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Headline News

Newspapers Next In Line for Bailout Funds

One of government's harshest critics might be  latest contestant in the Bailout Sweepstakes - Newspapers.

I was catching up with one of my old friends from journalism school and he predicted newspapers would be the next in line for government help, if the  auto bailout is granted. We chuckled, but today, his prediction is close to becoming a reality. State representative Frank Nicastro is begging the state of Connecticut to save the Bristol Press and New Britain's paper, The Herald.

Nicastro claims print media, particularly local papers, are still a vital component of American media, because it provides news that's "ignored by big papers,television and radio stations."

I worked at a local paper, and I'll be the first to tell you that a government-funded bailout, at the state or federal level, is NOT the solution. A government-funded press isn't a free press, and it won't fulfill its duty to cover the government without any influence. Once D.C. or your state starts throwing cash at your newspaper, they'll be obligated to return the favor.

Paul Janensch, a journalism professor at Quinnipiac University in Connecticut, and a former reporter, agrees with my stance. He told Reuters,
"You can't expect a watchdog to bite the hand that feeds it,"

If Nicastro is succesful in his attempt to take  taxpayer money, it's only a matter of time before the major publishers head to capital hill for a  slice of the federal pie.

Author Hugo Black said that criticism of government finds sanctuary in several portions of the 1st Amendment. It is part of the right of free speech. It embraces freedom of the press.

In Rueter's same article, Marc Levy, executive editor of the Herald and the Press, claimed that objectivity won't be sacrificed, and it will be business as usual.

 

It's the brutal reality. You'd say, 'thank you very much for helping me with that, but now we have to ask you about this thing.'

 

Another key fact to consider is that mulitiple surveys revealed  the vast majority of print journalists who donate to politicians favor the Democratic Party. (Including a survey by NBC) Remember that the Democrat party that will have executive power and an expanded presence in congress this year.

Do you honestly think that major publishers, such as Gannett, will use an objective approach toward a government that's putting food on their table?
Print publishers and editors can claim they're victims of circumstance,but so can  everyone else in this economy.

Maybe if those newsroom executives had prioritized online publishing before the major shift occurred, they wouldn't be in the dire situation they now face.

I hate to see ANY newspapers close their doors, but I also don't want to the government play favorites with handouts, and if I wanted state-run media, I would move to Cuba or North Korea.  Newspapers need to search for creative solutions,such as the Baltimore Sun and Washington Post's shared content agreement,which is one step in the right direction.

Traffic Drops at Worst Time for Best Buy and eBay

For those of you who read my post last Friday about Tweebay, you may think I'm on an anti-eBay campaign, but that's not the case. I just can't help myself, because eBay's recent blunders have just begged for commentary.

The latest reports from Wall Street support my claim that eBay (NASDAQ:EBAY) could be in serious trouble. Somehow, eBay and Best Buy (NYSE:BBY) managed to LOSE traffic during the Christmas s.

Comscore reported a 16% drop for eBay from mid-November to mid-December and a 17% drop for Best Buy in that same time span. Now, I will admit, I boasted about Best Buy's partnership with Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) to sell the iPhone. Prior to the deal, Apple's phone was only available at AT&T stores, so I'm pretty surprised that Best Buy didn't receive a major boost in the late fall to early winter.

I don't know how often you've received emails from eBay, but they're constantly bugging me to check out the latest items from my favorite sellers. Meanwhile, one of its top rivals, Amazon,(NASDAQ:AMZN) boasted record numbers, including  5.6 million items shipped on its busiest day of the period and 99 percent of orders shipped in time for holiday deadlines, with packages going to 210 different countries around the world.

Amazon still puts the customer first.I think eBay is beginning to feel the pain and frustration from an unhappy customer base that has grown weary of changes within the transaction system,including Paypal's holds on payments.

iList Online Market Emphasizes Accountability

As we've all watched eBay, the king of online auctions, fall from its perch above the rest of the online markets, new auction sites hope to gain from eBay's loss. Frustrated members are searching for sites with a friendlier user experience, such as iList. 

Credibility and transparency are the core principles of iList. Unlike eBay and Craigslist, where you only have one source of info about the person you're dealing with, iList requires each member to link to a major social networking sites.

Social networks facilitate the transactions on ilist, which means your personal reputation and information is available for praise or scrutiny. Once you post an item and set your price, its sent to Facebook's livefeed, for everyone to see.

To rank member credibility, iList employs a unique feedback system, known as Karma- which encourages you to spread the word about your friend's product via your social networks. Some other activities also allow you to earn karma, such as

    * Promoting your friends listings on Facebook
    * Inviting friends to iList
    * Completing your profileNone of my friends had any active listings, so I will invite some of them to join.

Your Karma ranking elevates when you post friend's items on Facebook or Myspace,when you invite friends to iList, and when you optimize your profile.  Evidently, those are just the first elements factored into karma.A note on the site reads:

We are currently discovering all the ways users can earn Karma. Thanks in advance for your flexibility with us as we adjust any imbalances in the Karma system. If you have ideas for Karma, let us know.

Other appealing aspects of iList include a platform to upload videos showcasing your listed item. There's also a company blog with updates on new features and tools, customer testimonials and company developers commentary on the iList's plans.

Personally, I think Karma's format was designed with better foresight than eBay's feedback scoring system. I placed my first item on facebook, because it's designed to increase your odds of selling the item.

Tips & Information

Blog

A blog, originally (and often still) known as a weblog, is a web-based publication consisting primarily of periodic articles (normally, but not always, in reverse chronological order). Although most early blogs were manually updated, tools to automate the maintenance of such sites made them accessible to a much larger population, and the use of some sort of browser-based software is now a typical aspect of "blogging".

Blogs range in scope from individual diaries to arms of political campaigns, media programs, and corporations. They range in scale from the writings of one occasional author (known as a blogger), to the collaboration of a large community of writers. Many weblogs enable visitors to leave public comments, which can lead to a community of readers centered around the blog; others are non-interactive. The totality of weblogs or blog-related websites is often called the blogosphere. When a large amount of activity, information and opinion erupts around a particular subject or controversy in the blogosphere, it is sometimes called a blogstorm or blog swarm.

The format of weblogs varies, from simple bullet lists of hyperlinks, to article summaries or complete articles with user-provided comments and ratings. Individual weblog entries are almost always date and time-stamped (but this is not a pre-requisite for being a blog), with the newest post at the top (or bottom) of the page, and reader comments often appearing below it. Because incoming links to specific entries are important to many weblogs, most have a way of archiving older entries and generating a static address for them; this static link is referred to as a permalink. The latest headlines, with hyperlinks and summaries, are frequently offered in weblogs in the RSS or Atom XML format, to be read with a feed reader.

The tools for editing, organizing, and publishing weblogs are variously referred to as "content management systems", "publishing platforms", "weblog software", and simply "blogware".