Journalism is a Process, Not a Product

Monthly archives for November, 2009

All the News That’s Fit to Bing

Nov30th
2009 Leave a Comment Written by Digidave

Before I drop the link-bomb on you, my thoughts about Murdoch and paywalls/Bing.

I’m cheering Murdoch on all the way. There has been too much talk on paywalls and not enough action. We all know the reason why there has been no action – because it could prove disastrous. But that’s exactly why somebody has to suck it up and dive in first. If it turns out the water is boiling, we will all hear the screams. For being the first one to take the dive, I applaud Murdoch (you won’t hear that often). Do I think it will work, however, is another thread entirely. The short answer: It might (MIGHT probably won’t) work for a WSJ, NYT, WaPo and maybe an LAT. Any natioanlly branded newspaper. And that is a BIG “might.” For metro papers like the Boston Globe, SF Chronicle, Baltimore Sun, it would be a death plunge.

LINK BOMB

Price Tag for WSJ.com in Microsoft-Murdoch Deal Could be $8 Million Annually
…but none I know of have come up with what I’d consider a realistic figure of how much Bing might have to provide News Corp. to make up for lost revenue for any given property, and under what conditions the deal might make sense, at least as a financially-based business decision, for News Corp.

Media Nation: What a Bing News deal might mean for journalism
But imagine, if you will, an alternative universe in which newspaper sites were rolling in advertising revenues from readers Google sent their way, but in which Google itself couldn’t find a way to make any money. (Such a scenario requires you to believe a number of ridiculous things, but never mind.) Can you imagine what the debate would be? You’d hear demands that cash-fattened newspaper owners share some of their newly gotten wealth with Google.

Jason Calacanis on How To Kill Google

Jason Calacanis shares how Microsoft Bing can kill Google by partnering with news organizations such as the New York Times.

Public backs News Corp/Microsoft deal – Editors Weblog

In a public poll conducted by One News Page, 89% of respondents said that the proposed News Corp partnership with Microsoft’s Bing search engine for exclusive news access was a good idea, or ‘a winner’ in the words of the poll.

Why Big Media’s Anti-Google Counter-Revolution Will Fail – Umair Haque – HarvardBusiness.org
blogs.harvardbusiness.org
Blocking Google is about as smart as eating a pound of plutonium. Here’s why MicroFox is making a big mistake.

If Newspapers Were Stores, Would Visitors Be “Worthless” Then?
As the war of words ramps up between Google and some news publishers, the latest spin seems to be how “worthless” the traffic is that Google sends. In reality, the traffic probably does have value, but the newspapers are likely doing a terrible job of monetizing it.

Worthless readers
One response publishers make to my argument that Google drives value to them and their content in the link economy is that the readers Google sends are worthless. Boss Jarvis gives six ideas on how publishers can make their readers full of worth

Search Engine including Mobile Market Share
Let’s keep things in perspective for the moment. The chart speaks for itself.

Why a Deal With News Corp Would Make Bing the Trader Joe’s of Search
OK, so let’s say this deal comes together–which I really doubt–but let’s say it does. What will happen? I, and many others, will know that in order to read an article on the Wall Street Journal, we have to go to Bing.com and not Google. We conduct our search, read the article, then decide to keep Bing as our default search engine…go right back to using Google!

Microsoft, Don’t You Dare
From myself, and the rest of the internet community: Microsoft, you must not do this. Doing so would set a precedent that content should charge search engines for the right to be spidered. What you are doing is just that, attempting to buy exclusive rights to News Corp online. This is the proverbial slippery slope.

News Corp. Weighs an Exclusive Alliance With Bing
The New York Times
If such an arrangement came to pass, it would be a watershed moment in the history of the Internet, and set off a fierce debate over the future of content online.

Microsoft and News Corp. are pursuing yesterday’s solution to today’s challenges
ojr.org
News Corp.’s alleged plan to shield its online content from Google’s search engine in favor of having it indexed by Microsoft’s Bing is a brilliant content business strategy… for the 20th Century.

Rupert, The Grinch and Google – Recovering Journalist

Then he got an idea! An awful idea!

The Grinch got a wonderful, awful idea!

“I know just what to do!” The Grinch laughed in his throat.

And he thought of old Microsoft, and disruptions to float.

And he chuckled, and clucked, “What a great Grinchy thing!

For a Google disaster, I’ll hook up with Bing!

Advertising/Business

Interview with – The Sacramento Press

Nov27th
2009 4 Comments Written by Digidave

I’ve been running into the folks from the Sacramento Press more and more. Wanted to get their co-founder Geoff to talk a bit about what they do. Shout out to Technically Philly near the end of the video.

Add this to my list of interviews.

Advertising/Business, Links and People

Link and Video RoundUp

Nov22nd
2009 Leave a Comment Written by Digidave

Once again hat tip to Publish2.com (where I’m an advisor) for making this super easy for me.

