Welcome

Welcome to another edition of the Prompt Newsletter.

Would you want your children following in your professional footsteps? A new study reveals that if you work in IT, the answer is likely to be ‘yes’.

Also in the newsletter this week: CBS acquires CNET, MySpace gives spammers a bloody nose, technology beams sound directly into your ear, and Metallica does social media.

If you enjoy reading this newsletter, why not take a look at our blog?

Hazel Butters, CEO - Prompt Communications

Technology News

Like techie, like techie
By Dave Wilby

A new survey conducted by a careers website has revealed that most techies would recommend an IT career to their own offspring, despite recent ‘credit crunch’ anxiety.

Alex Farrell, managing director of the IT Job Board told ZDNetUK: "The overriding conclusion of the research is that the IT sector is perceived to be a rewarding industry in which to work. Despite the currently gloomy predictions, the IT sector also appears to be holding up well to the newly tough economic climate."

Of the 956 IT professionals who responded to the survey, 75 percent said they would recommend an IT career to their children, 69 percent said their company's market position was "somewhat secure" or "very secure", 70 percent said they expected a pay increase in the coming year, 62 percent said they had been in their current role for two years or less, and only 13 percent of respondents were female.

CBS buys CNET for $1.8 billion
By Zachariah Hofer-Shall

This week CBS, America’s third most popular broadcast television station, announced the $1.8 billion purchase of online company CNET. CBS is looking to gain traction in the exponentially expanding online market and instead of reinventing the wheel, has purchased a set of well worn tyres.

The $1.8 b cash offer equates to $11.50 per share, representing a 40 percent premium on CNET’s typically weak stock. Leslie Moonves, CEO of CBS said “There are very few opportunities to acquire a profitable, growing, well-managed internet company like CNET Networks”. Moonves is accurate in his statement, but wrong in his conclusion. It's true there are very few chances to scoop up a profitable, growing, well managed company, but this is not one of those opportunities.

CNET has been under fire for stock problems, recently laying off 10 percent of its workforce, and having rather public management troubles. CBS has a long road of work ahead with the CNET purchase, but in a market shifting to online video this partnership could actually work out.

Like all of the US TV networks, CBS is experiencing lower ratings and having trouble adjusting its programming to an audience that watches more videos on the internet. By acquiring CNET the conglomerate will pick up enough web traffic to make it one of the top ten most trafficked sites online.

Apprentice UK Quote of the Week

“I think we need to remember that those people in a size 16 and 32 dress are size 16 and 32 for a reason: they love cake.”

Raef demonstrates a lack of tact, explaining why the team could sell cakes alongside larger wedding dresses.

US Media News

By Tarryn Morley

US

Craig Matters has been appointed executive editor of Fortune. Prior to joining Fortune, Matters was the executive editor of Money, which he joined in 1998. He has also served as senior editor and assistant managing editor at Money and helped to launch CNNMoney.com. In his new role, Matters will oversee all technology and investing coverage.

Harry McCracken will be leaving his role as editor in chief of PC World in June to launch his own tech site. McCracken has been with PC World for 14 years and has held his current role since 2004. Following his departure in June, he will remain a contributing editor at PC World.

Terry Sweeney has been appointed editor in chief at Internet Evolution. Prior to joining Internet Evolution, Sweeney served as a blogger for InformationWeek’s Storage Weblog. He has also been editor in chief at Byte and Switch, Dark Reading, and Unstrung.

Cablevision has beat two competitors, including Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, in a bidding war for Tribune’s Newsday, a daily newspaper in Long Island. Cablevision and Tribune have reached a deal in which Cablevision will buy 97 percent of Newsday for $612 million in cash and $18 million in rent repayments for Newsday properties owned by Tribune. Tribune will retain the remaining 3 percent of Newsday.

UK Media News

By Tarryn Morley

UK

Ambrose McNevin has been appointed acting news editor at Computing, Incisive Media’s weekly title for IT professionals. In his new role, McNevin will run the newsdesk for the print and online editions of Computing.

Guardian News and Media has announced plans to merge staff into a single team working across the Guardian, the Observer and guardian.co.uk in a 24/7 newsroom. The company will create a news, business and sport editorial team that will produce text, audio and video across all three platforms. The team will be headed by Paul Johnson, deputy editor of the Guardian. Four new job roles will be created to work across all three platforms: head of national news, head of business, head of sport and head of international news. Each platform will retain its unique identity and management structure, and will have specific new section heads for national news, international news, sport and business.

Paul Jones has been appointed online editor and digital media manager for Clearsight Publishing’s Business Matters, an SME business magazine. Prior to joining Business Matters, Jones spent four years at the New Yorker.

Tech Totals

By Zachariah N. Hofer-Shall

57%
The number of US internet users who are active on social networks

78%
The amount of US internet users who read blogs on a regular basis

83%
The number of internet users in the Philippines active on social networks

70% (42 million)
The number of internet users from China who write blogs


Source: ReadWriteWeb

MySpace fights back against spammers
By Duncan Heaney

MySpace has won a legal judgement over two spammers who bombarded users of the social networking site with junk mail. The BBC reports that the judgement, worth an eyebrow-raising $234 million (£120 million), is thought to be the largest ever given against senders of spam.

