Interesting to see that Freakonomics blog has moved to the New York Times, effectively moving from being book bloggers to paid online columnists.
Check out the inaugural post for some insights into how moving to a mainstream media outlet has affected the style and approach of the authors.
If you enjoyed the book, the blog’s brilliant too – a mix of intriguingly entertaining insight and thought provoking concepts.
Antony – what do you think the Freakonomics folk would make of Google’s decision to pull its pay-for view service?
Oh, forget them, what do you think? Am I the only person to have had a bit of my trust in Google eroded because they are only refunding most customers with credits?
How about the short notice with which the service was dropped? Can I still trust Google not to drop their apps offering with similar haste if circumstances change?
And why did its PR team underestimate the bad coverage this decision would get? Did they think it would slip quietly through under the radar because the service only had a few customers.
It certainly looks like Google has behaved shabbily on this occasion, I agree.
I set my expectations of Google’s behaviour by Eric Schmidt’s comments at the start of this year about being open with user information and personal data, treating as their property. Well this DRM material was their property too and now it has been seized.
I think it is a miscalculation on all fronts from a business and reputation point of view. The company should move quickly and publicly to explain itself and make amends – otherwide this is a black mark against its trustworthiness.
The following survey questions are part of an Eastern Michigan University study of the effects of blogging on the business and practice of journalism. If you would like to participate, please email your answers to tommyrot@ureach.com before Saturday, August 18th. Thank you for your time, we look forward to your responses.
1. How has the news consumer been affected by blogs?
2. How has the traditional news media been affected by blogs?
3. How has the integrity of journalism been affected by blogs?
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