Because times are hard more and more internet business need to adapt. The latest online website that are making changes to how they run things is squidoo. Squidoo is like a article marketing website where users write articles on the squidoo website and publish them for all to see (not many people if your article doesn't get featured on squidoo).. however the articles need to be manually reviewed first before they are published.
Many online marketers use this website to help promote there website and use it as way to get higher in the search engines for there own website... by writing quality articles with a link to there own website google and other search engine bots will find this link and thus will rank higher the website that being linked too.
Now however squidoo has changed the rules on there website and all links are no follow. Basically this means links are not followed by the search engine bots and you get no credit for the link.
So in other words you will just be writing articles for squidoo for free with nothing in return....
This is just a example of greedy big businesses squeezing the small people of the internet.
Theoretically if all the web 2.0s do this then t makes no difference because they saturate the meaning of what a no follow actually means... squidoo is quite dumb to think that doing this will help in some way there own website because it drives away quality writers who will now concentrate on there own websites instead.. there are plenty other higher authority websites that have bigger traffic that can be posted on no follow or not...
What do you think of this?
Friday, 29 March 2013
Thursday, 14 March 2013
SEO to make money online
Many people have been asking me how they can make money online...Lol please dont be put of by my previous post about monopoly's yes it is true but there is still a loophole that you can use and the fact that not even these big company's have created artificial intelligence (that if they ever did no doubt they would murder us all with there robot army's . Well anyway using the fact that google has no artificial intelligence means that you are able to create blog and post to them you need a massive amount though... and if you link to your website you maybe able to get a good rank...maybe.
Big media company's monopoly
It seems that rich greedy businessmen have now fixed the internet so much in there favor that small business cannot even begin to compete... where's the government when you need them? Oh wait probably getting bribed.
Anyway so these big company's make it so hard for little company's to make a start even to earn even a tiny amount of money.
Take for example search engines....everyday there are algorithm changes aimed at making sure no business can "unnaturally" get to the top of these search engines.. meaning only big company's that have $$$millions can afford the infrastructure to get there.
Idiots! Go to hell!
Anyway so these big company's make it so hard for little company's to make a start even to earn even a tiny amount of money.
Take for example search engines....everyday there are algorithm changes aimed at making sure no business can "unnaturally" get to the top of these search engines.. meaning only big company's that have $$$millions can afford the infrastructure to get there.
Idiots! Go to hell!
A very significant day...
Today could be a watershed moment in the 400 year history of newspapers. A company call Quigo has announced a deal to provide 130 newspapers in the U.S. with a pay-per-click online advertising platform.Let's hope this moment marks a mind-shift for publisher's and introduces the reality of the threat. Publishers remain a very significant force in advertising and several more significant annoucement like this will open up the eyes of both myself and the investment market that publisher's may be able to fight back. Don't throw in the towel to Google just yet.
For another take on the significance of this announcement, check out Jeff Jarvis's post.
Fox still on the prowl?
Murdoch isn't finished. After scooping up scout.com and myspace.com, Rupert is making it no secret that the new internet division within News Corp, Fox Inactive Media (FIM), is still on the prowl for more acquisitions. In a recent interview Rupert talked about the potential acquisitions of Skype (VoIP) and a yet unnamed search company. Below is a summary as posted on PaidContent.org.News Corp.'s Murdoch said he doesn't see Google Inc. as a rival because it's a pure search company. But Yahoo Inc. could be competition, "although we don't see why we can't live side by side with them very well," he said. "This is an area of enormous growth and there's room for a lot more than one or two players."
Murdoch said News Corp. plans to create an Internet portal and is in advanced discussions to acquire a controlling stake in a search engine, which he declined to name. Rumors as to the identity are flying around here.
UPDATE - Much more information on Rupert's planned "domination" of the Internet at Businessweek. The article states, "Murdoch said he expected other investments to be made, though he did not think the total amount would go far past $1 billion."
"Make no mistake," Murdoch said. "Our commitment to this space will constitute a major part of this company's growth, profits and asset building over the next several years."
Yahoo! makes moves into China
Yahoo! makes a major investment in Alibaba in order to get a significant foothold in the Chinese market. This will put Yahoo! in direct competition with eBay and the recently public Baidu. Baidu had a tremendously successful IPO this week making them an immediate front-runner in this market.
