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…

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 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…

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.

Over the past six months, its userbase has more than doubled to 23 million users
It expects to generate $150 million in revenue this year
It is addiing 100 000 new users a day

Fahk. Those are scary numbers…

I’m planning to write something about this later this week. Hoping.

The New York Times Sunday Magazine offers this interesting, but incredibly long-winded, feature on blogging and the indie rocker lifestyle. An interesting story, especially the parts which focus on Jonathan Coulton. Go on. Read it. Now.

Also, you couldn’t hope for a better headline.

Two men spearheading the revolution speak candidly about BCX, competition and recent management resignations…
One gets a strange feeling when you walk into Telkom’s sprawling National Business Solutions Centre in Centurion. This atmosphere is quite unlike the overwhelming sense of bureaucracy at Telkom Towers in Pretoria.

It’s almost as if the change is being led from here. The building is at the end of a short road in an area unimaginatively named TechnoPark. Most don’t even know it exists. (more…)

In amongst all the outbursts and comments about David Bullard’s opinion(s) on blogs, many probably missed a really, really valuable post.

Especially for those involved in the media and/or publishing.

Vincent offers up this gem: “Ten ways online newspapers can use Web 2.0 without digging themselves a grave”. I dare say point number four is (possibly?) the most important of the lot:

Do not fall into the trap of thinking everyone wants social news features on your site

It’s a mistake that has been made by so many around the world. And it’s happening with redesigns and relaunches everyday.

Vincent mainly offers opinions about voting/selection tools. (more…)

Wow. 40 whole mentions on Amatomu-linked blogs yesterday. http://www.amatomu.com/search/david bullard

Or a massive 180 if you use Technorati. 180 mentions. Probably about half as many unique blogs. At a stretch. “Bloggers unite”, woohoo, self-congratulatory pats-on-the-back all round.

David Bullard knew what would happen. And he’s pretty much said as much in the video clips the Sunday Times team have put together.

Unless you believe the conspiracy theories. Right… and Brett Kebble’s alive on some Caribbean island…