Unrequired Reading {3.10.08 to 4.10.08}


These are some of the things that have caught my attention lately. It’s a more eclectic mix than just the news business, but then so’s life:

  • Why We Published That Steve Jobs Heart Attack Report | Silicon Valley Insider – "Unlike mainstream media organizations, we do not view our role as one-to-many media "gatekeepers." Rather, we view ourselves as full-time members of the tech community–engaged in gathering, discussing, analyzing, and presenting information that we believe is relevant to the community at large.

    Sometimes this information is fact. Sometimes it is rumor or scuttlebutt. Sometimes it is speculation. Always it is information that we believe is credible or interesting enough to bring to our readers' attention."

  • Don’t just read the news – play the news | Haaretz – "Olmert's Interrogation is only one of the many games posted on playthenewsgame.com, a unique Web site where news events are presented and analyzed via interactive games. At the end of each game, the player must decide two things: what he thinks should be done and what he thinks will actually happen in reality. The opinions and forecasts are then collected and turn into a kind of public opinion survey. The player also has to follow the news and see if his forecast materializes in the real world."
  • Accuracy in Indian crime reporting | The Hoot – "We wish to underline that accuracy in reporting facts is the first responsibility of the media. Where facts are disputed, the discrepancies should be pointed out and the sources questioned. Presenting several versions of incidents and using multiple sources of information is an inalienable part of credible reporting.
     
    We also emphasise that uncovering the truth may not always be the job of the media. The media is not equipped to investigate and uncover the truth in severely complicated cases like the incident being examined in the report.
     
    But presenting different facets of events as they emerge is part of the professional responsibility of the media."
  • Financial information firms brace for squeeze | International Herald Tribune – "[M]any analysts are predicting Bloomberg will be hit even harder by the mass financial job cuts because it relies on data terminal sales for the vast majority of its business.

    Since Bloomberg is not a public company, it doesn't disclose revenue figures, but the group currently has around 290,000 terminals globally — up from 274,000 at the end of 2007 — and charges as much as 20 times what Thomson Reuters does per terminal because Bloomberg's offering is all-or-nothing, whereas Thomson allows the purchase of small a la carte data services…

    Just the collapse of Lehman will result in a loss to Bloomberg of as many as 4,000 terminals, estimate analysts — that's around US$72 million worth of revenue."

  • Gannett borrows extra $1.2bn | FT.com – "Gannett has drawn down $1.2bn of its borrowing facilities, the publisher of USA Today announced on Friday night, demonstrating the growing rush by businesses to lock in funding as commercial paper markets shut down around them."
  • Wall Street Journal Lays Off More Online Staffers | BusinessWeek – "News Corp’s Wall Street Journal today let go of at least two online staffers, insiders report. They are Cybele Weisser, the personal finance editor, and Laura Lorber, its small business editor."