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Curl Up With A Good Blog. Publishers Turn To The Web To Find New Talent

Once upon a time, a writer would have to try to attract the interest of an agent in the hope they would submit their proposals to publishers and beg them a book deal. Now, however, it would appear to just be a simple matter of a writer posting their work online and then sitting back waiting for the offers to roll in.

Yesterday's announcement of this year's winners of the award for blogs turned into books, the Lulu Blooker prize, would have us believe that many publishers are perusing blogs with the aim of adapting them into books. The website eagerly claims, "Traditional publishing houses, ever in search of the next big name author, have begun to mine blogs and websites for new talent."

» guardian.co.uk [ Contribute: submit link / submit article / submit company ]

College Recruiters Use Student Bloggers

Colleges seeking a competitive edge are increasingly enlisting and sometimes paying student bloggers to chronicle their lives online. The results run the gamut from insightful to boring, but the goal is the same: to find a new way to win the attention of the MySpace generation. "We found it a much freer, less constricting, far more believable way of letting prospective students glimpse what was going on on campus," said Seth Allen, dean of admissions at Dickinson College in Pennsylvania.

» washingtonpost.com [ Contribute: submit link / submit article / submit company ]

Local bloggers' posts appear in Boston newspaper

While most newspapers are trying to stake bigger claims online, one new publication is pulling material off the Internet to be printed in ink.

John Wilpers, editor in chief of BostonNow, a free weekday daily introduced last month, said he wanted to fill the paper with items that local bloggers submitted to the BostonNow Web site.

Last week, editors began culling posts and running excerpts next to articles from reporters and newswires. The blog items, which appear in gray boxes, are still relatively few, but Wilpers said he thought the feature would grow.

Wilpers, who previously edited two other free commuter newspapers, Metro Boston and The Washington Examiner, said he wanted to address what he believed was the news industry's biggest problem: an inability to connect with the communities it covers.

» news.com.com » nytimes.com

A few companies cashing in on the blogosphere

As a few star bloggers have made six-figure salaries or million-dollar deals, more and more people have been tantalized by the prospect of making money online -- even though the vast majority of blogs are little more than online diaries.

"A lot of the blogosphere does not make sense if viewed from the point of view of a business model," said David Weinberger, a fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School. "Blogs remain, I believe, primarily conversational."

» chicagotribune.com

DRM group vows to fight bloggers over AACS

Bloggers "crossed the line" when they posted a software key that could break the encryption on some HD-DVDs, the AACS copy protection body has said.

Thousands of websites published the key, which had been uncovered in a bid to circumvent digital rights management (DRM) technology on HD-DVD discs. Many said they had done this as an exercise in free speech. An AACS executive said it was looking at "legal and technical tools" to confront those who published the key.

» bbc.co.uk

New Dell Spanish-language corporate blog / DellenDirecto

Dell chairman and CEO Michael Dell announced Tuesday at the Entrepreneur Endeavor Summit that the company has launched DellenDirecto.com, a Spanish-language blog geared toward communicating with its customer base and other stakeholders. Dell considers it to be an extension of Direct2Dell, its English-language corporate blog that it has operated since July 2006. In March, Dell launched a Chinese version of Direct2Dell.

Bienvenidos a DellenDirecto, el blog corporativo de Dell en español. Este nuevo blog, diseñado para nuestros clientes, seguidores y bloggers que prefieren tener conversaciones con nosotros en español, será introducido por Michael Dell durante su visita a Miami para la Cumbre de Emprendedores de Endeavor. DellenDirecto es una extensión de nuestro ya conocido blog en inglés, Direct2Dell, que hoy en día recibe un promedio de 3 millones de visitas al mes con más de 100,000 visitantes únicos mensualmente.

» DellenDirecto.com

The future of newspapers. Is print heading for obsolescence?

The age of podcasts, war-zone bloggers, and countless other online information sources presents newspapers with arguably their biggest challenge ever. But how to react? Is print heading for obsolescence? Or can it re-invent itself and reach out to a generation brought up looking at screens? Leading media figures tell Ian Burrell where we're going from here.

I think you'll end up with some premium-branded newspapers, a bit like The Sunday Times has done with its £2 price, which will be far more niche-orientated. The ones that have got a clear definition as to what their market is are the ones that will survive. Love it or like it the Daily Mail has a very strong market, it has a right-wing bias and it really targets that quite heavily. It's getting that niche and really working it. That's where Metro has been successful, it's a young, urban, travelling audience and it's fulfilling a need for that audience at that place and time.

Lots of answers from lots of media people. Worth reading.

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» The Independent

SEC chief gets blogging

Chairman of the SEC, Christopher Cox, has joined the blogging world.

In a comment on Sun Microsystem's chief executive, Jonathan Schwartz's blog, the SEC chief showed interest in Mr Schwartz's recent request that blogs be used as a way to expand investors' access to information. In a triumph of PR, Mr Cox posted the text of a letter he had sent last week in response to a letter from Mr Schwartz on the subject. "Since you're talking about trasparency and efficiency in communications, I though you might appreciate my taking advantage of the internet's speed and potential for broad dissemination by posting here as well," he added.