Finnish Internet Users are Most Avid Consumers of Online News article says that news and information sites capture a large proportion of the European on-line audience with 8 in 10 Internet users accessing one of these sites in September 2013. 338 million people visited a news or information website via a desktop or laptop during the month. 97 percent of Finnish Internet users visited a news site during the month, followed by Sweden and Norway.
I live in Finland. I have over several years pretty much converted my reading habits from printed magazines to on-line format. I used to read pretty much on printed magazines, and even been active writer to Prosessori and Tietokone print magazines. Things have changed. I have canceled pretty many printed publications I used to read. I have canceled the daily printed newspaper (I get it only on weekends) and I read my daily news on-line, most often on computer or smart phone. Some years ago I did not like e-book type flippy magazines but nowadays I have used to read many of professional magazines in that format.
I have to admit that the print magazine business is really changing from what it was some years ago. And it has caused problems to publishing companies.
Digital technology is reinventing our whole world, in service of you and me. It’s free enterprise on steroids. It’s bypassing the old gatekeepers. The digital revolution has completely changed the world of news. The media world has changed when all parties are on common ground on the Internet. Journalism is generally changed in the direction of a more critical. Users have changed, and they choose to participate. The consumers are organizing their use of media in a different way than before. Technology eventually mows down its forces of resistance. The mercantilists can only delay but never finally suppress the human longing for a better life.
Bold and Innovative article tells that there’s no doubt that in recent years the newspaper business has faced a punishing challenge that would be difficult for anyone to cope with. Readers have gravitated to computers and mobile devices. Display advertising has declined sharply (Newspaper Ad Revenues Fall to 60-Yr. Low in 2011). Classified ads have been eviscerated. Digital dollars have been hard to come by. The disruption has been enormous.
Digital ad revenues does not seem to be the solution for most publishers. This Is the Scariest Statistic About the Newspaper Business Today article tells that In 2012, newspapers lost $16 in print ads for every $1 earned in digital ads and it’s getting worse. The digital ad revolution, always “just around the corner”, seems to remain tantalizingly out of reach for most newspapers.
Programmatic Era Isn’t Benefiting Publishers article tells that real-time bidding is a great advertiser-centric concept; advertisers can bid what they want, based on their own parameters and audience targets. Yet for the sell-side (publishers), the picture has been less than rosy. The inconvenient truth is programmatic ad buying stems from an on-line advertising industry drowning in an ocean of available display impressions — 5 trillion were served in 2012. As the supply side of a massively imbalanced supply-demand equation, publishers have not come out on top.
Mag Bag: Record January For Magazine Web Sites article tells that digital audiences for magazines are growing fast, with big increases in consumption via apps and Web sites.
The promise of the Internet was that anyone with a keyboard and a connection could become a publisher and make tons of money. Like many promises rooted in theory, when it comes to practicality, things are quite different. Publishers Opt Out of the Pageview Rat Race article tells that the reality of the digital ad system is that scale still matters. Smaller publishers have the deck stacked against them. They’ll never get the traffic numbers brands and buyers want. And in the age of automated ad systems, finding large pools of specific audiences is easy — and cheap. For many small publishers, it all adds up to the need to take a different route. Smaller publishers can’t compete on a CPM basis. The pendulum is swinging for publishers that can convince brands that money is better spent on creating custom content and targeted messaging for these passionate audiences.
The digital revolution has already killed several well known old publications. Last year, Newsweek published its last print edition. Reader’s Digest Is Bankrupt as Iconic Magazine Falters article tells that RDA Holding Co., publisher of the 91-year-old Reader’s Digest magazine, filed for bankruptcy. And those are not just isolated incidents.
Innovate to adapt
Bold and Innovative article tells that the culture tied to the past and wary of innovation has only compounded the damage. Too often the response has been simply to cut, cut, cut. The result: a much weaker product trying to stay alive in a brutally competitive environment. For publishers whose businesses had evolved during the long day of print newspapers and magazines, the expansion of the Internet was terribly disorienting. The biggest risk is not rethinking business models. If newspapers are to survive in the digital age, they’ll need a bold, innovative, proactive approach. 4 pillars of media transformation article says that the print-vs.-digital debate seems almost trite by today’s increasingly complex media landscape.
