Things looked positively awful a year ago in medialand. So when prognosticators say things are improving, it’s important to remember that it’s all relative.
Still, if you’re among those who, say, make their living working for an ad-supported media outlet, it sure is nice to see this sort of thing: Barclays analyst Anthony DiClemente jacking up his 2010 U.S. ad market estimates from no growth to a 3.5 percent bump.
That pay wall that Newsday put around its Web site last year? Crazily effective–at keeping people from buying an online subscription. Since the wall went up three months ago, only 35 people–as in not quite three dozen–have paid the $5-a-week fee for Web access. What does this tell us about the New York Times plan? Not much.
Here’s what qualifies as a man-bites-dog story these days: A big mainstream business publication hiring an experienced business journalist.
Weird, right? But true: Fortune magazine has hired veteran writer Dan Roth to run and revitalize the title’s Web site. He starts as managing editor next week.
The paper of record has problems, but it still has plenty of resources. Does the New York Times really need 12 months to figure out an online billing system?
After much consideration, the New York Times has finally decided to start charging readers for access to its Web site. But not for a while: The Times says it will introduce a “metered model” for NYT.com in 2011.
Remember Vevo, the “Hulu for music video” service that launched with a lot of fanfare, then earned a ton of lousy press for an error-filled launch?
It has fixed its tech problems and is doing just fine, thank you very much. Vevo says it is generating around 20 million video views a day, which puts it on track to generate some 600 million views a month. Next step: Turning those views into dollars.
Has the New York Times finally started charging people to read its news online? Not yet. But people who aren’t the New York Times are using the paper’s name and charging iPhone users to read the paper’s stuff–with Apple’s blessing. What gives?
Here’s a historic first you won’t be seeing today: Coverage of a federal trial via YouTube.
The Supreme Court has put a halt, at least temporarily, on plans let Google’s video site stream coverage of the “Proposition 8″ trial, which kicked off today in a San Francisco courtroom.
Here’s another e-reader clamoring for attention in a Consumer Electronics Show full of e-readers: The Skiff Reader, produced by a company funded by publisher Hearst Corp. and supported by Sprint. But in many ways, the Skiff Reader’s specs are beside the point, because the real point of its parent company isn’t to produce e-reader devices at all–it wants to create a publishing and distribution platform. Does this sound familiar? And does it sound like something another publisher might want to buy?
After promising to deliver its take on Amazon’s Kindle for a couple of years, Plastic Logic is finally delivering: Here comes the Que, which the company promises is “more than an eReader.” It had better be: The first two versions of the gadget will cost $649 and $799.
Here’s the Flixster/MySpace deal Kara Swisher sussed out on Christmas Eve: News Corp. is handing over its Rotten Tomatoes movie review site, previously owned by its IGN unit, to the movie-centric social network and will get an equity stake in the combined company.
Despite MySpace’s well-documented woes, the site still attracts a very large audience. Want to see what they’re chatting about as they say it? Here you go: Real-time search engine Collecta has produced a site that does nothing but index MySpace users’ comments, shout-outs, videos, etc.
Live in New York City? Want to buy an iPhone? Don’t try ordering one from AT&T’s Web site: The wireless carrier, at least for now, won’t sell New Yorkers a new phone online, citing “increased fraudulent activity.” Huh?
Bloggers (ahem) have been bellowing about Facebook’s privacy changes. What about advertisers? Not a peep, says Mike Lazerow, whose Buddy Media helps big brands build and promote “fan pages” on the network.
Bah, humbug! Hackers spent part of Wednesday attacking Neustar, the DNS provider that helps link some of the Web’s biggest Web sites to consumers, and ended up disrupting big retailers like Amazon and Wal-Mart for more than an hour.
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 »
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.
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