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Technology
Need Help Cutting the Cord to Cable? This E-Book Will Guide You
We have never really liked our local cable company. Over the years, many of us have wasted time waiting for the cable guy to show up to install or replace the box that doesn't seem to work or been placed on eternal hold while customer service takes its sweet time. And to add insult to injury, every year our basic...
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Technology
Experts Parse Big Data in New Report. The Big Question: Hype or Hope?
Three years ago, we learned that a BakerTweet could automagically alert customers that fresh bread or cookies were about to come out of the oven. Today, there are more than 2 billion tweets a week, many of them from bots or machines, not people. And there are 2.7 billion likes on Facebook every day, many of them automagically turned into...
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Technology
How New Internet Domain Names Can Shake Up Your Web-Browsing Experience
One year ago, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers launched a program designed to transform the appearance and infrastructure of the Internet as we know it. The new generic top-level domain program invited the world to apply for new gTLDs , also known as domain names, or the .com, .org, .net parts of the web address. Last month,...
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Business
Crowdfunding Journalistic and Photojournalistic Projects
The idea of crowdfunding journalistic projects isn't new, but it's been in the spotlight recently. Take, for example, the media itself zeroing in on a successful Kickstarter project by Bobbie Johnson, a former Guardian technology correspondent, and U.S.-based journalist Jim Giles, whose work has appeared in The Economist, The Atlantic and New Scientist. Johnson and Giles wanted to publish high-quality...
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Legacy Media
Lessons Learned From Indie iPad Magazine Publishers
It seems like publishing a digital magazine on the iPad should be pretty easy. With some basic design skills, time, and a bit of money, publishing an independent iPad magazine is possible. But being successful -- rising on the Apple Newsstand charts, continuing to gain readers, and making money? Those are much tougher goals. Three independent digital magazine publishers recently...
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Business
Starting a Daily Paper Uniting a Struggling Europe: Crazy or Genuis?
Imagine a Tuesday morning in Rome. A woman dressed in business attire drinks her espresso while browsing the European Daily in a noisy cafeteria. At the same time, imagine in Stockholm, an Erasmus student from Bulgaria is absorbed in a report from the same paper about his country being finally accepted into the Schengen area. Although just a scenario right...
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Media Usage
5 Tips to Prevent Digital Burnout and Maintain Good Mental Health
The Internet's reach is so pervasive, it feels as though it has always been around. The reality is that the web is still in its infancy, and we don't really understand the risks it poses to our mental health. In fact, various experts, such as Larry D. Rosen, a psychologist and author of "iDisorder," believe that personal gadgets are...
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Mediatwits
Mediatwits #51: Kramer, Rosen on Future of Print Papers; Brian Boyer Moves to NPR
Welcome to the 51st episode of the Mediatwits podcast, with Mark Glaser and Rafat Ali as co-hosts. This week we take a deeper look at the changes at various local newspapers in North America, lowering their print frequency from daily down to a few times per week. Is this an alarming trend or a natural evolution of newspapers as...
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Your Take
Poll: How Much Have You Given to Crowdfunding Projects?
We've all heard the heart-warming stories of inventors and creators who couldn't get their ideas funded, and then turned to crowdfunding sites such as Kickstarter or Indiegogo to raise the money they needed. And then there are the other-worldly stories like the Pebble smart watch that raised millions on Kickstarter. While you might kick in some money for a promising...
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Mediatwits
Mediatwits #50: Facebook Face-Plant; Craig Newmark + Poynter; Crowdfunding Bible
Welcome to the 50th episode of the Mediatwits podcast, with Mark Glaser and Rafat Ali as co-hosts. The joy of the Facebook IPO was quickly replaced with disdain as the stock nosedived and lawsuits ensued. We run down the headlines, including the New Orleans Times-Picayune and Oregon Daily Emerald killing daily print editions for thrice- and twice-weekly editions, respectively....
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Business
Why We Killed Our College Daily Paper for a More Digital Future
We're about to close the book on the Oregon Daily Emerald. After 92 years, the University of Oregon's newspaper will end its run as a Monday-to-Friday operation in June. Yes, it's the end of an era, and we're sad about that. But it's also the start of a new era, the digital one. Next fall, we will replace our traditional...
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Mediatwits
Mediatwits #48: Yahoo CEO Under Fire; Pros and Cons of Metered Pay Walls
Welcome to the 48th episode of the Mediatwits podcast, with Mark Glaser and the Rafat Ali as co-hosts. On this show, we turn to the chaotic soap opera that continues at Yahoo, once an Internet darling on its umpteenth remake. Its new CEO Scott Thompson appears to have padded his bio with a computer science degree that he never received....
