Internet Changes Everything

The Daily Paper Of Tomorrow

The Daily Paper Of Tomorrow

It won't look the same. But with reimagining, the local daily ain't dead yet

The boss walks into your office and shuts the door. Sits down. Looks you solemnly in the eye. "We're buying a bunch of newspapers from Knight Ridder (KRI )," he says. Tilts back in his chair. "We know there's something to be done with them, but we don't know what. Your new job is to figure that out. Which functions can go, which stay, what must be expanded, where the new revenue is. We -- well, you -- will remake the local newspaper for this century." He holds your gaze, nods twice, and exits.

At which point, judging from the reactions of those to whom this scenario was suggested, you put your head down and weep. Even among other still-profitable-yet-challenged media, newspapers have an especially bad case of cooties. "The components of what we historically know as the newspaper have become unbundled," says Warburg Pincus managing director Mark Colodny. Google (GOOG ) and Yahoo! (YHOO ) can offer sharply targeted local ads, craigslist has free classifieds, news is free everywhere, and next-generation news aggregators such as topix.net and inform.com are creeping in.

What's to be done? One recent blogger notion involves seeking federal assistance, but PBS can tell you how well that works. Absent extracting newspapers from investors' profit demands, your to-do list likely includes the following:

STEAL FROM GOOGLE. Make your ads hyper-accountable. Identify the top advertisers in your local market and figure out what it would take to grab 100% of their ad budgets. Give them unlimited pages, on paper and online, until they reach their goals. You're the biggest guy in town. Your per-page cost of newsprint is cheap -- and your per-impression cost online is even cheaper. Leverage that to cut off your rivals' oxygen.

BIFURCATE. Take what the The Washington Post (WPO ) and Chicago Tribune (TRB ) are doing a step further: Offer a free news-digest daily aimed at your least committed readers. Then price up a more elite daily newspaper, so the old $1 ceiling becomes the new floor for single-copy prices. Goodbye, daily paper. Hello daily papers -- one mass (free) and one premium. And given the elite daily's audience, charge more for its ads.

REDEPLOY MERCILESSLY. Save pages and dollars: Put all stock and TV listings online. Rethink everything and ask hard questions: Do you need a Washington bureau if you're not The Washington Post or The New York Times (NYT )? How much international news do your readers want -- can you pick it up from other sources, or run it online? Do you need a Saturday edition? Send a blogger, not a phalanx of reporters, to the news-free Republican and Democratic conventions. Which critics and columnists are crucial, and which won't be missed? Can you outsource the phone sales of your classifieds?

INCREASE LOCAL COVERAGE. An old saw, but local is newspapers' last unique attribute. It also provides the lens through which you view the larger world. What foreign reportage matters most to your readers? Find out which countries receive the most money from local residents.

REDESIGN YOUR PREMIUM PRODUCT. Production values for other media are higher than they've ever been. Do your pages have to look so newspaperish? A classier environment attracts richer advertisers.

USE YOUR READERS. Building communities and businesses around community-created content was not invented by MySpace.com. One bright spot for the Reader's Digest Assn. (RDA ) is Reiman Publications, which runs a host of homey, ad-free titles that lean heavily on reader-written contributions. Is there a sufficient subcultural pulse in your city to pull off a mini-myspace? Are locals writing hobbyist blogs that you can build about.coms around? There have always been more talented content creators than full-time jobs for them; the platform of the Net makes them visible. Do you want them inside your tent as partners or outside it as competitors?

To discuss the daily paper of tomorrow, go to Fine's blog at www.businessweek.com/innovate/FineOnMedia

December 31, 2005 at 10:35 AM in Journalism | Permalink | TrackBack (52) | Top of page | Blog Home

How digg Uncovers the News

Online Extra: How digg Uncovers the News

The founders of the wildly popular tech-news site explain how their mass of users sift and rank stories. Now they've got expansion plans

Overwhelmed by the fast-multiplying amount of content on the Web? Breathe easy: digg.com could provide some guidance, and some relief. The site, which mostly features news about the tech industry, filters stories from all over the Internet and presents them in a linear Google News-type interface. All digg's content comes from its users, who scour news sites, blogs, and other online sources for interesting tidbits.

The items users submit -- usually in the form of a short writeup and a link -- go into a queue, where members vote on their favorites. The 15 stories that attract the most votes -- or "diggs" -- are featured on the site's front page, which is updated several times an hour to keep the news fresh. It's this innovative "by the people, for the people" writing and editing system that sets digg apart from other Web sites. And it has some people calling digg the future of news.

Never heard of digg? You may soon. The 11-month-old site already has 80,000 registered members and 500,000 daily visitors, with 100,000 visitors being added every month. Fans include the influential media critic/blogger Jeff Jarvis and his 13-year-old son, Jake -- a loyal digg member who says he likes the power the site gives its members.

Now digg is about to get bigger. A coterie of Silicon Valley venture capitalists, including eBay (EBAY) founder Pierre Omidyar's Omidyar Network, Netscape founder Marc Andreessen, and Greylock Partners recently invested $2.8 million in the startup. BusinessWeek Staff Editor Elizabeth Woyke spoke to digg founder and CEO Jay Adelson and co-founder and "chief architect" Kevin Rose at their base in San Francisco about how the site began. Adelson and Rose also discussed the epiphany they had after Paris Hilton's Sidekick was hacked and their aims to spread the digg way of life to the rest of the Net. Edited excerpts follow:

Where did you get the idea for digg?
Rose: [Last year, when I was working for Tech TV], I interviewed Rob Malda (aka Cmdr Taco), the founder of Slashdot, one of the largest tech-news sites. Slashdot is much like digg in that its users submit stories, but Slashdot has a handful of editors who promote the stories to the home page. [Malda] receives 400 to 500 submissions per day.

It seemed to me there might be some content I would find of interest that he might not be into. So I asked him, would you ever consider turning that content live to the users so they could browse it and find what they like? He wasn't really into adding that kind of functionality, but I talked with Jay later that week, and we started putting together digg.
Adelson: We started talking about this notion of how to leverage the collective mass of the Internet in various ways: applying it to content, using it to rank content, using it to make content more palatable to the masses. There are just so many different ways you can apply that.

What was the first big moment you had with digg, when you saw its potential?
Rose: Early on, in February, Paris Hilton's [Sidekick] cell phone got hacked. Images from it were posted on the Internet, along with some celebrity phone numbers. Someone within a few degrees of the hacker posted [the story] on digg. It was late at night, and of course it was dug to the home page in a matter of minutes. We woke up the next morning, couldn't pull up the site, and found out we were getting hit by an insane amount of traffic.

I can't even tell you how many users were coming to the site because the servers weren't up to capture it.… When we first put this together, it was very much an experiment run out of my house. It was during that point we saw, wow, this is really blowing up. We could see the power of breaking stories before anyone else.
Adelson: It attracted the attention of the news media immediately -- the fact that we had this incredible speed. Automated systems take time to crawl the net. Editorial systems have the human factor. They may decide they're not interested that day, or they'll do it tomorrow. In our case, there's no barrier, so the second a story would be interesting to this mass public, we can break it.

You let your users submit content and choose what's featured on the front page of the site. How do you make sure the stories are useful and interesting rather than just weird or sensational?
Adelson: The larger the critical mass of users and the collective wisdom applied to digg, the better and more relevant the stories get. The number of diggs needed to promote a story to the front page gets higher as the number of users increase, so you get a better editorial [product] than if you had a small group of users. Also, if users digg something and later change their mind, they can take the digg away. And they can only digg a story one time.
Rose: The users are very much a self-policing community. They have the ability to report a story if it's not appropriate for a particular category. {And] digg looks at those reports, and our computers will automatically remove stories once they hit a certain threshold of reports.
Adelson: We also have a system we call karma that helps prevent abuse of digging. The system knows the difference between users who log in and digg a story one time, or users that are created just to add a digg to a story, and someone who's on the site a lot, digging a lot of stories. We can rank those capabilities.

The power behind digg is collective wisdom. There are those who would argue it's more powerful than a search engine because a human's ability to determine whether a story is appropriate is much better than a computer's ability to do so. We're able to get a much better filter than if we relied on some kind of artificial intelligence.

digg has social-networking features -- like the ability to add friends to a profile -- and a pool of active, loyal members. Do you consider it a social-networking site?
Adelson: Instead of creating a social-networking platform and adding an application to it, we started with an application, and we're using components of social networking to expand the value of the site. There's no question that the power of the collective mass is what's interesting to us. In the case of social networking, it serves one very distinct purpose -- introduction.

Rose: One of the most popular features of the site is the "friends" section, where users can combine multiple feeds into one unified feed. I have about 15 different friends I've added. What digg does is take all the stories, comments, and other activity my friends are doing on the site and unifies it into a single RSS feed that's updated in real time. I can subscribe to that one feed and see what all my friends are digging and commenting on.

What do you think users find helpful about digg?
Rose: The biggest benefit users see is they're able to come to digg, read stories, and know they're reading them before they get picked up on the major news sites.… Users are really starting to use digg as a tool more than anything else.

We also added RSS to our search results. It sounds boring until you figure out the power of how it actually works. You can enter a keyword into digg, do a search, and bookmark that page. digg will work nonstop for you looking for stories with that keyword that have been dug to the homepage or have a certain number of diggs. You're getting instant, relevant content directly to your browser.
Adelson: [We've heard] that on digg content comes faster, it's more relevant, and it saves them time. There's this notion that once you're using digg, it really makes other ways of sifting through data obsolete. We saw testimonial after testimonial about this.

What's the story behind your popular podcast/videocast, diggnation?
Rose: That's something I came up with about four months ago. We had this great pool of stories, and a lot of them were very unique because other sites weren't picking them up. I come from a tech TV background and have friends with similar backgrounds, so I thought, let's do a weekly podcast and highlight what users are submitting and just have fun.

Apple's (AAPL) launch of a podcasting section within iTunes has really helped its popularity. We stay in the top 20 ranking on their site, and that brings us a few thousand new listeners every day.

What do you plan to do with your new venture-capital funding?
Adelson: There's some capital up-front to expand the servers and bandwidth, but the real money is going toward the people it takes to develop the site, create features, and maintain operations. We're just beginning to create an office in San Francisco where we have developers who are going to be helping us with the next generation of digg. Right now, we have about six employees.

