thenewnewmedia.com

Ray Hartley, Editor of The Times, has finally penned some logical thoughts about the “newspapers are dying” mania that resurfaces every few months/weeks/days.

The concise summaries of the arguments everyone has an opinion about:
“They’ll be gone in five years.”
“They’ll exist forever.”

It cannot be this simplictic. Nor will it ever be.

All of the evidence so far comes from very established newspaper groups in the US and (western) Europe. Most of these companies run dozens of newspapers across multiple states and countries, with massively inflated staff numbers, vice presidents of all sorts of things, and very badly managed editorial processes (bureaux all over the place). Layoffs, pension fund mismanagement and employee buyouts have meant a massive financial overhang for these companies.

Of course the financial, auto industry and real estate slump in the US and UK isn’t helping at all.

Hartley offers three thoughts on how newspapers can survive/flourish:

• The first is that they must speak to the growing visual intelligence of their readers by giving pictures the same status as words in presentation. This is not an easy battle to win in an industry where words have always dominated. Words that do not attract and retain the attention of readers through presentation will be ignored.
• The second rule is that newspapers must offer interactivity. They must do so within their pages, but this will always be limited by space. The internet has no such limitation. A close relationship with a news website opens the way for much greater participation by a newspaper’s readers.
• The third is that newspapers must chart a course through the sea of information. If they add to the clutter, they will have no place in a world where attention is in short supply.

Couldn’t have said it much better…

With Vincent and Matthew, the two co-founders and creators, gone – has anyone else noticed that Amatomu seems to have almost completely lost its sense of community? It’s become almost sterile… a directory, like Yahoo when it first started. Plus it’s become flooded with some sites that really aren’t blogs who are clearly using Amatomu for its analytics functions (and to see how they compare to the mighty keo).

Whether this is because of the two creators leaving, or the local blogosphere becoming boring, static and less-engaged with itself, remains to be seen. A-list bloggers (Mike, Nic, Charl, Tyler, Eric and even Matthew and Vincent) do seem to be blogging less these days. Although all of them have real business to run, or at the very least real jobs.

I’m not for a minute suggesting that Jason Norwood-Young is not an adequate replacement… far from it… I haven’t met him (at least I don’t think I have), but everyone I speak to speaks very highly of him.

It’s just that with the hype-duo of Matt and Vin gone, it feels like Amatomu has lost a very important part of its DNA – it needs some sort of reinvention.

btw… Nic has a very interesting post about bloggers all blogging about blogging.

…and Mandy’s also noticed that nobody seems to be home at Amatomu.

Despite the hype, a local idea - Eyeballs - could end up cracking it and becoming a world leader in cellphone advertising…

It’s not often that an inventor of a product cries at its public launch. Nathan Levin, founder and inventor of Eyeballs cried at the product’s flashy launch at Sandton Isle’s Aston Martin dealership last week. He says he cried the night before in Cape Town too. Levin had a reason to cry. For as long as he can remember, he’s been trying to crack “it”. He’s an inventor in the old-mould. His work started around a decade ago with an idea based on displaying ads while people dialled-up to the internet. After years of research, reworking, brainstorms and tireless effort, Levin seemed to have actually cracked it. It took a few more months of all-nighters, seven-day weeks and some chance encounters with people like Larry Katz (now MD of the company) to actually bring Eyeballs to market.

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With the official launch of Apple’s iPhone mere weeks or months away (Vodacom won’t say which), an increasing number of South Africans are asking: “Should I wait?” Those with contract upgrades due are also wondering out loud about what to choose.

This largely depends on two things: can you afford it and do you really want to use everything the iPhone offers?

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And they shouldn’t even try…

The Herald (not a bad paper, not a great one), is… wait for it… now part of the online world. Yes they’ve got a website and had one for a while. But now they’re actually writing about Facebook and (gasp) YouTube.

I noticed this story today… I couldn’t have come up with a cheesier headline, even if I had two weeks to try… “Miss PE finalists queens of dotcom world”. CHEESE.

But the actual story is hilarious… and I quote…

THE Herald Greenacres Miss Port Elizabeth 2008 finalists are not confined by geographical boundaries as they are proving to be a big hit in the “dotcom” world.

When their slideshows were posted on The Herald‘s website, www.theherald.co.za, they attracted a lot of attention from web users, receiving 1573 “visitors” in just two days.

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And I quote…

Due to issues in the past with internet bandwidth and usage, IT installed Microsoft ISA servers to monitor all web related traffic originating internally. The ISA servers then produce reports to management to show statistics on web usage on a monthly basis.

These reports generated shows amongst other stats, sites most frequently visited and also duration of visits. A statistic that came up very strongly for almost every business unit showed that social websites are in the top 3 most popular sites visited. It further indicated that considerable time during the day and internet bandwidth were being spent browsing these websites.

Due to this considerable amount of internet bandwidth & time being spent on a daily basis to non-work related websites, the decision was made to block access to these “social websites”.