State Of The News Media: Everything In Decline But Digital article tells that “State of the News Media” report offers a mostly pessimistic assessment of the condition and trajectory of various news media in the US today. In perhaps its most striking finding, the report shows how declining revenues leading to repeated cost-cutting have hurt readership and audience loyalty: slipping quality and diminished coverage have alienated large numbers of people who’ve abandoned news publications or outlets. Nearly one-third—31%—of people say they have deserted a particular news outlet because it no longer provides the news and information they had grown accustomed to. This applies to news media across the board, not just newspapers.
Call it “digital first” if you want, but today’s publishing imperative is really about distributing content wherever your audience wants it – on the web, through mobile devices, at events, or in print. You don’t necessarily need to focus exclusively on digital natives – but it helps. Adding outside talent can help to change your culture by infusing new ideas. Should staffs be integrated across print and digital? There’s no consensus on the best approach. Innovation must be supported by a structured format for vetting ideas, assigning resources, and managing projects as they evolve.
Wired switches leadership at Wired.com, underscoring the rise of digital media article tells that the Wired magazine is shifting to an integrated print and digital model. Ironically for such a forward-facing publication, Wired is a relative latecomer to this approach.
When a technology goes digital, it changes everything. For starters, the rate of technology improvement takes a new slope — transitioning from glacially slow to exponentially fast. Think about online search and how it changed the way we find information, how social media changed the way we receive news, and how electronic books and e-readers changed the way we buy books. When a technology goes digital, words like “library,” “newspaper,” and “bookstore” start to sound like relics of the past.
Digital publishing is also in constant transition. Coming to an e-book or car near you: the Web article tells that World Wide Web Consortium is now adapting Web technology for publishing industries to replace proprietary technologies used in e-readers. “The Web equals publishing” “There’s really no difference anymore.”
By helping others become competent communicators, legacy media make themselves stronger article tells that strengthening community competence and awareness is not only a good deed. It is a great business opportunity. And a relationship builder. No bond is stronger than the one you bind while learning together.
177 Comments
Tomi Engdahl says:
Sports Illustrated gets modern media; gets criticized for it
http://craigcalcaterra.tumblr.com/post/91542310207/sports-illustrated-gets-modern-media-gets-criticized
The LeBron James news dominated sports media for the past several days.
And then the news came — bam! — straight from the horse’s mouth, in the form of a first person essay from James “as told to Lee Jenkins” of Sports Illustrated. We had the story and now the important business of analyzing it — or, if you don’t much care about basketball, the important business of making Twitter jokes about it — was at hand.
But there are some who weren’t as interested in analyzing it, joking about it or just reveling in the fun collective happening. There are some who are using all of this as an occasion to wring their hands about journalistic integrity.
This is crazy. It’s an instance where Sandomir and the Times — who I think are fantastic most of the time, by the way — are fetishizing the business of Serious Journalism at the expense of understanding what sports fans actually care about
News — especially sports news — has long revolved around the scoop. Yes, all reporters and editors will tell you that it’s important to get it right, not to just get it first, but getting it first is an obsession that drives reporting. Cultivating your sources and becoming that guy who everyone expects to break the news.
But, as I have been saying for three years now, readers don’t care who got this news. They just care about the news itself. The Wojnarowskis of the world will tweet it out and, within minutes, it’s retweeted and blogged halfway around the world. Good retweeters and bloggers will credit the Wojnarowskis, but not everyone does. In very short order, that scoop has become a simple commodity — a fact in the ether — not a unique journalistic product. At least not in the minds of the people consuming it.
No, not all stories are like this. In-depth reporting about institutions, changing dynamics and trends or substantive interviews with newsmakers cannot be easily gutted and commodified like this. T
Tomi Engdahl says:
MTV News: The public and the media bosses out of line in media content
MTV’s news to a survey by the media decision-makers and news consumers in Finland: they will see the importance of media content in a different way.
News in-depth coverage of the leaders of more than half of the reported importance it attaches to the role of social media in the media.
The audience only nine percent of the respondents wanted additional resources to social media. One-third would like to see these resources decrease.
News content will get more expensive in the next few years according to majority of media bosses: The reason for the circulation and advertising revenues decline. Only three percent of the audience was ready to use more money for the media content than it is now.
Source: http://www.iltalehti.fi/uutiset/2014071618493850_uu.shtml
Tomi Engdahl says:
NYT considering shorter print edition at roughly half the price with unlimited digital access — Shorter Times?
