Five things Old Media Still Don't Get About the Web

Love this. I am absolutely gobsmacked how people like Rupert Murdoch, who really should know better, think that everyone will start paying for internet news on Fox. Everything he knows about the world tells him he is correct. This means he doesn't get out much.

Here's an excerpt from "Five Things Old Media Still Don't Get About the Web." Read the full article here.

"Earlier this week, the New York Times company forced the iPad Pulse News Reader app to be pulled from the App Store. The reason? It took the Times’ RSS feed and put it inside its own app.

To be clear, the RSS feed in question was a headline, a one-sentence introduction and a link to the full story on the NYT site. That’s it. Worse? Steve Jobs highlighted the app earlier during his WWDC keynote – and the NYT itself wrote a glowing review of the app just a few days before.

As mystifying as the move seems from the outside, it’s yet another sign that established old media entities are still really struggling to understand the web. Time and time again, it feels as if old media companies, rather than embracing the massive potential of the web, seem to shoot themselves in the foot.

So consider this a public service. For all those people out there working in established media, here are five things you still don’t seem to get about the web"

The 3 Most Important Things You Need for a Startup (and one of them is not money)

Having lived in the Bay Area for over a year, I've been exposed to more people who have been part of startups (mostly failed).

This article nicely summarized a Meebo founder's take on making it past early startup phase:

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/09/20/from-nothing-to-something-how-to-get-there/

• a great startup team (< 4 people)
  
• just get your product out the door
• get a good mentor

While I haven't taken the plunge on an early startup, I can say that some part of me resonated with:

"No office. No phone system. No hiring. No press. No legal muck. No raising money. No looking for partnerships (who’s going to partner with you anyway?). The success or failure of the adoption of your product is what will create 99% of the initial value of your company. If no one ever uses your product, you have no value"