New York Times
Six years ago today, on October 10, 2005, New York Times columnist David Carr wrote a story called, “Forget Blogs, Print Needs Its Own iPod.” It is a fascinating reminder of how much media and technology have changed since.
His piece made me wonder about other 2005 stories and statistics from the pre-iPad world. Here are a few.
February 15, 2005
YouTube is founded with the first video posted in April.
May 2005
The Huffington Post is launched.
Related: “Dazzle, Yes. But Can They Blog?” By Howard Kurtz, Washington Post, May 9, 2005
May 2005
Google introduced a new AdSense program that invited bloggers to share revenue from targeted Web page ads.
June 28, 2005
Google Earth is launched.
July 7, 2005
Passengers used their cell phones to photograph the chaos and damage when terrorists bombed the London underground subway. Traditional media soon shared these images with the world.
July 19, 2005
The New York Times purchased About.com; The Washington Post
acquired Slate; Dow Jones bought MarketWatch; Knight Ridder, the Tribune Company and Gannett purchased a controlling stake in Topix. The largest deal was News Corporation’s $500 million acquisition of the parent company of MySpace.
Related: “What MySpace means to Murdoch.” BBC.
August 2005
Under extreme conditions, in print and online, the New Orleans
Times-Picayune and the Biloxi-Gulfport Sun Herald told the tragic
story of Hurricane Katrina.
October 2005
The Apple iTunes store began offering videos and TV shows.
Also during 2005
More than a dozen newspapers and magazines started
podcasts, such as the Denver Post, Lawrence Journal-World, San
Francisco Chronicle, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Philadelphia Daily
News, the Washington Post, Newsweek and Forbes.
Statistics:
The State of the News Media 2005 (Source: Project for Excellence in Journalism)
More than three million people worldwide were using some form of the BlackBerry personal e-mail system. (Source: Presstime)
As of early 2005, Craigslist featured more than 120 city Web pages
around the world. An estimated five million people placed classified
ads a month. (Source: Craigslist)
More than six million people, or 5 percent of all Internet users, used RSS feeds to get some of their news and classified listings. Twenty-seven percent of Internet users said they read blogs. (Source: Pew Internet and American Life Project)
Thirty-three percent of regular Internet users ages 18 to 34 preferred getting their news online. (Source: Presstime/Jupitermedia)
Sixty-eight percent of American adults, or about 137 million people,
used the Internet. (Source: Pew Internet and American Life Project)
Almost one in five U.S. Internet users owned a camera phone. Forty percent of teens used a mobile phone service. (Source: InfoTrends/CAP Ventures)
By the end of 2005, 50 million Americans got news online during a
typical day. Much of the growth during that period was fueled by the rise in home broadband connections. (Source: Pew Internet and American Life Project)
