Shamsa Rana: Media Turnarounds

25th April: Report: Shamsa musings, Viacom in Talks to Acquire Last.fm for $450 Million and Murdoch's brainstorming session

I attended the mashup* event last night in London, which is partly hosted by Midentity/etribes. The topic of focus was the digital identity and there were some great speakers including Tom Ilube and Simon Wilison.  It was a good turnout with a few venture capitalists and a nice group of early-stage companies.  The discussion was insightful and actually gave me a solution to one of the issues I had been pondering on the concept of the online identity. 

I had a nice time catching up with old friends and making some new ones. Overall a lovely evening.  However, yet again, I was one of a handful of ladies in attendance.  I am not sure which world is worst, the world of new media/technology or the world of private equity/venture capital, in representing the fairer sex.  Well, I guess both worlds should count themselves lucky that I am there, struggling a little bit, but at least representing all womankind. 

That's kind of a big charge, to represent all of womankind. Not sure, this is what I had in mind when I fell onto this career path.  Oh well, at least I can look forward to my Wellesley reunion in June as an opportunity to catch up with lots of brilliant women.  Although, I do sometimes find Wellesley women a bit frightening in their focus and ambition.  Hmm, that makes me wonder whether people actually find me a bit frightening and ambitious.  A very, very scary thought.  As I definitely don't wish to fall into the category of Margaret Thatcher or Madeline Albright.  I respect both immenselely - however - I'd quite like to succeed without losing the fact that I am a woman.  In other words, I'd like to succeed in my Jimmy Choo's...thank you very much God, for making me a woman!

Having rambled and provided you a pretty frightening insight into the mind and workings of Shamsa.  Let's turn to the news.  Two bits that I thought are interesting. First, Viacom in talks to acquire Last.fm - a very good price tag and Murdoch is holding is annual lovefest.  What, I would give, to attend one of those?  Maybe, even my favourite Jimmy Choo's!

• Posted by SRana on 25/04/2007.
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23rd April: ABN AMRO agrees €67bn takeover by Barclays, threat to online radio and so that's a FunKard!

ABN AMRO has agreed to a €67bn takeover by Barclays.  Big news!  ABN Amro on Monday agreed to be taken over by UK rival Barclays in an all-share deal that values the Dutch company at €67bn or €36.25 a share.  The offer, which represents a 33 per cent premium to the Dutch bank’s share price the day before the two banks said they were in talks, will result in ABN’s US business LaSalle being sold to Bank of America for $21bn.

Secondly, independent internet radio stations are under threat due to proposed royalty rates.  If you haven't yet heard, there's a new royalty rate looming for Internet radio station owners which might severely damage the state of streaming radio.  The new rates would require Internet broadcasters to pay $.0011 per 'performance,' defining a performance as the streaming of one song to one listener; thus a station that has an average audience of 500 listeners racks up 500 'performances' for each song it plays. Here is a letter posted by Tim Wastergren, the Founder of Pandora:

Hi, it's Tim from Pandora,

I'm writing today to ask for your help.  The survival of Pandora and all of Internet radio is in jeopardy because of a recent decision by the Copyright Royalty Board in Washington, DC to almost triple the licensing fees for Internet radio sites like Pandora.  The new royalty rates are irrationally high, more than four times what satellite radio pays, and broadcast radio doesn't pay these at all.  Left unchanged, these new royalties will kill every Internet radio site, including Pandora.

In response to these new and unfair fees, we have formed the SaveNetRadio Coalition, a group that includes listeners, artists, labels and webcasters.  I hope that you will consider joining us. 

Please sign our petition urging your Congressional representative to act to save Internet radio: http://capwiz.com/saveinternetradio/issues/alert/?alertid=9631541 

Please feel free to forward this link/email to your friends - the more petitioners we can get, the better.  

Understand that we are fully supportive of paying royalties to the artists whose music we play, and have done so since our inception.  As a former touring musician myself, I'm no stranger to the challenges facing working musicians.  The issue we have with the recent ruling is that it puts the cost of streaming far out of the range of ANY webcaster's business potential. 

I hope you'll take just a few minutes to sign our petition - it WILL make a difference. As a young industry, we do not have the lobbying power of the RIAA. You, our listeners, are by far our biggest and most influential allies.

As always, and now more than ever, thank you for your support.

-Tim Westergren
(Pandora founder)

Finally, watch out for the FunKY new craze that has hit the single's/social networking scene. It's the upgraded personal calling card, but think online & digital. I had my first experience of the FunKard on a flight in the US in early Jan.  Didn't realise at the time what it was or how it worked.  But, now I know.  The article below provides an introduction to the concept, but, I don't think the idea is unique to Australia - as I was given a random card on a flight in the US....ho hum...