The New York Times is considering the introduction of a truncated version of its daily print edition at a discounted rate as the paper mulls new strategies for maximizing …
Read more at http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/media/2014/07/8549875/shorter-emtimesem
Tomi Engdahl says:
Shorter Times?
http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/media/2014/07/8549875/shorter-emtimesem
The New York Times is considering the introduction of a truncated version of its daily print edition at a discounted rate as the paper mulls new strategies for maximizing the number of people who pay to read its content.
“selection of the day’s best content for roughly half the price”
A shorter print option would dovetail with new digital apps the Times has been rolling out
During the second quarter of 2014, the Times logged 32,000 new subscriptions across all of its digital offerings combined, putting the total number of people paying to read the Times on web browsers and mobile devices at around 831,000.
But while circulation revenues have been a success story in the three years since the Times began charging for unlimited access to its digital content, it appears they are beginning to plateau.
Tomi Engdahl says:
I Liked Everything I Saw on Facebook for Two Days. Here’s What It Did to Me
http://www.wired.com/2014/08/i-liked-everything-i-saw-on-facebook-for-two-days-heres-what-it-did-to-me/
Facebook uses algorithms to decide what shows up in your feed.
There is a very specific form of Facebook messaging, designed to get you to interact. And if you take the bait, you’ll be shown it ad nauseam.
My News Feed took on an entirely new character in a surprisingly short amount of time. After checking in and liking a bunch of stuff over the course of an hour, there were no human beings in my feed anymore. It became about brands and messaging, rather than humans with messages.
Likewise, content mills rose to the top. Nearly my entire feed was given over to Upworthy and the Huffington Post.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Leaked: Here’s How LinkedIn Plans To Have A New Billion-Dollar Business In 3 Years
http://www.businessinsider.com/linkedins-1-billion-b2b-marketing-plan-2014-8?op=1
LinkedIn plans to break into the $50 billion business-to-business marketing space and turn its products into a $1 billion business by 2017, according to internal documents sent to Business Insider.
Last quarter, LinkedIn reeled in $106 million in revenue from its marketing products, up 44% year over year. Now, though, the company wants to expand beyond its current media and content marketing products to build a B2B marketing platform using its own, and Bizo’s, tools.
“Our long-term ambition is to build an integrated marketing and sales platform that provides a simple and effective way to reach audiences, nurture prospects, and acquire customers,”
Comment: LinkedIn seems to believe that they have a media property / syndicated ad network play (like facebook).
Tomi Engdahl says:
Twitter Reports 23 Million Users Are Actually Bots
http://tech.slashdot.org/story/14/08/13/0257244/twitter-reports-23-million-users-are-actually-bots
In its most recent quarterly report to the Securities and Exchange Commission, Twitter disclosed that approximately 8.5% of its users are actually bots.
Comment on page by darkain:
Twitter Bots are GREAT! Seriously, Twitter is the new RSS. This is honestly how I find out about the latest Slashdot articles, because their account is bot based to feed content from this site to their Twitter account. A huge chunk of the accounts I follow on Twitter are in this same category, just news services. Twitter has become the modern day RSS feeder, and I personally love it for this purpose.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Writer: Internet Comments Belong On Personal Blogs, Not News Sites
http://tech.slashdot.org/story/14/08/13/199200/writer-internet-comments-belong-on-personal-blogs-not-news-sites
Nicholas Jackson at Pacific Standard suggests that internet comments are permanently broken
He argues that blogs are a good-enough solution to commentary and dialog across the internet.
Tomi Engdahl says:
13 Top Editors On How They Think About Diversity In Their Newsrooms
http://www.buzzfeed.com/hnigatu/top-editors-on-how-they-think-about-diversity-in-newsrooms
We asked editors from top publications six questions about diversity in their newsrooms. Here’s what they had to say.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Facebook Tests “Satire” Tag To Avoid Confusion On News Feed
http://news.slashdot.org/story/14/08/17/2027236/facebook-tests-satire-tag-to-avoid-confusion-on-news-feed
“We are running a small test which shows the text ‘[Satire]‘ in front of links to satirical articles in the related articles unit in News Feed. This is because we received feedback that people wanted a clearer way to distinguish satirical articles from others in these units.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Twitter now officially says your timeline is more than just tweets from people you follow
http://qz.com/252192/twitter-now-officially-says-your-timeline-is-more-than-just-tweets-from-people-you-follow/
Many Twitter users have noticed that Twitter is now inserting tweets into their timelines that seemingly don’t belong. This is not an accident. Twitter has updated its help document, “What’s a Twitter timeline?”
