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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2011-04-09

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Monday’s Note: The shift in communications

Monday’s Note by Frédéric Filloux nails the issues news organizations face and the results of journalism’s changing business model.

Highlights are:

  1. The public’s appetite for information has never been greater.
  2. At the same time, due to crumbling business models, editorial resources within news organizations are depleting fast.
  3. Opinion makers have changed.
  4. Today, a large chunk of the news cycle is controlled by legions of digital serfs …
  5. Contents are now tailored for the needs of digital media.
  6. Tools are morphing in the same fashion.

Filloux notes that most journalists are not able to evaluate the news giving increasing control over the message by corporations. For example, content prepared by corporations is being re-published by news organizations as is.

Since distribution channels are the same by companies to both news organizations, consumers, bloggers, etc., many news organizations no longer see a role as being the first group to clarify the message.

The clarification role has greater value, but the demand for that is lower, and the cost of producing it higher, so the ability or willingness to supply it is less too.

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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2011-04-02

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Books finished in March 2011

  • Invasive Procedures by Orson Scott Card and Aaron Johnston. — Good book, and it led me to read another Michael Crichton book.
  • The Modern Scholar: Unseen Diversity: The World of Bacteria by Betsey Dexter Dyer
  • When Genius Failed: The Rise and Fall of Long Term Capital Management by Roger Lowenstein. —I remain fascinated on stories about how things went wrong. It is so different to look back compared with being there at that time.”
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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2011-03-26

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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2011-03-19

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A bleak report for news media

The outlook for the news media has yet to find a clear path, concludes today’s release of the State of the News Media. The title says it all State of the News Media 2011: New revenues have not arrived, but new challenges have.

The industry still hopes to find a four-lane highway or yellow brick road leading to a financially stable future. Instead, the quest continues to be more like chopping through a dense jungle with a machete. — Rick Edmonds

The list of problems ranges from the threat by Groupon to continued dwindling of ad revenues for newspapers — online ad revenue was not enough to overcome lost print revenue.

Good pieces to read from the report

> Newspapers: Missed the 2010 Media Rally

(T)he destination that newspaper organizations are trying to reach is pretty clear now — more robust digital enterprises to pick up the slack as print advertising and circulation fall. The path from here to there, unfortunately, once again is not clear at all.

2011 State of the News Media print and online advertising revenues 2003-2010

> Seattle: A New Media Case Study

In the last few years, it has experienced both a sharp loss of traditional news resources and an exciting rise in new journalistic enterprises and inventive collaborations between traditional and emerging media … A new, vibrant media scene is emerging. But it also may not take hold.

Related:

Will Apple Tablet disconnect publishers from readers and revenue?

by eubie

New local tech-business web ventures

GeekWire logoThe two journalists most identified with TechFlash in Seattle, Todd Bishop and John Cook, have left to start a competing site, GeekWire.

The site launched over the weekend of March 5. Their goals for the site are in the post  Welcome to GeekWire, from John Cook and Todd Bishop, including a video of their goals.

TechFlash logoTechFlash plans to fill the positions and plans other changes, says Emory Thomas, publisher of TechFlash and Puget Sound Business Journal. Both sites are part of The Business Journals Digital network, where I work.

Another recent start-up focuses on general business news and was founded by a master’s student at Louisiana State University. Baton Rouge Business Journal, was founded by Ariel Hammond, who wants to be a business journalist.  The site competes against Baton Rouge Business Report, which is owned by Louisiana Business Inc.

Both sites are WordPress sites. The tools and equipment needed to start an online news site are low. The biggest cost is human costs. The biggest challenge is finding revenue to cover those costs.

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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2011-03-12

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