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Mediatwits
Mediatwits #47: Positively Dan Rather; Future of Facebook; Rise of Snip.it
Welcome to the 47th episode of the Mediatwits podcast, this time with Mark Glaser and the Rafat Ali as co-hosts. On this show, Rafat had the honor (and early-morning wakeup call) to interview news icon Dan Rather at 7 a.m. while Rather was traveling by train to Washington, D.C. Rather has a new memoir out, "Rather Outspoken," and talked to...
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Collaboration
StoryCode's Hackathon Puts Transmedia Collaboration to the Test
It sounds like the start of a joke: A clown, an actress, a lighting designer, and a transmedia storyteller get locked in a room. Did I mention the clown is also a software developer? The result of this collaboration is the winning team of Story Hack: Beta, better known as Team Cupcakes and Rainbows. Seriously. Story Hack: Beta was an...
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Collaboration
LedeHub to Foster Open, Collaborative Journalism
I'm honored to be selected as one of the inaugural AP-Google Journalism and Technology Scholarship fellows for the 2012-13 academic school year, and am excited to begin work on my project, LedeHub. I believe in journalism's ability to better the world around us. To fully realize the potential of journalism in the digital age, we need to transform news into...
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Technology
7 Ways to Be the Programmer No One Hates
After reading Sandra Ordonez's MediaShift post "7 Ways to Get Programmers to Stop Hating You," my first thought was: Wow, good advice. My second thought was: How can we programmers get people to stop hating us? After 13+ years of working as a technologist -- from a junior developer to the manager of a couple tech departments -- I've seen...
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Technology
FTC: If It's Your Computer, You Should Own Your Data
If you own your computer, you should own the data that's on it. That's the message from Federal Trade Commission Chairman Jon Leibowitz. At a Washington press conference -- also broadcast -- the FTC issued a new report on Internet privacy. Leibowitz praised how far the nation's come in protecting data, even from this time last year. But he also...
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Mediatwits
Mediatwits #43: Pew's State of the News Media; Yahoo Sues Facebook
Welcome to the 43rd episode of the Mediatwits podcast, this time with Mark Glaser and the Rachel Sklar as co-hosts. Sklar is a writer and social entrepreneur, and is filling in for Rafat Ali. She is back from SXSW and slowly recovering from the interactive, music and film festival. The big news this week is Pew's annual State of the...
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NewspaperShift
State of the News Media: Newspapers Need Initiative, Innovation and Investment
When I saw that the media industry's annual report card had been released late Sunday night, I clicked and scanned through the key findings for newspapers -- the industry that has been my daily passion since I fell in love with journalism at my high school paper. I hoped to learn that the wise folks at the Project for Excellence...
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MusicShift
With Rise of Streaming Services, Music Biz Pushes for Metrics
As I noted in the my SXSW Music 2012 post last week, subscription services and engagement apps are quickly becoming core factors driving the music industry and the conversations surrounding them. Services such as Spotify and Rdio are responsible for an increasing percentage of music consumption. And apps, such as Turntable.fm that are focused on engaging fans over simply...
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Mediatwits
Mediatwits #42: SXSW Special: Homeless Hotspots; Ambient Apps, CNN/Mashable?
Welcome to the 42nd episode of the Mediatwits podcast, this time with Mark Glaser and the Rachel Sklar as co-hosts. Sklar is a writer and social entrepreneur, and is filling in for Rafat Ali. This week is a special episode dedicated to all things South by Southwest (SXSW), the media confab covering technology, music and film down in Austin, Texas.
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Business
A Few Tips On Entrepreneurship From SXSW Interactive
South by Southwest Interactive 2012 just finished, and in the last two days, the airports have been overwhelmed by geeks from all parts of the world with diverse gadgets, ironic T-shirts, and smartphones constantly in hand. This year was probably the biggest crowd the festival has ever seen, with lines annoying even the most patient of attendees. While many...
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Technology
7 Ways to Get Programmers to Stop Hating You
After almost two decades of working closely with diverse types of techs, I've slowly found myself transforming from a nice, sweet, agreeable person to "Saturday Night Live's" Nick Burns, Your Company's Computer Guy. What I have witnessed has not been pleasant -- grown adults acting like 5-year-old children, and then blaming their techs for responding snarkily. As the digital divide...
