How can newspapers make more money? Easily, believe it or not.
October 21, 2009
In these tough, financial times, people will be looking for free and easy information. Usually, the local newspaper’s website is a great source of information. But with user generated content on the rise, it’s easier for start-up companies to gain a foothold in a market where newspapers once dominated.
It’s then that the “old media” companies sit back and wonder how they can compete with companies that have little overhead but yet remain some competitive to them. The answer is quite simply to disrupt the disruptor.
Brad’s 2008 Link Extravaganza
May 1, 2008
I post my bookmarks once a year to have a record of them. I’m sure some folks will find them useful
Adobe – Photoshop Express (beta)
ESPN – Carolina Panthers Local News – ESPN Local
Salisbury Post | Salisbury Area Ad Portal
Insoshi: open-source social networking platform in Ruby on Rails
Create Resizing Thumbnails Using Overflow Property | Css Globe
FOX Sports on MSN – NFL – NFL Draft Video Central
FOX Sports on MSN – NFL – NFL Draft Video Central
abc7.com: Bear attacks, kills animal trainer at facility in Big Bear City, Calif. 4/23/08
ID Selector – Making OpenID easier
Developer's Guide: Data API Protocol – YouTube APIs and Tools – Google Code
Digital Web Magazine – Creative Use of PNG Transparency in Web Design
coffee2code.com » Blog Archive » Plugin: Author Image(s)
Goal Line Blitz – Beta – American Football MMORPG
Weblog Tools Collection » Blog Archive » Global Variables and the WordPress Loop
The Ultimate Guide to the WordPress Loop | Theme Lab
Dynamic Drive DHTML Scripts -DD Tab Menu (5 styles)
ESPN – Carolina Panthers News, Schedule, Players, Stats, Video – NFL
flickrSLiDR – Embed Flickr Slideshows within Your Site
Category:WPMU « WordPress Codex
Publish RSS feeds on your WordPress site without plugins | WordPressGarage.com
1 Pixel Out » Audio Player WordPress plugin
What's Needed in 2008: Serious Newsroom Cultural Change
FlashDen – Download Stock Flash, Audio, Video and Pixel Fonts
ESPN Widget Center | NBA Widgets
JS-Kit: Customizing the Comments widget
Sony | Cyber-shot DSC-H7 Digital Camera (Black) | DSCH7B | B&H
ThinkGeek :: Micro Stainless Steel Digital Camcorder
Motorola V365 Cell Phone – Wireless from AT&T, formerly Cingular
Facebook Developers | Facebook Developers News
Web Hosting Talk – The largest, most influential web hosting community on the Internet
Forums and BB Software : Revolution Theme Support
play sudoku online for free — sudoku on a new level — sudokular.com
Weather, Local Weather, National Weather, International Weather & More | Reuters.com
AP Online Video Network | Inline Video Player
BroadCam Video Streaming Software – Stream Live Video Over The Internet
Integrating using the Ning Authentication APIs – Ning Developer Network
Crowd Favorite : Task Management Software | WordPress Magic | Custom Web Development
A List Apart: Articles: CSS Design: Taming Lists
Sony Ericsson – Mobile phones – Overview – W580i
Unexplained Mysteries :: Paranormal Phenomena and the Worlds Greatest Unexplained Mysteries
The Georgetown Times | Georgetown County, SC Community News Paper
Nextel | Sprint Power Vision Ultimate Pack
MediaPost Publications Home of MediaDailyNews, MEDIA and OMMA Magazines
Photos taken in Salisbury on Flickr!
