Gawker
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business models
Zombie Business Model Revived By Hungry Blogs
Tech blog company GigaOm is starting a subscription research service to drum up cash; some think TechCrunch could soon follow. It would seem everything old in tech media is new again: Bloated dot-com magazines attempted this same tactic amid the popping of the last financial bubble. More »
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By Ryan TateComment by sggrf: add gigaom to the deadpool cuz this will never FLY! more » | Other threads
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twitterati
The Twitterati Listen to Blowhard Electronica
This is the media life on Twitter: Readers daring to call on the phone, bloggers taking each other out to lunch, and blowhard predictions made about blowhard predictions! Today's Twitterati: More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by TalbotSmith: That reminds me...another 'just dessert' of the Times going under will be Jenny Lee sinking with it. more » | Other threads
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rants
Against Realtime
The future is now, more so than ever. Silicon Valley, filled with worshipers of the new, has embraced "realtime" as the latest trend. If it didn't happen in the last 10 minutes, it doesn't matter. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by Pope John Peeps II: when did 'symmetric' replace 'symmetrical'? 6 Responses | Other threads
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online advertising
The death of conversational marketing
An unproar in the world of tech blogs is uncovering a broader fault line between writers and advertisers. Om Malik's GigaOm and his other blogs have dropped their outside ad-sales firm, Federated Media, a startup run by John Battelle. Federated isn't just another ad network, nor is Battelle just another entrepreneur; he helped start Wired and The Industry Standard and an author of a book about Google, thinks that the future of marketing is conversations. And he launched Federated around that notion. Rather than shouting at readers with ads, marketers will use blogs to engage with their readers — and pay handsomely for the privilege. That's his theory, at any rate, which he is expounding in a forthcoming book. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by DesireeKollina: Owen - It's astonishing how many things you can get wrong in a single post. Rather than list each and... 2 Responses | Other threads
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new york, minute
New York blogger worries himself sick over conflicts of interest
"If we want NYC to kick ass in the world's tech community, we have to stop favoring a few 'friends' and let everyone get time on stage." CenterNetworks founder/writer/editor Allen Stern doesn't just complain about inbreeding in New York's Web 2.0 scene, he documents it by listing the companies that presented at last night's NY Tech Meetup, and speculating on their potential conflicts of interest. Jeez, Allen, wait'll you find out I used to be on the secret MacArthur committee. Here's what we're group-thinking out here in our Valley chatroom: More »
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By Paul BoutinComment by Lawrence: It seems there's always conflicts of interests - stop bitching about it, and just accept it as the norm now more » | Other threads
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commenter of the day
scoobydoo
Recovering from his heart scare, GigaOm head honcho and namesake Om Malik is on a tear. Having taken in $4.5 million Malik's set for his new career as a VC. Today's featured commenter, scoobydoo, chimes in: More » -
blogging for dollars
Om Malik Arrington-proofs his blogs with $4.5 million funding
The founder of the GigaOm blog network isn't one of those guys who just wants to write, write, write. Om Malik, who reported on Valley VCs for Red Herring and Forbes in the '90s, is now on his second stint as a venture capitalist. His announcement this morning of a $4.5 million round of investment led by Palo Alto-based Alloy Ventures isn't aimed at readers, but at competing blog businessmen — specifically TechCrunch owner Mike Arrington. Malik's message: Kiss your dreams of owning me goodbye. More »
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By Paul BoutinComment by scoobydoo: I like Om. He is everything Arrington wants to be when he grows up. 1 Responses | Other threads
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great moments in journalism
In today's news, I met Al Gore!
