Why Newspapers Are Screwed

Henry Blodgett “runs the numbers” on why a major newspaper, like the NY Times, is screwed as it tries to move its business online. I’ve said this over and over during the last couple of years, but Henry has more cred, so from now on I’ll just quote him instead.
clipped from www.internetoutsider.com

Revenue drops by more than half, 40%-50% of employees get fired, and
the company still loses money. Using the NYT’s Q2 numbers and these
assumptions, for example, revenue would have dropped from $789 million
to $285 million. More importantly, EBITDA (earnings before interest,
taxes, depreciation, and amortization) would have dropped from $118
million to -$64 million. Which means that management would just be
getting ready to fire a few hundred more people.

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Mainstream media is biased – new report

clipped from pewresearch.org

The American public continues to fault news organizations for a number of perceived failures, with solid majorities criticizing them for political bias, inaccuracy and failing to acknowledge mistakes. But some of the harshest indictments of the press now come from the growing segment that relies on the internet as its main source for national and international news.

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Cam’s World 8 August 2007

Some research outfit called VSS are claiming that “Internet advertising is expected to reach US$61.98 billion and become the largest ad segment in 2011, surpassing newspapers“. Sounds good to me. Hopefully a chunk of that will go to podcasting. I’ll be happy to settle for 1% of it.

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“”We are moving from a speech to a conversation.” – News Ltd Chairman John Hartigan

Welcome John. Hope your stay with us is nice.

(source)

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This has to be the next step in my career. It’s in the guidebook for aspiring media giants.

John Laws Trucking Album

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So I finally got the new Dopod, went out and bought a battery, and I’m back on the air. In addition to forking out for the new battery, I had to buy a new screen protector and, I just found out, this Dopod takes miniSD cards. The other one took MICRO SD cards. And the two don’t fit in each other’s slots. GODDAMN!!!!!

Did I mention? 3 suck.

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This is the link to the online version of the Anthill article. Anthill have just launched the new version of their site. Now the guys have the full text of their articles online and for free! Way to go gents.

Cam in Anthill

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I got a call tonight from Roy Morgan Research. Guy asks me if I will answer a survey. I ask “What’s in it for me?” He says… “well we’re Roy Morgan.” I say “Yeah, you going to pay me for my time?” He says “no”. I say “So you’re going to take my answers, sell them for money, but you won’t pay me for the content?” He says “No”. I say “Then no”. He says “well what about just two questions?” I say “ok”. The two questions are about the upcoming federal election, who I’m going to vote for, and whether or not I think the Libs are taking the country in the right direction. I bite. Get all political on his ass. Then I say “okay, you can ask me the rest.” He asks another ten questions, then I get “Did you know there is a ship which travels from Melbourne to Tasmania?”
I say “What’s that got to do with the election???” He says “nothing”. So I say “yeah I did know that”. He asks “do you know the name of it?” I say “No. What happened to the election?” He says “It’s called the Spirit of Tasmania. Had you heard that name before?” I tell him to stick the Spirit of Tasmania up his cheeky ass….

Calacanis on losing weight

Jason has written a great post on what he has learned about losing weight over the last year. It’s something every geek needs to read. As we tend to allow ourselves to lead very sedentary lives, we need to get this fat thing under control. Even though Jason has only lost 20 pounds (a little over 9 kilograms) in a whole year, the lessons he has learned about changing his lifestyle and mindset are terrific. The world needs geeks.