Straight Links

Social Media Marketing 101
PBS Mediashift
There’s a new series of demands being made in company meetings everywhere: “What is our social media strategy? What are we doing on Facebook and Twitter? I want followers and fans, and I want them now!” But before companies large and small — as well as non-profits and charities — jump into social media, they need to take a deep breath and think about it. What are their goals? What kind of return on investment will they get? Even though it’s free to set up fan pages and feeds, there’s a time investment that may or may not pay off.

Status.Net: The WordPress For Microblogs Gets A Hosted Solution

Walt Disney vs. the news industry: How bad management is killing newspapers and their websites
ojr.org

5 Ways to find, mix and mash your data
10000words.net

MediaShift Idea Lab . Changes in Media Over the Past 550 Years | PBS
pbs.org

Why Nonprofits Need Newspapers
journalismnonprofit.blogspot.com

VIDEO LINKS

BBC announces launch of radio player

YouTube
Director, BBC Audio and Music Tim Davie speaking about his announcement of the BBC radioplayer at The Media Festival, Manchester today.

New Times: The Future of Journalism

YouTube
This video is over one hour – but filled with good folks like Paul Steiger from ProPublica and Alberto Ibarguen from the Knight Foundation.

Paul Starr on “public accountability after the age of newspapers” (Part 1 of 3)

YouTube
Paul Starr talks about “public accountabiility after the age of newspapers” at Suffolk University Law School, 1 October 2009

Why Newspapers Go Out of Business

YouTube
I’m not endorsing the Moaist Rebel News but when I came across this, I had to save it.

Ten Angry Reporters Meltingdown & Blowing Up(Compilation)

YouTube
Lately I seem be going from internet argument to internet argument. Feels like this.

Just for laughs.

Mario: Game Over

youtube.com

Internet/Technology/Gadgets, Links and People

Don’t Save Journalism – Save Honest Communication

Nov16th
2009 25 Comments Written by Digidave

(Funny that my last post was on having bloggers block and tonight this is pouring out of me. I guess I needed to clear my throat. I don’t want to be an annoying pontificator. As I said in my last post – I want to be on the front lines of all this. I’m a grunt, at best a squad leader. But to do so – I often need a clear vision of where and why I’m doing Spot.Us. If anything – this is an invocation to myself).

Clay Shirky is a wise sage in this era. If the revolution we are going through is akin to that of Gutenberg’s Clay Shirky is a Martin Luther.

I bring him up because most of what I will write below has been written by him in Twitter form. “The rallying cry isn’t ‘save newspapers’ but ‘save society.’”

Journalism is a loaded term. Defining it at times feels like counting how many angels can stand on the tip of a needle.

Much easier is articulating the goals of journalism. At its best the aim is “to afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted.” This is one of my favorite quotes on the purpose of journalism. Another is “to speak truth to power.” I’m sure others exist. What’s your favorite?

Journalism as a word is loaded because of the ministry it invokes. The profession that, since Watergate, has laid claim to it. That ministry is now a diaspora. Much like after the Gutenberg revolution the ministry lost its authority in interpreting the bible. Martin Luther showed us how. In reaction many journalists cling even tighter to that word.

But the word needs to be redefined.

I go back to Henry Jenkins who pinpointed why I dislike the term “citizen journalism.”

In some respects I dislike the term “journalism.” (My take on The Rhetoric of Journalism.)

Now before you get your tar and feather – here me out.

I love the idea of speaking truth to power. I love the idea of afflicting the comfortable and comforting the afflicted. I love the idea of communities informing themselves so they can make better decisions.

Journalism does this – but if we didn’t call it “Journalism” (with a big J) would it make any difference? What is at stake here isn’t an industry. Yes, it’s sad to lose an industry. We lost the button making industry when plastic button making machines were made. That was sad. We lost the horse shoe making industry when cars replaced horses. We have probably lost countless industries due to technical innovations.

But did we lose clothes? Did we lose the freedom to travel? Has our general progress as a world been forward towards more freedom and democracy? What is bad for newspapers might be good for the word (Yes – putting content online for free has caused economic problems for newspapers – but it has made mankind better).

And while we may be losing something in terms of robustness of newspapers we are gaining something new with citizen media (there’s that term again?!?).

People wonder if citizen journalism can replace professionals. That’s the WRONG QUESTION.

The silliness of that question: If Major League Baseball stopped tomorrow would all the little leagues in the country be able to replace it? If industrial sweater factories shut down tomorrow would knitting hobbyists be able to replace them?

Nobody would ever ask these questions because the goal of little leagues and knitting groups isn’t to replace their professional counterparts. Instead, they are to create a sense of community, a positive activity for children. If these non-professional activities disappeared could they be replaced? Could professional baseball play the role of the local little league?

So I ask: If citizen journalism activities were to stop tomorrow could professional journalists replace them?

