May 4, 2008
SOMEWHAT FRANK Weekly Tidbits from around the Web gathered by Frank Gruber for the week ending May 4, 2008.
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March 18, 2008
The Tribune Company, an old newspaper giant, has just announced an iPhone compartable version of one of its flagship properties, the Chicago Tribune. As a former Tribune employee it gives me great joy to see my old hometown paper now viewable on my iPhone at this URL: chicagotribune.com/iphone.
They have not enabled an auto redirect to when I am viewing ChicagoTribune.com from my iPhone but do promote the iPhone option instead. I figure the auto redirect on the iPhone will be coming soon. Congrats to the Tribune on embracing the new device. Thanks to Steve Rubel for pointing it out.
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April 7, 2007
End of the web's free ride? Doubtful. As a former Tribune Co. employee it was surprising to see the Washington Post article published today (April 7, 2007) saying that, soon-to-be Tribune Co. owner and real estate billionaire, Samuel Zell was set on trying to make news aggregators pay for newspaper.com...
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August 7, 2006
Topix.net, the news and blog content aggregator, has launched a new fresh design for the layout of its homepage. The design includes a new logo as well as a new layout for the page. The old design is shown below on the left and the new design is shown further...
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June 7, 2006
Topix.net, a news aggregator service owned by three large, traditional media companies, has added the ability to post free classified ads on its site. Topix offers a free alternative to both print and online classified newspaper sites, which have been banking on paid classified ads for years. Another direct competitor...
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April 11, 2006
I recently had a chance to get a sneak peak at the newly created McCormick Tribune Freedom Museum which opened to the public today (April 11, 2006). The museum is three stories and offers visitors an interactive experience focused on our first amendment rights which include speech, religion, press, assembly...
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February 25, 2006
A recent debate has surfaced among the pages of the Chicago Tribune calling into question the longevity of the blogging phenomenon. On one side we have the recent Chicago Tribune editorial, "Bloggy, We Hardly Knew Ye," citing dated 2004 data. Although numbers resound with our society, I have to question...
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January 28, 2006
A recent Wall Street Journal article by Joseph T. Hallinan highlighted the recent drops in auto advertising of the newspaper publishing companies including the Tribune and McClatchy Co. According to the article: Revenue from auto classifieds has now fallen for seven straight quarters, to $1.01 billion in the third quarter...
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January 20, 2006
A web developer, colleague and friend of mine Jeff Johns recently talked shop with Editor and Publisher's Jay DeFoore as he lent his expert opinion on some recent newspaper website redesigns. The article highlighted several websites and Jeff, an online producer and web developer for Allentown Morning Call or MCall.com...
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January 20, 2006
Publisher content is the backbone of a web of information on the Internet. Without publisher content, search engines would have less results to provide thus searchers would be less likely to find relevant results. Content producers, namely large publishers, have known this for years but have been trying to determine...
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January 18, 2006
Tribune Tower image taken 01/18/06 originally uploaded by Somewhat Frank. I finally returned from Los Angeles late last night after a quick trip where I trained the LATimes.com team on the various Tribune systems that run the LA Times website and over fifty other Tribune owned sites. It was one...
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December 30, 2005
Two-thousand five, was a year of big expectations for me and for the most part it lived up to its billing. I felt it was in some ways a year I could do no wrong. Maybe it is because I am the fifth Frank and the five at the end...
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November 15, 2005
del.icio.us bookmarks for 11-15-2005 by Somewhat Frank (a.k.a) Frank Gruber The $100 Laptop Moves Closer to Reality : WSJ.com I wrote a post called Are $100 Laptops A Reality back in September so it's nice to see it in the news again.Microsoft Launches Search for Businesses : Yahoo! News Businesses...
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November 14, 2005
The Tribune has launched a new "edgy" national entertainment site under the Metromix brand. Metromix is a well known Chicago entertainment website brand but now its going "national" with local flavor and a sharper edge and voice with the launch of site for Baltimore and Orlando site. I was fortunate...
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November 14, 2005
del.icio.us bookmarks for 11-14-2005 by Somewhat Frank (a.k.a) Frank Gruber It's showtime for Trib's quiet CEO More talk of Tribune taking action.A Breakthrough Few Months for Portable TVA good recap of the feats of television in the last few months. Geez, times are a changin'.Blogpulse Top List Spammed Sounds like...
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November 10, 2005
It is a tough time for newspaper companies as readers flock online and to other outlets to get news coverage. This point came shining through last week when major Knight Ridder shareholders asked the company to explore sale possibilities. Since then speculation and industry pressure has shifted to the Tribune...
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