Today advertising, tomorrow world domination!
The latest "Google will take over the world" speculation hit the pages of Business 2.0 this month. For over a year we've had sporatic reports that Google is going around buying up all the 'dark fiber' leading to many speculations as to how they will leverage that purchase. The speculation goes from free internet access across the nation to the complete collapse of the telecommunications industry. This story add the manadatory "confirmation by anonymous source" that most of these have. Regardless, it is an entertaining read. Like many others, I'm excited to hear what Google is up to...by Google themselves.
U of Texas publishes what?
Is it a web site? A television show? A magazine? No...it's all three. The University of Texas launches what they claim is the world's first Internet-based video magazine. Not quite 60 Minutes who lays claim to the worlds first News magazine on television, but we'll see where it goes.
The blurred lines - defined.
In a great article released today, Joe Mandesse of MediaPost takes a different angle. He defines new & old media and analyzes the trends going forward based on where the marketing spend is today. Additionally, Joe covers in great detail how consumers are driving the trends away from one-way media outlets to a vehicle that allows consumers to participate.
Tracking global news consumption
The reporting of print circulation figures helped but it was not without it own faults. The problem is that we measure the consumption of the print product, not the popularity of individual news stories both domestically and globally. (I'll graciously skip over the circulation scandals of late)
With the advent of the Internet, a publisher's ability to measure news consumption was altered forever. Now media could measure "to the click", stories that were driving readership. To date these figures have been reported much like circulation numbers, at the site (publication) level limiting an outsiders ability to see what stories "have legs" and are driving the worlds news consumption.
How, when and where people consumed news online at a global scale was impossible to measure, let alone knowing what stories are driving that consumption. With the decline of circulation media is actively trying to prove that news consumption is growing wildly, not slowing. It is just occurring through a new distribution channel, the Internet.
Managing messy media
The challenge for online publishers now is growing their online presence - major media companies like News are executing this through acquisition. Acquisitions can be messy as different cultures clash and the technological infrastructures get more complex with the addition of new properties.
According to Kevin Kelly - "The Web continues to evolve from a world ruled by mass media and mass audiences to one ruled by messy media and messy participation."
Simon Waldman, Director of Digital Publishing for Guardian Newspapers agrees with Kevin that media continues to get more messy. But he says, "If you own a mess, at least you can tidy it up later. But if you never own it…you're just a spectator."
For media companies trying to tidy up that mess, technology will be the key. Publishers, for instance, will have to invest in systems that can bridge their print and online properties in a single infrastructure. The cost savings and efficiencies gained will be critical especially when they are still going head to head with free online advertisers like Craigslist.org. But more important will be the publisher's ability to leverage existing relationships with advertisers and provide them a healthy balance of print and online presence. The transistion is key and it must be smooth and offer advertisers more control or else publishers risk losing them forever.
!oohaY & elgooG
Everything seems backwards, up is down, down is up. Google & Yahoo! are in acquisition talks with Trader Classified Media according to a report in the Times (UK) today. In a role reversal from recent acquisitions, this time it's the "new media" heavyweights looking to add an "old media" company to their portfolios.
Viacom to use Yahoo! for ad platform
Breaking news from Dow Jones has Viacom & Yahoo! striking a deal. A very large number of publisher's currently display Google ads on their websites. Along with their recent announcement stealing iVillage away from Google, this marks the signing of another significant client for Yahoo! who has been breaking into the contextual advertising marketplace.NEW YORK -(Dow Jones)- Viacom Inc. (VIA) and Yahoo! Inc. (YHOO) signed a multiyear agreement under which Yahoo will provide search-marketing and Web-search services to Viacom's online properties such as CBSNews.com and MTV.com.
Viacom said in a press release Tuesday it will use Yahoo's search-marketing products to enhance its sites with relevant advertising and use Yahoo's search engine to return more comprehensive search results to users.
New Report: Newspaper struggle to grasp the web
A new report was released by the NAA in their september '05 magazine issue. It details how many newspapers have struggled to leverage the web for ad sales opportunities.The report, produced for the Association by The Digital Futurist Consultancy, www.digitalfuturist.com, examines whether newspapers are using their sites to promote print advertising, to share their marketing and pricing data, and to provide customer service to new and existing advertisers. The report’s findings include:
- 55 percent of the sites reviewed have an area for marketing the print edition. That still leaves lots of sites without any marketing information for potential advertisers.
