Old Line Journalism Dying One Tweet at a Time
Today demonstrates well why old line print journalism involving large, corporately-owned media conglomerates is a dying breed.
In today's Des Moines Register, publisher Laura Hollingsworth describes the economic woes facing the newspaper:
Like all Iowans, we’ve already had a few months of tough decisions. We’ve dealt with a reduction in employees and a furlough program in hopes to avoid further layoffs in this volatile first quarter. We’re making tough, but necessary decisions. Some decisions have us setting aside what we want to do for what we need to do. Some simply accelerate what we were already planning, like increasing and expanding our digital content to meet the growing demand for it.
Starting on Monday, you will see some changes in the layout of The Des Moines Register. The headline is that we’ll be merging some sections and moving some features.
The bottom line is, of course, well, the bottom line. Newspapers like The Des Moines Register are losing subscribers (and advertisers) by the thousands. After all, who wants to pay for a subscription to a newspaper when you can read the same articles online 24/7?
Meanwhile, news organizations across the net are describing growing importance and power of microblogging services like Twitter.
The most recent illustration is the crash landing of US Airways flight 1549 in the Hudson River. The first tweets started hitting the Net only seconds following the crash. As MSNBC reports:
“There’s a plane in the Hudson. I’m on the ferry going to pick up the people.”
Those words, hastily typed on Janis Krums’ iPhone just after US Airways flight 1549 crashed into the Hudson River on Thursday, marked yet another milestone in the microblogging revolution. Krums, a Sarasota, Fla., entrepreneur, posted his observations and a compelling photo of a half-submerged aircraft to Twitter, where it was seen by hundreds of people before any other media organization knew about the accident.
Red Ink Replacing Printer's Ink
In an Associated Press article reporting on the bankruptcy of The Minneapolis Star Tribute, writer Jeff Baenen describes what is happening within the newspaper industry:
The Star Tribune ranked as the nation's 15th-largest paper last October, with weekday circulation of about 322,000 and Sunday circulation of almost 521,000. The paper has nearly 1,400 employees.
The Star Tribune filing is the latest sign of the struggles facing the newspaper industry, which is coping with a deadly combination of high debt and declining advertising revenue amid a deep economic downturn.
In December, Tribune Co., which owns the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, The (Baltimore) Sun, The Hartford Courant and other dailies, as well as 23 television stations and the Chicago Cubs baseball team, was forced to seek bankruptcy protection because of dwindling advertising revenues.
USA Today publisher Gannett Co. this week imposed one-week, unpaid furloughs for most U.S. employees. The Seattle Times has asked some employees to take a week off, and others have frozen wages. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer is up for sale, with closure or an online-only future if no buyer is found.
As newspapers fight for survival, microblogging and the alternative media are growing at astronomical rates. As Elliott reports on MSNBC.com, "Seven out of 10 Twitter users joined just last year, according to the latest HubSpot 'State of the Twittersphere' report. Somewhere between 5,000 and 10,000 Twitter accounts are opened every day. Most microbloggers have a small circle of friends — fewer than 30 — with whom they share their day-to-day thoughts."
An to think all of that growth is based on simple thoughts confined to a mere 140 characters. Incredible.
References:
"Register Announces Changes" by Laura Hollingsworth. The Des Moines Register, January 16, 2009.
"Changing Travel, One Tweet at a Time" by Christopher Elliott. MSNBC.com, January 16, 2009.
"Minneapolis' Star Tribune files Chapter 11" by Jeff Baenen. The Associated Press, January 15, 2009.
Introducing Scrapplet: Creating Your Own Site from Scraps
Don Reisinger over at CNET.com’s Webware provides a nice review of Scrapplet, a new web service that allows users to create their own mashable dashboard using “scraps” from other sites. Here’s a brief description from the article:
Want to grab your Twitter stream and put that on the same page as your Friendfeed? With Scrapplet, that's possible. In just a few simple maneuvers, Scrapplet allows you to highlight portions of a Web page or an entire site, drag it to the Scrapplet page, and modify the design of that page to make it fit. In fact, you can resize the site, change the site's colors, and remove borders. In essence, you can create an entire Web page out of existing sites for your own consumption.
You can read Reisinger’s complete review here.