Can you talk about your plans to expand and improve the site?
Adelson: We created digg intending to focus on technology information. What we've seen is that the concept bleeds over and has a strong pull toward other areas of news. I think that's maybe what the future of digg will be -- to move into different areas of content besides tech.
Rose: Users are begging for other versions. They want politics and business and to really blow out the different science categories. So it's just a matter of time.
Adelson: One of the things we're already developing is making digg as customizable to the user as possible. You may want to create your own version based on certain interests or create category views that allow you to see those interests. There are lots of different ways we plan on presenting the data.
Rose: We're also working on freeing up a lot of the data we have. We're going to be offering an API [application program interface] in the next few months that will allow users to tie in to the data and manipulate it in any way they see fit. They can pretty much create any type of application they want around the Web site.

We're also learning about the content users are digging, so in the future digg will be a little bit smarter. So if you've dug stories around Linux and oolong tea, digg will know that and make recommendations.

What about taking your methodology and applying it to the rest of the Web?
Adelson: digg is all about leveraging collaborative wisdom to make the information on the Internet more convenient. There are a lot of ways you can apply this concept. We've been contacted by researchers and scientists about how digg's model could be applied to things like education, publishing papers, and collaborative science. The peer-review systems that exist in the world today could be easily translated from tens of peers to millions of peers. The world is open. The question is what are we going to choose to do first?

November 12, 2005 at 03:11 AM in Journalism | Permalink | TrackBack (0) | Top of page | Blog Home

Preliminary number and prospectus - Aug 5th 1843

Preliminary number and prospectus | Economist.com

Aug 5th 1843
From The Economist print edition

“If a writer be conscious that to gain a reception for his favourite doctrine he must combat with certain elements of opposition, in the taste, or the pride, or the indolence of those whom he is addressing, this will only serve to make him the more importunate. .”—CHALMERS.

IT is one of the most melancholy reflections of the present day, that while wealth and capital have been rapidly increasing, while science and art have been working the most surprising miracles in aid of the human family, and while morality, intelligence, and civilization have been rapidly extending on all hands;—that at this time, the great material interests of the higher and middle classes, and the physical condition of the labouring and industrial classes, are more and more marked by characters of uncertainty and insecurity. In vain has the hand of ART (led on and guided by a complete glare of SCIENCE, aided by INDUSTRY of unsurpassed intelligence and perseverance, nurtured and fertilized by CAPITAL almost without limit) developed the resources of the human mind and the material creation in a manner which has at once astonished and exalted the world;—in vain have all parts of the earth been brought nearer and nearer to us;—our Indian territory within forty days’ journey, the great American continent within ten days’ sail, our continental neighbours and every part of our own country separated only by a brief space of a few hours;—in vain the producers and consumers of the whole world, the administrators of mutual wants, the encouragers of mutual industries, have been brought in easy and close collision and contact, and thus facilitated the supply of every want, and the demand for every exertion of human skill and industry;—in vain do we acknowledge all these unequalled and undoubted elements of national prosperity: for at this moment the whole country—every interest without exception,—the owner and occupier of the soil, the explorer of our great mineral world, the manufacturer who gives form, shape, and utility to the produce of nature, the artisan, the labourer of every description, the merchant and shipowner (the great links of exchange), and the capitalist who facilitates the operations of all,—every one of these interests stand at this moment CONFESSEDLY in a condition of the most unprecedented depression, anxiety, and uneasiness. And what rather adds to this anomaly than in any way accounts for it, is, that our population has been rapidly increasing, not only in numbers, but also in great skill and productive ability.

But while Art, Science, Intelligence and Enterprise have been thus engaged the last half century in behalf of our country and the human race, in what manner has legislation been occupied? Let cool and calm deliberation determine this question. In the early part of that period the little time which could be spared by the legislature from the excitement of political strife, the struggle for political power and place, was occupied with the stirring events attendant on the long and continued wars in which we were engaged, and the principles of commercial and industrial legislation attracted little of its attention. Under such circumstances it was not difficult for those interests who possessed great political influence to obtain enactments which they supposed would be beneficial to themselves. Unfortunately, however, both governments, and classes, and individuals have been too apt to conclude that their benefit could be secured by a policy injurious to others; and too often the benefit proposed has even been measured by the injury to be inflicted: hence all the laws which were framed under this influence had a tendency to raise up barriers to intercourse, jealousies, animosities, and heartburnings between individuals and classes in this country, and again between this country and all others; and thus, under the plea of protecting individuals or classes against each other, and the whole against other countries, was the system of COMMERCIAL RESTRICTION completed by the enactment of the corn and provision laws, passed in 1815; amid the utter forgetfulness on the part of the legislature, that it had no power or privilege which could enable it to confer a favour or wealth on any part of the community, without abstracting as much from others; in fact, that it possessed no inherent source of productiveness which could enable it to be generous.

The policy of England, always, but especially at this particular time, looked up to by all the world as the highway to greatness, was eagerly followed in her commercial regulations by other countries; navigation laws, hostile tariffs, prohibition of English manufactures, were resorted to by other governments, each in a way according to the notions they had of their own interests, in imitation of, or opposition to, the policy of England, each country inflicting on itself as much mischief and injury as England had done by similar policy.

It was thus while Art, Science, Capital, Commercial Enterprise, and Labour were eagerly demanding a greater arena to multiply and extend their benefits to ALL, that legislation, ignorance, and prejudice associated with short-sighted selfishness, were actively engaged in frustrating all these nobler efforts and designs. And so far had they succeeded in creating a war among the material interests of the world, that in 1819 the collision occasioned thereby threatened the most serious consequences to our Social and Commercial existence. This crisis caused reflecting men to turn their attention to the hitherto neglected science of Political and Commercial Economy. The philosophy of Adam Smith found a clear and able enunciator in Ricardo. The political and legislative application of these great principles, so eloquently put forth to a wondering but ignorant audience by Burke, found an ardent, warm and able echo in Huskisson. The philosopher wrote, and was not refuted. The legislator debated, and by his earnestness, industry, and eloquence, aided no doubt by the pressing exigencies of the time, gained a partial triumph over the ignorance and prejudice which ruled; and shadowed out for the first time the principles of Political Economy into the embodyment of FREE TRADE as their practical result. He saw that our interests and commerce had far out-grown the narrow limits which ignorant legislation had assigned them: that all the up-heavings and convulsions in the country were but the external symptoms of the fierce struggle which was going forward between our rapidly-advancing productive power, earnestly demanding a larger field of exchange, and the principles of restriction and monopoly, blindly and vainly attempting to confine them to their ancient and narrow limit: that it was a severe contest between intelligence, which pressed forward, and an unworthy, timid ignorance obstructing our progress.

He commenced his commercial reform by revising our truly Anti-Commercial Navigation laws; he followed that effort by revising the import duties on the raw materials of manufactures of silk, wool, flax, &c.; he reduced the differential duty on coffee and wine, and by these and various other changes, but far more by the bread, intelligent, and enlightened arguments by which he supported his policy, gave great and cheering hopes that the emancipation of industry and commerce was at hand. Under the salutary influence of these reforms the country recovered, and with returning prosperity, discontent was dispelled—peace was restored. Every measure was attended with eminent success. With reduction of duties he increased the revenue; with protection, removed or lowered, he increased the competition and import, without injury to the producer at home. Increased supply only tended to stimulate demand. The Minister and his principles became equally popular. The silk weavers in Macclesfield, who declared themselves ruined by his policy in 1825, drew his carriage triumphantly into the town in 1830, on his last and fatal journey to Liverpool. The Free-Trade Minister died and left no successor. The progress of his policy was thus arrested at its outset, and was soon forgot in the stormy political events of 1830.

In 1831 commenced the great Reform struggle: fascinated with the excitement, intoxicated with the success, the country totally forgot the ends of good government in the struggle for its means:—its means were obtained, its ends were neglected. The Corn Laws and Commercial restrictions were denounced on the hustings, but unheard of in Parliament; and it is a serious reflection on the intelligence and wisdom of the times, that the greatest popular political influence which ever existed in this country, scarcely achieved one important act of liberation to commerce and industry; that it left the Corn Laws and all the great glaring monopolies and restrictions as it found them: it spent its whole strength in things good, but good only as a means to an end. A succession of a few good harvests, and the development of Huskisson’s then neglected principles, sustained our onward progress for some years,—until we reached the end of 1838,—when the occurrence of a single bad harvest, proved to all thinking men the critical point at which we had arrived. Wealth abounded, useful productions were multiplied beyond all precedent, but the field of exchange had become so narrowed, that the most serious national sacrifices were required to supply the deficiency of the first necessary of life during the three following years.

Twenty years had passed away: six millions had been added to our population: art, science, ingenuity, and industry had been working their miracles—but legislation still sought to confine the country in the same swaddling clothes in which it had been wrapt a quarter of a century before: and, with the exception of the few acts of Huskisson, no means had been taken to afford a wider field for our increasing numbers and powers.

The fierce struggle for more room, for wider markets, for free exchange, visible in 1819, was now again, as before, exhibited by new upheavings and convulsions—productive energy and intelligence were again in keen antagonism with monopoly and restriction. The great manufacturing population was the first to suffer, but that sympathy between all the different parts of the state, the existence of which has always been overlooked in framing restrictive and protecting laws, gradually extended the mischief, until it reached every interest in the country: the lessened means of consumption on the part of the artisans of one class reacted generally on the demand for the produce of their fellow artisans of other classes; which again reacted more strongly on the shopkeepers and small dealers; again affecting the wholesale dealer and importer;—the consumption of articles of foreign growth being thus curtailed in quantity and price, the power of our foreign customers to consume our manufactures was again, in their turn, lessened; and thus reacted once more on the producing classes at home; trade had a constant tendency to contraction; the shipping interest became deeply depressed; capital became profitless; the revenue suffered; new taxes became needful; consumption was thus once more lessened; and at last, though not with less certainty, the agricultural interest, that interest which is most strongly protected by law, but far more strongly by the stern necessity which exists for their produce in priority to all other articles, was involved in the common lot of increased charges, diminished demand, and lower prices: and thus the narrow policy of restriction and protection worked mischief to all, benefit to none; for where is the interest which does not at this moment confess itself in a state of depression without parallel?—It is no longer complaints of a class, or of classes, it is a universal national embarrassment;—an embarrassment which has disturbed and complicated our commercial relations over the whole world.

