Gawker: valleywag, dead trees

Twitter May Find News Profits That Eluded Publishers

Ryan Tate — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 23:08:55 EST

Newspaper publishers have long imagined their journalism filled Google's results and fueled its profits. But Twitter is building a popular, potentially profitable news search engine from mostly amateur content.

Twitter bought search site Summize last summer and has begun making it even easier for its own users to search within the microblogging service. Twitter search was the go-to source for breaking updates in on the Flight 1549 crash and the recent NYU (non-)"riot," along with many other recent news events.

All this prompts Ad Age's Michael Learmouth to wonder, like others before him, whether Twitter might start justifying its freshly-minted $230 million valuation by selling keyword ads next to search results.

The only hitch: People who are actively searching for news aren't very receptive to being pitched on products. They want information.

Maybe Twitter should try selling ads to newspapers and the other traditional media organizations who are still trying to show users that their content is more valuable than the unvarnished ramblings one finds on sites like... Twitter.

Julia Allison Is Chris Anderson's Tail Tonight

Ryan Tate — Fri, 02 May 2008 01:46:37 EDT

Wired editor Chris Anderson tonight came face-to-face with the "Long Tail," his oft-cited metaphor for low-grade internet fame, via an encounter after the National Magazine Awards with fameball Julia Allison. Star Editor-At-Large Allison worked Anderson hard, no doubt as part of her relentless effort to take the "proto" out of her protocelebrity — to be more than tail, basically. She reports on her blog that she chatted Anderson up for 20 minutes and ended up "bopping him enthusiastically." Wait, Julia. Didn't you just tell the Times you were going to stop using your "pink-encased loaded weapon" this way?? Anyway, alternate photo captions for the picture above are totally welcome after the jump. Even if you're drunk. Especially if you're drunk. [Julia Allison: 1, 2, 3, 4]

Martha Stewart kills Blueprint, blames the blogs

Nicholas Carlson — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 19:00:49 EST

"The world has changed," Martha Stewart reports. Younger people, she explains, access information via blogs and the Internet. And also "even through their cell phones." What's it mean for America's homemaker? The end of her latest tree-killer product, Blueprint magazine.