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PoliticalShift
Political 'Matchmaking' Sites ElectNext, iSideWith Help Voters Decide
Despite the nonstop coverage of the ongoing Republican primary battle on cable news and talk radio programs, the American voter remains notoriously ill-informed. While people may be increasing their attention to the high-profile horse race of presidential politics this year, it's clear that most voters' knowledge of local politics has sharply declined. This is doubtless related to the dwindling amount...
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Philosophy
Data-Driven Investigative Journalism: No Laughing Matter
Jon Stewart is really, really funny when he makes fun of journalism. In "The Daily Show's" parody of the broadcast and cable news product, the show's writers and producers skewer not only the gloss, polish and stilted tone, but also the editorial decisions. But it isn't just TV. The Onion is really, really funny. It makes fun of print journalism,...
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TVShift
I'm Mad as Hell, But I Haven't (Yet) Cut the Cord
"You can cut the cable, dad," my teenage daughter has told me more than once when I've grumbled about the poor service, unexplained fees and large percentage increases I've had to pay over our introductory "triple-play" rates to our cable company. We did suspend our cable service for weeks a couple of summers ago when we were away much...
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Mediatwits
Mediatwits #37: Merger Mania: CIR-Bay Citizen; GigaOm-PaidContent; Twitter Censorship
Welcome to the 37th episode of "The Mediatwits," the weekly audio podcast from MediaShift. The co-hosts are MediaShift's Mark Glaser and Jillian York, who is filling in for Rafat Ali. It's been a crazy week in media + tech, with important mergers abounding! First up is the Center for Investigative Reporting announcing that it will try to merge with...
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Business
GigaOm + PaidContent = Perfect Sense
When the U.K.-based Guardian Media Group bought PaidContent in 2008, it was portrayed as an attempt to expand into the U.S. market. The Guardian newspaper was a forerunner in its use of the web, and already got a large portion of its traffic from North America. But I had trouble seeing why a general interest news organization, even a forward-looking...
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Your Take
Poll: What Will Facebook Be Worth in 5 Years?
They say that history repeats itself, but that's so easy to forget. It was only as recently as 2006 that analysts were saying that MySpace was likely worth $15 billion (and I was spoofing that conclusion). And you can go back to older social networks like Friendster or Tribe.net or America Online's chat rooms... you get the point. So now...
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Mediatwits
Mediatwits #36: Facebook IPO Fever; Dive into Media; $30 Million to Columbia/Stanford
Welcome to the 36th episode of "The Mediatwits," the weekly audio podcast from MediaShift. The co-hosts are MediaShift's Mark Glaser and Dorian Benkoil, who is filling in for Rafat Ali. It's been a crazy week in media + tech, with Google privacy concerns, Amazon falling short in earnings, and much more. But the dominant news was Facebook filing for an...
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Podcasting
Turning Panic Into Money: Marc Maron's Podcast Gold
Just over two years ago, comedian Marc Maron was out of a job, couldn't get standup gigs and was going through a debilitating divorce that had put him in debt. With "nothing to lose," as he put it, he launched the WTF podcast, by sneaking into the New York offices of Air America radio, from which he'd just been fired....
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Mediatwits
Mediatwits #35: Apple's Boffo Earnings; Get More Clicks Per Tweet; NYC vs. Silicon Valley
Welcome to the 35th episode of "The Mediatwits," the weekly audio podcast from MediaShift. The co-hosts are MediaShift's Mark Glaser and Dorian Benkoil, who is filling in for Rafat Ali. Once again, Apple dominates the headlines, this time for quarterly earnings that blew away Wall Street -- and everyone else. The company made $13.1 billion in profits in the quarter,...
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Guides
Your Guide to the Anti-SOPA Protests
Today was an important day in the history of the Internet and activism. While the U.S. Congress expected to quickly pass two bills, the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect IP Act (PIPA), mounting opposition online has led them to reconsider. That all came to a head today when various sites such as Wikipedia and Reddit decided to black...
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Your Take
What Do You Think About the Consumer Electronics Show (CES)?
Imagine 150,000 people from 140 countries wandering 1.6 million square feet of exhibit space in search of the latest whiz-bang flat-screen TV, tablet, smartphone or souped-up teched-out car. This is the International CES show in Las Vegas, which has mushroomed from 17,500 attendees in 1967 to the massive techno-hordes of today. This could be either your most incredible dream or...
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Mediatwits
Mediatwits #33: CES Jumped the Shark?; SOPA Battles; Google+ in Search
Welcome to the 33rd episode of "The Mediatwits," the weekly audio podcast from MediaShift. The co-hosts are MediaShift's Mark Glaser and Rafat Ali. This week we have a special show focused on the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) happening in Las Vegas all week. Apple isn't there and Microsoft did its last keynote presentation there. Is the show losing momentum? Are...
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Mediatwits
Mediatwits #32: Yahoo's Mr. Wrong?; Steve Rubel's Clip Book; Fake @Wendi_Deng
Welcome to the 32nd episode of "The Mediatwits," the weekly audio podcast from MediaShift. The co-hosts are MediaShift's Mark Glaser and Rafat Ali. We're back from our holiday break and ready to tackle more media news. The big news of the new year is a new CEO (again) at Yahoo, this time PayPal president Scott Thompson will try his...
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Business
2012: Why the Web Is Not Dead and Other Flashpoints
First the easy predictions for the new year: In 2012 we'll see a rise of politics in the digisphere, along with reporting as if the phenomenon is a surprise; more strum over the Murdochs' drum; and a snazzy new iPad 3. But, there are bigger rumblings afoot in the year ahead, too. Here's my second annual round of predictions for...
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Public MediaShift
Public Media: A Wish List for 2012
What's the No. 1 innovation that's needed in public media in 2012? I posed that question to the public media group on Facebook, as well as to some additional colleagues via email. The responses ranged from a focus on cultivating a culture of innovation, to calls for more innovative content approaches, to the need to grow public media's audience to...
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Augmented Reality
Real Life, Only Better: Augmented Reality Takes Off
My favorite technology -- augmented reality, or AR -- lets anybody feel like Harry Potter, except that you make magic with a computer or mobile device instead of a wand. I call it "real life, only better" because it takes a live scene and puts useful or entertaining images, video, graphics -- whatever -- on top of it. When I...
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Mediatwits
Mediatwits #30: Netflix, Time Warner Make Peace?; E-Books Price-Fixing; Holiday Gadgets
Welcome to the 30th episode of "The Mediatwits," the weekly audio podcast from MediaShift. The co-hosts are MediaShift's Mark Glaser and Rafat Ali. This week we have an eclectic mix of topics. First up is the UBS Media and Technology Conference in New York, where the talk of the conference was the rise of over-the-top video services and talks by...
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Business
Why Our Startup Decided Not To Target the Newspaper Industry
Are there opportunities for technology startups which target the media business? Fred Wilson -- a venture capitalist who has made investments in Twitter, Zynga, Tumblr, Etsy, and FourSquare, among others -- apparently thinks not. As reported on MediaShift on November 15, Wilson told an audience of CUNY students with interests in business and journalism that better opportunities could be found...
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Philosophy
Why the World Needs Better Science Journalism
If you regularly do a Twitter search for the words "science journalism," like I do, you'll be amazed, amused and sometimes shocked by the amount of bashing science journalism takes in the Twittersphere. It shows that not all science journalism is created equal, and it's a sign of the times, really: Not all journalists who write about science are actually science journalists. They're general journalists who were -- willingly or out of necessity -- given a science story to cover that day.
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Technology
Public Laboratory: Don't Just Report Science, Do It!
Can you envision an alternative mode of science journalism? Imagine a science journalism in which the journalist not only reports about science, but also gathers scientific data and develops the tools by which the data is acquired.
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Education
How to Get the Most Out of Tech Tools for Teaching
Though you don't have to use technology to teach effectively, sometimes a little bit of tech can go a long way toward making the job easier. And, of course, teaching media and journalism courses today requires that instructors be familiar with as many different technology tools as possible -- and be willing to experiment with the rest.
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EducationShift
New technology is a lightning rod and polarizing force because, as Nicholas Carr articulated in his book, "The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains," it not only begins to influence what we see and how we see it, but, over time, who we are.
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BookShift
How a Novelist Bypassed His Publisher and Raised $11,000 on Kickstarter
This week on MediaShift, we are exploring the dramatically changing publishing industry in our Beyond the Book special series. Stay tuned for more pieces like this one in the coming days. Sign up for our new weekly newsletter on e-books and self-publishing here. Tim Pratt was confident enough that his publisher would print a fifth novel in his urban fantasy...
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Mediatwits
Mediatwits #24: Non-Profit News Sites; iPhone 4S Boom; Android's Ice Cream Sandwich
Welcome to the 24th episode of "The Mediatwits," the weekly audio podcast from MediaShift. The co-hosts are MediaShift's Mark Glaser and entrepreneur Rafat Ali. The hot topic is non-profit news sites and whether they can sustain themselves. A recent study was released from the Knight Foundation about the business health of some of these sites, and noted that they still need to experiment to find the right business model to survive.
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Your Take
What Will You Miss Most About Steve Jobs?
