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Posted 6:06 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Consult the Sex Experts
Steve Outing on what we can learn from online porn
According to The Guardian, online soft-porn entrepreneur and model Danni Ashe is making a career for herself as a star consultant to mainstream dot-coms. Her website, which features nude photos of Ashe and charges a subscription fee, is profitable. Indeed, mainstream online businesses (including media) could learn something from the online porn industry, so some e-sex moguls, like Ashe, are actually setting up consulting services. Among the sites asking for Ashe's advice are medical, film, and wine companies, as well as other sex sites, writes Sara Gaines in the Guardian article.
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Posted 12:42 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Correction: This Time the Germans Have Been First
Katja Riefler on on point-to-point publishing technologies
[Thanks, Katja. —Vin]
Vin (Crosbie), sorry to correct your recent item. Vienna's Der Standard hasn't developed its own electronic edition distribution technology. It is using Olive Software's "ActivePaper" technology, as well as The East Valley and Scottsdale Tribune, which probably is the first fully Web-enabled digital edition of a daily newspaper in the U.S. But you're right, there are newspapers that have developed their own distribution technology. The first one in Germany was Rhein Zeitung from Koblenz. Its e-paper started in June 2001 as a free edition. It began charging on Feb. 1. More than 1,000 of its 8,700 original subscribers have converted to a paid subcription in the first month, although you can only buy the e-paper as an add-on to the printed edition as yet. The price varies from 2 Euro to 5 Euro a month depending on whether you want to read more than one local edition. The second paper that offers its full print edition online is the Sächsiche Zeitung from Dresden. But this product, also called "e-paper," is just a PDF file that you can read online or download as a subscriber (2.50 Euro per month for print subscribers, 7.50 Euro per month for online only).
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Posted 11:21 AM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Another Move Toward Convergence
Steve Outing on ESPN's move
ESPN.com is moving back under the ESPN Inc. corporate umbrella, according to this report from AtNewYork.com. It's evidence of the continued trend toward media companies with old and new media operations combining the two. It simply makes sense for many large companies, though there are still holdouts. (E.g., the Washington Post Co., which keeps the Internet division independent.) There's no right answer in the independent-vs.-in-house debate. While in-house new media takes advantage of cost efficiences and sharing news-gathering resources, independent units are more likely to maintain a culture of adventurous experimentation.
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Posted 11:03 AM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Help From the Internet
Juan C. Camus on media meeting social needs
What other thing can a news website do — other than just write stories — in a country with serious economic troubles like Argentina? The official numbers shows that 40% of the population is below the poverty line, which means that 5 million people do not have the necessary money for basic life necessities. The answer for La Nacion was to publish a special section with information about social foundations — mostly orphanages — that are in danger because of shortages of funding. That section shows many foundations, with their information (phone, address, and areas of interest), and in a special column, what they need on a daily basis. For example: food, drugs, clothing ... and money, of course.
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Posted 6:46 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Flash Done Efficiently
Rich Gordon on the high cost of Flash animations
Steve Outing, our weblog's fearless leader, writes in his Editor & Publisher column about the need for news sites to do more with interactive graphics with technologies such as Macromedia Flash. The conventional wisdom, though, is that Flash graphics require sophisticated expertise and are too time-consuming to execute regularly. Not necessarily. Macromedia sells an incredible product called Generator that enables a designer to build the equivalent of a Flash template that can be populated with content created by someone who knows nothing about Flash. The content lives in a database, where it can be easily edited; when it's time to publish, you click and Generator creates a Flash project. If there are types of content you want to publish regularly (say, a sequential photo essay or an interactive timeline), your designer could create a template that can be used over and over again. Britannica.com (taking advantage of the skills of Richard Alvarez, now my colleague at the Medill School of Journalism) produced a number of these "storytelling tools" back when it was creating a lot of online-only content.One note of caution: Macromedia says it is going to be phasing out Generator in favor of "a new set of solutions to make client-server development with Flash more flexible and powerful." Whatever happens, I hope Macromedia continues to make an affordable product available. (Right now, the desktop version of Generator generally costs about $1,000 — at the high end of affordable for most online news sites. The "enterprise" version that runs on a server and allows Flash animations to be created dynamically costs $3,000-plus.)