The two spammers, Sanford Wallace and Walter Rines, worked together, creating MySpace accounts and taking over existing accounts by stealing passwords. They used the accounts to email MySpace members, making it appear as if the messages came from trusted friends. The messages usually directed users to a video or website. The spammers made money based on hits, and also sold ringtones from these sites.

MySpace claims that Wallace and Rines sent 735,925 emails to its members. This, understandably, made many MySpace users unhappy with the site. The social networking behemoth also revealed that a number of the messages contained pornographic material, unsuitable for its younger users.

Unfortunately for MySpace, it is unlikely to ever see the money awarded to it. The spammers were not present in court and, as anti-spam group Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial Email suggests, the authorities do not necessarily know where they are.

Watching them watching us watching this
By Dave Wilby

If push ever came to shove, we all know that someone somewhere could probably pull out a detailed log of all our surfing habits. In exceptional and criminal circumstances, internet providers have turned over customer records for examination by superseding authorities, and on those occasions most reasonable internet users would understand this technical breach of privacy.

But what if your ISP routinely tracked every website you visited and handed over these records to advertising and marketing companies so that they could target your lifestyle more precisely? Charter Communications, the fourth-largest cable provider in the United States, this week told many of its broadband customers in Texas, California, Massachusetts and Connecticut that it would begin tracking every site they visit before selling this data to a firm called NebuAd which would use it to show tailored ads to those customers. Charter will then make a decision whether to roll the practice out to all of its 2.8 million customers later in the year.

The major controversy surrounds the ISP's decision to rather sneakily make the scheme opt-out rather than opt-in. Charter’s senior vice president for product management and strategy Ted Schremp told the New York Times: “We have told customers exactly what we are doing. All we are doing is, in an anonymous format, providing additional context to serve those ads.” Letters sent to customers said: “The advertising you typically see online will better reflect the interests you express through your web-surfing activity. You will not see more ads, just ads that are more relevant to you.”

Soon we’ll all hear voices in our heads
By James Gerber

The Ottawa Citizen reports on a new technology that beams sound directly into people’s ears. The result of decades of development, the technology directs hypersonic sound waves directly into a person’s eardrum when they are in front of the 'beam' of sound. It transmits it in a pitch that can’t be heard by the human ear until it hits an object, like the human body.

The technology has already been used by the A&E Television Network to promote a show about the paranormal on a New York street. Crowds gathered to listen to the advertisement. Other early adopters are the New York Public Library, which broadcasts audio from TVs with the technology so that those who want to listen can hear the sound but the rest of the people in the library can’t. The Tate Gallery in London also uses it for a tour of its Picasso paintings.

There are critics of the technology who call it invasive and say that it has the potential to force people to listen to advertising broadcasts in public, forcing messages directly into their heads. I agree with the company that manufactures it - it will more likely reduce noise pollution rather than create it. After all, companies could easily set up speakers if they wanted everyone to hear noise.

I personally hope that music in nightclubs is eventually played on it, creating areas inside where people can go to take a break from the noise.

Some kind of Money
By Sally Forge

Rock band Metallica has launched a new website to promote its forthcoming album. The band already has a website, but the new MISSION: METALLICA experience is altogether more intimate, promising backstage passes to shows, footage of the band recording and exclusive photos. So far, so web 2.0. However, the band has never been comfortable with the digital propagation of music, famously suing Napster in 2000, for distributing its tracks for free.

MISSION: METALLICA is intended to "grow with" fans and "become a daily part" of their lives. Visitors enrol for a ‘Platinum’ membership, pay-to-play model. We have music and Metallica fans in the office, so what do they think? Opinions were divided, based on attitudes to marketing.

"How come when Prince, Radiohead, Coldplay, The Charlatans, Nine Inch Nails and dozens of others are deciding to give away their music for free, Metallica thinks it can start selling access to album offcuts?" was one view, while another was: "A twenty year old rock band is showing up the rest of the market by leapfrogging to the forefront of online marketing. It has broken out of the Facebook, MySpace, YouTube trilogy and gone solo." But, as can happen online, doubt as to legitimacy of the campaign arose: “Are these actors? They all look too young to be Metallica!”

Website of the Week

With Zachariah Hofer-Shall

SomethingStore

As detailed on our blog this week, this website allows you to pay ten US dollars to get "something". That's it. There's not really much more to explain.

A variety of items can be viewed on the site's SomethingTracker, which lists previously purchased items and also indicates that there are people ordering 'somethings' every day.

In the early days of eBay many joked about how you could now find anything you wanted online. But now it seems that only a decade later we have evolved to a point where 'anything' is too broad so 'something' will have to do.

At the time of writing, the site claimed to have sold 5,867 to people falling into this trap of a tantalising shopping mystery. How sad. And yet perhaps more sadly, I'm incredibly tempted to order a something of my own. It's just too tempting. This something could be anything!

Consider me duped. I'll check back in on the blog once it arrives and let you know the extent to which my $10 was wasted.

We hope you find the Prompt Communications newsletter an interesting read. For any feedback on our newsletter, or to discuss how we can help you with your technology PR, marketing, social media/blogging initiatives, copywriting or surveys, please contact us using the details below. We are always delighted to hear from you.