Welcome to the 47th episode of the Mediatwits podcast, this time with Mark Glaser and the Rafat Ali as co-hosts. On this show, Rafat had the honor (and early-morning wakeup call) to interview news icon Dan Rather at 7 a.m. while Rather was traveling by train to Washington, D.C. Rather has a new memoir out, “Rather Outspoken,” and talked to Rafat about why he’s positive about journalism, the lack of online business model for news and the rise of Al Jazeera. With the Facebook IPO coming in a couple weeks, we had special guest Eric Jackson talk about his new Forbes story, with the catchy title: “Here’s Why Google and Facebook Might Completely Disappear in the Next 5 Years.” Jackson believes that a school of thought called organizational sociology might be relevant to the tech business today.
Finally, we looked deeper at a new social curation tool called Snip.it, similar to Pinterest but where people “snip” stories they like and put them into categories. Special guest Ramy Adeeb, founder and CEO of Snip.it, explained how he started the service after his frustration with sharing the best stories covering the Arab Spring a year ago. Now the service is growing, and helping to drive traffic to publishers’ sites. But does it have staying power?
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Intro and outro music by 3 Feet Up; mid-podcast music by Autumn Eyes via Mevio’s Music Alley.
Here are some highlighted topics from the show:
Intro
0:20: News roundup
1:20: Could Facebook IPO tank (eventually)?
4:45: Byliner drops Amazon after a Buzz Bissinger story’s price was dropped to 0.
7:50: Rundown of stories on podcast
Positively Dan Rather
8:40: Special guest Dan Rather, interviewed by Rafat Ali
10:00: Rather: I’m an optimist by nature, fairly optimistic about journalism
12:25: Rather: No one has created a new business model to support quality journalism online
14:20: Rather: Entertainment values have overwhelmed news values
17:00: What about newer international sources such as Al Jazeera?
18:30: Rather: I applaud the BBC coming into the American market
Future of Facebook, Google?
19:40: Special guest Eric Jackson
21:45: Sociologists don’t give much credence to company leaders
24:20: Jackson: Google has failed at many businesses despite having money, brains
28:00: Jackson: Facebook will be slower to adapt to the new mobile world
Snip.it and social curation services
30:20: Special guest Ramy Adeeb
32:30: Adeeb: Social media tools good at info dissemination but not saving stories
35:00: Adeeb: Goal is to get people to go to Snip.it site, read more stories
36:20: Adeeb: We will make sure users know which content is sponsored
More Reading
Facebook’s IPO show to hit the road May 7 -source at Reuters
What effect does Instagram deal have on Facebook’s IPO? at USA Today
Hulu, networks to change model of free streaming at NY Post
Navigating a Tightrope With Amazon at NY Times
Can E-Books Succeed Without Amazon? at MediaShift
Dan Rather: Mark Cuban Has The Guts My CBS Bosses Lacked at Forbes
Rather Outspoken by Dan Rather
Here’s Why Google and Facebook Might Completely Disappear in the Next 5 Years at Forbes
Social curation site Snip.it
New Middle East collection on Snip.it
Can a Pinterest for articles crack the eco web code? at GigaOm
Pinterest For Online Articles Lets You Bookmark What You’ve Read at PSFK
Khosla Ventures-Backed Snip.it Lets You Clip, Save And Share Collections Of Content On The Web at TechCrunch
Weekly Poll
Don’t forget to vote in our weekly poll, this time about the Facebook IPO:
Mark Glaser is executive editor of MediaShift and Idea Lab. He also writes the bi-weekly OPA Intelligence Report email newsletter for the Online Publishers Association. He lives in San Francisco with his son Julian. You can follow him on Twitter @mediatwit. and Circle him on Google+
