Veken Gueyikian

Gawker blatantly steals content for their own profit.

So Gawker.tv posted about my Star Wars Subway Car video today, but instead of embedding my video from YouTube like the rest of the Internet does, they ripped it from YouTube and uploaded it to their own site without permission. So I get no credit for any of the views of the video on their site. How nice! Also, by uploading their own ripped version of the video, they can prevent me from seeing any AdSense revenue and focus on making their own money from the ads surrounding the post. Awesome! And they link to Buzzfeed at the end of the post rather than, you know, linking to the group that made the video they ripped off. Cool! Oh, and to top it off, they throw in a little snarky comment about this being an upgrade from our previous antics. Sweet!

Thanks Gawker.tv! It’s such an honor to have you take my content in full and use it for your own benefit!

UPDATE: Gawker.tv fixed this at my request.

“
When it comes to social media, traditional news organizations have wholeheartedly embraced Facebook and Twitter.

But the idea that a publication would create an external blog in addition to the blogs that live on its own website is just starting to take hold. And Tumblr, known for its sophisticated user interaction features, has become the media’s preferred platform.
”

Joe Pompeo (via soupsoup)

You can add Hyperallergic to the list! Our Tumblr, Hyperallergic Labs, is sooo rockin this month! (Huge props to bespangled for helping us kick things up many notches!)

Audiences Don't Pay for Content

It is popular to blame the Internet. It is easy to say that the consumer should pay for quality content and then wash our hands on how to make that happen.

The reality is that the audience never paid for newspaper content. The audience paid the newspaper company to deliver the paper to their door and now they are paying an Internet Service Provider for distributing the content to their computer. The audience is still paying for distribution; they are just migrating to a digital distributor because it is better, cheaper and greener than newsprint.

“
At heart, my argument for full RSS feeds is similar to my argument against a NYT paywall, and neither argument has anything to do with a sense of entitlement on my part.

Instead, both are simply bad business decisions.

If you truncate your RSS feeds, you’ll get less traffic than you had with full feeds, and you’ll alienate an important minority of your audience. And if you implement a paywall, the increase in subscription revenues will fail to offset the decrease in ad revenues, even as you’ll alienate lots of your audience. So neither makes commercial sense.
”

Felix Salmon on the logic behind Gawker’s decision to truncate it’s RSS Feeds

“Ad blocking software works because there are telltale technical cues that a site isn’t paying the same level of attention to ad content as they are to editorial content (whereas print magazines pay more attention to ad content–that’s how they work).”

Rob Sayre’s Mozilla Blog - Why Ad Blockers Work

Hrag was able to snag a copy of McSweeny’s new SF Panorama yesterday at our local bookstore Spoonbill & Sugartown.

I must admit that even though I’m not a believer in the future of newspapers, and am pretty much always internet all the time, I’m pretty impressed with what they’ve produced and can’t wait to dive into it.

Offline.

It’s big and expansive so I’ll need to spend a lot more time with it to see if their experiment is a success. But either way, it’s an interesting experiment and discussion to have.

Find out where to pick up a copy or order your copy online :)

The Art Fag City Fundraiser

My friend, and one of NYC’s best art bloggers, Paddy Johnson is holding an end of year fundraiser to raise money to keep her blog (Art Fag City) going for another year.

“… we’ve all seen what happens to blogs when their focus changes to traffic, and the results aren’t good. Gawker’s music blog Idolator released Maura Johnson earlier this year, one of the best critics working today, in exchange for a couple writers who would more willingly focus on Kanye West and Britney Spears. Idolator’s traffic went up, sure, but where’s its substance? I don’t need that kind of money to stay afloat, I just have to eat. Your support helps me do this.”

If you value independent voices in media and criticism, please check out the fundraiser and consider donating.

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Audiences Don't Pay for Content

The Art Fag City Fundraiser

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