Author: Dan Kennedy

Google ads and “the long tail”

Does Lou Ureneck really think the little guys whose ads have popped up on his Web site about fishing in Greece would otherwise be taking out ads in newspapers? The Boston University journalism department chair writes about this in an op-ed piece for the Boston Globe:

[T]hose little Google ads that are popping on my website are chipping — more like hacking — away at newspapers by cutting into their revenue streams. A newspaper spends an enormous amount of money on its newsroom and production plants to bring me my morning paper. It needs that revenue to operate.

Google, on the other hand, spends not a dime on the collection of news. Its business, in part, is based on aggregating the work of others — or getting a cut from the advertising that appears on the websites of others. It’s a brilliant business model. No wonder it has a market capitalization of $160 billion.

In a sense, I am contributing to problems of newspapers by jumping into Web publishing and accepting advertising. Is this fair? Well, fair or not, it clearly is inevitable.

In fact, Ureneck’s site, and the advertising that appears on it, are examples of “the long tail,” an economics concept popularized in an article and book by Wired editor Chris Anderson. The long tail refers to tiny transactions that are too inefficient for anyone to bother with in a mass-market environment, but that become worthwhile as the cost of making those transactions goes down. The idea is that the Internet has reduced that cost nearly to zero.

An example of this is the limited number of books and CDs even a large retailer like Borders or Barnes & Noble can carry, versus the much larger selection offered by a virtual retailer like Amazon.com. But even Amazon is a mass marketer compared to hundreds and thousands of smaller sites. As the long tail lengthens, the size of the mass market might shrink (which is Ureneck’s concern.) But it’s not going to go away by any means.

As for Google and the news business, well, that’s been the subject of uneasy conversations for some time now. Late this past spring, Washington Post journalist-turned-UC Berkeley professor Neil Henry got his cookies toasted for seeming not to understand that Google News actually drives users to news organizations’ Web sites (and their advertising) — thus making, not costing, them money.

Ureneck asserts that Google “spends not a dime on the collection of news.” True, but as of last week, the company now intends to spend many dimes so that others can collect news: It’s subscribing to the Associated Press and other news services, and is featuring their full content on its Google News site. (Yahoo! News has been doing that since the beginning.)

If you think Google has been getting something of a free ride, then maybe you’ll see that as good news. But Poynter’s Amy Gahran cites a Forbes article that notes this “could diminish Internet traffic to newspaper and broadcast companies’ Web sites where those stories and photos are also found — a development that could reduce those companies’ revenue from online advertising.”

It’s all very complicated.

Shaughnessy’s odd premise

No doubt plenty of jerks get in Terry Francona’s face. But the central premise of Boston Globe reporter/columnist Dan Shaughnessy’s profile of the Red Sox manager today strikes me as odd. Shaughnessy writes:

Despite getting swept in New York last week, the Sox have the best record in the major leagues and a six-game lead in the American League East. They are likely going to the playoffs for the fourth time in five seasons. They even won a World Series three years ago, and yet Francona — the fourth-year manager who delivered Boston’s first baseball championship in 86 years in 2004 — has an ever-expanding legion of critics. He enjoys none of the public reverence and worship that washes over Bill Belichick in Foxborough.

Really? Maybe my circle is too small, but among people I talk baseball with, Francona is seen as the Sox’ best manager in our lifetime. The only worry I hear is that Tito’s health problems may force him to retire early.

Joe Morgan, also a good manager, was more entertaining, and Dick Williams will be forever revered because of 1967. But Francona’s the man.

BostonHerald.com’s new look

BostonHerald.com unveils a slick-looking redesign. Smart — not too many people will be looking at it over Labor Day weekend, giving them a couple of days to work out the bugs.

Pluses: It’s attractive, and you can post comments on stories, which gives the Herald a leg up on the Globe’s Boston.com site. A minus: There’s still no view where you can see a list of every story in the paper from top to bottom, as you can with the Globe.

Overall, a big step forward.

Glenn Marshall’s “secret promises”

Those who support the proposed Middleborough casino like to say that Glenn Marshall’s downfall doesn’t matter because everything is in writing. Scott Ferson, a spokesman for the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe, put it this way recently in The Standard-Times of New Bedford:

The agreement is between the tribe and the town, not one person on either side, and there is a great deal of integrity in the agreement. The commitments that are made by the tribe in the voice of Glenn Marshall stand.

Now comes Alice Elwell, who writes in The Enterprise of Brockton that, in fact, enthusiasm for the casino was very much based on personal assurances made by Marshall — or, as the headline puts it, his “secret promises.” Among them:

  • Marshall promised local business leaders that he would “help” if the casino harmed restaurants in town. Selectman Wayne Perkins says this would have taken the form of “comp points” — scrip given to casino visitors that could be used at Middleborough businesses, which in turn could trade them in for cash.
  • Marshall promised to assist the town with police and firefighting expenses.
  • He told several people to “come see me” over their concerns about how the casino would affect their quality of life.
  • He promised the chairman of the Middleborough Housing Authority that he would “help” with programs for senior citizens.

