Tuesday, July 20

Media Quakes & Tremors (5#) -

From The Quaint Corner: The Times of London newspaper has undergone a massive decline in web traffic in the aftermath of their paywall introduction, according to a report from Josh Halliday at The Guardian.

No one seems to remember anymore what happened to The New York Sun, which was a quaint little boutique newspaper that had some very nice cultural news and features. They didn't want to post their material on the Internet. By the time they changed their minds and began posting on the Net, it was too late to save the publication.

The London Evening Standard newspaper seems to have gone in the opposite direction, almost entirely free, and with some considerable success so far, according to recent reports. [guard]

# TOS Tossed: The blogging platform Blogetery has been slammed shut by its hosting company based on FBI communications about it containing Al Qaeda Cult material, including the online magazine Inspire, according to David Kravets at Threat Level.

Other material provided there is reported to have included bomb-making tips and a hit list "of American citizens targeted for assassination by al-Qaeda," according to Greg Sandoval at CNET.

"when the agency has reason to
believe that lives may be threatened"


ie: a clear and present danger.

# Thrust into the middle of this movie: 4CHAN has been allegedly attacking Gawker in a move some are characterizing as a "revenge of the nerds." Maybe a DOS attack or something along those lines.

[sigh] I don't think I want to know too many details from the backstory of this fracas. You don't step on Superman's cape, you don't spit into the wind, and you don't provoke nerds on their own turf. [NYO] - [VV]

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