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Friday, June 07, 2002

Posted 1:06 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below

OK, Now This Surely Means Blogging Is Mainstream

Steve Outing on new media education
The University of California at Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism next fall will offer the first course in weblogging (a.k.a., blogging). The weekly class will be taught by John Batelle, a co-founder of Wired magazine, and Paul Grabowicz, the school's new media program director (and a regular contributor to this weblog). (Here's a Wired.com story about this.)
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Posted 12:48 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below

Online Shops Fail a Consumer Test

Eva Domínguez on e-commerce mistakes
Anyone wondering why e-commerce is not taking off in Spain should cast an eye on a test made by a portal for consumers to 20 online stores. It was simple and effective: try to buy a CD of music online from 20 different sites. Half of the shops failed the test in serving the client and following requirements of the law. The test took into account 27 different variables, such as available contact, consumer rights and product information, order confirmation, options of payment and refunding, security system, and time of delivery. Following the recommendations of the results may be a good starting point to improve some e-commerce services.
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Posted 12:35 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below

Winer Explains Himself Further

Steve Outing on the Knight Ridder CMS controversy
Dave Winer today has more to say and some clarifications on his Thursday column about Dan Gillmor and Knight Ridder Digital's content management system. I mentioned this in an item yesterday, and it generated one of the most active discussion forums for an E-Media Tidbits item ever. (Click the Discuss This link below to read it or take part.) Winer and some KRD people all chimed in.
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Posted 12:12 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below

TiVo Spamming Users With a New Show?

Peter M. Zollman on personal network recorders
As a confirmed TiVo user, it bothers me just a little to know that someone somewhere is tracking my preferences in TV watching. Not enough to get me to stop using TiVo, mind you, but I'd feel better if they didn't know we record every episode of Law & Order, 100 Centre Street, and even the occasional Hill Street Blues rerun. However, if they ever take advantage of that information to market to me without my permission, the TiVo unit goes into the trash and they'll hear from me all the way up to the Supreme Court.

Thus, I was astonished to read that TiVo crossed the line in the UK — dove over it, in fact. According to Europemedia, TiVos in the UK were set by the company to automatically record a little-known BBC sit-com — and everyone received it. TiVo called it "advanced programming." That's nasty on two counts: (1) It's worse than spam, since the user didn't just get an easily deleted e-mail but received a whole program, and (2) time on the recorder is limited, so if TiVo wastes an hour on a program you haven't ordered, you lose an hour elsewhere. TiVo's blathering about the practice is astounding — calling it "an innovative way for networks and programmers to deliver interesting, new or exclusive content." It's a good thing TiVo didn't try this in the States — and it probably won't. It'd set off a firestorm from which the company might never recover.
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Posted 12:02 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below

Online Analysis of World's Greatest Sport Event

Norbert Specker on World Cup coverage
Staci Kramer on Online Journalism Review and Simon Romero in the New York Times deliver the first accounts on living the World Cup on the Internet.
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Thursday, June 06, 2002

Posted 2:27 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below

Should Gillmor Write About KRD's 404s?

Steve Outing on journalism ethics
Dave Winer has an interesting column today in which he blasts San Jose Mercury News technology columnist Dan Gillmor. ("I conclude that (Gillmor) is not a journalist.") Why, when Gillmor is one of the most respected reporters and webloggers in Silicon Valley and is someone not afraid to take on other companies for bone-headed moves? Because, says Winer, Gillmor won't write about his employer's (Knight Ridder) bad moves in transitioning to a new content management system for its newspaper websites. As you may recall, the transition to Knight Ridder Digital's new CMS, implemented earlier this year, was a bit of a mess in that most links to old content at KR websites (including Gillmor's own columns and weblog) no longer worked (error 404s). The company was widely criticized over this. Winer says Gillmor is acting too much like a marketer, cow-towing to the wishes of KR boss Tony Ridder by not writing fairly on this issue, which affected so many of Gillmor's readers.

(Note: Be sure to click Discuss This to participate in a lively discussion thread sparked by Winer's column.)
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Posted 12:26 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below

What I Would Pay For Online

Carla Passino on the search for out-of-print and reference books
Over the last few weeks, I have been desperately looking for some hard-to-find books on the medieval history of Sardinia, Italy. A blitz trip to the Mediterranean island revealed that many of the titles I am looking for are either out of print or unavailable in bookshops, because of their scholarly nature. A library is not an option either: I can't join a Sardinian library because I am based in Britain, while British libraries obviously don't stock these kind of books.