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Posted 4:43 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Don't Hit Your Neighbor ...
Katja Riefler on frustrated Britons
Unfortunately, for some people violence is the only way to deal with their Internet glitches. According to a new survey by Abbey National, 7% of Britons admit to hitting their keyboard or mouse in the heat of the moment, 4% to thumping their desk, and 2% claimed to have actually hit the person next to them in their frustration over using the Internet. Web rage now seems to strike over half of all Internet users (54%) at least once a week, with more than one in 10 (11%) admitting to losing it on a daily basis. You can read the results here, and if you are frustrated yourself you can find some relaxation here.
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Posted 2:19 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Google Offers E-editions of U.S. Retailers' Catalogs
Vin Crosbie on point-to-point publishing technologies
Yesterday, I reported how Der Standard of Vienna was the first newspaper periodical to offer its own electronically delivered print edition. Moves by periodical publishers to electronic distribution of printed editions aren't limited to just newspapers and magazines. Journalists tend to forget that consumers regard catalogs as periodicals. "The Internet is Nirvana for catalogers. Just when printing, mailing, and postage costs have been on a steady increase, this electronic wonderland has come along to give catalog companies a whole new life," remarked Maxwell Sroge, catalog consultant and operator of Catalog-News.com, in 2000. Because consumers can now browse marketers' websites, Sroge estimated that 1.5 billion fewer printed catalogs were mailed that year in the U.S.Now, the search engine Google has quietly begun a test program allowing online consumers to browse printed editions of nearly 2,000 major American retailers' catalogs, everything from industrial adhesives to lingerie to food to home furnishings to toys. Google scanned each catalog into PDF files, which can be displayed in single- or multi-page formats. Although most of these online catalogs still require consumers to phone retailers to place orders, a retailer can screen-map and hyperlink a scanned catalog directly to its website's ordering system. Besides lead generation, Google provides each retailer with aggregate information about what keywords consumers used to find a catalog, how many pages they typically examined, and how consumers used the catalog, all while keeping individual consumer's identities secret.
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Posted 1:07 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Web Is a Help, Not a Hindrance
Steve Outing on cannibalization fears
There are still newspaper executives who fear that their websites have the potential for cannibalization — for reducing print circulation. But evidence continues to mount that it's the other way around. Nua Internet Surveys has a brief report debunking the cannibalization myth, and citing a report by Pressflex that showed that French regional newspapers with websites have lost less circulation than did the papers without websites.At least at this point in the history of the Internet, the Web is a positive for newspapers' print editions. Longer term, all digital publishing (of which the Web is but one small part) will have a negative impact on print circulation. That's inevitable, and newspaper publishers must plan for the transition — for the day that will eventually come when more people read a "newspaper's" content on some sort of electronic screen than on the printed page.
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Posted 12:46 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
The Best of E-Europe
Andrew Stroehlein on the NetMedia European Online Journalism Awards
NetMedia has gone live with its website for the 2002 European Online Journalism Awards. The competition only started in 1999 but has grown quickly and now includes dozens of judges from around Europe. The formal call for entries starts March 1, and the deadline for entries is May 31.
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Posted 10:22 AM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Avoiding the Hack Attack
Jade Walker on computer security
In the midst of editorial meetings and the race to publish news online, many members of the media forget the issue of security. Surely there are folks working in the underbelly of the office who are building up sturdy walls to protect the computer systems we use each day. Unfortunately, this laissez faire attitude could leave our files and websites open to attack. To learn a bit more about the hacking culture, check out the online documentary film, Disinformation. You'll see what makes these hackers tick and how they access the mainframes of major online news outlets.
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Posted 6:45 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Who's Going to Pay for Convergence?
