Category: Web 2.0

From the exit post on New Matilda:

Looking to the experience of media start-ups in the US and the UK, we have realised that the days of the single-revenue media outlet are over. Nowadays, small outlets are finding new ways to fund their work through what Texas Tribune founder John Thornton calls “revenue promiscuity”: “you have to get it everywhere and often”.

They are trading on the quality of their journalism and their trusted brands to build relationships with other media outlets to which they provide niche content. And they rely on a broad and growing base of philanthropists, funding bodies, foundations and individuals who see that as the media industry cuts costs, the survival of public interest journalism requires them to put their money where their mouth is.

Well, it’s a triple backflip summersault from an editor that claimed that there was no future in online media.

But it is spoilt a bit by stuff like this

These outlets are doing important work to fill the gaps left by a shrinking media industry, often with little money and few staff

Actually, the media industry is thriving. The HERITAGE media is shrinking, new media is thriving. And that’s half the problem with how New Matilda was run, and was certainly a problem at Crikey when king luddite Jonathan Green ran the shop: neither considers themselves to be part of new media.

This also doesn’t help

When we re-launch, our primary aim will not be to drive hits back to our own site — the model that advertisers dictate is king — but to inject new, quality journalism and analysis into the Australian media environment. In this way we hope to inspire enough of you out there to deem us worthy of your financial support.

She doesn’t seem to understand that traffic isn’t just about ads: if you don’t have enough readers, you’re not going to get enough financial support from ANY source.

Another birthday passed May 5 for The Inquisitr, and we did the month in style with new traffic highs.

The challenge ahead is to get the uniques up now; we’ve finally got the page views per visit up to where is should be, but its the extra uniques that drive the ad revenue.

Not bad numbers for a site mocked by a senior ABC employee as “insignificant” or another Australian publication as “having 50 readers.” 🙂

The Age: ‘Rape simulator’ game goes viral amid calls for censorship

Attempts to ban a deplorable “rape simulator” video game have only caused it to spread virally across the internet, leading to calls for sites hosting the game to be blocked by internet censors.

Karen Willis, executive officer of the NSW Rape Crisis Centre, said in a phone interview that the existence of material such as the RapeLay video game, which lets players simulate stalking and raping young girls, made internet filters, such as those proposed by the government, necessary….

Willis said she “absolutely” believes the forthcoming internet filtering regime is necessary and should block sites that offer access to the game.

Here’s a copy of the cover of the game, what’s the one thing that stands out (well, besides the young anime girls)

Did you notice the DVD part?

It’s not an online game, it’s an actual game that you can download or buy on DVD.

And if it’s a download, what’s the most common forms of downloading on the net again, and are these blocked by the internet filter? 🙂

I wan’t an internet filter for stupid people, and I’m adding Karen Willis on my blacklist after Chairman Rudd and Reichsminister Conroy.

Inquisitr: Gothamist Blog Network Acquired For $5-$6 Million

I don’t know Jake much at all, although I’m pretty sure we swapped some emails in the early days. I covered the network in the Blog Herald days a fair few times, well, my memory is backed by Google as well here.

It’s just great to see one of the early few finally come up with an exit.

Which is why I found this comment from Nick Denton odd.

Don’t get me wrong: Nick is the master of all things blog, even if his first protege is burning through the remaining funding at a company I was once involved with, and bleeding traffic.

Thing is: I don’t care whether $5-$6 million isn’t the greatest exit after 7-8 years. It’s still an exit, and I don’t believe that even a couple of million each (and yeah, I get the CGT argument, been there, done that) is bad.

Probably not in NY, but I could buy a nice house with that and have change for the next thing. Hell, if someone wants to offer me low 7 figures for The Inquisitr tomorrow, please do; the divorce has been costly after all 🙂

In context, and this is where Nick may not get it, is that so many have fallen before them; that they lasted so long and could exit at all is a credit to Jake and Jen. It may not be the biggest exit, but it’s a respectable one in the broader context of those that came before.

Nick, I hate to say it, but you haven’t exited yet. That Gawker may be worth a stray $100 million on paper is way different to actually exiting.

Give them their credit without condition; they deserve it, and I think deep down you know they do, even if they never reached your heights. Besides, I’ve seen their network traffic, that valuation just helped you at least a little bit 🙂

So it bucketed down Golf balls here in Melbourne Saturday…well, it did where I lived, some media are reporting hail as big as lemons.

