscription-based-only original content, no news syndication, and low-key design. Big media corporations still have a lot to learn.
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Posted 4:10 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
End of the English Hegemony
Carla Passino on the boom of non-English-speaking Internet users
English no longer is the default language of the Web. According to research by marketing communications consultancy Global Reach, non-English-speaking users now account for 57% of the online population. English remains the most widely spoken language on the Internet, followed by Japanese and Chinese. However, non-English speakers are the fastest growing group of Internet users, and are expected to total over 65% of the online population by 2003."Online writers and editors frequently talk about writing for a global audience but, in practice, most seem to make little effort to address the particular problems such a challenge represents", wrote fellow E-Media Tidbits writer Andrew Stroehlein back in August 2001. They'd better start facing the challenge: writing for a global audience has never been more important.
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Posted 1:48 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Hey, Don't Read! Look Over Here! Hey!!
Steve Outing on online advertising
Take a look at this page. (It's an interesting story on Shift.com about whether newspapers will survive.) But this item is not about the story, but about how difficult it is to read. First, it's white type on black, which is more challenging to read than the reverse. But what's most irritating is the Intel ad on the left of the page, which is a truly annoying and distracting animation with robots quickly scurrying about. It doesn't stop, and the movement is so distracting that's it's very difficult to focus on the words. Web ads like this cry out to have a "Stop Animation" button. Publishers need to be a bit choosey, rejecting ads like this and requiring modifications.
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Posted 10:24 AM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Separate Online Units on the Way Out?
Steve Outing on STLToday.com's layoffs
Yesterday's big news in the online newspaper world (as reported over on MediaNews) was the 15 layoffs at STLToday.com, the website and independent unit of news chain Pulitzer that's affiliated with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. That left the regional portal with a staff of 44, down from its peak of 100. The online operation is losing too much money, so Pulitzer's reaction is expected to be to integrate it back into the St. Louis newspaper operations. I think it's safe to predict that other independent online units of newspaper companies may face similar fates unless they can quickly show profitability — or at least the promise of it being near. But the larger issue is that it often makes the most sense to integrate print and online operations. Consolidation, convergence: not new words, but ones you'll hear a lot during 2002. (Here's E&P's story about the STLToday.com situation.)
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Posted 6:35 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Yahoo! Goes Premium
Steve Outing on search tools
No. 1 Web destination Yahoo! will introduce a new premium search service on Wednesday — the first time that the site's users will be asked to pay to search. (Yahoo! remains primarily a free service, of course; but this is the first time it's created a supplemental paid search service.) This is a partnership with Northern Light, giving Yahoo! users access to NL's "Special Collection" of 7,100 information sources (most of which are not available free on the Web). If you want to purchase a document that comes up from a premium search, it will cost a dollar or more for a one-time sale. For a monthly fee of $4.95, you can get the right to download 50 documents. The monthly subscription is a fair price, and makes this an affordable and worthwhile tool for journalists whose information needs go beyond what a free search can find on Yahoo! or Google, et al.
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Posted 12:59 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
A Step Toward Print-Online Integration
Rich Gordon on a new executive post at Knight Ridder
What can newspapers offer an advertiser that online classified sites (Monster.com, Realtor.com, Autobytel.com) cannot? Simple: The option to buy print advertising along with online. Despite this seemingly obvious opportunity, newspapers have struggled since the early days of interactive media with how their print and online classified businesses should interrelate. Slowly but surely, though, there are signs of progress. At most large newspaper companies, advertisers can now buy packages that include print and online. And organizational structures are changing.The latest development: Knight Ridder has appointed a new senior executive with corporate responsibility for classified advertising as well as a vice presidency in the company's digital subsidiary. The move comes as newspapers' interactive businesses are beginning to show signs of profitability — largely fueled by online classified revenues. Ultimately, though, the question remains: Will newspaper companies be as aggressive as they need to be about online classifieds if — as I believe — online success ultimately means a decline in the print business?
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Posted 11:10 AM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Dot-com Boom Not All Bust
Paul Grabowicz on uses of Internet-inspired technology
There's a nice story in the San Francisco Chronicle on how the much maligned excesses of the dot-com boom nonetheless helped establish and popularize the Internet, e-mail, e-commerce, and other new technologies. My favorite tidbit: the software and conveyer belt system that the failed Webvan built for home grocery delivery is now being used by Kaiser Foundation Hospitals to ship supplies.
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Posted 11:04 AM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Reuters' Data Storage Tool Thinks Globally
Madan Rao on publishing technology
Reuters Asia (headquartered in Hong Kong) has developed a clustered data storage tool called Super-D, which has now been selected as a component of Reuters' global architecture. The Reuters network contains more than 1 billion data records in multiple languages, and Super-D has been designed to facilitate easy collection, distribution, and access to this information. A new product for the Hong Kong market carrying realtime and historic stock data in English and Chinese was created in less than seven months, using Super-D. CIO Asia Pacific magazine reports that the global deployment of Super-D could result in annual cost savings of US$6 million. Reuters Asia's CIO was the recipient of the CIO 2002 award from the magazine, rubbing shoulders with counterparts from Singapore Airlines, Eastman Chemicals Asia, Hongkong Towngas, and the InfoComm Development Authority of Singapore.
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Posted 1:39 AM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Who Owns What and Why?
Katja Riefler on online investments of German publishing houses
Ownership and investments in online and new media companies can be very confusing. German publishing houses have in part invested heavily in the last few years, some have reduced their involvement, others have even expanded. If you want to get an overview on what happened in the last two years here in Germany and if you are able to read German, have a look at Andreas Vogel's excellent documentation in MediaPerspektiven. Vogel concludes from his investigation that online is no longer seen as being part of the core business of publishing houses. In 10 years, no really profitable business models have shown up. The publishers now put the emphasis on the complementary character for their print operations.From my own experience, I agree that the "where's the money" question has gained a lot in importance, and publishers need to find substantial revenue sources. But I don't think that everything worth trying has already been tried. I'm even more convinced that publishing houses cannot just withdraw from this expensive experimental Internet and start doing business as usual, as they had been doing in the pre-digital age.
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Posted 1:17 AM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Good News (Crunch, Crunch)
Steve Outing on online advertising
Here's some good news for online media. Frito-Lay has decided to forgo its normal Super Bowl commercials (which ain't cheap!) and instead spend more money during 2002 on Web advertising. Frito-Lay ad agency BBDO Worldwide New York has created a marketing plan that commits 9% of the overall marketing budget for Doritos snack chips to online efforts. It's mostly an effort to reach teenagers "where they live" — the Internet. (Ad Age has this story.)This sort of development is great news for online media. It indicates that online pessimism is misguided, and that indeed online media is back on the upswing. With enough small signs like this of a resurgence of Internet media, we'll be back on track shortly.
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Posted 11:52 AM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
No Tidbits Today
Due to the Martin Luther King Day holiday in the U.S., we're taking the day off. E-Media Tidbits items return on Tuesday.
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