Media Industry Archive

We’ve looked at Topix and we’ve looked at EveryBlock. We’ve examined the efforts by the Hartford Courant, among others. Tomorrow, we’ll look at another hyper-local news resource, called Outside:In. But today, I want to establish from the perspective of a media executive the business rationale for this kind of approach to reporting the news. First, this is a sustainable...

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Black & Blue Monday brought the biggest one-day point drop in U.S. stock market history. As the indices all melted down today after the House failed to pass the Bush administration’s $700 billion bailout bill, media companies — especially newspapers — were sinking fast. The New York Times‘ stock  fell to $14.35; Gannett’s fell to $17; and the deeply troubled...

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A reprieve for Pandora – On Saturday, Congress voted to give internet radio sites more time to negotiate royalty rates with recording companies, which may save popular site Pandora. [Sources: Portfolio, Silicon Alley Insider] Creative Loafing files for bankruptcy – The publisher of alt weeklies including Washington CityPaper has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in order to focus on...

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It’s Friday, and rather than digg into specific companies, just this once I feel like stepping back and taking a long view of the media industry we monitor here so closely. Think about it. What now qualifies as “media” — in one form or another — theoretically could include virtually every website published. That was not true in our brick and mortar past, but now...

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MySpace Music launches to great… underwhelm – Consensus among critics is that MySpace Music, the much-awaited music-streaming site, is glitchy, poorly designed, and too difficult to navigate. But TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington points out that it’s an important step toward the inevitable future, i.e., free music online. (Sources: AVC, PaidContent, Idolator, TechCrunch)...

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It seems almost like yesterday that we were reporting on the State of the Blogosphere, courtesy of Technorati’s new report. (It was, in fact, the day before yesterday.) Meanwhile, new deals seem to be popping up everywhere between mainstream news companies and blogging networks. The New York Times has announced syndication deals with ReadWriteWeb, VentureBeat, and the GigaOm network. The...

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Perhaps you’re tired of seeing the same healthy-looking people in drug ads hiking across craggy rocks or picking up their grandkids or wafting gently off to sleep while a slew of side effects (in fine print, natch) scrolls quickly by. If so, the pharmaceutical industry has another offer for you: How about a quick game of “Viva Cruiser“? Or “Captain Novolin?” Just...

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Chris Tolles, CEO of Topix, doesn’t think much of journalists. “There’s a lot of arrogance among journalists, as if they are performing a public service. Their job should be to get lots of audience attention and engagement. Period.” Never mind that three of Tolles’s major investors are Gannett, McClatchy and the Tribune Co., representing the largest newspaper...

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Technorati is releasing its fifth annual “State of the Blogosphere” report this week, and some of the initial numbers are eye-popping.  According to comScore MediaMetrix, blogs are reaching 77.7 million unique users in the U.S. as of August. Over three-quarters of active Internet users around the world (346 million) read blogs. Globally, at least 184 million people have started a...

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Today Google delivered two fresh dings to Apple’s armor with the unveiling of its first mobile device, the Gphone. The search engine giant isn’t just taking on the iPhone — it also poses a threat to Apple iTunes. As Venture Beat’s MG Siegler leaked yesterday, the Gphone’s mobile platform comes preloaded with Amazon’s MP3 store. The service doesn’t...

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