CHARLOTTE BOBCATS: MyTV12 To Broadcast 15 Games Locally
Movable Type 4 installation step by step with screenshots – SuperXM
Learning Movable Type | Tutorials and helpful tips for the Movable Type web publishing system
Sony | HDR-SR8 HDD HD Camcorder (Black) | HDR-SR8 | B&H Photo
Media News – TV Ratings – Television Programming
Apple – iPhone – Rate Plans for iPhone
Creating a Business Plan and Attracting Investors – FAQ’s
Commercial Appeal : Memphis News, Business, Homes, Jobs, Cars, & Information
After the Fire – Der Kommissar – Music at Last.fm
Am I Right – Misheard Song Lyrics, Latest Additions
Market research & statistics: Internet marketing, advertising & demographics – eMarketer
DMNews.com – The News Leader in Direct, Database and Internet Marketing
How I Explained REST to My Wife
I want to use my social network's APIs on an external website – Ning Documentation
IAB – Interactive Advertising Bureau
MediaShift Idea Lab . Ready? Here's My Formula for Online News Success | PBS
Amazon.com: RCA EZ201 Small Wonder 60 Minute Point-and-Shoot Camcorder (White): Camera & Photo
InternetNews Realtime News for IT Managers
AdReady — Build, run, and optimize banner ads
MarketingVOX – The Voice of Online Marketing
BuddyPress — Creating a Social Network based on WordPress MU
Traction Software, Inc. | Front Page
Movable Type Publishing Platform
Blogtronix Enterprise 2.0 Blogging, Wikis, Documents, RSS, and Corporate Social Networking – 1.877.BLOGTRONIX
Blogtronix is a secure Enterprise 2.0 collaboration platform that integrating blogs with wikis, RSS, communities, analytics, and corporate social networking. Blogtronix is the award-winning platform that’s easy to use, scalable and can be delivered either on-demand or as a software. Our applications range from internal corporate collaboration to global user created communities.
Movable Type Publishing Platform
21Publish – Multi-User Blogs for Business and Communities – Home
The turnkey solution to start your own customized network of blogs.
Dynamic Drive DHTML Scripts- Ajax Tabs Content Script (v 2.0)
Dynamic Drive CSS Library- Bold CSS Buttons
Dynamic Drive CSS Library- DD Color Tabs
Dynamic Drive CSS Library- Shade Image Tabs Menu
Dynamic Drive CSS Library- Chrome Menu Bar
Dynamic Drive CSS Library- Solid Block Menu
Homepage – Concord, MA – The Concord Journal
Homepage – Concord, MA – The Concord Journal
The Boston Globe Online – Boston.com
Complete coverage from today's edition of the Boston Globe newspaper
IndyStar.com | The Indianapolis Star | Indianapolis news, sports, business, community, entertainment, yellow pages and classifieds. Serving Indianapolis, Indiana
Central Indiana News – IndyStar.com is the home page of Indianapolis Indiana with in depth and updated Central Indiana local news. Stay informed with both Indianapolis news as well as headlines and stories from around the world.
Atlanta News, Sports, Atlanta Weather, Business News | ajc.com
Get Atlanta news, sports, Atlanta weather, entertainment, business & political news and more from the Atlanta Journal Constitution – we know Atlanta best! /
Home – Rockford, IL – Rockford Register Star
Home – Rockford, IL – Rockford Register Star
Breaking News | Headline News | Current – New York Post
Breaking news, headline news, current news – NYPost.com. Your online resource for breaking and headline news, current news on U.S., international, entertainment, business, and more.
San Francisco Bay Area — News, Sports, Business, Entertainment, Classifieds: SFGate
Find local news & information, updated weather, traffic, classifieds, sports scores, real estate, jobs, cars, food & wine, travel, entertainment, events and more on SFGate.com. Connect to the Bay Area community.
Chicago news, sports, photos, video, blogs, Chicago weather, business, travel, tourism, entertainment and jobs — chicagotribune.com
Chicago Tribune is Chicago's number one local newspaper for everything from breaking news and Chicago travel to Chicago real estate information.
Los Angeles Times – News from Los Angeles, California and the World
Los Angeles' leading online source for local, state, national, world, entertainment, and sports news. Plus jobs, real estate, cars and shopping information from the Los Angeles Times.
Spartanburg, South Carolina | GoUpstate.com | Spartanburg Herald-Journal
Based in Spartanburg SC, GoUpstate.com is the Web site of the Spartanburg newspaper the Spartanburg Herald-Journal, a merger of the former Spartanburg Herald and Spartanburg Journal. The site covers Spartanburg County as well as Cherokee County, Greenville County and Union County
Home – The Advocate
stamford advocate features local news business stamfordadvocate sports classified living and health
Connecticut News, Sports, Entertainment, Obits — Courant.com
Connecticut news from Connecticut's premiere newspaper The Hartford Courant. courant.com provides a wide variety of world, national, state, and local news. courant.com also features weather, sports, business, jobs, and more.