One of the few times I’ve ever been scared in weather (other times nearly exclusively on aircraft.) I actually pulled Declan away from the windows because I was scared that the hail would shatter them. The noise is something I’ll never forget: we have a colourbond roof, OMG it was loud.

I didn’t keep a full tally of how long it took for the media to cover it, but my general observations: slow.

The Age was first with the storm warning. News.com.au didn’t have it, but it did appear in the Hun just before storm. ABC mustn’t work Saturdays.

Afterwards, The Age was first up with a picture, but slow in updating the storm warning.

The Hun beat The Age, but it was a good 30 mins after the fact.

The rest followed. ABC was beyond slow, hours later.

Notably while the newspapers were still only just reporting it, Seven News that night (and it’s the only time I watch the news…natural disasters) dedicated the first full half to the disaster.

It was too local for my coverage (earthquakes and fires I’ll play, but hail not so much) but given what was coming out of Twitter in the minutes following, could have beaten them all….and anyone else could have as well. I was sharing video and pics via Twitter from others 15 minutes before the MSM hit the story hard.

It would appear though that the MSM here in Australia continue to get caught short on weekends.

Via The Age

Rudd also defended the government’s proposed internet filter, which is designed to block child pornography, terrorist material and other extreme and offensive information, saying it was in line with how movies and videos were censored.

Except it’s not, is it Kevin Rudd, because you can view/ buy R and X rated movies. Under the filter, games suitable for adults are completely banned.

It’s one thing to introduce Internet censorship in Australia. It’s Nazi like at the basics. But in the last few days the media, led by News Corp is pushing this country into the dark days of fascism.

The target is Facebook, as I wrote yesterday. But the scope continues to get darker.

Let me say upfront that I believe that the attacks of the two dead kiddie sites, and the sick Daniel Morcombe page is wrong.

However, the response is more wrong.

There’s a push here now to censor the sites where these things happen. There’s very little interest in tracking down those that wrote those things, well, presuming they did something illegal. In context, most didn’t. Sure, a lot was offensive, but illegal activity was with the minority.

As I’m watching Sky News before I go to bed, I hear that there will be a “crack down” on such sites. The part ownership in Sky News from News Corp of course is never disclosed, and it’s key, because News Corp owns MySpace, Facebook’s biggest competitor. But that’s irrelevant in an Australian context (well, some what) because the pollies are gunning as well.

As I said in the aforementioned post, the only way what is being called for could be implemented was with pre-approval of all content; and that would kill free speech and social media in Australia.

I’d excuse the media to some extent, except that the obsession by News Corp vs Fairfax is so obvious: News Corp is gunning for a change, and it shows in the attention.

One only needs to read the past history of News Corp (News Ltd locally) in politics to know their influence. Things may have changed, but News Corp, as the biggest publisher here has always had their ear on changes; that we’re reading this is fore warning of a change to come.

It is in Australia the end of days when it comes to free speech.

I’ve always been a proud Australian. When I’ve traveled overseas, I’ve always thought of home and never though of moving off shore. Ever. Not once, despite the advantages moving might present.

But today I’m worried about the future of this country. Internet censorship is bad enough, but the mood led by the media here is now scary. Indeed, more than scary.

A story I may have once told here: I wanted to be an historian when I was young, but realised that there was no money in it. I then thought I wanted to enter the law, but missed out score wise when I left high school. But I never gave up my interest in history. I still read it extensively, particularly my high school specialisation: inter-war. I’ve also read extensively in WW1 and WW2 history. And I still do. That doesn’t make me an expert, and I’ve been tempted recently to go back to Uni to get a BA in History…and I might still do so.

But I’ve read enough to get my head around the failures of the past. My sons school has a saying: to understand where we are going, we must understand where we have been. In this country, the population seems blind to the past globally, and may allow the mistakes of the past to happen here again.

Am I really going overboard? In the past month, Conroy has attempted to censor YouTube AND Facebook, on top of the general evil that will be the Great Firewall of Australia.

Seriously, think me a nutter, but can you really believe that the Australian Government’s attempts to censor YouTube and Facebook are a good thing?

The dark days are here. It started with the firewall, and now it extends into social networking. What next? what next will the Government target? Already Conroy’s lies about it all being about kiddie porn have been exposed: it’s not just games as well, he’s now gunning for Facebook, and on top of that, his comments on the iiNet case would suggest that copyright is next. Soon, China and Iran may look like minnows in the censorship stakes, and most Australians will stand by and let this happen. If I could move with my son (and I can’t, custody issues post divorce) I’d consider it. This once proud, free country is heading into the dark days of fascism.