May 2004 Archives
N.Y. Times: The Express Lane to the Internet, Now With Fewer Bumps. As prices fall more people sign up. Imagine how many would sign up at $20?
Wired News: How Can I Sex Up This Blog Business?: Hot gossip! Cool gadgets! Gawker & Gizmodo, Fleshbot & Wonkette! Inside Nick Denton's plan to become the nanopublishing media mogul.
Interesting article from Harvard Magazine about "The Way We Eat Now." Covers familar ground about growing portion size, sedentary lifestyle and switch to foods with more sugars and carbohydrates.
Why the fuss about overweight: "three aspects of weight—BMI, waist size, and weight gained after one's early twenties—are linked to chances of having or dying from heart disease, strokes and other cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and several types of cancer, plus suffering from arthritis, infertility, gallstones, asthma, and even snoring."
Article takes a swipe at TV: "The best single behavioral predictor of obesity in children and adults is the amount of television viewing," says the School of Public Health's (Steven) Gortmaker. "The relationship is nearly as strong as what you see between smoking and lung cancer. Everybody thinks it's because TV watching is sedentary, you're just sitting there for hours—but that's only about one-third of the effect. Our guesstimate is that two-thirds is the effect of advertising in changing what you eat." (Walter) Willett asserts.
Willett is author of Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy: The Harvard Medical School Guide to Healthy Eating. Tip: kottke.org remaindered links.
Steve Ruebel of Micro Persuasion plans a blog-only news diet starting Monday. "This information junkie is going to attempt to go cold turkey on most news produced by the pros for seven consecutive days beginning Sunday, May 30. I will not pick up a newspaper, magazine, watch TV news, or visit a news Web site. The only way I will stay up to date on what's going is by reading what's posted on other Weblogs."
What about RSS feeds? "I will also not click any blog links to journalist-written stories or browse non-blog RSS feeds."
My self-imposed info-hunger strike, however, does not mean that mass media is going away anytime soon. In fact, it will only become more relevant as blogs act like a media magnifying glass and perform essential "checks and balances" on news reported by the pros.
Well if nothing else, Ruebel will be the topic of many blogs through the diet.
Rexblog: What magazines do the candidates' backers read?: "Proving once more that most research provides little insight, a recent study from a company I won't embarass by naming, came up with this gem: the top five magazines read by the two major presidential candidates' supporters."
N.Y. Times: "A new study says that almost half the ties worn by doctors in a Queens hospital proved to be carrying pathogens."
N.Y. Times: In the Era of Cheap DVD's, Anyone Can Be a Producer. The tech improvements that allow this to happen are interesting, but the marketing efforts mentioned in the article were very interesting. After all, it's one things making a DVD; it's another selling it.
If the movie is any good, it might make it to Cannes. Guardian Unlimited: $200 family film is festival hit.
The Business Journal of Minneapolis/St. Paul: Startup TV network taps stars of self-help
Current: Tell No One: A Novel by Harlan Corben.
The midwife's apprentice by Karen Cushman. A Newberry book
Finished: The Firm by John Grisham.
Hope to Die: A Matthew Scudder novel by Lawrence Block
Audio
Current: Pertinent Essays on the literary life by Joseph Epstein
Finished: Winston Churchill by John Keegan
Yahoo adds Wi-Fi hot spots to its maps. Clever!
Bloglines, my choice, was one of several RSS readers discussed by Wired News. Bloglines' best points are: web-based, disaposable emails for alerts, a good way to store and search items to read later and very easy to learn to use. Also it's been improved greatly since I began using it last fall, such as managing my blogroll.
Gas-saving hybrids sounded good before gas topped $2 an hour, a 23-year-high (adjusted for inflation) says The Washington Post, but now they're in demand while SUVs sit.
A co-worker bought a Civic hybrid this week, and I know someone else with a Toyota Prius. But actual fuel mileage is falling short, partially because of driving styles according to WiredNews. Coming in the fall: Honda Accord Hybrid.
I put my name on the list to try Google's Gmail beta, but many can't wait. Wired News: My Left Arm for a Gmail Account.
But since Yahoo! is raising the amount of storage it offers its webmail users to 100MB soon, it makes Gmail less appealing.
A follow to Journalists' role when there is no gate: James Fallows, national correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly, writes in The N.Y. Times writes "The Twilight of the Information Middlemen", about how blogs and easy access to much government data are eliminating much of the role previously filled by academic journals.
The article is not specific about the news media, but newspapers face similar flanking of the content they publish. More on this at E-Media Tidbits, Bob Stepno's Other Journalism Weblog, and rexblog: Rex Hammock's Weblog.