FunKy New Craze Hits the Singles Scene - Enterprising Aussies Turn Internet Dating Upsidedown with FunKards - World's First "Business Cards for your Fun Life"- Source: PR Web, press release

Anyone who has ever missed an opportunity to meet someone simply because they couldn't face the prospect of public rejection will be pleased to know the problem has been addressed with one of those simple ideas it's a wonder hasn't been thought of before this. A mother and daughter team from Down Under have devised a simple solution to this age old problem by combining a touch of old-world charm with 21st Century technology and coming up with a novel concept to add to the myriad of choices already out there when it comes to dating.

Sydney, Australia (April 23, 2007 -- Meeting Mr. or Ms. Right can be difficult, expensive and complicated leading a couple of enterprising Aussies to come up with a simple fun alternative, when it comes to dating.

Everyone knows about internet dating - people are never quite sure how genuine the photo/profile is until after they meet. Introduction agencies can be expensive. Going bar-hopping alone is no fun. Then there's phone-chat, speed dating, dinner dating, blind dates, books on pickup techniques etc the list goes on and on and just when people begin to think they've heard it all, along comes FunKards - touted as the "world's first business cards for your fun life".

People often see someone they'd like to meet but don't do anything about it? Cute little blond chatting with a group of friends or tall dark and handsome leaning on the bar would probably be fun to meet, but of course do nothing about it and it's unlikely to happen!

Okay, so there are few things in life more awkward or embarrassing than approaching a stranger in public in order to meet. First there's the dreaded "long walk" over to where they are sitting; usually with a group of friends. Once there it's necessary to interrupt using one of those perfectly awful pick-up-lines, then it's a matter of trying to exchange personal contact details often in a dark and noisy environment. If the person is single and available, there's a chance to hook-up, if not there's always the "long walk" back; hoping any embarrassment isn't too obvious to everyone else in the place. This "long walk" is tough for the bravest of men; little wonder it's seldom attempted by women; so what's the answer?

The creators of FunKards claim all this is about to change thanks to one of those simple ideas it's a wonder hasn't been thought of before. In order to meet people and get dates it's no longer necessary to go to special places, study dating techniques, learn pickup-lines or spend time and money making virtual love in cyberspace. All a person has to know is how to hand a business card to someone - there's no need to say or do anything else - it's just that simple.

Using the every day business card as the basis of their concept, the creators simply replaced all personal and contact details normally found on business cards with a single id number, then linked the cards to the internet. So once someone has been handed a FunKard they log on to the FunKards website and access the photo/profile. If they like what they see they can send the person a message, which can be replied to, without the need to exchange any personal contact details, just like internet dating; only better because having already seen the person, there are no nasty surprises.

Because FunKards are linked to the internet they work anywhere in the world, whether it's in a noisy bar in Sydney, on the beach in Hawaii, at the theatre in London, walking down the Champs-Elysees in beautiful Paris or just out doing groceries.

Finally, for those who feel handing a FunKard to a stranger in public isn't for them, picture this: "You are in a crowded bar. You see someone you would like to meet sitting with a group of friends - you (a) do nothing, because the situation is too intimidating (b) approach, interrupt and use your best pickup-line, or (c) walk past and hand him/her a FunKard (or better still ask a waiter or a friend to take a FunKard over with a drink, then simply sit back and wait to be contacted)."

Dating Just Got Easier!

• Posted by SRana on 23/04/2007.
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21st April: Bidding war breaks out for Boots

Bidding war, bidding war.  Love a good hunt.  Sorry, I am an adrenaline junkie, one reason I do what I do!  A bidding war has broken out to buy Alliance Boots after a rival group said it may table an offer worth £10.8bn.

The proposed bid comes from a group that includes private equity firm Terra Firma, medical charity The Wellcome Trust, and banking group HBOS.

Source: BBC

• Posted by SRana on 21/04/2007.
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18th April: Web 2.0 Expo: “Venture Capital 2.0: Bright Future or Broken Forever?”.

Apologies to my readers who have little interest in venture capital and the world of Web 2.0.  However, this blog's mainstay is venture and media.  Therefore, it does stay true to course in what it covers.  On that note, the Web 2.0 Expo is taking place this week out in California and a well timed session took place on “Venture Capital 2.0: Bright Future or Broken Forever?”.  I have provided it below for your reading pleasure.  Otherwise, two particular pieces of news that should be watched are, other items are also noted below.

