links for 2007-01-16

David Maclean MP has tabled a private members bill to amend the Freedom of Information Act to exempt MPs’ correspondence with public authorities. Shameful.

Scott Karp: “Despite all the hype about the “user in control,” purely personalized news may be too much control, a slippery slope that leads to solipsism. The proverbial “water cooler” is symbolic of our fundamental need to share the news…”

“White House press spokesman Tony Snow predicted that we are ‘likely to see in the weeks and months ahead’ soldiers in the theatre using their cameras and sites such as LiveLeak or YouTube to share what they see.”

Sonya Huber-Humes: “I felt bad for my students because I was sending them out into this wired world that I couldn’t begin to comprehend or summarize in a study guide.”

Donna Bogatin: “Is a Google-centric strategy in a newspaper’s best long term interests? … As newspapers battle each other for the right to pay more to Google for “better” AdWords, Google’s winnings increase.”

“It seems a little bit odd that publishers of frequent, unique content, have to resort to paid search rather than focusing on organic listings.”

“The Sunday Herald definitely seems to have added details that simply weren’t there in Blair’s speech, while the Independent is spinning like crazy. It’s ironic, then, that a site designed to deliver pure, unfiltered news has become the subject of b

“Northcliffe Newspaper Group is changing its name to reflect its multimedia future, and is to be known as Northcliffe Media Limited.”

Journalist David Carr: “Independent bloggers can laugh all they want about the imperious posture of the mainstream media, but I and others at The Times have never been more in touch with readers’ every robustly communicated whim than we are today.”

“A Swedish online retailer … that sells sexy underwear has approached a number of bloggers with an offer to receive a lottery ticket (Triss) worth $3.55 in exchange for a mention and a link on their blog.”

Twitterrific is a fun little application that lets you both read and publish posts or “tweets” to the Twitter community website. The application’s user interface is clean, concise and designed to take up a minimum of real estate on your Mac’s desktop.

Bobbie Johnson goes a long way towards curing me of my Twitter-skepticism. But “collective intelligence”? Really?

Asavin Wattanajantra started work experience at Press Gazette yesterday, and is blogging about it. Hi Asavin; sorry I didn’t get to say hello when I popped in yesterday. I don’t like Windows either.

“ZDNet has a payment scheme in place that rewards its bloggers based on the number of clicks their posts get.”

“FORTUNE magazine’s January 22 issue had its annual survey of the 100 best companies in America to work for. It was no surprise that Google was the new #1 and, as usual, there were no media companies in the top 100.”

“The problem for newspapers, obviously, is that what used to be an information issue (”what’s going on / where is this thing for sale / what’s a good Italian restaurant / where is the nearest hardware store?”) is becoming a technology issue, and t

John Nicols: “… the important question for the great mass of Americans is not, How do we save newspapers? It’s, How do we still get a healthy mix of reported news and analysis from a variety of at least reasonably reliable sources?”