+
In addition to the basic, essential definition of a Twitter timeline—“all Tweets from those you have chosen to follow on Twitter”—plus retweets and ads, there’s a new section:
Additionally, when we identify a Tweet, an account to follow, or other content that’s popular or relevant, we may add it to your timeline.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Plug Facebook Into Skype For a News Feed Firehose
http://fieldguide.gizmodo.com/plug-facebook-into-skype-for-a-news-feed-firehose-1600243986
We know that our Facebook news feeds go through a complicated filtering process, affected both by Facebook’s internal algorithms and our own efforts to hide or show particular friends. However, not all third-party apps are so complex, and Skype will pull in your Facebook news feed pretty much as it’s published.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google Is Enraged By A Fake Conspiracy Theory That It Is Stealing Money From Publishers
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/google-adsense-leak-fake-conspiracy-theory-2014-5#ixzz3B1ubmw91
Tomi Engdahl says:
Majority Of Digital Media Consumption Now Takes Place In Mobile Apps
http://techcrunch.com/2014/08/21/majority-of-digital-media-consumption-now-takes-place-in-mobile-apps/
U.S. users are now spending the majority of their time consuming digital media within mobile applications, according to a new study released by comScore this morning. That means mobile apps, including the number 1 most popular app Facebook, eat up more of our time than desktop usage or mobile web surfing, accounting for 52% of the time spent using digital media. Combined with mobile web, mobile usage as a whole accounts for 60% of time spent, while desktop-based digital media consumption makes up the remaining 40%.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Brit Sci-Fi author Alastair Reynolds says MS Word ‘drives me to distraction’
Wordsmith gripes about ‘another sh*t feature’
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/08/25/brit_scifi_author_alistair_reynolds_says_ms_word_drives_me_to_distraction/
In August last year, one-time-sysadmin and now SciFi author Charles Stross declared Microsoft Word ”a tyrant of the imagination” and bemoaned its use in the publishing world.
“Major publishers have been browbeaten into believing that Word is the sine qua non of document production systems,” he wrote. “And they expect me to integrate myself into a Word-centric workflow, even though it’s an inappropriate, damaging, and laborious tool for the job. It is, quite simply, unavoidable.”
Which sounds an awful lot like the same complaint Stross voiced: the publishing industry is so into Word he’d like to work in another tool, but his editors prefer he uses the Microsoft tool.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Here Is Yahoo’s Native Ad Network
Content Recommendation Box on Vox Media, CBS Interactive Sites Includes Yahoo’s Ads
http://adage.com/article/digital/yahoo-s-native-ad-network/294679/
Yahoo is bringing its native ads to other publishers’ sites.
Last year Yahoo adopted the low-hanging-fruit version of native advertising, a form of ad that aims to mirror surrounding editorial content. Unlike BuzzFeed’s sponsored listicles or The New York Times’ brand-penned posts, Yahoo’s native “Stream Ads” more closely resemble Facebook’s Sponsored Stories in that they refashion display ads as content links within its sites’ content streams. Now Yahoo is extending these ads outside of its own properties through a content recommendation system that helps publishers promote their own stories.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Facebook shifts its algorithm to fight clickbait. Will it kill off Upworthy and Buzzfeed?
http://gigaom.com/2014/08/25/facebook-shifts-its-algorithm-to-fight-clickbait-will-it-kill-off-upworthy-and-buzzfeed/
Facebook is going after clickbait with its new algorithm changes. That could have a profound impact on the traffic Buzzfeed, Upworthy and their lesser rivals see.
Tomi Engdahl says:
New York Times’ Digital Subscription Growth Story May Be Ending
http://recode.net/2014/08/25/new-york-times-digital-subscriber-growth-hits-ceiling/
The New York Times has bet on digital subscriptions to play a central role in its long-term future. But while selling access to the paper’s Web and mobile versions was an initial hit, growth is slowing — and may stop altogether if the company’s earlier projections are correct.
The problem is, the Times already hit the low end of that projection in June with 831,000 paying online readers.
There could be some cannibalization from the new app, of course, but even if all 32,000 were for the main digital subscription (which costs $15 to $35 depending on how many devices you want to use), that would still fall short of the previous two quarters when the Times averaged 36,000 new subscribers.
Paywalls are important because of how quickly they’ve become the main (or only) strategy for a lot of U.S. newspapers as advertising deteriorates. About four in 10 papers in the U.S. charge online, and it’s likely to only increase. In the case of the Times, the paywall is now a significant part of its total business, accounting for a tenth of annual sales.