1. AOL tries to elbow aside TV networks

   AOL made a bid to elbow aside traditional television networks in the race for a cut of $70bn in annual advertising spending, showcasing five new programmes and revamped features. -

2. Yahoo’s revamp hit by audience shift

   Yahoo’s overhaul of its advertising systems ran into a fresh challenge as it disclosed that the shift to user-generated content on the internet had pushed its growth rate below expectations in the first quarter.

“Venture Capital 2.0: Bright Future or Broken Forever?”: Web 2.0, Pat McCarthy

This session was moderated by Mike Arrington of Techcrunch who is a former VC himself and current angel investor.

Panellists:

Jeff Clavier - SoftTechVC: Invests his own money normally for under $1 million investments. Actually considers himself to be a bit more like an angel investor than a normal VC.  Involved in Dogster, Userplane (which was profitably sold to AOL), and a new gaming platform.

Michael Eisenberg - Benchmark Capital - The overall Benchmark Capital funds manage a few billion dollars, with offices all over the world. Michael is based in Israel. They’ve Invested in ebay, Second Life, Metacafe, bebo, and Yelp.

David Kornik - August Capital.  He’s the father of VC blogging with his blog Ventureblog.com.  August runs a 350M fund. They’ve invested in Six Apart, VideoEgg, and Technorati.

Josh Kopelman - First Round Capital - $50 million fund, with primariliy first seed round investments in the $250k-$500k range.
They’ve invested in StumbleUpon, del.icio.us, VideoEgg, Gigya, and Aggregate Knowledge.

Chris Moore - Redpoint Ventures - 400M fund, invests in consumer internet. Invested in Ask Jeeves, Excite, Netflix, and Tivo in 1.0 phase. 3-4 years ago refocused to Myspace, Gaia, Buzznet, Right Media, Efficient Frontier, and Leadpoint.

The following is a paraphrasing off the conversation, courtesy of Pat McCarthy.

Arrington: When you invest small amounts, do you require a board seat? What’s the average first round size?

Dave: In almost every case we end up sitting on the board. It’s more about if it’s an opportunity to build a big business. Just because we have a big fund doesn’t mean we have to invest a ton of money to get involved.

Josh: We average about 350k over the past few years, we participate in later rounds as well.

Jeff: 200k to 1.5M. We act a little like angels.

Arrington: This isn’t going where I wanted it to. I wanted to pit Josh and Jeff against the big guys, so I’ll just force the conclusion I wanted. I was hoping to get at my thought that it’s harder on the big guys now because earlier investors like Josh and Jeff are getting into the best deals first and getting big chunks of the company and then you guys have to really compete later on to get in on the investment.

Jeff: We have participated with the big guys on lots of our deals.

Arrington: Again, the facts aren’t helping me.

Michael: Why would Techcrunch allow the facts to get in the way of a good story?

Arrington: Whatever your next startup is, it sucks.

Jeff: Hold on let me Twitter this!

There were quite a few laughs at this point, and everyone is having a good time giving Arrington a hard time about Techcrunch.

Arrington: When Joe Kraus built Excite years ago he needed to raise a lot of money. Now he raised a very tiny angel investment and got Jotspot started, then took a little more money later on when he needed to scale. What if there is no later round where you bigger guys get in?

Dave: If you make a lot of money off of very small initial investments, it’s fine! We’re paid on successful outcomes.

Arrington: So, if your fund is 350 million, and you have 5 partners, you make a certain amount of money from your management fees. But if you don’t invest all of that big fund, you will have less money under management and make less in management fees.

Dave: It’s not so much about how much we’re managing, it’s more about investing the right amount in companies that end up doing well.

Josh: My first company took 5 million to get a product shipped, second company took 2.5 million, my third took 750k. Now I’m funding companies for a couple hundred K. Now that doesn’t get to scale, you’ll still need more money down the road.

Chris: Mike, your theory has a point. If you’re looking at that $50M sale to Yahoo or Google, you can get there with less money. If you’re looking at the really big ones like YouTube and Myspace, you need more money to get there. The bigger funds have to be more careful and select the ones that can get big.

Arrington: Brand name angels are Josh and Jeff, if they want to invest people take it. The big funds have tons of competition for deals, Geni had a crazy valuation. What do you do?

Dave: Haven’t you heard of Value Add?

Arrington: Do you agree you’re getting squeezed from both ends? You have Jeff and Josh at one end and more competition from deals, on the other end the IPO window is shut.

