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While visiting Google headquarters outside of San Francisco I saw a rather strange thing.
Out in the rain there was a man in one of those single person wave pools that gives the physical illusion of swimming laps. Perched over him was another man in a puffy red life savers jacket, complete with white cross on the back, sitting on a miniature life guard’s chair watching the swimmer.
I would have taken a photo but you’re not allowed to take photos inside Google, in fact, you’re not allowed to do much at Google.
Continue reading "Google doesn’t do evil, but it is creepy" »
A journalist has written a story complaining newspaper stories are too long.
He says people like their stories short. Punchy. That’s why newspapers are dying, he says. That’s why the internet is alive.
The story was written by Michael Kinsley. A columnist for The Atlantic. Mr Kinsley complains that a 1,456 word report in The New York Times, on Obama’s health reforms, was too long. Mr Kinsley’s article, complaining about journalistic “verbiage”, ran to 1,940 words.
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Joe says:
I agree totally about the length of many articles, mostly on blogs. Most just want to create filler. A site that has been around since about 96 online that does brevity so well is slashdot.org. They get you the gist of a story in a few paragraphs. No filler. Read more »
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rod sexton says:
Steven Mayne’s blog is obviously more widely read than Mr Toohey’s. Read more »
You say you want a revolution
Well, you know we all want to change the world ...
You ask me for a contribution
Well, you know, we’re doing what we can ...
You read news. So you know there’s a revolution going in the news industry, with much untargeted crossfire, rattling of virtual sabres and foaming at the mouth about paid content.
Rude words have been said. Like “parasite”. And “money”.
Continue reading "You’ve never paid for news, you never will" »
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Nickk says:
Jeefunk: “Did you follow the Iran election on Twitter? It was groundbreaking and revolutionary… it was also bloody annoying to navigate, polluted with garbage and inaccurate” Sounds like most online news sites to me… Read more »
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Socrates says:
Yeah, I’ve been revolting for years too. But what’s really revolting are the bloggers who write their post BEFORE whatever they are pushing/demonising has appeared. Both Left and Right, and the much maligned Centre, can be pretty silly at times, but they can also make a lot of sense. We… Read more »
If you could design your own domestic news service, what would it look like?
Taking off my News Limited hat and speaking as a general reader, mine would involve a few things - plenty of hard news, mostly politics, stacks of AFL, provocative and entertaining opinion pieces, heaps of food, music and cinema journalism.
I’d never read celebrity gossip, clubby or dull business journalism (that is, almost all of it) or another impenetrable word of motoring writing about the latest unaffordable car with a 28 kilowatt, 6.2 litre engine and variable-valve timing control.
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itarySuitSymn says:
Fed up with getting low amounts of useless visitors for your site? Well i want to tell you about a new underground tactic that produces myself $900 each day on 100% AUTOPILOT. I could truthfully be here all day and going into detail but why dont you simply check their… Read more »
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fredwell says:
Now is a great time to trade currencies with the world economic problems. People are cashing in by trading forex right now, the world money sistuation is a mess so why not make profit off it? Keep your money offshore where it is safe! A good Forex broker is… Read more »
Earlier this month I spoke at a social media conference in Melbourne. When you wear a badge that says you work for Rupert Murdoch at these events, it’s like sitting in the middle of the Collingwood cheer squad in a Carlton jumper. With some people the best you can hope for is that their initial horror will eventually subside to a mild hostility.
I was there to speak about strategy for social media, including Twitter, which The Punch has engaged to a fair degree of success. It is second only to the mighty Google in terms of the number of readers it helps the site reach. My presentation was on using social networks to connect with people.
The Social Media Summit 2009 came just days after the announcement that News Corporation planned to charge for access to its websites. It was the hottest topic of conversation in the wings and with the exception of one or two people, the view among the delegates was that it wasn’t going to work.
Continue reading "Psst, Twitter: You might want to help save big media" »
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h says:
@eric: OK, so you’re going to go and dig around on the net. You’ll find any number of versions of the story and plenty will seem plausible. Several are mutually exclusive and none of your personal contacts knows anything about it at all. How do you verify your sources? Curious… Read more »
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Rob says:
So does this mean the end of televised news on free-to-air television as well? Why should users (who, by the way usually have to pay for access to the Internet) have to pay for news when it is broadcast in virtually every country in the world on free-to-air (supported by… Read more »
For an open, organic, freedom-loving Utopia, there are a great many wannabe digital dictators on the Internet, vomiting forth mandates on how we must behave, speak, and do business. The Ethos of the Web, they call it; they know what is right, what is wrong, what will work, and what will fail.
So in May, when Rupert Murdoch tabled the idea of paywalling his newspapers, the Glorious Leaders of Twitterstan took to their keyboards, and registered their disdain with an all-caps “FAIL!”
“You can’t charge for content! Information wants to be free! Show your support by donating to my PayPal account!” Every Social Media Expert and Futurist hustling for speaking fees and fat consultancies knows, unequivocally, that newspapers are dinosuars; one edition short of extinction.
Continue reading "Not all media dinosaurs have small brains" »
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George says:
US newspapers made $40 per online reader last year out of ads (Facebook couldn’t make 2 bucks a head). They’ll need 20% to pay $200 pa to match it. Say no more. Shouldn’t Mr Murdoch be focusing on finding better online ad models. Perhaps if he wasn’t using dinosaurs to… Read more »
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pc says:
So you want to know how quality journalism will survive the internet. It survived tv and unlike the internet, tv can speak to the illiterate and the very young. There will be a great deal of competition amongst online sources both quality and of the yellow variety - for those… Read more »
What will journalism look like in twenty years? Will newspapers still exist? Punch research journalist Kelly Simpson and four of her fellow students from the University of Technology Sydney gaze into the crystal ball…
Kelly Simpson – Postgraduate journalism student, UTS: How did you hear that Michael Jackson had died? That we’d lost the Ashes?
Print is dead, I’ve been assured. I’ve missed the glory days. There’ll be no ink smudged copy for me, no physical front page, no morning AND evening editions of the newspapers.
Continue reading "Degrees of uncertainty for students of journalism" »
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Bill Bartmann says:
Hey good stuff…keep up the good work! Read more »
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jstevens says:
Eric, if you have seen what goes on in a newsroom, then you might change your view. If you don’t believe journalism is a public good, then everything would have shut down years ago and we’d all be brainless morons just walking around being spoonfed all we need to know… Read more »
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