I would gladly pay to get access to the content of the Sardinian books online — indeed it would be ideal to be able to download the pages in searchable text or PDF format and avoid having to read through each and every chapter for the information I am after — but I simply couldn't find a site offering this kind of service. What I'd like is a Project Gutenberg type of site, an online super-library that I could subscribe to on a monthly basis to get access to a wide selection of hard-to-find reference books. I suspect that many journalists and academics would be prepared to pay decent money for this.
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Posted 12:19 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below

The Scoop on MSNBC.com Weblogs

Steve Outing on who writes them
I think it's great that MSNBC.com earlier this week debuted several weblogs by well-known writers and broadcasters. I was suspicious, however, of the political weblog by Chris Matthews, the cable TV host of Hardball on MSNBC. Would a busy celebrity like Matthews actually have time to write a weblog, or was it being ghost-written? Tom Brew, executive editor at MSNBC, says that Matthews indeed does write the weblog, with some staff assistance. "If the parlance sounds strange, it's because Chris writes it for delivery on TV, and weblog producer Will Femia inserts appropriate links from the Web in Chris' text."

The idea for the Hardball weblog, says Brew, "grew out of an idea to raise the profile of his show on the Web by surfacing his most timely observations. ... It's also an experiment in synchronicity, between MSNBC.com and MSNBC cable." The daily updates of the weblog are drawn from the "G-block" of Matthew's Monday-Friday cable show — the final block of the show in which he comments on the issues of the day. Femia inserts links to news stories and other relevant information (maps, transcripts, etc.), posts reader mail, and links to viewers' own weblogs.
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Posted 12:08 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below

Paying Too Much for the E-edition?

Amy Gahran on the AP Stylebook
I'm glad that the Associated Press has finally decided to provide a Web-based version of its famed AP Stylebook — but I think that it still needs to work on the concept. First of all, the subscription fee of $20 per year, per user is kind of steep compared to the print edition, which is sold on the same site for $12.50 a copy.

Granted, the online edition does provide special features, including the ability to add notes and examples to Stylebook entries, and to build a "personalized Stylebook." But still, why would I fork out $20 and lose access if I don't re-up, rather than hang on to my dog-eared print copy for a few years? And what happens to subscribers' painstaking customization if they don't re-up?
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Posted 11:58 AM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below

The Rain Falls in Chile

Juan C. Camus on weather sites
As the sun shines weakly over Santiago, Chile, after a couple of days of serious rainfalls, Chileans are trying to repair houses and streets, and to get some hot drinks and dry clothes for 33,000 people who lost all their belongings. Nine people died during the worst flooded in a century (as told by CNN.com). As Lun.com states, during 24 hours (between the 3rd and 4th of June) it rained as much as is "normal" in an entire year. Also on Emol.com you can see a map with Flash animation showing flooded areas, and a gallery of images about the rainfall.
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Wednesday, June 05, 2002

Posted 5:19 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below

165 Million Page-views in 4 Days

Norbert Specker on World Cup Web traffic
The FIFA World Cup site had 165 million page-views in the first four days of competition, which put some strain on (official partner) Yahoo!'s servers. The site operates in six languages, and more than half of the visitors chose the English version. Otherwise: Japanese, 13%; Chinese, 8%; Spanish, 7.8%; German, 7.7%; and French, 6.1%. After last night's win by the USA over Portugal, one of the biggest surprises in World Cup history, it is just possible that the world's biggest Internet population (Americans) might get their taste buds whetted and join the ranks of soccer/football enthusiasts. If not for the game, then for the win. It will be interesting to see what consequences that will have on World Cup traffic.
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Posted 4:48 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below

Scripps Sites Adopt Similar Look

Steve Outing on content management systems
E.W. Scripps Co. Web properties are starting to sport a more uniform (some critics use the term "cookie-cutter") look, as an expensive, company-wide Web publishing system (Vignette-based) goes into operation at various Scripps sites. The sites look similar, but not exactly alike. Take a look at these Scripps sites where the system has been implemented: Boulder Daily Camera, Corpus Christi Caller-Times, Rocky Mountain News, and TCPalm.com.