Arrington: Jeff, I know the return on your portfolio because we’re friends. And it’s amazing. Josh I can guess at yours and it’s also going to be good. It’s natural for you guys to say everything is fine. Chris, are you agreeing with me?

Chris: Yes, it’s hyper-competitive, it’s cyclical. We’re not going to do crazy deals, but you have to just hustle to find the right deals and make relationships with the right people who can make these ideas happen.

Jeff: We have no clue how these things are going to turn out. Of 20 companies, I have a 50-75% kill expectation. So 10-14 companies should fail. I’ve sold three and none have died, but we’ll see in 5-7 years.

Michael - It’s incredibly cyclical. Everyone gets bubbly when the exits happen. You can make the most money when the exits aren’t occurring.

Jeff: It’s also hard now to find the quality workers.

Michael: Google is talked about as the key acquirer, but they are also driving up the cost of engineering everywhere.

Arrington: True, but there are a lot of key people leaving Google that are fully vested and are either for hire or will be starting new companies. That’s exciting.

Audience: What competitive advantages are any of you building to differentiate? Incubators?

Dave: Incubators have failed before, and they continue to fail. We’re investing in a set of people coming together to build a business. The incubator model shares resources, so when the companies want to build out and scale they lose those resources right back again.

Arrington: So besides the fact you hate Incubators, is there anything to do?

Dave: We definitely share information across portfolio companies to try and help them solve common problems.

Josh: We have CEO meetings as well as an e-mail list to handle things like how do you find a good recruiter, what sort of options package do people get, and other common issues.

Other items worthy of being noted: Source Digital Wire.

Google CEO: YouTube Copyright Filter Coming Very Soon 

• Posted by SRana on 18/04/2007.
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16th April: Wellcome & Terra Firma (Guy Hands) bid for Boots - what does this mean for the world of private equity?

Late last week, it was announced that The Wellcome Trust in partnership with Guy Hands would bid for Boots. 

The Wellcome Trust is a United Kingdom-based charity established in 1936 to administer the fortune of the American-born pharmaceutical magnate Sir Henry Wellcome. Its income was derived from what was originally called Burroughs Wellcome & Co, later renamed in the UK as the Wellcome Foundation Ltd (Wellcome plc).

The Trust is the world's second richest medical charity after the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, with net assets of over £13.4 billion ($26 billion). The Trust states its mission as being "to foster and promote research with the aim of improving human and animal health." In addition to funding biomedical research, it supports the public understanding of science.

In 1986, the trust sold 25% of Wellcome plc stock to the public, beginning a process of separating itself from the pharmaceutical industry. In 1995, following controversy, the Trust divested itself of any interest in pharmaceuticals by selling all remaining stock to Glaxo plc, the company's historic British rival, creating GlaxoWellcome plc. The cash windfall generated by this merger has shaped many of the Trust's recent developments. In 2000, the Wellcome name disappeared from the drug business when GlaxoWellcome merged with yet another British firm, SmithKline Beecham, to form GlaxoSmithKline plc. 

Of its £13.4bn portfolio, 8.2 per cent is in private equity and a further 3.9 per cent in venture capital funds, which tend to make more risky early-stage healthcare and biotech investments. 

This bid took the world of private equity by suprise, as the Wellcome seemed to be cutting out the middleman.  Was it because of the management fees that private equity firms charge, thus systemic of a larger issue for this asset class.  Or, does Wellcome just have a hunger for Boots? I would argue that although large investors such as Wellcome do occassionally make direct invesments, this example is not illustrative of a larger trend for institutional investors to enter the world of direct investments.  Rather, Wellcome's interest in Boots stems from its historical legacy and the coupling with Guy Hand's outfit Terra Firma is indicative of Wellcome's rightful recognition that the core capabilities, I shudder to use the world competencies, but lets say competencies that private equity firms offer are hugely valuable.  Therefore, the KKRs, The Permiras and Blackstones of this world - don't have to worry about this, quite yet. As for this Boots bid it makes sense for a charity whose roots are in the healthcare focused arena, further, without the constraints of having to show a return with a short period - Wellcome will be able to hold onto Boots for a longer time horizon which would be of benefit to both itself and Boots itself.   You can read more about the Wellcome & Terra Firma bid below.

Secondly, worthy of being examined is the continuing discussion of the changing face of journalism.  This is one to watch and a big game to be had for anyone with a strong appetite and clear vision.

