I’ve lost count of the number of newspapers which have gone under since the beginning of the year. We’re not even through the first quarter of the year and yet, many (except those in the business who are desperately staying on top of every single death)  have simply stopped counting the number of traditional news outlets that have disappeared.
The latest in the series of death knells is the Rocky Mountain News – Denver’s 150-year-old daily newspaper. They are shutting the doors today and limping off into the sunset.
There’s lots and lots of people who are jumping up and down and …read more

A piece of advice for anyone wanting to participate in the social media world. Although it may be tempting to make friends with everyone in the scene, resist, and get out into the world, not just the industry, and talk to people in complimentary and completely different fields.

I know from experience that the social media scene will fall into distinct echo chambers, no matter what happens, and then what happens is we all talk to each other, about the same things. Agreeing, disagreeing, repeating, saying the same thing but using different words. It becomes one big circle of noise.
The only way …read more

Where do you draw the line between opinon and defemation & libel? Model Liskula Cohen is asking a New York court to force Google to reveal the identity of the anonymous blogger behind “Skanks in NYC“. 
The site is composed of exactly five posts, all aimed at snarking at Cohen, with images that had to have come from friends or friends of friends. All of the pictures were of Cohen, with friends or at a small party with what looks like close friends. Maybe Cohen should be trying to track down where those photos came from rather than trying to get the …read more

You’ve heard every single social media/web 2.0 expert/pundit/blabbermouth/evangelist repeat it ad naseum:
Companies in this new world must be honest and transparent with their publics or face the wrath of their consumers. 
In this case though, the “wrath” might just be mere annoyance. 
Apple said that the reason they were pulling out of MacWorld is because they were scaling back on conferences. The direct quote from their initial release is: “Apple has been steadily scaling back on trade shows in recent years, including NAB, Macworld New York, Macworld Tokyo and Apple Expo in Paris.” 
Speculation about the ‘real reason’ Apple had pulled out was …read more

Not only is it a sad day at JPG Magazine and 8020 Media, it’s a sad day for the rest of us too, and the news is burning up my Twitter stream. 
 
JPG Magazine is closing their doors, after spending months trying to make the buisness sustain itself. In these economic times, people simply aren’t spending the money they used to on anything that’s not food, shelter, and necessary clothing.  It sucks, because Jpg Magazine did some amazing things for professional and amateur photographers both, but perhaps we’re not strong enough to sustain something like JPG Magazine. 
Laura Brunow Miner, one of …read more

There’s some speculation around the web regarding the pulse of Web 2.0, and some are wondering if it’s time for the whole phenomenon to die off.
I am here to tell you: SOCIAL MEDIA IS HERE TO STAY. Yes, there have been companies bought up (Values of n which had I Want Sandy and Stikkit, bought up by Twitter) and companies who have closed up their doors (Hi5 cut 15-20% of their staff and Pownce closed down – they’re two of the most prominent and recent ones), but the end result is that consumers, the ones who are the really matter, …read more

Motrin. Exxon. American Airlines. These are just a few of the great big giant brands which have been “twitter-jacked” in the past year, and that doesn’t count the sheer volume of “fake” celebrities, politicians and others who have had their names co-opted. Anyone remember Sarah Silverman??
Like I discussed in Personal Brand or Reputation, if you don’t already own your Twitter name, your domain name, your facebook name – you name it – you run the serious risk of your name being taken over by someone with less than virtuous ambitions.
Take Shaquille O’Neal. he recently took back his own Twitter account …read more

Hi again! I’m back from my whirlwind trip to the south, (or the upper south as some referred to it as), and I’m getting back into the swing of things!
I was on the flight home last night and going through my usual pre- and post-trip blogging workflow practice, and came across and article on CNet about Evan William’s presentation at Web 2.0 recently. While Williams didn’t give a straight answer to The Valley’s biggest question (though, did you really expect he would? He never gives a straight answer, always holding his cards close to his chest): ‘How will you make …read more

Jack Dorsey and Evan Williams are doing a bit of a dosado. @Ev is taking @Jack’s spot and moving into the CEO role, while @Jack becomes Chairman of the Board.
“We’re entering a new phase now and there are new kinds of challenges ahead. Healthy companies acknowledge the need for change even during the best of times,” Williams wrote. “As Twitter grows both internally and externally, we took a good look at our path forward and saw the need for a focused approach from a single leader.” [source]
Hrm. Translation? Time to actually start playing the game for real. Step up to …read more

Om Malik, one of the few uber-A-listers I haven’t met or hung out with yet, has a fantastic post about the economy, VC Funding and start ups. With the economy heading so completely south, start ups are starting to tighten their belts.
Heck, look at Jeremiah Owyang’s tally of the Social Media layoffs recently:

Oct 10: Fast Company, which has social network for website and popular videoblogger, lays off 20
Oct 10: Seesmic, a video conversation player lays off 7
Oct 6: eBay to lay off 10% of workforce to streamline after recession.
Oct 3: Gawker blog network lays off 19, and brags about it.

Om …read more