Parting company with Yahoo·
We're letting our content partnership with Yahoo lapse. The bald truth is that the deal, which we announced in November, garnered way more attention than we expected, but less traffic. A few new readers probably discovered Gawker, or one of the other four sites that we syndicated to Yahoo. I doubt many of them stayed. Yahoo has a mass audience; Gawker appeals to a peculiarly coastal, geeky and freaky demographic. And these people are more likely to come to our sites through word of mouth, or blog links, or search engine results, or Digg, not because of a traditional content syndication deal. more...
A Dirty Shame·
Gawker Media's second custom blog just launched: www.defamer.com/adirtyshame. The site is a promotion for A Dirty Shame, the latest film from John Waters. It's a co-production with New Line, written by Remy Stern, and designed by Patric King, who both worked on our first custom project, for Nike's Art of Speed campaign. John Waters, incidentally, is a Gawker reader. We'd been wanting for a while to do a blog around a movie. Well, a blog around an interesting movie, at least. It is not, however, the first. Jason Kottke wrote a blog for Adaptation, the movie based on a book by Susan Orlean.
Gawker Media Launches Second Custom Publishing Weblog [Adrants]
tuesday, july 27, 2004
Moreover, MSNBC·
MSNBC's new Newsbot page is powered by MSN Search, which is turn underpinned in part by Moreover Technologies, my previous venture. Right-click on the links, and you'll see moreover.com urls. Yeah, Moreover, which provides news search to portals and corporations, was always discreet about branding to the point of invisibility.
tuesday, may 18, 2004
Business 2.0's blog fantasy·
So, the Business 2.0 piece on Gawker Media is out. For a business piece written by a gossip columnist, it's not as absurd as it could have been. Greg Lindsay, the writer, makes me out to be more cunning than I am -- but that's kind of flattering.
There's only one problem: Business 2.0's desperation to show that there is big business in independent internet media. Even if there isn't yet. Lindsay has to inflate or project forward the numbers, or there's no story. more...
thursday, april 29, 2004
AMC TV·
Ana Marie Cox, editor of Wonkette, interviewed. She's particularly good on the topic of journalistic objectivity.
wednesday, april 28, 2004
Conference digest·
A novel use of Kinja. Andrea has put together a digest of weblogs ahead of the conference in Berkeley on China's Digital Future. The digest contains posts from various bloggers attending the event. To the extent they all write, Kinja will be an on-the-fly conference blog.
wednesday, april 21, 2004
Esoteric Kinja digests·
Over on the Kinja announcements page, a sampling of some digests I've recently discovered. A group of Montana bloggers are using Kinja to keep up with eachother, and there are links too to digests on fat acceptance and unitarian universalism. I'm glad to see Kinja is breaking out beyond the geeks and Lower East Side hipsters.
Unitarian universalist digest [Kinja News]
tuesday, april 20, 2004
In no position to judge·The New York Times, the self-proclaimed newspaper of record, runs a profile of Wonkette, and takes the opportunity to vent all its prejudices about online media. The piece has, in turn, sparked a debate on sites such as Kausfiles and Slashdot about weblogs, journalistic ethics and libel laws. Which would be more interesting, if the article, by Julie Bosman of the Times, weren't so flawed. more...
Kinja is live·Kinja, a project we've been working on for more than a year, has just gone live.
Kinja -- a guide to weblogs -- springs from a simple idea. Weblogs may be the most interesting phenomenon in media in decades, but hold the enthusiasm: they've reached only a tiny minority of the internet audience. About nine in ten US internet users have never even visited a blog.
It's not for a lack of content that weblogs don't yet have a mass audience. For every interest, from baseball to sex, there are thousands of engaging sites. They're just hard to find, and then hard to remember.
If weblogs are to realize their potential, they need to reach beyond the pioneering communities of technologists and amateur political pundits. more...
monday, march 8, 2004
Nano wars·
I was, as they say back home, royally shafted. That's just like shafted, only worse. For those of you who doesn't follow every navel-gazing twist and turn of the blog world, Jason Calacanis of Weblogs Inc., a rival, poached one of Gawker Media's writers, Pete Rojas of Gizmodo. more...
monday, october 27, 2003
Fleshbot·Fleshbot, the latest site in the Gawker stable, is nearly ready. It's a porn review done in the blog format. No original content; rather thumbnails and pointers. A showcase for all the new porn -- CGI, morphed images, suicide girls, Brazilian webcam girls, Japanese hentai and yaoi, French bandes dessinees -- that digital technology and distribution has made possible. Fleshbot goes live in the first week of November at www.fleshbot.com.
tuesday, october 7, 2003
Can a blog be worth $2m?·
I'm slightly reluctant to mess with Jason Calacanis, founder of the defunct Silicon Alley Reporter, because he might get addicted to the attention. Heck, he already got addicted to the attention, back in 1999, and has been in search of his next fix ever since. So here goes.
The backdrop: Calacanis thinks exciting b2b blogs such as gridcomputing.weblogsinc.com are going to be worth gazillions. His evidence? Ad revenues for Gawker and Gizmodo, Rafat Ali's site, and Matt Drudge.
Data points! Yay! Except Calacanis gets his numbers all wrong. His estimate on Drudge comes from Business 2.0, and assumes, heroically, the site sells out all its ad inventory. And Calacanis seems, trapped in his boomtime warp, to forget about those irritating items called expenses. Editorial, production, commission on ad sales, web hosting. The Gawker sites, particularly as more launch, won't be profitable for years.
Finally, in calculating valuations, Calacanis assumes a revenue multiple of 2-4 and an earnings multiple of 3-5. Which would imply, miraculously, earnings of 66-80% of revenues, which would give blogs margins about twice as fat as the most profitable media businesses in history.
Blog gold! A harmless fantasy, right? (And good for suckering investors and writers.) Yeah -- unless the merchant starts sucking on his own hype, as Calacanis should know. This is, after all, the guy who turned down a c.$100m offer for that jumped-up newsletter called Silicon Alley Reporter. Calacanis should be careful about posing as an expert on valuation.
Can a Blog Be Worth a Couple of Million Dollars? [Calacanis]
monday, october 6, 2003
Gizmodo and Gawker·
Particularly good stuff up at Gizmodo and Gawker today, though I say it myself. Pete Rojas has found a USB-powered vibrator and, a Wi-Fi retrofitted boombox, and slams Nokia's new gamer-phone. Over at Gawker, Choire Sicha's stories of the day include Sykes-sister confusion, dwarf sex, DeNiro's apartment floorplans, Drew Barrymore's overexposure, and Michael Wolff's pay packet. Go click.
GizmodoGawker
thursday, october 2, 2003
Meg the meme-maker·Meg Hourihan, one of the pair behind Blogger and my partner on the Lafayette Project, isn't just a geek. Sure, she's one of those technology innovator people. But, inspired by New York's professional trendsetters, she's also trying her skill as a meme-maker. Inspired by bad jeans on Manhattan streets, she wondered why there wasn't a ticket for offenders. The story's now been picked up by the New York Sun. Which is flattering -- except it's the New York Sun, which can turn a trend to stone by even thinking about it.
NYC Jeans Police in the NY Sun [Megnut]
wednesday, september 17, 2003
Textad burnout·
Since hope and hype are never far from the surface in online media, another dose of scepticism is in order. Much as I'd like to believe that Google text ads represent salvation for small-scale online media, a note of caution. These text ads, at least in so far as they appear on Google affiliate sites such as Gawker and Gizmodo, are still a novelty. Small publishers have experienced encouraging results so far; but the clickthrough rates will fall. Imagine a web in which Google and Overture text ads are everywhere . Not only beside search results, but next to every article and weblog post. Ubiquity breeds contempt. Text ads, coupled with content targeting, are more effective than graphic ads for many advertisers; but they too, like banners, will suffer reader burnout.
