29 October 2012

Penguin, Random House in Deal - WSJ.com

Internet influence notre cerveau - Le journal du Week-end - Replay

This is one of the people mentioned in the report which suggests that loss of memory may come from too much use of internet.

"Le Napoléon Bonaparte prend l'eau dans le port de Marseille" - La Provence

I know this newspaper pretty well, the principal paper in Marseille. It's as good as any in most respects, and just as bad. Consider this story. A ferry bashed in its hull on a dock in Marseille yesterday. This morning on TV there are stories about how it is still in peril and that recovery efforts - to right it fully - will continue this morning. When I look at what appears to be the latest in La Provence, here is what I don't find:
+ Anything updated from last night at 10 PM
+ Anything advising me that there will be further updates and when to expect them
+ Anything giving me a concise summary of the situation right now
+ Any opportunity to be alerted by various means, if I choose, in the event that something more is reported or changes in the story
In short, La Provence has blown this one badly and probably does not even realize it has. Whyshould I have to go to the site of a free national newspaper in order to get an update on a story happening in the middle of the Marseille market?
Alas, you could substitute almost any other story in any other newspaper for the one mentioned here and get the same result. Even The New York Times in covering Hurricane Sandy! This link goes to a Live Updates page with times listed and no dates for any of them.

Advertisers Refine Mobile Pitches for Phones and Tablets - NYTimes.com

28 October 2012

List of Swiss Accounts Turns Up the Heat in Greece - NYTimes.com

The power of information!

Tracking Voters’ Clicks Online to Try to Sway Them - NYTimes.com

What is the role of newspapers in helping their customers understand all of this?

27 October 2012

"Emails Shed Light on Ryan, Walker Relationship" - NYTimes.com

Good reporting requires a lot of digging.

26 October 2012

"Watching TV Online Often Exposes Slow Bandwidth : All Tech Considered" - NPR

Newspapers ought to be leading the effort to improve the speed with which we can all interact with whatever we chose via means provided by newspapers and by others. The best value will win.

"Amazon Reports Loss Despite Higher Sales" - NYTimes.com

How do we better track Amazon alongside newspapers? They may not look the same, but they surely are available at the same fruit stands.

"China Blocks Web Access to Times" - NYTimes.com

The good news is that, in the end, we all know that this is not going to work - sticking a Chinese thumb in global information dike.

"Family of Wen Jiabao Holds a Hidden Fortune in China" - NYTimes.com

An article of tremendous value to readers of the NYT and to many more people in the US and China. The fact that the story appears simultaneously in Chinese reflects this importance.

17 October 2012

16 October 2012

"$11 Million Severance Reported for Murdoch Aide Rebekah Brooks" - NYTimes.com

Wow.

"The Future, as Imagined by Google" - NYTimes.com

Newspapers have got to work harder to find their place in this picture.

15 October 2012

"Times to Add Portuguese Language Edition" - NYTimes.com

Anyone else doing the same?

14 October 2012

11 October 2012

"Internet Shopping Drives Australia Post Profit" - NYTimes.com

Imagine the merger of USPS and Amazon.

10 October 2012

"Decide.com Pays to Get Consumer Reports's Reputation" - NYTimes.com

Can newspapers top this?

"The Global Arbitrage of Online Work" - NYTimes.com

How will newspapers deal with this?

"Small Companies Seek to Push Sales and Marketing With Own Apps" - NYTimes.com

What are newspapers doing to help their customers in these situations?

"Long Live Paper" - NYTimes.com

Are we yet seeing how this is really going to evolve?

"Wal-Mart Tests Same-Day Delivery" - NYTimes.com

This strikes me as bold move that could produce amazing results for Wal-Mart and for customers. What may be more important is how other merchants react proactively, if they do.

09 October 2012

"That Indescribable Pink of The Financial Times" - NYTimes.com

Ok, now we can move on from there.....?

08 October 2012

05 October 2012

"RIP, American Press Institute" - JIMROMENESKO.COM

I am not as concerned about leaving it behind as I am in imagining how this kind of learning will occur in the future. That, for me, is the real issue.

"WSJ memo: We’re creating a single newsroom that does away with duplication" - JIMROMENESKO.COM

I thought they did this 20 years ago!

04 October 2012

"Facebook now home to 1 billion monthly users" - Houston Chronicle

As much as we might take it for granted this remains astounding. What is the best strategy of any newspaper to do something other than Facebook to interconnect people?

"F.T.C. Crackdown Aims At Tech Support Scams" - NYTimes.com

What are/can newspapers do to help their cusotmers avoid this ploy?

"The Gospel According to Pinterest" - NYTimes.com

I am not sure what to make of this.

03 October 2012

"Kindle’s Paperwhite E-Reader Lets There Be More Light - Review" - NYTimes.com

Sounds promising!

"Daily Report: Facebook's Advertising Plan" - NYTimes.com

I don't think anyone really has any idea how far the pendulum of tracking is likely to swing. It seems inevitable to me that it will go very far.

02 October 2012

"Shopping Sites Pay Contributors Who Drive Traffic to Retailers" - NYTimes.com

This sort of thing makes a lot of sense on one level and is horrendous on another.

"Microsoft launching news operation" - MyBroadband Tech and IT News

It's fascinating to see who is in and out of the news business.

"Washington Post Co. buys hospice firm Celtic Healthcare" - The Washington Post

Truth winning out again over fiction!

01 October 2012

"Journalist Turns Idea Into Online Success" - NYTimes.com

How do newspapers do a better job of tapping into former journalists who have done great things in allied fields?

"Burlington Free Press Loses Ground in Vermont" - NYTimes.com

As bad as all this is, I still think newspapers have missed the chance to make themselves essential to their cusotmers, plain and simple. We all have lots of information needs that we think are pretty essential and newspapers continue to think they can get by addressing only a few of them, and not the highest priority ones like food (in an essential as opposed to throw food mud on the wall and see if it sticks fashion, as is most often the case now).

"Oracle's New Cloud Computing Bets" - NYTimes.com

Which newspaper is advancing the most dynamic cloud strategy?

"Times-Picayune Publishes Last Daily Issue" - NYTimes.com

I still believe that there is a need for a daily guide to the world, starting as local as your bed, and extending to Mars, if you like. And I believe that a printed newspaper is the very best way to do this. However much of that the Times-Picayune achieves, it won't happen at all on the off days and that's a real loss.

"‘Janeane From Des Moines,’ Mock Documentary, Hits the Right" - NYTimes.com

This happens, I suspect, more often than we realize in more media.