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death of print
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Harry McCracken leaving PC World to go startup
PC World editor-in-chief Harry McCracken is leaving the magazine next month to work on his own technology website which, to our relief, he does not describe as a "blog." [Folio]
death of print
online video
Someday, Warner Bros. plans to launch a Web video site
You might have missed it, but Warner Bros., the film studio, created a television network in the 1990s called "The WB." The network's biggest star was Katie Holmes, before she accepted the role of mother to L. Ron Hubbard's heir. Then in 2006, the studio pulled the plug — folding it into CBS's failed network, UPN, and calling the new redheaded stepchild The CW. Well, now the brothers are back with TheWB.com, "an online video Web site combining short original series with classic shows," reports the AP. As you can tell from the screenshot, it's not quite operational yet. Though you're free to join the The WB fan page on Facebook!
Slow-motion newspaper-industry death continues
Newspaper readership, long resilient, is now clearly dropping. Paid circulation from September 2007 to March 2008 dropped 3.6 percent from the similar period a year ago; Sunday circulation dropped 4.6 percent. [Reuters]
Newspaper readership, long resilient, is now clearly dropping. Paid circulation from September 2007 to March 2008 dropped 3.6 percent from the similar period a year ago; Sunday circulation dropped 4.6 percent. [Reuters]
media
"Google Me" documentary an irony-free, feel-good flick with literal cult appeal
Jim Killeen, former bit-actor and current small businessman, decided to turn the typical act of searching for other people with his same name on Google into the premise for a documentary — Google Me. He tracked down a number of other Jim Killeens around the world, from Australia to Ireland, and spent some time to get to know them and ask them a few questions. The result is an hour and a half of "gee whiz" encounters and white male bonding. See Jim meet Jim! And Jim! And Jim! See Jim get grossed out by vegemite and haggis! See Jim uncomfortable as the particulars of a swingers party are explained! You can watch it all for free on YouTube. But what was the most interesting thing about the film? More »
10:00 AM on Sun Apr 27 2008
By Jackson West
1,761 views,
10 comments
Latest by wryter: About 15 years ago, filmmaker David Berliner's "The Sweetest Sound" had a similar conceit. He tracked down anyone he could find with his name via phonebook, newspaper ads and however else people used to search for each other during those more »
hacks
CNN's self-parodying headlines now available on T-shirts
Is CNN for real? The headlines on its website — "Minced onions force emergency landing" — cause some to wonder if its Atlanta-based producers aren't having a jape at the expense of news junkies. Now, an expansion into selling T-shirts confirms that CNN is laughing at us, not with us. Capitalizing on the trend of mass-personalized e-commerce, CNN.Shirt lets readers pick any recent headline and put it on a T-shirt. As blogger Andy Baio notes, the feature is easily manipulated, allowing users to construct any story they want and get it printed. But why bother making up the news when CNN shows just how much stranger truth is than fiction?
exits
Ex-Business 2.0 editor leaves Fortune for Time
Josh Quittner, former editor of the defunct Business 2.0, has extricated himself from his unhappy stay at Fortune by returning to Time, where he previously worked. Tellingly, Time editor Rick Stengel refers to him as a "writer" for Fortune, though he had the ostensible title of executive editor. Stengel's memo is included below. Quittner's new gig is his old gig, covering consumer technology, which takes him back roughly 13 years in the progress of his career. Funny, because we'd heard that Quittner had held serious talks with Michael Arrington about joining TechCrunch, around the same time he wrote a laudatory column about the tech blogger. All that puffery, and no job in exchange? A shame. More »
great moments in journalism
Citizen journalism fails Al Gore
Climate change superstar Al Gore banned the press from his appearance Friday at the tail end of the RSA Conference on information security in San Francisco. The move seemed like a joke: Surely, Valleywag's editors reasoned, the roomful of high-IQ IT professionals carrying wireless communications devices into Gore's presentation would blog, tweet and shoot the whole thing. Gore would be streamed live to Qik via multiple videophones. No need for a pro journalist to sneak into Gore's talk and liveblog it, as I used to do with Steve Jobs keynotes. Web 2.0 had it covered. So what really happened? The only on-time account of the event came from CNET reporter Robert Vamosi, who used his conference speaker badge to get past security. Vamosi posted a thorough report less than an hour after Gore began. Hey Robert, didn't you get the memo? You're supposed to be out of work by now.