AdsenseGoogle Search: banner burnout
wednesday, september 10, 2003
Launchpad·
Greg Lindsay, over at Women's Wear Daily, runs an item about Elizabeth Spiers and Gawker. He describes Elizabeth as the first writer to parlay blogging into a high-profile media gig. Unlike all those journalists who have exchanged high-profile media gigs for blogging, also known as unemployed hacks. A permanent job at New York would be a huge coup for Spiers, whom Denton plucked from obscurity to be editor when he launched the site last winter and who would be the first blogger to land a high-profile media gig on the merits of her musings. New editor Choire Sicha was originally brought on board to run Denton’s upcoming upscale porn site, “Fleshbot,” which will likely have as many socially redeeming qualities as his next project: Gawker L.A.Stalking Gawker [WWD]
Senior jobs at the New York Times·
Bill Keller's solution to morale problems at the New York Times is an expensive one: create lots of senior new jobs, and dole them out liberally. Promotions for everybody! Somebody with more time should count how many assistant managing editorss Keller's created since he replaced Howell Raines as editor, with a mandate to put the New York Times back together. At least the people that Raines promoted were young, and cheap.
New York Times Appoints Standards Editor [Washington Post]
thursday, july 24, 2003
James Truman·
James Truman of Conde Nast is at today's conference about the media's coverage of the war. The conference was organized by New York Magazine and The Guardian. I was introduced to Truman by Jeff Jarvis, whose report is here, as Nick Denton of Gawker.
ND: You know... Gawker.
JT: I know.
ND. We stalk you.
JT: Well, stop.
I believe he was joking.
wednesday, july 9, 2003
My Name is Salam Pax·
I've just been passed a press release from Grove, saying they've bought the book rights to Salam Pax's diaries. (Salam Pax, for those on another planet, is the pseudonymous Baghdad blogger, who became an instant celebrity during the war.) The book will be called SALAM PAX: The Internet Diaries of Life Inside Baghdad -- though the Grove website has the title as My Name is Salam Pax, which sounds better, even if it is a cliche. No word yet on the advance but, given the competition for Salam's book, it must be well into the six figures. Which would make Salam one of the richest men in Iraq -- if one excludes the local warlords and mullahs, that is. And they said no one would ever make money out of blogging.
One other observation. The publishing industry, supposedly hidebound, has been quick to pick up on weblog talent. The writers on both Gawker and Gizmodo have had feelers from agents and publishers; many other bloggers too. The publishing industry treats weblogs, quite sensibly, as just another talent pool. And that makes the conservatism of American newspapers all the more remarkable. They are embarrassingly slow to recognize talent. In any functioning newspaper market, the old columnists would be sent out to pasture, and a blogger like Ken Layne would have a picture byline by now.
Grove/Atlantic
wednesday, june 25, 2003
Tail-swallowing·
A couple of weeks ago, Simon Dumenco produced an insightful column about the impact of blogs on media consumption. His observation: no one reads in the original any more, they just see that the article made Romenesko or, flatteringly, Gawker. But I'm not so sure that anyone actually visits the blogs either. At a party a few days later, I was introduced as the publisher of Gawker. "Ah, yes, Gawker, I've been reading a lot about you guys recently." So, do you read the site? "Oh, no, not yet, but I've been meaning to check it out."
American Idle [New York Magazine]
monday, june 9, 2003
Drudge's extreme weather·
Finally, Matt Drudge, who'll often displace big political news to make way for a big storm, explains why he's so obsessed by the weather. "There are issues that I'm so frightened of—1.2 million abortions a year scares the hell out of me. Oftentimes when I see these superstorms forming, you know, sometimes—I wouldn't be honest if I didn't think it was retribution."
Drudge Match [Radar Magazine]
thursday, june 5, 2003
BREAKING: Raines resigns·
Raines's position had become untenable, but senior executives usually take longer to realize that. And Boyd, the African-American managing editor, is out too. It's an equal opportunity resignation.
Raines/Boyd resignations [Gawker]
tuesday, june 3, 2003
In praise of naivete·
Bully Magazine takes exception to narcissistic bloggers, and Elizabeth Spiers of our Gawker site, in particular. Quite the most amusing takedown of Gawker to date, especially the timeline: a forecast of Elizabeth's growing disenchantment with the shallow media world, followed by redeeming love, and the move to New Jersey.
But one comment jumped out at me. Bully describes Gawker as painfully naive. Don't they get it? The appeal of weblog media is its embrace of the mundane. New York's rich people are ludicrous. Hipsters do wear silly hats.
There are two classes of people who shy away from the obvious. First, the washed-out reporter, who's seen it all, and says, whenever a young editor suggests an idea: oh, we've done that before. The others: insecure insiders, so desperate to prove their status that they talk over everyone's heads. So, yes, naive. Why do you think we called it Gawker?
Blahg, blahg, blahg: The Times Picks Up on a Bully Story, Six Months Late [Bully Magazine]
friday, may 23, 2003
Gray Lady·
The scandal of Jayson Blair, the young black New York Times reporter, refuses to die. Blair resigned after it was discovered that he'd fabricated some of his most colorful stories. And the pack is turning to other error-prone New York Times reporters such as Rick Bragg. I'm enjoying this as much as anyone else in the New York media world, but feel obliged to inject some perspective. Jayson Blair is an exception at the New York Times; his journalistic 'techniques' are standard practice among British hacks. And, if I have a complaint about the New York Times, it's not about accuracy; the newspaper's dull. Howell Raines was trying to jazz it up. Whether he stays or goes, his external critics and the inhouse reactionaries will be watching. The old, cautious Times used to be known as the Gray Lady. Welcome her back.
Google Search: jayson blair
wednesday, may 21, 2003
Last word·
A print journalist, reading the weblog commentary on a recent article, and realizing that he now has no comeback to their criticisms: "We just don't have the rebuttal space. Bloggers always have the last word."
thursday, april 10, 2003
In defense of David Letterman·
A near-perfect Ken Layne rant, in which he defends David Letterman, rails against clueless right-wing columnists, and throws in this jab at humorless lefties for good measure. Now there's nothing more tiresome and annoying than a leftist, while the dreaded neo-cons & centrists get the laughs because the left is so target-rich: old hippies, idiot actors, ANSWER, Michael Moore, "nude for peace," Martin Sheen, etc. Never have so many fish crowded the barrel. I love Ken Layne.
wednesday, april 9, 2003
BBC coverage of the war·
I don't usually indulge in the usual warblogger media-bashing, but the BBC has missed the story today. Fine to inject a tone of scepticism that's embarrassingly lacking from the US broadcast media. But today was the day that Iraqis were liberated from one of the most capricious dictatorships on the planet. And these are the top two stories on the BBC website at 3pm EST.
·Baghdad falls to US forces: Saddam Hussein loses control of the Iraqi capital, as looting breaks out amid scenes of jubilation at the US takeover.
·Fears mount over Iraq disorder: A collapse of law and order in parts of Iraq could cause major problems for ordinary people, aid officials fear.
