Entrepreneurs. Engineers. Bloggers. You keep asking: Why does a writer like me hate people like you? Nick Denton's new traffic-based pay scale has backfired wonderfully, giving me a few minutes to explain it.
From his hospital bed, stricken GigaOm blogger Om Malik posts an update on his health after he suffered a heart attack last month. And he manages to work in a review of a new voicemail-transcription service into the blog entry. Any questions on how he landed in the hospital in the first place? The man never stops working.
This was the first year at CES that bloggers were widely credentialed — and given their own, special, "blogger lounge". Sadly though, the bloggers seem unimpressed. The lounge, which was pitifully small compared to the more prestigious "press lounge," was pretty barren. Among the accoutrements in the press lounge? Espresso, fresh baked cookies and lots of fellow reporters to network with. We hung out with Dan Lyons, the Fake Steve Jobs blogueur, and even Jason Calacanis "graced us" with his presence. The blogger lounge? It's pitifully small, but the worst part is it's location. The press lounge is right next to the South Hall entrance, near the CNet Live Stage. The blogger lounge is located at the far end of the South Convention floor. It takes literally 20 minutes to walk from one room to the other. I'll pass. More after the jump.
Commenter beng asked the question about CES's two-tier journalist passes that I wondered, too: "What is the difference between the blogger badge and the press badge, and does that mean that even Engadget and Gizmodo get blogger badges?" Gizmodo editor Brian Lam is toting a Press badge, just like Mahalo CEO Jason Calacanis. Our own Jordan Golson has been tagged a "Blogger." Hey Jordan: Besides a separate lounge with espresso and cookies, what other perks does a Press pass get you that a Blogger badge doesn't? Just login and let Calacanis answer again, that was hilarious.
Brian Lam, the go-go-go force behind gadget superblog Gizmodo, explains how paying for traffic backfired until he dropped an iron fist. Brian's formula? Focus on consistent semi-hits, instead of drawing the mob with doofy, off-topic videos. I found most of this week's commentary on Valleywag's new bonus plan to be poorly reasoned and/or self-serving, in addition to getting our pay formulas wrong — is it good or bad that I'm starting to sound like Felix Salmon? But I'll let Brian have the last word.
Blogger Om Malik could never have predicted he'd have a heart attack at the age of 41. But he did foresee one thing clearly: He would never build a business on a single blog so closely identified with one author. His spinoff blogs — Web Worker Daily, NewTeeVee, Earth2Tech, and FoundRead — have not matched GigaOm's success; of the four, only NewTeeVee, in my opinion, shows promise of being a breakout hit like the original. But unlike Michael Arrington, who built TechCrunch solely on his startup cult of personality, Malik has sought to diversify his media startup in a way that it can survive him. Until December 28, this was merely wise in theory.
No laughing matter: GigaOm blogger Om Malik reports that he had a heart attack last week at the age of 41. At Business 2.0, where we both worked before going blog, Malik and I teased each other constantly about our weight. At one point, he and I lined up with two other rotund members of the staff for a photo. The four of us totaled nearly half a ton. The photo was meant to kick off a weight-loss contest that never really happened. The origins of the name GigaOm, in fact, were not in broadband, but in a broad waist. As Malik has told many friends, his mom gave him the nickname when he returned to India enlarged by his sojourns in the West. I say this not to make light of the situation, but to hammer home a point as serious as an infarction: Maintaining your wetware requires a large portion of your bandwidth. Best wishes for a fast recovery, Om. (Photo by zippy)
Yahoo has axed its Picks blog, which has highlighted a notable new site webevery day for the past 12 years. In an age of 24-hour blogs, a one-link-a-day site was antiquated. And Picks, at 12, was a Methuselah of the Web. But we owe so much to the long-neglected site that it deserves a better obituary than the one Yahoo afforded it.
"I'm going to get thrown under the bus on Valleywag even more in 2008 than in 2007," serial self-blogger Robert Scoble claims, because of Gawker's new traffic-based pay plan for Valleywag writers. Um, how to put this gently: No one reads our Scoble posts, as Robert himself has observed from his clickthrough logs. We do them out of love. But based on our most-read posts of 2007, I'll be throwing some guy named Kevin Rose under the bus every single day.
I don't expect anyone other than Jeff Jarvis to read Gawker's 1,047-word memorandum to employees in its entirety. I've cored out the important part — the numbers with dollar signs — below.
Gawker Media dark overlord Nick Denton (pictured) has launched a new pay system for all Gawker Media blogs, after testing it at four of his leading sites. Denton's goal is to discourage "self indulgent" posts and "mind-numbing frequency" in favor of "linkworthy material, by which I mean a secret memo, a spy photo, a chart, a well-argued rant, a list, an exclusive piece of news, a well-packaged find." Where does a self-indulgent secret memo fit on that axis? I guess we'll find out after the jump.
Yahoo career-advice columnist Penelope Trunk took on a familiar topic today: "How to deal with getting fired (from Yahoo.)" Her boss, she said, told her the column didn't pull in a high enough CPM — the rate advertisers pay. Stock talk draws pricier ads than job advice. So far, all business. But then came the gratuitous insult: When Trunk asked if there were any other opportunities at Yahoo for her, the Yahoos recommended she try Lifestyles, a Yahoo division for food, horoscopes, and the like.
An actual headline from Om Malik at GigaOm today: "Like Gaboogie, Foonz Losing Its Voice Too." The extra "too" really clears things up, doesn't it? TechCrunch picked up the story with a sardonic cliche: "News flash. There's just no money in giving people free calls." The actual news flash: There's just no money in drawing conclusions about technology from the failures of startups no one has even heard of.
New York Times tech writers are confused, or at least a little bit lazy. Over Christmas Eve they posted to the Bits blog a post titled, "Questions We Thought, But Didn't Ask, in 2007." Then, "A Few More Questions" And then, "More Questions." Reading them, it's clear that coming up with questions required no reporting, little research and maybe five minutes. Why didn't we think of that? One very special correspondent could have actually seen his wife over Christmas. Here are their top three questions — and our helpfully provided answers.
So I'm standing next to RoboScoble at last night's Stirr mixer. Another partygoer brings up some big argument the blogosphere is having with itself over photo copyrights. Scoble gives his standard line: "Go ahead, steal my stuff. Do whatever you want with it!" Guy No. 1 responds, "Yeah you say that, but if everyone did steal all your stuff how would you pay your mortgage in Half Moon Bay?" Pause. Smirk. Scoble's reply: "That is how I pay my mortgage." There's a big lesson here for all of us, and I think it's: Robert Scoble has a house in Half Moon Bay. (Photo by Paul Boutin. Go ahead and steal it, but that doesn't mean I think Lane Hartwell should give it away, too.)
As his three-year legal battle with Apple reaches a settled end, Nick Ciarelli, the writer behind Think Secret, states that shutting down the Mac rumor site while not revealing his sources is a "positive solution for both sides." Most people aren't buying it, blaming Apple for shutting down Think Secret. Which is exactly why it is a positive result for Ciarelli.
More details on Perez Hilton's YouTube woes: Apparently it was his posting of this video of Liza Minelli collapsing on stage that caused his account to be banned. Normally YouTube removes a video when it receives a DMCA message and that's the end of it. This time though, says our tipster, Idolator editor Maura Johnston, it "was a 'repeat offender' thing". No surprise there. Hilton has built his entire site on images of questionable legality. Our timeline after the jump.
