This is some of what’s caught my attention in the past hours:
- A Keynesian Lesson for Confidence | Columbia — Keynes on the credit crunch: “A collapse in the price of equities, which has had disastrous reactions on the marginal efficiency of capital, may have been due to the weakening either of speculative confidence or of the state of credit. But whereas the weakening of either is enough to cause a collapse, recovery requires the revival of both. For whilst the weakening of credit is sufficient to bring about a collapse, its strengthening, though a necessary condition of recovery, is not a sufficient condition.”
- Fired for writing about the decline of newspaper revenues | allmediascotland — I’ve never been fired before. And I wasn’t expecting the phone call last Friday afternoon from Scotsman magazine editor, Alison Gray.I’d written a slightly controversial blog entry for allmediascotland.com suggesting that, as websites replace printed newspapers, there would be little need for physical offices and that the role of the sub-editor would disappear…
In passing, however, I’d talked about the way newspapers are being destroyed by economics. Essentially, their biggest revenue streams, recruitment and property advertising, are moving from print to the web. It’s a process that’s being going on for years, so it’s hardly news.
- State of the Blogosphere 2008: Who Are the Bloggers? | Technorati — The blokosphere: “Bloggers are not a homogenous group, but they are an educated and affluent one: three out of four U.S. bloggers are college graduates, and 42% have attended graduate school. They skew male, and more than half have a household income over $75k.”
- Gordon’s inner circle | FT.com — These few, these useless few…
- Time to grow up, Indian media | livemint.com — “In India, the media industry depends almost entirely on advertising. Subscription revenues are probably the lowest in the world. As readers and viewers, we hardly pay for content. Newspapers sell for Rs1-4, mainline magazines sell for Rs10-15, and cable/DTH bills are typically Rs200 a month. The low subscription prices drive huge numbers.”
- Politico announces post-election expansion | Yahoo! News — “POLITICO next year will increase publication of its newspaper to four days when Congress is in session, increase circulation and expand its staff to more than 100 employees. It currently has a staff of 85.”