Both these stories are accurate, but they show poor news judgement. The looting, in Baghdad at least, has been limited, according to the detail of the BBC's own reports. It's entirely to be expected that Iraqis would reclaim the spoils of their rulers. Above all, this is a story for tomorrow. Today, Baghdad has fallen. The anxiousness about disorder is at best small-minded, and makes the BBC, which has reported well on the war, unnecessarily vulnerable to accusations of bias.
tuesday, april 8, 2003
The Guardian·
Glenn Reynolds and other war hawks persist in mocking The Guardian, or using it to prove their points. These are the phrases to watch out for: if even The Guardian is reporting; that was in The Guardian of all places; and, accented with heavy irony, of course, it's from that pro-war, pro-Bush rag. It's time people gave credit to The Guardian, always one of my favorite papers, for argumentative opinion pages and generally open-minded reporting. If the liberal British newspaper reports happy Iraqis, that's not because they're admitting the editorial line was wrong, or they've had a sudden change of heart, but simply because that's what the reporter witnessed. Hawkish commentators, trained in the American culture wars, see political content even where there is none. However, there is one reason why The Guardian's report is noteworthy. So many American journalists, particularly those working for cable news, have been lickspittle mouthpieces for the US military. The Guardian, which would have been as willing to call the expedition a failure, actually has some credibility.
wednesday, april 2, 2003
The maternity hospital·
The BBC has been having a good war so far. Sure, many of the organization's reporters are sceptical about US war aims. But that, on the whole, makes for better journalism. And, frankly, anything is better than the utterly revolting Aaron Brown of CNN or the glib warjunkies of Fox News, none of whom seem capable of conducting a good sceptical interview. I've given up on US cable news, and I'm broadly in favor of this war, so something's wrong.
Nevertheless, the Beeb does get things wrong sometimes. They still have up -- at 5pm EST -- a story about coalition bombing of a maternity hospital, which would be horrific if true. But the British Red Cross says the hospital had been evacuated, and suffered only minor damage from an attack on neighboring buildings. I hope the clarification gets as much play as the initial, appalling reports.
Baghdad maternity hospital 'bombed' [BBC]
thursday, march 6, 2003
Standard and Herring·
Now that the Red Herring, like the Industry Standard, has gone under, it's time for yet another post-mortem. Dan Fost makes the traditional point: that the new-economy magazines got caught up in the bubble that they were reporting, and behaved like free-spending dotcoms. But he doesn't quite capture the extraordinary arrogance of the Herring and Standard at the time. At least the Standard attracted some talent. But the Herring always used to bother me. Tony Perkins, the founder, was deeply unimpressive, and the writing embarrassing. And, still, all the startup guys would bite their tongues, smile, and suck up. Thank heavens that's done with.
More postmortems on new-economy magazines [San Francisco Chronicle]
wednesday, march 5, 2003
Populist front pages·
The FT has a list of the most-emailed items from the site, which provides a more interesting collection of stories than the front page usually contains.
Most popular [Financial Times]
Most popular [New York Times]
Google to the rescue·
I've been waiting for this. Google has finally rolled out AdWords text ad network to media sites. So a web property specializing in gadgets, say, could run Google text ads for keywords such as handhelds, PDAs, laptops etc. Even if Google takes a large slice of the revenues, this will be salvation for many specialist media sites. The options for pay-for-performance advertising networks -- Sprinks, Commission Junction -- are cumbersome, and offer a limited array of advertisers. The expansion of Adwords won't help the average general site, but for search-driven and specialist properties, it will be a boon. Now, if only someone, anyone, would establish a web-wide micropayments system: then the advertising and subscription infrastructure of new media would finally, half a decade on, be in place.
Update: Aaron Bailey draws my attention to a line from the Google blurb on content-targeted ads. "How do you get started? It's easy. If you're a web publisher who sells advertising inventory, and your site receives more than 20 million page views a month, you may be a great fit for Google's content-targeted ads." Oh well, only a few million to go.
Google To Unveil New Advertising Program [WSJ via 601am.com]
sunday, february 23, 2003
The genius of blogging·
John Naughton, heartened by Google's new involvement, goes rhapsodic on blogging. He's over-enthusiastic, but this observation hits the mark.
It would not be much of an exaggeration to say that (with a few honourable exceptions) most of the serious discussion of these issues in the US at the moment is happening in weblogs and not in the 'official' mass media.
The genius of blogging [Observer]
MSNBC·
If MSNBC is one more offensive away from total exhaustion, the cable news network is at least going out in style. After hiring Jesse Ventura, the wrestler-politician, MSNBC is in talks with Michael Savage, the fierce right-wing talk-radio star.
Savage sought for MSNBC slot [Hollywood Reporter]
tuesday, january 21, 2003
Nanopublishing traffic·
Internet media sceptics would do well to look at the stats. We launched Gizmodo, the gadget weblog, last August. Marketing consisted of an email to a few webloggers and reporters -- that's it. And pageviews have doubled every two months or less since then. [See the table below, with pageviews in the right-hand column.] I'm not trying to blow Gizmodo's trumpet. Well, okay, maybe I am, but the more important point is this: it's never been cheaper to attract an audience. I know: eyeballs are, in themselves, worthless. However, when print magazines reckon on an acquisition cost in excess of $100 per subscriber, online media begins to look tremendously attractive.
Aug/25/02 180947 8747
Sep/ 1/02 185512 9084
Sep/ 8/02 216160 10924
Sep/15/02 235479 10613
Sep/22/02 284906 11344
Sep/29/02 296072 13350
Oct/ 6/02 303639 14752
Oct/13/02 397306 20930
Oct/20/02 695230 30911
Oct/27/02 478583 23450
Nov/ 3/02 521881 25031
Nov/10/02 661185 29291
Nov/17/02 711519 29379
Nov/24/02 846471 38864
Dec/ 1/02 940444 43726
Dec/ 8/02 767729 33601
Dec/15/02 1029372 45165
Dec/22/02 556895 25757
Dec/29/02 730518 33454
Jan/ 5/03 1008122 51517
Jan/12/03 1264268 53953
wednesday, january 15, 2003
Tunnel vision·
On the subject of outdoor media [see previous], Aaron writes in with a pointer to this fascinating item on subway advertising. A company called Submedia is experimenting with illuminated enlarged film strips which, when viewed from a moving train, give the appearance of video.
One other point I didn't have space to make in the article: outdoor advertising will benefit from the spread of TiVo and other digital video recorders. As viewers skip past the traditional 30-second spots, marketers will turn first to product placement, and then to other forms of advertising from which consumers cannot escape.
Subway Advertising: Outdoor Underground [SignWeb]
sunday, january 5, 2003
The Financial Times·
The FT was long rather sceptical of dotcoms -- not realizing that it was as much a beneficiary of lax boomtime investment as they. John Cassy of the Guardian reports on a newspaper which, from operating income of £81m in 2000, is now barely profitable. Still a great paper, though.
Let's not do lunch... [Guardian]
thursday, january 2, 2003
Erotic blogging·
I'm looking for a writer for a new blog media title, covering online porn and erotica. Think of Nerve, with all the literary pretensions removed, and add a dash of Boing Boing. Subject matter: retro porn, computer-generated imagery, erotic art, Taschen, slash fiction, Hobbit sex. Anything quirky and erotic. This is a part-time writing job, paying $1,000 a month. For the editor, this needs to be a labor of love, um, lust. Email me.
Nearly there·Live at midday Eastern Time, a weblog for radical Manhattanists: Gawker.
thursday, december 12, 2002
Idiosyncratic Google·
I've remarked before that Google News is interesting, technically, but not compelling as an editorial product. It takes a universe of bland news stories and, by counting the most ubiquitous items, picks the out the blandest common denominator. Cory Doctorow, always one to mint a phrase, says the web is missing an idiosyncratic Google.
nickdenton.org: Why Google's news algorithm gets it wrong [nickdenton.org]
monday, december 2, 2002
Stealing stories·
We all suspect that mainstream journalists, the smart ones at least, read blogs to pick up story ideas. Here's proof. I pointed Rebecca Mead of the New Yorker to a review of Lovely Day on Lockhart Steele's site. We didn't like the place. But Rebecca went on to find a reference to a party, for Unmarried to Eachother, a book about cohabitation put together by some of Lockhart's friends. A fortnight later, it's a Talk of the Town item. The problem isn't journalists stealing stories from blogs; the problem is that not enough of them do it.
