Category Archives: journalism

More bad news for newspapers: hotels going green

Posted on March 16, 2009 by Rakesh Agrawal

This picture should send shivers down the spines of executives at USA Today headquarters in McLean, Va. For at least as long as I’ve been traveling for business (13 years and counting), a USA Today in front of the hotel … Continue reading →

Posted in hotels, journalism, media, newspapers, travel | 3 Comments

Who needs newspapers?

Posted on March 15, 2009 by Rakesh Agrawal

I read two thought-provoking pieces this week on the decline of newspapers from voices outside the newspaper business and one Really Dumb Idea from a voice on the inside. Author Clay Shirky, Newspapers and Thinking the Unthinkable: When someone demands … Continue reading →

Posted in journalism, media, newspapers, web 2, web 2.0 | 5 Comments

A tale of two media companies

Posted on December 29, 2008 by Rakesh Agrawal

You’ve got a competitor with deep pockets, huge brand recognition and a lot of traffic that is interested in your content. What do you do? Here are two very different approaches: GateHouse Media is suing The New York Times Co., … Continue reading →

Posted in google, hulu, journalism, newspapers, television, video, web 2, web 2.0, YouTube | Comments Off

Google guys = 2(newspaper industry)

Posted on September 19, 2008 by Rakesh Agrawal

Forbes list of the 400 richest Americans puts Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page at #13 and #14 with a net worth of $15.9 billion for Brin and $15.8 billion for Page. That’s a bit less than the $20 billion … Continue reading →

Posted in google, journalism, media, newspapers, random | Comments Off

Wall Street and the incredible shrinking newspaper industry

Posted on September 17, 2008 by Rakesh Agrawal

A friend asked me today “Does one Bear Stearns bailout equal the entire newspaper industry?” I decided to find out. Although there isn’t a clear answer, I was surprised by how small the newspaper industry is. Here are the market … Continue reading →

Posted in google, journalism, media, microsoft, newspapers, yahoo | 4 Comments

Slice, dice, repackage and resell

Posted on September 11, 2008 by Rakesh Agrawal

The newspaper business has missed out on a lot of opportunities over the years. Here’s one they shouldn’t miss: repackaging content for niches. Most major markets have an industry specialization or two. In Detroit it’s the auto industry. Minneapolis has … Continue reading →

Posted in advertising, journalism, media, newspapers | Comments Off

Old gnews is bad gnews for United Airlines

Posted on September 9, 2008 by Rakesh Agrawal

An amusing story today about a cascade of errors. Amusing, that is, if you weren’t a United Airlines shareholder. United’s stock plummeted more than 75% in Monday’s trading after an erroneous report on the company’s bankruptcy. The report came from … Continue reading →

Posted in google, journalism, media, newspapers | Comments Off

Taking the “dead” out of the dead tree media

Posted on September 1, 2008 by Rakesh Agrawal

Last week we saw that Steve Jobs died. The week before, we learned that Barack Obama chose Chet Edwards to be his running mate. Both were the results of slips by news organizations. Bloomberg prematurely put Jobs’ obituary across the … Continue reading →

Posted in journalism, media, newspapers, wikipedia | 2 Comments

The Russians are coming! The Russians are coming!

Posted on August 27, 2008 by Rakesh Agrawal

I’ve long advocated that news organizations geotag the news. But I’ve been skeptical of automated systems for doing this. Google News recently provided a terrific example of what can happen when you use entity extraction for such a task: In … Continue reading →