Staff at such chain newspaper sites tend to bemoan the loss of individual control over the design of their sites. (The corporate argument is that a degree of system-wide uniformity is necessary for the sake of efficiency and cost savings — though such content management systems are extremely expensive to implement.) The Scripps sites at least demonstrate a bit more individuality between them than do the sites that are part of the Knight Ridder chain's recent publishing system implementation and redesign. (Examples: Miami Herald and SiliconValley.com.)
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Posted 12:34 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below

Apologies From the President

Juan C. Camus on cross-border website cooperation
Uruguay's President Jorge Batlle offered a public apology in front of Argentina's President Eduardo Duhalde, after his public talk on television in which he described Argentines as "a bunch of thieves from start to finish." In a fast response on the Internet, two newspaper websites in those countries published a joint survey with five options on their home pages. El Observador from Uruguay and Clarín from Argentina asked their users how they felt about the remarks of President Batlle. The numbers: 51.5% on the Uruguay website and 54.9% on the Argentina site did not feel offended by the president's words. El Observador received 2,982 replies and Clarín 21,586.
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Posted 11:46 AM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below

Spanish E-Government Is Slowing Down

Eva Domínguez on new technologies in the public sector
Spain has lost energy introducing new technologies in government, according to a ranking made by the consulting firm Accenture. Spain is 15th on the list this year, four positions down compared to last year, and is considered as an "emerging" country, not a "consolidated" one. Canada, Singapore, and the USA are the winners of a list of 23 researched members when it comes to progress in e-government services.
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Posted 11:35 AM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below

The Next Logical Step for AJC

Peter M. Zollman on content convenience
As Steve Outing noted here recently, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution has created excellent "Insider" business pages at AJC.com covering CNN, Delta Air Lines, and other major Atlanta businesses. They're strong journalism. But as a multi-million miler on Delta who wants to follow every move the airline makes, I'd be even happier if the AJC also offered its Delta (CNN, etc.) updates as an e-mail service.

Sure, I know I could set up a Web tool to notify me each time the page is updated. But I'd rather have the news sent to me. I might even be willing to pay a few bucks a year. Isn't this just the type of premium service that could generate great revenue? The AJC ought to try buying Delta's list of e-mail addresses for all of its Platinum and Gold Medallion flyers — if the airline would be willing to part with it, given that the AJC reports on Delta, rather than just promotes it. (With the red ink at Delta lately, it might as well agree to sell the list. Talk about a targeted audience!)
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Posted 11:09 AM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below

Daypart Model Works for TV, Radio, and Web

Martha Stone on surround ads on NYTimes.com
New York Times Digital yesterday launched New York Times Site Sessions advertising with American Airlines. Site Sessions, an extension of the Surround Sessions strategy launched late last year, gives a single online advertiser placement on all major ad positions on NYTimes.com for a specific time frame — in this case, 9-10 a.m. (U.S. Eastern time). The session was repeated today (Wednesday) from 9-10 a.m. The ad model is comparable to the "daypart" model for TV and radio advertising. The strategy takes advantage of the fact that the Internet dominates daytime media use.
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Tuesday, June 04, 2002

Posted 7:56 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below

Keeping Up With Weblogs

Steve Outing on industry resources
If you're interested in tracking the exciting field of weblogs (and why wouldn't you be?), there are now some excellent resources. In this weblog, E-Media Tidbits, we often report on weblog trends. But if you want more, there's also Cyberjournalist.net's The Weblog Blog page by Jon Dube. And don't forget John Hiler's Microcontent News. (Hiler yesterday posted a list of "big media" that are now publishing weblogs, in response to yesterday's addition by MSNBC.com of several weblogs.)
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Posted 7:24 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below

TV Station Website Goes All Out for Crash

Steve Outing on convergent reporting
Lost Remote's Cory Bergman tells the tale of KGW-TV in Portland, Oregon, and how the television news operation's website got some bang-up (pardon the pun) coverage of the rescue-helicopter crash on Mt. Hood last week. Bergman says that KGW.com has a large Web staff (for a TV station), and that it "quickly outpaced its TV and newspaper counterparts, writing in-depth stories with smart illustrations, detailed photos, slide shows, and lots of video." The site sent a producer out to the crash site for original reporting, because "on big stories, there's no time for the TV reporters to talk to the Web staff," said the site's executive editor. "By having our own producer there, he can take the story and round it out for us in a print format, which certainly comes in handy." Some TV stations, in case you haven't noticed, are doing serious news work on the Web.
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Posted 1:35 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below

