August 2004 Archives

Online Journalism Reviews: Why Beat Reporters Could Be News Sites' Greatest Secret Weapon. "(O)n the Web, we've long realized the value of FAQs, primers and timelines. They work well in newspapers, but they perform even better on the Web, where they can be enhanced with images, be made multi-dimensional with links, can be expanded, collapsed and augmented by readers and -- most importantly -- where they don't get thrown in the recycling bin after one short day of life."

Wired News: RSS Attracts Really Serious Money. This is an interesting counterpoint to a discussion still going at Poynter Online's Online-News discussion list about the business potentional of RSS feeds. You can scan the recent messages on Poynter about RSS feeds through this link and searching "RSS".

RSS feeds lets people monitor a lot of news without going through as many hoops, including being exposed to the ads that fund the news operations. It changes the business model that many news publishers depend upon.

Bizjournals: Where have the jobs gone?

Business First of Buffalo: Health plans for retirees face big cuts

The Business Journal (Minneapolis/St. Paul): Web savvy: Local nonprofits turn to the Internet and e-mail for a new spin on fund raising -- results are mixed

St. Louis Business Journal: Psychic city: Levin's influence goes beyond RCGA

The Times of India: Now, outsourcing of media, publishing work

Bizjournals now offers RSS feeds for its daily updates and industry journals.

Debbie Weil of debbie's blog was recently featured in a Washington Post article about business blogs, such as her own business, a public relations agency. I also read her pieces about online copywriting and web content

A couple of good entries from debbies blog include: Blogging your expertise and Seth Godin live... and interrupted.

NY Times: Safety Gap Grows Wider Between S.U.V.'s and Cars. My dislike of SUVs is getting more personal. The last two accidents that sent our cars to the body shop were from SUV drivers backing up into us. One even ignored the beeping telling the driver there's something behind the car.

Denver Business Journal: More firms joining fight against faxes

Puget Sound Business Journal: Traffic tapers on MSN pages: Other portals pick up new visitors.

St. Louis Business Journal: Build-A-Bear primed to go public after major marketing push revitalizes sales, pumps up profit

Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal: Auto dealers try more incentives to boost sagging SUV sales

For those who hate site registration: Bugmenot.com lets you read NY Times, LA Times and other sites without registering. Here's its FAQ. The scrimmage between publishers and readers continues. Tip from Digital Deliverance.

And readers don't like pop-up ads either. NY Times: As Consumers Revolt, A Rush to Block Pop-Up Online Ads.

Update: (Aug. 20) Boing Boing: RIP, bugmenot.com

Update: (Aug. 21) Boing Boing: Bugmenot.com returns, spokesbugperson says some news sites trying to block it.

N.Y. Times: In the Classroom, Web Logs Are the New Bulletin Boards. Teachers find it encourages students to write.

CBS MarketWatch: Fast Company's editor gets a lesson. "When I came into this job, I was incredibly naive," Byrne says. "I didn't know how hard it was to get a page of advertising."

MediaDailyNews: Next Big Player In Consumer Media: Consumers . "(T)he trust factor for consumer-to-consumer communication is near 90 percent. As Blackshaw says, so-called speakers 'are finding reach in ways that have never been experienced before,' through various online mouthpieces such as blogs, bulletin boards, public/private discussion boards, forums, reviews and opinions on product pages, and consumer feedback on branded Web sites."

Digital Deliverance: Why 1998 Was The Turning Point For Newspapers. "Unless the path of history changes for the newspaper industry, 1998 was the year that the newspaper industry lost the future. It was the pivotal year in the newspaper industry's attempts to utilize electronic media."

Digital Deliverance on the same day pointrf to this story from MediaSavvy: Why can't a newspaper be more like a blog? Part I: RSS. "Publishers don't understand that the home page is no longer the gateway to their site. Every well-designed page has enough navigation and headlines to draw you into the site."

Broadcasting & Cable: Paper Chase: Atlanta newspaper adds video to a reporter's toolbox. "We're going to redesign our Web site to give [streaming video] more visibility," says Hyde Post, editorial director for AJC's Web effort. Tip: Lost Remote

Wired News switches to internet from Internet, Web become web and Net becomes net. It's recognition that these words are nouns, not proper nouns. Now when will the Associated Press change its style? FYI, Wired News changed from email to e-mail several years ago, even though they were an early advocate of email.