WHERE IS THE REMEDY?—who is the man that would remain as he is?—who is the man that would go back into greater restrictions, into a narrower field; into less demand? All now begin to feel and acknowledge that want of consumption is the true cause of depression and low prices,—that the real cause of all our evils is found in the want of employment for the labour, energy, and capital of the country as it now is: but how is that to be remedied? Only by extending our markets abroad, by increasing our exports: but we can only increase our exports by being willing to INCREASE OUR IMPORTS, and this can only be done from those large productive countries, the produce of which, at this time, is practically prohibited. No revision of the tariff will be of any practical benefit which will not admit in the greatest abundance all the first necessaries of life, and which does not open the markets of those great countries which produce them. It is of no avail to open freely our ports for articles of small and trifling consumption, to open our trade to small and comparatively unimportant specks on the ocean;—if we will really extend our trade, we must be willing to take freely and regularly articles of extensive consumption from countries of wide and rich territory, having great wants. We must be willing to take the corn of Prussia, Poland, and America; the sugar and coffee of Brazil, Cuba, and Java, and by the acts indicated in these two lines give to our great population, round whose well-being we have discovered all other interests revolve,—the two-fold blessings of ABUNDANCE and EMPLOYMENT.

We must retrace the whole of that narrow and ignorant legislation which seeks falsely and in vain to prop up and protect individual interests—which has only deceived and misled; we must rely alone on the great principles of public good for public prosperity. We must relieve industry and capital from all restrictions; we must know that there is no safety for our great active population but in the freest intercourse with the producers and consumers of all the world; in short, as the only true guarantee for prosperity and peace, we must honestly and fearlessly carry into practice those principles which all parties are ready to advocate in theory involved in

FREE TRADE.

To no country in the world that ever did or does exist are these principles of the same first importance that they are to us, for in no country does so large a portion of the population and property depend on commerce and industry alone, in order that they shall have any value. We believe that this important and critical fact has been entirely overlooked, or has never been considered in one tithe of its importance. Let us consider what a huge portion of our property and reliance for employment consists of, and depends upon, the vast variety of factories, mills, and other manufacturing establishments, and their numberless aiders, assistants, contributors, and ministers, found in every variety in manufacturing districts; our extensive and rich kingdom of minerals; our canals, railroads, and various facilities or internal transport; our endless variety of public companies; our huge and splendid commercial marine; our docks, basins, and public warehouses; and our great cities attached to and dependent on the same interests.

Now the important fact to which we wish to draw attention is, that the labour and property thus involved, not only depend on trade, but on a SUFFICIENT EXTENT OF TRADE, to retain any value whatever. As long as they are profitably employed they represent their full amount of cost in the sum of national wealth; and are of their full amount of utility in affording employment, to the population: but with an increasing population and ingenuity always at work, supply must have a constant tendency to increase. If the demand for the produce of our factories be not correspondingly increased, but on the contrary, diminished, competition must become greater and greater, until all profit ceases; the capital is sunk, and until there is a loss competitors will persevere. When that period arrives, when the price of the goods will not repay the labour and cost of the raw material, then the whole of this property vanishes, and its means of giving employment to labour, and its various contributors, ceases: for of what value or utility is a factory, and all its magnificent and complicated machinery and arrangement, with its steam-engine still and motionless? As long as our mines of iron and of coal yield a profit, they represent at least the whole value of the labour employed in exploring them, and generally much more in the form of rent or royalty; but increase the quantity of iron or coal without an increase of demand, and competition will lower the prices, so that first all rent will vanish, and as soon as the price does not pay the expense and labour of raising the mineral, we are no richer with coal or iron fields than if they were beds of quicksand: their power of employing labour is at an end, and all the money invested ceases to be national wealth. As long as railways and canals are profitable, they truly represent in real wealth the capital invested: but diminish the amount of traffic only so much as pays the profit—until the receipts do not cover the necessary wear and tear and expenses—and they are no longer wealth. Increase our number of ships, without proportionably increasing the consumption of articles of foreign growth—first the competition will destroy the merchant’s profit and yield only freight, but next competition will reduce freight, until the wages and expenses are not covered, and then all wealth in ships ceases: and the capital invested in them is so long an absolute abstraction of national wealth. With a given amount of trade all this wealth is secure, with a little less it vanishes. And let us well consider that it is not the mere surplus of these various interests that thus suffers, for no man will consent voluntarily to be the surplus:—no man will close his factory, blow out his furnace, lay by his pit or lay up his ship, until they become a source of loss. It is true the weakest must go first: the worst factory must be closed, the poorest mines must be laid by, and the worst ship must be laid up first; and then follow the next in degree; but the moment a little diminution of supply lessens the loss, a portion of the idle start afresh into competition. It may be coolly said, this state of things must cure itself in time, if it were only by a course of ruin; but, be it remembered, the population still goes on increasing, ingenuity and invention are still at the highest pressure of necessity, and as one class of competitors are destroyed, another class are immediately in their place. We can safely refer to each and all of these interests, if this is not a literal description of their present condition. The want of more trade prevents that trade we have being profitable: the excess of produce beyond the demand lessens the value of the whole producing ability; and this must continue as long a demand keeps not pace with production, as long as no effort is made to extend our markets as our population and productive ability increase. But inasmuch as consumption is only created by production, the two should always in a natural state of things keep pace with each other; the demand for productions should always increase as they become abundant and cheap, for abundance implies great production, and great production an extensive means of consumption. Then why do we find this country so great an exception to this natural law? Because by our

RESTRICTIVE SYSTEM

we limit the supply of one great class of productions, and thus practically limit the demand for all others, however much we affect to encourage our commerce. During the last thirty years one great class of producers at home has been limited by the nature of the country and Acts of Parliament. The land has given employment to no portion of the increase of the population: the whole additional six millions of our people, since 1821, have been thrown upon other employments. In 1821, 4,790,000 of the population were engaged in producing food for, and consuming the products of, the remaining 9,600,000: in 1842 the number of 4,790,000 of producers of food and consumers of manufactures is somewhat reduced, while the consumers of food, irrespective of the producers, are increased to 14,400,000; but the law practically enacts that the 14,400,000 in 1842 shall be fed by the same means that fed the 9,600,000 in 1821; and moreover, for such is the effect, that in 1842, 14,400,000 manufactures, dealers, various producers, professions, &c., shall only have the same number of customers with whom to exchange for the first great necessaries of life as the 9,600,000 had twenty years ago; and thus there has been a constant tendency for the produce of the rapidly-increasing number to exchange for a smaller quantity of the produce of the stationary number, or, in other words, while agricultural produce has all along maintained a high price, all other kinds of goods have fallen rapidly during the period; and the demand being thus far stationary, while the supplies were increasing so much, there was a constant tendency during the whole period to an excess of production on one hand, only because the same constant tendency existed to a limited and deficient production on the other hand. Had the producers of food kept in the same proportionate increase of numbers and quantity as the other class, there had remained the same relative value and demand for the produce of each, and excess or over-production would not have arisen in the one case nor deficiency in the other. This excess, or what is termed over-production, is precisely that surplus which we have before shown has been so long, and still is, undermining the commercial and industrial existence of the country;—for however great the struggle may be among farmers to occupy, or of labourers to cultivate, this fixed quantity of land, their numbers do not increase: they only require the same number of ploughshares, the same quantity of saddlery, the same number is still only to be shod and booted, still only the fixed number of backs to be clothed, still only the same number of consumers of colonial produce; while the class who depend for food on this fixed number, and who seek to minister their wants of ploughshares, of saddlery, of shoes, of clothing, who import and supply foreign produce, and have other occupations, are six millions more since 1821, and still increase at the rate of one thousand per day. In another eight years, if the increase goes on in the same proportion, in 1851, while the food producers remain at 4,790,000, the other classes will have increased to 17,000,000; and if it be possible that suicidal restriction and monopoly still prevail, it must require a still larger portion of the conflict of the large class to obtain the produce and minister to the wants of the smaller class; and it is an important fact, that the great competition to occupy, and to labour upon, this fixed quantity of land, has a constant tendency to keep the largest portion of even this smallest class in the utmost poverty and depression.

Thus far as regards the power of exchange in the home trade for the first great article of food:—next as to the greatest foreign article of consumption, and therefore of exchangeable ability, SUGAR. Here again the same principle has been acted upon, the same result has followed. Restriction and monopoly have again here attempted to confine the supply of the 27,000,000, which we now are, to the same means which supplied 21,000,000, twenty years ago. In 1821, the quantity of sugar available for the consumption of 21,000,000 of people was 4,176,178 cwts.—in 1842 the quantity similarly available for the consumption of 27,000,000 was only 4,082,312 cwts., being actually 93,866 cwts. less. The competition, therefore, of 27,000,000 to obtain only the same or a less quantity in exchange for their articles of produce, has had the constant tendency to cause a smaller quantity of sugar to exchange for a larger quantity of goods. The same quality of sugar which exchanged, twenty years ago, for a given quantity of manufactures, iron or hardware, will now command at least three times the quantity of those articles. Thus, while the supply of these great necessaries is limited to a given quantity, the chief effect of increased production at home is to lower its exchangeable value for the article of which the quantity is fixed. If the producers of our sugar increased in the same proportion as the consumers have, the same relative value would be always maintained between the goods of this country and that article, because the demand would always increase in proportion to the supply; but the restriction affects us in two ways; first, by making sugar dear, and secondly, by making our goods cheap, inasmuch as we limit our market in other sugar growing countries in consequence of the practical prohibition to consumer their produce. And thus it is, with these restrictions, that we have a constant tendency to that surplus or excess of one class of productions, which weighs down and depresses the great industrial interests of the country; that we have every day a greater tendency to that little trade, which makes trade profitless, and which brings about the exact state of things which at present exist.

There is no cure, there is no remedy, for all these evils but increased demand; there can be no increased demand without increased markets; and we cannot secure larger markets without an unrestricted power of exchange, and by this means add to our territory of land, as far as productive utility is concerned, the corn fields of Poland, Prussia, and above all, the rich and endless acres of the United States; to avail ourselves of the vast and rich productiveness of Brazil, Cuba, Java, &c.; and thus, at the same time that a plentiful and proportionate supply of all the great necessaries of life would be maintained, we should always, in exchange, have a corresponding demand for our increasing productions at home; the equilibrium of the various classes of producers would be restored and maintained. With freed trade we might go on increasing our productions without limit, for in this only natural state of things increased production could only create the power and means of increased consumption. There is no other remedy. It is in vain that deputations of distressed interests pass resolutions merely affirming their distress; seek interviews with Ministers of the Crown only to repeat their resolutions, without an opinion to offer as to the cause or cure; all will be in vain until they have this important truth palpably and at all times before them, that they are increasing by millions, while the law practically prescribes only a fixed, stationary quantity of the great necessaries of life for their consumption, only the same number of customers with whom to exchange their productions, whatever may be the quantity: until this conviction compels them to demand an unrestricted exchange, until they demand FREE TRADE as a simple act of justice and policy.

But we may be told these are all only opinion, well enough reasoned and difficult to answer, and perhaps very like the truth; but the experiment is great—we want something more than opinions. Well, then, we will endeavour to prove and illustrate every opinion we have offered to the full; and that by our own experience in four of the most important articles of the consumption of this country—Coffee and Sugar, as representing the Colonial interests; Wool and Corn, as representing the Home or Agricultural interests.

Previous to 1824 these two articles had been equally the object of the greatest protection and care. The duty on Coffee was

Since that period Coffee may be termed the pet article on which free trade has tried its experiments, and Sugar, on the other hand, the peculiar pet of protection.

In 1825 Mr Huskisson experimented on Coffee. He reduced the duties on

In 1835 the duty on East India was reduced to 6d., and a law was afterwards enacted that any coffee, of whatever growth, if imported from a British possession eastward of the Cape of Good Hope, or from that place, should be admitted at 9d. duty. So that practically the alteration made the duties thus:—

Therefore, instead of 50 per cent. protection, which West India coffee enjoyed against East India growth, and 150 per cent. against that of foreign growth; since 1835, the protection against East India has been entirely removed, and the protection against foreign reduced to 50 per cent. Here, then, is a great experiment of free trade, which, when it was begun in 1824, was denounced by the West India interest as the greatest chimera that had entered the head of a minister. Now let us see the result:—

In 1824, of the total quantity imported, we consumed:—

In 1840, of the total quantity imported, we consumed:—

The result may, therefore, be said to be an increased import of 20,423,000 lbs.; and increased consumption of 20,402,000 lbs.; with the former lowest duty reduced to one half, and the differential duties comparatively abandoned, the revenue more than doubled; and notwithstanding the enormous increased supply of East India and foreign coffee, which, at the old rate of duty of 2s. 6d. per lb., would have been practically prohibited, the price of Jamaica coffee in bond to the merchant and planter higher than 1824.

On this extraordinary result we must for a moment dwell, and reflect. The consumption of 1824 was 8,262,943 lbs., or 73,776 cwts. at an average price of 100s. per cwt. in bond, which represented 368,880l. of value. In 1840 the quantity consumed was 28,664,336 lbs., or 255,931 cwts.; and considering the large portion of East Indian and foreign coffee,—if calculated at only 80s. per cwt.—represented 1,023,724l. of value.

The first reflection in thinking of all the interests involved in this is, the additional number of ships which are required to carry 255,931 cwts. instead of 73,776 cwts.,—the employment of landing and warehousing it,—the increase of business to the importing merchant and the Mincing-lane brokers, in passing 1,023,724l. through their hands instead of 368,880l. The increase of business, again, which the distribution throughout the country by the wholesale dealer, and the retailing by the shopkeeper, of 28,664,336 lbs., instead of 8,262,943 lbs.; the blessing of this increased supply to the community, the revenue receiving 921,551l. instead of 420,988l.—and in the midst of these advantages,—the producer receiving actually a higher price than he did for the little quantity in 1824—all are benefited: no one is injured.

But stay: this is only half the benefit. We want goods—manufactures or minerals, to export in payment of this coffee, to the amount of 1,023,724l., in place of 368,880l. New labour is set to work throughout the country to produce them; this labour communicates ABILITY TO CONSUME MORE FARM PRODUCE, more of other kinds of manufactures, of other colonial or foreign produce. Then again, we have large business for the export merchant, for inland carriers, for labourers in the docks; and once more;.—all this additional demand for ships to carry the increased outward cargoes; and throughout, great additional legitimate demand for capital to conduct the transactions.

All this is very consistent with the condition of a population increasing at the rate of one thousand a day; and were this article the rule instead of the exception in our commercial policy, we should have no complaint of the lack of trade, of deficient revenue, or of surplus population.

Reflecting on these operations shows us how truly foolish is the distinction which men are constantly attempting to draw between the value of a HOME, or a FOREIGN TRADE. All these increased transactions, arising out of the import and payment for coffee (or be it corn or any other article), is exactly what makes a good home trade; the ability to consume circulates from one class to another; artisans of one class give employment to those of another by spending their wages; these, again, circulate in an accumulative manner; every additional man that we employ assists immediately by his consumption to find employment for others; and all unite in increased consumption of the fruits of the earth; the benefit circulates throughout all classes, and creates what is termed a good home trade: but the truth is, foreign trade and home trade are in effect synonymous terms; and equally synonymous are the terms “native industry” and “foreign industry”—the former being used to convey the idea of labour in cultivating our land, and the latter being used to convey the idea of that labour which is imported in exchange for our manufactures. Very little reflection will show that the value and demand for “native labour” in cultivating the soil, depends much on the demand which is caused by the consumption of those employed in manufacturing for the foreign markets, and that the whole demand for the labour of the latter class depends exclusively on our being able and willing to take from other countries such things as they value less than the goods which we have to offer: and this article will always be found to be that which such countries can cultivate most profitably: exchanges thus can only be a source of mutual advantage. The coffee, the wool, or the wheat, which we import in exchange for the produce of the looms of Manchester and Leeds, the anvils and furnaces of Birmingham and Sheffield, just as much represent native industry, as does the wool shorn on the Brighton Downs, or the wheat grown on the fields of Kent or Essex. The truth is, that as every article which we import can only represent directly or indirectly some article which we export, it must always follow that the more we extend our imports, the more we encourage that labour, “native industry,” by increasing a demand for those articles which are required in exchange for our increased imports.

In order to show most indisputably that the increased consumption of coffee was caused by the changes in the duties referred to, we subjoin the annexed tabular history of the article since 1820, distinguishing the three periods of the different rates of duties; and also distinguishing the proportions furnished under the different rates of duties during the whole period:—

During the first period in the above table, the total consumption remains nearly the same, showing only a very slight increase. With the lowering of the duty the increase is so rapid, that in the fourth year of the second period it is more than doubled, and more revenue is secured at half the former rates of duty. It will be observed that still the former proportions of differential duties on East India and foreign coffee were retained during this period, and that, in consequence, the consumption of those kinds (especially of foreign, still subject to a very high duty) did not materially increase. From 1830 for several years the consumption remained nearly stationary, until we arrived at the third period, when the differential duty was repealed on East India, and practically greatly reduced on foreign growth; and from this period another great and rapid increase of consumption took place. The law by which foreign coffee was admitted at the duty of 9d. if shipped from the Cape, or British possessions eastward thereof, did not operate materially till 1838; and then it will be seen how rapidly the supply of that description and the general consumption increased. Under this change the revenue increased about thirty-five per cent. in two years.

In further illustration of this principle. The duty on coffee was again reduced by the tariff of last year; and the quantity consumed increased on that of the previous year, while the consumption of sugar and all other leading articles was materially reduced. Indeed, the loss of revenue last year was less on coffee, with a reduction of thirty-three per cent. of duty on colonial (from 6d. to 4d.), and practically twenty-five per cent. (from 10d.—including 1d. for extra freight—to 8d.) on that of foreign growth, than occurred on sugar, the duty of which was not reduced at all.

We are not aware of one reason which could induce, under the same circumstances in every respect, an extended consumption of coffee, that would not in all and every way apply to sugar; but we can enumerate many most important ways in which the consumption of sugar should be increased, not applicable to coffee. It is much used for the food of infants; and if cheap, for this purpose alone medical men consider it would be an incalculable blessing to the poor; it is used largely in cooking, in preserving, in confectionery, &c.; and another reason for a great increase of sugar during the period alluded to, would be, that independent of the enormous increase of the consumption of coffee, the consumption of tea has also increased from 23,784,838 lbs. in 1824 to 32,252,628 lbs. in 1840. For our present purpose of comparison, two lines will dispose of the slavery argument: if it applies at all, it does as much to coffee as sugar; and indeed more, for if our purpose be to coerce the Brazilians into our views, then to them coffee is an infinitely more important article of growth than sugar: and gold, silver, and copper apply as much as sugar can to the argument, both in Brazil and Cuba. With all these advantages, let us examine how this PET OF PROTECTION has proceeded during this period.

In 1824 Huskisson was given to understand that he must not touch sugar; in 1830 the West India duty was reduced to 24s., the East India to 32s.; which was just so much more put into the pockets of the producers as long as the 63s. on foreign sugar was continued. In 1836 the duty on East India was equalized, but that on foreign not touched; and the duties now stand:

—a protection to the British colonial grower against the foreign grower and British consumer of upwards of one hundred and fifty per cent.

The duties being as before stated.

The duties being equalized on East and West India, but still 63s. on foreign.

The result is, therefore, a diminished supply of 377,302 cwts., and with the rates of duty very little changed, a loss of revenue of 192,910l.; and it is well worthy of remark that this account would have been a much more deplorable one, but for a little free-trade principle applied in it, viz.: that simple act of justice to our East India possessions so long opposed by the West India interest;—equalizing the duties of East and West India sugar. By looking at the two statements, it will be seen that West India sugar was actually reduced in quantity 1,717,868 cwts.; while East India and Mauritius had increased 771,889 cwts.1

We must again pause and reflect. The supply of sugar was 377,302 cwts. less in 1840 than 1824. The population had increased between 1824 and 1840 upwards of five millions, but not one ounce of sugar more for their consumption. The amount of British shipping in 1824 was 2,559,587 tons, and in 1840, 3,322,538 tons; an increase of 751,951 tons, but not one hogshead and not one bag of sugar more to bring home; or if more bags, fewer hogsheads. Docks have increased, warehouses enlarged, but no more sugar to land or stow away. The merchants in Broad street have so multiplied that the drawing-rooms, dining-rooms, bed-rooms, and attics of our ancient merchants have been turned into counting houses for the increased modern numbers, and even that not sufficient, they are pressed into Austin-friars and Tokenhouse yard; but among them all, not one cwt. of sugar more to sell. The brokers in Mincing lane, after filling “the lane” from the cellar to the attic, have betaken themselves to the neighbouring streets, but not one additional contract for sugar in a whole year for the swelling numbers. Money has accumulated in Lombard street, but no more bills drawn against sugar to discount, or warrants to advance upon than in 1824. Wholesale and retail grocers throughout the country have multiplied in full proportion to the population, but the same amount of sugar trade is only to be divided among them that existed twenty years ago, and every one connected with the article cries out, there is no profit by sugar; the fact being, that while the quantity has continued fixed, the competition to carry it, to sell it, and deal in it, has greatly increased, and this is exactly the way in which the littleness of the trade makes what trade there is without profit. But the shipowners, the merchants, the brokers, and the wholesale dealers, are so disinterested in the midst of all their crushing and elbowing for the sugar business, that they send men to parliament whose chief and great service is to maintain this fixity of quantity, and prevent a larger business for them.

But this is only half the mischief;—no more sugar coming home requires no more goods and manufactures to be sent out; there is no more work for the artisans, with all their increased numbers; no more ability communicated for the consumption of farm produce, or other articles; no more trade for the export merchant; no more freight for the shipowner, to pay for our sugar than twenty years ago.

Now it is quite impossible to form a precise estimate of what would have been the increase of the consumption of sugar had it been subjected to the same treatment as coffee. We have already shown that there is nothing in its character or uses that should prevent a corresponding increase of consumption, but, on the contrary, which would rather induce a greater increase: then the only other consideration is, would the facilities of obtaining supplies have been as great? The history of the island of Java during that period is perhaps the best reply to the question. In 1826 the quantity of sugar shipped from that island was 23,565 cwts., and in 1841 it had increased to 1,252,041 cwts.;2 and there we should find upwards of seven millions of free industrious people as consumers of our manufactures, living under the Dutch Government, which would only be too glad of an opportunity of entering into closer trading relations with us. Then we have the whole of the foreign West India islands, and the whole of the sugar-producing South American continent; so that there is no reason to suppose that the supply would not have proportionably increased with a freer state of trade.

Had such been the case, we should at this moment be in possession of revenue to the amount of five millions annually more than we are; and be in the enjoyment of an abundant supply of sugar, the immense increase of trade which would arise out of its import, and the export of goods of various kinds to the amount of some millions annually to pay for it. But it will be said by some, this act, just and fair and advantageous as it might have been to the English consumer and trader, would have been ruinous to our colonial possessions; but, from the evidence we have produced respecting coffee, that does not at all follow. Such people always forget that we cannot increase our supplies without in every way creating more trade, and thereby communicating to the whole country such an increased ability to consume the commodity; and that our experience proves that prices are less affected by increased supplies, than by that narrow and contracted consumption consequent on a narrow and contracted trade. This, indeed, we believe to be the real reason why restriction never succeeds, and why free trade always succeeds.

We cannot quit the subject without remarking, that during the period of which we have been treating, Java, Cuba, the Brazils, under all the discouragement of little demand, have produced so much sugar, and at such low prices, that our own merchants trading to those countries have, at three separate times during that period, made application to our Government for permission to introduce the sugar prohibited by a duty of 63s. per cwt. for the purposes of agriculture: first spoiling it in the presence of an officer in such a way that it could not be converted into purposes of food.3 Sugar so abundant that it could be used for manure and feeding cattle, but prohibited to minister to the want of a British public, or exchange for British labour; and is it to be believed that in the face of this fact Government and merchants can see no plan for the relief of commerce, or employing an idle population?

_____________________________________________________________

1 It is proper to remark that the year 1840 was one of a smaller supply of sugar than usual, but we have taken that year as being the last of which the complete accounts have been published; but, as all our arguments proceed on the fact that the supply of sugar has not increased, it would have been equally applicable had we taken 1842, in which, as before remarked, the supply of sugar available for the consumption of this country was 90,000 cwts. less than in 1824.

2 This increase has been so rapid and uniform, that to many the following table will be of great interest:—

3 It is a very curious fact in scientific discovery that the most profitable invention which was ever patented in this or any other country accidentally arose out of a similar application to Government. The application was to admit sugar for agricultural purposes; the Government applied to Mr Howard, the accomplished chemist, brother to the late Duke of Norfolk, to try some experiments for the purpose of ascertaining if sugar could be so effectually adulterated that it could not be again converted for culinary uses. For this purpose he mixed all kinds of noxious material with it, but the question remained whether they could be again separated, and in the experiments to ascertain this he discovered that not only could they be separated but that the sugar was better and purer. Out of this arose Howard’s patent for sugar refining and the use of the vacuum pan; the annual net income of which from licences granted for its use at the rate of one shilling per cwt. yielded in some years between twenty or thirty thousand pounds. One house in London alone paid four thousand pounds per annum.

October 16, 2005 at 02:49 AM in Journalism | Permalink | TrackBack (12) | Top of page | Blog Home

Online News Consumers Become Own Editors

Online News Consumers Become Own Editors - Yahoo! News

By ANICK JESDANUN, AP Internet Writer Mon Jul 25,10:45 AM ET

NEW YORK - J.D. Lasica used to visit 20 to 30 Web sites for his daily fix of news. Now, he's down to three — yet he consumes more news online than ever. Lasica is among a growing breed of information consumers who use the latest Internet technologies to completely bypass the home pages of news sites and jump directly to articles that interest them.

He can scan some 200 Web journals and traditional news sites — all without actually going out and visiting them.

Online news consumers are increasingly taking charge, getting their news a la carte from a variety of outlets. Rarely do they depend on a single news organization's vision of the day's top stories.

"The old idea of surfers coming to your Web site and coming to your front door, that's going away," said Lasica, a former editor at The Sacramento Bee. "People are going to come in through the side window, through the basement, through the attic, anyway they want to."

Some Web sites are already responding.

"When we all started this 10 years ago, we wanted to be the one and only place people come to," said Jim Brady, executive editor of The Washington Post's Web site.

These days, he said, the Post is happy simply to be one of many sources checked daily. He sees his home page as a starting point, and during the July 7 bombings in London, the Post even linked to the BBC, something unfathomable a few years ago.

The Post and Knight Ridder Digital, meanwhile, are redesigning Web sites to spread elements previously found only on home pages.

And in a case of "if you can't beat them, join them," Knight Ridder Inc., Gannett Co. and Tribune Co. collectively bought three-quarters of Topix.net, a startup that provides tools for readers to bypass news home pages. The New York Times has been paying an undisclosed amount to have its headlines featured there.

Topix provides direct links to news stories it collects and sorts from more than 10,000 sources, and it slices story by category as well as region, down to the ZIP code.

A news aggregation service from Google Inc. scans more than 4,500 English sources and uses software to rank and display stories to which it links, while America Online Inc. and Yahoo Inc. (Nasdaq:YHOO - news) offer services that rely more on humans.

Yahoo News, rather than trying to keep readers from leaving, provides easy access to articles elsewhere using Really Simple Syndication, or RSS, a technology that immediately notifies users of new entries on their favorite news sites and Web journals.

"In this world where people are looking for multiple points of view, if all you're giving them is your view, ... they are going to leave anyway and maybe be less likely to come back," said Neil Budde, general manager for Yahoo News.

Many news organizations have tried to render online a packaged product in the mold of the traditional newspaper or broadcast. That mentality is changing, but slowly, Budde said.

News outlets are starting to add tools to untether readers from home pages. The Associated Press, Reuters and others, for example, are adding RSS support so readers can use tools like Yahoo's to display summaries and access stories directly.

Web journals, or blogs, present another way to bypass home pages. Many are topic-centric and carry links that present the blogger's rather than a news editor's vision of the top news items.

Some traditional news sites, including the Post, are even beginning to let their columnists link to outside sources.

According to Nielsen/NetRatings, Yahoo News had 24.9 million visitors in June, more than any single news outlet on the Internet, and only MSNBC and CNN had more visitors than AOL News.

Google News ranked 13th among news sites.

At The New York Times' Web site, referrals from RSS feeds account for only 2 percent of traffic but represent the fastest growth — 8.5 million page views in June compared with about a half million in late 2003.

The new tools bring opportunities such as better ad targeting, but they also present some challenges. The news agency Agence France-Presse, for one, has sued Google for copyright infringement over Google News' use of photos and story excerpts.

Aggregators and feeds also potentially let readers select only the topics they care about, ignoring other developments editors might deem important, said Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Internet and American Life Project and former managing editor at U.S. News and World Report.

But Charlie Tillinghast, general manager and publisher for MSNBC.com, said the new tools can also alert readers to once-obscure items they might not otherwise have seen.

Knight Ridder considers tools like Google News and Topix as "nothing but incremental traffic from people who might not have otherwise seen the site," said Ross Settles, its vice president of strategy.

During the
Scott Peterson murder trial, for instance, the chain's San Francisco area papers saw increases in traffic from outside the area.

The new age of online news will still need reporters to produce stories and editors to make judgment calls.

The need for partners to provide content will never go away, said Lewis D'Vorkin, editor in chief for AOL News.

Home pages will continue to serve as a jumping off point for some readers, and MSNBC recently beefed up its home page to include customized headlines that are chosen based on stories the reader recently read.

But to stay relevant, online news sites must ultimately overcome their reluctance to point elsewhere, said blogging pioneer Dave Winer.

"The reader wants lots of sources and doesn't particularly care whether you point offsite or onsite," Winer said. "They just want the story."

And while news executives insist their brands will remain important as trustworthy destinations, some readers prefer to trust individual bloggers or friends who forward news items via e-mail.

Nicco Mele, webmaster for
Howard Dean's presidential campaign, said he rarely visits news sites directly anymore and instead trusts bloggers like Markos Moulitsas Zuniga, a Dean supporter.

Pointing to Moulitsas at a recent conference, Mele remarked, "I'll read what he thinks I should read."

___

Anick Jesdanun can be reached at netwriter(at)ap.org

July 25, 2005 at 06:53 PM in Journalism | Permalink | TrackBack (7) | Top of page | Blog Home

CNN puts broadband in Pipeline

CNN puts broadband in Pipeline - Yahoo! News

By Paul J. Gough Mon Jul 18,12:00 PM ET

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - CNN on Sunday took the wraps off its top-secret premium broadband service in a move to remake the digital space and offer viewers unprecedented control over their news.