Steve Klein on convergence
Everyone has their own favorite theory on the inevitable convergence of the personal computer and television, but at least one critic says the ultimate benefits may be overrated. James Ackerman, CEO of OpenTV, speaking at Cyberposium 2002, a student-run panel on technology and change in the entertainment and media industry at the Harvard Business School, predicted only a gradual consumer movement from linear to on-demand programming. The growth of on-demand, commercial-free television will require the industry to develop new economic models. Said Ackerman: "The cost of creating new programs isn't coming down. We need to find new economic models for consumers to pay for content."In fact, this weblog's editor, Steve Outing, who has praised TiVo before, was echoed by Thomas McGrath, executive VP of the Viacom Entertainment Group. "If you want to see the future of television, go out and buy a TiVo. Over 80% of consumers with TiVo never watch a commercial at all." That trend could have dramatic economic consequences for the industry, he added, since networks won't be able to produce new programs without advertising revenue. For more, check out Julia Hanna's report in the Harvard Business School Bulletin.
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Posted 3:10 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
New York Times Internal Networks Hacked
Vin Crosbie on online security
Does your periodical's private intranet have any misconfigured proxy servers? According to SecurityFocus Online, the New York Times had at least seven through which 21-year-old veteran hacker and sometimes-security consultant Adrian Lamo gained access to the social security numbers and home telephone numbers of some 3,000 op-ed writers, a galaxy of U.S. notables. Lamo configured his Web browser to utilize the misconfigured proxy servers and then guessed some obvious passwords to jump into the Times' private intranet. Among those whose private information he saw were former U.N. weapons inspector Richard Butler, Democratic operative James Carville, ex-National Security Agency chief Bobby Inman, former Secretary of State James Baker, former Ambassador to the United Nations Jeanne Kirkpatrick, Internet policy thinker Larry Lessig, actors Robert Redford and Warren Beatty, talk show host Rush Limbaugh, and former president Jimmy Carter. After adding his own personal information to the Op-Ed list to demonstrate his access, Lamo contacted the Times and informed its staff of its online security holes.
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Posted 3:01 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
It Doesn't Pay to Fake to News
Juan C. Camus on disinformation on the Internet
It began as a joke for the authors. But they have learned a fast lesson about journalism and ethics. They are a group of Chilean youngsters who have a fan-zine dedicated to jokes, Flash animations, and tips and tricks for video games. But when they published in ElAntro.cl (Antro is "a dark place" in Spanish) that the Spanish version of CNN had said that Osama Bin Laden was in Chile, they got in some trouble. An image of the page was sent by e-mail all over the world, and other websites fell for the trap, helping to distribute this false news.CNN on Tuesday published a statement that denied having published that report, on a letter signed by Chris Crommett, executive vice president and general manager of "CNN en Español," the Spanish version of CNN. Later, ElAntro.cl removed the fake page, saying that CNN had no humor. And in its place, they put a note with an apology and calling also for a "friendly lawyer" who could help them with future problems.
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Posted 2:30 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Der Standard First Periodical to Offer Own Electronic Edition
Vin Crosbie on point-to-point publishing technologies
Newsstand.com wants to be the central online newsstand where consumers can buy and read electronically distributed versions of newsprint newspapers. Zinio and Qmags each wants to be the central online newsstand where consumers can buy and read electronically distributed versions of magazines. But do publishers really want to be captive to any one central online newsstand? Don't publishers also want to offer their editions from their own websites? NewspaperDirect, which already distributes electronic editions worldwide to hotels and resorts, is known to be developing "private label" technology that would allow its client newspapers to distribute their own electronic editions directly to consumers.Meanwhile, Der Standard of Vienna, long a pioneer of online publishing, has gone a step further and developed its own electronic edition distribution technology. (Neue Zürcher Zeitung in Zürich is rumored to be doing the same.) As part of a six-week market test, Der Standard is offering a full electronic version of its print edition, charging its newsprint subscribers 22 Euros and non-subscribers 145 Euros per year.
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Posted 1:30 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Weblogs Are Now Mainstream
Steve Outing on online publishing trends
IWantMedia.com's Patrick Phillips reports that the weblog trend is getting interesting — and mainstream. (You're now reading a weblog, of course.) The New York Times on Monday published a story, "Is Weblog Technology Here to Stay or Just Another Fad?" legitimizing weblogs as a bona fide media trend. And Phillips points out that weblogs are turning up in other mainstream media now: Fox News, National Review, ESPN.com, ABC News, Wall Street Journal, San Jose Mercury News, Boston Globe, and Detroit Free Press.