Unmarried [Lockhart Steele]
The Talk of the Town [Rebecca Mead]
sunday, december 1, 2002
Gossip·
An interesting defense, in the light of Popbitch's rumor-mongering about David Beckham, from Matt Jones.
saturday, november 30, 2002
Action!·
Excellent: I always liked the sound of Action, in which the underrated Jay Mohr reprises the Hollywood monster he played in Jerry Maguire. Action died after a single season, but Trio is including the show in its new series: Brilliant, but cancelled. This season, the programmers are letting struggling shows run on; soon they'll be mounting revivals of cult failures.
Action [Trio]
Serendipity [Chronopolis]
The Google pulse·
A fascinating story about Google, its logs, and what they tell us about popular culture. One prediction: Las Ketchup, a gibberish song with a silly accompanying dance, has already swept Spain and Italy, and Google's logs show searches for "Las Ketchup" on the up in the US. God help us.
Postcards From Planet Google [New York Times]
wednesday, november 27, 2002
The New Yorker·
David Remnick, editor of the New Yorker, is no Tina Brown. That's received wisdom, and bolstered by the latest shocking news: the New Yorker, traditionally lossmaking, is about to make money for the first time since it was acquired by Conde Nast.
The New Yorker's profitability [AdAge]
tuesday, november 26, 2002
Adaptation·
Jason Kottke is running a weblog on Adaptation, the movie based on Susan Orlean's Orchid Thief. He is surprised that traffic has been flat ahead of the movie's release. Adaptation stars Nicolas Cage -- and Nicolas Cage, as if one weren't enough. That should be enough explanation. I'm going to give up independent movies, for fear I'll have to sit through the preview again. No one I know -- save Jason, perhaps -- likes Nicolas Cage. What does Hollywood know that we don't?
Adaptation weblog
tuesday, november 19, 2002
Hobbit sex·
Odeon Cinemas put out a release note warning of moderate action, violence -- and one sex scene -- in the forthcoming Two Towers. But, goddamn, it's a mixup with the note on the Bond movie.
Fantasy - but no sex scene [Stuff via Daze Reader]
Are you hot?·
So ABC is holding a televised competition to find the sexiest person in America. It's called "Are you Hot? Which seems like a pretty blatant take-off of the cult website, Am I Hot or Not? James Hong ought to be getting some royalties out of this.
ABC Seeks Sexiest Person in America [Variety]
Hot or Not
wednesday, november 13, 2002
NYT's global ambitions·
Richard Siklos analyses the speculation that the New York Times is interested in acquiring the Financial Times. The deal would certainly make a ton of sense. The NYT is the pre-eminent upscale newspaper in the US; the Financial Times leads business and quality journalism in Europe. The NYT has strong coverage of some sectors, such as media, but ownership of the FT would massively bolster their international business coverage, and help them against the Wall Street Journal. And both papers sell to many of the same advertisers.
Today New York, tomorrow the world [Daily Telegraph]
thursday, november 7, 2002
Battelle·
I'd missed this piece about the Foursquare media conference. It's remarkably bitchy about John Battelle, one of the chief organisers. Bambi Francisco -- what a name -- zeroes in on the money Battelle never paid from the last conference he held while the Industry Standard was still going. I've been at the Foursquare conference, and the general reckoning is that it's an achievement, given the terrible condition of the media and communication industries. And there is something hypocritical about journalists from a gasping new media venture, such as Marketwatch, kick their counterparts while they're down. They should have been this tough while the bubble still had air.
Where are they now? Standard founder serves up media [CBS Marketwatch]
Red Herring·
According to a friend who's visited there recently, the Herring staff are about to abandon their offices. And the magazine's pretty much out of cash. Another couple of months, maybe: that's the insider reckoning.
Red Herring
tuesday, november 5, 2002
Foursquare·
If you're at the Foursquare conference over the next three days, do track me down. I'd love to blog from the event, an information industry pow-wow featuring Rupert Murdoch, Harvey Weinstein, and Barry Diller, among others. John Battelle, the former CEO of the Industry Standard and co-organizer of Foursquare, is wise to the sneaky ways of blogs. The conference is off-the-record, and Battelle tells me that applies to blogs too.
Foursquare
monday, november 4, 2002
Will Lewis and the FT·
All change at the FT. Will Lewis -- who challenged the Wall Street Journal's monopoly of deal scoops in the late 1990s -- is moving over to the Sunday Times, as business editor. The Guardian says he was frustrated by FT's recent cost-cutting, but no one throws away their career for lunch expenses. more...
Tina and the home country·
In the UK, where Tina Brown's new column is actually published, the reviews aren't so positive. Here's Kim Fletcher, on the players in Tina Brown's New York. "Sadly, many of these people are strangers to us, though they do sound terribly important."
Gone to press [Daily Telegraph]
Miramax·
A suggestion, in today's New York Times, that Miramax is worried about Gangs of New York, the Martin Scorsese epic. The company isn't letting journalists see the movie, and is talking up the Oscar potential of another movie, Chicago, with Renee Zellweger.
Miramax's Big Screen Test [NYT]
sunday, november 3, 2002
Opensource BBC·
Azeem Azhar, with an intriguing idea for public-service broadcasting, and the BBC in particular, borrowed from the software industry. The strongest criticism of the BBC is that, unfairly subsidized, it spoils the market for commercial broadcasters and online media. Azeem's suggestion: an opensource BBC, its content available under a public license to its competitors.
The opensource BBC [Azeem Azhar]
saturday, november 2, 2002
Blogs in print·
The New York Sun, the conservative NYC newspaper, is to carry James Taranto's Best of the Web. As far as I know, this is the first weblog to make the transition to print.
The New York Sun announces redesign
Penelope Cruz·
A preoccuption, last night at dinner. Penelope Cruz was fantastic in Pedro Almodovar's All about my mother. What happened to her? Answer: performers are like lovers; they always sound more alluring in a foreign language.
Penélope Cruz [IMDB]
friday, november 1, 2002
Is that really him?·
A screenshot of the front page of the Village Voice site. See the personals box on the right, featuring someone who could be Zoolander or, alternatively, the man who took blogging to the masses. His expression, appropriately: caught in the headlights.
VV front page [Anil Dash]
thursday, october 31, 2002
Screaming Media·
Why on earth has Screaming Media, the content syndicator, changed its name? Okay, so it's acquired Inlumen. But it's not as if the business has changed. Screaming's biggest achievement was its brand. You could tell Jay Chiat was involved. The late adman knew how to market. Shame to throw away the image. And, Pinnacor? Is that really supposed to make corporate buyers more comfortable?
Pinnacor
tuesday, october 29, 2002
Ken Layne·
Worrying. When people write off webloggers as a bunch of whining web people and raving right-wingers, I point them towards Ken Layne. I did, until he went AWOL. First, days without a new post. Then, indirect reports that Ken's down in Mexico, from Matt Welch, who planned to meet him there. Hopes of a riff, written at haste from an internet cafe, on tequila and fish tacos; hopes now fading. Since the weekend, a blank space, as if the site was in mourning for a recently deceased columnist. Which, in a way, it is.
friday, october 25, 2002
Blogger latest·
Ah, Evan has posted an update on the Blogger security breach. He says the problem is fixed, and they've identified the vulnerability.
