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I try and stay away from journalism turf wars, but this one is very amusing, and ultimately will lead to me saying a few words about content below the fold.
If you are in the news business I'm sure you have heard about the study released by the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism that asks "where does the news come from in today's changing media?" The report shows that local papers are "offering less than they once did", but that traditional media still accounted for the vast majority of new information found in stories.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Pew Study leads to hilarity, anger, chest-puffing, and lots of blog posts . . . including this one
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Google to stop censorship of Chinese search results, threatens to pull out of country altogether
In a rather stunning reversal of their previous position, Google used its company blog to announce that it would end censoring Chinese search results, while also threatening to pull its operations out of the country following serious cyber attacks on its infrastructure.
Google blog post complains of the cyber attacks it has faced in December.
In mid-December, we detected a highly sophisticated and targeted attack on our corporate infrastructure originating from China that resulted in the theft of intellectual property from Google. However, it soon became clear that what at first appeared to be solely a security incident--albeit a significant one--was something quite different.
Ihnatko's Sun Times column hits the target; the importance of Apple's tablet introduction to publishers
I want to give a shout out to Andy Ihnatko's Sun Times column from late last week. I was referred to it by a MacRumors post, but because it was from one of those media types (that would be us!) it got very little attention on the computer forum . . . but I really thought Ihnatko hit it out of the park.
The column is basically Ihnakto's take on the much rumored introduction of an Apple tablet -- or as Ihnako inventively calls it, the RAT. Ihnatko goes through his thoughts on the features we might find on the new device, but probably only of interest to those who love the inside game: "The RAT will have a "slate" form factor", or "The price will be above $500 but below $800". Good stuff if you have been paying close attention, and I can not argue with anything he says.
But then comes the money paragraph. Holy cow! (as the late Harry Carey would say):
Apple will not sell periodicals and books through the iTunes Store.And there, in just a couple of paragraphs is the essence of the article to me: this introduction could be a major step towards an ubiquitous (as Zinio said in their own product introduction) publishing platform that would be of value to not only major publishers like Time-Warner, but also citizen publishers, or small publishers trying to find ways to monetize their electronic publishing efforts.
At least not in the way that they sell music and movies, as discrete products. Instead, they’ll stick to the mechanism that the iPhone uses: publishers and distributors can release their own apps and build their own storefronts for their own content.
It saves Apple from innumerable headaches and opens the RAT up to be “the reader of Everything.” It also emphatically continues Apple’s momentum as the publishing platform of choice.
Are you Time-Warner? Great. Release a free “newsstand” app for your group’s publications. Apple’s SDK supports in-app purchases. The user can buy or subscribe to magazines easily; the publisher gets ongoing sales through the biggest store for digital mobile content, and as usual, Apple gets a big cut of every dollar spent on that planet.
Are you an independent publisher? Or maybe even just an author with a collection of short-stories? Great. Hook up with an iPhone developer and hand over a copy of your book in PDF or HTML format. He or she can quickly stick it in an app wrapper and you can release it as an saleable ebook without going through any publishers or distributors. There’s no vetting process; Apple is happy to just take 30 percent of the purchase price.
And that, in the end, is the issue: how do publishers finally get to make money and drive subscriptions online? (I've deleted some thoughts that would have appeared here on why publishers have so far failed online. Let's save that for another day.)
That's why I think small publishers may have a huge stake in the tablet/reader market. If a new Apple tablet/reader can successfully create an "open" marketplace that is friendly to individuals or entrepreneurial publishers, just as they have for music with iTunes, or software developers with the iTunes app store, then we may have a gold rush of new media publishers. Small publishers may fine that building an app for use on a tablet (and the iPhone) is potentially a more profitable alternative to the web (though I seriously doubt any publisher would want to surrender their web presence).
So am I alone in my praise for Ihnatko's column? Hardly. Bill Barol on True/Slant loved the column, displayblog sang its praises, and the column was reproduced by the WSJ on its All Things Digital site. But despite being late in singing the praises of Ihnatko's column I think the points he makes about publishing are just too important to let slip by. Go read it yourself!
(Or better yet, sign up for Instapaper's Read Later and use this handy app on your computer or iPhone (iTunes link) to save the article for later viewing.)
Cross posted on Citizen Publishing.
Monday, January 11, 2010
Detroit Daily Press launch cost "several hundred thousand dollars", remain shuttered for now
Update: I suppose this has nothing to do with "New Media", but I find this saga too interesting to ignore.
It was supposed to be a brand new newspaper to fill the gap created when the News and Free Press cut back on home delivery, but now the Detroit Daily Press saga has become a soap opera.
Launched back on November 23 of last year, the Daily Press announced it was suspending publishing within a week.
"Due to circumstances beyond our control, lack of advertising, lateness of our press runs and lack of distribution and sales, we find it necessary to temporarily suspend publication of the Detroit Daily Press until after the (first) of the year," the publishers Mark and Gary Stern said in a statement.
"Once we can fix these things, we plan to be back stronger and more organized when we return. This is just a bump in the road and not the end of the Detroit Daily Press."
But alas . . .
There once was a B2B company that was enthusiastic about the web . . .
OK, I'm sure your company is enthusiastic about the web. But an awful lot of B2B web sites look like they have been put online simply to distribute media kits, or to show how serious they are about the Internet. But ask any advertising rep what it is like today to sell a print magazine with no web site, or a very anemic looking web site and you'll know how important a good web site is to B2B print.
It's good to remember that as March approaches because we will be at the ten year anniversary of the beginning of the Internet boom meltdown. Between 2000 and 2002 the NASDAQ fell 77.6%, and one stock "darling", whose valuation was once $12 billion during the crazy days of the boom, began their fall. That company, founded in 1995 with the launch of WaterOnline.com, forced the hands of a lot of reluctant trade publishers.
Of course, the company in question was VerticalNet, maybe the most infamous company in Internet (and B2B media) history. But I would argue that VN is still worth remembering today.
"Location based advertising" creates major threat to local media ad sales (and B2B) but also new opportunities
The pursuit of local advertising has begun in earnest.
In the fall of 2002 I was approached by a friend to give advice to a technology start-up here in Chicago. Their concept was simple: using IP addresses they would deliver local advertising on national web sites. At the time this concept was still in its infancy but showed promise as some national sites were already using IP addresses to send localized messages or content to readers. This companies idea was to approach newspapers with a deal: you sell internet advertising to your local customers, these ads would then appear not only on your local news site, but also on major national web sites like Yahoo and CNN.
The idea seemed to have merit as long as 1) the national sites were willing to surrender the ad space to the ad network -- and share the revenue; and 2) the newspaper would play along and enthusiastically sell ad space outside of their own products -- something newspapers have historically been hesitant to do.
In the end, the whole thing fizzled for many of the common reasons start-ups fail, but the concept made sense: localize the Internet experience.
Today, there are several ways in which major companies are going after the local advertising market through location based advertising -- and the development may become a major threat to local media outlets trying to hang on to advertisers who already are questioning the value of traditional local print advertising. Worse yet, even local media companies that are successfully making the transition to the web and mobile media may be impacted as their customers choose between you and . . . Google, for instance.
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