The official Old Media party line, among the few remaining true luddites not yet laid off by their newspaper employers, is that New Media is a cesspool of misinformation while print is a rock of traditional credibility.
But the progress of the crackpot story about China drilling for oil off the coast of Cuba -- repeated by no less than Vice President Dick Cheney -- should knock a few holes in that argument.
Forget about the world record. Just download and install Firefox 3 today and take a moment to celebrate the significance of open Web standards and diversity of platforms.
David Kurtz, who writes for Josh Marshall's great political blog Talking Points Memo, is at the International Press Institute congress in Belgrade and observes that the angst being felt by American newspapers isn't being felt everywhere:
I just posted something on Alan Mutter's blog -- an item about planned redesigns at Tribune Company newspapers -- and realized afterward that hardly anybody currently employed at an American newspaper will have any idea why I referred to "funereal column rules" in Peter Palozzo's design for the old Chicago Daily News.
Knowledge@Wharton has an interview with Joe Kraus, director of product management at Google, in which he highlights the importance of social interaction on the Web:
I don't see any point in joining the snarkfest that is unfolding on some blogs in the wake of the Wall Street Journal's highly critical article about LoudounExtra.com. But it does make me want to pass on some basic points that should be absorbed by anyone thinking about hyperlocal and citizen media.
Yet more evidence of the deepening ownership crisis at American newspapers: the Philadelphia Inquirer's owners are technically in default of their loan terms.
In addition to newspapers and radio stations, my employer has been quite busy in the travel media business. Over the last couple of years, Morris Communications has acquired several companies, combined them with existing assets, and realigned them all under a coherent brand identity: Where Guestbooks, Where Magazines, Where Quick Guides, and Where Maps. But there was no unified Web presence for all of the above ... until last Friday, when the "Local Guides. Worldwide." WhereTraveler.com launched in "beta test" form.
So the New York Times is building an API -- and that doesn't stand for American Press Institute. Why is that significant? Here's a slide from one of my presentations that I use to explain APIs and "platform thinking."
The concept of "platform" is common in the computer industry. A platform is something on which others can build.
Sometimes when I talk with newspaper people about the value of incorporating social networking tools and techniques into their websites, I get the counterargument: Haven't Facebook and Myspace already won that battle?
Today while looking for a screenshot to use in a presentation, I had a devil of a time finding the Augusta, Ga., regional page on Facebook -- even though I'm a member of that network.
Out of desperation I finally played "guess the URL" and managed to find this:
