Insider Chatter by Donna Bogatin

All of a sudden Nick Denton wants a seat at the media table, instead of scrounging for table scraps?

Did Gawker Media chief Nick Denton heed my recent blogging warning about the sustainability of a media model relying on the regurgitating of the oriiginal journalism of others?

During the Q & A of the IAB MIXX panel in September, “Users vs. Journalists vs. Advertisers: Does Web 2.0 Destroy or Enhance the Marketing-Media Ecosystem?” I asked Denton and his fellow panelists if mainstream media would eventually reject the link economy and therby unravel the not so virtuous, online copyright infringing Web conent ecosystem.

After all, shouldn’t old fashioned cold cash, aka licensing fees, be the end game for news organizations that DO put their own money on the line to pay for the real “news” that bloggers of all genres, shapes and sizes end up piggybacking off of and selling ads against for their own accounts?

At the end of the Web 2.0 day, will the shaky economic foundations of the derivitave blogosphere implode, I asked Denton and the New York Time’s About.com’s, Scott Meyer.

Speaking from his New York Times experience, Scott Meyer responded that mainstream media is OK with the (not so) quid pro quo, echoing a familar refrain that it is all about Google PageRank link love building. Denton, proud implementer of the VIA link at Gizmodo, did not have an opportunity to respond during the panel Q & A, but acknowledged to me that the “question” is a good one.

Such a good question, in fact, that Denton is now heeding my warning of a low-value, link-o-rama based blog fest: “It’s no longer enough to take stories from The New York Times, and add a dash of snark. Gawker needs to break and develop more stories,” a Gawker job listing stated, according to the New York Times.

The Times: “That dash of snark — the hallmark of Gawker since it was introduced in 2002 — is less valuable in a Web clogged with Gawker clones. Mr. Denton was apparently not impressed by any of the initial job applicants; within days he had decided to name himself managing editor.”

Not impressed? Denton perfectionism, or Denton slave driving??? If Gawker Media REALLY wants to compete with The New York Times, it will have to step up to the PAY plate! Real journalism does not come easily, or cheaply, as this professional blogger has long been originally reporting and analysing. SEE:

Does Huffington Post Exploit Bloggers AND Mainstream Media? and
If ‘We the Media’ Poaches Content, Who Pays for News Production? and
AP Sues VeriSign: News Aggregation ‘Business Model’ at Risk and
Tom Curley AP Crusade: Google AdSense Lawsuit Near? Thanks to Attributor and
Nielsen, Digimarc, Attributor: Free Internet Content Ride Is OVER!

New York Magazine recently turned the snark tables on Denton, billed “the attractive, upper-class gay Jewish Briton who owns almost all of Gawker Media,” in the expose: “Gawker and the rage of the underclass.” Author Vanessa Girgoriadis:

Like most journalists, I tend to have a defeatist attitude about Gawker, dismissing it as the Mystery Science Theater 3000 of journalism, or accepting its vague put-downs under the principle that any press is good press. After all, there aren’t lots of other news outlets that cover the minutiae of our lives, and we’re all happy for any smidge of attention and desperate for its pickups of our stories, which are increasingly essential to getting our work read. The prospect and high probability of revenge makes one think twice about retaliation. Plus, only pansies get upset about Gawker, and no real journalist considers himself a pansy. But there is a cost to this way of thinking, a cost that can be as high as getting mocked on your wedding day.

The cost of such a way of writing to Denton, though, is apparently very low:

Pinched nerves, carpal tunnel, swollen feet—it’s all part of the dastardly job, which at the top level can involve editing one post every fifteen minutes for nine hours a day, scanning 500 Websites via RSS for news every half-hour, and on “off-hours” keeping up with the news to prepare for tomorrow.

In the media world, publishers often get what they pay for, or don’t. Denton’s Valleywag, for big example. SEE:

Valleywag Breakdown: Drunken Imagination and Valleywag: Lots of Ham, Where’s the Beef?

What is Valleywag “Managing Editor’ Owen Thomas managing? NOT verifiable truths in “reporting” on actual, tragic events.

“A drunk employee kills all of the Websites you care about,” Thomas headlined in the heat of the Summer in good Digg-bait fashion, without caring to backup the accusation with reliable sourcing. A “tipster” was “credited,” as usual, but who knows, Thomas may even be “tipping” himself.