- 60 percent provide visitors with advertising rates and information about deadlines, terms and ad sizes.
- Less than 10 percent provide a self-service area for advertisers. The report defines self-service as the ability to schedule and upload an advertisement
Maybe it was the remote control. Maybe it was the ATM. Whatever it was that kicked it off, at some point in the second half of the 20th Century, customers started taking control. And, in concert, responsibility for service began to shift away from businesses to customers.more...
The Internet arrived and multiplied the change, speeding it up and deepening its reach. Now, all businesses have to contend with two linked trends:
1. We want more control over the services we use.
2. We want to exert that control through electronic, not human, intermediaries.
Because media is digitally transferrable—the product itself, as well as the service that surrounds it, can be provided online—it has changed the fastest.more..
The boundaries between industries are breaking down. When everything’s online—all contained in the same browser frame—expectations bleed from industry to industry, site to site, experience to experience. When people get used to a certain level of choice, control, freedom and flexibility in a particular domain, they begin to expect it in others—even when the domains are as disparate as music and propane, or car insurance and newspaper advertising.more...
Newspaper companies will need to continue to evolve not only the classifieds-business models but also to restructure their classifieds section to be the “starting point” for consumers.more...
In the 2004 Newspaper Monitor study done for the NAA by The Advantage Group, advertising agencies were asked about their impressions and feelings about newspapers as a place to do business. Among some of the findings:
- “No other medium is so complex to do business with.”
- “No other medium has such a complex pricing model.”
- “No other medium is collectively less sophisticated when it comes to selling their products.”
Dealing with the worst
Making the best of an incredibly bad situation. Best wishes to everyone involved.
Can you hear me now?
EBAY scooped up Skype yesterday for a cool $4.1 (if certain milestones are hit). Andrew Belt, a senior vice president with Adventis, a Boston-based technology consultant was quoted as saying; "This isn't about generating revenues from voice service," he said. "It's about helping [eBay] tap into the advertising and transaction revenue streams that Google and Yahoo enjoy." -
BBC: "Archives available online for free"
There has been very few companies out there that consistently try to make services available over the web that are free. Typically the MO is that if a company has content or a service that isn't available elsewhere - make people pay to access it. Content archives has been no exception. But typically consumers have refused to open their wallets and overall the revenue earned from archived content is modest at best. Revolutionary thinking is needed.The BBC has been a consistent online innovator and in the process has gained a reputation for being one of the most bleeding edge and successful websites on the Internet. In another remarkable move this week, they have announced that they are now opening up there vast archives to users. The plan seems obvious:
A) drive people to your site - larger audience = more advertising revenue
B) provide the content to get people hooked - larger audience = more advertising revenue
Most publishers and content providers put archived content behind walls blocked from user consumption and charge fees for distribution. It will be interesting to see who, if any, follow the lead of the BBC.
It's not new money
Of course as our economy grows, advertising budgets typically follow but Corante lays out in a very insightful article that it all can't grow at the pace predicted - we have too many advertising vehicles and not enough gas to fuel them all.
Even in the best of times, our economy grows about 4% annually and a 70 year trend tells us that advertising growth has never outpaced the economy as a whole. So how can companies like Morgan Stanley and Forrester make predictions for advertising spend through 2010 that will significantly outpace our economy?
Corante quotes Morgan Stanley's report that traditional media will grow 4.3% and Forrester's report forecasting Internet advertising to grow 50% year-over-year through 2010. Add those numbers up and you significant outpace economic growth in a big way. So how can that be? Will this evolution in advertising buck a 70 year trend? Doubtful. Unfortunately this isn't the Special Olympics - they can't all be winners. This is cut-throat capitalism at its best - some of these advertising vehicles are destined to run out of gas.
How important is the Internet?
Well, I'm stranded in Miami, no suitcase, no hotel, no sleep (thanks American Airlines) but at least I have the Internet.The Rocky Mountain News apparently thinks the same way. According to maybe the most telling piece I've read in the last 6 months, John Temple, the editor at The Rocky Mountain News, talks about how the Denver newspaper elite have swallowed hard and now have the Internet in their sites as "the future of our business".