We all knew this day would come, but it still was hard to take. Apple's iconic leader, Steve Jobs, has died. His influence at the company, and in so many industries, will continue to be felt for many years to come. So what will you miss most about Jobs? His trademark presentations? His design sense? Something else? Share your thoughts...
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MobileShift
Best Coverage, Analysis of Amazon Kindle Fire Announcement
Amazon recently made waves by announcing its new Kindle Fire tablet, running a custom version of Android and starting at $199. Plus, there were the new Kindle Touch models in the mid-range and the low-cost Kindle, starting at $79 with ads. We scoured Twitter, tech blogs, Google+ and even Quora to find the best coverage and analysis of the announcement....
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Business
Social Good Summit: Digital Philanthropy Grows Up
The second Social Good Summit, mounted by Mashable and the United Nations Foundation with support from Swedish mobile phone giant Ericsson is, in Mashable's words, a chance for "the most innovative technologists, influential minds and passionate activists [to come together] with one shared goal: to unlock the potential of new media and technology to make the world a better place."
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Mediatwits
Mediatwits #20: Newspaper Special: Boston Globe Pay Wall; Guardian U.S.; Philly Tablet
Welcome to the 20th episode of "The Mediatwits," the weekly audio podcast from MediaShift. The co-hosts are MediaShift's Mark Glaser and Rafat Ali, the one and only founder of PaidContent. This week is a special edition on newspapers, newspapers and more newspapers. First up, the Boston Globe launched its new pay-walled site, BostonGlobe.com, which is free for print subscribers but costs $3.99 per week for non-print subscribers.
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Business
8 Ways Tech-Based Foundations Are Changing Philanthropy
Business content on MediaShift is sponsored by the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, which offers an intensive, cutting edge, three semester Master of Arts in Journalism; a unique one semester Advanced Certificate in Entrepreneurial Journalism; and the CUNY J-Camp series of Continuing Professional Development workshops focused on emerging trends and skill sets in the industry. Not so long ago,...
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Business
Financial Times Enjoys Life Beyond the App Store
There was a time in the not-so-distant past when app makers were fighting to get featured in Apple's App Store, and crying out in protest if their app didn't make the cut. So it's quite a turnabout to talk to folks at the Financial Times, who have not only removed their apps from the App Store but have thrived with an HTML5 web app that lives outside of the App Store completely.
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Business
The TechCrunch/AOL Saga Told Through 'Star Wars'
The soap opera that has been going on between TechCrunch's Michael Arrington, Huffington Post's Arianna Huffington and AOL honcho Tim Armstrong has been difficult to explain to people living outside the tech media bubble. How can you capture those personalities and make it understandable to the masses?
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Media Usage
Traveling Back in (Technology) Time With Hurricane Irene
Hurricane Irene brought home for me how our media technology defines eras. On the eastern end of New York's Long Island on Saturday evening, as the storm approached, my family and some friends were having a pizza party for my younger daughter's birthday at Emilio's, a local restaurant in Greenport. As the technology receded, then came back, intermittently and in...
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Mediatwits
Mediatwits #17: Ch-ch-changes: Steve Jobs Out; Romenesko Semi-Retires; Shafer Laid Off
Welcome to the 17th episode of "The Mediatwits," the weekly audio podcast from MediaShift. The co-hosts are MediaShift's Mark Glaser and Staci Kramer, editor of PaidContent, who's filling in for Rafat Ali. This show looks at the week's big changes in the media landscape. First, Steve Jobs announced he was stepping down as CEO of Apple, moving into a...
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Business
Publishers Doing an Apple End-Run to Deliver to iPad
Major publishers are starting to deliver content to the iPad outside Apple's App Store, avoiding the company's rules and restrictions that limit what they can do and how much they can earn. Instead of building native apps in iOS, the proprietary operating system for the iPad and other Apple devices, the publishers are using HTML5, the latest version of the...
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Business
5 Lessons Learned Building The Daily Dot, a Media Startup
This is the third and final post in a series from Nicholas White, the co-founder and CEO of The Daily Dot. It was one year ago this month that I moved to Austin, Texas, in full dedication to creating The Daily Dot, the hometown newspaper of the world wide web. This week, we officially launched the site. First of all,...
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Mediatwits
Mediatwits #16: Why Google Bought Motorola; Yahoo Scoops ESPN Big-Time
Welcome to the 16th episode of "The Mediatwits," the weekly audio podcast from MediaShift. The co-hosts are MediaShift's Mark Glaser and Rafat Ali, the founder of PaidContent. This show looks at the week's big news, including the head-turning buyout of Motorola Mobility by Google for $12.5 billion. What was driving the search giant to become a hardware maker? Was...
