Advertising & Blogs

While many well-written blogs still have no ads on their sites, some bloggers have been able to generate income from their writing. Dooce is a blog written by Heather B. Armstrong, a web developer-turned-stay-at-home-mom in Utah. The blog features text ads by Google and a single graphic ad that rotates between different advertisers like Verizon, Wal-Mart and the state of Maryland.

Closer inspection reveals that the graphic ads were placed by an organization called Federated Media. I think this is the company that Dr. Borrell talked about in class. Click through to FM's site and you can browse through a whole stable of blogs (including Digg and Boing Boing) on all kinds of topics, along with brief pitches about their online popularity.

Really good writing and humor seem to be two of the keys to attracting readers - and then advertisers - to a personal blog, but even with these assets it's not easy. Bloggie winner Tokyo Girl Down Under and No Impact Man (who has book and movie deals) sport no ads on their popular sites.

Blogs that are cooperatively written by a group tend to have a lot more ads, which I think is directly tied to their ability to generate a lot of quality content around a particular interest or lifestyle. Treehugger is an informational blog about environmental sustainability that was started by an individual, but has added contributors (and advertising) as it has grown in popularity. Or has it grown in popularity as it has added contributors (and advertising)?

A Bit O' This, A Bit O' That

The FCC is holding its fourth public hearing on media ownership rules today in Tamp, FL. Click here for a live audio feed.

The 100th journalist has died covering the Iraq War. More journalists have been killed in action covering Iraq than in Vietnam, the first Iraq war, Afghanistan, Kosovo and Somalia -- combined, according to this article in Broadcasting & Cable.

Newspaper circulation numbers are down again, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations' spring numbers. A report released today showed steep losses and minimal gains for the fifth reporting period in a row. Read all about it at Editor & Publisher.

I Used To Be a Human; Now I'm Just a Blogger

Fourteen car loads and one 17-foot moving truck later I was struggling to recall what was so bad about living next door to a crack dealer, anyway.

When the futon got stuck halfway up the stairs to the third floor of the new place and my boyfriend started dismantling the banister I had a change of heart. This - this - is the best apartment ever and once that futon gets settled it is never coming back down.

Never.

Anyone who's moved knows there is a wormhole in the universe between there and here where chaos reigns and it's all you can do to hang onto your toothbrush and the cat in the midst of the swirling vortex of packing boxes and bubble wrap [NB. bubble wrap stops being fun after car load #7]. Space and time cease normal operation; random objects are mysteriously lost into the void. You are utterly removed from the day-to-day goings-on of ordinary earthlings. There are more important things to attend to. Dammit Jim, we're Moving!

An early casualty of the mission is the mass media. Because even if you could find the ________, there's no time to ________ it. I consider myself a fairly conscious consumer of the media, so I was interested to see how I fared for the week or two that the plug was pulled. No TV, no newspaper, no Sirius - no problem, I thought. It wasn't until later that I realized my folly.

In all the haphazard stumblings of the move - forgetting until the last minute to have my mail forwarded, the misplaced power drill that may never be seen again - there was one objective that I carried out with all the care and determination due a life support system: maintain internet connection. It could be no accident.

From the time my boyfriend pried the mouse out of my hand at midnight on the night before the move to the time the cable guy arrived at 2 p.m. the next day (God only knows where the dishes were but I had the desk and computer set up and waiting), I had gone exactly 14 hours without the internet. Not even a full day.

As I waited anxiously for him to perform the umbilical operation that would reconnect me to mission control (Kshh! Houston, we need a new password for this account. Kshh! Over.), I understood: not blood, but bytes course through my veins; not veins, but fiber-optic cables criss-cross my body. My brain is a CPU. I am jb6458.

In the News: Blogger Released from Prison

Here's an excerpt from a piece in the San Francisco Chronicle about blogger Josh Wolf's release from a record-setting prison term:

Josh Wolf, the blogger whose record 7 1/2 months in federal prison stirred debate about who qualifies as a journalist and what legal protections they should receive, was freed today after releasing video footage sought by prosecutors about an anarchist protest.

Wolf, 24, held in contempt by a federal judge last August for defying a grand jury subpoena, walked out of the Federal Correctional Institution in Dublin at mid-afternoon after his lawyers and federal prosecutors reached a compromise, with the help of a federal magistrate.

Wolf posted the uncut video on his Web site, gave prosecutors a copy and denied under oath that he knew anything about violent incidents at the July 2005 protest. In return, his lawyers said, prosecutors agreed not to summon him before the grand jury or ask him to identify any of the protesters shown on his video.

Prosecutors' withdrawal of their demand for his testimony was the key to the deal, Wolf told reporters outside the prison gate.

"Journalists absolutely have to remain independent of law enforcement," he said. "Otherwise, people will never trust journalists."