These will include “facebook”, “u-tube” (sic) and also “myspace” for now.

More on this in a column I’m writing for Thursday…

I want a new cellphone. My MTN contract has been due for an upgrade for the past three months, but I’ve been stalling.

In short, I want the “perfect” cellphone … if, indeed, there is such a thing. I hope I’m speaking for the many who are facing the exact same dilemma. I’m not 16 years old so “clever” gimmicks don’t impress me. Nor do pink phones Or phones trying to be iPods. Come to think of it, I wouldn’t want a gold phone designed by Dolce & Gabbana or one called “Chocolate” either. Even if Chocolate phones now come in pink.

No, I don’t want a Carl Zeiss lens. Who purposefully takes 3 megapixel photos with their phone?! If you’ve got the few thousand rand needed to purchase one of these super camera phones, surely you already own a digital camera? Yes, you’ll want to take one or two opportunistic snaps at some-or-other late night out, but do you really need a lens that takes up half the size of the phone?

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So there I had it. Perched on the corner of my bed at 5:30 this morning… Yesterday’s ‘first’ (or rather first test) edition of The Times. Some might say that flipping through a (new) paper and forming an opinion of it during the morning getting-ready-for-work routine may not be the best way to go about it. But hey, that’s how we consume media now… isn’t it? I’m sure Ray wrote about attention spans as well… Just battled to find it.

I like the front page.

Strong identity.

I’m hoping the Page 2 content about online and multimedia doesn’t feel as static when the team start producing.

Can we stop with all the Bullard?

Pictures. Pictures. Pictures. The Times has brilliant ones. And they’re used well. Mostly. Not too sure about the big ones at the bottom of pages.

The Star and The Citizen need better pics.

What’s with The Times‘ (and Sunday Times‘) obsession with Facebook?

An op-ed piece about Facebook???

Are four pages of business sustainable?

Nice to see integration of CareerJunction in job supplement. Very good move. People are thinking.

Dr Carr on the motoring page?!

Readers are going to want a condensed TV guide. Surely.

Why the L-shaped ads everywhere? Yellow pages a la This Day soon?

The news hole on pages with L-shaped ads looks like its exactly that. An afterthought.

BBK rocks.

Relatively bland sport section. Good photos though.

Where’s all the promised integration with online? Rip page two out and suddenly you’re left with a newspaper. Nothing more. Nothing less.

A different newspaper. But somehow not that different.

This is classic! Well done Herman and the MXit PR team. Brings a bit of reality and common-sense into De Lille’s “argument”.

MXit calls on government to regulate Patrica de Lille

We are very concerned by the recent statement issued to press by ID President, Patricia de Lille calling for legislation to regulate internet blogging and MXit.  This is, at its essence, a call for censorship.   To hear this statement from a respected whistle-blower who has often championed silent causes is a blow to South Africa’s potential to remain a place where freedom of speech is guaranteed. 

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I have no words. And to think we all once considered voting for this woman. Sigh.

De Lille calls on government to regulate MXIT and Internet blogging

ID President Patricia de Lille has called on Government to look into ‘urgently implementing legislation that will regulate MXIT and Internet blogging, where members of the public can with impunity slander and defame individuals and organisations they do not like.’

De Lille’s comments follow a surge in activity among young children on MXIT, which makes them vulnerable to sexual predators and paedophiles.

The ID leader says she has been ‘horrified to hear daily stories from people whose marriages have been destroyed and about children who are led into situations where they are molested by grown men, who use MXIT to lure these girls and boys into their traps.

‘We are already struggling to repair the social fabric of our society, and to tolerate a platform for this kind of sexual predation and deviance against our young children is inexcusable,’ De Lille says.

The most recent MXIT crises is the circulation of pornographic images of young girls.

‘This has gone too far and it is time for Government to intervene to protect our most vulnerable. The right to freedom of expression is not absolute,’ says De Lille.

Another worrying development in cyberspace is the abuse of blogging, which allows anonymous individuals to post slanderous and defamatory comments with impunity about anyone they choose, without the legal consequences they would face in other more reputable print and electronic media.

‘We recently came across a blog with slanderous comments about a famous rugby player, a respected reverend in the church and a prominent entertainer.

‘This blog also included one of our senior politicians, Councillor Simon Grindrod. He reported this matter to the Caledon Square police on Tuesday 15 May and they are currently investigating it,’ De Lille says.

‘Because the problem is that we couldn’t trace the author of the defamatory statements, we will also ask the NIA to investigate.

‘The reason why the ID cannot expose the website address and its content is we will then also be responsible for spreading the defamation and the slander against the reverend, the ex-Springbok rugby player, the entertainer and the ID politician, amongst others,’ says De Lille.

‘Our legal team has advised us that in terms of the law anyone who republishes, reprints or rebroadcasts defamation of this nature published on any blogging website, is liable for civil and criminal action.

‘The only way to put a stop to this is to use every legal option to hold not only the website, but also the perpetrator, responsible. This kind of thing must not go unchallenged,’ De Lille says.