We create the stories of the connected society

Google’s interest in saving newspapers is all about Google. Keep your friends close and frenemies closer.

This is one of those moments – an important shift in digital culture that will be old news and obvious to everyone a few years from now.

When he got the promotion to CEO in 2006, Nike’s Mark Parker asked Apple CEO Steve Jobs if he had any advice. “Get rid of the crappy stuff,” Parker says Jobs told him.

It was in the same room in the bowels of JW Marriott’s Washington bunker that editors asked us how newspapers would look five years from now. Smaller, we said. Formats, staff, revenue, influence, circulation, advertising. Smaller. Much smaller. That was 2005. We were invited to conduct a session on the future of newspapers — a [...]

I am excited to announce the launch of a new project that we are calling WeThink. What is it? WeThink is a conversation about innovation and the future — an effort to explore new ideas and promote solutions to the challenges that our society is facing. What’s the big deal? If you follow our work [...]

Alberto Ibargüen is President and CEO of The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, a leading supporter of journalism in the digital age.

Amra Tareen, the savvy and ebullient founder of AllVoices, has just closed a $3 million funding round for the innovative, citizen journalism site. That brings funding to $9 million for the two-year-old start-up. Not bad. TechCrunch has a good take on the AllVoices funding. How does she do it? Amra returns to We Media Miami [...]

The biggest surprise from yesterday’s unveiling of Apple’s iPad was that print publishers and journos weren’t terribly excited. “Waiting to be surprised. That hasn’t happened yet,” said Jim Roberts, the only New York Times wonk who didn’t confuse Steve Jobs with Moses. Valleywag has a good take on Print Media’s Big Tablet Letdown. Our enthusiasm [...]

Among the many extraordinary efforts to provide aid and relief for the people of Haiti comes this one from The Extraordinaries, winner of last year’s We Media Pitch It! competition: the Haiti Earthquake Support Center utilizes crowdsourcing and facial-recognition to help locate the missing. Anyone can post photos of a missing person or loved one, [...]

We couldn’t get to Hyderabad for this year’s group hug of the world’s newspaper publishers, but it sounds like the old boys are getting feisty in their dotage. Forced once to postpone because of bad economics and waning interest, the reconvened World Newspaper Congress, organized by the merged World Association of Newspapers and IFRA, launched [...]

Fifty-six million stories. Where’s the one about transparent government?

Dear Mr. Murdoch: We’re so fortunate that we can entrust you with the future of the news business in the U.S. Such a shrewd business leader, too. Can you help a confused citizen understand your plan to save the news? 1. You’re going to charge people to read a story online that they won’t read, [...]

Some people love to talk. All the better with wine and cheese. Others are busy getting things done. Between those two extremes you can ask yourself whether you’re stuck in an endless conversation, or if you and your business are focused on creation, innovation and achievement.

Dear Arianna, About 2000 years ago the philosopher Seneca said that “the best ideas are common property,” which is an old thought rediscovered as the fresh ethos of the Internet. To be fair, the current state of being on the Web allows me to bring to the same sentence a Roman stoic with the Greek [...]

WeMedia is once again producing a regular podcast that features in-depth interviews with prominent media, technology, and social change figures, as well as distinguished experts on current affairs and news. Our goal is to help the WeMedia community understand the roots of the changes taking place in our society, hear from the thinkers and doers [...]