Steve gets way too deep for Squared on a warm, sunny afternoon, but [...]
"And so, on this cool spring morning in April with full benefit of hindsight, I choose to be optimistic about the future of newspapers."
-- John Hasell, online editor of Star-Ledger.com, and NJ.com, in a terrific timelined recap of how his media company recently mobilized to cover [...]
Great editorial by The Capital Times in Madison, Wisc., explaining its historic move over the weekend to publishing its daily offering entirely to the web after 90 years in print.
Today marks our last edition as a traditional daily newspaper of the sort Americans knew in the 19th and [...]
But at least the commute to the new office was a breeze ;-)
[...]
Squared and his alter ego parted ways with Mama Tribune this week after 27 incredibly rich and rewarding years. That a company could love, nurture, encourage (and tolerate) someone for that long a stretch is a testament to the soul, heart and greatness of Mama T in her prime. She's [...]
"Craigslist is firing back at its rival and minority owner eBay, scolding the online auctioneer's actions as unethical and smelling of a [...]
Mama T's Baltimore Sun this week launched a new free youth-oriented daily -- called "b" -- and in addition to a great tagline ("Baltimore's daily conversation starts here"), the web version of b is taking an interesting, simple aggregation/conversation approach that is worth a look.
Says Tim Windsor, VP [...]
Philip Faraci, the president and CEO of Kodak, fired up a hilarious showstopper on Tuesday during a panel discussion on innovation and change at the joint meeting of the American Society of Newspaper Editors and Newspaper Association of America in Washington.
The video below was done for a trade [...]So far today 8 11 -- count 'em 8 11 -- posts on the Online News Association listserv about whether sentence case or title case headlines are better. Including one preposterous claim that it makes a difference to search engines! (It does not).
These are smart, respected online journalists [...]
1. "Moderate" success in the negotiations between media companies and Major League Baseball over heavy-handed content rights restrictions it wanted to impose via credentials this season. MLB backing down on trying to limit online photo galleries and use of content on sibling web sites, makes things a little bearable. Video [...]
NEW YORK - Newspaper readers agree with editors on the basics of what makes good journalism, but they are more apt to want [...]
NYT weighs in today on whether the new Google brand-focused search results widget (below) noted by Squared last week is good or bad.
“Google is showing a level of aggressiveness with this that’s just not needed,” said Alan Rimm-Kaufman, a former executive with the electronics retailer Crutchfield who is now [...]
Clifford Stoll's February, 1995 screed in Newsweek about how the Internet is just a bunch of hooey makes you wince, it's just do godawfully wrong.
Like this:
Then there's cyberbusiness. We're promised instant catalog shopping--just point and click for great deals. We'll order airline tickets over the network, make restaurant [...]
[...]"The Journal no longer really has a pay wall. It's a pay curtain, useless and flimsy, and you're committing no transgression in dancing around it."
-- Salon.com in a primer on how to get all the paid Wall Street Journal content you want -- for free.
A must-read scarily sobering reminder from the WSJ today about just how fast and frighteningly the news business has shifted, with this story about three twenty-somethings who don't even live in the States -- and have been to two NBA games among them -- creating a site that has become [...]
Some strong growth year-over-year.
Site, audience in millions and YOY growth, via E&P.
Given the amount of traffic to newspaper.coms from people who type the name of the paper in a Google search box, think about whether the new feature from Google (below) is a good thing (better user experience; boosting traffic to section fronts and classifieds, etc.) or an insidious thing (effectively [...]
Squared's been largely MIA for a few weeks with too many plates spinning; trying to get back in the groove.
News from Guy Kawasaki about alltop.com: "We announced a website that is a collection of "single-page aggregations" organized by topics such as Fashion, Celebrities, Sports, [...]
Negotations with MLB this week over its odious and onerous new credentialling regulations, as they relate to online content, made some progress. Memo we got from ASNE yesterday after the talks:
ASNE and Associated Press Sports Editors representatives met with officials of Major League Baseball and MLB Advanced Media on [...]
No surprise, we guess, but Major League Baseball is getting a little more NFL-like in issuing dictatorial rules to choke online transmission of ballgame content. A few special oppressive online-flavored bon mot in the new MLB credentialling agreement for 2008:
Good, insightful read from Atlanta Journal-Constitution's Shawn McIntosh about the thinking behind their seismic newsroom restructuring last year and how she's seen it play out so far. The premise that drove them toward the new simplified, flatter organization: "It became clear that ajc.com would be our new 'mass [...]
