Google Bowing to Pressure of Paid Content

Google is the poster child for those who want to claim that free content is the future and that everyone has to give away what they produce to court “eyeballs” and the advertising they can generate. So why is it that in a number of ways, the company has recently been turning its back on literal free market theory? Is it that management has become inexplicably dumb? No, it’s because that executives at Google have always pushed to get what they can for free but realize that ultimately paying nothing may not be a workable business strategy.

Link to my BNET story about Google

NPR's Totenberg Drops Quasi Q-Bomb

I was surprised when I heard this over the weekend, so ended up writing about it on BNET Media:

There was great linguistic irony on the most recent NPR Weekend Edition Saturday. In an interview with host Scott Simon, legal affairs correspondent Nina Totenberg said that racism charges leveled at Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor over a remark about white male judges would not “queer” the nomination. In discussing a question of whether attitudes are biased, Totenberg used one of the more emotionally loaded words in the English language.

Here's the link to the piece.

Why Readers Deserve No Journalism

There’s been a buzz in journalistic circles about media economist Professor Robert Picard’s claim that reporters deserve low pay. Although he makes some good points, his line of argument is largely flawed. I posted a detailed response at BNET Media that you might find interesting.