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Marc Andreessen e o futuro do jornalismo

I am more bullish about the future of the news industry over the next 20 years than almost anyone I know. You are going to see it grow 10X to 100X from where it is today. (...)

The news business is a business like any business. It can and should be analyzed and run like a business. Thinking of news as a business is not only NOT bad for quality, objective journalism, but is PRO quality, objective journalism. A healthy business is the foundation for being able to build high quality products, and to do so sustainably. That includes journalism. Analyzed as a business, the news industry is going through a fundamental restructuring and transformation, for worse and for better.

The end of monopolistic control doesn’t mean that great news businesses can’t get built in highly competitive markets. They just get built differently than before.
Now, with everyone on Internet, three things are happening simultaneously:
1. Distribution is going from locked down to completely open, anyone can create and distribute. There is no monetary premium for control of distribution.
2. Formerly separate industries are colliding on the Internet. It’s newspaper vs. magazine vs. broadcast TV vs. cable TV vs. wire service. Now they all compete.
Both No. 1 and No. 2 drive prices down.
3. At the same time, the market size is dramatically expanding—many more people consume news now vs. 10 or 20 years ago. Many more still will consume news in the next 10 to 20 years. Volume is being driven up, and that is a big, big deal.
Right now everyone is obsessed with slumping prices, but ultimately, the most important dynamic is No. 3 – increasing volume. Here’s why: Market size equals destiny. The big opportunity for the news industry in the next five to 10 years is to increase its market size 100x AND drop prices 10X. Become larger and much more important in the process. (...)

So it is logical to expect the big winners in the news business to either be the broadest or the deepest: To go maximum mass, or maximum specific.
With that as a backdrop, here are eight obvious business models for news now, and in the future. This isn’t a pick one model and stick with it prospect, news businesses should mix and match as relevant.
Advertising: Advertising is still central for many news businesses. But they need to get out of the “race to bottom” dynamic of bad content, bad advertisers, and bad ads. Quality journalism businesses need to either take responsibility for their own high-quality advertisers and ads, or work with partners who do. There is no excuse for crappy network-served teeth whitening come-ons and one weird trick ads served against high quality content. Disastrous.
Subscriptions: Many consumers pay money for things they value much of the time. If they’re unwilling to pay for a news product, it begs the question, are they really valuing it?
Premium content: A paid tier on top of free, ad-supported content. This goes after the high-end news junkies reading the likes of Bloomberg & Reuters. It will work for more and more new outlets. Again, value equals people paying money for something.
Conferences and events: Bits are increasingly abundant, and human presence is becoming scarce. So charge for that scarcity, and use bits to drive demand for human presence.
Cross-media: Tina Brown was right but too early with Talk. News is a key source of material for books, TV, and film—which happen also to be growth businesses.
Crowdfunding: This is a GIGANTIC opportunity especially for investigative journalism. Match people with interest in a topic to the reporters on the ground telling the stories. Click = vote = $. (Helpful hint: Start today with Crowdtilt. Easy-as-pie.)
Bitcoin for micropayments: Easy to get started now (checkout Coinbase). As the consumer use of Bitcoin scales up for transactions, it becomes easy to ask for small amounts of money on a per-story or per-view basis with low or no fees. (A lot more of my thinking on the subject of Bitcoin here.)
Philanthropy: Today the examples are Pro Publica and First Look Media, tomorrow the could be many more examples. There is around $300 billion per year in philanthropic activity in the U.S. alone. It’s WAY underutilized in the news business.
If we look at the specific example of investigative journalism, believed to be least commercially viable type or news, you start to see how these models can play together.(...)

The challenges and opportunities that these news businesses face can be rethought, addressed, and fixed. It’s similar to what any successful business goes through. The guidelines and the characteristics for winning are the same.
It requires the following.
Vision: The difference between vision and hallucination is others can see vision. It is critical to articulate a bright future with clarity that everyone can see.
Scrappiness: Tough challenges call for resourcefulness and pragmatism. You need to stay close to the ground, wallowing in every detail and all over any opportunity that arises.
Experimentation: You may not have all the right answers up front, but running many experiments changes the battle for the right way forward from arguments to tests. You get data, which leads to correctness and ultimately finding the right answers.
Adaptability: Ask yourself, would you rather be right or successful? That needs to be top of mind at all times because times change and we change. You want strong views weakly held.
Focus: Once you gain clarity from experiments and adaptation, then it’s time to focus on a small number of ultra-clear goals. When those are defined then it’s all-hands-on-deck.
Deferral of gratification: You need the stomach (and resources!) to reject near-term rewards for enduring success. In journalism this means refusing to participate in the race to the bottom.
An entrepreneurial mindset: This is true both for new companies and existing companies. It’s a bit of a mantra. We own the company. We make the business. We control our future. It’s on us.

in The Future of the News Business: A Monumental Twitter Stream All in One Place

Esculturas de Luxo

A persistência da memória, de Dali

via Salvador Dalí’s Melting Clocks Painted on a Latte

Quem disse isto?

At the start of the crisis, it was generally assumed that the national legacy problems were economic in nature. But, as the crisis has evolved, it has become apparent that there are deep seated political problems in the periphery, which, in our view, need to change if EMU is going to function properly in the long run.

The political systems in the periphery were established in the aftermath of dictatorship, and were defined by that experience. Constitutions tend to show a strong socialist influence, reflecting the political strength that left wing parties gained after the defeat of fascism. Political systems around the periphery typically display several of the following features: weak executives; weak central states relative to regions; constitutional protection of labor rights; consensus building systems which foster political clientalism; and the right to protest if unwelcome changes are made to the political status quo. The shortcomings of this political legacy have been revealed by the crisis. Countries around the periphery have only been partially successful in producing fiscal and economic reform agendas, with governments constrained by constitutions (Portugal), powerful regions (Spain), and the rise of populist parties (Italy and Greece).

