November 7, 2006

When I recently read that a Reuter’s correspondent has opened an office in the online community Second Life in order to report what’s happening there, I thought this was a good marketing idea.

Today I read in Adam Reuters‘ (“in real life, he is Adam Pasick, a veteran tech and media journalist”) column that the Big Brother show will launch a Second Life edition. I found this a little bit scary.

But now I also see that Germany’s biggest newspaper — the tabloid Bild from Axel Springer, is building its own publishing house in Second Life. They’re hiring staff and will launch an English-language “print” edition in December that will be sold on the streets.

I really really wonder if we need a Second Life that obviously is developing into a retro mirror version of the first one…

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Katja is an independent consultant to the news industry in Germany on interactive media, and the author of the first book in the German language…
Katja Riefler

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