| SERVICES & TECH - Home broadband users log onto the Internet more frequently and do a wider scope of online activities on the average day than dial-up users. Early adopters of broadband are sophisticated demanders of online news who are likely to shape how the online news market evolves. (Source: Pew Internet and American Life Project)
- The Twitter social networking service is founded by Jack Dorsey (@jack), Evan Williams (@ev) and Biz Stone (@biz) in March 2006. (See also: “How Twitter Will Change the Way We Live.” Time, June. 5, 2009 and Google News search about Twitter.)
- “Web 2.0: The new Internet ‘boom’ doesn’t live up to its name.”
Slate, March 29, 2006. -
- The first version of the Flip Video camera is released on May 1, 2006. (Related: “The Video Camera Revised.” Walter S. Mossberg and Katherine Boehret, Mossberg Solution, May 3, 2006 and “Camcorder Brings Zen to the Shoot,” by David Pogue, New York Times, Mar. 20, 2008.)
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A national phone survey of bloggers finds that most are focused on describing their personal experiences to a relatively small audience of readers and that only a small proportion focuses coverage on politics, media, government, or technology. Blogs, the survey finds, are as individual as the people who keep them. (Source: Pew Internet and American Life Project) -
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The first Sony e-book reader is released in September 2006. There will be six different Sony models by 2009. -
Publishing company Conde Nast acquires the Reddit social bookmarking service in October 2006. -
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Google acquires YouTube for $1.65 billion in stock. (Source: Google press release, Oct. 9, 2006.) - In November 2006 the general public’s use of interactive games and programs reaches a new level with the introduction of Nintendo’s Wii. Within a couple of years, Wii will outsell Xbox and Playstation.
- “Web Inventor Fears for the Future.”
BBC News, Nov. 2, 2006. -
The museum exhibit, “ START-UP: Albuquerque and the Personal Computer Revolution”, opens on Nov. 18, 2006. -
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Pew Reports
“ Online News: For many home broadband users, the internet is a primary news source.” March 22, 2006. “ How Americans use their cell phones.” April 3, 2006. “ The Internet’s Growing Role in Life’s Major Moments.” April 19, 2006. “ Home Broadband Adoption 2006.” May 28, 2006. “ Bloggers: A portrait of the internet’s new storytellers.” July 19, 2006. “ The Future of the Internet II.” Sept. 24, 2006. “ Riding the Waves of Web 2.0.” Oct. 5, 2006. “ The Internet as a Resource for News and Information about Science.” Nov. 20, 2006. “ Podcast Downloading.” Nov. 22, 2006. | | THE MEDIA -
“….The appeal of the Web is its convenience, interactivity, diversity and control….The biggest questions remain those that touch the bottom line. Online journalism, in 2006, is still young. Like an adolescent, it is learning what it can do. It is even making a little money. But it is still not really paying its own way. And it isn’t entirely sure what it will be doing when it grows up.” “ The State of the News Media: Online Section.” Project for Excellence in Journalism, 2006. -
“The new paradox of journalism is more outlets covering fewer stories. As the number of places delivering news proliferates, the audience for each tends to shrink and the number of journalists in each organization is reduced.” “ The State of the News Media, Major Trends.” Project for Excellence in Journalism, 2006) -
On February 22, 2006 Dow Jones announces that it is restructuring its operations. Previously, the company was organized by the way its products were distributed, through print or electronic means. The new structure combines the print and online versions of the Wall Street Journal into a new division. “Readers don’t just think of us as a newspaper anymore,” said Chief Executive Richard Zannino. -
Online news consumers are willing to register for news, but are not willing to pay. 54% of Internet users who have gotten news online have registered at a news site. Only 6% of users have paid for news content (video clips, articles, or news broadcasts.) (Source: Pew Internet and American Life Project) -
In March 2006 the McClatchy Company purchases Knight Ridder for approximately $6.5 billion, including debt consumption. (Knight Ridder shareholder Bruce S. Sherman forced the company to put itself up for sale.) McClatchy plans to sell a number of its dailies, including the San Jose Mercury News, The Philadelphia Inquirer, the Akron Beacon Journal and Minneapolis Star-Tribune. -
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On March 13, 2006 the New York Times, like many other newspapers, announces that it is cutting its stock listings to save newsprint costs and because readers are going to the Web for that information. -
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“ Quote from Jay Rosen: People Formerly Known As The Audience.” “The people formerly known as the audience wish to inform media people of our existence, and of a shift in power that goes with the platform shift you’ve all heard about … Think of passengers on your ship who got a boat of their own. The writing readers. The viewers who picked up a camera. The formerly atomized listeners who with modest effort can connect with each other and gain the means to speak — to the world, as it were.” (Source: PressThink, June 27, 2006) -
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Of America’s top 100 newspapers, 80% offer reporter blogs. 76% offer RSS feeds. Also, video is the most common form of multimedia and it is offered by 61%. (Source: The Bivings Group, Aug. 2006) -
On August 2, 2006 CNN’s I-Report citizen journalism video initiative begins on the cable news network. The I-Report.com Web site is launched in March 2008. -
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In November 2006 Yahoo! announces an online advertising partnership with several newspaper companies. During the summer newspaper alliances with the online employment Web site, Monster.com, were also announced. -
“ Now and Then.” History of Dallas Morning News Web site, Nov. 3, 2006. -
“ Time’s Person of the Year: You.” Time, Dec. 13, 2006. (Intro excerpt: “….for seizing the reins of the global media, for founding and framing the new digital democracy, for working for nothing and beating the pros at their own game, TIME’s Person of the Year for 2006 is you.”) -
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“There is no magic wand to wave or time machine we can climb into, to return us to when newspapers enjoyed monopolies in many of their markets, making their investors and employees comfortable, if not rich. Newspapers struggle now with broken business models and expanding competition, amid rampant disrespect by the young and Web-adept. In this environment, journalists must decide whom we are going to serve with our journalism and how to be paid for that service. And we have to be disciplined and hardheaded about that decision.” (Paul Steiger, Nieman Reports issue about online journalism and the Web, Winter 2006.) Awards |