Twitter and the Church
Jeff Wilson over at imageForth.com has some feedback on his experience using Twitter to stay connected with his church. While he points out several advantages, there is one big disadvantage that can be difficult to overcome:
Twitter is a great way to keep those who “twitter” informed, but one of the problems that we have encountered is that there are not very many who use Twitter. So, a question comes to mind how do you inform both those that do have a Twitter account and those that don’t that Henderson Hills has a Twitter account?
I will be curious to see how many (if any) of Grace Church's friends and members start following the church on Twitter.
Read more: ImageForth » Twitter and the Church
Ordering a New Laptop
I just went through the process of ordering a new laptop. This was the first time I didn't have to look at the lowest priced budget computer. My budget was $1,500, and I could go a little more if necessary.
I considered purchasing a "business class" PC. The primary difference (I found) is in the build quality. Most business class notebooks are built with better quality materials, and, as a result, are more durable. For this added protection, you add more weight and, in many cases, several hundred dollars to the purchase price. After doing quite a bit of research, I opted to go with a consumer-level notebook and add a good warranty, which will cover the notebook in case of any accidental damage. (I should note that I basically carry my notebook back and forth between home and work. I am kind to my computers and don't put them through a lot of trauma. As a result, I am comfortable with a consumer-level notebook.)
I narrowed my search to three manufacturers: Dell, HP, and Leveno. All three receive excellent reviews. All things being equal, my preference was for HP simply because I have purchased two of HP's quick docks (home and office) for quickly attaching my notebook to my desktop setup with monitor, keyboard, mouse, printer, network, speakers, etc. This setup works great for me, and I didn't want to lose that functionality. Plus, ordering a docking station for the Dell or Leveno would add $200 per station.
With that as background, I focused on HP Laptops. The outside shell of HP's Laptops hasn't changed in the last couple of years. HP receives high marks for the design of their notebooks. I started by focusing on the processor. I knew I wanted an Intel dual core processor, not an AMD. In doing my research, I read that in side-by-side comparisons, Intel processors run 10 percent faster than similar AMD processors, and, more importantly, AMD's processors put off more heat, which is an issue with laptops.
Next, I wanted a dedicated graphics card. Most budget PCs come run their graphics off the mother board. This is not the best solution for graphics intensive applications. I do quite a bit of video editing, and I wanted to use this PC for video editing, so a dedicated graphics card was essential.
Finally, I wanted to get as much memory as possible. I opted for 4GB of RAM. To access this much RAM, I needed to add Windows Vista 64-bit as the OS. I've read mixed reviews on Windows 64-bit vs. 32-bit OS. If, after some trial time, I find I am having issues with a 64-bit OS, I will get rid of it and install Windows XP Pro. This will mean losing access to the complete 4GB of Ram (32-bit operating systems can only access 3GB of memory), but I probably won't notice a substantial difference.
So, without any further delay, here are the final specs of the notebook I configured with HP:
HP Pavilion dv5t Entertainment Notebook
- Upgrade to Genuine Windows Vista Ultimate with Service Pack 1 (64-bit)
- Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo Processor P8400 (2.26 GHz)
- 15.4" diagonal WXGA High-Definition HP BrightView Infinity Widescreen Display (1280 x 800)
- 4GB DDR2 System Memory (2 Dimm)
- 256MB NVIDIA GeForce 9200M GS
- HP Imprint Finish (Mesh) + Microphone + Webcam for HP BrightView Infinity Display
- Intel(R) WiFi Link 5100AGN and Bluetooth(TM)
- No High speed 56K modem port
- 250GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive with HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection
- SuperMulti 8X DVD+/-R/RW with Double Layer Support
- No TV Tuner w/remote control
- High Capacity 6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery
- Microsoft(R) Works 9.0
- HP Color Matching Keyboard
- HP Home & Home Office Store in-box envelope
Google Enters Virtual World
PCMag.com is offering a preview/review of Google Lively (Beta). This is the online giant's entrance into the virtual world dominated by Second Life. Here is the summary of the article:
Lively gives you a 3D chat world with a very clear interface, and it makes getting into virtual worlds much easier than it is with Second Life or World of Warcraft, which both use far more sophisticated 3D rendering for much larger, more realistic worlds (and consequently require far more PC horsepower). Lively gives you nowhere near as rich an experience, but it's a decent way to test the waters. Because of the lack of depth and realistic physics, however, I can't really see Lively, in its current form, becoming a serious challenger to Second Life. It seems more of a phenomenon people will check out just once or twice before they move on.
Here is a video preview from YouTube:
