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From Huffington Post: “U.S. computer company Apple Inc. and German automaker Volkswagen AG are discussing the possibility of building an “iCar” which would feature products by the producer of the ubiquitous iPod personal music player.”
I am confident one of you can take this softball of a setup line and hit the punchline out of the park in our comments. This is also photoshop contest waiting to happen.
16 comments August 29th, 2007
EW Scripps has decided to sell or close the Albuquerque Tribune. The Trib is one of the rare remaining afternoon newspapers and operates as part of a joint operating agreement with the morning-delivered Albuquerque Journal. Scripps says the sale will not include rights to the JOA, which will be dissolved no matter the outcome of the buyer search. In 1988, the Tribune had paid circulation of 42,000 - but that number has dropped to about 10,000 copies. Scripps says it will shutter the paper if a buyer can’t be found in “a reasonable amount of time.”
1 comment August 29th, 2007
I was on IM earlier today with Liz, and I got to ranting about one of my new pet peeves. I know, I know, “Which one, Dave, you have so many, for you are a truly grumpy man,” you say. Well yes, my bill for pet peeve food is quite high these days, so let me vent one: Embedded video is really starting to annoy me. Not always, truth be told, but I find it particularly annoying when a video clip is dropped at the top of a story. I hit play, start to read and then I can’t scroll down to keep reading if I want to keep watching. I read fast, so I get bored and annoyed, and everyone who knows me knows that’s a lethal combination. So here’s my idea: use the code for those really annoying floating menus with javascript so your video clip can scroll with me as I read. It would be like fighting fire with fire, two annoyances might make a right! Of course you could also get jiggy with AJAX and do something super slick and more flexible, but just stop anchoring that player so I can go back to reading.
7 comments August 29th, 2007
So I was hooting about PBS Ombudsman Michael Getler posting that they need to get Bill Moyers an ombudsman of his own after his latest editorial flap, and I surfed over to Moyer’s Journal site. I got totally sidetracked by Moyers’ interview with FCC Commissioner Michael J. Copps about the state of media consolidation and net neutrality. Copps has no shortage of opinion about how broadcasters are using their shingles. In all, it is fascinating stuff we should all take a few minutes out to watch, especially if you are entrepreneurial and trying to make a go of it with a blog or site. There’s also a piece there about low power FM, which hyperlocal onliners might get something out of.
2 comments August 29th, 2007
Marc Fisher, WaPo radio writer, turns his blog on his own with a lengthy post mortem answering the question why Washington Post Radio died. For those out of listening range (like a good deal of the D.C. metro area), WaPo and Bonneville got together to create a radio station that would feature in-depth news programming created by and featuring print reporters. I know: Sounds like a good idea, but it turns out that no one was listening. So, Bonneville is pulling the plug at the end of September after about a year on the air and turning the transformer over to the classic talk radio shoutfests, cause boy, they need more outlets (right!). Avoiding the marketing and signal strength issues that also hobbled the experimental station, Fisher focuses on the convergence content conundrum. In reading it, I found food for thought for newspapers who want to build online TV studios and broadcasters who are trying to shovel teleprompters into Web sites. Please read, ponder, and discuss.
4 comments August 29th, 2007
In an interesting post at his Web 2.Oh. . .really? blog, former WaPo editor Craig Stoltz gives kudos to the interior page treatments at CNN.com that feature bulleted list summaries of key points and facts right on top of the story. I’m with him. It is an excellent news presentation practice that should become standard across the board. Have a chat with your cms implementation team and see if you can bake in summaries. Question to the SEO gurus, what would the optimal tags be to wrap those list items? If you can make something that works to better inform the user and bump up your page finds, that’s real ROI.