CNN is no stranger to the Web. Its site, http://www.CNN.com, is one of the oldest at 10 years and has offered video from nearly the beginning. But this new premium service, called CNN Pipeline, will go beyond what's been offered recently by such other competitors as ABC News Now and CBS News' broadband site when it begins in the fall.

The downloadable product, available for an as-yet-unannounced monthly charge, will offer four live, on-demand streams of video from the day's major news centers as well as extensive on-demand video news reports, the usual range of CNN.com and wire stories, and a search feature.

"We thought we needed to take something to the next level," said CNN Networks chairman Jim Walton, who gave an onscreen tour of CNN Pipeline during the Television Critics Assn.'s summer press tour at the Beverly Hilton.

He likened the competitors' products to Pong, the earliest video game that took hold in the U.S. in the 1970s.

"What I'm about to show you right now is PlayStation or Nintendo or GameCube," Walton said. The four live streams of video content will be available 24/7; what ones to show will be chosen by CNN.com's editors. He said that it will be live but it won't be raw. There will still be an editorial process, and CNN.com will turn away from anything that doesn't fit standards.

The downloadable player, which was developed by CNN.com during the past 18 months, will only be offered initially for Microsoft Windows users. Apple
Macintosh users will be able to access many of the features but through a Web-based product. Walton said the benefit of CNN Pipeline is that it is tailored for the at-work audience with only a small footprint on the computer workspace.

"You can set up on your screen a small TV in the corner and still do work," Walton said.

Just last week, CBS News made public an extensive broadband Internet site that will remake CBS News' presence on the Web and its video-on-demand capability. But CNN-US president Jon Klein said in an interview Sunday that the projects were on parallel and separate tracks, and CNN did not take any cues from CBS News in the development of its CNN Pipeline. Klein is not only a longtime broadcast journalist but also the founder of FeedRoom, a pioneering broadband service that exists to this day.

Earlier this spring, CNN had announced that it would no longer charge for online video on its Web site, which it had done for many years. Walton said a decision on the price for CNN Pipeline will be made in the next few weeks.

July 19, 2005 at 12:02 AM in Journalism | Permalink | TrackBack (56) | Top of page | Blog Home

News Corp. forms Internet division

News Corp. forms Internet division - Yahoo! News

Fri Jul 15, 3:45 PM ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Media conglomerate News Corp. Ltd. (NYSE:NWS - news) on Friday said it has formed a new Internet division to create an online hub for its Fox news, sports and entertainment programing.

The debut of Fox Interactive Media comes just three months after Chief Executive Rupert Murdoch's impassioned plea to the newspaper industry to explore new distribution technologies or risk losing the news franchise.

Fox Interactive Media will house News Corp.'s existing sports, news and entertainment Web sites. The company also plans to make "strategic investments" to bolster existing properties.

Ross Levinsohn, senior vice president of Fox Sports Interactive Media, was named president of the new Los Angeles-based division.

Bert Solivan, vice president of news information at Foxnews.com, was named executive vice president of Fox Interactive Media.

News Corp., like much of the media industry, has struggled to find new ways to reach the next generation of news and entertainment consumers, who are more likely to switch on their PCs or cellphones rather than stay glued to the living room television.

Media observers have noted that many viewers preferred live online broadcasts by Time Warner Inc.'s (NYSE:TWX - news) America Online of the recent Live8 music concerts in early July to raise awareness of poverty in Africa over the ad-cluttered MTV cable television and ABC network TV broadcasts of the event.

July 16, 2005 at 03:24 AM in Journalism | Permalink | TrackBack (7) | Top of page | Blog Home

Camera Phones Lend Immediacy to Images of Disaster

Camera Phones Lend Immediacy to Images of Disaster - Yahoo! News

By Yuki Noguchi, Washington Post Staff Writer Fri Jul 8, 1:00 AM ET

Some of the most intimate images of yesterday's bomb blasts in London came from cell phones equipped with cameras and video recorders, demonstrating how a technology originally marketed as entertainment has come to play a significant role in up-to-the-minute news.

The availability of the cameras, combined with the ability to transmit pictures and text instantaneously, is enabling the world to view news with nearly the immediacy of a victim or eyewitness.

One blurry, poorly lighted image was captured yesterday by the phone of a subway passenger trapped underground along with dozens of others following the series of lethal explosions that crippled London during its morning commute. The door of the subway car, stopped in a tunnel at King's Cross, is pried open to give passengers air, which hangs thick with smoke.

Within hours, the image made its way onto television screens and Web sites, prompting one online respondent to post the message: "watching this on the news in the US., praying for you all."

On a Web log hosted by the Guardian newspaper, a woman wrote about being shepherded out of the subway station: "As I was going towards the exit there was this smell. Like burning hair. And then the people starting walking out, soot and blood on their faces. And then this woman's face. Half of it covered in blood."

Other witnesses posted photos of a double-decker bus that had been torn to pieces. Yet another blogger posted a photo later in the day of Londoners trudging home on foot, with the headline, "London in chaos this evening."

Camera phones, once a novelty, now outsell digital cameras by about 4 to 1, according to analyst data. As more sophisticated phones and higher-speed networks have become available, wireless companies have recently started offering video camcorders on their phones that can nearly instantly transmit moving pictures over e-mail or onto the Internet. Dozens of personal blog sites and news organizations' Web sites, including those of the BBC, CNN, London's the Sun and the World Picture Network, solicited pictures and video from bystanders caught in the carnage.

It was similar to the way Web sites clamored last December for home videos of the devastating tsunami that washed over Southeast Asia. The personal, visceral feel of those pictures inspired well-wishers to open their checkbooks to support philanthropy in unprecedented numbers.

In China, cellular phones are eroding the Communist Party's ability to control opposing political groups' communications with the outside world, in part because of the ability to transmit images of protests.

History is full of accidental journalism using portable devices, from the famous Abraham Zapruder film capturing President John F. Kennedy's assassination to the videotape of Rodney King being beaten by Los Angeles police and the incriminating snapshots taken at the
Abu Ghraib prison in
Iraq.

That tradition accelerates with the widespread use of new recording devices, said Kenny Irby, visual journalism leader at the Poynter Institute, a Florida-based school for journalists.

"The proliferation of cell phones and digital cameras . . . have led to a great deal more documentation added to the news stream," he said. Digital cell images provide a "unique voyeurism," he said. "The intimacy comes out of the spontaneity."

Now wireless companies are partnering with news organizations to integrate themselves in the news process.

During the presidential inauguration ceremonies, Sprint Corp. lent video and camera phones to 20 parade-watchers, whose images in turn were used by ABC News to augment the network's on-air coverage of the event.

Similarly, Cingular Wireless LLC ventured into its own version of the news business, sponsoring a blog at the political conventions last year where some of the company's customers could post their camera phone images.

There are, of course, downsides to relying on amateur news gathering. News organizations can't verify the origin or reliability of an image taken and sent on the fly.

Moreover, many callers said they could not get through on their mobile phones yesterday after the attacks because wireless towers were jammed with traffic from callers trying to reach their loved ones.

July 10, 2005 at 10:38 PM in Journalism | Permalink | TrackBack (2) | Top of page | Blog Home

Blogs seen as powerful new tool in U.S. court fight

Blogs seen as powerful new tool in U.S. court fight - Yahoo! News

By Donna Smith Fri Jul 8, 3:10 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Political groups preparing to battle over the first
U.S. Supreme Court nomination in 11 years have a powerful new tool -- Internet blogs -- to spread information quickly and influence decision makers without relying on traditional media.

Web logs likely numbering in the dozens provide a way for the thoughtful and the passionate to publish their views. Politicians are taking notice as they prepare for the first high court nomination fight since the Internet became common in American households.

President Bush has yet to name a replacement for
Sandra Day O'Connor, who announced her retirement last week. With the vacancy and eventual nominee comes intense debate over the court's future.

"A key part of our strategy is reaching out to the Internet community," said Jim Manley, spokesman for Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada.

Blogs and similar forums have been around since the early days of the Internet, but only in the last year have they begun to have an impact on public opinion and lawmakers, congressional staffers and bloggers said.

A recent study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project said that 7 percent of the 120 million U.S. adults who use the Internet have created a blog or web-based diary.

Reid and other political leaders now hold conferences with bloggers in the same way they meet with traditional press.

"I think they are instrumental in getting information out and deconstructing spin," said Eric Ueland, chief of staff to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, a Tennessee Republican.

"They are much defter and swifter than the mainstream media," he said, adding that blogs are also "very clear in their philosophical and ideological leanings."

BLOG FANS

Carol Darr, director of George Washington University's Institute for politics, democracy and the Internet, said those who read and write blogs aren't "the sad, the mad and the lonely." Rather, research shows they tend to be people able to influence others, she said.

Sean Rushton, executive director of the Committee for Justice, a group formed to support Bush nominees, said the blog at http:/committeeforjustice.org is aimed at journalists, other bloggers and talk radio hosts. It also gets information to advocacy groups and "allows them to do what they are good at, and that is activism," he said.

Tom Goldstein said researchers at his Washington law firm Goldstein and Howe already are poring over the background and court decisions of potential nominees. His firm's blogs at http:/www.scotusblog.com and http:/www.sctnomination.com/blog strive to be non-partisan, but will offer opinions on how a candidate may decide important cases, he said.

"If we believe this person will vote to overturn
Roe v. Wade, we will say that," he said, speaking of the ruling that legalized abortion.

Melanie Mattson said she bought more bandwidth for her liberal court blog at http:/judgingthefuture.net, saying she was unsure how much more traffic to expect.

"The medium is still so new and the Internet is growing so fast it is hard to know," she said. "Once we get a name we will get more hits."

Steve Clemons, who publishes a political blog http:/www.thewashingtonnote.com, says that once Bush names someone "you are going to see the blogs go crazy" digging up information and in many cases "outrunning" mainstream media.

Not all blogs are created equal. Many will become "ideological echo chambers" that people read to reaffirm their beliefs, Clemons said. Others will fuel passions on both the right and the left sides of the political spectrum. A few will rise above the pack and become sources of information and not just an advocacy forum.

