A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject. - Sir Winston Churchill

Thinking beyond text and images

When the motion picture camera was first invented in the late 1800’s (Louis Le Prince’s design in 1888 was probably the first), people were instantly fascinated with its ability to capture and reproduce exactly the scenes of reality.

It wasn’t until Georges Méliès kicked off Science-Fiction films with A Trip to the Moon that people began to really explore the idea of representing things in film that were not reality. Before 1902, filmmakers had failed to recognize that this new medium could be used to create a completely convincing alternate reality.

Once again we are encountering an entirely new medium, and we have yet to figure out the possibilities it creates. The internet is ideal for displaying text and pictures. It’s also ideal for displaying video. It’s also ideal for interactive, user-prompted interfaces.

Classically, a newspaper has confined itself to what paper as a medium will support: text and images. There’s not much sense in a newspaper putting together an audio program because you can’t just plug headphones into the print edition that shows up on your doorstep.

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May 29, 2008 | Filed Under Long Form Blogging | 1 Comment 

Personal details and journalism

Emily Gould, formerly of Gawker, has a piece in the New York Times Magazine this week about her experience with making her personal life very public online.

I think that her particular line of blogging (making fun of pseudo-celebrities) lends itself a little more to the kind of problem that she created for herself more than most journoblogging.

But as blogging tugs journalism into more personal arenas, and as more journalists become bloggers, I think this is a good topic to be aware of.

May 27, 2008 | Filed Under Link Journalism | Leave a Comment 

Scoble confirms: The New York Times is getting its content everywhere

Robert Scoble posted yesterday about his visit to the New York Times offices and included a bunch of videos he did in their R&D department showing off the cool stuff they are investing in.

If you’re involved in the newspaper business, you should really check out what they are doing. The Times has consistently stayed on top of the heap by making their content available to as many people as many ways as possible. This is why they are the newspaper whose online readership is closest to their print readership.

They’ve had a mashup with Google Earth now for a while.

Soon, they’ll be the dominant news source on all kinds of mobile devices, and you have to admit that a print on demand newspaper stand is one of the best ideas ever.

Oh and they’ve announced the Times Machine now, too. Which is a New York Times subscriber benefit.

Man these guys get it. To borrow a phrase from Wall Street: Long NYT.

May 23, 2008 | Filed Under Observations | 1 Comment 

Crowding the page

Even though I do a good amount it myself in professional web design, I constantly wonder about the wisdom of crowding the page with too much junk.

Study after study seems to confirm that the more crap you shove on the front page and above the fold, the more clicks you get. Which seems like a pretty good idea to build a site that’s incredibly top-heavy and all squished together.

The problem for me is that it’s ugly, and it makes it really hard for me to digest what I’m looking at. One of the things I like the most about a physical newspaper is how easy it is for me to cherry-pick my reading. I can skim a headline, read half of a paragraph, and move on, almost in the same eye movement.

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May 22, 2008 | Filed Under Long Form Blogging | Leave a Comment 

The Washington Post just fired one of its most promising employees: a blogger

What if you fired every reporter who won a Pulitzer?

You’d be retarded, right?

I don’t know how I missed this last Friday, but the Washington Post just fired Michael Tunison for discrediting the publication.

How did Tunison discredit the Post? He wrote a successful sports blog that now gets about 22,000 unique visitors per day.

If I were running the Post, I’d have tried to buy the blog. Then you’d be encouraging your reporters to get out there and develop good web properties and personalities, because hey, if it works out, you’ll buy it from them!

There are kinks in the idea, of course. You obviously don’t want all your breaking news reporters starking political pundit blogs. But I think throwing away a reporter who has just demonstrated an ability to build a successful online media property in his spare time is a particularly myopic management decision.

May 21, 2008 | Filed Under Observations | 2 Comments 

Disappearing comments

I just slugged through my Akismet spam filter and noticed that it’s been tagging some very legitimate comments as spam, which is why they haven’t been showing up on the site. And here I was worried that nobody cared ;)

Since I’ve marked these comments as “not spam,” Akismet should theoretically do a better job in the future of figuring out what should be approved. That said, there is a surefire way to make your comments show up (immediately, without needing approval): register a user account with this site.