Tomi Engdahl says:
News Feed FYI: Click-baiting
http://newsroom.fb.com/news/2014/08/news-feed-fyi-click-baiting/
Today we’re announcing some improvements to News Feed to help people find the posts and links from publishers that are most interesting and relevant, and to continue to weed out stories that people frequently tell us are spammy and that they don’t want to see. We’re making two updates, the first to reduce click-baiting headlines, and the second to help people see links shared on Facebook in the best format.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Click-Baiting Headlines
“Click-baiting” is when a publisher posts a link with a headline that encourages people to click to see more, without telling them much information about what they will see. Posts like these tend to get a lot of clicks, which means that these posts get shown to more people, and get shown higher up in News Feed.
Source: http://newsroom.fb.com/news/2014/08/news-feed-fyi-click-baiting/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Did Twitter and YouTube Make the Right Call in Suppressing Images of James Foley’s Beheading?
http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2014/08/21/james_foley_beheading_did_twitter_make_the_right_call_in_suppressing_the.html
When big news breaks, Twitter converts from a social forum to a news service, and the company’s decisions have a direct impact on what kind of information users can access.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Finnish media company Sanoma will start again the large employer-employee negotiations. They can lead to a maximum of 130 notices of termination magazine unit, tele sales and customer service. Also to part-time are possible. The statutory negotiations are related to organizational change.
Source: http://www.iltalehti.fi/talous/2014082618604603_ta.shtml
Tomi Engdahl says:
How Social Media Silences Debate
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/27/upshot/how-social-media-silences-debate.html?_r=0&abt=0002&abg=1
The Internet might be a useful tool for activists and organizers, in episodes from the Arab Spring to the Ice Bucket Challenge. But over all, it has diminished rather than enhanced political participation, according to new data.
The researchers also found that those who use social media regularly are more reluctant to express dissenting views in the offline world.
The Internet, it seems, is contributing to the polarization of America, as people surround themselves with people who think like them and hesitate to say anything different. Internet companies magnify the effect, by tweaking their algorithms to show us more content from people who are similar to us.
“People who use social media are finding new ways to engage politically, but there’s a big difference between political participation and deliberation,”
The researchers set out to investigate the effect of the Internet on the so-called spiral of silence, a theory that people are less likely to express their views if they believe they differ from those of their friends, family and colleagues. The Internet, many people thought, would do away with that notion because it connects more heterogeneous people and gives even minority voices a bullhorn.
Instead, the researchers found, the Internet reflects the offline world, where people have always gravitated toward like-minded friends and shied away from expressing divergent opinions. (There is a reason for the old rule to avoid religion or politics at the dinner table.)
Tomi Engdahl says:
Journalism is doing just fine, thanks — it’s mass-media business models that are ailing
http://gigaom.com/2014/08/26/journalism-is-doing-just-fine-thanks-its-mass-media-business-models-that-are-ailing/
Some argue that the rise of the internet has destroyed — or severely crippled — journalism, but all it has really done is disrupted traditional mass-media business models. Journalism itself has never been healthier, and new players are finding new models
Tomi Engdahl says:
Sunday, Aug 24, 2014 01:59 PM +0300
Sorry, everyone: The future of journalism is still up in the air
http://www.salon.com/2014/08/24/sorry_everyone_the_future_of_journalism_is_still_up_in_the_air/
As a smartphone-obsessed journalist, there was never any doubt that I would click on the headline “How the Smartphone Ushered In a Golden Age of Journalism.” And surprise! In the August issue of Wired, Frank Rose tells us that “journalism … is holding its own.”
“Great writing, investigative journalism, and deep-media storytelling” are not dead, writes Rose. “Mobile … puts us face-to-face with the endlessly onrushing stream of events that journalists exist to capture.”
I dearly want to believe that this is true. I am an optimist by nature, and even though I have personally witnessed the advent of the Internet wreak havoc on my profession, I’m still willing to believe that there is light at the end of the tunnel. I don’t know whether I’m ready to dub the current age a “golden” one, but there do seem to be some hopeful signs.
For one, we have clearly moved past the worst excesses of “Demand Media”-style algorithmically generated content. The rise of social media recommendations as a major driver of traffic appears to reward a good, in-depth story with more readers than did the previous era of search engine-dominated traffic. Meanwhile, people with smartphones are reading more news than ever before.
