Bradley Voges

Papers plan fees for online news
16/04/2009 08:18 – (SA)

# NY Times to charge for website?

San Francisco – Three media veterans plan to bundle the internet content of newspaper and magazine publishers into a subscription package that will test web surfers’ willingness to pay for material that has been given away for years.

The system won’t be ready until the fall, but the plans were announced late on Tuesday because so many publishers already are clamouring to sign up, said Steven Brill, co-chief executive of the new venture, called Journalism Online.

“The interest in this came together a lot more quickly than we anticipated,” said Brill, the founder of Court TV and American Lawyer magazine. “We are dancing as fast as we can now.”

Brill declined to identify the publishers willing to participate because agreements haven’t yet been signed.

Journalism Online’s other principals are former Wall Street Journal publisher Gordon Crovitz and former cable television executive Leo Hindery.

The decision to place more toll booths in front of online news reflects the deepening financial problems threatening the survival of print publishers, particularly newspapers. (more…)

Maybe I’m into SM. I’ve come to this conclusion after reviewing my entries into the Argus Cycle Tour and the Two Oceans marathon (half i must add) over the past couple of weeks. Although I have completed these races before, this year for some reason I’ve chosen to start thinking of training for the event 4 days before race day. And at the end of the race as was the case with the Argus I will promise myself that I will train for it next year. Anyway, the milk has been spilled and so I will not cry. Come Saturday morning I will tackle Southern Cross Drive with great fervor.

Wishing all the other runners much joy and encouragement.

Just updating where Blueworld has been in the press. I’ll keep this more up to date from now on.

Bizcommunity – 10 March 2008
IOL technology – 13 March 2008
News24.com – 28 May 2008
Moneyweb – 28 August 2008
My Broadband – 10 September 2008
Media 24 – 29 October 2008

While Charl and I were in JHB we were interviewed by Reuben Goldberg on his “The Internet Economy” show. You can listen to the show here.

We hosted a Blueworld party at the Camps Bay bowls club (next to La Med) for our top Blueworld members, industry people (including Media24 execs) and advertising contacts that we have done business with over the past year. The party went down really well and provided a great networking platform for everyone who attended.

These are my favourites from the party gallery

Uno de Waal (left) & Sarietha Engelbrecht (Youth Strategy: Media24)

Sessa (left) and Matt Buckland

Elan Lohmann (GM social networks MIH Africa) and I

More pics after the jump

(more…)

I went for a hike up Lion’s head last night with some friends to view the full moon. On the way up we came across a paraglider that had crashed against the side of the mountain. These are some of the pics that we took of the paramedic helicopter arriving – disaster tourists. Thanks for the photos Joe.

“Wind plays havoc at Argus – Sport24.co.za

Cape Town – Winds of up to 60km/h wreaked havoc at the Cape Argus Pick ‘n Pay Cycle Tour on Sunday, collapsing tents and scaffolding.

A woman broke her arm when the breakfast tent at the start of the race collapsed with her inside, said joint operations manager for the event Brad Geyser. She had since been taken to hospital to have the broken limb set.

Geyser said: “The wind did a lot of damage. We didn’t expect it to be this strong.”

The start of the race itself was delayed 54 minutes because of the wind, with wind speeds of 40km/h measured at Chapman’s Peak and 60km/h elsewhere on the route, he said.

Scaffolding erected at the Allan Gray building, near the finish line, collapsed, crushing three cars, but injuring no-one. A tent at the finish line also came down.

Most of the structures erected for the race at the start and finish lines had to be taken down because the wind was so severe, said Geyser.

The Greenpoint stadium construction site, where most of the hospitality tents were erected in sandy ground, became a “dust bowl” which the fire department had to water down, he said.

(more…)

Check out Yellow Lamas post with some interesting concepts.

Its been about 3 months now since I first opened my Standard Bank trading account and bought my first shares. What a glorious sunny day that was. Unfortunately the track record of my chosen shares has been more doom and gloom. The economic downturn of late has had its effect and so my trading account dashboard shows alot of red arrows pointing downwards as opposed to the more favourable green ones in the other direction. Maybe this is the best way to learn though. This makes me feel better.

I haven’t looked much further than what Standard Bank had to offer in terms of trading accounts for the simple reason that I already have my accounts setup with this institution. I must say though, although I generally don’t have many good things to say about banks I am impressed with their offering here. Once you have your trading account they also offer various tuttorials that you can attend at no charge at all. I plan to attend my first one next week.

Bought some Grindrod shares today – after reviewing some of the comments coming from the chat feature. Maybe somewhat blind purchase sure. But so far marginal growth of 1.7%…

Need to know more about “shorting”!