great moments in pr
Press banned from Al Gore's RSA keynote
In the Moscone Center, former vice president and current Valley privateer Al Gore will be speaking at the RSA Conference 2008 today at 2:15 p.m. — but there's no press allowed. There will, however, be hundreds of people with top-of-the-line technology and at least a passing familiarity with cryptography and the like. Hacks in the press room have been overheard discussing plans to sneak in. Valleywag encourages anyone with Wi-Fi, EVDO, a Twitter account with SMS enabled or, better yet, a videophone that can live stream to Qik or another service to let us know where you're posting smuggled coverage of the speech. (Photo by Dan Spisak)
great moments in journalism
Why bloggers should rejoice at being passed up for the Pulitzers
When will the Pulitzer committee allow online reporting to be considered for an award? People have been asking that question for more than a decade. But blog-sympathizing critics of the prize really need to ask is whether including online news would make a difference in who won. More »
2:00 PM on Tue Apr 8 2008
By Jordan Golson
489 views,
3 comments
Google and Yahoo, meet your new WSJ beat reporter
The Wall Street Journal's Jessica Vascellaro is moving from New York to Silicon Valley to take over the Google and Yahoo beat. Watch out, Eric Schmidt and Jerry Yang: Vascellaro's article on the rift between Liberty Media's John Malone and IAC's Barry Diller helped spawn a nasty lawsuit between the moguls. [Silicon Alley Insider]
The Wall Street Journal's Jessica Vascellaro is moving from New York to Silicon Valley to take over the Google and Yahoo beat. Watch out, Eric Schmidt and Jerry Yang: Vascellaro's article on the rift between Liberty Media's John Malone and IAC's Barry Diller helped spawn a nasty lawsuit between the moguls. [Silicon Alley Insider]
Want to write about Google for the Wall Street Journal? The job's open
Kevin Delaney, the Wall Street Journal's Google and Yahoo beat reporter, is decamping from the Valley to New York to take a deputy editor gig at WSJ.com, we hear. A perk of the job: Getting to disclose Google's business relationships with Journal parent company News Corp. in every story.
Kevin Delaney, the Wall Street Journal's Google and Yahoo beat reporter, is decamping from the Valley to New York to take a deputy editor gig at WSJ.com, we hear. A perk of the job: Getting to disclose Google's business relationships with Journal parent company News Corp. in every story.
clips
Cashmore and Scoble on tabloids and new media
Robert Scoble and Mashable's Pete Cashmore sat down to discuss tabloid and traditional journalism in old media and new. Scoble: "Yellow journalism wasn't invented in the last ten years... College students... want to read Perez Hilton, they don't want to read about the war in Iraq... This has been a fight in newsrooms for years." Even better? We find at the end that Cashmore's most read feed in his Google Reader is Valleywag. The crush is mutual!
silicon valley users guide
How to read a tabloid newspaper
Tabloid newspapers are alien to the Valley. A scandal sheet like the New York Post rarely covers tech — and those are the only days you read it. We understand that it's jarring. Here's how to decode the Post's recent report on Microsoft's attempt to cobble together a Yahoo board. More »
hooker drama
New York media writing "Melissa Gira Grant" over and over in its notebook
Yet another Manhattan paper, the alt.weekly The Village Voice, leans heavily on our own sex trade reporter to examine Eliot Spitzer. Voice writer Tristan Taormino argues that by hiring out instead of getting a real mistress, Spitzer was minimizing the impact on his marriage. Part of what you're paying for in a hired girlfriend experience: She won't get drunk and call your wife. Plus, Melissa adds, she won't let you get too crazy over her: "Sex with clients is very different from sex with people I am in a relationship with. I had to cut loose a client who was becoming too close and relying too much on me." Yeah, I had a Web contractor like that once.
josh quittner
Ex-Business 2.0 editor dumping Fortune for housing blog?
What is Josh Quittner, the former editor of Business 2.0, doing for his next act? Since September, he's had an unhappy career at Fortune, the Time Inc.-owned corporate sibling which took him and a few other refugees from the magazine in. He's been earning what we hear is a mid-six-figures salary playing Scrabulous, and then writing about it. (Actual quote from a recent column: "Clearly, I had too much time on my hands.") The latest I'd heard on Quittner, my former boss, was that he was leaving Fortune to return to Time, where he worked before joining Business 2.0, as its Marin County-based tech correspondent. But he may have another exit strategy in mind. in 2006, Quittner registered roofmagazine.com. More »
death of print
Newsweek paid Steven Levy six figures to jump to Wired
Such is the plight of the dying magazine business: Newsweek paid what's rumored to be a high-six-figures ransom not to keep Steven Levy, its star tech writer, but to unburden itself of him just so he could join Wired. The Washington Post-owned weekly is offering editorial staff generous buyouts, up to two years' salaries, to reduce its headcount. Levy smartly leapt at the offer, knowing he could easily get a job elsewhere. Something seems backwards in this labor market: Don't acquirers normally pay a premium for control?
Levy joining Wired as staff writer
An internal memo from Wired executive editor Bob Cohn says Steven Levy, Newsweek's tech reporter for 13 years, is joining the magazine as a staff writer. Cohn says Levy is reporting a book on Google. [Romenesko]
An internal memo from Wired executive editor Bob Cohn says Steven Levy, Newsweek's tech reporter for 13 years, is joining the magazine as a staff writer. Cohn says Levy is reporting a book on Google. [Romenesko]