"If there is any momentum to this trend, you are going to see them play a very influential role in shaping the environment for this debate," Clemons said. His blog on John Bolton's nomination as U.N. ambassador became a must read for many congressional aides and journalists.

July 10, 2005 at 09:31 PM in Journalism | Permalink | TrackBack (1) | Top of page | Blog Home

Old school rules at new-media meeting

Old school rules at new-media meeting | CNET News.com

Published: November 14, 2004, 11:00 PM PST
By Jeff Pelline
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
reporter's notebook HOLLYWOOD, Calif.--The nation's leading Internet journalists wrapped up an annual meeting here this weekend, confident that the World Wide Web is creating a new world order in a business dominated by a handful of large corporations.

Speech after speech, discussion after discussion at the fifth annual meeting of the Online News Association (held at the same site as the Oscars, no less) pointed to the innovation, creativity and the chutzpah of this up-and-coming medium: bloggers and Web-only media outlets scooping the big publications' "affiliated" and "repackaged" Web sites; new Web site designs that are bringing young readers back into the journalism fold; and an interactive "community" approach to news that is breaking down the barriers between media outlets and their audiences.

Think again.

Behind the scenes, a much different, old-fashioned scenario was unfolding, backing up the notion that big media companies keep getting bigger by gobbling up their competition. One rumor buzzing around the conference--that Dow Jones would gobble up CBS MarketWatch, a competing financial news outlet--proved accurate Sunday night when the deal was confirmed.

Sources said other bidders had included Yahoo, The New York Times Co. and Viacom, but Dow Jones' higher-than-expected $18-per-share offer proved too rich for their blood. (Saturday night, sources said the others had given up on trying to outbid Dow Jones--barring a last-minute hitch.) True, these others were media giants, but with one important difference: None was a direct competitor, like Dow Jones.

The idea of a Viacom deal had been exciting because it offered to create a powerful online media empire, linking general news (CBSNews.com), financial news (MarketWatch) and sports (SportsLine). As for The New York Times, MarketWatch would have helped extend its brand, perhaps with better luck than an ill-fated deal with Street.com at the height of the Internet boom. The Yahoo deal would have put the news aggregator squarely into the original content business, challenging established media heavyweights. But none of these companies was willing to take a big enough risk.

Instead, MarketWatch got bought out by a direct competitor that has lagged, not led, the revolution to publish free news on the Internet, despite the potential to break news during market hours and send stocks soaring--or tumbling. Now Dow Jones is catching up.

Like all media mergers, MarketWatch's buyout by Dow Jones is creating high anxiety among MarketWatch's rank-and-file journalists, who fear that their jobs will be eliminated to cut costs. Dow Jones is based in New York, while MarketWatch is based in San Francisco.

MarketWatch Chief Executive Larry Kramer was supposed to join a panel at the conference, but he canceled because he was negotiating the deal. Sources said Kramer, who co-founded MarketWatch, favored a buyout by Viacom, largely because it would have been the least disruptive deal, as Viacom is a large MarketWatch stakeholder.

But Dow Jones' offer proved too lucrative. Now the most direct Internet competitors of the Dow Jones-MarketWatch alliance include Street.com (a smaller Web-only outlet), Forbes, Fortune and Business Week (all magazines) and Yahoo Finance (an aggregation site).

During the conference, news also leaked out (and was reported first by CNET News.com) that Neil Budde, the founder of the Wall Street Journal Online, had joined Yahoo. But sources said Budde's hiring does not signal that the news aggregator will build a newsroom; rather, the company will "repackage" existing material from television and print, like the work of financial columnist Suzie Orman.

MarketWatch's buyout by Dow Jones isn't the only example of consolidation in Internet journalism. Sources at the conference said The Washington Post is close to acquiring Slate, another Web pioneer of original Web content. Slate, which is owned by Microsoft, focuses on political reporting, much as the Post does.

Do these deals mean that Internet journalism is doomed to become an appendage of existing print and television giants? No, but it's a reminder that the media business hasn't changed much, despite the Internet revolution. The old adage, "eat or be eaten," still is alive and well.

CNET News.com's Jeff Pelline is a board member of the Online News Association.

November 15, 2004 at 10:24 AM in Journalism | Permalink | TrackBack (2) | Top of page | Blog Home

BBC News website scoops award

BBC NEWS | Technology | BBC News website scoops award

The BBC News website has scooped a prestigious prize at the Online News Association awards in Hollywood.

The site won the main award for general excellence in journalism, beating CNN.com, WashingtonPost.com, and the Wall Street Journal website.

The award was picked up by the deputy editor of BBC News Interactive, Paul Brannan, at the Hollywood ceremony.

It is the latest recognition for the BBC News website, and follows three prestigious Webbys won in May.

'Sets the standard'

The Online News Association says on its website that the judges "were effusive in their praise for this site, noting that it has continued to improve and innovate" since it last won the award in 2001.

"They provide breaking news around the world and around the clock in multiple languages," it added.

"The site is well-designed and easy to navigate... They set the standard for online news."

Pete Clifton, editor of the BBC site, said: "I am delighted the site has been recognised again at such a prestigious awards ceremony.

"We are committed to excellence in online news, and this award is a tribute to the dedication of many people right across our team."

The general excellence award for "smaller sites" went to VenturaCountyStar.com, covering Ventura County in California, which the judges said was "both a news site and an online home for the local community".

In May BBC News Interactive won three Webbys - often referred to as the online Oscars - in the news, sport, and education categories.

November 14, 2004 at 11:08 AM in Journalism | Permalink | TrackBack (2) | Top of page | Blog Home

The Times, another extraordinary day for a newspaper with an extraordinary history - Oct 30th, 2004

Times Online - Britain

Dear Times Reader,

Monday, November 1, 2004, will mark another important date in The Times’s long and extraordinary history, a history highlighted by changes in format and appearance, but whose constant has been quality journalism. Over the past 216 years The Times has played a pivotal role in British society and it remains by far the most influential of British newspapers. The Times was the first paper to employ a foreign correspondent, and it now has more staff correspondents abroad than at any time in its history. The paper’s business coverage is read by far more business people than that of any other quality newspaper in Britain, and the originality and variety of our columnists is rightly renowned. None of that will change, but from Monday, November 1, The Times will be a compact newspaper.

Since we launched the compact edition almost a year ago, it has been clear that the format has attracted many new readers to The Times and further expanded our influence. While our principal rivals are in serious decline, an increasing number of readers has noticed the qualitative difference in coverage and switched to The Times.

There are few relationships as intimate as that of newspaper and devoted reader, and there is no doubt that some readers accustomed to the broadsheet will take time to adjust to the new format. Where is the Crossword? How do I find the Obituaries? Where is the Need-to-Know page in the Business section? We will do our best to navigate you to your favourite articles and writers; each day for the coming week, there will be a special panel on Page Two providing practical guidance. The page numbers may be different, but the compact is created by the same editors, designers and reporters who produced the broadsheet, and they are the best in the profession.

The Times has been the beacon of fine journalism in this country and around the world. Our new format ensures that The Times will continue to prosper and to perform its unique and crucial role in British society.

Yours faithfully

Robert Thomson
Editor

October 30, 2004 at 11:27 AM in Journalism | Permalink | TrackBack (8) | Top of page | Blog Home

Balancing Act: How News Portals Serve Up Political Stories

OJR article: Balancing Act: How News Portals Serve Up Political Stories

Google News uses computer algorithms to identify top stories while Yahoo News favors old-fashioned human editors. But do Google's automated search results display a conservative bias?
J.D. Lasica
Posted: 2004-09-24

In newspaper newsrooms, editors often go to great lengths to achieve a semblance of balance in coverage of the two major candidates for president. Some count the story inches devoted to both men. Others make sure that photo size and placement don't favor one over the other. Journalistic fairness demands equal treatment.

But what are the rules for online search engines, where millions of users are turning for their daily news fix? Does evenhanded coverage apply in the bottomless news hole of cyberspace? Does having an editorial team or an automated program get you a better sweep of important news about the political candidates?

These are tricky questions. To their credit, Google News and Yahoo News agreed to pull back the curtain and explain how they acquire and display political news.

Google News: Unintentionally skewing to the right?

Launched three years ago, Google News now attracts about 6 million users a month, double the audience of a year ago. In August it drew 5.8 million visitors, making it the 14th most popular site on the Web for current events and global news, according to Nielsen//NetRatings.

Google News scours not the entire Web but 7,000 information sources (4,500 of them English-speaking) and then groups and prioritizes the news into clusters of articles. An internal "sourcing team" decides which information providers to comb, but for competitive reasons Google would not disclose which sources it uses.

Google News' most astonishing accomplishment is that it's produced entirely by computer algorithms. The company seems to delight in the fact that it relies on engineers and product managers but no editors, much less reporters, for its news section. (Of course, like fellow aggregator Yahoo News, it relies on other news publications' editors and writers.)

The automated system is far from perfect, as legions of bloggers and journalists have observed when Google News places the wrong photo next to an accompanying story, or when it misses major breaking news, such as the space shuttle Columbia disaster, which received no mention for more than an hour.

Despite those predictable flaws, it's been puzzling to read Google News' takes on John Kerry and George W. Bush over the past month. On Aug. 24, for example, users who clicked on the "John Kerry" link under Google News' In the News heading were treated on the first page of 100 search results to these headlines, among others:

* Useless-Knowledge.com: John Kerry Said "Bring It On", Now Whines To Bush To Stop The Ads
* Enter Stage Right: The imploding John Kerry
* BushCountry: Americans May Be Stupid, But Not THAT Stupid
* Intellectual Conservative: Why James Rassmann Is Honestly Mistaken About John Kerry Saving His Life
* RushLimbaugh.com: Who's the Cowboy Now?
* Frontpagemag.com: John Kerry's Puzzling Silver Star Citations
* Useless-Knowledge.com: John Kerry's Resume (Part V) At Worst, Treasonous Behavior
* Michnews.com: Swift Boat Veterans for Truth Expose John Kerry's Lies
* WorldNetDaily: Krazy John Kerry
* MensNewsDaily.com: John Kerry is Definitely "Unfit for Command"
* Michnews.com: I'm John Kerry And I Approve This Flip-Flop
* Useless-Knowledge.com: John Kerry Just Can't Stand The Heat

In addition to mainstream news outlets from both sides of the political fence (say, NPR and The Washington Post on the left and The Washington Times and New York Post on the right), there were 34 anti-Kerry screeds from the second-tier websites. There was only one pro-Kerry item, from CommonDreams.org.

