Wednesday, August 26, 2009
The Financial Times Strengthens Its Pay Wall With Stern Words
The Financial Times’s pay wall for its FT.com site has been a success. So what’s with the note warning wayward emailers?
Thursday, August 20, 2009
MySpace Welcomes Media Link (and Wenda Millard!): The Complete Internal Memo
As Kara Swisher just reported, News Corp.’s MySpace has hired media consulting firm Media Link, along with Media Link President Wenda Harris Millard, to overhaul the social network’s sales group.
Here’s the complete internal memo from CEO Owen Van Natta, which describes Millard’s position as head of the ad sales group as an “interim” one, and announces that former sales boss Jeff Berman is out.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Is the AP Adding DRM to the News? Not Yet.
Here’s the next step in the Associated Press’s attempt to adapt to the reality of the Web: It’s going to try to keep tabs on its stories, photos and videos via a “news registry that will tag and track all AP content online to assure compliance with terms of use.”
At first blush, the AP’s description of the program sounds a lot like an attempt to implement digital rights management–a lock-and-key system–for the news. But at least in this iteration, that’s not the case.
Friday, July 17, 2009
Amazon Rethinks Its George Orwell Removal Policy
Amazon has explained why it has been deleting some novels from its customers’ Kindles: It shouldn’t have been selling them in the first place.
Amazon says the copies of George Orwell’s “Animal Farm” and “1984″ that it removed, without warning, from some Kindles this week are “illegal”, because the publisher didn’t have the rights to sell them. Won’t happen again, the e-commerce giant says. Sort of.
Think You Own the Book You Bought for Your Kindle? You Don’t, Says Amazon.
Buy an e-book for Amazon’s Kindle recently? You might want to check to see if it’s still on your device. Kindle users are complaining that the e-commerce giant has removed titles from their machines this week and given them refunds in their place.
What happened? The details are fuzzy, but apparently, a publisher that supplied Amazon with two George Orwell titles has decided that it doesn’t want to sell them via Amazon anymore. So away they went. Have at it, DRM-haters.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Now Things Get Interesting: CBS Joins Comcast’s Web TV Trial
Yet another addition to the growing list of programmers signing on to Comcast’s “On Demand Online”: CBS will join the cable provider’s trial program, which will allow subscribers to get Web access to shows they get on TV.
CBS will join previously announced partners Time Warner, which is offering up programming from its Turner channels and HBO; Liberty Media’s Starz, and smaller players like Scripps, Rainbow and A&E. The twist is that CBS is the only broadcaster to sign up for the trial.
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Dealmakers Aren’t Dealing, Unless You Can Get the Word “Mobile” Into Your Pitch
Did you want to buy or sell a media or tech company in the last six months? Chances are you didn’t: New data from banker The Jordan, Edmiston Group say the M&A market for the first half of 2009 was nearly nonexistent, at least compared to the post-MySpace Web 2.0 heyday. One exception to the drought: A booming market for mobile companies.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Time Inc. CEO Ann Moore: Let’s Put the Digital “Genie Back in the Bottle” [UPDATED]
Poor John Squires. The Time Inc. SVP seems like an affable fellow. So what has he done to deserve this impossible task–figuring out a digital strategy for Time Warner’s publishing unit? Or, to put it in Time Inc. CEO Ann Moore’s words, figuring out “how to put the genie back in the bottle”?
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Google: We’re Still Not in the Newspaper Business
Just to be clear: Google still doesn’t plan on bailing out the New York Times or any other paper. As a buyer, at least. CEO Eric Schmidt reiterated that position, which he’s already made a couple times this year, in an interview with the Financial Times. Schmidt did allow, though, that Google had at least mulled the idea at one point.
Monday, April 6, 2009
AP Shakes Fist at Google, Tells Internet to Get Off Its Damn Lawn
The Associated Press is fed up with… the Internet, apparently. And it’s going to do… something about it. At the news-gathering co-op’s annual meeting today, AP chairman Dean Singleton let rip a sort of hellfire-and-brimstone speech in which he announced the AP’s vague plans to stop unnamed scoundrels from making money from their work.
Unstated but obvious public enemy number one: Google.
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Warner Music Group Disappearing From YouTube: Both Sides Take Credit
Warner Music Group’s videos are disappearing from YouTube. The move is a result of a breakdown in negotiations between Google and the music label over a licensing deal that was set to expire soon. Who actually made the move to drop the label’s content from the world’s biggest video site is a matter of dispute, though. Both sides are taking credit for the decision.
Thursday, December 11, 2008
CBS Interactive/CNET Re-Org: The Complete Memo
CBS paid $1.8 billion for CNET last summer, and today it is dealing with the consequences: A re-org and layoffs. CBS execs won’t release a total for the number of people fired, so news will be coming out in piecemeal fashion for some time. In the meantime, here’s CBS Interactive’s new corporate structure, detailed in an internal memo distributed late today.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Which Media Mogul Would You Rather Be Right Now: Arianna Huffington or Jim Cramer?
TheStreet.com is worth about $100 million. So is The Huffington Post. But investors are much more optimistic about one of these Web businesses.
Friday, October 31, 2008
Google’s Plea to Publishers: Please Keep Using Us
Yet another sign that even mighty Google feels unnerved by the slowdown: A “Hey! Don’t Forget About Us!” note sent out to its AdSense customers.
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About Peter
Peter Kafka has been covering media and technology since 1997, when he joined the staff of Forbes magazine. Most recently, he has been the managing editor of the tech and media Web site, Silicon Alley Insider. Read more »
Ethics Statement
Here is a statement of my ethics and coverage policies. It is more than most of you want to know, but, in the age of suspicion of the media, I am laying it all out.