NHRegister.com
Read the New Haven Register for in-depth, breaking news about Southern and Central Connecticut.
washingtonpost.com – nation, world, technology and Washington area news and headlines
Thoughts on the new CNN.com Beta
June 8, 2007
If you haven’t seen it already, you can check out CNN.com’s new Beta site here. It’s a new look for the news site, which looks like a “Cheap-ass blog” according to my friend Donavon. I kind of like what they are trying to do, but there is too much wasted space for my taste.
I like the tech page shown in this thumbnail; more specifically the usage of the photo going across the top. I don’t like that the header goes all the way across and the body doesn’t. It just doesn’t match with the rest of the site. It does have some more personalization features, like local news and weather integration. There’s also a hot topics string of links under the top navigation with the top keywords people have been looking for recently.
IMO, they should have went with a layout like FanNation.com or SI.com, which are very clean but use space wisely. Still, it’s not as bad as USAToday.com’s latest redesign, which many have labelled as a disaster.
State of the media report
March 14, 2007
As a member of the “media” (so to speak) I think we all need to understand what is going on in the news industy; where it is going, who is doing what and what we need to do to keep up with it. Here are a few articles I found this evening while doing some research:
Open Source Newsroom — http://zero.newassignment.net/ (interesting experiment)
Newspapers brought financial woes upon themselves, says Craigslist boss –
http://www.out-law.com/page-7800
The Great Media Industry Schism — (good read)
http://publishing2.com/2007/02/25/the-great-media-industry-schism/
Gannett’s New Lease On News –
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_09/b4023023.htm?campaign_id=rss_daily
Indy Media Organizations and Their Web 2.0 Tools –
http://newassignment.net/blog/steve_anderson/feb2007/27/indy_media_organ
Another MySpace killer? Virb.com could make a strong run
March 11, 2007
People are enamored with MySpace.com because it’s a behemoth. The fact is, though, that customizing it is hard, it has limited functionality and it’s owned by FOX (who will undoubtedly commercialize it and take away all the aspects of the site that people like presently).
Enter Virb.com.
Virb is like myspace in that you create an account, blog, upload videos, pictures, etc and connect with your friends. When setting up your profile page, however, they take away all the guesswork by giving either a WYSIWYG interface to change your layout, colors, etc. OR a custom place dedicated for you to input your HTML code to change your layout. They even give you a list of labels to include in your template, so for example, if you want to place a module of your top friends and 5 additional random friends in a div below your blog posts, all you need to do is put in $VIRB_topFriends(+5 Random) and it does that for you. They provide a list of available codes so you don’t have to guess.
If you are a Mr. (or Mrs.) Smartypants, you can even create your own module for inclusion in your pages.
It seems to do everything you’d want MySpace to do, and then some. It seems to be a little stronger in the customization category than Ning.com, which does have some features that I like better than Virb, like the Forum and the RSS integration. However both are more interesting, visually appealing and more user-friendly than MySpace.com.
List of Features from Virb.com:
Follow VIRB° as it continues to grow and new features are added. We’ve got a lot of stuff in the works and of course we can’t tell you EVERYTHING that’s coming, but here’s a glimpse of current and upcoming VIRB° features.
New Stuff
Invite Multiple Friends to a Group Much needed, grow your groups! (3/08)
Embed Your Virb Videos Offsite Widescreen video wherever you want to put it. (3/05)
Coming Soon
Blog Import via RSS feed will save you hours of Copy/Paste.
Expanded Features for Groups …after all Virb is about interaction.
Saving Multiple Profile Styles/Layouts …that last customization was really cool, you might want to use it again.
Not-as-new Stuff
Flickr Photo Feed means that using more than one photo sharing site doesn’t have to be twice as much work.
Multiple Taglines rotated randomly because we know you’ve got more wit than just one line.
Embedding of Approved Media gives you the ability to embed media from trusted sources, starting with Google, YouTube, Vimeo and Odeo.
Top Friends allows you to keep your best friends stuck on your profile… and you can rotate other friends into additional slots randomly.
Save Blog Drafts, then publish them when you’re ready.
Comment Categorization makes it easy to see who’s commented on your profile or media.
Basic Layout Editor gives you the ability to rearrange modules through a drag-and-drop interface.
Batch Edit for Friends allows you to update filters for many friends in one screen.
Announcement Filtering allows you to receive announcements from chosen friends only.
Recent Activity Filtering allows you to be notified of profile updates from chosen friends only.
Tailored Linking between Orgs and Members connects people to the organizations and projects that they’re a part of.
Gradient Removal on Virb Bar increases the flexibility of profile customization. (advanced CSS users only)
Lights Out Button darkens the page while you watch a video.
Remove Customization Button helps you get around messy or ugly profile customization.
Wide-screen Video player adjusts to the dimensions of videos that are uploaded.
VirbTunes for iTunes Tracking shows your friends what music you’ve been listening to and helps you find music.
Recent Activity lets you know when your friends have added new photos, videos or blogs.
Announcements are a quick way of getting a message to all of your friends.
Basic Style Editor is for anyone who isn’t a CSS pro. We like to make things easy!
Advanced HTML/CSS Editing for those of you are the CSS Pros. We like to make things flexible too!
Albums for Photos & Videos to keep things nice and organized.
Relationship Tags for Friends is an easy way to organize your college buddies or work friends… and to cross-reference them if you like.
Batch Edit for Photos simply saves you time keeping your photos organized.
Personal Music Player allows you to create a playlist of your favorite musicians on Virb.
Profile Music Player is another way to let your friends know what you’re listening to and adds a little audio to your profile.
Upcoming Shows lets you know which of your favorite musicians are playing in your area.
Module Nicknames show your creativity by letting you name your modules whatever you like.
Unlimited Personality Tag Sections let you go nuts tagging yourself… unrestricted.
Custom Modules are in case you want to put something in your profile that doesn’t fit anywhere else.
Privacy Settings are important to keeping you safe and surrounded by friends.
I have 14 friend invites left for Virb. Presently you don’t need them, but in the event that you do in the future, if you are interested in obtaining one, just reply to this post and I’ll send you one. You can check out the very basic profile I created HERE. I will be refining and investigating its features for the next few days, at least.
Web 2.0 sites that make the internet super-awesome, part 2
February 10, 2007
A few months ago, we posted “6 sites that make the net super awesome”. I’d post a link to it… but it’s gone. Vanished. Deleteified.
But I’m back, pimping a few other sites that I think make the internet super awesome.
Project360.com is a web collaboration and management tool that is similar to Basecamp, except Project360 looks better, has more functions, is cheaper and more useful. Want to download a spreadsheet of what everyone in your group is working on or has worked on? no problem. Project360 has you covered. It saves a lot of time, and can save your neck if someone drops the ball. Price – $35.00/month for 35 projects and unlimited users.
If you can’t get enough weather, (and if you don’t watch local tv which has the weather on every 5 minutes it seems), then you can get your own accuweather widget to place on your own blog from NetWeather.com. Is this super-awesome? Not really, it’s more along the lines of “pretty cool”… but still, I wanted to mention it because it is useful on football gamedays when you need to know if it’s going to rain, snow, etc and you need to know who to bench/start on your fantasy team, or how you should dress to attend the game.
Back to the Super-Awesome with SNAP, the web site previewer that is absolutely a cinch to add to your site and is extremely useful. SNAP previews sites in a little popupwindow on hover. Test it out (you probably have already) by hovering over a link on this blog.
If you’re a blogger or have a website, they you must be using FeedBurner.com to manage your RSS Feeds. If not, you might want to check it out. FeedBurner will take any feed and fix it up with all kinds of enhancements.
If you want to see the future of the internet and personalized information, check out Spotback.com. You create an account, tell it what you like “sports, technology, etc.” and what you don’t like, then you rate articles based on how interesting you think it is, and presto, you have a personalized news site that learns what you like.
Once again, one of my favorite sites, the site I recommend to someone at least once a week is FeedDigest.com (who isn’t accepting new applications at the moment). It will take feeds, or a couple feeds, put them together and allow you to create acustomizable output for you to use elsewhere. It is extremely easy to use, and you don’t have to know any coding to place its javascript on your site.
Meebo.com is a site I use every day. Everyone wants to talk to their friends online, but sometimes you either can’t due to corporate restrictions or don’t want to load 4-5 different messaging programs on your computer. Meebo is your solution because it allows you to connect to all of the chat networks like Yahoo!, AIM and MSN.
