3 ms·

Old Media Strikes Back

2 points by bdfh42 18y ago

unalone 18y ago
The moral: better content wins. Better content for who? Some people love having a channel where 10 of their friends see the stuff they put up. They're winners, because they get to do something they couldn't before. Dan Lyons went from being one of my favorite bloggers to being one of my least favorites at a sickening pace. He's smarmy, overgeneralizes, and generally a prick overall. It was great when he was Fake Steve, because part of the joke was that he was so unlikable, but now he's just Dan Lyons, writer at one of the magazines that's quickest going into decline. Hulu is using an old ad scheme. Online, a new system will have to be developed, because right now things aren't as profitable. That doesn't make YouTube a failure, though, considering it's managing to break even despite being enormous. (Also note that each visitor to YouTube is likely watching far more videos a month than the average Hulu user is watching on Hulu.) The moral of Hulu is that beautiful, efficient web sites are a good thing, and that even companies can make them. There is no moral here about old media versus new media. Youtube is still enormous compared to Hulu, because people like having the ability to constantly post videos. Furthermore: Hulu is new media. If it succeeds, it does so because people prefer it to TV. The fact that the content is the same doesn't change that Hulu allows instant access to a wide library for free, that it allows rating and comments and embedding. That's new media, not old. The best part is that Hulu's parent companies don't get it. They're trying to restrict Hulu, rather than give it freedom. Old media is the largest thing holding parts of Hulu back. The sad part is that if it weren't for blogging and new media, Dan Lyons wouldn't be working for Newsweek. At Forbes he was a nobody: he only became famous after his blog kicked off. It's sad partly because Lyons is good at playing a blowhard because he is a blowhard. Now Newsweek's banned him from blogging and their tech writer's a blowhard. Everybody loses.

2 points by bdfh42 18y ago

The moral: better content wins. Better content for who? Some people love having a channel where 10 of their friends see the stuff they put up. They're winners, because they get to do something they couldn't before. Dan Lyons went from being one of my favorite bloggers to being one of my least favorites at a sickening pace. He's smarmy, overgeneralizes, and generally a prick overall. It was great when he was Fake Steve, because part of the joke was that he was so unlikable, but now he's just Dan Lyons, writer at one of the magazines that's quickest going into decline. Hulu is using an old ad scheme. Online, a new system will have to be developed, because right now things aren't as profitable. That doesn't make YouTube a failure, though, considering it's managing to break even despite being enormous. (Also note that each visitor to YouTube is likely watching far more videos a month than the average Hulu user is watching on Hulu.) The moral of Hulu is that beautiful, efficient web sites are a good thing, and that even companies can make them. There is no moral here about old media versus new media. Youtube is still enormous compared to Hulu, because people like having the ability to constantly post videos. Furthermore: Hulu is new media. If it succeeds, it does so because people prefer it to TV. The fact that the content is the same doesn't change that Hulu allows instant access to a wide library for free, that it allows rating and comments and embedding. That's new media, not old. The best part is that Hulu's parent companies don't get it. They're trying to restrict Hulu, rather than give it freedom. Old media is the largest thing holding parts of Hulu back. The sad part is that if it weren't for blogging and new media, Dan Lyons wouldn't be working for Newsweek. At Forbes he was a nobody: he only became famous after his blog kicked off. It's sad partly because Lyons is good at playing a blowhard because he is a blowhard. Now Newsweek's banned him from blogging and their tech writer's a blowhard. Everybody loses.