In his (not so) hard-hitting investigative series on the ripple effects of San Francicso power outages, Thomas also headlined “Angry mob gathers outside SF datacenter,” with photographic “proof”: eight mild mannered techies in casual business attire chatting on their cells while queing up patiently to enter an office building.

Thomas proudly takes his lack of credibility on the chin, literally, and even promises more! But, why shouldn’t he, with equally unprofessional new competitor Henry Blodget and his Kevin Ryan financed (not so) Silicon Alley Insider eagerly reguritating every bit of non-verified “SCOOP” that Valleywag poops out. SEE:

Henry Blodget Slams eBay’s Whitman: Yahoo’s Yang Next? and Henry Blodget 2.0: Silicon Alley Outsider Trolls Again and Blodget & Ryan: Cool, or Suck? WHAT Silicon Alley ‘Insider’!

Valleywag’s Thomas earlier this month: “I was duped on a Scoop. This isn’t the first rumor I got wrong. It won’t be the last one. All I can promise is that when I hear something, you’ll hear about it.”

YAY? Public inivtation for manipulation! Before Denton gets all media noble, he ought to get his existing journalism ducks in order.

PLUS: Google Knol: The End of Google.com, NOT Wikipedia and Google Zeitgeist: $200 University Payola AdWords Scam and Why Facebook Will NEVER Kill LinkedIn

ALSO: Reid Hoffman: LinkedIn About Face (book) and Digg: TechCrunch Bails on Arrington Web 2.0 Fave

CONTACT DONNA BOGATIN

YAY! “Original stories, from the source,” Google News announces. 

While the blogosphere gleefully mocked Sam Zell when he had the gall to burst a “Google News is a publishers best friend” over inflated balloon, I countered: Google News is NOT Newspaper Driven.

Who is mocking whom now? Google continues to taunt the news media, big time, proving over and over that Google ONLY wants what is best for Google shareholders, despite a crowd-pleasing win-win-win spiel.

In the heat of the summer, Google Media has been putting the heat on news publishers, by declaring Google to be THE direct, one-stop media destination for:

1) Hosted, original reader commentary at destination Google Media in response to news stories published by third party media organizations,

2) Hosted, original news videos at at destination Google Media created by third party media organizations,

3) Hosted, Original wire news reports at destination Google Media created by third party media organizations…

Will the blogosphere AND new media continue to be duped by Google Media smoke and mirrors?

Google News IS a ruse, I said just two weeks ago, when the L.A. Times was skewered Sam Zell style for also having the gall to question the motivations of allmighty Google.

SEE Google News is a Joke: LA Times is NOT Laughing and Does USC Annenberg OJR Want Old Media Journalists to Shut Up? 

The Google mission is indeed alive and well: Obtain, control AND monetize ALL the world’s information, for the good of the world, Google’s world that is.

ALSO: Buzz Kill: What Would Google Do? DON’T ASK! and What Google News? AP: Google Plays Second Fiddle to Yahoo

PLUS: Quechup Spam Hysteria? Beware Facebook Risky Email Business

CONTACT DONNA BOGATIN

Is the LA Times telling its readers to shut up? NO. But the USC Annenberg Online Journalism Review headlined with such an erroneous attribution.

Is putting words in another organization’s mouth any way for Robert Niles to run the public media face of an institution of higher learning which purports to uphold the “highest standards of ethical conduct”? In fact, the Annenberg School for Communications Graduate Program in Online Journalism subjects students engaging in “fabrication” to explusion from the school.

Putting words in another organization’s mouth and headling with fabricated attributions is also contrary to the Code of Ethics of the Society of Professional Journalists, which warns:

Make certain that headlines, news teases and quotations do not misrepresent.

Niles, however, does NOT misrepresent the L.A. Times editorial in his editorial, he point blank fabricates a direct, attributed quotation!

Niles’ unprofessional, unethical headline:

The L.A. Times tells its readers: ‘Shut up’

Contrary to the erroneous, mis-attributed headline citation manufactured by Niles for the USC Annenberg Online Journalism Review, the L.A. Times says no such thing in the editorial the Niles’ editorial references.

Niles’ one-line summary of his opinion of the L.A. Times opinion accurately summarizes his take on the L.A. Times editorial, but his headline inapproriately uses a direct quotation to attribute words to an organization that did not utter them.

Niles purports to know the real intent of the L.A. Times in its editorial and presents his subjective understanding as attibuted truth. No where in his 15 plus paragraph piece, does Niles directly backup his headline quotation of the L.A. Times.

