Guardian digital edition - from Guardian Newspapers

OK, beta is now accessible. The Observer too, of course. Hope you like it. Comments/bugs/feedback to beta.feedback@guardian.co.uk, not me!
(From Yours truly)

Guardian digital edition - from NewspaperDirect

Pressplay is NewspaperDirect's advancement of its B2B digital newspaper service: a website allowing the public to download pages of numerous worldwide newspapers. Today's Guardian (international edition) is available, but you'll have to pay. I haven't checked yet but it would be interesting to see how fast these pages become available after transmission to NewspaperDirect. (The site says "minutes after they are published".)
(From E-Media Tidbits)

Newspaper registration service under threat

The Royal Mail is planning to cut the newspaper registration service, used by regional UK newspapers to mail their products at a reduced rate. Each week about 100,000 newspapers are delivered using this service -- which has been in place for 150-odd years. The Newspaper Society is now protesting the plan.
(From Hold The Front Page)

Introducing Peppercoin

Can this MIT spinoff micropayment technology succeed where others have failed? Apparently it's easier to use and -- significantly -- it's cheaper to process. And it was codesigned by one of the inventors of RSA -- the encryption system that allows web credit card transactions -- so it has a pretty impressive pedigree.
(From MIT Technology Review)

Bill Joy interview

Last time he was in Wired it was an international cultural event, so it's gotta be worth a look. Some noteworthy bits: computers have gotten 25 times better, but software hasn't; with a good desktop such as a G5 "a database becomes a data structure"; "Mac OS X is a rock-solid system that's beautifully designed"; "open source doesn't assist the initial creative act"; Windows is "of absolutely no technical interest"; "SARS was just a TV story about a bunch of people wearing masks"; "When Moore's law ceases to be true, maybe around 2014 - that would be a good time to retire"; "a Hippocratic Oath for scientists would be useful"; "Clean water would do more to alleviate disease than high tech medicine".
(From Wired)

Who's going to buy the Telegraph?

Following Conrad Black's fall ... the candidates currently are: 1, Associated; 2, Richard Desmond; 3, the Barclay brothers; 4, the Washington Post. Up for grabs (possibly) are the Telegraph, the Sunday Telegraph, the Spectator, the Chicago Sun-Times and the Jerusalem Post.
(From MediaGuardian.co.uk)

Tribune president: paid content will be ubiquitous

For the ONA conference in Chicago keynote, Tribune Publishing's Jack Fuller said that "everyone will move, at least in part, to a model paid by the reader". He emphasised adaptability and understanding young readers as the priorities for online publishers.
(From Online News Association)

Sony in Japanese ebook venture

Sony and 14 publishing companies are planning an ebook rental service for launch next spring in Japan. One of the planned readers will use E Ink's electronic paper technology. No readers will have comms features: all will require download via PC.
(From EE Times)

WSJ counts paying subs on ABC

Following ABC USA's rule change in July, the Wall Street Journal has included some of its paying online subscribers on this month's circulation figures. The effective boost is 16 per cent. The move has sparked excitement elsewhere.
(From Online Journalism Review)

Times to launch weekly business mag

Some of the secret moves in Times HQ are not size-related. Apparently they've got the go-ahead for a weekly business supplement positioned somewhere between the FT and the Economist.
(From MediaGuardian.co.uk)

Email vs RSS spat goes on

"When someone states that one application ... will kill another ... buzz flocks like flies to his statement. It's good publicity, but nonetheless his statement is the type of material to which flies tend to flock."
(From Digital Deliverance)

Indy to take tabloid nationwide

INM has announced that it intends to complete its move to distribute a tabloid version of the Independent nationwide by the beginning of 2004. "Our target is a minimum increase in sales of 50,000," said CEO Ivan Fallon.
(From Financial Times)

Convergence defined

From OJR's extract of Rich Gordon's contribution to Digital Journalism.
(From Online Journalism Review)

Digital editions: usability, popularity, etc

Online NewsHour gets voxpops on how digital editions are picking up. On E-Media Tidbits Katja Riefler reports that a study by the University of Trier concluded that digeds are perceived, unsurprisingly, as halfway houses or bridges between the printed paper and the web. More (if you can read German).
(From Online NewsHour)

Spam is turning brits off

Research from the iSociety project at the Work Foundation has found that 25 per cent surveyed respondants say that spam has made them cut back on their email usage. 70 per cent say spam makes the online experience "annoying". Apparently all this is slowing adoption of broadband.
(From Online Publishing News)