In an article that spoke more from the heart then the pen, Temple talks about the reality of the threat posed by the online players and the pinpoint focus on the opportunities that exist.
But definately the most telling piece of the article is when Temple repeats the keys to newspapers success as discussed in recent executive meetings. This information is really encouraging. Newspaper publishers are really now starting to see this challenge, understanding the potential and reacting in a way that will open the eyes of their critics, supportors and the market. These keys to success that Temple provides are not new, in fact people have been heralding these as a way forward for some time. But it does mean that newspapers are acknowledging, listening and reacting faster then ever before. Here is what Temple said:
I thought you might be interested in some of the perspective I can share from this week's meeting.Honest, to the point and worthy of a significant response.
• The consensus is that we're moving away from a media world of one-way communication (think network news anchors) to two-way dialogue.
• The individual is at the center of this world, not technology.
• The three big Internet portals - Yahoo, AOL and MSN - have more than 50 million visitors a day, twice the audience of a World Series game.
• Sixty-eight percent of teens have their own home page or blog site.
• Sixty percent of Americans play computer games, and the average gamer plays for 6.5 hours per week. The gaming industry now brings in more money than Hollywood does at the box office.
• Businesses now spend more on Internet advertising than on magazine and billboard advertising.
• Internet advertising is expected to grow nearly 50 percent in Denver next year.
If I had more time...
- IT'S HERE!! Google announces Google Wifi ending the months of speculation.
- Scripps in major IPTV deal - Scripps Television's cable networks inked a deal with Broadstream Communications, one of the leading IPTV distributors. The Scripps/Broadstream deal includes HGTV, Food Network, DIY Network, Fine Living, and Great American Country. "We want our product in as many homes as possible," said John Baird, executive vp of marketing and distribution for Scripps Networks.
"They can then compete with satellite and cable providers," said Scripps' Baird. Broadstream has already made over 200 video and audio deals, with nearly every major broadcaster and programmer in the country. - New research report back newspapers as the engaging media source - "The 2005 Media Engagement Study, which interviewed over 3,000 respondents online to gauge their attitudes toward advertising and content in media, found that newspaper readers are more engaged than consumers of other media, and consider papers a top source for trusted and comprehensive news and information."
Media changes its address
And our media industry is growing like gangbusters while New York's is not. Our media industry is hiring like crazy (Yahoo has 700 new positions to fill, Google a similar number) while New York's media industry continues to cut jobs and budgets.
See "A Media Industry in decline"
Google Video Goes Primetime?
Google Video just made it's first significant play. They have recently signed a deal w/ UPN to promote the new primetime series "Everybody Hates Chris" starring Chris Rock. The show is being touted as a "feature" on the Google Video homepage for the next couple days.I took the bait and watched the show...something I didn't do when it aired because I don't have UPN stored as one of my "favorites" on my television remote...an early strike against UPN. But thanks to Google, I gave it a go and enjoyed the show and may even check it out next time it airs.
What is exciting for me is the fact that I tend to travel a lot and much of that is international travel. Sometimes after being gone for a week or more you look for those familiar things to make you feel at home. Yes, TV is one of those things and as more and more sitcoms and dramas launch into the world of Google Video, I can have that comfort sitting in a hotel room in Germany, South America, wherever.
This launch also underscores another significant attack Google has engaged with cable companies. In the coming years companies like Comcast will just be remembered overpriced delivery mechanisms that gauged their customers with price increases year-over-year. They have become one of those necessary evils that consumers would love to see die a painful death...one that a company like Google or Yahoo! could provide.
Yahoo! does journalism
Yahoo, the most-visited Web site, said yesterday that it had hired nine financial writers to supply columns on topics including personal finance, investments and economics.
Ben Stein, TV personality, lawyer and economist, will write the Common Sense column on personal investing, Yahoo, based in Sunnyvale, Calif., said yesterday in a statement. Mr. Stein also writes the Everybody's Business column for The New York Times Sunday Business section.
Yahoo also hired Stephen R. Covey, author of "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People."
The new columnists will bolster Yahoo's original content, part of the company's effort to draw more users and advertisers to its sites.
Yahoo also hired David Bach, Robert T. Kiyosaki and Charles Wheelan. Jeremy Siegel, Laura Rowley, Ken Dychtwald and Daniel Pink will also provide columns.