Wellcome cuts out the middleman, The Telegraph

The charity's bid for Boots highlights attempts by investors to avoid private equity's huge fees, say Helen Power and Sylvia Pfeifer

Sometimes takeovers take a long time. Back in 1972 Boots made a bid for Glaxo that was blocked by the Government for fear it would reduce investment in medical research. Glaxo later made a hostile bid for Wellcome, the rival pharmaceutical giant, which it won when Wellcome Trust, the company's charitable arm, pledged its 40 per cent stake against the board's wishes.

That gave Wellcome £2.5bn for new research and now the charity is using the cash to back a bid for Boots in tandem with Terra Firma, Guy Hands' private equity outfit. 

But history lessons aside, what is the world's second biggest medical charity doing buying a chain of chemists?

Wellcome, which was created in 1936, had a taste for alternative assets long before its tie-up with Terra Firma.

Of its £13.4bn portfolio, 8.2 per cent is in private equity and a further 3.9 per cent in venture capital funds, which tend to make more risky early-stage healthcare and biotech investments.

Yet the trust's decision to cut out the middleman and invest directly in a FTSE100 company - albeit in partnership with Terra Firma - took almost everyone in the industry industry by surprise.

Ian Simpson, a director of Helix associates, which acts as an intermediary between private equity funds and institutional investors that want to buy into them, says: "In the UK, direct investments are not very common at all - it was a very surprising move for Wellcome. They seem to have moved beyond investing passively in private equity funds, as Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan has done. They've become almost like mini merchant banks."

In the past three years the Ontario Teachers' Plan has led the way on direct investment. The pension fund is taking the lead in a $45bn (£23bn) bid for Bell Canada, the telecoms giant, in what could become the world's biggest ever leveraged buyout.

Some observers argue that financial institutions haven't been shy about direct investments in the past and that co-investing - a process that allows private equity funds to call on cornerstone investments for more money in big buyouts - is very common.

"If you go way back, people like the Prudential and even public pensions did their own investments," says Mark O'Hare, the managing director of Private Equity Intelligence, a research firm.

But most agree that the profile of Wellcome's putative bid for Alliance Boots makes it unique. "What I haven't seen is this very public involvement of an institution where it is effectively agreeing to co-underwrite the deal," says Simpson.

So what has made Wellcome so brave? For a start, its chief investment officer, Danny Truell, the former Goldman Sachs Asset Management banker who joined Wellcome last year.

Truell and the rest of Wellcome were keeping their heads down last week, perhaps stung by some press criticism about the potential conflicts between running a company such as Alliance Boots and the trust's charitable functions, so we can't be sure why they decided to bid.

But one plausible argument is deals such as Alliance Boots would allow them to avoid paying the whopping fees charged by private equity houses.

Nick Ferguson, the chairman of SVG Capital, says: "Certainly the theory of making a direct investment is that you get a gross return without the fees and the carry [ 'carried interest', the performance-related portion of a private equity house's fee]."

Tony Watson, the former chief executive of Hermes and current chairman of the Marks & Spencer pension scheme, says the move by the Wellcome Trust and Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan to cut out the private equity managers is "a perfectly reasonable development".

Watson, who at Hermes was instrumental in the fund manager making direct private-equity-style investments, cites the dual attractions of greater control and not having to pay private equity's typical management fees of 2 per cent plus 20 per cent of profits as reasons behind the trend.

"At Hermes we had taken stakes in private equity funds before, but you had little control and had to pay 2 and 20, so [setting up a private equity group] seemed a sensible thing to do if you are big enough and confident enough," he says.

There is growing disquiet among investors about the level of private equity fees. O'Hare believes funds have expanded way beyond the remuneration system designed for them.

"The private equity model has always been that we charge management fees for running the business, but we make most of our money from the carry. If the investor makes money we make money too, and that's fine because there's an alignment of interests. When you get to really big funds, something else happens," he says.

"What investors are concerned about are the sorts of funds - the Blackstones, the KKRs, the Permiras - where you get rich from the management fee itself."

And the mega funds create massive economies of scale. Figures from Private Equity Intelligence show that an average fund of between £500 m and £1bn uses 25 investment professionals for each company under management, but by the time you get up to the giant £10 bn-plus funds, the private equity house needs just five per company under management.

So will others follow where Wellcome Trust has led? "Absolutely not," says Ferguson. "For the past 11 years we [SVG] have outperformed the market by 11 points a year, paying for fees and carry. Am I worried? No, you get what you pay for in life."

Ferguson also points to the difficulties of bringing in-house the sort of expertise that allows investment professionals at the top private equity houses to reap such spectacular rewards. "For all that hassle - forget about it," he says.

