FishbowlLA: Major layoffs may affect hundreds of employees at Myspace
All Things Digital: AOL purchases two local startups; Going.com and Patch Media, which was owned by new AOL CEO Tim Armstrong
ASSME: Matt Drudge’s first internet postings are pretty skeevy
CNet: Virgin is launching a pay-as-you go mobile broadband service
Galleycat: The 2009 edition of the AP stylebook includes an entry about Twitter
BayNewser: Twitter co-founder Biz Stone gave Oprah’s production team a crash course in Tweeting
AskArt.com: Holocaust Museum gunman James Von Brunn posted paintings on the internet
CNN: According to the Global Language Monitor, “Web 2.0″ is the millionth word in the English language
FishbowlNY: Jewish online magazine Tablet launches
Mashable: KFC is giving Myspace users a chance to win a lifetime supply of fried chicken
Craigslist has been dealing with bad publicity and legal troubles recently stemming from their controversial “erotic services” ads, but it looks like they’re having the last laugh.
Today, global consultancy Advanced Interactive Media Group LLC/Classified Intelligence LLC published a report estimating that the online classified advertising site will “generate $100 million in revenue in 2009,” which is an increase of more than 23 percent from Craigslist’s estimated revenue last year.
Craigslist’s success is all the more remarkable since, as AIM Group points out, the company only “charges… for a tiny percentage of its ads.” AIM Group began estimating annual revenue at Craigslist in 2003 when the company had just $7 million in revenue. Some experts speculate that Craigslist’s dramatic rise in the classified advertising category is a major contributing factor in the demise of print newspapers.
FishbowlNY: Rupert Murdoch says print newspapers will be no more within ten years
Gawker: Nigerian Internet scammers are targeting the unemployed
CNet: T-Mobile says someone who posted to a security e-mail list this weekend claiming to have hacked their computer network was lying
Galleycat: The COOL-ER e-book reader is making a splash in the literary world
Silicon Alley Insider: Nicholas Carlson shows off pictures of a massive print version of Wikipedia
Wall Street Journal managing editor Robert Thompson just sent out a memo to his staff notifying them that Rebecca Blumenstein has been appointed managing editor of the paper’s Website. Blumenstein will be replacing Almar Latour who will be heading up the Journal’s Asia bureau.
Blumenstein has been an international news editor since December after serving as China bureau chief. In his memo, Thompson said “in her short stint at the desk, she has shown the genuine leadership necessary for a rather rapid promotion to one of the most important positions at Dow Jones.” Thompson also added that “there is no doubt that much of our future will be digital and that the coming few years will be crucial for our online operations, in the U.S. and far beyond.”
A source at the Journal who sent the memo our way speculated that Latour’s move may be part of a plan to beef up the paper’s coverage in Asia. Last month, the Wall Street Journal announced a major print and digital initiative in India. Our tipster wasn’t too familiar with Blumenstein, but they told us that some in the newsroom are wondering if she has the web savvy necessary for the position. Our source also says Blumenstein is highly respected among her colleagues. In 2007, Blumenstein was part of the Wall Street Journal team that won the Pulitzer Prize in international reporting for their coverage of “the adverse impact of China’s booming capitalism.”
Click continued to read the full memo from Robert Thompson…
The North Korean government starves their own people, imprisons American journalists, and has recently stepped up production of nuclear weapons. The North Korean regime also appears to be involved in selling souvenirs through the California-based personalized gift seller CafePress.com.
Mashable: Apple announces their newest mobile phone; the iPhone 3g S
AgencySpy: G4′s Olivia Munn and SNL’s Jason Sudeikis are hosting an hour-long, variety show-style live ad for Microsoft’s Bing search engine on Hulu tonight
TechCrunch: TechCrunch founder/co-editor Michael Arrington says the New York Times unfairly criticized his journalistic chops
Valleywag: Digg goes down during the keynote speech at Apple’s developer conference
FishbowlLA: Ashton Kutcher goes to Twitter to express his rage at the jailing of American journalists in North Korea
TechCrunch: Growth on the video site Hulu is dropping off
CNet: Since last year people in the U.S. are spending 83% more time on social networking sites
Mashable: President Obama will broadcast his Cairo speech via text message
BayNewser: Former newspaper analyst Lauren Rich Fine tells Beet.tv that papers can charge for premium content but not basic news
FishbowlNY: Panelists at an I Want Media event say they rely heavily on Twitter for news aggregation
We’re blogging live from Mediabistro Circus today where we just caught a panel on marketing in an era dominated by user generated content and social networking. The panelists– Larry Weintraub CEO and co-founder of Fanscape, Garrick Schmitt from Razorfish, Valeria Maltoni of ConversationAgent.com, and Doug Jaeger Founder and CEO of TheHappyCorp Global discussed how the marketing landscape is changing and strategies for businesses to raise awareness of their brands in the digital space.
Maltoni and Weintraub focused on the importance of maintaining authenticity when marketing yourself online in order to gain the trust of potential customers. Weintraub told WebNewser that this can be accomplished by “constantly improv[ing]… transparency of who is a paid blogger and who is not.” Schmitt also discussed how social media can be a useful tool for companies to get customer feedback citing the example of the Starbucks splash stick, which was created as a result of customer requests received in an online suggestion box.
Though the panelists said social media can be a valuable tool to help businesses get the word out about their product, actually earning revenue from digital content seems to be a much trickier proposition. Weintraub noted that “no one’s really answered yet how to monetize the content that’s proliferating online.” After the panel we asked Jaeger how he thought media companies might be able to make money from social media. Jaeger suggested that businesses might be able to turn a profit through social networking by creating niche communities for their audiences because, “whoever owns the network has the opportunity to monetize it because they understand what the people are talking about and they’re likely to put the right types of brands next to those conversations.”
TechCrunch: San Francisco launches a 311 complaints and information service on Twitter
Silicon Alley Insider: How to read the Wall Street Journal online for free
FishbowlNY: Live from Mediabistro Circus– What’s next for digital publishing
FishbowlDC: Pollster.com unveils a new redesign
Mashable: Sea World is starting a major social media marketing campaign
