Freyburg

For the second time, the NYT is thinking about instituting a paywall. My personal feeling is that it’ll be slow suicide, but maybe the brain trust at the Gray Lady knows something I don’t. Apple’s new tablet might be a revolutionary product that heralds a new media delivery system, and in the process makes the NYT “app” worth both paying for and subscribing to. And if I had to pick a paper I’d pay to read, the Times would definitely be the top contender. But….it all smacks of desperation and futility. Matthew Ingram, who recently left the Globe and Mail to become a senior writer at GigaOm (itself formed by former BusinessWeek reporter Om Malik) has written an interesting post about the NYT paywall. Check it out.

The Associated Press created quite a stir recently by declaring that people who link to their stories are violating copyright. In effect, the organization declared war on the internet, and is taking what I think is a colossally wrong headed turn towards walling off their content from the very people it should be showing it to, ie) the world. Notable new media thinkers like Jeff Jarvis have railed against AP’s move, but now he’s been joined by an unlikely ally. Chris Aheam, the President of Reuters Thompson, has written a column called “Why I believe in the Link Economy,” where he explains how Reuters will embrace opportunities created by the internet, rather than fighting the future and losing.

So the biggest newspapers in the US got together recently to figure out how to charge for their content. It boils down to “our business model is broken, so let’s go with that and hope for the best.” Seriously, I know newspapers are losing money hand over fist, but has the recording industry taught them nothing? About the only glimmer of hope in the whole report is that papers will become more consumer-centric online….but even then specialized blogs will likely end up eating their lunch.

Time was that Dubai was a new hope for journalists getting laid off left and right here in North America and Europe. There was money everywhere, new publications founded at a rapid pace and big names like David Frost going to Al Jazeera and Martin Newland of the Telegraph and Canada’s own National Post moving to Abu Dhabi’s The National.

Well, the credit crunch put an end to all that. A lot of the ads running in UAE newspapers were for skyrocketing property, which has plummeted in the last few months, dragging the papers down with them.

So what’s ext for Dubai? Well, I wouldn’t write it off just yet. It’s already established itself as a beacon of development in the Middle East, and just as surely as the current crop of expats is jumping ship, once things pick up a new batch will be back to pursue opportunities they wouldn’t otherwise have. Though I doubt Dubai will reach the crazy heights of yesteryear…because none of us will.

A news report from 1981, detailing how people might one day read their news in electronic form, online. Like that’ll ever happen. More importantly, these cats are rocking the TRS-80 Color Computer, my first compubeast.

The New Yorker has a great article up about the dire straits the newspaper industry finds itself in, and how they can best move past what is clearly a dying business model.

The New Music Express has alternatively championed and derided every major form of music to come out of the UK since the 1970s, but according the Time of London, the august tome might finally due to expire. Meanwhile, music critics surprisingly hate the artists beloved by the public, and vice versa.

The Globe and Mail has put together an excellent video and print documentary on the Taliban, and they’ve done so by actually going to the source and talking to members of this mysterious group that’s been keeping Canadian troops pinned down in Afghanistan for the last seven years.

In an interview last week with an ABC correspondent, Dick Cheney’s response to the point that the American public doesn’t support the war in Iraq was simple…”So?” Mickey Edwards of the Washington Post, long a Cheney supporter, has had enough of this open contempt of the public interest, and he says so in the Washington Post.

And with that Variety-esque headline, here’s a story abut how the Washington Post (paper version) and the washingtonpost.com (series of tubes) don’t get along all that well. I’m not privy to the WashPo as a paper, but I know the website is doing good work on the net, including a heavy emphasis on video.