Elwell writes: “It is unknown if the residents would have supported a casino in their town had they known of Marshall’s criminal background. But in the months leading up to the historic town meeting vote, Marshall made several promises that were not included in the written contract with the town.”

And she quotes tribal council member Cheryl Frye as saying that anyone who’s concerned about whether the tribe will honor promises made by Marshall should come on in and talk it over.

Is there a legal argument to be made that town meeting approved the deal on false pretenses? I don’t know. That would probably be a stretch. But there’s really no end to this, is there?

My standard disclosure.

A second investor accused of bribery

Oh, the hell with it. I’m going to keep posting on the Middleborough casino as long as there’s news to report. And there is: The Cape Cod Times’ Stephanie Vosk tells us that yet another investor has run afoul of the law.

Vosk points to a 1997 story in the Detroit Free Press, which found that, 20 years earlier, casino developer Herb Strather paid a $500 fine and performed community service as punishment for offering a police officer a new pair of shoes in return for special consideration on a drunken-driving arrest. You can’t make this stuff up.

Yesterday, of course, we learned that investor Sol Kerzner was accused of bribing a South African government official in 1986 in connection with a casino deal there. Kerzner was not convicted, and the charge was later dropped.

Meanwhile, Peter Kenney keeps beavering away on Cape Cod Today as he attempts to track $675,000 in Wampanoag money used by disgraced former tribe leader Glenn Marshall to buy a horse stable in Mashpee.

Finally, I’ve got a commentary on all this in today’s Providence Journal.

My standard disclosure.

Frank talk about Larry Craig

I’ve been casting about for a point of entry into the Larry Craig controversy. Today, U.S. Rep. Barney Frank gave me one. In an interview with Robin Young on WBUR’s “Here and Now” — most of which was about the mortgage crisis — Frank explained (fast-forward to 14:25) why he didn’t think Craig should resign:

Well, I condemn his hypocrisy, and I think the hypocrisy is a valid reason for people not to vote for him. I think that when you set yourself up to make rules for people and then don’t follow them yourself, you’re committing a very grave error, and that’s a reason not to vote for you. But when you’ve been elected, it seems to me you serve out the term unless you have been shown to be misusing your office.

Look, we have a senator from Louisiana, Senator [David] Vitter, who has acknowledged that he was patronizing this prostitution ring. People haven’t asked for him to resign. Now, I don’t think people should be soliciting sex in public bathrooms, and I certainly don’t think people should be hypocrites. But we’re not talking now about somebody who shot someone, or bodily injured someone, and the fact is that comparable infractions among heterosexuals haven’t led to demands to resign.

Frank went on to observe that Craig is up for re-election next year, and that he assumed Craig would either not run or would be defeated in a Republican primary.

A lot of good sense there. Not that it matters — it looks like Craig will be gone by the end of the day.

Menino’s and/or the Globe’s faux pas

Sharp-eyed Media Nation reader R.S. passes this along, from Boston Globe columnist Adrian Walker’s piece on the fire in West Roxbury that claimed the lives of two firefighters:

“They always put their needs before our own,” Mayor Thomas M. Menino said at a press conference. “But it doesn’t make it any easier to deal with the tragedy.”

R.S.’s take: “I wouldn’t be surprised if Menino said it, but Walker and the Globe copy editors thought it was OK???”

Not OK.

Saturday afternoon update: Given the amount of interest sparked by this item, I went searching for video of Menino speaking. No luck so far. For what it’s worth, the city’s official Web site has Menino saying that “they always put our needs before their own.”

A couple more drips

Yes, I know I said I was going to try to hold off on the daily updates, but it just keeps on coming, doesn’t it?

The Cape Cod Times today moves the focus of the story up to where it really belongs: on the Big Money folks behind the plans to build a casino in Middleborough. Stephanie Vosk reports:

Sol Kerzner, one of the top investors for a proposed Mashpee Wampanoag casino, was accused in 1986 of bribing a government official in South Africa to obtain exclusive gaming rights.

Kerzner was never convicted and the charge was dismissed in 1997, but it has followed him each time he has tried to back a casino, both here and abroad.

Gov. Deval Patrick, who may or may not have already made up his mind about casino gambling, needs to understand that this is what life is going to be like if he says “yes.” Tribal leaders resigning in disgrace; hazy ties to imprisoned sleazeballs like Jack Abramoff; unproven charges against shadowy financiers; and a constant drumbeat of questions for elected officials about how much they knew, and how much they should have known. Is this really what you need, Governor?

Also, Steve Bailey has a terrific column in the Boston Globe. A highlight: “This has always been less about sovereignty than about the rush by the tribe and its deep-pocketed financial backers, just as elsewhere around the country, to cash in on the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, one of the worst pieces of legislation ever to come out of Congress.” Yes indeed.

Update: The Times’ George Brennan reports on another member of the Mashpee Wampanoags — Maurice Foxx, chairman of the state’s Commission on Indian Affairs — whose bio had once falsely claimed he’d served as a Marine in Vietnam. Foxx says he’s not sure how the bogus information ever made it into the record. Funny how that happens.

My standard disclosure.