Tracking jobs
The New York Times Co.* 700*Includes The New York Times, The Boston Globe and other publications.
San Francisco Chronicle 120
Philadelphia Newspapers Inc.** 100
San Jose Mercury News 52
Newsday (New York) 45
Post-Dispatch - About 260 employees are eligible for retirement buyouts
**Includes the Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News
Coming soon: Google classfieds?
Classified Intelligence, one of the foremost consulting firms on the classified marketplace in the US, has issued a news alert adding "substance" to the rumors that have been floated that Google will be entering the competitive (and lucrative) world of classified ads."Google is aggressively moving to include classifieds listings in its organic search results, making the rounds of classified advertising Web sites, requesting a direct feed of listings."Integrating classified ads into the organic results of Google's wildly successful search engine creates an incredibly powerful service for sellers.
You can speculate that Google would follow a similiar model to Oodle.com and act as an aggregator of classified ads across multiple classified provider's like newspapers, craigslist, kijiji, etc. then sending the buyers to the newspaper or craigslist website to complete the transaction.
One thing is for sure, newspapers who rely on classified revenues for between 40%-60% of their revenues will be watching very closely.
Time, time, time
- Big Mess for media - Can traditional media mount a comeback on wall street?
- Media, media everywhere - People use of media per day explodes to 9 hours a day.
- News Corp - Says no to Trader Media
Sounding desperate..
You can't afford not to read usHave newspapers been relegated to scare tactics?
...Ignore your newspaper if you want. But ignorance could cost more than a subscription.
Yahoo! goes to local events
Yahoo! trying to eat away at another slice of newspaper content as they continue to drive toward more local content has announced that they purchased upcoming.org.What's Upcoming at Yahoo! Local
As readers of the Yahoo! Search blog know, our vision is a far-reaching one -- to enable people to find, use, share, and expand all human knowledge.
Events are a particularly exciting area of human knowledge -- chock full of rich local, social, and temporal data. People want to find out what's going on near them, know what their friends are seeing and doing, and plan their outings. And they want to do it when they want, wherever they are, on any device, in a way that's relevant to them.
Today we've taken a big step toward helping users in this area. We've acquired upcoming.org, a leader in this emerging space.
In just a few years, most of it spent on nights and weekends, the Upcoming team has built an excellent site with a loyal and growing following. Now that they’ve joined Yahoo!, together we’ll build a social events platform that will integrate with our existing events offering and other areas of Y!, and will continue to support all web users in an open, participatory way.
Announcing Google Reader
Here at Web 2.0 Google just announced Google Reader. Briefly it is a way to organize your blog subscriptions and a new way to get your news. It includes ability to play podcasts and integrates w/ gmail and blogger (Gmail this item/Blog this item).
Google Maps goes local
From "The Motley Fool"Google announced last week that Google Maps will mark its emergence from beta testing into full-fledged usefulness by changing its name to Google Local.more...
This new product has the makings of a killer application. "Local information is huge," said Jared Cosulich, who operates his own Google-mapping service at CommunityWalk. "The decision to combine the two services recognizes the fact that the user's experience is significantly increased when he or she can see information in the context that ties it all together."
The first step to capitalizing on all this local information will likely involve Google's AdWords program, which provides ads based on the keywords used in a given search. But Google Local's real promise lies in "in-map" advertising. For example, as you zoom into areas of a map, Google may serve up ads based on businesses in the surrounding streets or neighborhoods -- and perhaps display them within the map itself. "Whatever advertising medium is chosen," said Mike Pegg, who operates Google Maps Mania, "I'm confident it will be relevant and non-intrusive to the map you are viewing."
Old meet new
Yahoo! has just combined "old" traditional journalism with "new" world blogs in their news section further blurring the lines between new and old media.Yahoo Inc.'s online news search tool on Monday added Internet journal entries as a supplement to professional media offerings - an experiment that figures to test the public's appetite for information from alternative sources.Under Yahoo's new approach, a keyword search for online news will include a list of relevant Web logs, or "blogs," displayed in a box to the right of the results collected from mainstream journalism.Google Inc., which runs the Internet's leading search engine, so far has treated blogs differently.
Not keeping up
Thank you Craig!
