Dispelling the TechCrunch myth
The debates over what constitutes journalism, and what the future of journalism will look like, rages on.
Last week, a firestorm erupted when TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington announced that he was launching a fund to invest in technology startups.
TechCrunch, of course, which is now owned by AOL, is a blog focused on technology startups, and while Arrington will apparently be off the editorial payroll, he'll still be able to contribute as an unpaid blogger.
Adding fuel to the firestorm: the fact that AOL itself is investing in Arrington's fund.
The Guardian and WikiLeaks: is this the future of journalism?
For journalists, the present day may seem like both the best of times and the worst of times.
Traditional news organizations, disrupted by the internet, are struggling, making it harder to turn journalism into profit.
But at the same time, change brought about by the internet is creating exciting new opportunities for journalism.
Social media: opinions are like...
Newspapers face numerous challenges in the digital age. From online business models to organizational structure, many newspapers are struggling to find their way in the world.
And then there are the 'smaller' challenges that are sometimes just as thorny. One of these: the importance of journalist objectivity.
Murdoch's The Daily: can it work?
Yesterday, News Corp. made what many publishing executives hope will be
one of the most important announcements in the annals of digital
publishing: the launch of the much-anticipated iPad publication, The
Daily.
But while subscribing to The Daily is probably accurately described as 'affordable' at 99 cents a week, or $39.99/year, producing the publication isn't. News Corp. has confirmed that its investment to date is already a whopping $30m, and that The Daily will have a weekly overhead of $500,000.
Journalism's real problem: cynical, negative journalists
The rescue of 33 miners in Chile this week is the 'feel-good' story of
the year. No fictional Hollywood movie could surpass the hope and joy it
has inspired around the world.
Yet according to some journalism academics, what happened in Chile is really "a story about journalism’s failure."
Is Forbes.com the next Huffington Post?
The Huffington Post, with its legion of unpaid contributors, has provided a controversial model for journalism and publishing in the digital age. Despite the controversy, it's hard to argue that the Huffington Post hasn't had some success with its model thus far.
The model has apparently worked well enough to interest stodgy old publishers to get in on the act. According to a tweet from Forbes editor David M. Ewalt, Forbes.com will soon see its own brand of the HuffPo model: standard journalistic fare supplemented with "a level 2 bottom of the pyramid: 1000s of outside contributors."
How to save journalism? The FTC thinks there's a tax for that
Journalism, apparently, is in trouble. The once-dominant financiers of journalism -- newspapers -- are dying. And while some see hope in new media, the harsh reality is that journalism's woes have less to do with distribution mediums and more to do with business models.
That's because the kind of journalism that is threatened is expensive, and even online, there aren't too many business models that can support it. So what should we do?
iPhone legal drama: will being 'hip' come back to bite Gawker Media?
Prominent blog network operator Gawker Media paid only $5,000 for the biggest tech scoop ever, but the total cost is proving to be far
greater for Gawker Media.
As has been widely reported, police raided the home of Gawker Media employee Jason Chen. Chen is an editor for Gawker-owned Gizmodo, and is the man seen showing off the next-generation that was left in a Silicon Valley bar by an Apple employee before making its way to Gawker.
What's a scoop worth? Sometimes, not much -- even online
If you're an online publisher in the tech space, you probably have reason to envy Gawker Media. After all, one of its properties, popular tech gadget blog Gizmodo, recently broke what Gawker Media owner Nick Denton himself has billed "pretty much the biggest tech scoop ever."
That scoop, of course, is the 'lost' next-generation iPhone. As the story goes, Denton purchased it for $5,000 from the man who found it in a bar after an Apple employee left it behind.
New Pew data: newspaper pay walls will likely fail
A number of prominent newspapers, including the New York Times, have publicly committed to setting up pay walls as they struggle to find new sources of revenue.
But according to the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism "State of the News Media 2010" report, newspapers planning to erect pay walls could be in for a rude awakening.
