Ballmer: Old Media Won't Last a Decade

Co-founder is one of 4 staffers let go

(NEWSER) - Slate co-founder Jack Shafer, who has been with the online magazine since before its official launch in 1996, is being laid off, it was announced yesterday. The media critic is one of four staff members being let go; Timothy Noah , June Thomas , and Juliet Lapidos are the others, reports the Washington Post . (The Washington Post Co. bought Slate in 2004 from Microsoft.) Some reactions:

• "If you weren't reading [Jack, Tim, June, and Juliet's] stuff, you're in luck—it'll be online 'til the Internet dies," writes Slate colleague David Weigel. "If you write, you should study it, because these people think and write circles around most everyone in the job-formerly-known-as-the-Life-of-Kings."

Facebook ads mining user data like never before

(NEWSER) - After seven years of concentrating on the cool, Facebook is finally ready to cash in. The social networking giant is starting to mine its immense database to match users to advertisers like never before, reports the LA Times . Facebook's ad revenue reportedly doubled last year to $2 billion, and insiders say it should double again in 2011. "If you take a look at the history of media, ad dollars go where the eyeballs are," said one analyst. More»

Print publications will serve 'distilled' upper-crust audience, analysts predict

(NEWSER) - For the newspaper industry, finally a bit of good news: Ad revenue is projected to end its long slide and actually increase 2.4% in 2010, says a forecast from Borrell Associates. Modest year-by-year increases are expected to continue through at least 2014, reports Advertising Age. Borrell’s analysis does not dispute the sea changes in the industry, but contends that print newspapers will cater to niche markets of well-educated, well-to-do readers. More»

News is finished, Twitter is pointless, says teenage sage

(NEWSER) - A report on teen views of media written by a 15-year-old Morgan Stanley intern has become the talk of Wall Street and Sun Valley, with CEOs and fund managers old enough to be his grandparents jumping on its conclusions. Londoner Matthew Robson claims that his generation has no use for newspapers—they “cannot be bothered to read pages and pages of text”—or regular television or radio, either. He calls advertising "extremely annoying and pointless." More»

(NEWSER) - From Rupert Murdoch to Twitter founder Evan Williams, moguls old and young descend on Sun Valley, Idaho, this week for an annual summit on media and technology. This year, reports the Financial Times, the dominant question concerns paid content—a debate that has spread from the troubled newspaper industry to all sectors of media. With advertising dropping by a worse-than-expected 8.5% this year, the power brokers have little choice but to find new models. More»