O'Hare argues that only the biggest can afford to take the Wellcome path. "It makes sense for institutions to invest directly if they are really big ones. Does it make sense for local authorities to think about doing this? Probably not," he says.

For Watson, however, direct investment has significant appeal, whether you are a pension fund or a charity. Unlike a private equity fund, he says, a pension fund is not under any pressure to liquidate its investment after a given period of time, so it can actually hold onto the asset for longer. "The time pressure is not there," he says.

Perhaps even more importantly, investors at pension funds or charities already have a pot of money to invest; unlike private equity fund managers, they don't need to go out and raise a fund.

Why don't other pension funds do what Hermes has done? One hurdle so far, says Watson, has been the relatively small size of some of the funds. But he predicts that there may come a time when pension funds get together and invest collectively.

"In principle, it's an attractive idea. Pension funds, like charities, are not in competition with one another," he says, although he admits that at the moment it is nothing more than "a gleam in my eye".

Just an idea perhaps, but one that would scare the wits out of Blackstone & Co.

Online media – the changing face of journalism, Source: TheStar.com

AMERICAN newshounds are facing a media landscape that is changing at an unrelentingly pace. Blogs and news websites are the ones now often cited as points of reference. 

For instance, TMZ.com, which broke the story of Mel Gibson’s anti-Semitic rants during a drunk driving offence last year, has become a bible of sorts for entertainment reporters.  

As Assoc Prof Sreenath Sreenivasan of Columbia University puts it, this celebrity gossip website was a “game-changer.”  

“If you cover entertainment news, this is the place that you must turn to,” he said of the influential TMZ.com that, according to Nielsen/ NetRatings, had 7.9 million unique visitors in February. This marked a 151% increase over the previous year. 

At a recent briefing for foreign journalists, Assoc Prof Sreenath named countless sites that had changed the name of the game. 

“Five years ago, readers would tip off Fox or CNN,” he said, but now, exclusive photos of Britney Spears shaving her head was first released to X17 Online. 

“I’m not saying that every blog is important. Hundreds of thousands of them are launched each day, most of them read by just the writer and his mother,” he said. 

But there are those like “The Politico”, which began in January that had made its mark although its target is solely to report on Capitol Hill and the US presidential campaign. 

Initiated by seasoned writers from The Washington Post, its site reportedly attracted one million page views on its first day.  

It is a scene so different in certain regional newspapers, which have been reducing their manpower in Washington bureaus to focus on local stories in the wake of decreasing advertising revenue and declining readership. 

To them, it is pointless to spend so much time and effort covering Washington events, which is available live to the public through other means. 

The Newspaper Association of America has estimated that advertisement spending on newspaper websites will go up by 22% this year, unlike the mere 1.2% increase in their print editions. 

One of the must-read blogs here is The Huffington Post, which draws 2.3 million unique visitors monthly, and whose creator Arianna Huffington was named by Time magazine as one of the 100 people who shaped the world last year, alongside Matt Drudge of the Drudge Report, another heavyweight blog. 

Now, even some established newspapers are describing themselves as a “website first, newspaper second,” said Assoc Prof Sreenath. 

Still, it is not the end of traditional journalism.  

“It’s just that the delivery method is different, that’s all.”  

And yes, old habits refuse to go away as people still read the papers even in the big cities.  

However, a number of stories that appear in print are decidedly different in flavour now. They report on the latest website that offers seat reservations in the most popular restaurant in town, or the sites to check out if you want your home telephone number unreachable to telemarketers.  

The New York Times has a column called “Online Shopper” where the writer would share her experience in buying a product on the Net. 

Newspapers that did not think of ways to re-engage their readers might just end up becoming irrelevant, said Kelly McBride, a faculty member of Poynter Institute, a school for journalists. 

In some markets where lay-offs took place, she said, newspaper companies began hiring employees with Internet skills. 

“There is a demand to find new ways to deliver the news online,” she said in a recent telephone interview. 

Newspapers are not dying but the newsroom is changing its face. As McBride puts it: “The train has left the station.” 

• Posted by SRana on 16/04/2007.
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15th April: Google buys DoubleClick, Wills & Kate's "big" news, happy b-day to dad and an introduction to the game of polo!

This post will be synonymous in my mind with the term multi-dimensional. 

First, Google has proven to be successful in its efforts to buy DoubleClick, this is big news for the princely sum of $3.1Bn.  Given the inherent strengths and weaknesses of the Google advertising revenue model.  This acquisition makes significant strategic sense...not that anyone needs my approval!  Hellman & Friedman, the Californian investment firm that took DoubleClick private two years ago for $1.1B have made 2x their money after costs. Not bad at all or should I say a nice bit of change. 

Otherwise, its a little difficult to open the papers without reading the news about Prince William and Kate Middleton. The news itself wasn't that surprising...Wills has been partying of the "I am single type" for a good month and, even I could read the writing on the wall.  I do feel however, poorly for Kate Middleton, who put her life on hold for the prospect of marriage to the Princely Wills and now has to pick up the pieces. 

The phenomenon of a woman putting her life on the shelf for a marriage proposal is quite common & yet I am indebted to my dear father - who I have decided in retrospect is more a feminist then he'd ever care to admit - for insisting that I create a career for myself no matter my marital status.  My father turns 70 this weekend.  He is a rather quiet, relaxed and unassuming man...you would never in a million years conclude that I am his daughter.  The word, polar opposites in terms of personality comes to mind.  However, he has been insistent through most of my life, that my siblings and I each "stand" on our own two feet financially & emotionally.  There have been inevitable periods, when it has been difficult to understand his position. 

However, I now understand that my father's attitude and for that matter, my mother's, means that when life challenges come our way - each of us - faces it in a pretty sane and reasonable manner.  Of course, it helps that time has helped us all to realise that nothing can replace the bond of one's family.  Not distance, not time, nor age - it simply is.  So, dad - happy 70th and thank you for being simply and graciously you.  Although, you still drive me nuts and there are many political, social, economic, environmental and life issues that we will simply never agree on.  Just being honest!  Despite it all - thanks for thinking of us as your golden daughters, you are indeed a golden father, maybe, even platinum!

• Posted by SRana on 14/04/2007.
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13th April: Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what your going to get - Forrest Gump

As you might have gathered from my posts of the last week or so, I have been doing quite a lot of reflecting and thinking. I tend to be a pretty action orientated person, so these periods of contemplation always result in some massive changes.  And, this recent period was no different.  Said period is over now, with some decisions made, some doors closed, and perhaps, a new window opened. 

Its all too early to share so, watch this site for some announcements.   In the immortal words of Forrest Gump "Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what your going to get."  A personal note of gratitude to B, L, C, H and especially K for staying the course with me & making this recent period suprisingly okay.

I have three minutes to post today, as I decided it was now time to spring into action.  Therefore, I am sharing with you the items that I found interesting:

CBS Interactive Audience Network to Offer Ad-Supported Content Online 

New York - CBS Corporation announced on Thursday the creation of the CBS Interactive Audience Network, and new deals to distribute clips and full-length programs through partners including AOL, Microsoft, CNET, Comcast, Joost, Bebo, Brightcove, Netvibes, Sling Media and Veoh.

Report: Yahoo in Talks to Acquire College Sports Network Rivals.com 

Los Angeles - Yahoo is in talks to acquire online college sports network Rivals.com, for a purchase price that could reach $100 million, PaidContent.org reported, citing anonymous sources.

Content Delivery Network Akamai Acquires Red Swoosh for $15 Million 

Cambridge, Mass. - Akamai Technologies, a provider of content delivery network services that speed media content across the Internet, has acquired Red Swoosh, a provider of peer-to-peer technology for managing and distributing large media files.

Forbes Media Acquires Consumer Investing Site Investopedia.com 

New York - Forbes Media, the New York-based publisher of business news and information, has acquired Investopedia.com, a privately held, Canada-based website for investor education.

Blog Search Site Technorati Acquires News Aggregator Personal Bee 

San Francisco - Technorati, a provider of blog search and ranking services, on Thursday announced its first major acquisition, Personal Bee -- a provider of personal news aggregation pages.

• Posted by SRana on 13/04/2007.
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11th April: Are you wilfing - right now?

A new study carried out by MoneySupermarket found that one in four internet users spends nearly a third of internet time Wilfing — equivalent to spending an entire working day a fortnight randomly browsing the net. First, I think that the Survey has underestimated the amount of time people spending wilfing and secondly, I can't believe its taken twenty years to arrive at this finding!

Specifically, reading this survey reminded me of a conversation that I had with high school classmates in the late 1980's.  Ron was my best friend in high school & Xavier & Jon being his best guy friends were inevitably part of the crowd.  Ron, Jon & Xavier had managed to fanagle and yes that is the right word, fanagle part-time jobs (sort of) with this firm, so they could play with the computer and specifically, the internet and get paid for it.  For boys, [God, I hope they don't ever read this] - this job was akin to striking gold. 