Tomi Engdahl says:
6 Obvious Reasons Why Facebook Will Ban This Article (Thank God)
Clampdown on clickbait … and El Reg is OK with this
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/08/25/facebook_anti_clickbait/
Facebook has declared war on “click-baiting headlines”, slamming them as “spammy”.
The social network has noticed that lazy, poorly written headlines that lure in readers with an ultimately unfilled promise are almost universally hated
BuzzFeed and Upworthy-style ‘you won’t believe this’ garbage is drowning out posts on people’s news feeds
Facebook will measure how much time you spend reading a story
“A small set of publishers who are frequently posting links with click-bait headlines that many people don’t spend time reading after they click through may see their distribution decrease in the next few months,”
Tomi Engdahl says:
When it comes to chasing clicks, journalists say one thing but feel pressure to do another
http://www.niemanlab.org/2014/08/when-it-comes-to-chasing-clicks-journalists-say-one-thing-but-feel-pressure-to-do-another/
Newsroom ethnographer Angèle Christin studied digital publications in France and the U.S. in order to compare how performance metrics influence culture.
Online media is made of clicks.
Readers click from one article to the next. Advertising revenue is based on the number of unique visitors for each site. Editors always keep in mind their traffic targets to secure the survival of their publications. Writers and bloggers interpret clicks as a signal of popularity.
The economic realities underpinning the click-based web are well documented. Yet much work remains to be done on the cultural consequences of the growing importance of Internet metrics.
In other words, all media sites now rely on web analytics to make editorial decisions. But this does not mean that they all use and interpret metrics in similar ways. In fact, each editorial department makes sense of traffic numbers differently. There is not one but several “cultures of the click.”
I find that journalists are particularly likely to have conflicted reactions to metrics when working for publications with high editorial ambitions facing financial instability. In this case, writers criticize the chase for clicks, but also understand online success as a signal of professional value.
Tomi Engdahl says:
It’s Over: The Rise & Fall Of Google Authorship For Search Results
Google has completely dropped all authorship functionality from the search results and webmaster tools.
http://searchengineland.com/goodbye-google-authorship-201975
After three years the great Google Authorship experiment has come to an end … at least for now.
Today John Mueller of Google Webmaster Tools announced in a Google+ post that Google will stop showing authorship results in Google Search, and will no longer be tracking data from content using rel=author markup.
The roots of the Authorship project go back to Google’s Agent Rank patent of 2007. As explained by Bill Slawski, an expert on Google’s patents, the Agent Rank patent described a system for connecting multiple pieces of content with a digital signature representing one or more “agents” (authors).
Tomi Engdahl says:
Amazon is Facing Boycotts, Cries of Blackmail from Japanese Publishers
http://the-digital-reader.com/2014/08/28/amazon-conflict-japanese-publishers/#.VAROjmNsUik
Amazon Japan is the nation’s largest book retailer for paper and electronic media. Its new system gives higher rankings to publishers that pay higher fees to Amazon Japan and to publishers with larger eBook catalogs.
Additionally, eBooks from publishers ranked higher are given more prominence on the Amazon.co.jp website.
Many publishers, including high-profile publishing houses, have protested the move, calling it a form of “blackmail” that exploits the company’s considerable dominance in the book retailing industry.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Veteran Tech Journalist Anand Shimpi Headed to Apple
http://recode.net/2014/08/31/veteran-tech-journalist-anand-shimpi-headed-to-apple/
Anand Lal Shimpi, the editor and publisher of the well-regarded AnandTech site, is going to work at Apple.
An Apple rep confirmed that the company was hiring Shimpi, but wouldn’t provide any other details.
Shimpi’s post also announced that AnandTech would continue publishing, and would be run by new editor in chief Ryan Smith.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Road Ahead
by Anand Lal Shimpi on August 30, 2014 7:00 PM EST
http://www.anandtech.com/show/8456/the-road-ahead
Tomi Engdahl says:
Interview: Ask Christopher “moot” Poole About 4chan and Social Media
http://features.slashdot.org/story/14/09/01/1840226/interview-ask-christopher-moot-poole-about-4chan-and-social-media
Having started 4chan when he was 15, Christopher Poole, better known as “moot”, is indirectly responsible for almost every meme you’ve ever seen. The group “Anonymous” originated on 4chan
moot was famously voted the world’s most influential person of 2008 in an open internet poll conducted by Time magazine
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ken Doctor: Inside the Toronto Star’s $10 million niche print business
http://www.niemanlab.org/2014/09/ken-doctor-inside-the-toronto-stars-10-million-niche-print-business/
A Canadian daily’s strategy for wringing profit out of print is one of the newspaper business’s best kept secrets.