There is a growing recognition of the extent of this problem, both in the core and in the periphery. Change is beginning to take place. Spain took steps to address some of the contradictions of the post-Franco settlement with last year’s legislation enabling closer fiscal oversight of the regions. But, outside Spain little has happened thus far. The key test in the coming year will be in Italy, where the new government clearly has an opportunity to engage in meaningful political reform. But, in terms of the idea of a journey, the process of political reform has barely begun.

A resposta está aqui e o contexto aqui.

Porque ficamos enervados?

Sessão da tarde: "Die Hard" em 60 segundos

Perceber a Ucrânia

Why is Ukraine in Crisis? A Quick Primer For Those Too Embarrassed to Ask

 Everything You Need To Know About The Growing Crisis In Ukraine: Since November, the crisis has continued to grow to the point where experts are openly worrying about the potential risk of civil war in a state that lies between the European Union on one side and Russia on the other.

Shots called, now what? it is worth noting that the outlook this weekend is hugely brighter than at any time for months. Mr Yanukovych, one of the worst European leaders in decades, is down. Russia, at least for now, is out. We don't know who is in. But it might even be possible to argue that the high tide of the Putinist revanche was reached in Kiev last week, and that it is now in retreat.

Esta história judicial é deliciosa (ou como contornar a lei para apreender computadores de jornalistas)

O Sindicato dos Jornalistas criticou hoje, 21 de Fevereiro, uma decisão do Tribunal da Relação do Porto rejeitando os recursos do presidente do SJ e do jornalista Manso Preto sobre uma busca e apreensão de computadores no domicílio deste profssional freelance. (...)

2. Em causa está uma busca realizada pela Polícia Judiciária, no dia 8 de Março do ano passado, na residência e local de trabalho do jornalista Manso Preto, sem que a mesma diligência tivesse sido presidida por um juiz e sem que o presidente do SJ tivesse sido previamente convocado para acompanhá-la, como determina o Estatuto do Jornalista (números 6 a 8 do Art.º 11.º).

3. Em requerimento ao TIC nesse mesmo dia, o presidente do SJ chamou a atenção para a violação do disposto no Estatuto do Jornalista (EJ) e no Código do Processo Penal (CPP) relativamente às buscas, acentuando que tal regime se aplica também ao domicílio e a outros locais usados por jornalistas e alertando que a eventual devassa dos computadores e de outros suportes informáticos constituiria uma violação da garantia constitucional de sigilo profissional (Art.º 38.º, n.º 2, al. b) da CRP).

4. Porém, esse não foi o entendimento do Ministério Público nem do juiz de instrução criminal (JIC), que consideraram que a busca não se relacionava com qualquer acto profissional do jornalista nem fora realizada em órgão de comunicação social, mas sim em domicílio particular, sem pretender apreender material utilizado por jornalista no exercício da sua profissão.

5. Reagindo àquele entendimento, e em recurso para a Relação do Porto, os mandatários do SJ e do jornalista sublinharam que, mesmo que o crime investigado em nada se relacionasse com a actividade profissional daquele, era por demais evidente a sua condição profissional, aliás largamente referenciado nos autos como jornalista. E que os equipamentos apreendidos eram por ele utilizados no exercício da sua profissão – precisamente no seu próprio domicílio, além do mais o local de trabalho natural de um freelance.

6. Em acórdão proferido no passado dia 5, veio a Relação do Porto a entender que, embora o Estatuto do Jornalista estabeleça que o material utilizado pelos jornalistas no exercício da sua profissão só pode ser apreendido no decurso de buscas noutros lugares nas condições exigidas para as buscas em órgãos de comunicação social (Art.º 11.º, n.º 7), o que a lei quer preservar é apenas a função e não a pessoa que a exerce. Por isso, quando investigada pela prática de eventuais ilícitos que não se relacionem com a profissão, tal pessoa não deve beneficiar da protecção e das garantias quanto às buscas.

7. Também por isso, argumenta ainda que o juiz que determinou a diligência, prevenindo a possibilidade de ser encontrada nos computadores matéria relacionada com o exercício do jornalismo, “teve o cuidado de determinar que a referida apreensão se fizesse revestindo-se de determinadas cautelas”. Sendo estas, porém, na eventualidade de invocação do “segredo profissional”, segundo a promoção da diligência, a mera apreensão do material e consequente apresentação ao juiz de instrução criminal, para efeitos das disposições do CPP relativas ao segredo profissional (artigos 135.º e 182.º).

 8. Ora, o Sindicato dos Jornalistas não acompanha estas posições do Tribunal da Relação e muito menos a insuficiente sensibilidade dos magistrados para a especial e singular importância do sigilo profissional dos jornalistas. Desde logo, porque este direito-dever, sendo uma garantia, aliás constitucional, intrínseca à condição de jornalista, não pode ser posto em risco pela preterição de formalidades rigorosas como é o caso de uma diligência de busca determinada judicialmente, presidida por um juiz e acompanhada pelo presidente do SJ. (...)

13. Com efeito, pretender que o segredo profissional tem menor protecção, ou mesmo nenhuma, quando esteja em causa a suspeita da prática de crime não relacionado com o exercício da profissão ou relativamente a material de uso profissional que não se encontre em órgão de comunicação, significa perverter, por completo, todos os objectivos subjacentes à protecção do segredo profissional do jornalista, conquista civilizacional e pilar fundamental de qualquer sociedade democrática.  

[negrito meu e não descobri autor da imagem aqui publicada]