Yesterday, over a very tasty seafood lunch, I watched Felix Salmon spend two hours trying to convince FT.com managing director Rob Grimshaw to abandon his newspaper’s attempts to get its readers to pay for online content. He did not succeed.
The newspaper website pay dilemma, solved
Posted January 29, 2009 by garynielsonCategories: Newspapers
Danger online: Perils of revealing every intimate moment
Posted January 29, 2009 by garynielsonCategories: Blogging, Facebook, MySpace, Social networking, Twitter
Anything goes on the web. We find out why we share personal details online and explain our obsession with social networking.
Self-publishers flourish as writers pay the tab
Posted January 28, 2009 by garynielsonCategories: Books
The point may soon come when there are more people who want to write books than there are people who want to read them.
via Self-Publishers Flourish as Writers Pay the Tab – NYTimes.com.
MNI halts dividend amid default fears | Newsosaur
Posted January 28, 2009 by garynielsonCategories: Newspapers
Amid concerns among some analysts that the McClatchy Co. could default on its $2.1 billion debt in the second half of this year, the company today announced that it would cancel its dividend after the first quarter.
via Reflections of a Newsosaur: MNI halts dividend amid default fears.
Thirty things you might miss in a world without newspapers | Journalism.co.uk Editors’ Blog
Posted January 27, 2009 by garynielsonCategories: Newspapers
Landmark combining wage freeze with chain-wide unpaid furloughs
Posted January 27, 2009 by garynielsonCategories: Layoffs, Newspapers
Landmark Communications, publisher of The Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk and two other dailies, Monday announced a chain-wide wage freeze that will be combined with five unpaid days off during the first half of 2009.
via Landmark Combining Wage Freeze With Chain-Wide Unpaid Furloughs.
Why ad rates are plummeting
Posted January 27, 2009 by garynielsonCategories: Advertising, Newspapers
The amount Web publishers can charge advertisers for every thousand impressions of their ads — a rate called the CPM in industry jargon — is off by about 20% industry-wide. Worse, that’s with publishers only selling around 30% of their inventory, down from 60%.
via Why Ad Rates Are Plummeting And What It Means For Publishers (NYT).
NYT settles absurd copyright suit, agrees to stop sending rival free web traffic (NYT)
Posted January 27, 2009 by garynielsonCategories: Newspapers
The Times agreed to remove links to (and lead sentences from) GateHouse stories from the Boston Globe’s Web site, Boston.com. The Globe aggregates town-by-town news content from various blogs and news sites in a section called Your Town.
via NYT Settles Absurd Copyright Suit, Agrees To Stop Sending Rival Free Web Traffic (NYT).
French-style aid for U.S. press would cost $8B | Newsosaur
Posted January 26, 2009 by garynielsonCategories: Newspapers
In case you were wondering, French-style assistance for the American newspaper industry would cost Uncle Sam about $8 billion.
via Reflections of a Newsosaur.
“This is not a stimulus package,” said Frederic Filoux, who was on a commission that helped craft the plan. “This is a Band-Aid to an ailing industry that has a shown a tremendous resistance to change at every level.”