This had almost as long a gestation period as an elephant, but a new national online ad network -- a JV between four media companies -- has officially been announced. Mama Tribune quarterbacked formation of what is now called quadrantOne and the other venture partners include Gannett, [...]
Innovation Editor Russ Stanton won the bake-off and was named today as editor of the Los Angeles Times.
Publisher David Hiller: ""The decisive factor was who can best lead change in the newsroom. We are literally in a battle to save the future of this great newspaper, and we have to [...]
"Yesterday, I lost my job -- and, somewhat to my surprise, the whole blogosphere heard about it."
Down with the Newseum! (Jack Shafer)"We don't need a gilded home for 6,214 journalism artifacts. . . . The story of journalism [...]
First:
10:20 AM CT: Internal e-mail arrives in work inbox from Mama T Chairman Sam Zell about companywide staff reductions.
10:32:37 AM CT: Memo Posted on Romenesko.
Second:
10:37 AM CT: Internal memo from Chicago Tribune Publisher Scott Smith about staff reductions arrives in inbox[...]10:46:55 AM CT: Memo posted on Romenesko.
Newsroom reorgs done to effect change in online production in many cases turn out to be just lipstick-on-a-pig exercises that ultimately bear little more than a false sense of comfort that substantive, lasting change is being made.
The Palm Beach Post actually is doing a reorg that may prove more [...]
Squared's Misty the Weather Beagle tonight thinks this is just pisser.
UPDATE: Here she is this morning, captured on MistyCam, exhausted from last night's victory celebration and luxuriating on her tuffet.
Pg. 1 of WSJ today:
Staring at a pile of newspapers stacked before him over breakfast recently at the La Jolla Beach & Tennis Club, fallen class-action lawyer William Lerach recalled how for years he read as many as six papers a day. He was looking for reports of corporate setbacks [...]
ComScore this morning says there were 10 billion online video views in December, a record. Google, the leader with YouTube, grew in both volume and share. Highlights from a release:
Two big new Live things in the past few days, if you're into that kind of thing.
We may be whacking the central HR staff and telling folks if they need to talk to one of those evil-doers in in corporate they better do it in 30 days or theywon't find anyone, but the new Department of Symbolism & Messaging at Tribune 2.0 clearly has been [...]
Maybe it's the anti-karma of the new chairman verbally and very publicly flipping off the help, but it's been a crushingly long week in Squared's world for some reason in dealing with a more plentiful and brutal than normal parade of incorrigible Mama T old-schoolers and their inability to [...]
Google discovers you can search for local news by zip code and some online newsies are all a-tingle.
Sergey/Larry, did you get distracted at the company sushi/latte/couscous bar and then ride off on your cute little Segways on the way to the company masseuse and have a brain [...]
"So, if you want to issue bonds to pay for FCC-approved snack cake manufacturing in a submarine on display at a national park by a sundress-wearing cigarette-puffing Levitra-popping Judy Miller, you're pretty much set."
-- Mosaic co-author Marc Andreessen in a scathing screed against the New York Times, with this quote [...]
Squared's staff worked mightily over the weekend to get 85(!) SuperBowl ads into our system for our local markets to use. The audience ate them up -- our video streams on Monday were 4-5X normal. Here were the top 15 most-popular ads, as of earlier today (with No. 15 [...]
Adrian Holovaty announced today that he's pulling the plug on one of the granddaddies of mashups: ChicagoCrime.org. He made the decision after his server host announced it was shutting down the server on which the site has run since May 2005.
Pages will redirect to his latest project [...]
Nifty grafic charts what happens to your blog post.
All bloggers should have comment and feedback links somewhere on their blogs if for no other reason than to let someone correct their stupid -- and in some cases, dangerous -- mistakes.
What I Learned Today (a curious girl in a curious world) clearly hasn't learned this. In a [...]
Hugely talented Aaron Bycoffe of Mama T's Daily Press in Newport News, Va., rolled out a great new local crime data mashup this week, and boy did he get a great ride from his print colleagues -- one of the biggest and most prominent 1A refers that Squared has [...]
Squared's on his way to check it out, but data dude deluxe Adrian Holovaty and his team this afternoon officially unveiled EveryBlock, his uber-local "what's happening in my neighborhood" grant-funded project. Initial coverage, three cities. More to come.