2 comments August 29th, 2007
Yet another content partnership for MSNBC. Condé Nast magazines and online properties will provide content primarily to MSNBC’s business, entertainment, health, travel and Today Show sections. The deal will include content from Style.com, Men.Style.com, Epicurious.com, and Concierge.com, as well as Vogue, Vanity Fair, Bon Appétit. Glamour, GQ, and others. Back in July we learned that MSNBC was partnering with the NY Times for political coverage. Press release…
Read the full post Add comment August 29th, 2007
The News Corp. and NBCU video venture now has a name, Hulu.com. “Why Hulu?” writes CEO Jason Kilar on the site. “Objectively, Hulu is short, easy to spell, easy to pronounce, and rhymes with itself. Subjectively, Hulu strikes us as an inherently fun name, one that captures the spirit of the service we’re building.” Hulu is also accepting invites for the site’s private beta, coming in October.
Related: The LA Times has a story on how “dot com names are getting dottier,” like Xobni, Meebo, Squidoo and my personal favorite, Eefoof.
13 comments August 29th, 2007
Free article at WSJ.com today on how some newspapers have decided to make money off real estate. Not by classifieds, mind you - but by selling their buildings. The Philadelphia Inquirer and the Boston Herald are profiled here, and the trend seems clear - the papers are looking for infusions of cash, and there is value to be had in selling their longtime downtown locations.
Adds Rex in comments: “The article makes a passing mention to the Star-Tribune in Minneapolis, which sold its parking lots to create a new dome. There are rumors floating around that the rest of the Star-Tribune’s assets will be sold as scrap material at a value greater than what was recently paid by Avista Capital Partners for the paper.”
2 comments August 29th, 2007
Katie Couric and small CBS team leave today for 12 days in Iraq and Syria, with live reports beginning Sept. 4th (Gen. Petraeus’ report comes out Sept.15th). When she first took the CBS job, Couric was critical of anchor trips to Iraq — she has never been there — unless she can advance the story. But executive producer Rick Kaplan says her presence has helped secure high-level interviews. “She has gotten us access to certain areas and people,” Kaplan said. “It’s good to have Katie on your side.”
3 comments August 29th, 2007
MySpace will hold a tour of 30 concerts this fall, featuring acts that have a big following on its social network. The MySpace Music Tour begins October 16 in Seattle and finishes up in Vegas in late November. According to CNet:
The headlining acts for the MySpace Music Tour will be two artists who’ve built up large followings on the social networking site–geeky pop band Hellogoodbye and emo act Say Anything. The tour will also include the Japanese punk band Polysics, who have been signed to the new MySpace Records label, as well as yet-to-be-announced guests.
Of course, sales are going to be through a community page on MySpace, where there will also be pix and band blogs from the tour. Remember when MTV did music?
Add comment August 29th, 2007
Broadband service in Japan is eight to 30 times faster than in the U.S., according to a report in today’s WaPo. It’s also much cheaper.
The speed advantage allows the Japanese to watch broadcast-quality, full-screen television over the Internet, an experience that mocks the grainy, wallet-size images Americans endure.
WaPo also has a graphic that shows the median download speeds in megabits per second by country. Japan: 61. S. Korea: 46. Finland: 21. Sweden: 18. Canada: 8. U.S.: 2. This is more than just a matter of having a better hookup to watch YouTube. Higher speeds help the economy and medicine.
Ultra-high-speed applications are being rolled out for low-cost, high-definition teleconferencing, for telemedicine — which allows urban doctors to diagnose diseases from a distance — and for advanced telecommuting to help Japan meet its goal of doubling the number of people who work from home by 2010.
We developed the product. The Japanese are beating the pants off us with it. Sound familiar?
Adds Daniel in comments: “The philosophy of the US internet providers is “Gee bud, at least you have a connection.”
8 comments August 29th, 2007
Internet service provider EarthLink says it’s cutting 900 jobs - that’s about half the people who work for them - and closing four offices. It’s also buying back $200 million of its stock. What did Wall Street think? It likes the moves. EarthLink stock jumped 6% yesterday and is up another 4% as of this writing. If the LR hosting meltdown of 2006 is anything to go buy, we are still rating this a “don’t buy, not on your life.” ALSO: CNET - EarthLink’s WiFi dreams may be fading.
Add comment August 29th, 2007