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Media Usage
Glaser & Son Dissect the Best Screens for Kids
My son Julian was born into a world of screens nine years ago. Being the son of a "mediatwit" means that he was surrounded by screens, small and large. And yet, I've tried to moderate his usage the best that I can, limiting him to an hour of game time each weekday and one and a half hours on...
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Media Usage
We've all been there before. Whining kids at a grocery store with their dad, they can't sit still until finally the dad hands over his iPhone, and peace is restored. Kids are growing up with media all around them, from computers to smartphones to tablets to flat-screen TVs. And even in households without as many screens, kids find ways to...
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Media Usage
How to Control (Or At Least Influence) Children's Media Access
This week, MediaShift will be running a special series on navigating the relationships between kids and media. Stay tuned all week as we explore topics like this one. Once you have a child old enough to use a remote, the angst begins over how to control access to media. And absent the will to live a technology-free existence, media...
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EducationShift
Why Missouri J-School Should Rescind Its Apple Laptop Requirement
This story originally appeared on J-School Buzz and was edited and adapted for MediaShift with permission. It was written by David Teeghman, a recent graduate of the Missouri School of Journalism. To incoming students in the Missouri School of Journalism planning to buy an Apple MacBook just because it's a J-School requirement, don't do it. Apple computers offer almost nothing...
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Mediatwits
Mediatwits #13: Smartphone Ownership Booms; This Week in Rupert
Welcome to the 13th episode of "The Mediatwits," the weekly audio podcast from MediaShift. The co-hosts are MediaShift's Mark Glaser and Rafat Ali, the founder of PaidContent. This week's show looks at a recent survey by Pew Internet that found that 35 percent of Americans now have smartphones, and that ownership is even higher among people of color. Guest...
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MagazineShift
Golf Digest Adds Interaction, Depth, E-Commerce to iPad App
It seemed like the first-delivered iPad was hardly unsheathed from its box before News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch, apparently unfazed by a rich past of misguided forays into Internet ventures, announced the launch of The Daily, which was immediately labeled the first tablet-only newspaper. And it was mere weeks -- if not days -- after its debut when media critics...
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MagazineShift
Smartphone Sensors Could Revolutionize Digital Magazines
We've all done those personality and health quizzes in magazines. You know, the ones where you suspect that answer A will categorize you as the personality type you're trying to avoid, so you choose B instead. Everyone does that, right? These evasive strategies for magazine quizzes, though, could be a thing of the past as smartphones and tablet devices evolve...
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MobileShift
How Publishers Can Bypass Apple with HTML5 Web Apps
When the iPad first arrived on the scene, our Belgian business newspapers, De Tijd and L'Echo, embraced it. We knew tablets, with their lightness and convenience, would become important for our communities, and so we dove into building apps and offering our readers special deals on iPads. Quickly though, we learned that despite the opportunities the iPad offered, there were...
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MagazineShift
Solving the App Development Conundrum for Small Magazines
Even a small magazine can make a powerful impression with a well-designed mobile presence. In some ways, digital platforms can level the playing field for small publishers wanting to attract readers' attention with innovative content and presentations. But getting onto mobile platforms with apps and optimized websites can be a significant challenge for small publishers. While major magazine companies like...
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Social Media
How PBS NewsHour Used Social Media in Response to Hack Attack
PBS NewsHour staffers who were awake late last Sunday before Memorial Day, including myself, were just as startled as the rest of the Internet to discover a legitimate-looking blog post on our site claiming that late rapper Tupac Shakur was alive. We were under a hacking attack. Suddenly, it was time for damage control. I hope you never find yourself...
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World View
Despite Blocked Sites, Digital Media to Play Major Role in Opening China
The Chinese masses never experience major Western websites, thanks to China's Great Firewall (along with linguistic and economic barriers). So the Chinese pass their online lives in a parallel universe in which troublesome terms such as "June 4" (anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests) or "Falun Gong" (the banned movement) are filtered out. But the Chinese government also recognizes...
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Mediatwits
Mediatwits #7: Skype Gets Microsoft-ed; 'Street Fight' Returns Fire
Welcome to the seventh episode of "The Mediatwits," the new revamped longer form weekly audio podcast from MediaShift. The co-hosts are MediaShift's Mark Glaser along with PaidContent founder Rafat Ali. This week's show looks at Microsoft's massive payout, $8.5 billion, for Skype, a popular communication service that still loses money. Our guest this week is Laura Rich, the co-founder...
