How Google Can Help Newspapers – Wall Street Journal — I totally agree with Schmidt that tying media subscription services to some kind of portable reading device is probably the best way to secure revenue for publishers and could well deliver a superior experience to the reader. However I’m uneasy about this ‘the device knows you’ stuff. The device could also be a superior propaganda delivery and information monitoring tool which effectively eliminates anonymous access to news.
It’s the year 2015. The compact device in my hand delivers me the world, one news story at a time. I flip through my favorite papers and magazines, the images as crisp as in print, without a maddening wait for each page to load.
Even better, the device knows who I am, what I like, and what I have already read. So while I get all the news and comment, I also see stories tailored for my interests. I zip through a health story in The Wall Street Journal and a piece about Iraq from Egypt’s Al Gomhuria, translated automatically from Arabic to English. I tap my finger on the screen, telling the computer brains underneath it got this suggestion right.
Some of these stories are part of a monthly subscription package. Some, where the free preview sucks me in, cost a few pennies billed to my account. Others are available at no charge, paid for by advertising. But these ads are not static pitches for products I’d never use. Like the news I am reading, the ads are tailored just for me. Advertisers are willing to shell out a lot of money for this targeting.
This is a long way from where we are today. The current technology—in this case the distinguished newspaper you are now reading—may be relatively old, but it is a model of simplicity and speed compared with the online news experience today. I can flip through pages much faster in the physical edition of the Journal than I can on the Web. And every time I return to a site, I am treated as a stranger.
Um. And how does this fit with the recent plan for a service for the news media to continuously review YouTube clips to consider which to use for “news”?
maybe newspapers should start by being worth paying for.
Actual fair and balanced news reporting as opposed to propaganda might help.
Will the conservatives be able to filter out all news that does not fit their ideology, as they do now?
Yes, because our most highest goal is to drive Greg Allen paranoid.
If you read news (or any other website for that matter) if already collects information about you – nothing new there! Log in to a website in the UK and you’ll get UK based ads, in France you get French ads, even in Africa you get their own local ads, and sites such as Facebook can easily target ads at exactly who you are because it knows all your personal details. Nothing new in target ads – but surely a better option than (god forbid) having to pay for content!
#4:
“Will the conservatives be able to filter out all news that does not fit their ideology, as they do now?”
I wasn’t aware that the liberals were listening to Rush every day and watching Fox every night.
How fair and balanced of them.
“However I’m uneasy about this ‘the device knows you’ stuff.”
I share your concern. My local public library is introducing new software called “Polaris Library Systems”, which:
+ Let’s you save your searches
+ Sends you an email alert when your favorite author has a new book
+ Let’s you keep track of what you read (and so it is)
+ Let’s you keep a list of what you want to read next (and so it does)
+ Let’s you manage your reserves
+ and much more (but not yet disclosed)
I’ve been told the use of this by patrons is voluntarily. But then these things always start that way. Like the Auto Emissions testing did. And they later it becomes mandatory, or automatic. And who’s to know when it’s not keeping track of your stuff?
All this nice PR could be double speak for something the DHS wants in place, to keep track of what we’re all reading. So as to preemptively target those thinking of opposing government policies, via their reading and research patterns. They’ll justify this, if they have to early on, by using bomb making and terrorism plans, as what they’re looking for. But as with all Orwellian machinations. It will become a tool for keeping us all in line. And used to data mine the general populous’ thinking, to see if the latest administration’s propaganda is taking hold.
I’ll be looking to see if Polaris Lib Sys comes with a Privacy Policy. And if it mentions sharing data with government agencies. Of course, unless you’re not a good little robot citizen, why would you care?
I grow ever more suspicious of the “ads tailored just for me” claims. Just how could any software become smart enough, and informed enough about my needs and desires, to know just what to target me with ads of? I think its largely a bogus claim, that’s either selling advertisers some kind of vaporware. Or covering up what it’s really designed to do. Invade our privacy, under the guise of targeted advertising. It must be allowed to do so, or we’ll get an ad for something we have no bloody use for. The horror of it! As if random adverts will stop or slow to a mere trickle. I very much doubt that. In any case, smart advert software really isn’t about doing you or me any great favors, filtering out ads for things we don’t care about. But rather exploiting whatever we currently have a need for, before we’ve got a chance to do our own impartial research. Thus encouraging more impulse buying, before we know a better choice exists.
