If you think the media is slow to understand the dramatic changes taking place in their own industry, you may not be surprised to know that Congress is even more in the dark. Recent reports suggest that some politicians would seek to handcuff the American media at a crucial juncture in the industry’s history.
Read my commentary on this subject here.
The line between newspapers and TV blur more and more every day. Heck, we may as well include radio in the mix. The new media universe on the web allows all forms of old media to encroach on each other’s territory. The Wall Street Journal and other papers provide audio and video coverage on their…
Kara Miller, an instructor on media issues at Babson College in Massachusetts, writes in her Culture Club blog at Boston.com about conflicts of interest in the media. Her focus is on the intersection between media coverage and sponsorship of media outlets. She concludes: Commercials, certainly, are not new to news shows. But there is something…
Wired Magazine’s Annalee Newitz wrote about how she hired a firm to game Digg and get a frivolous blog featured prominently by the popular site that recommends content based on reader votes. The headline is clearly meant to be inflammatory (“I Bought Votes on Digg”) and the piece itself makes Digg and those who game…
At sister publication Media Bullseye, Ike Pigott offers up Twitter tips and cautions. Many are looking to grow their Twitter presence in the wake of increased use by successful campaigns as well as integration with major media outlets like CNN. Ike suggests ways to deal with the information overload it creates and warns about the…
A bidding war for a newspaper company? Who would’ve thunk it? Today’s New York Times reports: The drama for control of the Tribune Company intensified last night as two Los Angeles billionaires put in a last-minute bid, topping an offer from the Chicago real estate magnate, Sam Zell, by a dollar a share. The two…
While many in the newspaper industry seem headed toward making more and more content available for free online and pursuing an advertising strategy, the publisher of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Walter E. Hussman Jr. wrote yesterday in the Wall Street Journal that free content may be the problem that ails the newspaper industry rather than the…