Do I really dislike the term “journalism” – of course not. But it is so incredibly loaded. In another post we could discuss how it needs a re-branding (which is doubly-ironic, I know). We discuss this craft but readers don’t care what we call it. They care about whether it “speaks truth to power, afflicts the comfortable, informs them, etc” That newspaper circulation has been going down since 1972 (well before the Internet) should say something to us all.

What we need to preserve isn’t newspapers. I’d argue it isn’t even “journalism” as we understand it. What we need to save is something else. Something more fundamental. The ability for communities to be informed with honest information and then to mobilize based on that information.

And that’s all I really have to say about that….

Digi-Dream, Journalism Theory/Analysis

Breaking the Bloggers Block

Nov15th
2009 Leave a Comment Written by Digidave

I’ve had bloggers block lately.

I received several suggestions on how to break it. So here I am, trying to follow up on all of them.

First: Write about something. Lower your standards and just write.

Perhaps the bloggers block also comes from my new Posterous blog aptly subtitled “Digidave’s Quickies: Not exactly a blog post. Too long for Twitter.”

I used to write personal blog posts here. This is space both for my professional thoughts but it is also my personal journal. Something I can use to remember funny moments and sad memories. From my Thanksgiving in Atlantic City to the passing of my grandparents. Obviously my personal life continues but I haven’t really written about any of it here on Digidave.org. When I started this blog I was 23. I am fast approaching 28 (AHHHH!!!!!). I can never tell what is or isn’t appropriate for this space. I look at Jeff Jarvis blogging his cancer and I’m inspired. At the same time – I’m no Jarvis. Nor do I have a life experience has heavy as cancer to share.

The deepest thoughts I might have are those of somebody who still feels as though he is 17 but is fast approaching 30. Laugh all you want – my peers and I have this conversation all the time. I think it is particularly strong for folks my age who are either the youngest of the Gen Xers or the oldest of the Mellenials. I feel stuck in between.

Suggestion 2: Do a round-up of things that have caught your attention.

By this I think most people meant a link-fest. Anyone that knows me should know that I am a big believer in aggregation as a way to serve the reader. But lately I haven’t had time to keep up with everything. So instead of a link to other articles I’m going to do a round-up of things I’ve been doing.

1. Publish2.com. I’m an advisor and it’s on my mind a lot lately. I’m loving the new interface for WordPress (hat tip Daniel) and I think they are about to hit a nice stride with more tools.

2. NewsInnovation.com: I spent last week in New York. The timing was great because Spot.Us freelance Lindsey Hoshaw had a piece in the NYT. I was out there for the third New Business Models for News Conference. I helped to organize the first two with Jeff Jarvis. I helped with this third one as well – albiet a smaller role. I naturally stepped back to focus on Spot.Us. I could do a whole post on this conference, working with Jeff, etc. But intsead I’ll point to Jeff’s post about what was one of the better take aways.

3. Spot.Us launched November 11th 2008. It has been a year. I want to do an epic blog post about it. But I fear this milestone may go unrecognized if I don’t get past this writers block. But it goes without saying that Spot.Us is on my mind all the time. It is certainly #1 in my mind even if it’s #3 in this list. Also – I’m trying to keep focused on the redesign and not get distracted by all the student quiries.

4. That last bit is a handfull. I LOVE j-students. I want to hug them and encourage them in every way I can. I try to make myself availabe and as open/honest as I can. But lately it’s stating to take a toll. It feels as though I spend one full day a week answering questions for j-students (international or otherwise) ph.d students who are studying the future of journalism or doing Skype calls with students. Again, I love it. I want to encourage everyone to do their own startup. But every now and then I reach a limit and just want to put my head down and work. I view my working on Spot.Us akin to being on the front line of a war. I’m a grunt. I like to work like grunt. A big part of how I got to where I am is that I wanted everyone to consider me the hardest working kid in journalism. While working for Jay Rosen on NewAssignment.Net and at Columbia I got that reputation. I intend to keep it. Talking with students does help (me and them) but it is not my main goal.

5.  Broowaha: I bet you didn’t know that I am the editor of a citizen journalims site Broowaha.com. Well, I am! I am not exactly on the front lines of this site – but I am a part of the community. It keeps me rooted and honest when I discuss issues about citizen journalism. So no – I’m not just a talker, I’m a doer. And Broowaha is what gives me my experience in pure play citizen journalism stuff.

6. Life. Life is happening all the time. I suppose that is a bit of a reason for the bloggers block. It seems to be happening so fast this past year. Being in NY this last week reminded me of where I’ve been. This could also be a long post. One where I’d go over my fond memories of NY. Conquering certain things – losing others. All my friends who are in NY, which include a ton of my best friends from childhood, etc. I’ll spare you the sentimental dribble right now but a part of me just wants to let it pour all out.

Despite that last sentence, I’m actually going to cut myself here. As you might have guessed from the title of this post – I’m not sure where I was going with this. Then again, it’s nice not to have a destination.

Digi-Dream, Travel

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