by eubie

Boston Globe threatened with closing — reading around April 6

WSJ: For Boston Globe, an Ultimatum — The New York Times Co. said it is prepared to close the Boston Globe within a month if the unions representing the paper’s employees do not agree to significant concessions.

WSJ: Credit Woes Hit Entrepreneurs — Small-business owners are facing a credit-card crunch, hurting the personal finances of some.

WSJ: ‘Insider’ Entrepreneurs — Become an intrapreneur by developing a new process, product or service within the context of your larger organization.

Wired: Are Google, Yahoo Copyright Thieves? — Media magnate Rupert Murdoch says Google’s and Yahoo’s aggregation services are stealing the news media’s content. While the search engine’s news sections are commonplace, whether they violate U.S. copyright law is unclear.

Boing Boing: Why URL shorteners suck — One reason I don’t like them is that they remove the “trust” factor of a URL. I’m not sure where I’m going on shortened URLs, but I do know with a wsj.com, nytimes.com or bizjournals.com

TechCrunch: Twitter Wouldn’t Sell For $1 Billion, Says Source — Google/Twitter deal

WSJ: AMC Shakes Up Marketing

by eubie

Facebook adds a touch of gray with its growth — reading around March 31

ReadWriteWeb: Facebook is Growing Up Fast: Number of Users Over 35 Doubled in Last 60 Days

New York Times: Sun-Times Files for Bankruptcy

New York Times:  Ad Sales Up On Internet, But ’08 Pace Was Slower — Internet advertising in the U.S. rose in 2008, according to a report, but the growth is starting to flatten.

NY Times: Planning a Retirement Without Dividends — Dividend-paying stocks or funds have long been a favored investment strategy for retirees, but other approaches may be less risky.

Wired: D.C. Restaurants Become Credit Card Cloning Hotspots — Patrons of high-end restaurants near the White House are hit with $750,000 in fraudulent charges in a year-long credit card skimming caper that will surely lead to legislation.

Wired: March 31, 1999: The Matrix Hooks Us

randall_duk_kim_matrix

by eubie

Online journalists more optimistic — reading around March 30

Pew Project for Excellence in Journalism: Online Journalists Optimistic About Revenue and Technology, Concerned About Changing Values

These online news people also believe that the Internet is changing the fundamental values of journalism—and more often than not for the worse.

AllThingsDigital: Mark Cuban’s Twitter Bill: $510 a Word — Loved his response on Twitter — “can’t say no one makes money from twitter now. the nba does”

AllThingsDigital: Is a Shorter Web Address Worth Big Money? bit.ly Raises $2M

Perk Watch on NY Times: As Banks Flounder, the Perks Play On — BofA’s Hugh McColl and Wachovia’s (formerly First Union) Ed Crutchfield still doing well with their retirement agreements, many years after the retirement.

TechCrunch: The Wounded U.S. Newspaper Industry Lost $7.5 Billion in Advertising Revenues Last Year
And here are figures for annual newspaper advertising revenues for the past five years.  The newspaper industry is still huge, but the print portion is just getting decimated. Meanwhile online revenues still account for less than 10 percent of the total (8.3 percent, to be exact), and even those are facing challenges.

Year Online % change Total % change
2004 $1,541 26.7% $48,244 4.5%
2005 $2,027 31.5% $49,435 2.5%
2006 $2,664 31.5% $49,275 -0.3%
2007 $3,166 18.8% $45,375 -7.9%
2008 $3,109 -1.8% $37,848 -16.6%
by eubie

Ghost Twitters — reading around March 27

NY Times: When Stars Twitter, a Ghost May Be Lurking — Wow! some people use ghost writers for their tweets

Calculated Risk: Default Rate Rises for Student Loans

NY Times: Advertising: 8 Hours a Day Spent on Screens, Study Finds

TechCrunch: California May Ban Black Cars — to save energy.

Eat All About It: P-I Websites — websites, blogs, and other online work from other staff members from the former Seattle Post-Intelligencer newspaper.