InkTank

NY discusses its Payment Plans

New York Times covered the announcement of its new payment plan in a March 20 article, Times’s Online Pay Model Was Years in the Making by Jeremy W. Peters. 

The article discusses The New York Times plan to charge readers for its material. The charges will begin March 28 and their payments will depend on the type(s) of technology readers want their daily addition on. The New York Times admits that it is something that has been a work in progress, and the biggest struggle was whether or not it would work. The biggest question the Times would have to face, "would readers be willing to pay to read its journalism online?"

The Times article explains the debate among readers, executives, editors and reporters. The Times approaches the article from not only a readers standpoint, but also those inside the business. Peters gets multiple views and explains the conflict of those who are willing to pay and those resenting the payment model. 

"The same debate raged inside The Times, with executives and senior editors sometimes heatedly taking sides. In the middle was Arthur Sulzberger Jr., chairman of the company, who grew to embrace the idea of a pay model. But he was opposed by several senior executives, especially those who had worked to build NYTimes.com into the most visited newspaper site in the world," according to the article posted in The Times.  

Fighting Over the News

Tony Danza becomes a tenth grade English teacher, Lady Gaga goes political and Steven Colbert is a main reason people tuned into the recent immigration hearing.

I read an article the other day titled The World’s Most Influential 16-year-old Bloggers. One of these ‘kids’ made $5, 000 in the first month of launching his blog.

Now I don’t know about everyone else but I feel semi-defeated.

I didn’t spend four years day-dreaming through math classes about becoming a journalist so that I could compete with celebrities and 16-year-olds with a smart phone.  

What is going on?

More importantly what can we do to revert the attention to the actual news media? There is such an availability of mediums and information that I’m beginning to wonder what being a journalist is going to mean when I graduate. I also feel like I have no right to complain because I still have a fighting chance. There are people in news rooms who have spent their post-grad lives making a name for themselves and now have to compete with me; a kid with less experience but a better understanding of converged media.

The Power of Twitter

If blogging is so 2004, as Wired contends, then good Lord, to what part of the Jurassic era do we designate newspapers? Wired may not be entirely in the right, but if you haven't explored the wonderland that is the world of Twitter, social networking, and other hyper-communication sites, then yes, you are probably still in a museum of ancient history.

Promptly make your way to the nearest exit.

 Most working journalists I speak to say they get their news tips from blogs and Twitter feeds. Twitter is a mico-blogging site that allows you to write 140-character posts, called "Tweets." By creating an account, you build a social network of friends who can see what you're writing, and vice-versa. Journalists also use Twitter to inform the public before they file their full story.

From the American Journalism Review:

"Reporters and editors are tweeting and responding to others on the Twitter site and in a growing number of mobile applications. They use it to find story ideas, develop sources, connect with local communities, network, and share and break news....Newspapers and magazines tweet their breaking news and updates to their RSS feeds, and reporters increasingly use Twitter as a means of connecting with their communities."

If you want to be a reporter in today's world, it's time to make like a T-Rex and evolve into a bird. At least for you, it won't take millions of years. You'll be tweeting in no time.

In the fast pace environment of the "new new journalism," young reporters had best jump on this digital bandwagon before it goes the way of...well...the bandwagon.

Yearbooks face an uncertain future, Part 4

"The traditional yearbook is in fact in jeopardy," Linda Puntney, the director of student publications at Kansas State University, said.

At a time when the social Web has changed the way that students record history and stay in touch, Ms. Puntney said that yearbook advisers cannot stick their heads in the sand but instead need to embrace change and find out how to reach students in better ways.

Toss out your electronics, the rapture is coming!

Should Christians love technology if it means the end of the world is at hand?

Personally, I love the amazing world of electronics and gadgets, but you're in a difficult situation when you know that every move you make is a step toward the end.

That's the kind of conundrum faced when you've grown up surrounded by gadgets and consumed by computers while simultaneously in a Christian household, reading the Left Behind books while skimming Revelation and interpreting any article about microchips as a sign of the beast.

I'm Becoming a Show-Off

A journalist's camera has all of the right qualities to be considered a body part. It plays an absolutely necessary role in covering breaking news, wherever one may be.

That's precisely why some mojos (mobile journalists) embrace svelte point-and-shoots and smile upon the latest cellphones which feature an ever-increasing megapixel count on the microscopic cameras included.

A Drive Toward Death

A major computer show that attracted thousands of attendees this past January was not about unveiling new products. It was about digging the grave of one of the most important computer technologies ever invented.

Apple paraded the Mac Book Air and iPhone updates at its heralded annual MacWorld event in San Francisco, but the real story was that Apple successfully pulled off a masquerade of significant proportion, using the "world's thinnest laptop" as its mask.

What philosophy drives Google's engine? Search me.

There is a time in every reader's career when they have read so many books that they feel like they could write one.

Internet search giant Google has reached a similar point, discontent to sit on the sidelines, sifting through data created by everyone else. Google wants game.

Apple succeeds by highlighting product flaws

Apple users have often been accused of drinking the Kool-Aid and clamoring after the computer company's latest products despite the usual expense or shortcomings attached.

Critics have long pondered what it is that spurs such loyal devotion among fans and users. Although numerous answers have surfaced, they usually focus on the cult of Mac or the superior technology or the leader and CEO Steve Jobs. But who would have guessed that Apple succeeds by taking advantage of their own disadvantages?

If Apple made more than computers...

If it's thin, hip and attracts a cult following, chances are it was made by Apple. Following the success of the iPod the company has started reaching into other markets. Here's a look at what other every-day things would be like if Steve Jobs was in charge: