Oh, So That’s the History of Copyright
Posted: April 17, 2012 Filed under: legal department | Tags: copyright, Star Wars Leave a comment »Answering questions like, “Why does George Lucas’s copyright last so long?”
via Mental Floss
Who’s Not Online? Pew’s New Study Tells Us
Posted: April 13, 2012 Filed under: Department of Digital | Tags: Pew Internet Leave a comment »For as much as digital is important, there are still several groups who are not active online users who must be reached in traditional ways. Pew released a new study that looks into some of these groups. The bullet points:
- 1 in 5 American adults aren’t online.
- Those who aren’t online? Senior citizens, those with lower education or living in households with low levels of income. Interestingly, Pew also noted that people who wanted to take the survey in Spanish (instead of English) were also less likely to be online.
- Those who aren’t online aren’t likely to get on it in the future: only 1 out of 10 of those not online said they’d be interested.
- Have a disability? You’re about 25 percent less likely to get online; that includes a small percentage (2%) of people who’s disabilities actually prevent them from using technology.
There are plenty more insights to come out of this, for sure. Moral of the story, digital isn’t for everyone.
QOTD: Shirky on Publishing
Posted: April 11, 2012 Filed under: publishing | Tags: Clay Shirky Leave a comment »I love this sentiment, I think it’s right to the point of how things have changed:
Publishing is not evolving. Publishing is going away. Because the word “publishing” means a cadre of professionals who are taking on the incredible difficulty and complexity and expense of making something public. That’s not a job anymore. That’s a button. There’s a button that says “publish,” and when you press it, it’s done.
Technology Gets Accepted Faster and Faster
Posted: April 9, 2012 Filed under: technology | Tags: Adoption of Technology Leave a comment »Awesome graphic:
A cool graphic, and a fascinating development in how fast things have gotten adopted in the last 100 years. A solid commentary on the role and access to technology accompanies the graph over at the Atlantic.
News and Tech Survey: Pie Charts That Add up to Over 100 Percent
Posted: April 9, 2012 Filed under: Department of Digital, Department of News, Department of Print | Tags: future of newspapers Leave a comment »The question, from News and Tech’s 2012 Tech Survey, is “what trend or technology do you believe the newspaper industry can’t afford to ignore if it wants to remain viable?”
A bit confusing to read there, so here’s a better way to think about it: almost two-thirds of the respondents (based out of News & Tech’s industry-wide readers) said mobile can’t be ignored, while almost half went with the paywall answer. Intriguingly, I think the answer that was the lowest – becoming data-first or digital-first – is the most fascinating.
Mobile Means More News Consumption, Not Replacement
Posted: April 6, 2012 Filed under: Department of News Leave a comment »Was listening to this bit from the News Hour, on Pew’s recent research into media consumption habits:
Destroying the New York Times Website
Posted: April 5, 2012 Filed under: Department of Digital | Tags: NYT Magazine Leave a comment »
With a game! It’s fun, and somebody in the comments had the same clever idea that I was going to joke about, but he executed it better:
The article is also a great read if you’re into social games and time wasting.
Things that Kind of Read like a Press Release from Print People
Posted: April 4, 2012 Filed under: Department of Print | Tags: don't build the wall Leave a comment »This AP piece on Newspapers and pay walls definitely caught my eye in the ol’ Google Alerts this morning. I was contemplating giving it an FJM, but I kind of stopped when this graph just hurt:
As the Internet gained in popularity in the 1990s, newspapers decided to give away news on their websites while continuing to charge readers for print editions. By keeping online editions free, publishers hoped to gain enough readers to attract Web advertising. But as readers flocked to free news on websites, many of them canceled their print subscriptions. And online advertising hasn’t generated enough revenue to make up for the combined declines in print subscriptions and print advertising.
Why? Because it blames users, and not the business practice. That sentence about “giving away news” just stings with a little bit of condescension, and print subscriptions have *never* been profitable, loss leaders to get you in and raise circulation.
Content breeds an audience, executing that audience around unique content can be profitable! At least it is more important than meters and charging for access.
[The Space Between] Newspaper and “Online Publishing”
Posted: April 3, 2012 Filed under: Department of Digital, publishing Leave a comment »The more that we separate the idea of “media” into the different categories of where people publish it, and not its contents, the more we will continue to get charts like this:
Newspapers lost, Online Publishing gained. Great. Those aren’t that different in the job skills department.
Logic Baffling Comment Policies
Posted: April 18, 2012 | Author: Dave Levy | Filed under: Department of News | Tags: comment policies | Leave a comment »Spotted at Romenesko: