The return of the newspaper barons – very rich (and political) owners

Folks with several hundred million dollars and outspoken opinions have been buying up newspapers. The Omaha Herald, San Diego Union Tribune, Portland Press Herald, and Philadelphia Inquirer. At the end of last year, Warren E. Buffett bought The Omaha World-Herald through his company, Berkshire Hathaway. This would be the same Mr. Buffett who told his …

Journalists are becoming very popular in Facebook

In September 2011, Facebook introduced the Subscribe feature, allowing anyone to subscribe to the updates of anyone else. For public figures, like journalists, with thousands of followers this has turned out to be a boon. Since its launch, thousands of journalists have enabled Subscribe, with news organizations like Washington Post (90+ journalists using the feature) and The New …

Random acts of journalism – the new media

People don’t care about scoops, they care about trust. Social media has compressed the news cycle to the point where the half-life of a scoop is measured in minutes rather than hours or days. The number of people who care about who reported something first is rapidly diminishing Instead, what matters most to readers and …

Getting your attention is big business

Some interesting thoughts from Om Malik, founder of GigaOm, after their latest acquisition. He hints that while everyone can blog only certain websites can grab users attention and continue to do so. Media is the new Wild West We are quite strategic about our acquisitions — we acquire media entities only if we love the …

UCLA turns to social media as a means of researching the Middle East

I love that they are calling the project the “International Digitizing Ephemera Project.” Ephemera – (1) something of no lasting significance, or (2) paper items that were originally meant to be discarded after use but have since become collectibles.   The UCLA Library announced last month a new project aimed at recording and cataloging all …

How many hours of TV, internet video, TiVo, and mobile video do Americans watch?

Average entertainment consumption on TV – 32 hours, 47 minutes ” on the internet – 4 hours ” on TiVo – 2 hours, 21 minutes Average video consumption on internet – 27 minutes Average video consumption on a mobile device – 7 minutes   What age range are you in?   Did you notice that …