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Posted 4:48 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Eating My Words
Steve Outing on paid online content
Looks like it's time for me to eat a slice of humble pie. A couple weeks ago in this Tidbits item, I criticized American Greetings' paid-subscription model for e-greeting cards (because its major competitors remain free). Well, as reported in Anne Holland's ContentBlog, AmericanGreetings.com in its first 90 days signed up 1.1 million paying subscribers — at the rate of $11.95 per year. I'll save you getting out a calculator: that's just over $13 million. All I can say is, I'm happily surprised to be proven wrong. For what it's worth, a new prediction: arch-competitor Hallmark.com will follow suit with a paid model. And this will hearten those who believe there's a future in charging for online content and services.
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Posted 2:54 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Creative Geek vs. Pragmatic Geek
Barb Palser on form and function
The art of Web design is being celebrated at London's Design Museum, in a special exhibit running through April 21. In a December article on BBC News Online, exhibitor Joshua Davis skewered the "keep it simple" mantra of renowned usability consultant Jakob Nielsen. "I once sent him an e-mail — that he probably still has — saying that I'd beat him up if I saw him," Davis said. In a follow-up posted last week, Nielsen declared that art "is one thing I think the Web is not suited for and Web design really should not to be put in a museum." (Both articles definitely are worth reading.)This discussion should have resonance with editors of news sites, who are being pushed to realize the potential of rich media in storytelling while serving an audience that includes some very slow adapters. Davis says Web design is inspiring new presentation techniques in print and broadcast media; Nielsen says "television envy" is what's wrong with a lot of sites. (What sort of site does he prefer? See for yourself.) Between usability and creativity, where do you think today's news sites need the most help?
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Posted 11:46 AM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Financial Content, Services: A Sure Winner for Wireless Delivery
Madan Rao on mobile communications
One area where mobile content and services have proven to be a clear winner is the financial sector. "We are very bullish on wireless, especially to deepen relationships with our most valuable customers. The synergy between mobile channels and financial services is strong, and will continue to improve as bandwidth and device technology get better," said Jonathan Craig, VP for global wireless solutions at financial services company Charles Schwab, who spoke at the recent Internet World Wireless 2002 conference in New York City. More than 125,000 users subscribe to Schwab's PocketBroker wireless service today."We created a separate organization to incubate the mobile business, just as we did with the Internet business some years ago," Craig said. 79% of Schwab PocketBroker customers feel more in control of their investments and 75% are able to use their time more effectively via mobile trading, he reported. "The key to success with mobile services is actionable content, time-sensitive information, compact packaging, personalization, security, and integration across multiple channels."
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Posted 11:24 AM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
European Online Journalists Unite!
Jeppe Kruse on organizations for online professionals
It looks like the preparations have been made to launch a European equivalent to the Online News Association. The website for the European Online News Association has been brought about by people from the Danish Online News Association.The aim, says the site, is to "help journalists or professionals working with journalistic content on the Internet, improve their skills and improve the quality of Web-reporting on a European level." This could be a way to restore enthusiasm to the European online content business, but for now EONA.org also tells its visitors this: "You're a bit early." The three journalists who registered the domain explicitly state that they "have decided not to launch EONA until a certain number of people (you included) dedicate themselves to doing their part of the job."
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Posted 11:23 AM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Tidbits Contributors at New Media Conference
Paul Grabowicz on online journalism
You can meet some of people who produce E-Media Tidbits at a March 14-15 online journalism conference in Los Angeles. Steve Outing, Vin Crosbie, Nora Paul, and Martha Stone are featured panelists at the conference, co-sponsored by USC's Annenberg School for Communication (home to another Tidbits contributor, Josh Fouts) and my school, the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism.And if your budget is tight — the conference is cheap (registration fee is $35) or you can watch a free live webcast. Details are at the conference Web page.
