Wednesday, June 18, 2008

OBR News-o-rama

OBR News-o-rama

Newspapers Die First. Then the Internet.

Posted: 18 Jun 2008 02:41 PM CDT

There is a lot of recent news that will impact Browns and other sports fans on the internet of late, very little of it good.

I think we're at The Empire Strikes Back stage of the internet. There are things going on now that are very, very bad for sports fans.

The Associated Press and others want to remind you who the real bosses are, and they'll cut off your arm and let you drop into a bottomless tube if they have to.

* * *

As sports fans, we've come to rely on having multiple quick, objective sources of news about our favorite teams and sports.

No, I don't mean sports blogs, which typically just recycle information produced elsewhere and provide some commentary. And I don't mean team or league-owned sites, which have a need to leave out certain types of stories.

I mean newspaper and print journalists, who cover the team on a daily basis, get the stories right (usually), and provide independent and objective coverage of local sports.

Say goodbye to all that. These will be remembered at the good old days.

According to a job tracker calling itself "Paper Cuts", over 4,400 newspaper jobs have already been lost in the first half of 2008. Included was this nugget that I hadn't heard about before:

June 11, 2008 / Plain Dealer executives told editorial staff members that the paper will cut 35 pages per week and 20 percent of its workforce.

I'm not sure how accurate that is, but similar stories are appearing all over the place.

For anyone wondering why newspapers reporters of all stripes have a sudden fascination with blogging and interacting with web readers, it isn't because they suddenly care what you think. It's because they have to move to the internet to survive.

But survival on the 'net is tough. They're replacing dollars with pennies.

These are the good old days for local news. Enjoy them while you have them.

* * *

The good news, I guess, is that the print business isn't sinking so fast that professional sports leagues can't step on their necks to speed up the process.

Last year's stunningly restrictive media policies for web sites are in effect again this year, with the mild change that the laughable 45-seconds of audio and video that sites can post (for 24 hours with a link back to the team site and no advertising allowed) has been extended to a just-as-laughable 90 seconds. There is no value now in providing this sort of multi-media coverage - another life preserver is yanked away.

As I predicted before, the NFL is also following the steps of the MLB by wiping out live blogs or other means of communicating in-game status outside of strict guidelines which render it nearly useless.

A recent notice sent out by the Dallas Cowboys reads as follows:

While a game is in progress, any forms of accounts of the game must be sufficiently time-delayed and limited in amount (e.g., score updates with detail given only in quarterly game updates, fewer than 10 photographs during the game) so that the Accredited Organization's game coverage cannot be used as a substitute for, or otherwise approximate, authorized play-by-play accounts.

What this will do is wipe out anything like a live blog for credentialed outlets, while fan blogs will likely continue to run wild because NFL teams have little leverage or ability to track them. This will just hasten the fall of local sports coverage as pro sports leagues tilt the playing field against them.

* * *

Just in case you were concerned about internet sites not having their own threats to worry about, you can rest easy.

Two trends are developing in the industry as powerful old-guard industries try to control the internet. Both are very, very bad for sports fans or anyone else who likes the flow of information brought to them by the internet.

The first is the Associated Press, which is attacking the notion of "fair use" by going after bloggers who quote snippets as short as 39 words from their stories. I've tried – and failed - for a long time to help fan sites and forums try to understand the concept of "fair use" (versus the concept of "just stealing what you want"). That usually resulted in interesting combinations of four-letter words and emails so angry you had to get a towel to wipe off the spittle.

What the AP is doing is a response to that sort of constant content theft, but it goes way too far.

The blogosphere relies to no small degree on commentary which spins off of news items. With more newspapers cutting back and relying on AP stories, the newspaper service wants to bring the hammer down. The AP now wants to charge you $12.50 to quote five words from their stories.

Insane.

The initial response from the blogosphere is "To Hell with the AP", and a number of sites are no longer linking AP stories. If the AP takes this to court and wins, or lobbies for legislation which enforces their restrictive view, it could have a significant cooling effect on the web and bloggers in general. Linking or accurately citing sources could get reduced dramatically.

Newspapers and others already use phrases like "published reports" or "internet reports" to avoid crediting competitors. It frightens me to think of an entire internet that behaves that way because an organization like the AP wants to pound dollars out of bloggers.


* * *

Even more insane are recent trials among ISPs to throttle types of services (bittorrent, usenet) and begin metered service. Time Warner has started with a trial in Texas where they are charging users more if they go over 40GB of data transfer a month.

How much data have you transferred this month?

Don't know? Join the club. I assure you that plans like this will dramatically slow the adoption of multi-media and video on the web. People will use the internet less as they are uncertain about their 'net usage. Just not knowing will instill fear about watching that video on Hulu or Youtube.

With the efficiencies introduced by the internet one of the few good things happening in the US economy, ISPs like Time Warner and Comcast want to shake the web for pennies and crush its growth.

This, you may note, is also insane.

I wish I had some good news to report, but the powerful now want to cripple the internet to profit themselves at the expense of the weak.

If we let them, we'll have no one but ourselves to blame.

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