Mitch (see comment) sent me a Business Week article this week about the latest attempt to charge for online content fostered by Steven Brill.  He’s proposing creating a consortium of a lot of different content providers that the reader would pay a subscription fee to access the content. I really don’t believe charging for online content will work in most circumstances, because readers will seek out the free content somewhere else and in most cases advertising models on free content will generate more revenue than subscriptions because of the higher traffic generated on the free content models.

But besides what I think, there’s a lot of buzz around . Here’s a couple of analysis of Brill’s model that makes sense to me.

• John Temple
• Ken Doctor

According to Nielsen online video viewing in the United States is now over three hours a month to 169 minutes a month on average. Those numbers are significant, but the bigger part of the analysis to me is

“Since the number of minutes per user is increasing at a faster rate than the number of videos per user, that means people are gradually moving to longer and longer videos–from 2.4 minutes in February to 2.7 minutes in March.”

Which means long form video (like Hulu) is really starting to catch on.

Paid content will not save newspapers. Despite what many old journalism hands have said (including pay wall poster child Little Rock’s own Walter Hussman). Paid content limits your audience size and audience growth eventually flattens out. Here’s what the former head of NYTimes.com has to say about paid content…

Thanks to Jack Lail for pointing out this video.

Here’s a hilarious video about what happens when a blog hires some laid-off newspaper employees

Thanks to Chris for sharing the video.

I spent all morning banging my head against my computer and several search engines trying to remember the name of visual timeline tool that I found that was pretty cool– Vuvox. Vuvox is a web tool that alllows to create a collage of photos, video, audio and text to tell a story.  Here’s a good example of one (be sure to hit the full screen button to get the full experience).

Some other timeline tools I found while I was trying to remember Vuvox include

• TimeRime
• Dipity
• TimeToast

I recently seperated my twitter from my facebook and I am only trying to twitter when I have something to say– which hasn’t been much lately. This video is a pretty good example of what twitter can become

Make sure you watch until the fail whale appears.

Scripps closed the Rocky Mountain News today– it was a great newspaper, a great website, a model of how a news operation can change. Unfortunately, the JOA in Denver didn’t give Scripps enough flexibility to stop the losses it had seen this past year ($16 million).

Here’s a long video on the end of the RMN (21 minutes, but it’s worth it.).  If you can watch it in full screen in HD.

This must be the day of lists. Newsweek has a great list of the Seven Lies We Tell Ourselves About Facebook. I’ve listed the Newsweek “lie” and my response to it.

1. I only friend people I really know- I actually only friend people who I am willing to go out to dinner with so my standard is actually higher than this. There are several people who I’ve not friended because I don’t want to eat dinner with.
2. Facebook made me do it- I refuse to do something on facebook just because everyone else has done it. I won’t play the name game or 25 random things (that’s probably more because I’m lazy than anything).
3. Wall to wall flirting isn’t cheating – It’s horrible the way some people flirt and friend so outlandishly on facebook where they would be embarassed to be caught flirting in the same manner in real life.
4. I use facebook to keep in touch with people – I have to agree with Newsweek– I use facebook because I’m nosy (yes, I said it, now you can admit to it, too).
5. I’m so over facebook- I really am moving in that direction. More now than last week and more next week than now. When your grandma chats with you on facebook and asks you to post a link and then your 6 month old nephew friends you, it’s time to find another place to hang out.
6. I’m not so competitive- I hate most games- board games or computer games so I don’t care if you beat me. I don’t really know why I hate games. Just playing them really tires me.
7. Facebook is my friend- Ok. I know facebook isn’t my friend (just look how they flip flopped on their terms of service this week), but I can’t say it’s a business either or at least a successful one. On the other hand, I sure wish that I had come up with the idea and launched facebook or at least something similar where I could sue facebook for stealing my idea.

Here’s a great article from Smashing Magazine on 10 Harsh Truths About Corporate Web Design.  I’ve worked online in some form or fashion for about 10 years and this article really gets to the heart of a lot that I’ve experienced.  My favorite truths are

• You need a separate web division
• Periodic redesign is not enough
• Your website cannot appeal to everyone
• Design by committee brings death

I think I like these so much because I can related to them– I have lived them.

It’s so funny to me that I deal with the exact same issues at different organizations whenever I am new– this week it’s new windows! Opening up a new window is so important to people (who don’t understand the web) because they don’t want their users to leave their site– that’s just exhibiting a selfish desire to keep the user on their site.  Instead, let’s be generous to the user and respect their browsing experience.  If you respect the user, in the end your user, your customer will respect you and use your esrvices. I sent this out to my staff today and I thought this is perfect blog fodder, too! So here’s my philosophy (and some links to some folks who are an expert on web accessibility) on new windows:

Avoid opening new windows when at all possible—even when linking to pages off site. The web was made for links and when you send a user off to a valuable web site through a link they appreciate you keeping their browsing experience intact and will remember that you referred them to useful site and will come back to you (of course this assumes that we only link to valuable sites).

On the other hand opening a link in a new window opens a new browser on the user’s computer without their consent and breaks the back button where they cannot use normal usability constraints to find their way back to your site.  If you have ever watched a novice web user use a site where links are opening in new windows, then you know you are completely confusing them with those new windows and at the end of their browsing session they could have seven or eight windows open.

At times it is appropriate to pop-open a new window for special features such as flash animation, video or podcast. When we do pop-open the window it’s nice to make sure we are controlling the size of it to make sure the user can still the the original content behind it and know they are in a new window and if you want to be really nice you can provide a nice close button so the user can get rid of that window.

Here’s some good reads on not forcing a new window on the user

• Web Content Accessibility Guidelines
• Don’t force windows on new users
• Dive into accessibility – Not opening new windows
• Discussion on opening new browser windows
• Accessibility tips

If you’re not sure whether or not you should open or new window, then err on the side of the user and just don’t open it.