Status.Blogger.Com
Foursquare·
The conference business may be suffering, but John Battelle [ex-Standard] and John Heilemann [the writer] have put together a pretty amazing list for the Foursquare event in New York on November 5th. The only problem: too many interesting panels; so not enough time for corridor chat.
Program Info [Foursquare]
Mysterious traffic numbers·
Something strange is going on. I got a burst of traffic on Sunday, which is usually quiet. Okay, I put up an item about brothel skyscrapers in Japan, but nothing as populist as the piece earlier in the week on computer-generated porn. And there's no single dominant referring site.
At first I thought Google was responsible. The search engine seems to be updating the index of nickdenton.org every day, again; and since I gave each post its unique URL, Google searches seem to stumble across my site more frequently.
But that doesn't explain why Gizmodo, the gadget site we publish, is also experiencing such a boom. True the site's traffic has been growing at about 10% a week since the start of September. Very nice, but not extraordinary for a site in its first flush. But then, yesterday, more than 6,000 page views, on a Sunday. No standout refers. No change in design. Something weird there. Can anyone shed light?
nickdenton.org traffic [Sitemeter]
saturday, october 19, 2002
Book buzz·
Missed this: a site which searches weblogs for mentions of books, and then ranks the most popular titles. Small sample, but right now, Steven Johnson's Emergence is top of the list.
All Consuming
Selloutblog.com·
You may have followed the discussion about Microsoft's junket last week for web writers. Many sites didn't disclose that Redmond had paid their airfares and hotels. And now for another instalment. Looking for proof that weblogs are selling out to the man? Try selloutblog.com -- a pisstake site in which the posts are drowned out by pop-ups, PR pitches and Paypal donate buttons. Okay, we get the message.
Blog silence·Question: after how long a blogging absence should one report the person missing? Gaby Darbyshire, a friend of mine, is on her way across country, from San Francisco to New York. Good choice. She promised to blog en route: the last report was from Grand Canyon, where she was climbing rim-to-rim; that was four days ago, and blog silence since. I have visions of her, found months later in an abandoned motel, slumped over her laptop, her pathetic cry for help eaten by Blogger, the error message still on screen. And, while we're at it, anyone seen Ken Layne [ten days since last post] recently?
Gaby Darbyshire
thursday, october 17, 2002
Brevity·
Kevin Drum has done a word count over 30 blogs, to work out how average post length varies. Sad bastard. I'm at the pithy end of the spectrum, which I do find strangely satisfying. There's one unfortunate consequence: whenever I write a column, nowadays, I run out of steam after a few hundred words, flailing, as if I'm giving a presentation and realize I've lost the audience. Once you start to blog, or read blogs, ones concentration span never recovers.
David Galbraith·David Galbraith, who's been threatening to revive his weblog for a year now, finally gets around to it. The content: geeky stuff, which works; politics, which doesn't; and some wry, nicely done. Some neat functionality, like an XML version of his bio, and graphics indicating which weblogs on the sidebar just been recently updated. Oh, and Dave's done something cute with his mugshot, which I intend to copy. Quite why one would want a bio in XML is beyond me but, hey, whatever rocks your world.
davidgalbraith.org
wednesday, october 16, 2002
Beggared bloggers·
Andrew Sullivan gets 237,000 visitors a week to his site, and says he's never enjoyed journalism as much, but admits his blog stays alive only because he's working for free. "In fact, I wonder if there's ever been a technological innovation that has combined such extraordinary new power with such dramatically poor financial rewards."
Will blog for cash [Sunday Times]
tuesday, october 15, 2002
Blogger freebies -- the latest·A juicy row in the blogging world about accepting freebies from Microsoft and other big companies. Bloggers are like journalists: not a big surprise. But Mitch makes the good point that, just because establishment reporters have fallen into lazy and corrupt habits, doesn't mean that weblog writers need to go down the same route. He asks: "Why, if we're in the process of building a new medium or mode of organizing information should we wait for previous media to live by the word of their journalistic creed?" In fact, exposing the cozy practices of traditional media is the stock in trade of the best weblogs -- whether they're tech sites like Dave Winer's, or focused on political commentary like Glenn Reynolds's [see sidebar links].
Read Ratcliffe's post, it's a good one. I've also included a link to Rebecca Blood's book on weblogs, at least to the excerpt that covers ethics. And the photo expose above: web journalists on the Microsoft bus. That's Pete Rojas, part-time editor of Gizmodo and full-time fashionista, on the cellphone. You'd never guess he was a geek, would you?
Ethics and blogging [Mitch Ratcliffe]
Weblog ethics [Rebecca Blood]
Journalistic ethics -- and blogs·
Mitch Ratcliffe criticizes gadget sites for going to the Mobius conference in Redmond, all-expenses paid, and failing to reveal Microsoft's generosity. I think he should have given Gizmodo -- the site I back -- more credit for establishing the principle of disclosure. We went overboard: a post on Gizmodo, before the conference, not under duress afterwards, and I posted here on Microsoft's PR strategy [see below].
Ratcliffe's absolutely right that weblog writers need to establish a code of behavior. In fact, there is an argument that weblog authors have less to disclose, and more space in which to do it, so they should do a more complete job than traditional journalists. Doc Searls, who was also at the Microsoft event, sets a standard, in the post below, with a list of his sources of income so comprehensive he could run for president.
While weblogs should hold themselves to high standards of transparency -- after all, frankness is the defining quality of the medium -- let's not pretend that the traditional media organization provides a shining beacon of journalistic ethics.
The Financial Times, the newspaper for which I worked, let technology writers from London go to the West Coast once a year -- Cisco's treat -- and that was never disclosed to readers. Heck, the editors themselves didn't even want to know. Those celebrity profiles in glossy magazines like Vanity Fair: they're entirely controlled by Pat Kingsley's PR machine. Ask whether Tom Cruise is gay, and that's the last celeb cover you'll get for a while. Even sending a reporter spunky enough to ask such a question: that's a no-no.
Even those newspapers with the toughest standards -- the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times -- make deals behind closed doors. Not for freebies, but for information, the most valuable commodity in the media world. Those M&A scoops which Steve Lipin used to secure so reliably for the Wall Street Journal. How do you think those happen? They're a gift of the Wall Street investment banks, tied to kid-gloves analysis of the transaction, no analysis of the transaction, or a piece on the bank's M&A prowess that miraculously appears a day later. The Wall Street Journal, at least during the boom, was a PR vehicle for Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and the other horsemen of the Wall Street apocalypse.
In summary, I'm glad this topic has come up, and relieved that Gizmodo disclosed Microsoft's invitation ahead of time. But the notion that weblogs are any less upright than established media: that's a joke, and betrays a lack of knowledge of the corruption endemic in mainstream busines and consumer media. When print journalists disclose which PR has fed them the story, and why, then I'll start agonizing about weblog ethics.
Mobius [Mitch Ratcliffe]
Blogo culpa [Doc Searls]
Microsoft PR zeros in on blogs [Henry Copeland]
Gizmodo on Microsoft's smartphones [nickdenton.org]
Full disclosure [Gizmodo]
monday, october 14, 2002
Gizmodo on Microsoft's smartphones·
A bunch of interesting items on Gizmodo right now, including Pete Rojas's report from Redmond on Microsoft's new smartphones. A by-the-way: we launched Gizmodo in August as an experiment in commercial blogging. Within three weeks, Microsoft had Gizmodo down on their list of online influencers, pinged Pete, and invited him over to Redmond. Whatever your thoughts on Microsoft's software, the company's marketing machine is extremely impressive. Of course, Pete now feels he has to be a little rude about Microsoft, just to show he can't be bought.
