Thursday, December 11, 2008

Valleywag's Owen Thomas On Yahoo's Collapse

Valleywag, Silicon Valley's Tech Gossip Rag: “Everything takes forever at Yahoo, the once high-flying, now famously sluggish Internet giant. Today's layoffs of 1,500 employees have been expected for months. And yet the strange thing is so many Yahoos seem unprepared”

Entertainment Weekly Considering Going Online-Only? - Gawker

Rumormonger: Entertainment Weekly Considering Going Online-Only?: “We've heard from multiple sources that the idea of going online-only is being seriously considered by the leadership of Entertainment Weekly. And it wouldn't be a bad idea.”

-- I agree.

Why Are Newspapers Dying? - O'Reilly Broadcast

Why Are Newspapers Dying? - O'Reilly Broadcast: “The emergence of the Internet proved newspapers' most challenging competitor, and the one that ultimately may have managed to do the newspaper industry in altogether. Most newspapers, from the veritable New York times on down, launched their own websites, reasoning that this was simply another medium in which to publish their own writers, but this viewpoint may have been somewhat shortsighted.

In 2003, the term blog first entered into the modern lexicon, an online editorial or journal written not by professional journalists but by eager amateurs who could publish by overcoming a far smaller barrier to entry - setting up a blogging site. With contemporary tools, the blogger could effectively start producing his or her own "news" within a few hours, and if they happened to be reasonably competent, were willing to invest some time into promotion and consistent in publishing content, they had a good chance to gain more "eyeballs" than professional journalists with thirty years of experience.

As of April, 2008, only three newspapers had a subscriber base in excess of 1,000,000 readers - USA Today (2.3 million), The Wall Street Journal (2.1 million) and the New York Times (1.1 million). Most newspapers average approximately 300,000 subscribers. This of course doesn't reflect total readership numbers - many papers sell a significant proportion of their subscriber levels in newsstand and library sales - but it does provide at least a basic metric for understanding the dynamics of newspaper publishing vs. the web.”

Why Are Newspapers Dying? - O'Reilly Broadcast

Why Are Newspapers Dying? - O'Reilly Broadcast: “The emergence of the Internet proved newspapers' most challenging competitor, and the one that ultimately may have managed to do the newspaper industry in altogether. Most newspapers, from the veritable New York times on down, launched their own websites, reasoning that this was simply another medium in which to publish their own writers, but this viewpoint may have been somewhat shortsighted.

In 2003, the term blog first entered into the modern lexicon, an online editorial or journal written not by professional journalists but by eager amateurs who could publish by overcoming a far smaller barrier to entry - setting up a blogging site. With contemporary tools, the blogger could effectively start producing his or her own "news" within a few hours, and if they happened to be reasonably competent, were willing to invest some time into promotion and consistent in publishing content, they had a good chance to gain more "eyeballs" than professional journalists with thirty years of experience.

As of April, 2008, only three newspapers had a subscriber base in excess of 1,000,000 readers - USA Today (2.3 million), The Wall Street Journal (2.1 million) and the New York Times (1.1 million). Most newspapers average approximately 300,000 subscribers. This of course doesn't reflect total readership numbers - many papers sell a significant proportion of their subscriber levels in newsstand and library sales - but it does provide at least a basic metric for understanding the dynamics of newspaper publishing vs. the web.”

Malcolm Bricklin On Hybrid Cars, Auto Bailout and The Car Czar


On CNN


If you've ever sen the car in the video it's called the Bricklin SV-1 and was made between 1974 and 1976. It's maker is Malcolm Bricklin, an American Entrepreneur. Bricklin brought Suburu to America from Japan, as well as Fiat X1-9, and the Yugo.

In the 90s he turned his attention to making environmentally friendly vehicles, making an electric bike called The EV Warrior.

Today, Bricklin is combining his experience with fuel cell technology and his knoweldge of manufacturing techniques and economics to create a line of plug - in hybrid vehicles or PHEVs, which he says can be installed in your car right now, making it more gas efficient.

I sat down with Bricklin at the San Francisco screening of "The Entrepreneur" , a movie about him. In our talk, he revealed that he got a call that morning to be the President-Elect's "Car Czar", a job he turned down. He explained why.

"The person in that job would be cutting (jobs), and that's not me; I grow things," he said.

Bricklin also says the Auto Bailout passed of $15 billion "Is not enough" and says the companies need much more money. But he alos says something shocking: that the money will not result in the maintenance of jobs. That's the most alarming news of the day.

See Visionary Vehicles

YouTube Videos Pull In Real Money - NYTimes.com

YouTube Videos Pull In Real Money - NYTimes.com: “Making videos for YouTube — for three years a pastime for millions of Web surfers — is now a way to make a living.

One year after YouTube, the online video powerhouse, invited members to become “partners” and added advertising to their videos, the most successful users are earning six-figure incomes from the Web site. For some, like Michael Buckley, the self-taught host of a celebrity chatter show, filming funny videos is now a full-time job.

Mr. Buckley quit his day job in September after his online profits had greatly surpassed his salary as an administrative assistant for a music promotion company. His thrice-a-week online show “is silly,” he said, but it has helped him escape his credit-card debt.”

Rod Blagojevich, Jesse Jackson Jr, and Tony Soprano

llinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich has been indicted for ethics violations connected with a string of actions, including attempting to sell the now vacant Senate seat held by President-Elect Barack Obama. Of the persons considered for the seat, it's reported that Senator #5 offered to raise over a million dollars for the Governor -- it's rumored that the person is Illinois Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr.

Jackson moved swiftly to address this issue, holding a press conference where he said that he did meet with the Governor, and for 90 minutes. But he did not offer anything in the way of money. That press conference is here.