Every day, a wealth of local information is created -- officials inspect restaurants, [...]
Yesterday's note from Sam Z to all hands at Mama T about ending an internet access change he termed as censorship got quite a bit of industry buzz.
But there's a little more to the story and what it speaks about our company. First, the note:
Everyone,
I learned on [...]
"[I]f their online journal [CJR] is any indication, America’s most prestigious j-school needs whatever meds the Wizard put [...]
Head-pat to colleagues at Newsday.com for a huge December that blew them near the top of the charts. (And three Top 10s for Mama T sites not too shabby either.) Newsday numbers likely fueled by Flash animations from cartoonist Walt Handeslman, whose popularity has gone nuclear in the past [...]
The NFL got all pissy about the frequency of in-game updates a Newsday.com blog did during last week's New York Giants game and threatened to yank the company's credentials for this weekend's match in Wisconsin. From Phil Rosenthal in the Chicago Tribune today:
"Credentialed access to an NFL [...]
Nice well-rounded job by Mark Glaser today over at MediaShift, teasing out the state of user commenting on media sites and the various legal, brand-related, business and prurient issues it pops.
Net-net, it's no longer a case of if, it's a matter of how best.
What has changed in [...]
Triblocal.com, Chicago Tribune's year-old online/print hyperlocal coverage strategy, continues to flourish with addition of 13 more suburbs. "This brings the total number of Triblocal sites to 21. Newspapers for these communities will be published later this year," Triblocal GM Jane Jansen said in an internal note this morning. "By [...]
Chis Anderson: "Here's my start at a list all the revenue models you can find [...]
Chirs Tolles of Topix.com, which has rapidly evolved from news aggregator to topical forum commentary generator, took a few minutes on the Topix blog Tuesday to ring the chimes of pubic editors and ombudsman at newspapers who have been hand-wringing over anonymous posts on their web sites.
Tolles [...]
2:03 p.m. -- Email arrives from USAToday.com. "[W]e'd like to extend a special invitation to you to become part of USA TODAY's advisory panel, the USA TODAY Conversation Network. The Conversation Network is your opportunity to make your voice heard. Your valuable feedback will help USA TODAY management shape the [...]
Journalism ethics prof. Ed Wasserman this week brings us a more tasteful and gentlemanly definition of what some have called "whoring for page views." Wasserman calls the metrics-driven newsroom online trend "calibrated journalism," and explains, "under the new rules, the commercial value of specific editorial offerings is estimated with [...]
Mama T's new betrothed, Sam Z, and his new team certainly have a sense of corporate humor.
From a recently posted "Your New Company Q&A" on our internal employee site:
Will employee dress code change? When? "That’s up to the individual business units. Most employees will still be expected to [...]
So a little old traditional media company (now on the market) is more popular at the moment on Google than even a sex tape and a woman with a horn growing from her forehead. Go figure.
So the pre-roll ads on ChicagoTribune.com's video clips of feisty new Tribune Chairman and CEO Sam Zell's Thursday presser include two spots for -- of all things -- Dulcolax laxative and stool softener.
Yesiree, just what clogged and bloated ol' Mama T needs.
The first ad for the [...]
Unplugging from the grid for a spell to spend some time with the family.
Will spin through the revolving door of Tribune Tower onto Michigan Avenue in a little bit, in the waning moments of Mama T being a public company. Who knows, when I walk back into the [...]
Kurt Greenbaum recruits a team of Twitterers to monitor traffic during rebuild of a major highway.
So it looks like the Mama T and Sam Z official betrothal ceremony will take place a week from today.
Something old, something new
Something borrowed, something blue
And a silver sixpence in her shoe.
Hand over that sixpence, toots. We're going to need it for that [...]
Newsknife, which monitors and ranks news site appearance on Google News, says these were the top US-focused sites for 2007:
A Newsknife release says AP, in that its content actually appears on G News, "could therefore be more [...]
University of Georgia journalism nanny -- oh, so sorry, associate professor -- David Hazinski says we should begin monitoring and regulating "citizen journalists" before they destroy the credibility of all journalism.
Why stop there with a little monitoring and regulating? Let's force them to take an admission test. And [...]
