“But there was actually a sense of something even more troubling — a loss of control….”

September 29 Comments Off on “But there was actually a sense of something even more troubling — a loss of control….” Category: Feed, Journalism, Tumblr

“But there was actually a sense of something even more troubling — a loss of control. Journalists don’t often say this out loud, but we do think there’s an element of art to what we do. And what do most artists want, as much if not more than money? Creative control. But permeating almost every session was a sense of desperation — at regaining some kind of control over how we connect and impact with our audience. The homepages that newsrooms have sunk countless dollars and person-hours into upgrading are already dying a rapid death. Increasingly, story traffic depends on the whim of the swipes — with faceless folks in the bowels of Silicon Valley, at Google and increasingly at the social media giants of Twitter and especially Facebook, exerting an inordinate amount of power. If there was one word that I heard more than “viral” at the ONA, it was “algorithm.” Facebook has completed coded the way that millions of would-be news consumers get information, and no one knows how to crack it.”

Looking for the soul of journalism’s new machines at ONA2014.

politicalprof: thenationmagazine: The news is bad. One of…

July 23 Comments Off on politicalprof: thenationmagazine: The news is bad. One of… Category: Feed, Tumblr

politicalprof:

thenationmagazine:

The news is bad.

One of these stories will make the world pay attention …

The homepage is dead, the section home page is dead, the app is dead and the social web has won—even at NYT.

May 15 Comments Off on The homepage is dead, the section home page is dead, the app is dead and the social web has won—even at NYT. Category: Feed, Tumblr, Web Design

The homepage is dead, the section home page is dead, the app is dead and the social web has won—even at NYT. :

Traffic to the New York Times homepage fell by half in the last two years, according to the newspaper’s internal review of its digital strategy. Here’s the very stark chart: That’s not necessarily a reflection of any problems at the Times but the reality of how news is now distributed on the internet. Homepage traffic is declining at…

The new reality: news is all push, no pull.

Hal Varian: the economics of the newspaper business

September 27 Comments Off on Hal Varian: the economics of the newspaper business Category: Feed, Tumblr

Hal Varian: the economics of the newspaper business:
“The fundamental challenge facing newspapers is to increase the time people spend on their content.”