With my attention and energy currently on the divide between New and Old Media as I push a new aggregate of Now Media, here are a few relevant headlines you may find interesting.
Dallas Morning News To Senate: Amazon Kindle Is Not A Business Model For Newspapers, by Stacy D. Kramer at paidContent.org “The Economics of Content”, May 6, 2009.
Dallas Morning News Publisher and CEO James Moroney spoke up after Arianna Huffington raved about its potential as an option, telling the subcommittee that Amazon wants the lions’ share of the revenue—and expansive licensing rights. Moroney: “They’re not a platform that’s going to save newspapers in the near term.”
Farewell to the mass media: Panel explores the evolving role of the press and the public affairs professional, Public Relations Society of America, May 5, 2009.
“The media institutions that we have trusted for all of our lives — and all of our parents’ lives — are collapsing with stunning speed,” he said. “I expect within 10 years there probably won’t be 10 major metropolitan newspapers left in the country.” … “The technology shifts that have taken place now enable individual publishers to become influencers.” … “Mass media is going away” … The traditional news media is now often the last to get the story instead of the first. Bloggers report a trend, it becomes a word-of-mouth phenomenon and then the media picks up the story.
Future of online news may be ‘hyperlocal’, by John D. Sutter at CNN.com, May 5, 2009.
The shift "means that there’s less journalistic oversight over what is being disseminated and distributed and created," she said. "That raises all the natural questions about how valuable the news is going to be — how credible it’s going to be. I kind of think that argument is moot at this point because it’s happening." McDonnell said it’s important for news consumers these days to be savvy so they can spot conflicts of interest and assess the reliability of what they’re reading.
Tweeting the US Airways Flight 1549 Plane Crash, by Matthew Bachman at Nielsen-Online, January 16, 2009.
Perhaps more striking than the image circulated on Twitter was the integrity with which the majority of Twitterers reported the unfolding events. Tweets cited major news sources regarding the cause of the accident, as well as the number of passengers and crew on board. More importantly, they admitted when they were unsure about their information. Twitter skeptics often cite the potential dangers when amateur reporters rapidly disseminate inaccurate information. In this case however, the honesty and deference to mainstream reporting demonstrated by Twitter users ultimately legitimized both the citizen journalist and Twitter itself by adding a constructive dimension of personal accounts and pictures to an already captivating story.
What Google Can Do To Make The Web Less Of A ‘Cesspool’, by Jim Spanfeller, paidContent.org, May 5, 2009.
At Forbes.com, we have estimated that Google makes roughly $60 million a year directing folks to our site. And by the way, 40 percent of those dollars are derived from the search terms of Forbes, Forbes.com or Forbes Magazine—simple navigation. Seems like a very nice chunk of change for simply being there.
Google: We’re good for journalism, by Stephen Shankland at C|Net, May 6, 2009.
"The structure of the Web has caused the atomic unit of consumption for news to migrate from the full newspaper to the individual article.”
The Future Of News: Your Thoughts?, by Jon Gibs, Nielson-Online, March 12, 2009.
[The New York Times has] provided an interactive map taking a look at immigration patterns into the US over the past 120 years. There is an incredible amount of data here and it is a very slick graphic, but this is not what I find interesting. What I think is impressive is that they have made this the centerpiece for ongoing online discussions among readers; they have journalists write pieces about the trends and they have op-ed writing columns. They are integrating all of the strengths a news source can provide: great data collection, objective reporting, opinion, and adding social media. All of these elements work together balancing each other out, sort of like different branches of the government. The Times is creating a reference library on a subject matter for people to blog about (on the Times site and off). They are, in essence, creating context for a broader discussion.
