AP, Yahoo near deal on content use, says WSJ
The Wall Street Journal provides a preview of what a new AP-Yahoo deal may entail: higher licensing costs, the possibility of licensing content in tiers, stricter terms of use, and adoption of AP’s new tracking system. Both Yahoo and Google are nearing the end of their current licensing terms, and a few days ago, Google [...]
Google Earth updates Haiti satellite images
Google is rolling out new satellite imagery of Haiti across Google Earth and Google Maps via a KML overlay from GeoEye. Google says it’s still adding new imagery — currently the update covers a subsection of Port-au-Prince. This is a before-and-after screen grab. Amazing.
How Sky News used the web to reach Haiti
With the phones down in Haiti, SkyNews turned to Twitter, Facebook, Skype, YouTube and Google Chat in the early hours following the quake to cover the story from thousands of miles away. “The necessity of using the internet because the phones were down forced all traditional news gathering to the side, and meant we relied [...]
Curating the news from Haiti via Twitter
One of the most valuable things you can do for your audience during a breaking news event is curate the information you come across. That is – you want to post lists and links to useful information you can’t necessarily provide for yourself. One good such practice is establishing Twitter lists, aggregating tweets from trusted [...]
Local journalists win Knight community grants
Updated: The Knight Foundation’s Information Challenge just announced 24 winners who will split $4.3 million in grant funding to pursue innovative community journalism projects. There’s a neighborhood news service for Detroit kids (KidSpeak Neighborhood News), and a local news site that includes coverage for aging residents in Florida (Gables Home Page, below). There’s also a [...]
CBS stations roll out iPhone apps
Thirteen CBS owned-and-operated stations introduced their own stand-alone iPhone news apps today. The apps, created by Treemo Labs, go beyond text headlines to include video, slide shows and tweets from local talent. The company says the apps also have geo-targeted weather, although it doesn’t say how micro-local that forecast is. Full press release after the jump.
Making money off sponsored Tweets
It seems you can make a little spare change off Twitter, if you’re willing to advertise in your stream. SFGate writes about Twitterers who are making between 20 and 80 cents per click-thru-ad. The companies Sponsored Tweets, My Likes, and Ad.ly have started Twitter-based ad platforms. Apparently, this is cool with Twitter, as long as [...]
Guardian’s paid iPhone app nearing 70k downloads
The Guardian announced yesterday that its iPhone App has been downloaded almost 70,000 times in its first month of availability. That is significant because this is not a free app; each download costs £2.39 ($3.89 USD), meaning the newspaper publisher grossed some £164, 851 ($268,393 USD) in one month in new revenue. From the press [...]
How long will newspapers last in print?
It’s a well-known assumption of our digital lives that young people don’t read printed newspapers (my 9-year-old son, who’s addicted to sports pages, is apparently the exception). So how much longer will newspaper companies continue to print news on paper and truck it to all corners of the city or county? Quite a while, apparently, [...]
Conan says he’ll quit ‘Tonight Show’ if moved
Update: O’Brien’s statement has kicked off a social media storm, with hundreds of new tweets every few seconds — and the vast majority of them positive, reports NY Times.
Conan O’Brien says he wants out. That’s according to a statement he released Tuesday in which he makes it absolutely clear he wants no part of “The Tonight Show” if it’s moved to 12:05 am. With his typical wit alternating with absolute seriousness, O’Brien says he thinks moving the show to 12:05 am would result in its “destruction,” something he wants no part of. Here is O’Brien’s statement in full, Via MediaDecoder:
People of Earth:
In the last few days, I’ve been getting a lot of sympathy calls, and I want to start by making it clear that no one should waste a second feeling sorry for me. For 17 years, I’ve been getting paid to do what I love most and, in a world with real problems, I’ve been absurdly lucky. That said, I’ve been suddenly put in a very public predicament and my bosses are demanding an immediate decision.
Living off Craigslist proves power of its community
We all know that Craigslist is a powerful force in local media. Despite attacks from politicians for serving as an occasional conduit to crime, and cries from critics for unwillingness to innovate, Craigslist is a phenomenon that keeps on growing.
Just how powerful is the site? Jason Paul decided to find out. After graduating from American University and unsuccessfully trying to find work as a journalist – he applied to 180 publications – Paul decided to make his own story: living off Craigslist.
Paul set out to relocate to three different cities in the course of nine months. At each stop his goal was to find everything he needed – including friends – through Craigslist. He is documenting his journey on a Craigslist-looking site at www.livingcraigslist.com.
“After graduating from college in May, I was unable to secure a job as a journalist, so I decided to pursue a story of my own,” Paul told me. “I realized the only valuable skill I had attained from college was how to get by on the internet. I decided, Craigslist was the perfect entry point for all activities and imagined that anything was possible by way of the site.
Around the affiliates: reaction to the Leno move
With NBC’s announcement that it is moving Jay Leno back to his 11:35 pm time slot, the locals are piping in about the “Leno Effect.” Here’s a quick roundup: WHDH (Boston): Owner Ed Ansin resisted Leno shift from start WTLV (Jacksonville): Leno was taking bite out of station’s 11 pm news WBAL (Baltimore): Lost more [...]
Will Google virtually ‘replace’ existing billboards?
So, you spend all this money to put up a nice billboard of your station’s talent on Main Street and suddenly Google Street View comes along and digitally replaces it. That’s a real possible next step with Google Maps. According to Mashable, Google has been granted a patent that would let it put virtual billboards [...]
Plant closures mean LA Times reporters will have even earlier print deadlines
The Los Angeles Times is closing its printing plants in Orange County, and that means reporter deadlines will have to move up by as much as five hours. The remaining plant in LA also publishes The Wall Street Journal, which will have the benefit of the later, 11 pm deadline. According to editorsweblog: “Somebody had [...]
Why Android (and all mobile media) matters
Remember the early days of the Web, when sites would write off Mac users or people who didn’t use RealPlayer or Windows Media? We’re making the same mistake now, this time with mobile media. Dorian Benkoil at E-Media Tidbits points out this important fact: “Today, alienating significant numbers of potential users is a no-no, even [...]
Briefs: Conan, Google Mobile, Geodesic
- Fox woos Conan O’Brien, but NBC contract is a big hurdle (NY Times) – Fox affiliates lukewarm on Conan show idea (Broadcasting & Cable) – Google adds clickable phone numbers next to URLs in mobile ads (Search Engine Land) – Geodesic’s Sherpa app rolls out on iPhone and latest Android phones (Venture Beat)
Demand Media: We’re not a ‘content mill’
Demand Media CEO Richard Rosenblatt says he’s tired of his company — which taps freelancers to quickly create custom content tied to search engine demand — getting portrayed as substandard publishing house. So he penned a manifesto, explaining what makes Demand Media different — not necessarily better — than traditional journalism. “While more traditional media [...]
Blockchalk offers location-based commenting
There’s something new in the social stream worth checking out: Blockchalk. It’s like a location-aware Twitter: you can post comments about what’s happening in your neighborhood, and Blockchalk publishes them along with the location from which you posted. It keeps things anonymous – it doesn’t post your exact address (unless you give it permission), opting [...]