Slashdot and web publishing·
A piece about Slashdot, which begins with the promising question: Could it be that this is the 21st-century model for Internet publishing? Slashdot -- along with Drudge -- is indeed an object lesson. Each has an audience in the millions, and minimal editorial cost. But the New York Times piece is ultimately frustrating: it hints that Slashdot makes little money, but doesn't come up with any numbers.
Site for the Truly Geeky Makes a Few Bucks [NYT]
thursday, october 10, 2002
Weblog economics·
A weblog panel at the Content Management Summit in New York this morning. Plenty of old media people there, most of whom missed the point. Judging by the questions, they were looking at weblogs as a way to draw traffic, and better demographics, and more advertising or subscription revenues. But the weblog form has nothing to offer. Weblogs rely on Paypal, ad networks and affiliate programs -- just like other sites. Weblogs have not cracked the revenue code.
But weblogs do offer a powerful example -- .how to keep down your costs. One weblog item has about one hundredth the editorial cost of a commissioned article. The content management software is nearly free. The message to traditional publishers is this: you don't need 200-500 people to run your online operations; you could manage with a tenth of that. And that is the one message the online executives, intent on protecting their jobs, don't want to learn.
Breakfast Roundtable on Weblogs [Microcontent News]
friday, october 4, 2002
Shirky on weblogs·
Clay Shirky thinks that weblogs will destroy economic value in the publishing business. "Weblogs destroy this intrinsic value, because they are a platform for the unlimited reproduction and distribution of the written word, for a low and fixed cost. No barriers to entry, no economies of scale, no limits on supply." I disagree, completely.
For a start, there's nothing new about unlimited reproduction and distribution. Television programming can be replicated across multiple channels and media formats, at extremely low marginal cost. I don't see the profits competed away. And barriers to entry in the internet business appeared to be low. Which didn't stop companies such as Amazon, eBay and Yahoo dominating their respective sectors.
True, the barriers to entry in weblog publishing are low. But success in media depends on the quality of content and the effectiveness of marketing. As Kurt Andersen has noted, the supply of talent is always constrained, even in an environment in which everybody is free to publish. There are many poorly written weblogs out there, and they will never grab an audience.
And, even when the production and distribution costs of media are zero, the dynamics of marketing ensure there are still economies of scale. Think about a well-known weblog, such as Glenn Reynolds's. He is included in many blogroll lists, and is therefore more likely to be discovered by readers new to the weblog medium. He gets more emails, therefore his content is more varied and current. And print coverage of weblogs is likely to mention him, and other stars such as Andrew Sullivan. Buzz begets buzz.
In any environment in which weblog authors are rewarded financially, the stars will take a disproportionate share, just as hot actors do in Hollywood movies. And that is because, even if bandwidth and publishing systems are free, talent and marketing critical mass will always be in short supply.
Weblogs and Publishing [Clay Shirky]
Blogger archives·
Don't bother linking to this or any other posts from October. Blogger archives messed up. Again.
wednesday, october 2, 2002
How the right conquered weblogs·
James Crabtree, in the UK's New Statesman, bemoans right-wing domination of blog publishing, and calls on the left to mobilize.
These blogs do not have large direct readerships: InstaPundit clocks only 40,000 readers a day. But many readers run their own blogs; others are political or media professionals. So a growing community is aware of whatever most irritated Sullivan today. This in turn creates what the legal theorist Cass Sunstein calls "cybercascades", reaching millions of readers with ideas, in this case associated almost exclusively with the right. They are democratic dynamite: private networks of information, unchecked by sensible debate.
Bloggers of the Left, Unite! [New Statesman]
How appropriate. The right blogs out of amusement and rage; the earnest left urges its members to blog more to demonstrate political commitment.
tuesday, october 1, 2002
Dash awards·
Anil Dash, with some weblog recommendations -- for humor, writing, design and other cateogries.
thursday, september 26, 2002
Tablet PCs -- and blogging·
Yes, there is a blogging angle to the Tablet PCs that Microsoft and partners are launching in November. And it's not good news. One of the main selling points of Tablets is the ability to browse the web, slouched on a couch, clicking links on the screen, as if you were reading a magazine. In that mode, you're much less likely to flip open the keyboard, and start typing blog comments. So, prediction: tablet users will be lazy bloggers.
Tablet PC [Microsoft]
monday, september 23, 2002
BlogThis!·
The BlogThis! button doesn't work. And I'm too lazy to cut-and-paste the links. So reduced posting until Blogger sorts out the problem. Evan?
wednesday, september 18, 2002
Blogroll etiquette·
Jeez, can a man change his blogroll [see right] without getting grief from those he forgot to mention? Rule number One of blog etiquette: never ask for a link. And, as far as I'm concerned, rule number Two is this: never say thank you. That makes it sound like the linker has done you a favor; a post should stand on its own merits. Just as a public relations person insults a reporter by calling to say thanks.
In case you track these things, I've dropped Andrew Sullivan from the list. It was always the link that remained unclicked the longest. I guess I'm just bored of his relentless sycophancy towards the Bush administration. Oh, and the Raines bashing. Everything, in moderation. Sullivan isn't one of those who've written in to complain.
Atkins diet·
Meme alert: the Atkins diet is back, bigtime. The first hint, last week, when Patrick Nielsen Hayden suggested we eat sushi, and explained that he was staying off carbohydrates. And now I see Doc Searls (down 16 pounds in a month) is an Atkins believer. And other webloggers. While it would be amusing to believe this phenomenon was coursing through weblogs, and about to burst into the real world, it all began of course with the New York Times Magazine cover story, a couple of months ago.
What if It's All Been a Big Fat Lie? [NYT Magazine]
Doc SearlsRussell BeattieUgo Cei
tuesday, september 17, 2002
Weblog squabbles·
I haven't been following either of these rows, and don't intend to continue, but they are getting nasty. In the weblog sexism discussion, Dave Winer says women aren't properly represented in blogrolls because men are afraid of being called nasty names if they're critical. And then there's the debate about standards for content syndication, also featuring Winer, in which the West Coast uber-techie says he'll call the police if he receives any more threats. Is this how Usenet died?
·Weblog sexism [Winer on Blogroots]
·Monsters [Winer]
Libertarian Times·
In the US, where newspaper markets are local, and provide room for only one or two major dailies, the idea of a libertarian-tinged publication is preposterous. Social liberals who distrust government: that's still only 10-20% of the population. Not enough to support a newspaper in a metro area.
However, the UK is a national newspaper market, with a dozen dailies, each searching for a niche it can call its own. Rupert Murdoch's Times, once the paper of record, has gone downmarket in the last two decades; of all the broadsheets, it now has the least distinct personality. It should embrace the libertarian ethos.
Robert Thomson took over the editorship of the Times of London earlier this year. His background -- an Australian who ran the US edition of the Financial Times -- suggests he'd move the paper upmarket, and make it more international. However, London media scuttlebutt says he's going after the Daily Mail, the mid-market tabloid, which has alienated its soccer mom readership with rabid politics. Or he could mercy-kill the Independent, which launched in the 1980s as a middle-of-the-road alternative to the partisan broadsheets.
But all those niches are already occupied, or boring. There's a more interesting strategy. Leave the retired army officers to the Daily Telegraph; the wishy-washy lefties to the Guardian; the internationalistas to the Financial Times; and the outraged matrons to the Daily Mail. Give the Times a feisty libertarian personality. Bash bureaucrats, corporate fatcats, idiotic anti-globalizers, politically correct New Labor commissars and UN timeservers with equal vigor and enjoyment. Glenn Reynolds wouldn't mind writing a letter from America, and he'd be a helluva lot cheaper than Tina Brown.
