Well, it’s official: with Walter Cronkite gone, Jon Stewart is America’s “most trusted newscaster.” At least that’s the result of this TIME poll that pits him against the anchors of the nightly news shows for CBS, […]
The Problem with Free
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMpwJn_4NtE]
Damn, I must read Chris Anderson’s book Free: The Past and Future of a Radical Price. Based on the WNYC video (below) and Q&A—”The Gift Economist”—in the July 19, 2009 the New York Times Magazine, I must disagree with Chris’ concept of free as applied to digital products. Free and the Internet go oddly together, and not necessarily well together.
Chris may be right, but for other reasons than he presents here. In the video above, Chris asserts that on the Internet “free really can be free.” Nobody has to pay. He presents his view, which does allow for combo free and paid models, by way of marketing and economic history and theory.
Audience vs Traffic
One of things you rarely hear spoken about in internet business is traffic. I don’t mean traffic numbers—those are everywhere. I mean traffic itself. What it is, what it means, what constitutes value, etc. You don’t see blog posts talking about how page views can be (and very much are) gamed to create the appearance of more page views. Or, that one million uniques means little if the length of time visitors are on the site (aka, session time) is less than one minute without their returning back to visit. That’s like a million people driving by McDonald’s but never actually going into the restaurant. I won’t even get started on flawed analytics services. Unfortunately, the market as a whole hasn’t evolved to where it’s begun to notice things like this. Blogs and media still cite flawed analytics sources in articles, and few ever reference important stats like session times and repeat visitors. That says a lot about the place the market is in.
Process Journalism and Original Reporting
On July 17, I posted, “The Michael Arrington Matter,” where I came down hard on the TechCrunch cofounder for publishing stolen, internal Twitter documents. I wouldn’t have done it.
But in fairness, TechCrunch is successful—and for a reason. TechCrunch publishes lots of original content, as much in the comments as the stories. Readers participate in the process.
It's Original Reporting or Nothing
Ian Betteridge has blogged a couple times recently about the value of original reporting. Ian is one of those long-time journalists who has good common sense. I enjoy his missives about journalism and ethics and also changes new media has on the news media.
His thoughts on the value of original reporting are must-reads.
Social Networking: Everyone is Doing It
I believe it: “Nine Out of Ten 25-34 Year Old U.K. Internet Users Visited a Social Networking Site in May 2009“. As I explain in post “Iran and the Internet Democracy“: Social networking is the […]
PEN E-P1: First Shots
Finally, I took some test shots with the PEN E-P1, the exciting new Olympus micro four-thirds camera; I got the camera on July 7, 2009. This camera can swap lenses. Oh, yeah. I have the […]
American Apparel Displays What?
I am a sucker for good marketing, often stopping to gawk at store display windows. Marketing displays, especially store windows, are art forms. The best combine things that seemingly go oddly together.
Spotted: Vivienne Tam Netbook
Here are a few things that go oddly together: A Mexican vacationer, Coronado Public Library and designer netbook. This picture tells a story.
Yesterday, I took my daughter over to Coronado High School, where, in other circumstances, she would attend. But we don’t live in Coronado, and San Diego School District is rumored to be resistant to transfers. We’re late trying to get in, too.
The Michael Arrington Matter
There is quite the ethics flap going on over the last 72 hours or so about TechCrunch’s handling of leaked Twitter documents.
Looming questions: Is Michael Arrington wrong to distribute any of the leaked material, which a hacker stole? Is the posting of the documentation unconscionable? Is there journalistic excuse, or justification for it?
‘We Choose the Moon’
Now this is storytelling and the right way to use social media tools. The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum is celebrating the 40th anniversary of the first manned Apollo moon landing by essentially rebroadcasting the event. This may go down as the mother of all reruns.
iTunes Brings Back the 45
Double-sided singles and digital music are two things that go oddly together. They seemingly don’t go together at all. Apple has got them. But not in vinyl, of course. The iTunes Store now offers D45s, with A and B side tracks, priced from $1.49 to $1.99.