Today alone from Google in its march toward dominating our desktops and lives:
1. Integration of AOL Instant Messenger into G Chat. Here.
2. A pretty nifty customizable presidential election widget for your G home page, here. News. Maps of appearances. Blogs. Videos. (Like a little more ice water [...]
Buzzmachine's Jeff Jarvis stops short of calling it a "Dickensian serial" but an interesting ping and pong has broken out between him and NYT Editor Bill Keller over a speech that Keller made in London about bloggers and citizen journalists and the sanctity of professional Big J Journalism.
[...]
Squared has been spending a lot of time lately researching his family tree, which winds in multiple paths back to the Mayflower.
The favorite, and appropriate, relative name so far is one from circa 1700: Content Silvester Holmes. Squared likes to think it was pronounced CON-tent, which would explain a [...]
Our newspaper and broadcast station YouTube sites are up. (Well, many of them have been for weeks now, but we just got the press release out the door).
Still a learning curve; pleased with what we're seeing so far with clip threading and channel engagement, particularly on the broadcast [...]
And now this brief HR update:
[...]
Tthe AJC has embarked on the most sweeping reorganization of its news operation of any major [...]
What else is there to do in Boise at 1 a.m., just a few hours removed from the Thanksgiving dinner table? Let's all go to the mall and participate in a friendly little cattle stampede, trying to save $1.99 on that nice bottle of bath beads for Aunt Edna.
Consumerist [...]
Well-done, helpful new post from Northwestern's Rich Gordon over at the Readership Institute on the growing importance of databases in online journalism. He takes a look under the hood of Gannett's Indy Star "Data Central" efforts and comes up with seven simple yet solid lessons for others:
[...]
"First, the Allentown Morning Call generated lots of buzz with its popular Breeders [...]
“We are studying it and we expect to make that free, and instead of having one million, having at least 10 million-15 million in every corner of the earth."
-- Rupert Murdoch, announcing what many figured was coming -- an end to paid access to WallStreetJournal.com after News Corp. buys [...]
It's one thing (albeit an ugly, unacceptable one) when a private enterprise such as the National Football League goes all Satanic and quahes media rights to use content from its games (and locker rooms and practice fields, for that matter). It's quite another when what effectively is a quasi- [...]
AP chief Tom Curley is pretty darned good at speechifying and that vision thing, to use a couple of Bushisms. A few highlights from his most recent declarations and pontifications, these from a talk at Columbia on Thursday:
A eye-poke to Mama T beau Sam Zell: "Sam Zell said at [...]
"A coalition of consumer groups called yesterday [...]
A listserv thread over the past few days about newspaper.com blogs and comments on blogs inspired Squared to pull together this list of the most popular blogs across Mama T's network. The list is for the six months ending 10/1/2007. The breaking news blog from latimes.com isn't on this [...]
Steve Outing, one of the wise elder statesmen of online media, has put his two outdoor enthusiasts' social media websites up for sale. And he's done it as a model in transparency -- not only announcing it on the sites (YourClimbing.com and YourMTB.com), but posting about [...]
“Print reporters and photographers were all told that they no longer worked for the paper, says Phil Lewis, editor and vice president of naplesdailynews.com/Naples Daily News. They were all transferred to dot.com–which the company now sees as a kind of local wire service–and they file their stories first online. The [...]
Ten years after its groundbreaking Chicago launch as a strategic pre-emptive strike against Microsoft's looming Sidewalk local entertainment portal, Mama T's Metromix.com hit the national big time today with the formal announcement of a new 50-50 joint venture with Gannett to expand into 30+ markets.
"With this [...]
Sorry, this isn't meant as a pathetically obvious bootie buss for the likely new chairman, but Sam Zell -- Mama T's feisty new beau -- seems to be getting the grasp of this online news thing and gave a nice pat on the head to one of the sibs, to [...]
Some ripples of heat started escaping from within the the "Amigos" newspaper company consortium content, advertising and platform deal with Yahoo that was hailed as its start earlier this year as a potential savior for the business. (Hearst, McClatchy, Cox, Lee, Media General, et al are participating. Mama T and [...]
A few notes from yesterday's successful -- and 100% POWERPOINT FREE! -- Networked Journalism Summit, put together by Jeff Jarvis and colleagues at City University of New York's Graduate School of Journalism.
"Our web sites should be web sites, not newspaper sites. [...]
"Our web sites should be web sites, not newspaper [...]
