journalism

There's a lot of ways to look at Microsoft's decision to abandon OneCare and come up with free antivirus software.

But I had to do a double take Tuesday night when I saw the Wall Street Journal headline on the decision: "Microsoft plans new spyware."

I saw the headline first on my phone, then went to the Journal's Web site, where the headline was featured on the main page. (See screenshot).

The article itself makes no reference to Microsoft creating spyware, and once one clicks on the story, bears the headline "Microsoft Plans to … Read more

Valleywag is dead (or, at least, diminished), as CNET's Caroline McCarthy reports. About time. I used to like Valleywag, but then it started trying to drive page views by breaking "news" about the sex trade in Silicon Valley, trying to foment controversy around Peter Thiel's personal life, and so on.

When it broke news, even scandalous news, it was good. When it didn't, well, it wasn't.

Contrast that with TechCrunch. TechCrunch routinely breaks real news. It covers startups that matter (and many that don't). It has become an hourly read for me, as … Read more

AOL has begun notifying bloggers who've used its Journals site that they should move their content to Google's Blogger or bid it adieu.

The company, which is winnowing down its properties to improve its financial performance, published a notice last week that it's closing its AOL Journals blog site as well as its Hometown/FTP site for hosting Web pages on October 31. And now it's begun sending users notices that it's time to move.

AOL set up a partnership with Google's Blogger.com so that people can migrate their blogs, and Jack Krupansky … Read more

In addition to a legacy of adventure and entrepreneurship, Steve Fossett leaves behind a top secret project he'd been working on. He had bought a highly advanced underwater submersible he hoped would take him to the bottom of the Mariana Trench, lower than any point on Earth humans have gone. Reporter Daniel Terdiman joins today's podcast to talk about the project and where it goes from here.

Apple is strongly denying a rumor posted on CNN's iReport page that Steve Jobs suffered a heart attack this morning. iReport is a citizen journalism section of CNN, where people … Read more

A very wise (and, strangely, important) person in the news industry said to me the other day: "Do you know ANYONE who has ever clicked on an online ad?"

I had to confess I knew many who clicked on those little Google thingies, but not many who clicked on display ads. And even fewer who would admit to it.

This led us to consider how news organizations might make more (some) money in the future, given that untold riches are not exactly flowing yet from online display advertising.

So imagine if all the (supposedly) reputable news organizations got … Read more

Buzznet, that upstart social-network-slash-pop-culture-content-hub based in Los Angeles, has made headlines for acquiring blog properties in a Rodeo Drive-worthy spree. But on Wednesday, the company announced the hire of an editor in chief--and it's straight from "old media."

The new head editor at Buzznet will be Jeff Leeds, who comes from a job as a music writer for The New York Times since 2004, and before that, the Los Angeles Times.

"It's hard not to be thrilled by the possibilities that arise when you blend the best practices of traditional reporting and criticism with the … Read more

The Wall Street Journal has announced its 2008 Technology Innovation Awards. Among the heavyweights on the list - Salesforce, Applied Materials, GlaxoSmithKline, etc. - is open-source storage vendor, Cleversafe, a company that I've long followed and admired.

It's great to see Cleversafe getting its due credit, especially from a list of judges that includes the CTO of Agilent, EVP of Software at SAP, and more distinguished names.

Here's what caught the judges' eyes:

[Cleversafe's] Dispersed Storage software breaks files up into slices and then sends the slices over the Internet to multiple storage locations on a … Read more

Google is working with a titan of traditional journalism to help promote citizen journalism.

YouTube announced Monday that it has partnered with the Pulitzer Center to create a journalism contest designed to unearth the best news videographers.

Contestants have until October 5 to submit news clips three-minutes long or less that must focus on stories largely overlooked or ignored by traditional media. The Pulitzer Center will judge the competition and plans to trim the contestants down to 10 finalists following the initial round.

YouTube viewers will eventually choose the winner.

The winner will receive a $10,000 grant for travel … Read more

Last week in Hamburg, Germany, I had the pleasure of lunching with a SPIEGEL editor in the iconic news magazine's iconic canteen, or "Spiegelkantine," as the Germans call it. The extravagance of the interior design (created by Danish designer Verner Panton, who worked with Arne Jacobson, in the 70s) -- a lavish, ultra-red cave with highly disruptive stalactites hanging from the ceiling -- is reminiscent of "Clockwork Orange" and so ostentatiously out of line with the earnest, purist, social democratic SPIEGEL culture that it appears to be almost deliberately cynical -- and that again is … Read more