Asked about his imprisonment -- the longest-ever for a U.S. journalist for withholding information -- Wolf said, "Absolutely, this was worth it. I would do it again if I had to." He also said his case showed the need for a federal "shield law" that would protect journalists, including bloggers, from having to disclose confidential sources or unpublished material.

California and most other states have shield laws, but they do not apply to proceedings in federal court.

It's interesting to note the various ways in which news reports label Wolf. Sometimes he's a 'journalist'; sometimes a 'blogger'. I saw him referred to as an 'independent journalist,' a 'freelance journalist,' a 'video blogger' and even an 'anarchist journalist'!

And FYI, PA does have a shield law. The Pennsylvania Newspaper Association explains:

Pennsylvania Shield Law (42 Pa.C.S.A. §5942)

When dealing with lawsuits that arise out of Pennsylvania law (lawsuits based upon violations of Pennsylvania law, including libel lawsuits taking place in federal courts), reporters are protected by what is often referred to as the Pennsylvania Shield Law. This law states:

No person engaged in, connected with, or employed by any newspaper of general circulation or any press association or any radio or television station, or any magazine of general circulation, for the purpose of gathering, procuring, compiling, editing or publishing news, shall be required to disclose the source of any information procured or obtained by such person, in any legal proceeding, trial or investigation before any government unit. Note: This statute also applies to radio and television stations as long as they maintain and keep recordings or transcripts of the actual broadcast or telecast available for inspection.

This law provides journalists with an absolute privilege against the compelled disclosure of confidential sources of information, be it from law enforcement agencies or private citizens. The Shield Law has been interpreted by the courts to include not only the names of reporters' informants, but also provides protection to documents, unpublished materials, inanimate objects, and all sources of information obtained by reporters. Therefore, in a case dealing with a violation of Pennsylvania law, reporters cannot be required to produce the names or identities of their informants, documents obtained by their informants (such as invoices or letters), or other sources of information, even if they are subpoenaed to do so.

You can read about exceptions to this law (particularly in libel cases) at their site. It doesn't appear that this law would cover bloggers not affiliated with a traditional news organization, but I don't know if that's been tested in court yet.

You can read the statement Wolf made on his release and watch the footage in question at his web site. He makes an appearance in Part II of Frontline's series, "News War."

Frontline's "News War"

Since the previous post has dropped off the page here, I wanted to remind you that the excellent series, "News War: A Four Part Investigation Into the Future of News," is still available for online viewing. Produced by PBS's Frontline, the series is divided into four parts:

• Parts I & II - Secrets, Sources & Spin
• Part III - What's Happening to the News
• Part IV - Stories from a Small Planet

I've watched Parts I & II so far. They deal mainly with the tension between the press and the government. What does the public have the right to know? When does the government have the right to secrecy? Why do journalists insist on the right to keep their sources confidential? What defenses do journalists have from government prosecution?

This series is a great way to see Communication Law in action.

A Tale of Two e-Newletters

#1: DrWeil.com

This newsletter and the site it comes from definitely have commercial goals (the profits of drweil.com's product sales go to fund his non-profit organization, which trains doctors in integrative medicine). There are several ads included in the newsletter. This means the ad-to-content ratio is pretty high, since this is a short, daily email. Each newsletter contains one or two teasers for an article, and one Q & A (actually just the question, as a link). It's so short I can see the whole thing on my email inbox page. Which is probably the reason that I don't unsubscribe - because I can scan it in seconds & make an instant decision on whether to click through or dump it.

#2: Nat Decants

I discovered Natalie MacLean's website through her award-winning book about wine, "Red, White, and Drunk All Over: A Wine-Soaked Journey From Grape to Glass." I really enjoyed her book, so it's a shame that her newsletters don't work very well. The main problems are that they are made up of massive blocks of text, and the text goes on and on. The newsletter would benefit from making better use of HTML capabilities by laying out text on the page in chunks and subdividing articles. Although the newsletter only comes once a fornight, I've yet to read one through. I tried once, but gave up 15 min. later with the end still not in sight.

New Study Challenges Conventional Web Wisdom

A new survey by the Poynter Institute found that web news readers have a greater attention span than print readers, according to a Reuters report.

"The EyeTrack07 survey by the Poynter Institute, a Florida-based journalism school, found online readers read 77 percent of what they chose to read while broadsheet newspaper readers read an average of 62 percent, and tabloid readers about 57 percent.

Sara Quinn, director of the Poynter EyeTrack07 project, said this was the first large public study internationally to compare the differences between how people read the news online and in newspapers.

She said they were surprised to find that such a large percentage of story text was read online as this exploded the myth that Web readers had a shorter attention span."

Some traditional notions were reinforced: readers were more attracted to and retained more information from stories presented in alternative formats like Q & A, lists, short sidebars, and timelines.

Read the full article here.