I don't know why but the concept of Oodle.com has always troubled me. I've always seen it as a parasite eating away at businesses that worked hard with clever business plans to sell (or provide at no charge) a valuable service in classified advertising. In a previous post a few months ago I questioned the legality of these site scrapers in a post call "Is aggregration of content legal?" While there is no legal precedent yet, the practice of scraping ads walked a fine line. For one, it threatens the larger newspapers that can currently charge more money for ads because of their larger circulation or prestige because the Oodle concept flattens the availablity of ads to the consumer. While I do see some benefit for the consumer (having a single search environment for all classified ads) it doesn't do enough for me to justify the questionable practice.This is why I was thrilled to learn that Craigslist.com, a site I think has revolutionized the classified marketplace, has banned Oodle.com from indexing their content. I think this move will start a trend that will certainly put Oodle back on the defensive and significant hurt the companies viability going forward.
Craig Newmark continues to impress me by keeping true to "Local community classifieds and forums all for free and in a relatively non-commercial environment."
Is it true?
Helsinki, 17 October, 2005 — According to a study by Taloustutkimus for the Finnish Newspapers Association in May 2005, almost 70% of young adult households in Finland subscribe to a newspaper. In addition, 56% of young people read newspapers every day, and 64% use the Internet almost daily. On weekdays, young people use 19 minutes a day on average to read newspapers, and 30 minutes during weekends. Young people spend 52 minutes online on weekdays, and 46 minutes during weekends. One fourth of young people visit the sites of online newspapers once a week, and about one third never visits these sites.Question - Why are these "positive" studies always done by the newspapers, NAA or any other vested interest? I'd pay money to see a neutral party giving these stats. It's not that I don't trust the NAA, well maybe, they have too much to lose, but having an unbiased opinion speaking positive news on this industry would be very welcomed. It just seems that those people (market analysts, etc) hardly ever have anything nice to say about the future of traditional news. So who too believe?
Up, up and away!
The numbers are in...Google revenue grows 96%
Google profits rise 7 fold.
Goolge market cap jumps to $106 Billion!
Google price target $445 (Piper)
Wow.
Google Base - Beyond Classifieds
Google's going deep. Well beyond the simple Google classifieds listing service that has been rumored for some time. Today Google let the news leak out that they are launching a new service called Google Base. In this case "Base" is short for database. It seems that Google will allow people to post just about any type of content in this new database and make it searchable online.This approach is bound to ruffle many more feathers, especially that of the major incumbents in this area like eBay, Craigslist, Monster and especially newspaper publishers. Many people thought Google might go the Oodle/Google News route and aggregate, index and push user to the appropriate website from Google search engine (or Froogle). But now with the announcement of Google Base they are much more in direct competition with some serious players.
The questions remain:
- Can Google get users to generate a significant amount of content in the Google Base? So far, with the major exception of Google Search, the other Google services are significantly behind in consumer adoption (Google News, Froogle, Google Talk, etc).
- The concept of Google Base seems tremendously broad. People so far have been comfortable going to verticals for classified listings like Monster.com and Cars.com, etc. Google is not only planning on including any type of classified listing (like Craigslist), they are allowing any type of content! Can something that broad become that useful? Or will it be similar to Google.com or any other search engine where sifting through the junk becomes half the battle and overwhelms users?
The Motherload
Comedy Central embarks on it's first major foray into the world of convergence of TV and Internet content. While they have made certain segments of their programming available over the web for some time now, they have recently announced a new initiative called "The Motherload" where they will repurpose a significant amount of short segments aired on the main Comedy Central TV station. They will also include some unique content for the web only.Comedy Central is taking a very unique approach by mostly limiting the online video clips to about 3 minutes in length. They have an advantage here because many of their most popular shows like Jon Stewarts Daily Show and The Colbert Report have short segments that can easily be chopped up for this type of distribution.
This works well for Internet surfers who tend to be multi-tasking (like talking on IM) and have short attention spans because they are active and jumping around unlike TV viewers who are relaxing on the couch and tend to want to settle down with a particular program.
I'm looking forward to seeing how this experiment works.
CBS News: Drama
Months after the CBS News Rathergate debacle and the retirement of Dan Rather, you would think that some significant progress had been made in revamping the CBS News division. Eh, not so much...it was announced today that the President of CBS News, Andrew Heyward is stepping down and will be replaced by Sean McManus, the head of CBS Sports.This comes at a time when CBS News is trying to reinvent the format of the nightly news cast to compete with cable news stations like Fox News and CNN as well as the surge of those going to Internet portals like Yahoo!
As more young people turn to blogs and blogging, the have been allured by the "spirit of conversation" that exists in them. They can choose to participate and contribute, making their thoughts and feelings known to others. Obtaining news through a one-way dialouge doesn't have the same appeal. This type of interactivity has clearly been an influence on Leslie Moonves as he tries to revamp the format. According to the New York Times:
It has been nearly a year since Mr. Moonves said he was seeking to blow up what he has described as the "voice of God" single-anchor format for the nightly news in favor of something more innovative - a quest that has thus far proved elusive.more...
Mr. McManus will face challenges that simply did not exist in Mr. Arledge's time, as CBS - and other television news divisions, to say nothing of newspapers - struggle to find new ways to captivate viewers who are increasingly defecting to newer outlets like Fox News and Yahoo, and increasingly skeptical of journalists as a whole.
The Future of Advertising
At the IAB Engage conference in London this week, Gates told delegates that traditional media such as television, newspapers and magazines would move to being delivered via the internet within the next decade, making debates about the role of internet advertising moot.
A couple interesting things
Director of mainstream portal Centrum.cz, Ondrej Tomek, said the publication compiled by reputed journalists aimed to become the leader in the sector.Second, NBC announces plans to air the Nightly News w/ Brian Williams online. Mixed reviews on this one so far. While I applaud them for making an attempt, BuzzMachine nails it here. The 3 1/2 hour delay after the original broadcast leaves for some second guessing. Jeff Jarvis rants:
"The internet needs more than the offspring of written newspapers," he said.
The founders believe the initial investment of 35-million korunas ($1,41-million) will be recouped within a year, with 90% of the magazine's revenues coming
from advertising.
Old news is not news, it’s just old. Why didn’t they give the affiliates all the right to show the news on their own sites? Why didn’t they all say that if they can get anyone under the age of 60 to watch their news anywhere anytime, they should thank their lucky news stars. This is why the future of news cannot come from the past of news: It is weighed down with deals and issues and precedents and contracts like Marley’s ghost.
ePaper impact
Everyday our children our getting more and more concerned with what we our doing to our environment. Regulations around greenhouse gases and wetlands get tighter and tighter as we all learn the dangers of what we are doing to our planet. The newspaper industry certainly is not excused. The numbers are staggering.
Of course environmental concerns is only one of many reasons for the long and steady decline in overall circulation at newspapers but it can't be overlooked. That is why their is so much riding on" ePaper". Some publishers have been putting money aside for years so that when (not if) this tecnology becomes mainstream, they will be able to give away an ePaper reader to every subscriber they have. Several companies, LG, Philips LCD and E Ink, have made some substantial progress and even have early prototypes.
But the question remains, how much of a difference will ePaper make? Certainly it will make a difference since any significantly penetration can save millions in costs of labor, paper and the substantial amount of logistics that it takes to produce and distribute the paper everyday. But can it reverse the tough times ahead? Will people be willing to pay for a subscription to the news "paper" 5-10 years from now? Today's youth expect news to be free and that is a difficult trend to reverse. Just ask the RIAA.
A cut above
Grant it, Murdoch has a lot more money then most, but this man changes the rules of the game. While most publishers have remained on the defensive as the world changes around us, Murdoch is on the offensive and breaking down walls that publishers have lived by for hundreds of years.
Previously Murdoch's acquistion trail of Internet companies amounted to a land grab, or what some call "messy media". He was out buying many of the sites that attract the younger demographic that the publishers so desperately covet. This week though, Murdoch made a surprise announcement that he may now be looking to not just provide content, but deliver that content through a broadband network. According to PCMag.com Murdoch stated:
"Here (in the United States), we don't know," Murdoch told the newspaper. "We may be forming a company with partners to build something out here that would give you broadband."
This isn't really a surprise. Publishers need to become much more of a technology company, these days just owning the content isn't enough. In Murdoch's running of News Corp., it's amazing to watch an industry over 300 years old transforming itself seemingly overnight.
