Digital Trends
A few months ago, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. made headlines by announcing it was planning to start charging users to read online versions of the company’s newspaper properties, by putting portions of its content behind so-called “paywalls” that could only be accessed by paid subscribers. Now, The Los Angeles Times reports that News Corp has been meeting with other news publishers with an eye towards forming a consortium to charge for online news access.
Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp released its financial numbers for its fourth fiscal quarter of 2009 (PDF), and the results weren’t great: the company reported profits down 8 percent in 2009 compared to 2008, and Murdoch characterized the year 2009 as “the most difficult in recent history.” And what’s News Corp’s plan to stop the hemorrhaging? The company plans to lock most of its news content behind so-called “paywalls” so that only paid subscribers may access its content.
Want the Internet on your TV? It’s perfectly possible, and the Associated Press has joined with Intel’s Widget Channel to demonstrate it at CES.
The news ticker scrolls across the bottom of the television screen and the television viewer chooses which categories of headlines are of most interest, including breaking top news, local updates, business and finance, sports, entertainment and more.
Comcast and Intel are demonstrating the capability of viewers to enjoy Internet services while watching cable TV by integrating the Widget Channel with the Comcast Interactive Program Guide using tru2way technology, a Java-based platform with open API specifications built into televisions, set-top boxes and other devices.
A new survey from the Pew Research Center has shown that more people now receive their news online than from a physical newspaper. Over the last year the number using the Internet as their prime news source has jumped from 25% to 40%, leapfrogging the 35% who use newspapers. However, they both fall far behind TV, although its numbers have dipped from 75% to 70%.
The change to online news is most marked among the young, with 59% using the medium – the same percentage as use TV news. Although in many cases the news stories online come from newspapers, it doesn’t bode well for the newspaper industry, and some big publishers have filed for bankruptcy, with more expected to do so in 2009.
Last Saturday a Continental Airlines Boeing 737 ran off the runway at Denver International Airport into a ravine. The resulting fire destroyed the right side of the plane, and 58 were injured, although none killed.
Mike Wilson was on board, and once he was safely back in the airport, he began using the popular micro-blogging site Twitter to relate his experiences.
His first post was: "Holy f—ing s—, I was just in a plane crash."
In what might be very chilling news, journalist Magomed Yevloyev, who ran a site loudly opposing the Kremlin-back regime in Russia’s troubled Ingushetia region, has been killed by police, the Guardian reports.
Yevloyev ran the site Ingushetiya.ru, where he accused Russia of crushing free speech in the area.
According to reports, he flown into Ingushetian capital of Nazran from Moscow, and was met by police at the airport. Kaloi Akhilgov told Reuters:
"As they drove he was shot in the temple … They threw him out of the car near the hospital. He was discovered there and they quickly put him on the operating table, which is where he died."
In one of those Mark Twain moments, the news of Steve Jobs’ death has been greatly exaggerated. His obituary was accidentally sent out to clients by Bloomberg News wire, marked “Hold for release – Do not use.”
But the Apple boss, who was treated for pancreatic cancer in 2004, is still very much alive.
The 2,500 word piece, which left the age and cause of death blank, described Job as a man who “helped make personal computers as easy to use as telephones, changed the way animated films are made, persuaded consumers to tune into digital music and refashioned the mobile phone.”
A new report from the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press finds that television is still Americans’ leading source of news and information, but an increasing number of Americans are turning to online news sources, particularly among advertising’s most-coveted demographics. Overall, the survey’s results show a shift towards online news, along with a growing audience segment that rely on both traditional and online media.
At the end of last week, the Internet Committee for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) was in the news when it gave the green light to generic domain names, calling it a “milestone” in Internet development.
Now ICANN is back in the news, for slightly more embarrassing reason, according to Vnunet. Along with the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) it’s had its website hacked by a Turkish group, NetDevilz, who describe themselves as a “lovable Turkish hackers group.”
DSG International, which owns the UK High Street electronics chains Currys.digital and PC World, has announced that it will phase out 77 of a total of 177 Currys.digital stores over the next five years as their leases expire, even as DSG reported a 1% rise in like-for-like sales for so far this year.
But the company is hoping to cut costs by $100 million over the next year and has already issued two profit warnings, even as its chief executive John Browett said that predictions will be hard to make in the tighter economic climate. He told the BBC,
"Customers have become increasingly promotion and deal driven, impacting gross margins."
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