MyVesta, a nonprofit consumer education organization, has a Money Personality Test and The History of Money and Credit, including that counting of obligations goes back more than 9,000 years. Wonder what the annual rate and grace period was then?
The twin issues of the prisoner photos from Abu Ghraib and the Nick Berg murder video raise the issue of what newspapers should show.
Jay Rosen writes about the issue today in PressThink: Even the smartest people in the major news media--and this is especially so in television news--have not really determined for themselves or explained to us exactly what their role should be in the worldwide fight against terrorism. "Cover it responsibly and well" doesn't begin to provide an answer. For it must have occurred to people high up in the network news divisions that the videotape of the beheading was made not only for Bush but for them, in their professional capacity; and that is a fact they have to live with, think about, whether or not they show us the gruesome act.
Jeff Jarvis gives his view on BuzzMachine: This is an extreme example of the revolution journalism is facing: When the people can see the news for themselves and judge for themselves, what is the role of journalists' news judgment? Are we merely to become a pipeline for source material? Are we merely fellow citizens, like our readers, with opinions of our own? Do we still think we know more (and better) than the audience or do we admit that the citizens know more we do?
At Poynter's E-Media Tidbits, David E. Carlson, a professor at the University of Florida, wondered if content was lost in the focus on competition at the E&P/Media Week Interactive Media Conference? See related notes here and here.
"Out of 12 educational sessions over two days, there are three -- count them, three -- sessions that I would classify as specifically related to online content."
"I fear that some of us may be losing sight of what brings people to media websites in the first place. It's content, and there is a reason people say 'Content is king.' You can't 'monetize' visitors you don't have."
For journalists worried about content losing out, their challenge is to find ways to bring readers to their sites. Why should they stop what they're doing and read this article? Why should they choose to go to your site? They have other choices for news, sports and classified ads, what's the reward of choosing your site?
A study by Neil Budde Group and the Advanced Interactive Media Group says the continued growth of local search and more pay-for-performance advertising, could lead some newspapers to choose to not publish everyday.
With readers searching for news by their topics instead of reading news, "local media face the competitive fight of their lives."
PDF of Executive Summary is here. CBS Market/Watch also has a Story through AlwaysOn. Tip from editorsweblog.org.
Some days are not as profitable as others, Friday being more profitable than Tuesday, but to not publish? There are still far too many newspaper readers who expect to read on a Tuesday what the city council did Monday?
Local and state news is a niche that newspapers should be able to protect in the future. Some papers will have to rediscover that niche and find better ways to show readers the value of that news.
Steve Yelvington reports on a speech by Chris Schroeder, v.p. of strategy for Washington Post Co., who was speaking at the E&P Interactive Media Conference, about "the perfect storm" media companies face on the Internet.
The view goes that much of the media's online efforts are on aggregating content, but competitors are chipping away at both the editorial and advertising markets.
Schroeder told the audience that the counter is for media companies to deliver quality audiences through registration and behavioral tagging and to move away from commodity data.
After the resignation last month of top editors at USA Today with the disclosure of the fabrication of stories by a top reporter, some asked why Ben Bradless, a legend at The Washington Post, did not resign?
Bradlee, quoted in an article in Editor and Publisher says he offered to resign after the fabrications of Janet Cooke were revealed, but his resignation was rejected. Tip: Romenesko.
New study by Borrell Associates says U.S. newspapers and television stations now generate $1 billion in advertising. In the executive report, Borrell says TV stations are discovering two areas of classified advertising that newspapers have enjoyed in both print and on the Web: job and automobile listings. Tip from Steve Yelvington writing for Poynter E-Media Tidbits.
Current: Hope to die: a Matthew Scudder novel by Lawrence Block
Finished: Death by Hollywood: a novel by Steven Bochco.
Empire Falls by Richard Russo. Set aside at page 86. I was disappointed after earlier enjoying Straight Man.
Small Town by Lawrence Block
The Last Goodbye: a novel by Reed Arvin
Crispin: the cross of lead by Avi.
Audio
Current: Winston Churchill by John Keegan
Finished: Elizabeth and Mary (cousins, rivals, queens) by Jane Dunn
Denver Business Journal: Numbers tell the tale: Women rule the roost
Wired News: The Kingmaker of Personal Tech. Good profile of Walt Mossberg and the power of his Personal Technology column in the Wall Street Journal. It's one of the few items that non-subscribers can read on the site.
I read his column every week. I like the non-tech angle to it and his strong view on topics. Of course, it has helped his reputation and influence that he writes for the Wall Street Journal. His column is a good blend of strong publication and writer.