Robert Thomson [Guardian]
Jonno·Jonno is back, and blogging, after a long summer hiatus. The design is white-on-black, pretty but unreadable. The content -- wisdom teeth extraction, the appeal of Guidos, gay bar conversation -- is as well-observed as ever.
monday, september 16, 2002
Ursula Le Guin·
Margaret Atwood explores the Ekumen universe of Ursula Le Guin, who's just published a new book of short stories. Le Guin is often cited as an example -- sometimes as the one and only example -- of science fiction that transcends the genre. The Dispossessed, for instance, is one of the great political tracts of the 20th century. Le Guin: if only there were more like her.
The Queen of Quinkdom [The New York Review of Books]
saturday, september 14, 2002
The internet, and movie marketing·
A Yahoo executive in LA: "One of the most amazing things about the Internet is how well and how quickly you can get to know your audience. On a daily basis, we receive detailed statistics about what upcoming films, actors and TV shows are hot, and what's not... "Indiana Jones 4" and "Spiderman 2" are already buzzing on the Web." Except... wouldn't you expect sequels to get a disproportionate share of clicks, just because of the name recognition? Marketers will need more sophisticated metrics than clicks to work out, not just what was hot, but what will be.
Is Yahoo now big man on the Digital Coast? [Venture Reporter via Olivier Travers]
monday, september 9, 2002
Weblog panel at Berkeley·
If you're in San Francisco, mark your diaries. On September 17th, the Berkeley School of Journalism is putting together a panel discussion on weblogs. A good group of panelists: Rebecca Blood, Dan Gillmor, Meg Hourihan, JD Lasica, and Scott Rosenberg.
Tuesday, Sept. 17, 6:30 pm
Journalism School Library
North Gate Hall, UC Berkeley
What's up with Daypop?·
Ah, that's what's wrong with Daypop. The news search engine is down, Dan Chan's in Italy, and he says he can't debug remotely. Ouch.The Daypop weblog
sunday, september 8, 2002
America's complacent press·
Reynolds and others discuss a theme raised in Editor and Publisher: why does so much of America's public despise the press? My problem is not with political bias, but the lack of energy. Most US dailies are hidebound gerontocracies. And it all boils down to economics.
In the UK, a dozen lively national newspapers compete furiously for readers. Editors in the UK are brutal with journalists who get scooped by the opposition. I know. There's powerful pressure to hype up the story, which makes for more interesting copy, even if sometimes it prompts a rush to declare massacres in Jenin. And the struggle means talent gets promoted, rapidly. The two leading contenders for editor of The Guardian were both a year below me at high school. The Financial Times is run by people in their mid-thirties to early-forties. Piers Morgan became editor of the Mirror in his twenties.
With the exception of New York, the US dailies are local monopolies, and so they have no need to be responsive to readers. They disdain populism, and popularity, for that matter. Even star foreign correspondents, if they come back to base, have to serve out their time in suburban counties, lest the rule of seniority be broken. No one is ever fired; they just go up to that great editorial board in the sky. And what on earth is a gifted writer like Ken Layne doing without a job? That's against nature.
So what to do? Well, trustbust the joint operating agreements, which embody the local monopolies. Break up the newspaper trade unions, which have power in the US they lost two decades ago in the UK. Give Ken Layne a column. Wait for technology -- high-speed internet connections, wireless networks and tablet computers -- to change the economics of newspaper distribution. And, as Glenn Reynolds advises, read weblogs in the meantime.
Glenn Reynolds
saturday, september 7, 2002
Thin media·
Henry Copeland muses on the editorial style of commercial blogs, referring to Weird Files, Gizmodo, and MediaNews, among others. He calls it "thin media" -- vertical online publications run by 0.25 to 1.5 people. Henry seems to think the prose a little too spare, and could do with more editorializing.Henry Copeland
thursday, september 5, 2002
The Rules of Attraction·
Another Brett Easton Ellis novel, my favorite, makes it to the screen. The transition can't be any worse than that of Less Than Zero or American Psycho. Though the theme of Rules of Attraction -- the subjectivity of memory -- must be particularly hard to capture on celluloid.The Rules of Attraction [Apple trailers]
wednesday, september 4, 2002
nickdenton.org recommends·A weblog I've probably recommended before, but here goes again: Maggie Berry's site. Six laughs per page view. I counted. People say funny things around Maggie.
saturday, august 31, 2002
Genealogy search·
Dave Galbraith's father has launched a vastly expanded genealogy search engine. The dataset: 344 million names, aggregated from an array of different databases.Origin Search
What has struck me over the past few weeks is the fact that blogs represent a radical new approach to public discussion - one that, in essence, completely and naturally "solves" the signal:noise problem, and does so through creative exploitation of a unique architecture based upon decentralized representation of discussion threads.
The real power of art·
A property developer behind the revival of SoHo and now DUMBO in New York, asked about his strategy. "I follow the artists." But why should the evil capitalists be the ones who make most of the profit, when the artists are the ones who set the market? Here's a way for artists to capture more of the value they create. Form a cooperative, and agree to move en masse to a new district. Then give a list of half a dozen possible locations to local property owners, and take bids. This would be a free-market version of the relocation support that cities give to attract blue-chip company headquarters. Think of the art itself as a loss-leader.
Google frequency·
Is Google indexing less frequently? I used to be able to search for recent posts. Now the latest cache on Google of nickdenton.org dates back a month, and I can't find any posts more recent than that through the search engine. Don't tell me even the great Google is having trouble scaling.nickdenton.org cache [Google]
The CIA does blog·
Richard Bennett digs into Traction -- the corporate blogging company -- and finds the CIA venture capital fund is one of the investors. Shocked by the failure to communicate intelligence information between the FBI and CIA, and even between departments in those organizations, we've all wondered whether a blogging culture would help. It would be cool if the CIA was thinking along the same lines.Richard Bennett
monday, august 12, 2002
End-to-end blogging solutions·
Oh no, the corporate wordmanglers have got hold of blogging. "Traction is a leader in next generation Enterprise Weblog software, delivering interoperable, inexpensive, rapidly deployable, open and easy to use tools for groups and teams to communicate, share, organize and link business information in context."Traction Software [via Werbach]
The first blog martyr·
Steve Olafson of the Houston Chronicle has been fired for running a weblog on the side. First time I've heard of that happening. Olafson got a call from Chron editor Jeff Cohen, who he says told him, "I'm running a mainstream American newspaper. There's no place here for gonzo journalism…Take the fucking site down!" Here's the article, from the Houston Press, and the offending blog itself.
·Houston Press [via Rick Bruner]
·Steve Olafson
Choosing domain names·
Here's a tip for researching domain names. You don't want to pick an obvious word, because that's boring, and the word is probably already taken. But at the same time, some connotation is usually a good thing. So, for instance, a site to do with weblogs might usefully contain the syllable "log". Most online dictionaries don't let you do wildcard searches. But OneLook does; try a search for *log*, for instance. Lots of possibilities to stimulate namestorming. Anyway, thought I'd pass that along.OneLook
Pitching blogs·
We're training them well. An article for the Public Relations Society of America, advising caution in approaching bloggers.
Blogs are a new medium and, therefore, require a new approach. It is crucial not to spam bloggers and to be aware of their likes and dislikes before you drop them a line. Canned, conventional pitch letters can be seen as offensive. Their preferred means of communication is e-mail and their address is often prominently featured on the site. When communicating with blogs, make sure to be completely open and honest about why you are contacting them, disclosing your organizational affiliation. Keep it to the point and always make sure to include a link to a published story or item that they might consider featuring. Do not ask bloggers to link to your client's site or latest press release. Bloggers are sensitive about becoming mouthpieces for other organizations and companies, which is the reason they began blogging in the first place.