Far from an isolated example, the pattern has repeated itself throughout the past month. Small conservative Web sites such as Useless-Knowledge, Men's News Daily, Michnews and ChronWatch turn up in disproportionate numbers when clicking on news about John Kerry. Useless-Knowledge, for instance, made up 12 of the first 100 results for John Kerry on Friday, and 11 of the first 100 results Saturday.

By contrast, a search on George Bush or George W. Bush typically results in a fairly neutral, evenly balanced set of results from both sides of the political spectrum, with many of the same small conservative sites showing up to sing the president's praises.

What's going on? Have Google's search results been hijacked by Fox News?

Krishna Bharat, chief scientist for Google News, said he was puzzled by reports that the service has been skewing politically in one direction.

"Google News is a bit like a conversation that we're hosting," he said by phone from India. "We're inviting thousands of news sources to take part, even those who are very small. The two big things we're seeking are inclusion -- we want everyone at the table -- and diversity of opinions in the press."

Bharat said Google News uses a mix of techniques to ensure that users are presented a diverse range of perspectives. The ranking and prominence of stories are based on several factors: How many publications are writing about a topic; how recent the articles are; the size of the story, with substantive pieces ranking higher than short items; and the frequency of the search term within the article. The computer algorithms, he said, "are trying to understand how hot and how big the story is."

Every 15 minutes a new edition of Google News is generated and the ranking changes. The formula rearranges the headline blurbs in each story cluster based on the freshness of each article and the importance of the source. "The algorithms do not understand which sources are right-leaning or left-leaning," Bharat said. "They're apolitical, which is good."

Google News does not use the same formula as Google's general search engine, which ranks results based on how many people are linking to a site or article. (While "John Kerry" results in 100,000 results on Google News, the same term draws 4.3 million results on Google.) Special interest groups use a linking technique known as Googlebombing to skew Google's general search engine results to their liking. For example, searching on the terms "miserable failure," "great president" and "unelectable" all bring up a White House page on President George W. Bush. Bharat points out, however, that link popularity plays no result in Google News' rankings.

"Our mission is to be all-inclusive," Bharat said. "We want breadth and variety. I would like Republicans and Democrats alike to read pro-Kerry and anti-Kerry articles, but it's not our job to change the natural range of opinions that you see in the press. We're showing you the world the way it is."

But are they? Why does clicking on a "John Kerry" link in Google News turn up so many second-tier conservative sites but so few liberal sites?

Bharat said it might be an aberration, and that more people might type in "Kerry," which gives you a more balanced set of results, drawing more articles from major media organizations. But that ignores the fact that Google News itself uses "John Kerry" as the preferred search term when it highlights news about the candidate in its In the News section.

Gaming the system -- or site optimization?

Ethan Zuckerman has a theory about what's happening. He observed the same phenomenon. A search for "Kerry" on Google News turns up mostly mainstream media sources, while a search for "John-Kerry" -- the search conducted when you follow the In the News link -- turns up a great deal more opinionated pieces culled from second-tier and fringe sites.

"I think what you're seeing is an odd little linguistic artifact," said Zuckerman, former vice president of Tripod.com and now a fellow at Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet and Society who studies search engines. The chief culprit, he theorized, is that mainstream news publications refer to the senator on second reference as Kerry, while alternative news sites often use the phrase "John Kerry" multiple times, for effect or derision. To Google News' eye, that's a more exact search result.

A second possible factor, Zuckerman said, is that small, alternative news sites have no hesitancy about using "John Kerry" in a headline, while most mainstream news sites eschew first names in headlines. The inadvertent result is that the smaller sites score better results with the search engines.

"You have to wonder why some of these wacky sites make the cut," he added. With an occasional exception, Weblogs are generally not found among the Google News results, so Zuckerman had some advice for aspiring political publishers who want to game the search engines: Don't blog -- start an alternative news network. Use terms like George Bush and John Kerry frequently, rather than their last names alone, in both your text and headlines. Publish new works frequently.

What Zuckerman calls gaming the system, others call optimizing your site.

Thomas Krafft, a Web site developer, said he began working with the conservative news site ChronWatch nearly three years ago when it was averaging 100 visits a day. "I completely rebuilt the site to better organize, categorize and display the content, to ease the process of adding articles to the site, and to especially be more search-engine friendly," he said by e-mail.

"Today, ChronWatch averages nearly 10,000 visits per day and is regularly placed near the top of the Google News service," Kraft said. "And it looks like we're on track to see the same results and popularity for the site through MSN's new search service as well." Krafft said he also advises his clients to use keywords and phrases that match users' precise searches and to write in informal, accessible language.

ChronWatch editor Jim Sparkman said the site attracts volunteer contributors who believe passionately in their cause. "There are many, many sites like ours on the Internet, and many, many e-mail exchange groups, that are forming a new communication method that is beginning to rival the big media in influence," he said.

Yahoo takes a people-powered approach

Yahoo News, launched in August 1995, has been in a tug-of-war with CNN.com all year over the No. 1 online news ranking. In August, Yahoo News attracted 22 million unique visitors to CNN's 22.9 million, according to Nielsen//NetRatings. In July, and during the Democratic and Republican conventions, Yahoo News topped CNN.com.

Jeff Birkeland, product manager for news, said Yahoo is out "to create the broadest, deepest, most comprehensive and useful news experience from start to finish."

Toward that end, Yahoo News hosts breaking news, features and analysis from more than 100 news partners, mostly major news organizations. A small editorial staff programs the Yahoo News front page as well as plucking out hidden gems that appear on other sites. Special sections like Election 2004 include breaking news from partner news sources, pointers to political blogs and the candidates' sites, and in-depth analysis and commentary. Readers who want to go deeper can plumb Yahoo's news search, which indexes more than 8,000 sources.

Users looking for the latest news about John Kerry will get about 2,700 results from Yahoo's news partners. A wider search of all Yahoo's news sources will turn up about 66,000 results from across the Web, including small online newspapers and foreign publications but none of the small, politically active independent news sites often featured on Google News. In addition, a search on Yahoo's standard search engine turns up more than 7 million references to John Kerry on the open Web.

Like Google News, Yahoo won't disclose how a term like John Kerry or George Bush makes it to the front page of its search results, but Birkeland said the factors include the source, the freshness of the story, and a method of determining relevance.

Yahoo achieves balance in political coverage by using a wide variety of news partners and an editorial staff that pulls together "a very wide cut at what the news is on a given day," Birkeland said.

"We use actual humans," he added. "News is far too human of an endeavor to rely 100 percent on automation."

Birkeland pointed to several advantages that an editorial staff has over Google News' algorithm approach.

First, he said, "we'll always have breaking news faster. It's very difficult to be timely on breaking news if your news service is relying on an algorithm that works off news being published elsewhere first." Yahoo News' partnerships with major news organizations allow it to publish news about major events within seconds or minutes of a story being filed. By contrast, a search engine that depends strictly on trolling the Web might publish news that's 20 minutes old on a news site, but the story could be two days old.

Second, Birkeland pointed to "accuracy and trust issues." "We're working with news partners who are in the accuracy business," he said. "We don't have the kinds of situations where the reader scratches his head wondering why a story from a questionable source winds up at the top of the main news page. It's extremely important to have editorial oversight rather than rely on an algorithm's questionable judgment."

Third, an editorial staff allows Yahoo News to better sort the news into opinion and analysis sections in addition to straight news.

A final advantage is that readers get a more comprehensive, friendlier user experience when they're reading the news on a single site such as Yahoo News as opposed to hopping from site to site, Birkeland said. By hosting the material, Yahoo can display additional material and tools, such as related stories, video and photos, message boards, and the ability to rate the story or e-mail it to a friend.

Is the rise of the machines at Google News a threat to the carbon-based life forms at Yahoo News? "I'm not that concerned, frankly," Birkeland said. "It would be extremely challenging to write a program that catches up to what we're able to do on a daily basis."

October 4, 2004 at 08:03 AM in Journalism | Permalink | TrackBack (15) | Top of page | Blog Home

Microsoft Deploys Newsbot To Track Down Headlines

Yahoo! News - Microsoft Deploys Newsbot To Track Down Headlines

By Leslie Walker, The Washington Post
Microsoft Corp. wants to be your electronic paperboy.

The software behemoth debuted a pilot service at MSNBC.com Tuesday that automatically assembles news summaries, partly personalized for each visitor.

MSN Newsbot (newsbot.msnbc.msn.com) looks a lot like Google News, another automatically generated headline-gathering service. Google News continually scans 4,500 online sources to find fresh news articles; Microsoft scans 4,800 sites and updates its summary pages every 10 minutes.

Like Google, MSN Newsbot groups together headlines about the same topic from a variety of sources, making it easier to compare alternate accounts.

MSN Newsbot, however, also remembers what you read (using browser cookies to track use instead of requiring you to sign in to Microsoft's Passport service) and presents stories it thinks might interest you in a special box. Moreover, it shows what other stories earlier readers of a news item clicked through to.

"As you read the site and click on more articles, the Newsbot will start to learn your habits and offer up more information related to what you have read," said Justin Osmer, MSN product manager.

Another key difference between the Microsoft and Google services is that Google's story-selection formula doesn't favor any particular new source. MSN Newsbot, by contrast, gives favorable placement to articles from Microsoft's own MSNBC.com news site -- late Friday afternoon, half of Newsbot's 22 front-page stories came from MSNBC.com.

Osmer didn't appear aware of this preferential treatment in an interview, but an MSN spokeswoman later confirmed it in e-mail. "As Newsbot resides on MSNBC and is branded as such, MSNBC is considered a first among equals, meaning that if they and another top-tier source offer the same story, information, etc., MSNBC will be listed first, followed by other sources," wrote Elizabeth Herrera Smith.

Osmer said MSN is collecting feedback and fine-tuning other aspects of the site, such as how many headlines should be personalized and how many should appear to each and every visitor. For now, customized headlines appear only in a box labeled "Personalized News." But over time, MSN hopes to expand the amount of space devoted to personalized news.

August 2, 2004 at 12:56 AM in Journalism | Permalink | TrackBack (4) | Top of page | Blog Home