Glenn Fleishman felt Wired focused too much on Mossberg and overlooked other newspaper technology columnists.
Telegraph.co.uk reports in today's issue about an experiment where people were asked to watch a tape of people playing with basketballs and count the number of times the balls are passed.
After the tape is over, the scientists (article did not mention their fields of study) asked viewers if they saw the woman in the gorilla suit? Story says half reported not seeing a gorilla. For a group that were asked to just watch the tape, the gorilla was easily seen.
The experiment is used to help explain traffic accidents "when a driver 'looked but failed to see', and other examples of mayhem and mishap in everyday life." The explanation is that the brain processes only so many messages and the focus on the passing basketballs causes it to ignore the visual messages of the woman in the gorilla suit. The experiment is not new; it's been around awhile.
Tip: Crooked Timber. Here's a link to the tape. I saw the gorilla, but, then I knew what to look for didn't I?
N.Y. Times: The Elements of Common Sense. When The Times opts for CD's rather than CDs, it's considered house style. But if a shopkeeper mislays an apostrophe, the kind of people who worry about whether anal-retentive has a hyphen are quick to criticize.
The Business Journal of Minneapolis/St. Paul: General Mills Inc. is considering launching a cable food channel, with the Pillsbury Bake-Off as its centerpiece.
From New Media Group of PricewaterhouseCoopers and the Interactive Advertising Bureau: keyword search accounted for 35 percent of all online advertising in 2003, up 15 percent from 2002. Two biggest categories in 2002 -- banner ads and sponsorships -- were down as a percentage, though actual dollars spent in each category grew. Overall online ads were up 21 percent to 7.3 billion More details at Center for Media Research.
Another big area of growth was ads sold based on performance-based pricing. Ads sold on hybrid prices fell significantly and CPM/Impression pricing fell slightly in 2003 from 2002.
Jonah Bloom, executive editor of Advertising Age writes about online ad-budget growth: "It might be a 3% or 4% ad medium by share of budget today, but it's at a tipping point and there's every reason to think it will be a 10% medium within the next two years."
Wired News: Will RSS Readers Clog the Web?
As RSS feeds proliferate (almost every major American newspaper site and blog has one) and as more and more Internet users adopt readers, websites and bloggers are starting to feel the weight of thousands of hourly pings.
Bloglines tries to be a nice aggregator, hitting sites only once an hour and then serving the feeds to readers through its computers, says Mark Fletcher, chief executive of Bloglines in the article. The potential problem is from RSS readers residing on individual computers hitting sites at the same time.
Next time I need ideas for books to read: Pulitzer Prize for Letters and Newbery Award winners.
The curtain has been lifted on Google with its planned IPO.
Now we see that Google has been very successful selling ads targeted to readers' searches. It sold $658 million in advertising last year, passing Yahoo!, which sold $638 million and was the previous leaders in online sales.
"(T)he striking success of its Internet advertising business poses perhaps an even greater threat to Madison Avenue" is the lead to today's N.Y. Times article: "Google Poses a Challenge for Usual Ad Outlets."
"(A)dvertisers are finding they can attract buyers relatively cheaply without a blaring message and an expensive Madison Avenue agency to create it."
It sounds so simple: Readers come to Google looking for something specific and are ready to look at ads about those things.
Google's success further explains why search ads are hot. Ad revenues of Google and Yahoo! together are about 18% of the $7.3 billion online ad market estimated by New Media Group of PricewaterhouseCoopers and the Interactive Advertising Bureau.
Ron Rosenbaum says management-theory gurus have helped create the type of editors that allowed the Jason Blair and Jack Kelley scandals at the N.Y. Times and US Today.
"There seemed to be no understanding that calling a newspaper a 'brand' moves things backwards to precisely the thinking that allowed Jack Kelley to thrive -- protected because he was the public face of a 'brand,' not a newspaperman whose facts are subject to review." Rosenbaum writes for The New York Observer.
"Who is going to be the editor brave enough to sic some reporters on the corporate consultants who ar jargonizing the integrity of newspaper culture away?"
I don't think Rosenbaum would care much for the next Notes item: What's going to be hot next?
MediaPost looks at four new ad models on the internet: social networking (both work and play), local search, blogging, and broadband video.
Interesting that RSS (webfeeds) didn't make the list. I've noticed that the ads inserted in the RSS feeds of InfoWorld have disappeared, at least for now. Finding ways to financially support RSS feeds is crucial for publishers.
MediaPost article also looks at what used to be hot: online communities, push, pay-to-surf (paying users to view ads); and ad-supported access. Tip from E-Media Tidbits.