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Media Usage
Massive Digital Divide for Native Americans is 'A Travesty'
Perhaps nowhere in the United States does the digital divide cut as wide as in Indian Country. More than 90 percent of tribal populations lack high-speed Internet access, and usage rates are as low as 5 percent in some areas, according to the Federal Communications Commission. Sascha Meinrath, director of New America Foundation's Open Technology Initiative calls it "a travesty."...
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Mediatwits
Mediatwits #3: HuffPost Lawsuit and Grading AOL; 'Write More Good' Author
Welcome to the third episode of "The Mediatwits," the new revamped longer form weekly audio podcast from MediaShift. The co-hosts are MediaShift's Mark Glaser along with PaidContent founder Rafat Ali. This week's show looks at the recent $105 million lawsuit brought against Huffington Post for not paying its bloggers, as well as our grades for AOL's various business moves,...
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BookShift
The Easiest, Cheapest, Fastest Way to Self-Publish Your Book
You are excited to self-publish, but sorting through the sheer quantity of offerings, claims, and technologies is overwhelming. I spend a good part of each week researching the topic and, for authors of trade paperback books with no or few illustrations, my answer is to use these two services for creating your e-book and print book: Smashwords and CreateSpace. Create...
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BookShift
The Advantages of Middleman Services for Self-Published e-Books
Whether you're a self-publisher or a large publishing house, you're probably dealing with six to a dozen online retailers to sell your e-books. But several companies offer go-between services that simplify the process for publisher and retailer. Should you consider using these middleman services?
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Technology
How French Site OWNI Profits by Giving Away Its Content
Most content sites in the U.S. have two ways of making money: charging for subscriptions or running advertising (or both). But a French site, OWNI.fr, has found an unusual business model for a site with no ads and no subscriptions -- that's also profitable. How do they do it? Their main business is doing web development and apps for media companies and institutions.
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Online Video
Closed Captions Should Be Standard with Online Video, TV
When "The French Chef" appeared on PBS in 1972 with captions, it marked the first TV show ever to be fully accessible to the deaf and hard of hearing. For the next decade, people with disabilities enjoyed more and more captioned TV, culminating in a 1990 law that required all TV shows to be captioned. Fast forward to today. When...
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Public Relations
How to Fix the Tech PR Industry's Diversity Deficit
PBS.org has recently been home to some frank and thoughtful discussions about an overlooked issue: the lack of racial diversity in the media. For those who may have missed it, the dialogue was sparked by Retha Hill in an Idea Lab post about the lack of minorities at new media conferences. Mark Glaser expanded the conversation from the comments section...
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PoliticalShift
WSJ Series Inspires 'Do Not Track' Bill from Rep. Jackie Speier
We didn't plan it this way, but the timing was perfect. Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) introduced a bill today in Congress that would give the FTC the power to create a "Do Not Track" database so people could opt out of online tracking. And her bill comes right during our special series about online privacy, which included a roundtable...
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5Across
5Across: Online Privacy and the 'Do Not Track' Debate
The debate around online privacy has largely centered around advertising that is targeted at people depending on where they have been online. While somewhat creepy, those ads are perhaps the least of our worries. What many of us don't realize is that there are multiple parties tracking our moves online, some harmless and some possibly nefarious. In fact, one...
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Business
8 Ways Publishers Can Protect Users' Privacy
In the digital age, there's an inherent tension between running a media business effectively and protecting its users' privacy. On the one hand, the business wants as much information as possible about everyone it touches. It wants to be able to serve them with the most relevant content, connect them to those with similar interests and affinities and, yes,...
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MusicShift
Silverman: CD Sales to Co-Exist with Cloud, Digital Downloads
There's a growing feeling in the American music business that the future will be in the cloud. No one will need physical CDs anymore, but will listen to music on streaming services such as Pandora and Spotify, which will eventually merge into a grand digital jukebox. But industry veteran Tom Silverman, who founded dance music label Tommy Boy Records in...
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Free Speech
News Organizations Should Stop Being Neutral on Net Neutrality
Many news organizations have a love-hate relationship with the Internet. While the abundance of free, online news has helped wreak havoc on the industry, the Internet itself has created incredible possibilities for news outlets to expand their reach and spark innovation. Thanks to the Internet, audiences can contribute to reporting and news in ways that would have been unimaginable a...
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Technology
3 Big Ways the People Search Industry Has Changed
Back in September 2007, MediaShift's Mark Glaser examined the emergence and functionality of online people search engines and looked at how they affect your privacy. A lot has changed since then. Facebook has become, in my opinion, the White Pages directory of the Internet age. At the same time, a lot of the people-search engines changed drastically. Many took a...
