Another One To Bite The Dust?

The venerable WSJ (Wall Street Journal) suffered a 10% slide in ad revenues for the tech, financial, general and classified sections. I can’t see a paper this big going under, as long as they leverage their web presence. In similar news, E.W. Scripps company is not getting out of newspapers but may sell some properties. If you’re interested in what the future of American papers might be, read CJR’s very long The Race [via], which suggests that the mid-sized dailies are at risk.

Red Herring Doomed?

Red Herring, an excellent magazine that covers a variety of technologies, is on Valleywag’s Deathwatch. A million dollar funding deal didn’t materialize, and paychecks apparently were late. Now consider their website. They get referenced a lot from other sites, have a Google pagerank of 8 (bloody rare), and an Alexa rank of 10,178. And yet, there are only about two ads on the home page. Surely they ccould monetize their website a whole number of ways including text links, Google AdSense (or better yet for their likely traffic, Azoogle), direct ads, etc. They may still have to cut some staff, but such a great magazine shouldn’t have to die, only transition completely to the Internet.

Ann Coulter’s Column Syndication Shrinks

Ann Coulter, the diehard right winger with a hate on for “godless liberals” – as she calls them – called former Senator John Edwards “a faggot” during a speech she gave recently. The resulting boycott of advertisers who are in the various newspapers carrying her column has lost her several publications. (She’s previously suggested similar things about Clinton and Gore.)

Does she have a blog? She can spread her hate there. In fact, she’s already doing so, with her website suggesting that Edwards’ campaign manager is fronting for Arab terrorists. Republicans would do very well to distance themselves from this incredibly hateful, immature person. I wonder who pays her to be such a bonehead. Of course, this kind of retaliation isn’t much better.

Don’t know if Edwards was in a sucky mood, but he later refused to participate in FOX News presidential candidates’ debate, saying there were scheduling conflicts – but possibly due to a suggestion by DailyKos.com blogger Markos Moulitsas. Maybe he just needs his own Internet TV channel a la Senator Barack Obama.

Originally posted on March 8, 2007 @ 7:31 pm

Choose Your News Media Source

According to a poll, 98% of people in Bangkok prefer TV as their source for news. The poll wa conducted with just over 1200 people aged 18 to 60. [Monsters and Critics]

Now is that surprising? I’m not sure of the economic situation in Thailand, but in other countries, the newspaper is starting to be supplanted by news sites. With TV stations pushing their web presence with articles and video clips, and some newspapers following suit, that’s not surprising.

However, TV still has a higher ratio of visual content than a newspaper or website, and the majority of human beings are visually stimulated. In other words, the poll results are not that surprising. What would be more interesting is to conduct the same survey all over the world and compare.

TV Watching Linked to Obesity and Diabetes

If regular TV watching leads to poor nutrition, how much worse will Internet TV, or web surfing in general, affect us? Obesity is a major factor in diabetes, which has become an epidemic in North America. Those who blog at home for a living – that is, have no reason to go to an office to work – are suspectible to forgetting to exercise. Maybe we need a blogger’s marathon race or something of that sort?

New Media Drives Rice Cooker

Speaking of food… Information Aesthetics, which covers a lot of very unusual stories dealing with new media and relevant visualizations/ diagrams had a post recently about a news-controlled rice cooker. Each time an Internet news story about GM (Genetically-modified) rice is found, some rice is added too the cooker. Water is automatically added and the cooker turned on when it has enough rice. When the rice is cooked, dinner invitations are sent out by email.

Now, maybe if this MIT project was used to control food portions based inversely on amount of TV watching, we might reduce TV-induced obesity. Maybe for every hour you watch Internet TV or surf the web, you lose X calories from the day’s meals. Nah. I’d just find a online grocer and order some chips with a Paypal account.

Originally posted on March 5, 2007 @ 10:57 am

Will New Media Have its Lord Blacks?

Canadian Conrad Black, once a media mogul, will be on trial in Chicago in a few weeks. Lord Black and others previously associated with Hollinger International are charged with fraud, racketeering and money laundering. Black could face life in prison. Now, new media doesn’t have too many mega powerful moguls, although there are a few rising stars. But look forwards twenty or thirty years. Who knows what’ll happen, how new media moguls will behave.

Are You Sick of the Presidential Candidate Coverage Yet?

David Bauder of the Associated Press writes

The 2008 campaign is already playing out so intensely that it dominates airtime at a point where only political junkies usually pay attention. Remember: it’s 20 months before voters will make the ultimate decision.

True. They’re everywhere on old and new media, especially on blogs. I mean, how else could political bloggers be earning $20,000 -$30,000/m in ad revenue? This could be one of the most important elections in US, nay, world history. Regardless of who you are rooting for, go blog the vote.

Another Mag Bites the Dust

As a film connossieur, I’ve read many a copy of Premiere magazine. But the Hachette Filipacchi media empire is shutting down the print edition of the magazine. April is the last issue, which is probably on newstands now. The website edition will continue to be published, however.

This makes a great deal of sense, since a web version can include new media content such as audio and video clips, which would enhance film reviews and interviews immensely. I just hope that this type of content does replace text altogether. Of course, if you miss the feel of a print mag, you can always produce a PDF of the site and print it out.

That said, this is obviously a way for all those niche print mags that are barely surviving to actually find their niche audience and live another day.

Originally posted on March 6, 2007 @ 3:48 pm