GigaOm's Om Malik and Mashable's Pete Cashmore like to present themselves as leaders of a new kind of Web 2.0 journalism. Both turned up at Current TV's offices Friday, ostensibly to cover Current's Twitter-enhanced coverage of the first Presidential debate. Truth is, Current's publicists had called reporters to tip us off that executive chairman of the board Al Gore would be there. Gore didn't bother to use Twitter himself — he didn't even stick around for the debate. But he did take time to pose for photos. More »
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By Paul BoutinComment by Nikongmer: You may have met him but how many people can say they've patted him down? Al Gore has very built... 1 Responses | Other threads
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om malik
VC reporter finally joins the team
No one's surprised that GigaOm founder-and-whatever-else Om Malik has joined True Ventures as a partner. Or that he buried the news near the bottom of a lengthy blog post last week. Or that it took days for reporters to discover the blog post, with its classically obscure Malikian headline, "Evolving My Work Life." The New York Times felt obligated to quote a journalism ethics prof on the potential conflict of Om being both a Valley VC and a reporter on Valley VCs. But let's be honest about the Valley's take: No one cares. Like fellow reporters-turned-moneymen Michael Moritz and Stewart Alsop, Malik will finally, finally be taken seriously by the people he's been following for years. (Photo by Brian Solis)
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By Paul BoutinComment by HumphreyBogus: Haven't we seen this movie before? Om's bio mentions that he had a short stint as a VC in 1999 as... 1 Responses | Other threads
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great moments in pr
Google founders celebrate anniversary by ignoring "the little people"
The tenth anniversary festivities for search engine-turned-advertising company Google are in full swing, but don't expect the founders to invite all their old friends to the party in Greece. Tech blogger Om Malik hasn't heard from the original team in over a decade. It's another sign that the Valley has gone Hollywood. I'm reminded of a friend I met at a downtown L.A. hotel last year who complained that uncannily beautiful actor Adrian Grenier hadn't called since he'd achieved a little notoriety on HBO's Entourage. Imagine how you could treat old friends with a $140 billion market capitalization. [GigaOm] (Photo by AP/Paul Sakuma) -
quotable
Yahoo plagued by "systematic rot" says Om Malik
Almost every technology and business publication, including Valleywag, has been all Yahoo, all the time. Between the Microsoft merger talks, proxy board battle with Carl Icahn and employees leaving nearly every day, there's been lots of deliciously bad news to report. However, my old boss Om Malik over at GigaOm has been fairly quiet on the issue. One reason why is because a lot of his sources at the company have probably left, which is good for them but bad for a good reporter. Today, however, he weighed in with his analysis. More »
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By Jackson WestComment by pleinad: Don't blame it all on management. When will engineers or low-mid level admit to their share of issues? "I didn't... more » | Other threads
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superficial
GigaOm's Om Malik tries out a new look
I can report that Om Malik, the blogfather behind GigaOm and Giga Omnimedia's stable of sites like NewTeeVee, Earth2Tech, OStatic and Web Worker Daily (which I like to call, collectively, "the Ompire") has been doing well since suffering a heart attack at the end of last year. He's also scaled back what little excess there was in his workaholic lifestyle, and while he promised he wouldn't be changing his avatar, he's done just that — getting rid of the cigar, the fedora and the argyle sweater for a warm gaze and new media-blue shirt. More »
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By Jackson WestComment by dotcomcowboy: We're about to launch an online day spa for avatars hosted at an exclusive colo facility at Interlaken offering color... more » | Other threads
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online video
NewTeeVee Station launches, tracking Web-video contagion
The plague of viral video has an epidemiologist: NewTeeVee Station, a spinoff of GigaOm's NewTeeVee, a blog which tracks the online-video industry. "Basically, we think this online video stuff is more and more legit," NewTeeVee editor Liz Gannes IM'd me earlier today. "We are betting on that, and treating it like a real entertainment medium." Liz Shannon Miller, pictured, will edit NewTeeVee Station's reviews of popular videos. First up: YouTube sensation Judson Laipply's "Evolution of Dance." More importantly than just describing the videos, the site will track who made the videos, who appeared in them, who funded them, and whether they profited. (Laipply, for example, hasn't made money off YouTube, but he did get on Oprah.)
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By Owen ThomasComment by Carlos: "Basically, we think this online video stuff is more and more legit," NewTeeVee editor Liz Gannes IM'd me earlier today.... more » | Other threads
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leaks
Who's going to TechTalk Menorca, the Balearic boondoggle?
Martin Varsavsky, the founder of Wi-Fi startup Fon, has concocted another excuse for Web 2.0's jet set to rack up frequent-flier miles and buy carbon offsets: It's called Menorca TechTalk, held on Varsavsky's ranch on the Mediterranean island this weekend. The website is password-protected, but Valleywag got a list of who's going. It's a curious mix of professional conference attendees, like Rapleaf's Auren Hoffman, Loïc Le Meur of Seesmic, TechCrunch's Michael Arrington, and David Sifry of Technorati, mixed in with a few people who have day jobs. There are even Googlers on the list — and when have you known those lot to leave the protective bubble of Mountain View? Oddly, Jimmy Wales did not seem to make the cut, though his New York patroness, Louise Blouin MacBain, is listed. In the comments, sort the TechTalkers into your preferred categories. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by sggrf: is this a joke? any list that michael arrington, with his tiny blog, as the most successful makes me very... more » | Other threads
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loser-generated content
Om Malik surrenders to his commenters
"I have often said that the real value of blogs lies in the intelligence embedded in the comments." — Om Malik, on blog-comments software maker Disqus's new round of venture capital. True enough for GigaOm, I suppose. [GigaOm]
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By Owen ThomasComment by raincoaster: Golly jeepers, yes. It's certainly not as if Gawker Media would ever pander to its commenters. Oh, PERISH the thought! See... more » | Other threads
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blogging for dollars
Om Malik, workaholic
From his hospital bed, stricken GigaOm blogger Om Malik posts an update on his health after he suffered a heart attack last month. And he manages to work in a review of a new voicemail-transcription service into the blog entry. Any questions on how he landed in the hospital in the first place? The man never stops working.
