The race to be the first to post a story online 1 frequently causes problems. For example, this morning I saw a headline on Boy Genius Report (BGR), “New Jersey bans texting while walking”.
BGR linked Huffington Post as the source, so I clicked the link for more of the story. HuffPo’s headline reads, “Texting While Walking Ban: Fort Lee Imposes $85 Fines On Dangerous Texters [CORRECTION].” As soon as I see “correction,” I think, “Uh-oh.” The HuffPo story begins with a link to a story at MSNBC, entitled, “New Jersey town’s police chief: No, we didn’t ban texting while walking.” Oops.
Category: Journalism
Speaking of Sources...
Philip Elmer-DeWitt, on the story that Foxconn CEO Tery Gou leaked Apple’s upcoming “iTV” product:
What none of these reporters mentioned (or apparently bothered to consider) is that Gou — whose factories assemble 40% of the world’s electronic devices — is one of the industry’s most secretive executives. He is privy to the future product plans of the most valuable electronics brands — not just Apple, but also Sony, Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard and the rest. He is trusted by his business partners because he never leaks their secrets.
DigiTimes Sucks as a Source
Why I Run Ads
There’s been a lot of talk about advertising on independent websites this week, so I thought I’d outline my thoughts on the subject.
I run two types of advertising here on 512 Pixels.
The first is a sidebar ad, provided by the Fusion Ad network. The income generated from this ad covers my monthly hosting fee almost exactly. With this ad alone, 512 Pixels would almost break even most months.
Secondly, I run “RSS Sponsorship” ads, through The Syndicate. These ads show up as “linked list” posts on the site and in the RSS feed.
Ars Turns 7.0
More on Ads
I’d argue it’s not working at all, as evidenced by the race to the bottom nature of advertising revenues, the exploration of pay-wall systems in big publishers to help pad advertising revenue (because ad revenue isn’t enough), the fact that more than a few blogs I know need the extra money from members to make writing work full-time, and the overall on-the-verge-of-bankruptcy nature of most news publications.
No, I don’t think advertising works any longer as the sole revenue stream.
The World’s Second-Oldest Profession
Ads are likely not the future, or the answer, because as readers we have many, many, tools that allow us to ignore, gloss over, or outright remove ads from content. Even if an advertiser still registers a page view on their ad, when they stop seeing returns on their advertisements they will no longer desire to pay publishers. This is where the market is beginning to head — the race to the bottom.
British Panel: Murdoch ‘Not Fit’ to Run News Corp.
4 A.M.
As soon as I felt it vibrate, I pulled my phone out of my pocket.
It was just after 4 a.m. on Monday, October 7, and I was walking across the University of Memphis’ main campus with my college newspaper’s managing editor, lugging a box of papers and a tape gun, thinking about the body I had seen pulled out of a car just a few hours earlier. I shifted the weight of the box to look at my phone.
‘North Korea Still Sucks at Launching Rockets’
The Next Web Pokes Fun of Paywalls for April 1
For those choosing to subscribe to Pay-To-View, we’re going to make it very easy. You’ll pay for 1 year up front, and we’ll automatically renew your subscription for you. If you don’t want to renew, just give us 90 days written notice, mailed to The Next Web offices in Amsterdam, and we’ll be happy to arrange alternate options for you personally.
Boom.
Mike Daisey, on Lying
When I said onstage that I had personally experienced things I in fact did not, I failed to honor the contract I’d established with my audiences over many years and many shows. In doing so, I not only violated their trust, I also made worse art.
This is not the place for me to try and explain my good intentions. We all know where the road paved with good intentions leads. In fact, I think it might lead to where I’m sitting right now.