For newspapers, the future is now, maybe.

This story cites the fall of the newspaper on missed opportunities first, in the age of dial-up and then, during the broadband revolution. 'For newspapers, the future is now' explains that the fate of the newspaper may now rest in the paywall concept and its tablet app counterpart saying, "paywalls and the proliferation of tablets will define 2011 as the most significant year for mainstream media in a decade."

Lauren Walker
Victoria Marzec

SeedSpeak

SeedSpeak with the support of the Knight Foundation is doing some interesting things in terms of using geolocation to encourage civic engagement. This article might helpful for those groups that are looking at doing anything hyper local like Patch.

Kaleigh Robichaud
Michael Marx

Continuing to support journalism

This blog post explores the idea of "Cognitive Surplus" as developed by Clay Shirky. Shirky's general theory is that the Internet could allow journalism "to be at its best, if it can find a way to support itself." He also refers to today as "the golden age of journalism, except for the money." This article provides an interesting take on journalism today: being optimistic about the industry itself while acknowledging the economic drawbacks.

http://www.editorsweblog.org/newsrooms_and_journalism/2011/01/clay_shirky_this_is_a_golden_age_for_jou.php

Kara Venturino-Eyde
Erin O'Connor

Selling Yourself

Here is an article from Innovative Interactivity which I think fits well with this class. It is all about presenting yourself and networking. Something we all need to improve our Skills on. The article is about "strategically growing and strengthening your network".

http://www.innovativeinteractivity.com/2011/01/20/networking/


Justin Bailey
Megan Durisin

At Flickr, Fending Off Rumors and Facebook

Will Flickr soon see competition from Facebook for the audience wanting to "share and store more mundane snapshots"?

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/31/technology/31flickr.html?ref=global

Ashley Dematteis
Lindsay Nowak

Why the Washington Post is Failing...

Following on from our conversation about the connection between content and audiences, here is the final story written by the Washington Post's ombudsman about why the Post (the paper of Woodward & Bernstein) is failing. A good read as you consider how you will make the connection between your content and the people you want to reach.

Google doesn't fear outbound links; neither should you

Newspapers need to start focusing on creating credibility and value, even if that means sending readers elsewhere.

Click here to find out more.

Michael Marx
Kaleigh Robichaud

Don't Call Me a Content Farm

What's the difference between journalism and what is practiced by companies such as Demand Studios?
This blog post on WSJ explores Demand Studios' business model.

How to be a Successful Website Without Advertisements

Wikipedia.com is perhaps the most successful and widely used search website that does not fund itself using advertisers. One tactic they use is issuing an online letter on the site annually explaining that to keep free of ads, they need donations for the public. Read below to see how much they made this year, and if Founder Jimmy Wales ever plans to allow advertisements.

http://www.labnol.org/internet/will-wikipedia-accept-advertising/18499/

Hannah Saunders

Amber Johnson-Weeks

Aggregator sites not always a great idea

This article looks at what aggregator sites in businesses outside of journalism are dealing with the unique issues that face those who run aggregator sites.

Erin O'Connor

Kara Venturino-Hyde

AOL strives to be an arms dealer?

AOL views itself as the ammunition for the war that is going on Silicon Valley because it offers a platform that advertisers can actually use. This brief piece discusses how AOL sees itself in relation to other media companies like Facebook and why president, Tim Armstrong, strives to be a media arms dealer in Silicon Valley.

Lauren Walker
Victoria Marzec

Innovative Interactivity on Multimedia Content

Innovative Interactivity used an interview with a blogger from Seeing Stories to find out why some journalistic content works out as multimedia and some doesn't.

The Daily iPad only newspaper

News Corp, continuing to try to use technology to influence their papers, is launching The Daily, an iPad-only "Digital Newspaper."

News Corp says the newspaper will launch within two weeks or so

http://www.pcworld.com/article/217866/the_daily_to_launch_in_next_two_weeks.html

Andrew Atwal & Anthony Sabella

"E-mail Marketing 3.0"

Find out what content companies should add to their e-mail newsletters to engage with their consumer audience. With the help of social networking sites, it is no longer enough to create content. Now, it is about creating content that will fuel conversations.


http://www.reuters.com/article/idUS295647723920110126

The importance of custom content...

This article from Poynter focuses on entrepreneur Chris Seper who is president and co-founder of MedCity News. His goal: focus on "custom content" to create a successful business.