Advertising Age – Local TV Goes Mobile
February 10, 2007
Advertising Age – Digital – Local TV Goes Mobile
Internet Broadcasting, which creates websites and sells ads for 79 local TV stations, has forged a venture to get news and weather onto the so-called third screen. The Minneapolis-based company has signed a deal with Crisp Wireless to deliver content to phones and other wireless devices. Internet Broadcasting, itself owned by three major station group owners — Hearst-Argyll, Post Newsweek and McGraw Hill Cos. — will deliver local fare such as weather radar images and sports headlines and scores.
How are other companies, (like Media General for example), going to compete with this when their sites are so far behind already? The Mobile frontier is the next great format, especially with the iPhone and devices like it on the horizon. Still, many media companies haven’t even embraced RSS, Blogging (done the right way) or even dynamic content across all affiliates.
Bravo to Internet Broadcasting for realizing what people actually want and doing something about it.
Techcrunch.com has an ad on the site today promising a 50K signup bonus (After the 6 month probation period) for Web Developers and Designers willing to move to “Asia”.
The site, located at http://207.218.248.46/ promises to:
“Provide you with a private flat, fully furnished, 007 style with all the latest gadgets you need. Peace of mind with your own chef, housekeeping, driver and security. Their team works and lives on the top floors of a state-of-the-art skyscraper”.
The DNS resolves to EV1servers.net out of Houston, Texas – http://www.dnsstuff.com/tools/whois.ch?ip=207.218.248.46
So where exactly in Asia is this? Probably not Japan or South Korea. It would more than likely state that it was one of those places if it were. Where else has state-of-the-art skyscrapers? Singapore does… as does China. Hong Kong maybe?
My biggest questions are, “Is this a scam?”, and if so, “Why would TechCrunch perpetuate a scam?”.
It’s got to be legit, because it’s a prominent ad on TechCrunch.com, which to this point has been very reputable. I don’t think they’d lead us astray.
Expanse CMS System
August 8, 2006
Expanse +++ dream. create. do.
Expanse is the new CMS System created by Nate Cavanaugh & Jason Morrison aimed at giving designers more control over their blogs and portfolios.
Expanse lets you upload your artwork and photos, create thumbnails, add press events and your latest news, as well as allowing people to interact with you and keep up to date on your work.
It enables you to create and manage a website without being bogged down in the details.
Some of the notable features:
- easy 3 step install
- automatically crop and resize your thumbnails
- drag and drop reordering of your items
- sell your items through paypal
- easy integration with your current site
- add multiple items to your portfolio in an instant
- add additional images to each item you post
- have multiple users help manage your content
- easily add unlimited multiple categories
- easy content formatting
- post into the future
- add custom fields to your entries
- manage your site’s themes with a click
- super simple (yet powerful) template system
- rss feeds, commenting, smilies and more…
all for $29. Seems like a steal. Check out the Demo here.
technorati tags: expanse, cms, content-management, designers,
MediaShift: Newspaper Sites Hot to Blog, Cool to Podcasts
August 3, 2006
Newspaper companies are feeling the shift hard, as people go from reading print newspapers to getting their news and classified ads on the Internet.
MediaShift . NewspaperShift::Newspaper Sites Hot to Blog, Cool to Podcasts | PBS
MediaShift by Mark Glaser has quickly become one of my favorite blogs. In this particular post, here are his main points in the cited article:
- Blogging is all the rage.
Out of the Top 100 newspaper sites, 80 of them have blogs. Of those 80
sites with blogs, 67 sites (or 83%) let readers comment on the blogs.
- Podcasting is still a province of larger papers.
Unlike blogs, podcasts are employed by a minority of Top 100 newspaper sites — 31 of them.
- Video offerings are widespread.
61 newspaper sites of the Top 100 offer video on their sites, which is a pretty strong number.
- Newspaper sites offer RSS — but not with full text or ads.
Out of the Top 100, 76 sites have RSS feeds and almost all of them offer feeds for particular sections of the site.
- Forced registration is losing steam.
Only 23 of the Top 100 newspaper sites require people to register in order to read articles.
- Editors are not hip to reader comments on stories or bookmarking.
Only 19 sites allow readers to comment below each article, and only 7
sites offer either internal or external bookmarking features.
technorati tags:mediashift, newspapers, podcasting, media, blogging