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MobileShift
10 Mobile Trends in 2011: Android Boom, Tablets Multiply
2010 was an important year for mobile, especially in media, where the announcement of the iPad and other tablets, along with new smartphones, made mobile and tablet apps especially intriguing to publishers. This year promises greater growth and new opportunities for content producers. Here are some of the top trends to keep an eye on as 2011 unfolds. 1. Continued...
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4MR
4 Minute Roundup: Is Consumer Electronics Show a Big Waste?
In this week's 4MR podcast, I consider the gargantuan Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. It offers an orgy of gadgets and new technology, but how much of it is worth our time and will become influential and game-changing? I talked with CNET editor at large Rafe Needleman, who is at CES this week, to get his defense of...
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AdvertisingShift
2011 Flash Points: Open vs. Closed, Google vs. Apple
We don't know exactly what media and technology stories will occur in 2011. Will Facebook finally go public? Will Gawker Media achieve mainstream respectability? Will Jon Stewart start his own cable network? But we can be sure that a lot of stories will occur around a few areas of tension. Here, then, are flash points I predict will define media trends in the coming year and beyond.
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MagazineShift
iPads, Print-on-Demand Slowly Transform Magazines in 2010
This revolution is going to take its time. It's been a year of high expectations but little fulfillment for those who thought 2010 might forever change the way we read magazines. We've seen that disappointing uses of new tools, limited audience interest, and small initial financial returns are going to result in a gradual shift, not a sudden transformation....
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Public MediaShift
NPR, PBS Try to Tame Controversy, Embrace Tech at PubCamp
The second annual National Public Media Camp, which wrapped up Sunday night at American University in Washington, D.C., provided an opportunity for representatives from all three organizations to share their experiences and -- more importantly -- the lessons learned. Not surprisingly, the session entitled "How to handle an online revolt" was one of the many highlights of a packed weekend of diverse discussions.
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PoliticalShift
Live 2010 Election Day Chat on Social Media + Politics
I will be joined by an all-star lineup of new media experts, comedians, and social media gurus to look at how online coverage of Election Day is going -- with pointers to the most innovative mashups, maps, video blogs and more. The plan is to chat today from 10 am to 1 pm Pacific Time, and then again from...
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4MR
4 Minute Roundup: Sunlight Foundation Tracks Money in Politics
In this week's 4MR podcast I talk with Sunlight Foundation's Ellen Miller about their efforts to track down the biggest donors in this year's election races. On Election Night, they will run their Sunlight Live platform that will give details on who has donated to whom as live video shows the winners and losers. Miller also talks about Sunlight's recent $1.2 million grant from the Knight Foundation.
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PoliticalShift
GOP Beating Democrats with Social Media for Midterm Elections
There is a major shift going on in politics this election cycle, with more candidates and campaigns using social media and technology to boost their chances. From today until the U.S. midterm elections on Nov. 2, MediaShift presents an in-depth special report, PoliticalShift 2010, with data visualizations, analysis, a 5Across video roundtable and live CoverItLive chat on Election Night with...
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MusicShift
10 Truths About the Modern Music Business
I've been covering the digital music business for MediaShift for more than 18 months, and in that time I've chronicled new services and examined key trends and news. Below is a look at 10 things that I've come to believe are true about the modern music business. 1. The "DIY Revolution" has Been Relatively Ineffective Although going it on your...
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BookShift
A Self-Publisher's Guide to Metadata for Books
Metadata used to be a wallflower, hiding out at the library with the Dewey Decimal system. Now it's at every party, flitting about gathering and sorting books on mobile devices, e-readers, and websites. Metadata is a core component of digital information and news; so good book metadata is good book marketing. It's an essential tool for all self-publishers. For those...
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Technology
Linden Lab's Rosedale Considers 'Scrum' Method in Newsrooms
My software developer friends talk a lot these days about two words/concepts: Agile and Scrum. At first I thought it was typical dev talk with no relevance for newsrooms, but I eventually realized these notions are part of a major shift in the way all companies -- including media companies -- will have to adapt. As Wikipedia explains it, agile...
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Technology
Six Stunning Projects That Show the Power of Data Visualization
Data visualization is taking the web by storm and, with a little luck, it might be the next big thing in online journalism. Buoyed by the open data movement and accelerating change in newsrooms around the country, it has become something more than just flashy graphics and charts -- it is a new form of visual communication for the 21st...
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