I remember being on the phone with the guys while they were at "work" and Ron explaining how they had come up with this sophisticated system that allowed them to play on the internet/with the computer and when the boss passed by - they would hit a key and all these complicated sheets would print out and they would all look brilliant.  That was 1986 and sadly, its taken twenty years for people to identify this behaviour as being wilfing? I should have written about this behaviour twenty years earlier.  Admittedly, no one would have paid much attention. 

Anyway, as I was writing this, I googled Ron and what do you know? He's now living in London & still wears a bow-tie.  Yes, Ron still wears a bow-tie! I thought for sure, he would out grow that habit.  But, I guess not.  Anyway, I am toying with the idea of dropping him an email, and shocking the hell out of him.  You know I might just do that.  Google has fundamentally changed our ability to connect with others!

Enough of random musings this morning.

• Posted by SRana on 11/04/2007.
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9th April: Lessons from Moby Dick - for Mon morning

I have been thinking a lot about the book, Moby Dick by Herman Melville.  Moby Dick describes the voyage of the whaling ship Pequod, commanded by Captain Ahab, who leads his crew on a hunt for the great whale, Moby-Dick.

It is a rather lenghty read and had anyone told me during my youth that I would independently, sometime later in life - think of this book, of my own accord - I think I would have been rather shocked.  It is quite strange how books from one's youth can pop into your mind and back into your life exactly when your puzzling over the deeper meaning of life.  So, is the case of Moby Dick. 

Moby Dick as above noted central character is Captain Ahab and the theme of the book is his obsession, and so consequently of the Pequod's, the shipping vessel he captains, with hunting down and killing Moby Dick, the white whale to which he had earlier lost a leg.  The white whale itself, for example, has been read as symbolically representative of good and evil, as has Ahab. Moby Dick is also regarded as a metaphor for the elements of life that are out of our control, or in God's hands.

The Pequod's quest to hunt down Moby-Dick itself is also widely viewed as allegorical. To Ahab, killing the whale becomes the ultimate goal in his life, and this observation can also be expanded allegorically so that the whale represents everyone's goals. Furthermore, his vengeance against the whale is analogous to man's struggle against fate. 

Sadly, in the case of Ahab and the Pequod for that matter; the journey comes to a tragic end when the Pequod ultimately catches sight of Moby-Dick. For three days, the Pequod does battle with the white whale. Moby-Dick shatters the Pequod’s boats, and finally charges the ship itself. The Pequod is sunk, and Ahab and all the crew disappear under the waves; with the exception of Ishmael who is the narrator of the book.

Although, the novel ends with Ahab's death and the sinking of the Pequod, the reader can consider what would Ahab's life been like, even if he had succeeded in his quest?  The sole purpose of his life seemed to be the desire to hunt down and kill the white whale.  In fact, Ahab symbolically throws his pipe overboard - a simple pleasure of life he had enjoyed.  In doing this, he signifies that he can no longer enjoy even simple pleasures.  Instead, he dedicates his entire life to the pursuit of his obsession, the killing of the white whale, Moby-Dick and in doing so, he himself commits to his own death.

Melville's plot provides one, if one looks for it, insight into the human character.  Each of us, in general need to reach for something in life, a goal or ambition, a desire or need that drives us.  However, the importance of balance and perspective is magnified by Ahab's struggle when a goal overtakes all other concerns.  More specifically, when the goal becomes our sole purpose of existence.

The book is a good reminder that occassionally one should/must take a step back and reflect whether the choices and goals that one is making reflect on a life that has been worth living.  Or has been fully lived.  For the greatest tragedy of all may in fact be, in those last few precious minutes of life, that one realises that perhaps, the white whale had not been that worthy of being hunted? n'est pas ce le cas?

Anyway, just a little something to consider on a Mon morning.

Source: Moby Dick by Herman Melville, and Wikipedia - Moby Dick search

• Posted by SRana on 09/04/2007.
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7th April: The start to the social season: The Boat Race

It's the official start to the social season, or The Season.  For me, the Boat Race, you can check it out here - if you can't be there in person: http://www.itvtheboatrace.premiumtv.co.uk/page/Home/0,,12539,00.html - marks the start.  I am rooting for Oxford this year!

If you would like to learn more about The Season, you can check it out here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Season_%28society%29#The_Season_in_London, to get yourself organised, refer to: http://www.elegant-lifestyle.com/seasonguide.htm

I recommend: Henley, The Polo, Cowes and the Proms.  Wimbledon although always fun requires that one's presence is in the Centre Court as most of the action is occurring there!  Thus, I prefer the more egalitarian events!

Anyway, on that note - ENJOY!!

• Posted by SRana on 07/04/2007.
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