Information wants to be free, but bandwidth costs
YouTube is burning through an amazing amount of money as it provides a video record of all the world’s cute cats. This Slate piece looks at the perhaps fatally flawed economics of Web 2.0.
Thu, April 16 2009 » Main Page, Media » Comments Off
Billy Bob's blowup and the unsavoury business of covering celebrities
Last week, Billy-Bob Thornton got huffy with CBC Radio's Jian Ghomeshi, who had the effrontery to note that Thornton has been an actor. Thorton claimed he wasn't to be asked about his acting career. Russell Smith notes that Thornton ran into something that was once quaintly known as journalism. From The Globe and Mail: Thornton [...]
Thu, April 16 2009 » Main Page, Media » Comments Off
Twitter as a measure of real-time consciousness
Twitter, at its best, can show what people are thinking as they are thinking it. Not only people are using it to extend social communications, but machines are starting to get in on the act. This could be big — if Twitter gets bigger. From the April 13 NYT: … Taken collectively, the stream of [...]
Thu, April 16 2009 » Main Page, Media » Comments Off
U.S. newspaper revenues in for more hurt in '09
From the April 14 NYT: NEWSPAPER advertising, already in its worst slump since the Depression, suffered by far the sharpest drop in generations during the first quarter of 2009, down 30 percent for some papers, industry executives and analysts say. Publishers will start to report first-quarter results this week, but people who follow the industry [...]
Thu, April 16 2009 » Main Page, Media » Comments Off
<em>Journalism Online</em> to tackle the pay barrier
From the April 15 NYT: Three longtime media executives are building an automated system to allow newspapers and magazines to charge for online access, including an “all you can read” subscription that would allow access to multiple publications, the executives said on Tuesday. Their company, Journalism Online L.L.C., aims to supply publishers with ready-made tools [...]
Thu, April 16 2009 » Main Page, Media » Comments Off
Imagining Boston without the <em>Globe</em>
The Boston Globe is facing an existential threat from the parent New York Times Co.: Either its unionized staff agrees to draconian cuts or all options are on the table, including closure. For some, Boston without the Globe is unimaginable. Others couldn't care less. From the April 13 NYT: Civic leaders and ordinary Bostonians alike [...]