Niles concludes his editorial:

But what does The Times tell them with this editorial?

“Shut up.”

The University of Melbourne, School of Culture and Communication, Mediia & Communications Program, Professional Writing/Wriitng Journalism Style Guide on the use of quotations:

Double quotation marks signify direct speech by a person, or exact text taken from another source. Do not use double quotation marks for anything else.

Quotation marks can also be used in a number of other situations with careful consideration:

for a technical term on its first mention in a non-technical document,
for a word or phrase that has been coined but is not yet in common usage,
for ironic emphasis.

Perhaps Niles believes it is appropriate to manufacuture a direct quotation for “ironic emphasis.” Headlining with subjective, personal irony does not suggest “careful consideration” though and misrepresents the words of the L.A. Times to readers of the OJR.

Niles indicates that because the L.A. Times juxtaposed Osama bin Laden with Google, the Times “lit its credibiity on fire with that statement, one shouldn’t need to dissect the rest of its ridiculous editorial.”

The same can be said of Niles’ editorial, given the fabricated headline quotation. Niles did attempt to rebut the L.A. Times though. I rebut Nile’s opening ode to $160 billion market cap Google:

Niles engages in typical Google adulation, lauding the “search engine company” which he says has: “paid publishers billions of dollars to create original content” (including OJR and himself).

Google has done nothing of the sort. Niles merely respins the Google AdSense spin:

Google believes relevant advertising can be as useful as search results or other forms of content. And that advertising can enhance the experience for visitors to a publisher’s Web site, while helping publisher recover some of their investment in creating content of value.

The beneficent Google? Google won’t even respect standard business protocol and provide AdSense fueled Web sites with a revenue share commission schedule.

THE GREAT GOOGLE NEWS IS A RUSE, READ MORE: Google News is a Joke: LA Times is NOT Laughing

PLUS: Wikipedia Warfare: Anarchy Rules, Truth Optional

CONTACT DONNA BOGATIN

If ‘We the Media’ Poaches Content, Who Pays for News Production?, I underscored when NowPublic announced its $10.6 million VC funding earlier this week.

The scourge of derivatve link blogging–illustrated with profitable finesse at the AOL Weblog network–is not just one of content pilfering though, it is also one of reader fatigue.

The not so virtuous blogosphere circle that regurgitates “news” primary sourced by others and inflates unfounded rumor created by others often yields little more than a tiresome digital game of “Telephone.”

“Why think in, when it is easier to link out,” I noted in analyzing Marc Andreessen’s quick blogging rise and fall; SEE Blog Burn Out, So Soon? Marc Andreessen Goes Link Blogging:

John–Web 2.0, The Search–Battelle does it. Marc–Netscape, Opsware, Ning–Andreessen does it now too.

Two months into the pmarca blogging phenomenon? Andreessen apparently finds blogging more work than fun these days. Comments are gone at the Andreessen blog and so are long, original, thoughtful vision pieces.

blog.pmarca.com is acting more and more like battellemedia.com, a place for a Web 2.0 businessman to “cut and paste” from other places on the Web AND tout his own latest, greatest endeavor.

FLASH: Battelle’s Federated Media (FM) blog advertising network is now taking derivitave link blogging to the small screen via a not so virtuous FM link-back circle in conjunction with Morgan Webb. FM announces:

WebbAlert, a new daily technology roundup. Host Webb partnered with FM to develop the video show. She uses the top tech news sites, including a number of FM network bloggers, as sources for the stories and offers her viewers links back to the full posts on those sites.

The FM not so virtutous link circle includes incestuous intra-promotion:

It’s already drawing positive reviews from (FM network bloggers that Webb links back to) TechCrunch, AVC…

Michael TechCrunch Arrington is apparently not following through with the public call he made for a FM replacement last month:

More happenings on the sponsored text debate: John Battelle, CEO of FM Publishing, the ad network behind the ads, throw his authors, including us, under a bus today…Disclose? Disclose what? That the text inside of an ad unit is an ad? Thanks, John. Classy move.

I’m now pissed off at every single person involved in this. Denton for bringing up a non issue to attack competitors, Malik for folding immediately and making it seem like someone did something wrong, and now Battelle, our agent, saying he wished we had made a disclosure on this.

Any competing ad networks out there want our business, and promise not to throw us under a bus whenever Valleywag attacks?

REALLY? Arrington nevertheless appears still firmly in cahoots with Battelle, collaborating on the intra-company WebbAlert link fest with two back to back Webb promo posts encouraging even more cross-linking.

