All posts by Jim Muttram

New term for a new phenomenon?

Jeff Jarvis suggests a new term: “networked journalism”

I think a better term for what I’ve been calling “citizen journalism” might be “networked journalism.” “Networked journalism” takes into account the collaborative nature of journalism now: professionals and amateurs working together to get the real story, linking to each other across brands and old boundaries to share facts, questions, answers, ideas, perspectives. It recognizes the complex relationships that will make news. And it focuses on the process more than the product.

AOL’s big gamble

According to PaidContent.org, AOL is considering offering its entire menu of services — including e-mail, virus protection and other security software — free to anyone who has a competing Internet connection, WSJ reports.

Says PaidContent, “Under this proposal, which AOL CEO Jonathan Miller presented to top Time Warner executives in NYC last week, AOL would stop charging a subscription fee for outside users, but subscribers who have traditional dial-up through AOL would still have to pay their monthly fee of as much as $25.90. The company expects that 8 million of its existing dial-up customers would cancel their subscription to take advantage of the new offer…it could be giving up as much as $2 billion in subscription revenue in a gamble aimed at boosting ad revenues.”

Massive layoffs would follow reducing costs and advertising revenue increases would offset the rest of the subscription decline.

Gawker regroups

Nick Denton announced that Gawker Media, his blog company, was closing a couple of blogs – Sploid and Screenhead – and moving staff around on four more. He says changes in the media landscape are behind the move. Jeff Jarvis reckons this is just Nick – with whom he is friends – acting like a media company (21st century one at that) and proving that modern media companies are easy to tweak when things change, unlike 20th century ones. Maybe.