Some Users Are More Valuable

Rich Gordon on the value of loyal site visitors
The monthly Media Metrix ratings never look very good for sites that publish original informational content. The rankings are dominated by portals, search, and e-commerce sites (for instance, AOL, MSN, Yahoo!, eBay, and Amazon). One big reason is that the rankings are based on the number of "unique visitors" in a given month. A person who visits a site every weekday for a month is counted equally with someone who came just once. This has hurt news sites that have had success in developing loyal readership. A new report from the Online Publishers Association, "Internet Metrics: The Loyal Audience" (PDF format), should help online news sites make a stronger case to advertisers. Some of its findings:

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Posted 1:00 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below

Gruesome Content Will Always Find a Home on Net

Steve Outing on the Daniel Pearl execution video
As was also noted on Jim Romenesko's weblog today, the Boston Phoenix website has provided a link to the video footage of Daniel Pearl's execution by terrorists. (Caution: extremely disturbing link.) Mainstream media have stayed away from the video, which is a propaganda message from the perpetrators, with the exception of CBS News, which broadcast a sanitized version and kept the gruesome parts off the air. (The full video shows Pearl's severed head.)

The role of the Internet in this tragic tale is significant, to say the least. When "news-worthy" content like the Pearl execution video becomes available, there will always be someone who deems it appropriate to publish online — no matter that there's consensus among professional journalists that it's beyond the pale of decency to disseminate it. That's a simple fact of modern life; we can no longer be assured that a responsible media will shield us from graphic depictions of the worst acts of humanity. I wonder if this will begin to affect the standards of mainstream media. Will the availability of such gruesome content on the Internet lessen news organizations' traditional restraint and result in more disturbing content being published in mainstream media?
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Posted 12:03 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below

Online Media Update: Asia-Pacific

Steve Outing on a new book
A fellow E-Media Tidbits contributor, Madan Rao, has come out with a new book worthy of note here. The Asia-Pacific Internet Handbook, Episode IV: Emerging Powerhouses covers Internet developments in Japan, South Korea, India, Australia, and Singapore, including such e-media topics as online media, the content industry, and wireless Internet.
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Monday, June 03, 2002

Posted 7:51 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below

A Web Full of World Cup

Steve Outing on an Internet historical record
Fellow E-Media Tidbits contributor Norbert Specker has debuted another Web historical project, a digital collection of World Cup coverage by news and sports websites around the globe. The goal, says Norbert, is "to freeze a moment in online publishing history when all the world is talking about the same thing. Only differently." The collected sites — from 32 countries participating in the World Cup — are searchable by title, match, language, and media sites. Previously, Norbert did a similar site archiving Web pages from September 11 and the days afterward.
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Posted 5:34 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below

The Irish Times Goes Better With Coke?

Norbert Specker on online advertising
It's non-obtrusive — yet very much in your eye. The Irish Times is experimenting with background sponsor messages on its World Cup coverage. Take a look.
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Posted 12:51 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below

Search Goes Local

Steve Outing on cool programming
As Chris Sherman noted in today's SearchDay, a notable winner was just named in a Google programming contest. Daniel Egnor's program enables users to restrict searches to pages that are located near a specified address. So, a Web user could restrict searches to pages that are located near a specific address — say to "find all bookstores near my house." Google hasn't implemented this technology yet, but you can be sure it will. As Sherman points out, such geo-location already exists to a degree on the Northern Light search engine, and on Lasoo. Watch the growth of this technology — which should be particularly useful for local and regional news organizations' websites.
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Posted 12:04 PM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below

CNET Joins the Paid-Content Bandwagon

Steve Outing on online revenue models
CNET, the free Web technology news provider, is following the trend with a new paid-content offering. Its GameSpot news service now has nearly 20,000 customers for the premium Gamespot Complete service, which costs $4.95 a month or $19.95 a year. Also trendy (at least, it's starting to get that way) is one of the benefits of the premium service: Gamespot Complete promises no "interruptions" from obnoxious ad formats like pop-ups, pop-unders, and "prestitials" (ads that take over your screen before you get to see requested content).
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Posted 12:46 AM US Eastern Time | perma-link to item below

The Mad Magazine Market

Paul Grabowicz on media
If you want to see how fragmented the media market has become, take a look at the MrMagazine.com website run by University of Mississippi Professor Samir Husni, who tracks and catalogs new magazine launches. "Cross Stitch For All Seasons," "Islands Weddings & Honeymoons," "Braids & Beyond," and "Fast & Fun Furniture Painting" are just a sample of this year's new titles.

The explosion of narrowly focused publications like these in the past few decades comes as readership of daily newspapers and viewership of network news are stagnating or in decline. Is the Internet, the ultimate in niche publishing, best positioned to exploit this new consumer news market?
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