June 2012

In scare for newspapers, digital ad growth stalls

As more newspapers cut back on print to reduce costs and focus on their websites, a troubling trend has emerged: online advertising sales are stalling.

In the first quarter, digital advertising revenue at newspapers rose just 1 percent from a year ago, the fifth consecutive quarter that growth has declined, according to the Newspaper Association of America, a trade organization. A flood of excess advertising space, the rise of electronic advertising exchanges that sell ads at cut-rate prices, and the weak U.S. economy are all contributing to the slowdown, publishing executives and observers say.

How Google and Microsoft taught search to "understand" the Web

Despite the massive amounts of computing power dedicated by search engine companies to crawling and indexing trillions of documents on the Internet, search engines still can't do what nearly any human can: tell the difference between a star, a 1970s TV show, and a Turkish alternative rock band.

That’s because Web indexing has been based on the bare words found on webpages, not on what they mean. Since the beginning, search engines have essentially matched strings of text, says Shashi Thakur, a technical lead for Google’s search team. “When you try to match strings, you don't get a sense of what those strings mean. We should have a connection to real-world knowledge of things and their properties and connections to other things.” Making those connections is the reason for recent major changes within the search engines at Microsoft and Google. Microsoft’s Satori and Google’s Knowledge Graph both extract data from the unstructured information on webpages to create a structured database of the “nouns” of the Internet: people, places, things, and the relationships between them all.

The MPAA would be OK seeing legit Megaupload files restored

The Motion Picture Association of America filed a response to a motion to return Megaupload users’ files locked up in the United States v. Kim Dotcom case.

In an Eastern Virginia District Court, the MPAA asked that if the court grants users the ability to retrieve their files from the locked-down servers, no illegally downloaded copyrighted material be let free in the process. The original motion the MPAA responded to was brought by a man named Kyle Goodwin. Goodwin stored videos he made of local sporting events on an external hard drive and on Megaupload’s online file locker. His hard drive crashed just days before Megaupload was taken down by the Feds in January. Goodwin is just one user who lost irreplaceable files in the shutdown of Megaupload. TorrentFreak noted that “among these users are many people in the US military who used the site to share pictures and videos with family. Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom previously informed TorrentFreak that at least 15,634 soldiers had accounts at Megaupload.”

Rep Terry: Network Neutrality Supporters Hypocritical on International Net Regulation

Rep. Lee Terry (R-NE) said while he is glad to see U.S. policy makers joining forces to oppose international efforts to regulate the Internet, the Federal Communications Commission's network neutrality rules undermine U.S. credibility on the issue.

"I think there is certain level of hypocrisy" among those who favor net neutrality rules while opposing efforts to regulate the Internet internationally, Rep. Terry, vice chairman of the House Communications and Technology Subcommittee, said during a roundtable discussion sponsored by the Phoenix Center. Rep Terry, however, was quick to note that he and other Republicans refrained from bringing up net neutrality during a hearing last week on Internet governance before the Communications and Technology Subcommittee in order to present a unified front on the issue to the rest of the world.

Poll: Political Participation Higher Among Social Media Users

When it comes to who they want to win the presidential race, optimism about the economy and the direction of the United States, the opinions of social media users match those of the overall population, according to the latest Allstate/National Journal Heartland Monitor Poll.

The results track so closely because nearly two-thirds of Americans are social media users, according to the poll. The poll also showed no great differences between users and non-users, when it comes to party identification, age and economic status. Key differences emerge when comparing social media users to non-users. People who use social media are far more likely to sign a campaign petition (68 percent for social media users, compared to 50 percent of non-users) and to attend a campaign rally (32 percent of social media users compared to 22 percent of non-users). People who use Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and so on also are more likely to get the opinions of others before buying a product (79 percent to 60 percent) and more likely to be influenced by the opinions of others (64 percent to 47 percent). Social media users were more likely to agree that ordinary consumers have more influence over major corporations now, as opposed to 10 or 15 years ago, compared to the overall population.

Uncommon Sense: Multiplying the Digital Divide

[Commentary] Apparently, we’re no longer concerned about access as the primary measure of the digital divide in this country. Now, according to a recent article in The New York Times, wasting time is the new digital divide.

Seems that the same disadvantaged kids who hung out in the parking lot at MacDonald’s while their wealthier counterparts pursued more structured and disciplined pursuits in pre-digital days still hang out in the parking lot at MacDonald’s, immersing themselves in games, texting and Facebook on their smartphones -- exactly like the rich kids. Seems the one thing none of them do -- regardless of socioeconomic status -- is use digital technology to satisfy the single most persistent and neglected promise of those who sell digital technology to parents: education. Young people prefer to use all this digital firepower for entertainment instead -- just like mom and dad. Go figure.

B&N: DOJ e-book suit endangers consumers, bookstores and copyrighted expression

In a complaint sent to the Department of Justice, Barnes & Noble says that the DOJ’s proposed settlement with HarperCollins, Hachette and Simon & Schuster for allegedly colluding to fix e-book prices “represents an unprecedented effort” to become “a regulator of a nascent technology that it little understands” — and “the national economy, our nation’s culture, and the future of copyrighted expression” are at stake.

In fact, B&N argues, e-book and hardcover prices have fallen under agency pricing.” “You’re going to end up having choice control from a server farm in Washington state,” Barnes & Noble’s general counsel Gene DeFelice told me, referring to Amazon. “In essence, the proposed settlement substitutes one alleged cartel for a new cartel on the industry, albeit one run by the [DOJ],” B&N says. The bookstore chain’s complaint joins others sent to the DOJ during the settlement commenting period, which ends on June 25.

Why HBO is once again TV’s most relevant network

It was just one more small step for TV Everywhere. HBO Go will now be available on yet another tablet, the Kindle Fire, through eight out of the top 10 pay TV services in the US. And it was just one more incremental move for HBO, as the premium cable company — the leading edge of parent Time Warner’s effort to move the traditional pay TV model into the IP-device world — re-establishes itself as television’s most relevant programming brand. Yes, HBO is just as important to the evolution of the television business as it was a decade ago, just for different reasons. Instead of bucking the TV establishment with groundbreaking shows, the subscriber-supported service, which still touts an industry-leading 29 million customers, is now carrying the establishment on its back.

Schools need 100Mbps for every 1,000 users

American schools need mega-broadband networks -- and they need them soon, a new report says. Specifically, U.S. educational institutions will need networks that deliver broadband performance of 100Mbps for every 1,000 students and staff members in time for the 2014-15 school year. That's the conclusion reached by the State Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA). Why the need for speed? For one thing, more and more schools are using online textbooks and collaboration tools, said Christine Fox, director of educational leadership and research at SETDA. Broadband access must be "ubiquitous" and "robust," she said, adding that schools should think of broadband as a "necessary utility," not as an add-on. The report, called "The Broadband Imperative," further suggests that schools should upgrade their networks to support speeds of 1Gbps per 1,000 users in five years. SETDA noted that users who stream high-definition video will require download speeds of 4Mbps.

Fox News Takes Control Of Newscore Wire

FOX News has elevated two executives in the network’s hard news division, announced Roger Ailes, Chairman & CEO, FOX News. Michael Clemente has been promoted to Executive Vice President of News Editorial and John Moody, currently the CEO of Newscore, will return to FOX News as Executive Editor and Executive Vice President. Both executives will report directly to Ailes. Newscore, a news service that allows worldwide editorial properties to share content and resources across all News Corp entities will now be absorbed into the day to day operations of FOX News. In making the announcement, Ailes said, “As our fiscal year comes to a close, I’ve determined that Newscore will operate more efficiently and effectively inside FOX News. This move will strengthen our overall newsgathering capabilities and enable us to operate at an even higher level.”

Benton

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