From Donata Communications writing about local TV stations choosing to not break news for fear of tipping the competitors: "Until we begin respecting the power of the immediacy offered by the Web — and especially RSS — we'll be hopelessly left behind in the race to see who wins the local online news prize. Money follows eyeballs, and the eyeballs are abandoning broadcast in favor of the Internet at a speed that frightens every corporate broadcast executive on the planet." Tip from Lost Remote

Washington Bureau: Employers seek help as unemployment taxes soar

Milwaukee Business Journal: Overbuilding of golf courses has some owners struggling to make money

Portland Business Journal: Olympic gold comes after games are over: Shoemakers expect delayed sales hit

Wired News: Net Publishing made profitable. Adam Engst, the publisher of the Macintosh-focused newsletter Tidbits finally found a way to make money in publishing with e-books, small books costing up to $10 that can be download and printed through printers. At this time the market for e-books is small, a $15 million industry, but expected to grow. Engst differs from other publishers by the sharing 50% of the royalty with the author.

Michael Hyatt, president and chief operating officer of Thomas Nelson Publishers in Nashville, lists on his Working Smart blog his favorite PowerPoint resources, which he says is crucial to running his business. "I contend that in less than two hours of surfing, you can radically improve the effectiveness of your PowerPoint presentations," he says. Tip: New Media Musings.

NY Times: Report Finds Tax Cuts Heavily Favor the Wealthy. "According to the new report from the Congressional Budget Office, about two-thirds of the benefits from the tax cuts, enacted in 2001 and 2003, went to households in the top fifth of earnings, with an average income of $203,740.

"But the report also gave Republicans support for their contention that tax reduction had brought some benefit to people in almost all income categories."

Wall Street Journal: Wealth and Happiness Don't Necessarily Go Hand in Hand "If psychologists had a seat on a government's economic team, they would point out that, once a nation reaches a certain level of prosperity, further economic growth is unlikely to buy additional happiness."

This must be on the minds of many. All this week one of the most emailed articles on Yahoo! Finance has been Millions won't make you happier, an article from Bankrate.com.

Rex Hammock of Rexblog is ready to try blogs only for news and information from Aug. 13 to Aug. 22. Steve Ruebel of Micro Persuasion tried it in May/June. Hammock says he will include a news fast during his diet.

Seth Godin's Blog: "According to MarketingVOX, online media accounts for 12% of media consumption. That's a stunning rise: one out of eight, up from zero in just ten or so years.

"At the same time, though, they report that online media accounts for just 2% of ad spending."

Continues the sentiment mentioned in Gloomy predictions from Dow Jones.

NY Times: When the Power Goes Out, the Sun Still Rises. Even though the systems are expensive, customers want to "take the plunge and try something better."

Also there's more on the Department of Energy's site: Energy Savers: A consumer guide to energy efficiency & renewable energy.

Kansas City Business Journal: Driver shortages may put trucking's boom in park.

Slashdot: Apollo 11 Photographs Unfrozen: "NASA has pulled another set of photographs, this time of Apollo 11's trip, out of the freezer and digitized them. They are glorious." Direct to Apollo gallery

N.Y. Times: Marketing Entwined With Journalism on Forbes.com. Forbes.Com has begun placing links to ads in its news stories Also Wired News: Fark Sells Out. France Surrenders

Wired News: FCC: Why No a La Carte Cable?

Wired News: Paid Search Growth May Slow

Wired News: News Sites, Where the Men Are

Wired News: What, Me Register?. Also see Buzzworthy Registration pros, cons.

CNN: Is Craiglist a Google 2.0?

Rexblog: What hath the 24/7 news cycle wrought?

lost remote: NBC News to offer newscasts for cell phones. Also Yahoo News: ABC News Now available on Sprint cell phones

Rexblog: Great time to be a news junkie

Current: "'Co. Aytch': a side show of the big show" by Samuel R. Watkins
Finished: "Grave Secrets" by Kathy Reichs

"Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" by J.K. Rowling

"Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" by J.K. Rowling

"Everybody Dies" by Lawrence Block

"One for the Money" by Janet Evanovich

"The Tutor" by Peter Abrahams

"Shadow Prey" by John Sanford

"Monkeywrench" by P.J. Tracy

Audio

Current: "Ghost soldiers the forgotten epic story of World War II's most dramatic mission" by Hampton Sides

Finished:

"The Millionaire Next Door" by Thomas J. Stanley

"Booth: A novel" by David Robertson