It’s not as scary as it sounds. All it asks for is a username and your e-mail address. Then it emails you a temporary password that you can change.

Also, I’m not collecting your information for any nefarious purposes. I don’t get to see your password, and neither does anyone working at WordPress.

If you don’t feel comfortable signing up, no worries. But if you’re frustrated that your comments aren’t showing up, this is the best guarantee there is. You can always sign up using the link near the bottom of the left sidebar, which looks like this:

Register Link

May 19, 2008 | Filed Under Observations | 1 Comment 

Should newspapers charge for access to their archives?

About a week ago my sister, who admirably reads all my drivel without complaint, sent me an e-mail about newspaper archives:

In looking for sources for my history paper, I was very annoyed to find out that I would have to pay along the lines of $2.95 or pay for a whole subscription in order to see archived articles of specific newspapers.

The Seattle Times and the New York Times were both free, but the LA Times and many other ones that a google news search turned up were not. What’s up with having to pay for the archives?

She’s got a kind of point: All the current stuff is free. Why do I have to pay for the old stuff? It’s not like it costs you anything to provide it.

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May 19, 2008 | Filed Under Advice | Leave a Comment 

The Spokseman-Review tries freemium listings and sees success

Poynter’s Biz Blog today highlights an award given to a Spokane paper for being smart on the internet. Specifically, for taking a page from the freemium book and offering a free service with chances to go premium for a little extra ca$h:

And the winner is: The Spokesman-Review in Spokane, Washington, for an ingenious variation on local search, a business directory that includes an informative free listing and lots of opportunities for upsells.

The twist at Spokane’s BizFinderNW.com, is to offer a listing with address, store hours, a map and a photo for free. Businesses can amplify on the listing or buy a display position if they wish. Like most local search ventures, there is room for user comments, though no news content per se.

I think freemium (or maybe cheapmium) is going to be the basis of a lot of newspaper business going forward. In fact, my thoughts on subscriptions are basically finding ways to bundle premium offerings to make the package more sellable.

May 15, 2008 | Filed Under Link Journalism | 1 Comment 

What is a subscription?

I‘ve tossed around the idea of using freemium services and mulled over the difference between a subscriber and a reader, and I think these are very important concepts to the future of newspapers.

I think this because I’m beginning to realize how securely the concept of a “subscription” is tied to the physical paper delivery. People are not going to pay to look at a newspaper web site. And while American newspapers might only get about 20% of their revenue from subscriptions, that’s an important source of cash to maintain.

Going forward, I think subscription revenue is going to be even more important to newspapers as new measurement metrics and a proliferation of online media channels give advertisers more places to spend their money (and consequently, bring ad prices down).

Not to mention, have a significant chunk of subscription revenue would ease some of the inherent tensions between good editorial and business practices.

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May 14, 2008 | Filed Under Advice | 5 Comments 

The Craigslist vaccine: Why newspaper classifieds aren’t effed

I’m Joe Consumer.

Joe Consumer wants to sell his old computer monitor because he got a shiny new one. What does Joe do? He thinks first about his options. Here are the obvious ways to sell his monitor:

  1. Ask his friends and family if they want to buy it.
  2. Put an ad in the newspaper
  3. List it as an auction on eBay
  4. List it for sale on Craigslist

I’m sure there are hundreds of ways Joe could sell his monitor. But those are the ones that occur to me quickly and without much effort, and it’s pretty likely that at least one of them will work. Of those four options, only one costs Joe money.

Listing it in the newspaper.

The funny thing is that when I talk to people at newspapers, they all know this already. I get the “duh, we’re effed, shut up about it Jason” response.

But newspapers are not completely effed when it comes to classifieds, and here’s why.
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May 9, 2008 | Filed Under Advice | 5 Comments 

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