This is my complaint. Why do they charge as much for the electronic version as their print version. I would be more then happy to pay something for a paper but when you eliminate distribution costs dramatically why charge the same?
Agreed. The way to save the industry is through taking advantage of new technologies like the Kindle that allow for portability and rich user experience.
I would gladly pay for this and can see Apple showing the way with their rumored Tablet.
“Save the industry with devices like the Kindle.” ROFL
That’s like how computers were going to save trees and create the “paperless office” and how more missiles were going to stop wars and how carpool lanes would unclog freeways. It’s like how not voting for McCain would bring peace. Remember all those promises?
The newspaper industry is just going through some new growing pains. The ones that serve their communities precisely will flourish.
Many news papers are using old models that are no longer sustainable. News on paper is a great thing and can continue just fine, they just have to make some adjustments. Charging for it online is a failed model. Online ads are a waste as it’s easy to block them all like how I do with Dvorak’s blog and all others.
Here’s what they need to do:
They need to —— — — ——- – — — —— – — – – – —– — . They need to —– – — – – — — — — — – — – – – – . Print — — – for local — – — — — – – . Have a section that explains how to — – — — – – – – – – – . Have a — – – – section for — – – – to read to — — – — -.
If you would like my online edition that fills in the blanks left out in my story above you are going to have to sign up for my edition, provide your email address, confirm your email address you already typed in which makes you look real stupid, provide your birth date, mothers maiden name, credit card information, and agree to perpetual terms, be spied on, and pay me for it, none of which you have to do when picking up a newspaper.
You can subscribe here:
whypeoplegenerallyhaventaclue.com
Paper Boats
1st part knocked it out of the park.
The Last part… If there weren’t so many ways around that it could be taken seriously. There isn’t a realistic solution yet. Right now the Youtube partner’s system is the best solution and fact is crap like Miss South Carolina kill that whole system.
# 2 jccalhoun “maybe newspapers should start by being worth paying for.”
Ever since they dropped Joe Palooka, huh?
RBG
>> brm said, on December 3rd, 2009 at 11:56 pm
>> I wasn’t aware that the liberals were listening to Rush every day and watching Fox every night.
>> How fair and balanced of them.
If you are a typical Fox News viewer, you are unaware of a whole bunch of reality.
I’m a liberal and I’ve listened to Rush many times and seen Fox News even more. I must not be alone because I’ve heard people on Fox News brag they they have lots of liberal viewers.
Just admit it — it’s not all the same between cons and libs.
Conservatives tend to be “true believers” who insulate themselves from uncomfortable facts in a way that other Americans don’t.
>> jescott418 said, on December 4th, 2009 at 3:53 am
>> This is my complaint. Why do they charge as much for the electronic version as their print version.
I totally agree – the price has been the main issue. The readers are too expensive and the books not discounted enough.
I suspect that a subscription (or Netflix-style) system might be best. For a fee you have access to a whole catalog of books. This way you could also subsidize the cost the reader, the way many people buy their cell phones.
“Advertisers are willing to shell out a lot of money for this targeting.”
But, with their tracking, they’ll soon find out I seldom buy their crap. Does that mean they’ll cut me off entirely?
It all only costs “a few pennies” to read an article? Geez! I may scan 50 to a hundred articles a day, right now. A few pennies can really add up!
# 5 The Conservative: “…highest goal is to drive Greg Allen paranoid.”
SUCCESS!!!
>> Glenn E. said, on December 4th, 2009 at 3:17 am
>> I share your concern. My local public library is introducing new software called “Polaris Library Systems”
Our library will keep track of your reading history but it is strictly an opt-in system.
Thanks to the Patriot Act, the Feds can snoop on your personal reading history, even without probable cause. It also has a gag order preventing the librarian from telling the patron that someone is snooping in their files!
The librarians I know don’t like this one little bit.
I work in libraries and there is a deep commitment to freedom and privacy of inquiry.
This is in contrast to commercial interests who view your personal information as a revenue opportunity.
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