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By Owen ThomasComment by DonV: I don't think it was working that put him in the hospital, as many people work just as much. It... more » | Other threads
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gigaom
Om Malik's smart move
Blogger Om Malik could never have predicted he'd have a heart attack at the age of 41. But he did foresee one thing clearly: He would never build a business on a single blog so closely identified with one author. His spinoff blogs — Web Worker Daily, NewTeeVee, Earth2Tech, and FoundRead — have not matched GigaOm's success; of the four, only NewTeeVee, in my opinion, shows promise of being a breakout hit like the original. But unlike Michael Arrington, who built TechCrunch solely on his startup cult of personality, Malik has sought to diversify his media startup in a way that it can survive him. Until December 28, this was merely wise in theory.
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By Owen ThomasComment by 0x6772: @GinaMuchava: Um, possibly valleywag was broken when you commented? Owen posted this. more » | Other threads
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blogging for dollars
Om Malik recovering from heart attack
No laughing matter: GigaOm blogger Om Malik reports that he had a heart attack last week at the age of 41. At Business 2.0, where we both worked before going blog, Malik and I teased each other constantly about our weight. At one point, he and I lined up with two other rotund members of the staff for a photo. The four of us totaled nearly half a ton. The photo was meant to kick off a weight-loss contest that never really happened. The origins of the name GigaOm, in fact, were not in broadband, but in a broad waist. As Malik has told many friends, his mom gave him the nickname when he returned to India enlarged by his sojourns in the West. I say this not to make light of the situation, but to hammer home a point as serious as an infarction: Maintaining your wetware requires a large portion of your bandwidth. Best wishes for a fast recovery, Om. (Photo by zippy)
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By Owen ThomasComment by Stawker: Funny I don't see anyone posting here, "How exactly is this newsworthy. Someone in my office had a heart attack... more » | Other threads
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blogging for dollars
Unknown VOIP service a failure, says GigaOm
An actual headline from Om Malik at GigaOm today: "Like Gaboogie, Foonz Losing Its Voice Too." The extra "too" really clears things up, doesn't it? TechCrunch picked up the story with a sardonic cliche: "News flash. There's just no money in giving people free calls." The actual news flash: There's just no money in drawing conclusions about technology from the failures of startups no one has even heard of.
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By Owen ThomasComment by Owen Thomas: @0x6772: Thanks for spotting that! Link has been fixed. more » | Other threads
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search
Why Google's winning — the 100-word version
Back when GigaOm was just a side project for then-Business 2.0 writer Om Malik, I used to edit the man, and let me tell you, the guy is wicked smart — but he has a tendency to go on. In a post about why Google continues to dominate search, he even realizes this, ending the post before he digresses: "This one is already 750 words." Want to know why Malik thinks Google is winning? His theory: Google's like Dell, because business is all about speed. And if you buy that theory, you'll like this 100-word version of his post. This edit's on me, Om. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by sidhudgens: Om tries to cajole Owen into pulling an Emily Gould and joining GigaOm in 5 ... 4 ... 3 ...... more » | Other threads
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conferences
Om is the loneliest number
Don't let our man Om Malik webcast to himself — tune in and watch a bunch of talking heads discuss the future of television live this afternoon. It's fun stuff: A browser in every TV! Because I want my TV to crash in the middle of The Unit so I can upload a problem report to Microsoft. -
valleywag calendar
Game shows and lectures
Go to a game show with your favorite videobloggers, get all scholarly, or spy on Yahoo's new digs, all in tonight's Valleywag Calendar. More » -
blogging for dollars
Michael Arrington and Om Malik skip chance to lead cult
GigaOm head Om Malik and TechCrunch editor Michael Arrington were supposed to lead a talk on the "Cult of Blogging" today at some blog conference in Las Vegas. Neither showed. Om, apparently called in sick, while Arrington, according to Leo Laporte, "forgot" about his commitment. The replacement? A chat with Justine Ezarik, who hosts a lifecasting videoblog under the name iJustine. For attendees who were disappointed by the switch, we offer one consolation: The comely video blogger is far, far easier on the eyes than Arrington or Malik. Hail the new cult leader! (Photo by b_d_solis)
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Comment by centernetworks: Zoli - you gotta be kidding me - im a total sexpot :) more » | Other threads
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quincy smith
CBS Web chief bored when not buying startups
WEB 2.0 SUMMIT — In an interview with former Business 2.0 editor Josh Quittner, Quincy Smith, the frenetically dealmaking CBS Web chief, looks so bored. So bored. As Quittner rambles on with a long, involved tale about his mancrush on awesomely geeky GigaOm blogger Om Malik, Smith is scanning the audience and jotting down notes, as if he's plotting, mid-panel, which startups he's going to buy at the show.
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By Owen ThomasComment by GorgeousGeorge: Quincy Smith is a bright guy with a lot of ideas that are 100% on-point and correct. Unfortunately, he needs... more » | Other threads
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quotable
"Facebook, Silicon Valley's Furby"
"Somewhere in San Jose, Calif., devotees of all things Facebook have gather"ed to celebrate the cult of Mark Zuckerberg and the little company he started. Dave McClure might call it his Graphing Social Patterns conference, but we all know it's all about Facebook, Silicon Valley's Furby." — Tech blogger Om Malik, on Mark Zuckerberg's toy [GigaOm] -
crash this bash
Om Malik stays in (and out of) the picture
A double birthday party for GigaOm biz-blogger Om Malik (pictured with operations manager Joey Wan) and Spark PR founder Donna Sokolsky fogged up the glass patio walls at Jack Falstaff on Friday. I happened to be at the bar, hoping to catch dreamy god-mayor Gavin Newsom doing paperwork again. After the jump, the best overheards. More » -
feuds
Jason Calacanis-Kevin Rose catfight devolves into pussyfest
Jason Calacanis and Kevin Rose, interviewed together on the second episode of the GigaOm Show? Of course, the "fur would fly" — or so hosts Om Malik and Joyce Kim promised. Despite recent photographic evidence of a peace accord, Calacanis did, after all, try to undercut Kevin Rose's Digg social-news site with a revamped Netscape during his short tenure at AOL. So, did the claws come out? More »
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By Tim FaulknerComment by Michael J Lambie: i was waiting for Kevin to POWNCE Jason. but he never did. more » | Other threads
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By Owen ThomasComment by guffman32: Mike Arrington should stop lusting after these media chicks and just go with hardcore bimbos. It would do great things... more » | Other threads
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blogging for dollars
Discovery splashes a green $10 million on TreeHugger
Blogs continue to sell — but blog valuations are staying modest. Discovery Communications, the cable-and-online media company, has bought enviro blog TreeHugger for a reported $10 million. With nearly 2 million unique visitors, that means Discovery paid a very modest $5 per "eyeball" — the unpleasant online-advertising slang for a reader. Contrast that to the bubbly hopes of GigaOm's Om Malik back in 2005, when he wrote about the "return of monetized eyeballs" for Business 2.0. (Full disclosure: I helped him crunch the numbers for that story.) More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by rohitj: Anyway who actually pays what's stated on the rate-card is what we, in the industry, call an absolute moron. Easily... more » | Other threads
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Comment by Atunu: * Me to my conscience (Lets call him Earl). Me: What do you see Earl? Earl (* clinging onto his fluffy nighties... more » | Other threads
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online video
Get ready for GigaOm TV
We asked, and Kara Swisher of AllThingsD.com helpfully answered: Om Malik is launching a television show with Revision3, the online-video site cofounded by Digg's Kevin Rose and now run by Jim Louderback, theman who made a well-timed exit from PC magazine. The deal was thinly disguised, since Revision3's PR firm was the one to send out invites for a party Malik's holding tonight to celebrate the deal. The result of the partnership is called "The GigaOm Show," and will cover many of the same personalities who pop up in Malik's GigaOm blog. But now, here's the question that Swisher didn't ask — and should have. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by Carlos: Cool, I wonder if all 4 of revision3's viewers will watch this? more » | Other threads
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rumormonger
Om Malik throws a soiree
On Thursday, Om Malik is going to make a big announcement about GigaOm, his tech blog network. How do we know this? Because he'scancelledstill throwing a swanky party to be held this Wednesday at San Francisco's De Young Museum and briefing journalists afterwards. (Update: Turns out the party's still on. Personal to Om: Dude, my invitation appears to have been lost in the mail. Ahem.) Which partner is Malik announcing a deal with? Not Time Inc., apparently. Malik, a former senior writer at Time Inc.'s Business 2.0 magazine, held acquisition talks with his former employer a few months ago, but they went nowhere. (Vivek Shah, the newly appointed head of Time Inc.'s business publications, even joked about it with Malik when they ran into each other at Fortune's iMeme conference.) I gave Om a buzz, but he couldn't talk when I reached him. I'll update when I know more.
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By Owen ThomasComment by Trackback: What is Om Malik going to announce at his party tomorrow night at the M. H. de Young Museum in... more » | Other threads
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feuds
Om Malik's fishy hires
For Earth2Tech, the new green blog from GigaOm, founder Om Malik has hired Adena DeMonte away from the Red Herring, the struggling publication we've put on a deathwatch. That's got to be the last straw for Herring editor Joel Dreyfuss (pictured, right). Rumor has it that Dreyfuss at one point told Malik to stop poaching the Herring's best writers. Malik, of course, is a former Herring writer, but the publication in its current form and under current management bears no relationship, aside from the name, to the storied tech magazine Malik worked for earlier in this decade. Why Dreyfuss feels Malik's not entitled to fish in his pond is a mystery to me — unless it's just a sign of his general frustration with trying to bail out a sinking ship.
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By Owen ThomasComment by Nick Douglas: By the way, has anyone actually HELD that magazine? I did when Liz Gannes -- un-bylined, like everyone at the... more » | Other threads
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blogging for dollars
Om Malik's green period
Om Malik, the moody tech blogger behind GigaOm, is better known for his blue periods. But now he's entering a green phase with his new environmental blog, Earth2Tech. His heart's hardly in it, however. In sending around a note announcing the site, all he could manage was this: "Apparently like everyone else, we are going green!" For those who know Malik, that's his slightly chagrined way of admitting he's following a trend, not setting one. While it may not attract much excitement from its creator, it's sure to pull in those green ad dollars. (Side note: GigaOm contributor and Earth2Tech lead writer Katie Fehrenbacher is the sister of Jill Fehrenbacher, who in turn is Engadget founder Peter Rojas's girlfriend.)
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By Owen ThomasComment by david: Er... yes, that was precisely the pun in the headline. more » | Other threads
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party report
Pownce founders party in pot-laden pleasure palace
MEGAN MCCARTHY — "Pownce is the new pink," declared Valleywag's capricious new editor Owen Thomas in assigning me to go cover a party thrown by Leah Culver and Kevin Rose, cofounders of Digg. The new pink? More like the new pot. The microblogging site, which people use to send around URLs, MP3s, and updates on their lives, is just as coveted — invitations are still up for sale on eBay — and seems to leave its users just as unproductive. So what better place to hold a party than a pink castle of a house in the Castro owned by Dennis Peron, one of the heads of California's medical marijuana movement? A list of Internet-glamorous attendees, a crime scene, and a photo gallery, after the jump. More »
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Comment by Megan McCarthy: Oh, also, my phone was in that bag they swiped. Any new iPhone purchaser have an extra PDA they... more » | Other threads
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federated media
User trust is built by shilling
Am I the only one who still thinks "conversation" should mean "How's the family," "How 'bout them Yankees," and "Let's talk about our feelings" and not "I'm in bed with this company because..."? Federated Media (a competitor of Valleywag's parent company) started another "conversation" sponsored by one of the blog network's advertisers. In the last "conversation," bloggers wrote blurbs pushing Microsoft's slogan, "People Ready." The new blurbfest centers on how search services can win users' trust. The answer, according to "conversation" sponsor Hakia, seems to be "give them a poll to fill out and let them comment a bit." Bloggers including Techcrunch editor Michael Arrington and GigaOM manager Om Malik (who was supposedly sorry for his involvement in such a project) gave little quotes tailored to Hakia's message. None of this is evil, or even dishonest. It's just crap. The same kind of crap that supposedly led people to leave corporate-owned newspapers and TV for blogs that wouldn't spew it. More »
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By Nick DouglasComment by raincoaster: Please tell me that's a country western tune. more » | Other threads
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By Chris MohneyComment by seraglio: Has Om ever been married? Just curious. Curious about a guy who is single at age 40, claims he's never been... more » | Other threads
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gigaom
Megan reports on Om Malik's Widgets Live Con
Valleywag writer Megan McCarthy IMed me from today's Widgets Live conference, the first con held by blog network GigaOM: "This conference would be so much more exciting if it were about midgets." Later, we chatted about the event: More »
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By Nick DouglasComment by kernwill: If you get a chance, you should check out what AOL is doing with our ModuleT microformat. It has... more » | Other threads
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ning
In Brief
- Om Malik discusses Microsoft's fear of online apps. Apparently they've never been to Ning, home of web2.0 abandonware, with notable apps like Who's a Bigger Douche. [Business 2.0]
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Fri Jul 10
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