July 14, 2003
Howard Dean guest-blogging
Here's the first in a series of weeklong postings on Larry Lessig's blog by presidential candidate Howard Dean. He talks a bit about the Internet as an open platform. Some 135 comments posted there in response so far.
Blogs for the arts
ArtsJournal has launched a new feature: ArtsJournal blogs. Here's what they say:
We've assembled some of the best writers on the arts and asked them to start blogging on their favorite subjects. Our bloggers are all heavily involved in the arts, and most of them write in other publications as well.
Good to hear of another mainstream use for blogs.
Cyberjournalism news and tips
The Media Center at the American Press Institute has just launched a new weekly e-mail digest including news, tips and commentary from CyberJournalist.net and the NewsFuture series of columns. Here's a sample. It comes out Fridays. Interested? Sign up here.
Blogs breaking logjam of journalism
Kathleen Parker in the Orlando Sentinel: Blogs breaking logjam of journalism. Excerpt:
I'm not an expert on blogging, but I am a fan. As a regular visitor to a dozen or so news and opinion blogs, I'm riveted by the implications for my profession. Bloggers are making life interesting for reluctant mainstreamers like myself and for the public, whose access to information until now has been relatively controlled by traditional media.I say "reluctant mainstreamer" because what I once loved about journalism went missing some time ago and seems to have resurfaced as the driving force of the blogosphere: a high-spirited, irreverent, swashbuckling, lances-to-the-ready assault on the status quo. [emphasis added] While mainstream journalists are tucked inside their newsroom cubicles deciphering management's latest "tidy desk" memo, bloggers are building bonfires and handing out virtual leaflets along America's Information Highway.
Only nitpick with the article: Matt Drudge is not a blogger. Isn't now, never has been.
Thanks to Ryan of Dead Parrot fame for the pointer.
Biz2 predicted Yahoo takeover of Overture
In this Savvy Predictions Dept. comes word that two Business 2.0 staffers, Erick Schonfeld and Om Malik, predicted Yahooís purchase of Overture in the August issue of the magazine, including forecasting next steps for Yahoo after the acquisition. Yahoo's purchase of Overture was announced today.
The Biz2 issue wonít hit newsstands until next week, but it's online (available to subscribers). Here's the text of the section on Yahoo:
YAHOO BUYS OVERTURE, THEN MERGES WITH DILLERíS INTERACTIVECORPThe Price Tag: $1.4 billion for Overture; $25 billion for merger
Hereís a two-course meal that starts with a light appetizer and finishes with the M&A equivalent of a thick slab of prime Texas steak. First, Yahoo munches paid-search provider Overture. That would go down smoothly: Yahoo has almost $900 million in cash, and would likely pay with some combination of cash and its stockówhich still carries one of the richest valuations in the market. (Yahooís current price/earnings ratio is 137, higher than eBayís 101.) Through paid listings that appear as the top results whenever somebody conducts a search on Yahoo, Overture already provides about a fifth of the Web portalís ad revenueóa contribution expected to top $200 million this year. But why split that money 60-40 with Overture, as the two companiesí current deal requires? Why not take it all?
The real gut-buster is the main course: a merger with Barry Dillerís InterActiveCorp, parent of Citysearch, Expedia, the Home Shopping Network, Hotels.com, Match.com, and Ticketmaster. InterActiveCorp has a market cap of roughly $22 billion, 10 percent more than Yahooís, so the odds would be on Diller winning control. Dillerís goal is to build the largest e-commerce company in the world. Yahoo and InterActiveCorp, says one M&A banker, are a ìnatural fit.î Yahoo under CEO Terry Semel (an old Hollywood pal of Dillerís from their days as studio moguls), the banker says, is becoming ìa mini-InterActiveCorpî by also selling services over the Webótravel, dating, loans, tickets. The companies would benefit from the network effects of combining similar services like Match.com and Yahoo Personals, and Diller would be able to start feeding traffic from Yahoo to his individual properties.
WHY IT WILL HAPPEN: Overture could be a money machine for Yahoo, and the subsequent buyout by Diller would crown his campaign to become the king of e-commerce. Plusóand this is not insignificantóhe could drop that goofy InterActiveCorp name and adopt Yahoo, one of the most recognized brands in business.
WHY IT WONíT HAPPEN: Diller usually isnít wild about diluting his personal ownership stake by buying up huge things. Another possibility: Microsoft swoops in to acquire Overture before Yahoo makes its play.
THE ODDS: Yahoo-Overture, 3-to-2; InterActive-Yahoo, 10-to-1
A whopper of a correction
Looks like Keller has some work to do. Consider this 2,132-word correction in today's Times. Thanks to Hylton for the pointer.
Keller named editor of NYT
Bill Keller, a columnist who has served as managing editor and foreign editor, will take over as executive editor of the NY Times on July 30. Here's coverage from E&P, AP and the NY Daily News.
File swappers look for a cloaking device
Two great reads this morning from the San Jose Merc's Dawn Chmielewski: Music file-swappers sprint to cloak identities. And Spanish Shawn Fanning is hot.
Both stories appeared next to each other on the Merc's Business page. Inexplicably, mercurynews.com continues with its policy of failing to give readers any hint that the stories are related.
Intel bets on wi-fi
NY Times: Intel bets on wi-fi.
Harry Potter and the Internet pirates
From Monday's NY Times: Harry Potter and the Internet pirates.