No surprise in the apparent about face. After all, Arrington’s public threat in May to go MIA went no where as well; SEE TechCrunch: Hot, or Not, for Silicon Valley?

Webb on the appeal of the FM “blogging orientation”:

Federated Media has been instrumentally involved in all elements of WebbAlert’s development. From our strategy and positioning down to minute details of our site design, they’ve been terrific partners and advisors.

For Battelle, the venture with Webb is but a beginning, a prototype for his latest hoped for extension of the FM blog network mini-”empire”:

FM sees WebbAlert as representing a key milestone in the development of the blogging world.

We’re not aware of anyone in television with Morgan’s national daily broadcast presence who has launched a daily videoblog. But we expect to see more people of her stature following suit in the months ahead. As that happens, we hope that the experience that we gain in helping Morgan expand her video presence to the Internet will make us attractive partners to many of them.

Beware AOL Weblogs?

PS: The Webb “show” does WAY MORE than provide courtesy links to the favored FM blogs. Webb gushes over the blogs and their authors and the FM partnered video design features dynamic full screen closeups of the video’s principal stars: FM network blogs.

First plug by Webb out of the gate? A VC Fred Wilson. The not so virtuous circle chain, via Wilson:

My friend Rob Reid is behind this and it features his wife Morgan.

What a Webb of personal, financial intrigue!

UPDATE: Old Media Lessons: Blog Integrity, NOT Disclosure, Rules Ethical Blogging

PLUS: Norman Pearlstine ‘Excited’ by a Rupert Murdoch Led Dow Jones

CONTACT DONNA BOGATIN

A Rupert Murdoch led News Corp. acquisition of Dow Jones represents an “exciting chapter” for Dow Jones itself and the entire field of business news, so believes Norman Pearlstine.

The former editor-in-chief of Time Inc. and twenty year plus veteran of The Wall Street Journal shared his excitement for Rupert Murdoch and the future of Dow Jones during his keynote yesterday at the ASBPE’s conference in New York City.

Why is Murdcoch spurring excitement for Pearlstine? First off, “he is the one executive these days that wants to invest in print” Pearlstine observed.

Why will a Murdoch led Dow Jones and Wall Street Journal bring excitement to journalism in general and business news in particular? It will be “fascinating” to watch Murdoch bet his own money on “expanding the model,” Pearlstine indicated.

Pearlstine underscored that the traditional media Murdoch has had the digital foresight to not only bet big on MySpace, but to foster a platform agnostic media delivery strategy as well.

Pearlstine looks to News Corp. to reinvigorate Dow Jones’ international efforts and for leadership in the FOX Business Channel in the works (which has already garnered 30 million subscribers, Pearlstine said).

Pearlstine speculated that News Corp. may launch a national edition of the New York Post by leveraging the excess printing capacity of the Wall Street Journal.

Pearlstine also noted, however, that Murdoch has “used his publications to advance the interests of news Copr. and himself.” The News Corp. litmus test going forward will be “how agressively he lets The Wall Street Journal cover Murdoch and Dow Jones,” Pearlstine said.

While Pearlstine sees prospects for a reinvigorated Wall Street Journal, he is less certain about the future of print media in general:

We are at the dawn of a new age of extraordinary transformation. No one can predict what will happen. Models that have been enormously successful are collapsing all around us.

Pearlstine now serves as Senior Advisor for Telecom & Media at The Carlyle Group private equity firm. The “turbulence” in the sector makes for a treacherous investment horizon.

James Attwood, Group Head:

The exhiliration of the tech/telecom boom became a false reality but we have now been seized by an equally false pessimism that is causing people to overlook real value in these markets.

Pearlstine is optimistic, however, because at least one person sees real value in print: Rupert Murdoch.

ALSO READ MY EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: How Pegasus News Fuels Local Media Business Model for Fisher Communications

PLUS: Ning, NowPublic: Web 2.0 Bubble or Bad VC Bets? and John Battelle vs. AOL Weblogs? Federated Media Wants Video Link Blogging Empire

CONTACT DONNA BOGATIN

This is Now Public: NowPublic, a seemingly “citizen journalism” network, is following in (not so) good Google and Facebook traditions of world domination hype.

