Amazon to Print-On-Demand Publishers: Suck It.

I’ve been tinkering around with print-on-demand publishing since 2005. John and I have discussed publishing our next book ourselves, instead of going through the process of giving away our copyright (and trying to regain it, which we are doing with McGraw-Hill right now).
The POD technologies are advanced enough now that anyone with a little design [...]

Print Revenues Have Historic Drop. No Worries, We Have Blogs

The Newspaper Association of America announced that 2007 revenues dropped 9.4 percent, the largest single year drop since the industry tracked advertising metrics.
That’s not great news.
Of course, online revenues continued to climb — 18.8 percent — although that growth was off the 31.4 percent growth from the previous year. But I’m not going to [...]

“Since 1990, a quarter of all American newspaper jobs have disappeared.”

That’s the quote that jumped out at me while I was reading (the first page) of The New Yorker article by Eric Alteramn.
It’s a scathing review of the industry, which is exactly the kind of review the industry needs. This week alone I’ve had a half-dozen new media types instant message me with thanks for [...]

The World is One Big Location

I’m working on a story about Dash — which I wrote about last week on the blog — for TechNewsWorld. Along the way, I came across a company called Where, which makes software widgets for you mobile phone that enables people to locate a variety of businesses thanks to GPS.
I’ve stolen a list of things [...]

The Merc Has It (Mostly) Right. So Of Course Reporters Are Pissed

I read this memo, sent by the San Jose Mercury News Executive Editor Dave Butler, and for about 10 grafs, I was stoked.
The essence: modern journalist dictates that we embrace technologies, but that doesn’t mean we abandon journalism.
It’s a wonderful screed about changes that will be happen in the newsroom, but the underlying message [...]

Here’s My Social Media. Eat It.

I’m a big believe in lifestreaming and technology as a new form of storytelling, and more importantly, as a new way to inform people about what it happening (as well as a new way to develop interactive storytelling techniques).
One of the downsides with social media is that hiccups occurring as we all try to figure [...]

Okay at Least Cliff Stoll is Hilarious

He may have written the dumbest article ever on the Internet, but people have been telling me to give Cliff another chance.
And indeed, you should watch this video because he COMPLETELY redeems himself at TED.

So That’s What Happens When You Depend on Third Parties

In 2006, newspapers were patting themselves on the back for partnering with Google and Yahoo (I believe) to help sell advertising in both print and online.
At the time, I was winding up my time at Technology Review; however, I was adamant that we not look into similar deals for magazines. It made no sense, outsourcing [...]

Circa 1995: HYPE ALERT: WHY CYBERSPACE ISN’T, AND WILL NEVER BE, NIRVANA

This from my friend Chris, a link to Newsweek’s article about the Internet, circa 1995. Disregard all the spelling errors from the fact-checked and copy-edited non-blog. I’m sure this was just an oversight by the traditional media.
The Internet? Bah!
Notable Quotables:
On Media 
The truth in no online database will replace your daily newspaper, no CD-ROM can take [...]

Media Economics are Hosed, Well Not That Media

The traditional media is in serious financial trouble. Classified advertising is gone (and it’s not coming back). Local advertising is still doing okay, but advertising spending has level off throughout the last two years. I’m sure that’s only going to get better as we sink into a recession.
It’s dire straits — and not the cool [...]

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