Google Unearths Real-estate
Countless amounts of people have downloaded Google Earth and have stood in awe of the experience. They stare in amazement at the clarity of the satellite images while they take virtual trips around the world. But many have wondered, where's the business model that will drive this amazing technology?
Well, Google is doing what Google does, scare the **** out of every industry as their tentacles continue to disrupt the status quo. Whose watching their backs now as Google Maps and Google Earth continue to gain in popularity? Realtors. Google is developing technology that could substantially alter how people shop for and potentially purchase a new house. According to the Seattle Times:
Among the many projects being developed and debated inside Google is a real-estate service, according to a person who has attended meetings on the proposal. The concept, the person said, would be to improve the capabilities of its satellite imaging, maps and local search, and combine them with property listings.
NYTimes source: "complete utter panic"
What is happening at the New York Times? If you believe one source quoted in a recent Media Post article, it's all out war - Print vs. Online:
One source close to the Times Co. paints the for-pay service as one step in the direction of making the Times' entire content well for-pay, similar to Dow Jones & Co.'s Wall Street Journal Online, which charges for nearly all access to its content. The source says that the integration between print and online was driven by the print side of the Times, which was making a "hostile takeover" of the Web out of panic that online was eating into print circulation.
"Online newspapers will eventually be online products for a price, and online magazines will be online for a subscription price," the source explains. "Print will be a luxury item. But I don't think we're there yet. What's driving this is panic on the print side. This is not being done to help the online side. This is complete, utter panic on the print side. Their circulation is dropping, the stock is dropping, they're seeing competition from every other medium."
Can this be true? Murdoch stated in April 2005 that the most difficult part of the Internet revolution will be the transformation of the minds, not the technology. Maybe this is denial in the print newsroom rearing its ugly head. But it fells more like someone sticking their head in the sand and hoping everything will go back to 1940...the good 'ol days.
Meanwhile readers of the Buzz Machine see things quite differently:
"This business of pureeing trees and wringing cuttlefish to make the day’s transient news permanent seems positively archaic, doesn’t it?"
more...
It’s a product you have to go and get in the rain, snow or wind and pull out of the hedge, the leaves or a coin-eating box on a dirty street corner. It’s heavy. It’s big. You’re not interested in 90% of its content. And when you’re done with it, you — literally — have to wash your hands and figure out how to properly dispose of the thing.
WAKE UP!!
If you work for a newspaper and you are reading this please help me in waking someone up to the problem. Working for a major systems vendor for the publishing industry, Newspapers essentially pay my salary so I have a lot vested in their success. So lets help them by telling them our pains and why we find their product so disheartening at times. Here's my most recent experience.
A coworker announces that he read in a report somewhere that the average age of a newspaper reader is 55! Another coworker finds this stat amazing and asks for the source of the information.
Now i have to go to their fierce competitor GOOGLE!! and find the report from Carnegie another way. You can't make this stuff up. Mr. Newspaper executive. Please, please, please wake up to this very fixable issue and offer us the content that your company has so diligently provided so we, the news consumers, can give you our business through an enjoyable experience and not end up venting on a blog about it.
Ruffled Feathers
"Working in print, pure and simple, is the early 21st century equivalent of running a record company specialising in vinyl"” Mr Gowers wrote.Tell us how you really feel Andrew. Please, don't leave anything back.
"The future lies with the internet, and those newspapers that survive will be those that produce truly original content and learn fastest how to translate it into the all-encompassing, all-singing, all-dancing new medium of the Web."
Mr Gowers, who had a 22-year history at the FT including his four-year post as editor, said he would not be returning to the world of newspapers.
"I am focused on what comes next. And I have already all but decided that, whatever it is, it will not involve ink printed on dead trees."
"It is of course, quite unlikely that anyone would be foolish enough to ask me to edit a newspaper again. But if they did, the answer would be no."”
Of course Andrew isn't saying anything new, what makes these statements significant is the source - a senior executive of one of the most influential newspapers in the world. We are in the midst of a tremendously exciting time as major media companies are going to be forced to 'dance' like start-ups over the next several years or risk inhalationtion. That dance is going to have to include a shift in business model, technology, distribution, marketing, infrastructure and most importantly - culture. That's a lot of parts to move in coordination. As an industry watcher - this should be good. Hat tip - freelanceUK
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