|
|
The free ride is over in Albuquerque, N.M., at least in terms of online news. The internet version of its daily newspaper, the Albuquerque Journal, has begun charging for access to its content. With the exception of The Wall Street Journal, the Albuquerque Journal is now the largest daily newspaper to charge for access to its site. The web site began exacting its toll a week ago, and the new entrance fee has lopped off 40 percent of the site’s unique users. The site, ABQJournal.com, is now accessible only to print subscribers and those who submit to the online fee. Nonpayers can view only headlines, classified ads and regular ads. An online subscription costs $8 a month or $60 a year. By comparison, print subscribers pay $11.26 a month to have their papers delivered or $240 a year to receive it by mail. The paper found that online advertising, combined with a few other meager revenue sources, was not enough to support a free web site.
AOL Time Warner axes online workers
Apparently not even the biggest media company of them all is immune to the decline in online ad spending. AOL Time Warner has handed pink slips to 30 people who worked in its online marketing division, roughly three percent of the 800-person interactive marketing division staff. Many of the laid-off employees had been responsible for selling interactive advertising. A third of the laid-off employees had worked in AOL’s Dulles, Va., headquarters for online operations, with the rest of the layoffs scattered across the country. The company has been keeping mum about what necessitated the layoffs, which come on the heels of an earlier round of mass firings that took place in January. At that time, 2,400 positions were cut as a result of the merger between America Online and Time Warner.
Judge orders Napster to stay off-line
In what looks like another nail in the coffin for Napster, a federal judge has mandated that the music-swapping service remain off-line until it has the ability to block 100 percent of copyrighted songs. Napster has been off-line for10 days and counting as it upgrades its software and prepares to transform itself into a fee-based service. That subscription service is slated to launch later this summer. Napster officials met with U.S. District Judge Marilyn Hall Patel yesterday to apprise her of the service’s progress in complying with a March order that it stop facilitating the piracy of copyrighted songs. Napster told Patel that it was able to block 99 percent of songs, which wasn’t good enough for her. The ruling could bar all file-swapping until the fee-based service launches. The Recording Industry Association of America applauds Patel's decision, but Napster plans to appeal it.
Yahoo: We're losing buckets in down ad market
Leading internet portal/media company Yahoo has reported that it lost $48.5 million in the second quarter of this year, largely due to a flagging market for online advertising. Its revenue for the quarter fell 33 percent over the same period in 2000. Analysts say that Yahoo’s loss of revenue indicates that an online advertising upturn may take time. As the economy slows, demand for ads has been weak, and concerns about the efficacy of online advertising are rampant. Yahoo officials say they don’t expect to see online ad sales pick up for nearly a year, and they expect third quarter revenue from ads to come in at between $160 to $180 million. During the second quarter, Yahoo served 3,170 advertisers and merchants, up from 3,145 in the previous quarter.
Timex and Yahoo team up on web wristwatch
The day of Dick Tracy wrist-gadgetry has arrived, thanks to the internet. Timex and Yahoo are teaming up with wireless providers Motorola and SkyTel to build the first internet-enabled watch that will fetch email, news, weather information, sports scores and stock quotes. The wrist accessory, called the “Timex Internet Messenger Fortified by Yahoo!” watch, will be available in three styles for $100, plus a $9.99 monthly wireless charge. A special watch headquarters web site, linked from the Internet Messenger home page or found on the web at Yahoo Mobile, will allow users to customize the information beamed to their wrists. The device can store up to 16 emails, and it will either vibrate or play a musical chime of the user's choice when a new message arrives.
SF Giants stuck with 42,000 Webvan cupholders
When online grocer Webvan ran out of money and closed down on Monday, it left behind more than debts. Unfortunately for the San Francisco Giants, Webvan also left its logo on 42,000 cupholders in the team’s new stadium. The once-hopeful and cash-stuffed dot.com paid a low-seven-figure sum for a three-year contract to advertise at the new stadium, which included billboard space and the right to slap its logo on the cupholders that adorn every seat in the park. The problem is that one year remains on the contract. The team has been searching for a solution, siccing its lawyers on the paper work and considering stripping off the logos by hand. Giants executive vice president Larry Baer told the San Francisco Chronicle, “if we put them on—we can take them off.”
July 12, 2001 © 2001 Media Life
Printer-Friendly
Version | Send
to a Friend
Cover Page | Contact
Us
