One Australian new media start-up is using sophisticated software to trawl tweets, and from that constructs a media outlet more or less automatically, featuring the things we are all talking about. Meet The Wall.
Online news
Why does James Murdoch hate public libraries?
James “Son of Rupert” Murdoch has hit out at the British Library and its evil information sharing ways. Roy Greenslade has a memo for him: libraries don’t care about your bottom line.
How HuffPo took over the world
In just five years, The Huffington Post has become the largest independent news site in the world, and its traffic now eclipses that of the WashPo, WSJ and LA Times. Now there’s just one more title to top: the NYT. Henry Blodget gives it six months.
The death of the headline
Forget witty puns and waggish turns of phrase — online news headlines are now written with only one thing in mind: search engine optimisation. David Carr mourns the death of the smart screamer.
great read What are words worth on the web?
A look at the complex economics of online media: “Opinions posted on blogs are cheap. Great journalism is expensive.” So should online media editors prize hits over high-quality content? And what are words on the internet actually worth?
Happy Birthday, HuffPo!
The Huffington Post, and CJR hip-hip-hoorays with a series of reflections on the online news empire. Our favourite comes from Greg Marx: “Why is it always shouting at me?”
Can you create a magazine in 48 hours?
That’s the question the folks behind 48 Hour magazine are trying to answer. After they unveil the each issue’s theme, writers have 24 hours to produce and submit content, then the production team have 24 hours to stick it all together.
Find out how healthy your news diet really is
Do you really read from a wide range of news sources? Slate has created a wonderful little widget that looks at your recent news-browsing history and lays your true media biases bare.
CNN: WTF?
WTF CNN? is a delightfully simple site highlighting the tabloid headlines topping CNN’s homepage by comparing it to the far more news-focused Al-Jazeera front-page.
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Gawker media explains how to make money online
Village Voice has the latest staff memo from Gawker Media chief Nick Denton, advising his underlings on how to write for the web. It’s fascinating reading from someone who actually has this whole internet thing figured out.
What’s Murdoch got to lose?
Rupert Murdoch’s Times newspaper is hemorrhaging about £1.5 million a week — so while erecting an online paywall may seem risky, he has nothing to lose and everything to gain, says media consultant Philip M. Stone.
Bartholomeusz: Murdoch isn’t building a wall — he’s building a fortress
News Corp has decided has decided on a very thick and crude pay-wall model for its UK paper The Times, says Stephen Bartholomeusz: no bundling, no micro-payments, no tiered access. It’s all or nothing with Rupe.
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The full list of approved iPad apps
App Advice has compiled a list of all the apps that will be available when the iPad App Store launches next weekend. So far, the only news app is Reuters Pro, which they have a sneak peak of here.
Google: How can newspapers survive? Ditch the “papers” bit
Google’s Chief Economist Hal Varian offers some advice to newspaper publishers: paywalls won’t cure your financial woes — going big online will. Forget costly printed news: news outlets must go 100% online to survive.
The science behind the NYT “most emailed” list
University researchers have been studying the “most emailed” New York Times articles to see what kind of news people like to share — and why. The results are not what you might expect.
Paywall FAIL: Newsday has 35 subscribers
In ominous news for the NYT and News Corp, it has been revealed that newsday.com has only secured 35 subscribers since the paper put up a paywall. The account of how the figure came out is gold.
Beecher: NYT to join the paywall brigade
The New York Times will introduce a charge for readers to use its website next year, heralding the most important development so far in the agonising who-will-pay-for-quality-journalism debate. The world of free journalism will never be the same.
Crikey Wrap: Moving with the NY Times
The NY Times has announced that it will resurrect a paywall for its online content, sending media geeks and commentators’ fingers flying over whether it will work and What It All Means. Crikey intern Flint Duxfield takes a look at what they’re saying.
News aggregators really are killing newspapers
New research has found more and more people just skim the aggregated headlines on sites like Google News to get their daily news fix, and never click through to the original stories.
NY Times reveals its paywall plans
The New York Times unveils its plans for the future of NYTimes.com: readers will get a flat number of free articles per month before having to pay.
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New York Times to go paywall
New York magazine claims the New York Times is soon to announce that it will start charging readers for access to its website, adopting a “metered system” (ie x number of articles free per day, pay for the rest) akin to that of the Financial Times.
Ninemsn nails its colours to the mast: information should be free
Ninemsn news executive producer Hal Crawford has written a distinctly bolshie blog post arguing that Rupert Murdoch’s paywall push is a threat to freedom, reports Margaret Simons. Given it’s the most popular news website in the country, that’s no small thing.
The future of online news: the ‘living story’
Google is experimenting with a concept in online news: the ‘living story’, where stories are unified on a single page, which is updated as new developments occur. It needs some work, says Margaret Simons, but it could still be a game changer.
Variety goes paywall
There goes another one: entertainment industry bible Variety is putting up a paywall tomorrow. It’s an icon of the industry, but with a $248-a-year subscription fee, its real cachet will be put to the test.
The campaign to rid anonymous comments from the internet
Crikey / Monday, 14 November 2011
The Communications Council, which represents the advertising industry, would like the trade press to ban all anonymous comments. Mumbrella’s Tim Burrowes goes inside the debate.