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April 10, 2004
April anniversaries
April is the month for some online anniversaries. Steve Yelvington lists the things online or "new" media should do in the next 10 years in reflecting his 10 years. Brian Chin compares the difference in his eight years online.
This is my eighth year working online too. It's exciting that so much has been accomplished, but so much more seems about to happen. We're still trying to figure this business out, and it's exciting to write the rules as you go. What looked like the "next and greatest" two years ago, isn't now. But there's always something just over the horizon to be excited about.
What I like is the dynamic relationship with the readers (users). You can see the reaction to good work and high interest from the traffic reports and the reaction from readers with their comments and email.
Our site feels more alive than print edition. People often skip the page one stories from our print editions and choose stories from inside the paper to read some piece they find interesting or informative.
A hot story gets instant reaction. Old stories live on finding new readers each week. Something is added to the site and readers' react, it's a great feeling. Or, if it doesn't work out, it becomes a learning experience.
Posted by eubie at 9:52 AM permalink
N.Y. Times closes the door
This month, the N.Y. Times closed a door on its archives that many bloggers, including myself, used to point to articles past the 7 days the N.Y. Times allows for open access to articles. Now those links point to an archive summary of the story.
Dave Winer says the Times should have given more warning or allowed all previous links to remain open. He also bemoans the loss of a newspaper of record for the Web.
It's inconvenient, but the Times had the right to close its door. If regular Web readers did not have special access, why should blog readers?
Reuters, another source of news items for bloggers and others, plans to cut the material it gives to organizations such as Yahoo! and CBS MarketWatch, according to an article this week in the Wall Street Journal. (Link works only for paid subscribers.) Reuters' plan is to offer more its content through subscriptions.
News organizations have wanted to charge for access to their archives and premium content for awhile after it became obvious that advertising revenue alone would not cover the costs. They have increased registration requirements on their sites to boost their appeal to advertisers.
But will readers pay? The belief is most will not. How many other local papers or regional organizations could reach the almost 700,000 online subscribers that the Wall Street Journal has?
Posted by eubie at 9:10 AM permalink