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Posted 7:58 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Where No Journalist In His Right Mind Would Go
Steve Outing on robotic reporters
Salon has a cute story about an MIT engineer who's developing a robotic journalist — a device on wheels that could be sent into war zones like Afghanistan, where it's too unsafe to send a human correspondent, to do interviews. It's basically a "teleconference on wheels," operated by a journalist sitting at a control panel in a safe place. My first reaction was that this sounded like an early April Fool's joke, but it's serious, apparently.The idea of sending it to Afghanistan strikes me as foolish. Such a tech marvel sent into the midst of anti-American locals would be more likely to be battered to bits than successfuly conduct interviews. But the idea perhaps has other applications more prone to success. Consider a hostage situation or a forest fire, where (law enforcement being agreeable) a news organization could send in the robotic reporter to get first-hand information and maybe even interviews. As the MIT engineer suggests, the military and law enforcement have their high-tech drones and robots, why shouldn't the press? (Perhaps in the future, reporters will no longer have to be there in person for unpleasant assignments. Picture the White House press room filled with robots while correspondents work through them from their offices.)
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Posted 3:54 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
Don't Give Up on Web Advertising
Rich Gordon on New York Times "surround sessions"
It's one thing to say that banner ads don't work, or that they won't provide online publishers with the revenue they need to build a successful business. But that doesn't mean online advertising is dead. In fact, for most publishers, I'm still convinced advertising is the best hope for online revenue. To make it work, though, publishers need to think creatively — like New York Times Digital, which recently began selling "surround sessions." Advertisers get five ad impressions delivered to the same user, on five different pages. This product dramatically increases the chances that a user will be exposed to the company's message — and unless all five ads are delivered, the advertiser doesn't pay. ContentBiz.com describes how NYTD pitched the product to advertisers.
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Posted 1:14 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
The Best Is Yet to Come
Steve Outing on forward thinking
The American Press Institute has produced another excellent edition of its monthly e-newsletter, NewsFuture. I direct your attention especially to "After the Web: Pervasive Portable Media," which is by Vin Crosbie (who's also a contributor to E-Media Tidbits). While much of the news industry still focuses on and gnashes teeth about Web business models, Vin rightly redirects our attention to the coming next wave — of portable digital devices that will change how we get news to the public. Pay attention now, because portable devices are where we'll find the next great land of opportunity. Let's not blow it this time.Also be sure to read Dale Peskin's article, "The Correct Answer Is: No Way, San Jose." (Peskin is executive director of New Directions for News.) The San Jose reference is to the recent Interactive Newspapers conference in San Jose, California. Dale challenges some of the (still old-media-based) assumptions present at that gathering, and urges the industry to take a much more forward thinking view. Yes, it's clearly a problem that the news industry is not looking far enough ahead. The Web is but the tip of the digital iceberg. Many in the digital news professional realize that, but their actions often don't show it as the pressure is on the short-term push for profit.
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Posted 12:57 AM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
New Threat to Employment Classifieds
Paul Grabowicz on online advertising
Much has been written about how online sites like Monster.com and HotJobs (now being absorbed by Yahoo!) are chipping away at newspaper employment classifieds. But now the online job sites are looking over their shoulders at DirectEmployers.com, a site set up by a consortium of 25 large companies so that they can directly post their job openings on the Web. Boston.internet.com has a story on the new site.
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Posted 12:55 AM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below
A Monthly SND Contest – for New Media Only
Steve Outing on media competitions
The Society for News Design (back in the old days known as the Society of Newspaper Design) is moving rapidly into supporting design work in the new media realm. SND recently launched the "SND.ies," a monthly award that honors the best online/digital media presentations by news organizations (worldwide). I'm pleased to see this contest debut, because it will help promote the best Internet graphics and design and help spread knowledge about what's possible in digital media. If you've got innovative Flash graphics or other cutting-edge Web/digital-native content that you want to showcase, enter; the entry fee is modest ($10 for SND members, $15 for others). In August, the monthly winners will compete for annual overall awards.The SND.ies are being hosted by the Estlow International Center for Journalism and New Media at the University of Denver, and administered by Estlow executive director Laura Ruel.
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