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Newspapers Have Not Hit Bottom, Analysts Say

Despite some tentative optimism from Washington, Wall Street and Madison Avenue, people who monitor the newspaper business for a living say it has not yet hit bottom. But in what passes for good news these days, the free fall in newspaper advertising may be slowing, and specialists predict it will ease through 2009 and into 2010.

With 10 days left in the third quarter, analysts, publishers and ad buyers say that ad revenue will be down about 25 percent industrywide from the third quarter last year, possibly a little less. They predict that the decline will be smaller in the fourth quarter. Several of them say the usual back-to-school uptick in newspaper advertising seems to have been a little better than in most years, if only because July and August were so weak.

» NY Times [ Contribute: submit link / submit article ]

FCC To Support 'Net Neutrality' And Open Internet

The U.S. government plans to propose broad new rules Monday that would force Internet providers to treat all Web traffic equally, seeking to give consumers greater freedom to use their computers or cellphones to enjoy videos, music and other legal services that hog bandwidth.

The move would make good on a campaign promise to Silicon Valley supporters like Google Inc. from President Barack Obama, but will trigger a battle with phone and cable companies like AT&T Inc. and Comcast Corp., which don't want the government telling them how to run their networks.

Treating Web traffic equally means carriers couldn't block or slow access to legal services or sites that are a drain on their networks or offered by rivals.

» Reuters [ Contribute: submit link / submit article ]
» Wall Street Journal
» Washington Post

Insurance May Ease Monetary Sting for Bloggers Sued Over Posts

“You wouldn’t publish a newspaper without liability insurance, so you should take the same precautions with blogging, if you have any kind of audience or readership,” said Granju, 41, a Knoxville, Tennessee, resident.

The cost of defending against legal action can range from $5,000 to at least $100,000 if the case goes to trial, said Ron Coleman, a trademark lawyer at Goetz Fitzpatrick in New York. Of the 256 lawsuits dating as early as 1994 through April tracked by the New York-based Media Law Resource Center, damages were awarded in 17 cases, totaling $43.9 million.

» Bloomberg [ Contribute: submit link / submit article ]

Behemoth Blogs Taking Over The Web

In a recent essay in the New York Review of Books, Michael Massing articulates a point made so often about the Web that it's nearly catechismal. Blogs, he says, have torn down the power structure of old media. "Decentralization and democratization" are the law of the land, offering “a podium to Americans of all ages and backgrounds to contribute.” This is a notion that bloggers and web gurus have been touting for years. In his 2006 book, An Army of Davids, for example, “Instapundit” blogger Glenn Reynolds argued that “markets and technology” empowered “ordinary people to beat big media.” And this June, internet sage Clay Shirky assured an audience at a TED event that the old model, where “professionals broadcast messages to amateurs,” is “slipping away.”

» The Atlantic [ Contribute: submit link / submit article ]

Pentagon Keeps Wary Watch as Troops Blog

The Web, however, is a big place. And the many thousands of troops who use blogs, Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites to communicate with the outside world are not always in tune with the Pentagon’s official voice. Policing their daily flood of posts, videos and photographs is virtually impossible — but that has not stopped some in the military from trying.

The Department of Defense, citing growing concerns about cybersecurity, plans to issue a new policy in the coming weeks that is widely expected to set departmentwide restrictions on access to social networking sites from military computers. People involved with the department’s review say the new policy may limit access to social media sites to those who can demonstrate a clear work need, like public information officers or family counselors.

» NY Times [ Contribute: submit link / submit article ]

Facebook Exodus

Things fall apart; the center cannot hold. Facebook, the online social grid, could not command loyalty forever. If you ask around, as I did, you’ll find quitters. One person shut down her account because she disliked how nosy it made her. Another thought the scene had turned desperate. A third feared stalkers. A fourth believed his privacy was compromised. A fifth disappeared without a word.

» NY Times [ Contribute: submit link / submit article ]