That the Toronto Star paid print supplements are quite profitably generating more than C$10 million a year is one of the best kept secrets in the newspaper industry. It’s also just one indicator of the new push for networked news products on the part of the Times, the Washington Post and USA Today, which I detail at the Lab today.
Tomi Engdahl says:
A Second Look At The Giant Garbage Pile That Is Online Media, 2014
http://dish.andrewsullivan.com/2014/09/05/a-second-look-at-the-giant-garbage-pile-that-is-online-media-2014/
So let’s get into this a bit more. Here are the primary types of garbage content that lots of money – money that could be spent on making good things – is currently being spent on producing:
No-value-added news blogging
It is just mass-produced debris, utterly valueless, thoughtlessly sent into the world without regard for quality, but solely because it fills the short-term need to have some sort of piece of content on which to sell ads.
This makes up 75 percent* of the content on TIME’s “Newsfeed”
Reddit-chasing
This happens when someone at a website is like, “this is on the second page of Reddit so someone put it up.”
“Jon Stewart eviscerates”
This category also includes: “this celebrity Tweeted,” “this cable news guest or host said,” and “a thing happened at an award show.”
Viral bilge
This is the Upworthy/Viral Nova/Elite Daily nexus of “viral” content packaged with manipulative headlines. The worst part of it is that at some places (though not all), it involves nearly as many man-hours of labor (the creation and comparative testing of dozens of headlines, for example) to produce stupid garbage like “9 Charming Traits Class Clowns All Share That Landed Them In Detention Every Day”
Tomi Engdahl says:
IDG shutters Macworld Magazine, much of the editorial staff let go
http://9to5mac.com/2014/09/10/idg-shutters-macworld-magazine-much-of-the-editorial-staff-let-go/
staff let go
9to5-image 2014-09-10 at 2.16.50 PM
International Data Group (IDG) is shutting down Macworld Magazine, the long time Apple periodical according to tweets by staff and conversations
The Macworld.com website will remain open [although as a shell of its former self -ed] with a reduced staff
Ironically, the transition from print to digital hastened by Apple’s own iPad and other online tools made the publication one of the last remaining Apple publications in print.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Research Director Mikko Hypponen discusses the development of the internet
He will take Google for example, how lucrative users profiling can be. Its services are free and expensive to maintain, “alone, Google’s electricity bill is over $ 100 million per year.”
Despite this, Google’s revenue last year was 60 billion dollars and profit of 12 billion. Hypponen calculates that if Google has a billion users, each of them will produce the company $ 12 without paying anything.
“I’d pay like 12 bucks a year to Google, if it does not track or profiled me. Damn, I would pay even a hundred bucks! But this option, Google does not let me, “Hypponen writes.
He notes that Google does not do anything illegal, and users give up their data on a voluntary basis.
“Sometimes I wish that things would have developed in a different way and we would have a simple micro-payment system, in which we could pay for content and services.”
Source: http://www.tivi.fi/kaikki_uutiset/mikko+hypponen+voisin+maksaa+googlelle+satasen+jos/a1010838
Tomi Engdahl says:
Libraries may digitize books without permission, EU top court rules
Copying the work to a USB stick is also allowed, but only if the rights holder gets paid, the CJEU said
http://www.itworld.com/it-management/435674/libraries-may-digitize-books-without-permission-eu-top-court-rules
September 11, 2014, 6:19 AM — European libraries may digitize books and make them available at electronic reading points without first gaining consent of the copyright holder, the highest European Union court ruled Thursday.
Under the EU Copyright Directive, authors have the exclusive right to authorize or prohibit the reproduction and communication of their works, the CJEU said. However, the directive also allows for exceptions or limitations to that right, it said.
“This option exists notably for publically accessible libraries which, for the purpose of research or private study, make works from their collections available to users by dedicated terminals,” it added.
“The right of libraries to communicate, by dedicated terminals, the works they hold in their collections would risk being rendered largely meaningless, or indeed ineffective, if they did not have an ancillary right to digitize the works in question,” the court said.
However, libraries cannot permit visitors to use the terminals to print out the works or store them on a USB stick, the CJEU said.