While Google has laid claim to all the world’s information and Facebook believes it will be the world’s social graph, NowPublic is feeling giddy thanks to a new $10.6 million VC infusion and declaring its intention to be the biggest “news” agency in the world.:

Merrill Brown, chairman: This round of financing will enable NowPublic to further its goal of being the largest news network in the world with more people on the ground in the right places and at the right times to report the news.

Does it have a shot? NO! Why not? Because NowPublic is NOT acting predominately as a network for original news, in other words a “news agency.”

What IS a news agency? Encyclopedia Britannica: “organization that gathers, writes and distributes news from around a nation or the world to newspapers, periodicals, radio and television broadcasters, government agencies…”

NowPublic is operating in the exact oppostite fashion, however. NowPublic “contributors” are not generally posting original, primary-sourced “news”: NowPublic “news” stories appear to be predominately of the derivative blogging style ilk, merely “borrowed” cut and pastes of ”news” stories originally reported by real, professional news reporting organizations and/or other blogs.

Moreover, NowPublic’s public defintion of how it defines “news” is in contradiction with the “news” stories it actually hosts and promotes at NowPublic. The NowPublic website on its “news values”:

We have a very simple definition of news that allows our members to be assured that what they read is actually newsworthy: “News is new information on current events.” The news you post should be “news in this commonly accepted sense. It will be one of three types:

1) Original, relevant information about a current event that you have actually witnessesed, documented or reserached.

2) New information yo have collected, aranged and contextualized about a current event.

3) Commentary, advice or analysis directly related to a current event.

In reality, however, NowPublic is functioning as a Digg like site, aggregating crowd-pleasing soft news stories taken from other Websites.

The current NowPublic feature “news” story is about a YouTube video, taken verbatim from a story reported by Cebu Daily News and published at Inquirer.net:

Cebu Daily News First posted 05:34 PM 07/27/2007  CEBU, Philippines—A video of provincial inmates dancing to the tune of Michael Jackson’s 80s hit “Thriller” may end up in the Guinness Book of Records.

Capitol security consultant Byron Garcia yesterday said the video has a shot at taking the record for the most number of individuals dancing to “Thriller” at the same time and in the same location. He said he was informed by a Guinness Record title holder that the current record stands only at 65 dancers.

The NowPublic “crowd powered” version, dated July 29, 2007:

A video showing over 1500 prisoners of the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center  in the Philippines performing to Michael Jackson’s smash hit Thriller has been viewed over 2,500,000 times on You Tube.

Capitol security consultant Byron Garcia yesterday said the video has a shot at taking the record for the most number of individuals dancing to “Thriller” at the same time and in the same location. He said he was informed by a Guinness Record title holder that the current record stands only at 65 dancers.

The NowPublic current lead story–a two-day old regurgitated ’story” about a sensational YouTube video–is not in the spirit of NowPublic’s own definition of what is “newsworthy.”

NowPublic touts it is the “largest news organization of its kind…a participatory news network that mobilizes an army of reporters to cover the events that define our world.”

What is NowPublic touting now though as “The Best Crowd Powered News” on its home page?

“No trick plays here”: What is it? A verbatim reprint of an Associated Press reported story published at Yahoo Sports.

“You can’t have a phone because you are DEAD”: What is it? A verbatim reprint of a story reported and published by Northhampton Chronicle.

“The lucky escape”: What is it? Apparently a real, honest to goodness “citizen journalist” news contribution; A photo of a jockey on a horse purportedly saying “get off the fucking racetrack” to someone.

“Mayor Gets Happy”: What is it? A verbatim reprint of a story reported and published by The Vancouver Observer.

NowPublic founder & CEO Leaonard Brody says his model of citizen journalism is “increasingly being embraced by major media.”

Really? It is mostly the other way around; NowPublic is embracing the original content of major media, by piggybacking on the professional work done by professional news organizations, amazingly cost free to NowPublic!

What about NowPublic Hurricane Katrina and Virginia Tech contributions, NowPublic will retort. What about them? Man on the street “eye-views” of one-off mass public blockbuster news events are now easily obtained by professional news organizations as well.

NowPublic does not have a defensible “breaking news” value proposition and its daily “news” operation follows in the not so glorious derivative tradtion of AOL’s Weblogs.

Traditional news organizations have much to fear from innovative upstart Web-based news sites; NowPublic is not one of them.

ALSO: If ‘We the Media’ Poaches Content, Who Pays for News Production? and How Pegasus News Fuels Local Media Business Model for Fisher Communications: INTERVIEW

CONTACT DONNA BOGATIN