A new blogging tool·
Trellix launch a new publishing system -- with weblog functionality. This is broadly inspired by Blogger, but the Trellix system manages an entire website, rather than just the weblog posts.Trellix Blogging screenshots [danbricklin.com]
wednesday, august 7, 2002
Designers·
A San Francisco friend asks whether designers are better respected in New York. "Yes," I reply, "sometimes they are mistaken for technologists."
When weblog worlds collide·
If you've been following the Iraq-Arab-humiliation-holocaust thread [see below, with updates], be relieved that it's winding down, for the time being. Let's put aside politics for a moment, and talk about the one subject that unites all webloggers: themselves. It's interesting that this discussion on war against Iraq has involved writers from weblog networks which didn't much connect until recently: Dave Winer and Doc Searls, Bay Area techbloggers, though Dave hates the label; Glenn Reynolds, warblogger extraordinaire; some of the more lefty political blogs such as Eschaton; and me, though of course none of these labels apply to my boundlessly varied views. Irony tag here.
Which makes Dave Winer's most recent post on the thread, particularly appropriate. There's one measured passage that everyone can endorse. "We have the freedom to express ourselves, guaranteed by the Constitution, and that guaratees that we will hear ideas that sound wrong, that we disagree with, that stimulate writing and hopefully thinking (maybe not in that order). As long as that's all that happens, it makes us safer." There are a couple more concluding statements, from Doc Searls and Glenn Reynolds, which are linked here. And, with that, back to regular programming.
·Dave Winer·Glenn Reynolds·Doc Searls
PR v advertising·
Not the best time to be saying this, with PR agencies hurting for revenues more than any other marketers -- but a new book argues that advertising can't build brands cost-effectively any more, and public relations can.The Fall of Advertising and the Rise of PR [National Post]
tuesday, august 6, 2002
What if America wasn't America?·
A video ad for civil liberties. A student asks for some books. The librarian looks up the titles, and replies: "These books are no longer available... may I have your name, please?" The punchline: What if America wasn't America?
Freedom. Appreciate it. Cherish it. Protect it.Ad Council [via Christian Bailey]
I may try to write a new definition. It'll probably involve the words blow and hard, and examples from playgrounds. Dangerous stuff. Watch out for the humiliation, that's where holocausts come from.
Dave is being obscure, but I presume he's referring to the humiliation of Germany at Versailles, which preceded the holocaust. The argument being that an Arab world, humiliated, is all the more dangerous. Not an unreasonable point. But I'd draw a different lesson. The Arab world has long felt humiliated, it's already dangerous. If you are going to defeat your enemy, do so conclusively, as the US and UK defeated Germany in the Second World War. One could equally well say, to paraphrase Winer: watch out for appeasement, that's where holocausts come from.
Andrewsullivanitis·
Peter Maass, too measured to get into arguments on his own weblog, writes in to oppose the invasion of Iraq.
Nick, you are showing early signs of andrewsullivanitis. If everyone in the Arab world, or just a majority, shared the medieval views of Wahabis, I might be tempted to consider your invade-them-and-humiliate-them-until-they-love-us rationale. But not only is the Arab world more diverse than you give it credit for, there are better ways than war of conveying the capitalism-and-democracy-are-superior message. Do you think the Algerian government, which has crushed a fundamentalist insurrection, needs to be lectured about the evils of Islamism? Do you think we need to humiliate Jordan¹s King Abdullah, who is so westernized and pro-western that, who knows, he might start blogging any day now? And don¹t you think we could make a rather strong impression on our intolerant and corrupt clients in Saudi Arabia and Egypt by withdrawing our support for them?
Until someone *proves* that Iraq represents a clear and present danger to America, the costs and risks of invading it are too high and unnecessary. Ruthless diplomacy -- an oxymoron until now -- can accomplish the job that you wish to have done.
nickdenton.org in XML·Here's an XML version of nickdenton.org, for all of you with fancy blogreading gadgets.
friday, august 2, 2002
Blogs and capitalism·
Now MSNBC.com has seen the light, and the virtues of weblogs over discussion groups. There's a lesson on social organization here somewhere. Discussion groups are the communes of internet conversation: open, egalitarian, but prone to takeover by free-riders and tyrants. They work, but only if overseen by a scrupulously fair and eternally vigilant moderator, a rare personality type. More often they degenerate into anarchy, tyranny, and then collapse. And why does the weblog form thrive? Because individual authors take responsibility for the content and context, and benefit personally from their investment. Weblogs are a testament to capitalism, and the importance of clear property rights. Of course, were there some financial return to weblog writing, this theory would hold up better.
Blogs oust discussion boards from MSNBC.com·
The online news site, which has already rolled out weblogs to some of its personalities, is building a directory of weblogs by topic. This will replace freeform discussion. MSNBC.com executive producer Joan Connell says the site's discussion boards "were often chaotic, off-topic and not conducive to the kind of civil and coherent communities we want to develop on this news site."Creatures From The Web Lagoon: The Blogs [National Journal]
Lefties can't write·Ken Layne, insulted that anyone should include him in the lefty directory, bites the hand that listed him. His problem isn't so much with lefty politics; it's with the writing.
Have glanced at some of the other sites, but lefties generally can't write. They sound like earnest preachers. They're rarely funny. Everything's always horrible, the world is so mucked up, we have failed as a species, blah blah blah. As somebody said -- P.J. O'Rourke? -- you'll never hear a good bar described as "leftist."
Galactic in scope·
Patrick Nielsen Hayden jokes about being categorized as a left-leaning blog. "Understand, my political views are subtle, complex, galactic in scope, and transcend such petty categories as 'left' and 'right,' and in this I am utterly different from all the other hidebound, lockstep, and ideologically doctrinaire voices in blogdom." My sentiments entirely.
Nielsen Hayden
Mash-ups·
Pete Rojas explains how amateur bootleggers, empowered by ever faster computers, are creating and trading "mash-ups" -- typically the vocal track of one song superimposed on the instrumental track of another. "Home remixing is technically incredibly easy to do, in effect turning the vast world of pop culture into source material for an endless amount of slicing and dicing by desktop producers." Bootleg culture [Salon]
The Lefty Directory·
It is a testament to the triumph of the Right in the US, and the blogosphere, that a bunch of hawks dominate Brian Linse's list of liberal blogs. I mean, what are Jeff Jarvis and Ken Layne -- quintessential populist centrists -- doing up there? And what on earth am I doing on the list? Invade Iraq, let Saudi Arabia go to hell, screw the Alaska wilderness, flatten taxes, curtail abortion, privatize schools, trustbust trade unions: that counts as left-wing now? Hilarious.
The Lefty Directory
wednesday, july 31, 2002
Boing Boing·
Cory Doctorow returns to blogging. He's one of those writers I like better the more I read.
Gawker Media's second custom blog just launched: 
The New York Times, the self-proclaimed newspaper of record, runs a 
Fleshbot, the latest site in the Gawker stable, is nearly ready. It's a porn review done in the blog format. No original content; rather thumbnails and pointers. A showcase for all the new porn -- 
David Galbraith, who's been threatening to revive his weblog for a year now, finally gets around to it. The content: geeky stuff, which works; politics, which doesn't; and some wry, nicely done. Some neat functionality, like an XML version of his bio, and graphics indicating which weblogs on the sidebar just been recently updated. Oh, and Dave's done something cute with his mugshot, which I intend to copy. Quite why one would want a bio in XML is beyond me but, hey, whatever rocks your world.
A weblog I've probably recommended before, but here goes again: 