The library could however permit the users to print or store the works on a USB stick if fair compensation is paid to the rights holder, the CJEU said.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Wearables could make the “glance” a new subatomic unit of news
“The audience wants to go faster. This can’t be solved with responsive design; it demands an original approach, certainly at the start.”
http://www.niemanlab.org/2014/09/wearables-could-make-the-glance-a-new-subatomic-unit-of-news/
Next year will be my twentieth in digital news. From the start, I had an underlying disposition that digital news consumers — sports or otherwise — wanted their content easily digestible: brief, formatted, convenient.
“Glance” is the name of the feature of the Apple Watch that let Watch-wearers skim through a series of not-quite-notifications. Maybe they are notifications, but only as a subset of a new class of ultra-brief news.
“Atomic unit” was a helpful metaphor, but we’re now talking about the proton/neutron level. Glance journalism makes tweets look like longform, typical news notifications (and even innovative atomized news apps) look like endless scroll, and Seward’s list of essential Things (chart, gif, quote, stat) look unresponsive.
What a wonderfully evocative word: “glance.”
That is the user experience that the news industry has a pending opportunity to address — the message delivered must be that clear and concise: I’ll describe it as a “neutron of news,” which — if done right — is enough for that moment.
While the phone screen — at any size — may remain the preeminent platform, the foreshadowing of the potential of the Watch was evident. And that watch screen demands constraints like journalism has rarely dealt with. (The industry has its hands full figuring out what kind of journalism best fits the mobile screen.)
The exciting part is that the opportunities and solutions are wide open, even if the platform is no wider than your wrist.
Tomi Engdahl says:
More and more Finnish reads magazines in digital format
Reading newspapers has increased, says the National Readership Surve
Reachability is included, as well as the average numbers of printed newspapers readership of the newspaper in various digital formats weekly readership numbers.
Computer, mobile phone and tablet weekly newspapers are read by 70 per cent of the Finnish population. The number increased by almost 13 per cent.
The printed version remains the most popular, although its reading has decreased. 89 per cent of Finnish reads something like print magazines on a weekly basis. The computer reads the newspapers on a weekly basis of 62 per cent, 35 per cent of mobile phone and tablet with 21 per cent of the Finnish population.
Source: http://www.iltalehti.fi/uutiset/2014091618666462_uu.shtml
Tomi Engdahl says:
News Corp executive labels Google a ‘platform for piracy’
Robert Thomson writes to competition commissioner Joaquín Almunia calling for action over Google’s dominance
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/sep/18/google-news-corp-piracy-platform-european-commission
The chief executive of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp has written to the European commission calling Google a “platform for piracy” and demanding action.
In the strongly worded letter to competition commissioner Joaquín Almunia, News Corp’s Robert Thomson calls Google a “platform for piracy and the spread of malicious networks” whose power “increases with each passing day”.
“The shining vision of Google’s founders has been replaced by a cynical management,” Thomson writes.
News Corp, publisher of The Sun, the Times newspapers and the Wall Street Journal, joins Microsoft, German publisher Axel Springer and others in a chorus of critics challenging Google’s European dominance. The search firm is even more powerful in Europe, where it accounts for around 90% of the search market, than it is in the US, where its share is closer to 70%.
Citing Google’s “egregious aggregation” of content, Thomson said that, along with serious commercial damage, there is a “profound social cost” to Google’s actions. “The internet should be a canvas for freedom of expression and for high-quality content of enduring value. Undermining the basic business model of professional content creators will lead to a less informed, more vexatious level of dialogue in our society,” he wrote.
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Tomi Engdahl says:
Your mistake was no backups.
The first rule is take care of the backups.
There is always risk that someone can hack your system no matter how hard you try to protect it.
Sensible protection method is take care of backups and then use sensible protection against hacking.
Remember that there are no 100% hacker protection no matter how much you put resources and money on protection.
If some sales person claims you that they have 100% protection, they are lying.
You need to be prepared to handle the situation that you might be hacked some day. A good plan against it is to have back-ups made often enough, and tried process how you can restore the system from backup. In this way if you get hacked, you get the system up quickly and damage is minimized.
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obtain the most recent information.
Wifi Gratis says:
Highly energetic article, I enjoyed that a lot.
Will there be a part 2?
Tomi Engdahl says:
I have written several articles that could be considered to be part 2. Check them at
http://www.epanorama.net/newepa/category/journalism-and-media/
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