Lindsay Nowak

Ashley Dematteis

Same Content, Different way of Displaying It

Premium content: What the Waco Tribune-Herald has learned so far

A Texas newspaper organization, Waco Tribune-Herald, has found a method of online payment that may not be perfect, but that has shown benefits. With the creation of the implemented pay wall, the Tribune-Herald has seen an increase in print subscribers. Perhaps this is because they have called the project OnlinePlus, and for $15.45 a month, you can get both the print and online-subscription, where you would be paying $9.95 for the online-only.
What's under the Waco Tribune-Herald's pay wall? Their most wanted local news. Because the newspaper is interested in social media marketing, they keep links to their wire and AP stories available for free (along with obituaries) while hiding the locally written stories you can't find anywhere else.
The Waco-Tribune Herald has learned from other newspapers mistakes regarding pay walls and have tried to implement what they believe to be the most efficient content behind their pay walls. Though their website readership dropped dramatically, they have also noticed that their print circulation has increased by 3%.
Editor Carlos Sanchez encourages other newspapers to do the same, "Traffic would drop, but would you rather have one million page views that are free or 100,000 page views that are bringing in revenue?"

I think that his idea of marketing the online subscription as an OnlinePlus rather than just another thing to pay for, is much more innovative and attention-getting than not including it in the same pay fee. I also think that choosing to hide the local news is important, because many times, that is what people are most interested in reading about and cannot find anywhere else.

-Abbey and Matt
Knight Digital Media Center Blog

One-Stop Shop for News

This is a NY Times story about a new start-up company creating a One-Stop Shop for the news that combines stories from The Washington Post, USA Today and some of the New York Times.

- Erica Hamling & Sam Mikalonis

Making FREE Phone Calls Over the Internet

New York Times published an article about how a company, MagicJack, has reinvented the phone call with its new, free version of magicTalk. This device has an interesting business model in comparison with similar content models including Skype and Oovoo.

-Rebecca Stolarsky

Facebook Launches 'Sponsored Stories'

http://www.adweek.com/aw/content_display/news/digital/e3i48e8837b4923e493b38b7ae006ef5a86

Lauren Gentile and Brandon Kirby

For all you aggregators out there...

Given the number of "aggregation" ideas this morning, here's a good article on what an ex-eBay executive has come up with for aggregating news and asking people to pay for it.

An Excellent Examination of the Arguments over Paid Video Content

Diane Brady of Bloomberg BusinessWeek takes a look at how mega- media corporations such as Time Warner are struggling to find a paid content model amidst iTunes, Hulu and other strategies.

Will Pay for Content?

A new survey by the Pew Internet and American Life Survey finds that people are paying for content online, but only about $10 a month. Can paid journalism survive on that? Read more about it here

The Opposite of Long: Short Seralized Content on Twitter and FB

Here's an interesting look at how journalists are using Twitter and Facebook to distribute short serialized content.

Yogic Content?

Tara Stiles is apparently upsetting the yoga establishment in New York with her less-exclusive form of yoga. While she doesn't produce what people would consider journalistic content, I was intrigued by her use of social media, a focus on a different demographic, her pricing structure, and teaming up with folks such as Jane Fonda and Deepak Chopra to get her message out. What can we learn from Stiles? Here's the article The New York Times ran on her on Sunday.

New Life for Long-Form Non-Fiction?

A magazine writer combines his interest in long-form non-fiction writing with distribution via pads and tablets that other publishers can use as well. Check out the story here.

Paid Content Models--Will 2011 Be the Year of "Not Free?"

Getting people to pay for content remains difficult if not impossible for most media companies. Here is a run down from Poynter.org on paid content that are making news this year so far.

AOL's HyperLocal Content Experiment

As we move into a deeper discussion of content models next week, you will find this article on AOL's Patch.com hyperlocal sites of use.

Columbia Journalism Review's Searchable Database of Online News Sites

Columbia Journalism Review just announced a searchable database of online news sites. This tool can help you search for news sites in several different categories including location, business model, and content.

Adam Westbrook's 2011 Predictions

Adam Westbrook is a well-known media entrepreneur and blogger. Here are his 2011 predictions for what will happen in our industry this year. You may find inspiration or ideas in his predictions for your final projects.

Europeans Question Google's Power

Per our conversation today about Google and its power in the marketplace, check out this story on European regulators questioning advertisers on whether Google ever suggested that if they boost their advertising spending with the search engine that they would get higher visibility rankings. Now we can ask the question again: Do you trust Google and why?

McKinsey's Article on How Long "Free" Will Last

McKinsey & Co. posts an article today about the age of "free" may be changing on the Internet. You can check out part of the story here, but you need to register (for free!) to gain access to the rest of the article.

2011 Technology Trends to Watch

You may find this article on Technology Trends interesting as you start thinking about your start-ups for this course. Sometimes, the first place to start with ideas is to look at the major trends in your industry.

The Economist: Britain's Newspapers and Innovation

For Thursday Jan. 13 class, please read this article from the Economist about British newspapers and innovation.  Come to class with three questions/comments to discuss from the article. Remember to follow any links and read comments from other readers for ideas.

The Death and Life of Great American Newspapers

Students,
For our first class, I would like you to read the following article, The Death and Life of Great American Newspapers, about the media industry. Please come to class with three questions/comments to discuss from this article.