links for 2009-03-17

"The following is a speech I gave yesterday at the South By Southwest Interactive Festival in Austin."

"As I said in my new years convictions, media companies, and newspapers in particular will have to go open source to get the benefit of the online community."

"I want to inspire editorial and technical teams to think not just about their project in isolation but how it will really work for the audience, how it will relate to or build upon the best of what already exists on BBC Online and how we can be part of the wider web."

"The Mobile browser team has developed a customisable mobile homepage and we're sharing it with you today so you can try it out and give us your feedback. It is currently in beta form linked from the main homepage. "

"Today is a special day: Jaiku is now being served from Google App Engine. That's the first step in Google making Jaiku freely available as a federated, open source microblogging platform."

"Last week we invited our Twitter followers to suggest their key marketing and website optimisation tips. Our thanks to all who took part. Here’s what you recommended, in no particular order."

"All told, in 1995, Editor and Publisher reported there were 45 newspapers on paid platforms… The stampede of users away from walled gardens and into the open range of the Internet brought to an end the era of paid online content that began with the invention of Teletext long before Bill Gates and Paul Allen even thought of creating a software company."

"But what WSJ.com used to do was to offer a backdoor to free content for another class of consumer: the social media maven. Paying subscribers could make content free to others by clicking on an icon that created a URL for a free version of the story that they could use for blogging or to submit to sites such as Digg or Yahoo Buzz. "

"The State of the News Media 2009 is the sixth edition of our annual report on the health and status of American journalism."

"I remember Thompson saying something to the effect of “When a 14 year old kid can blow up your business in his spare time, not because he hates you but because he loves you, then you got a problem.” I think about that conversation a lot these days."

"We've all got a front-row seats now. The PI flipped the switch, wholly and irreversibly. Tuesday: Mainly print (in revenue), with some online. Wednesday: a web creature, wholly digital."

"Last week (w/e 14/03/09) Twitter.com was the 54th most visited website in the UK, up from 66th the week before."

"That’s according to the latest quarterly figures from the World Advertising Research Centre, compiled for the Advertising Association, which found that online ad spend grew to £3.3 billion in 2008, a 17.3 percent rise year on year—compared to a 39.5 percent year-on-year increase in 2007. That figure is a little below other analysts’ estimates of 2008 digital ad spend: Enders Analysis put it at 20 percent and Zenith Optimedia cut its forecast to 21.2 percent."

"A new ComScore study released today reported that the number of people using their mobile device to access news and information on the Internet more than doubled from January 2008 to January 2009. And among the audience of 63.2 million people who did so this January, 22.4 million (35 percent) checked daily; also more than double the size of the audience last year. 19 million said they looked at the news at least weekly."

"Total UK adspend fell by 3.9% year on year in 2008, while digital advertising remained buoyant despite growth being cut in half. Internet adspend was up by 17.3% in 2008, however, this growth rate has dramatically slowed since 2006/07 when online adspend increased by 39.5%."

"The new president of ISBA – the advertising trade body whose members spend over £10bn a year – is the latest to wade into the debate around the need for a common currency for online advertising, calling the lack of it "unacceptable"."