*~*Bernie's Take on the Ad*~*

Although CNBC has had a successful uplift in profits and viewers from this time last year, they have recently recieved some unsettling news. The senior news executive, Jonathan Wald, announced on Tuesday that he would be leaving at the end of next month. He said he was unable to reach a new contract, but hopes that the network continues to grow along with himself. He is not the first person to turn their back on their channel as the managing editor of Bloomberg Television, John Meehan also walked away last month. This is a direct result of the recent economic recession. Television continues to suffer, especially with the internet on a rise. CNBC had received it's highest rating last fall after the collapse of many investment banks and now this change in staffing may severely affect their ratings.

The Huffington Post recently published an article that wrote the establishedTime Warner Chief Financial Officer, John Martin, openly spoke to a analyst about the tough advertising environment and how although things aren't getting much better, it's unlikely that they can get any worse. Time Warner Inc. experienced an increase in shares last year by $1.03 billion. In the 3 months prior to Dec.31st of 2008 the company reversely lost $16.03 billion. Time Warner consists of Time magazine, cable networks CNN, HBO, Showtime, Cinemax and the Warner Bros. movie studio. They are still trying to foster the loses that they experienced as a direct result from their separation from AOL. They expect to break even with expenses by 2010-2011. Time Warner Cable announced Wednesday that they plan on letting 1,250 people go over the next few weeks as a result of a stationary profit intake. They expect this shift to save them $90 million a year. Time Warner's annual revenue grew 1 percent to $46.98 billion from $46.48 billion.

Huffington Post

This Friday the New York Comic Convention will take place in Manhattan. One of the main discussions will be about the new age of comic books. Comic creators are ridding their paper and pens and are instead taking advantage of the internet to post their work. Although many people may not see comic books as being too popular anymore, they are sadly mistaken. Simon Usborne wrote an article in today's Independent stating that fans will travel from all over to world to see the famous "crafters" that created the comic book figures of legends such as The Joker, Batman, Superman, and Supergirl. The new masters of the craft that will be introduced at this convention are Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins. They have created what is known as the Webcomic, which allows users to view comic "books" online. Already they have more than three million readers. Webcomics have made reading comics an instantaneous adventure. People no longer have to sell there comic books at fairs or trade one anothers or even photo copy them, now with the click of a mouse, they can explore the various childhood adventures. Webcomic designers say that this new form of entertainment is a winning situation for all parties involved. The comic distributors do not have to be in the right place at the right time and the consumers do not have to wait for months at a time for the next issue. The cost of production is much less than what it would be to print thousands of paper copies.

In a recent Wall Street Journal article, Amazon announced earlier this week that they are planning the release of the new Kindle E-book. This new Kindle will result in easier reading accessibility and fewer production expenses for publishing companies. One of the great marketing ploys attached to this new Kindle is award winning novelist, Stephen King's agreement to exclusively release his new novel via the Kindle. Amazon has discovered something that not even Barnes & Nobles has been able to master in terms of book marketing; they have found a way to sell books outside of their immediate store and instead via their device. It is believed that although Mr.King is initially releasing his novel through the Kindle, he may in fact later publish hard copies through his usual publishing companies.

The Kindle costs $359 and unfortunately has been unavailable on the Amazon website since November. This three month unavailablity of Kindles may have to do with an unexpected demand for the product. The selling of Kindles was impossible over this past holiday season. The Tawainese manufacturing company of the Kindle stated that Amazon did not prepare them for the significant demand that the reading device resulted in. It was also noted that the delay for some consumers had nothing to do with faults in delivery methods, but yet just stemmed back to the unexpected fast sales rate.

The second generation Kindle is meant to have a bigger screen than that of the first and is expected to be equally if not more successful than the first. With the aid of celebrities such as Oprah, who was not paid for her endorsement, it is likely that the sales of this reading device could skyrocket once they are made more public. They would be a great addition to Oprah's Book Club, which could one day possibly be known as her "Kindle club".

Mark Mahaney who is a financial analyst for Citigroup Inc. estimated that approximately 500,000 Kindles have been sold so far around the world. He based his conclusion on data retrieved by Sprint Nextel Corp., which is the carrier used to download new books. He predicts the Kindle will bring Amazon $1.2 billion in sales by 2010.

Although Google has not given authors anything to worry about just yet, they have recently given the publishing world a tremendously nerve wrecking situation. They have just announced that they are making 1.5 million books (E-books) available online and that the list is almost endless. As many of the classics can be found on this site, there are also many hidden treasures; some that even date back to the 1800's. Robert Darner who is a director at the Harvard University library had a clever but delayed suggestion for the Library of Congress. He wished that they would have made a National Digital Library which he noted would have been "the twenty-first century equivalent to the Library of Alexandria". He figured that this would have been a very profitable creation and also would have provided avid readers with a more affordable relationship with online books and journals.

E-books are a growing commodity and in the past year Google reps reported that the sale of E-books has increased at a rapid 58%. Unlike the Kindle, Google says that you can access these E-books through any device as opposed to just one.

As a result of the economic crisis of Fall 2008, the American Library Association has reported its significant loss for the past fiscal year. As the spiral has turned down for endowed companies all over the world, the ALA announced that they lost 24 percent of their endowment income over the last fiscal year. Their net assets took a striking plunge from $34.4 million in August 2008 to $24.1 million by the end of 2008. That is a total of over $10 million dollars which is not a typical annual result. On a brighter note, the ALA also announced that they experienced an increase in conference generated income with a rise from $1.9 to $13 million along with a current continued membership increase. The company predicts that because of two scheduled conferences for 2010 the company's income will be safe, but they fear the outcome of 2011 will not be as positive. They worry about the decrease in individual travel expenses as they will hurt the ability of representative to travel around to various conferences.

A Stanza is usually traditionally thought of as a unit of measurement within a poem. Well that is not the case anymore. The Lecycle Stanza is a newly created term that refers to a new program for reading eBooks, digital publications, newspapers, and various articles. Stanza comes in two forms: Stanza iPhone/iPod, and Stanza Desktop. Stanza desktop allows for 3rd party users such as Amazon Kindle. Stanza I-Pod or I-Phone is remarkable because it allows those who have an I-Phone or an I-Pod to access various libraries and online catalogues.

But how much can we truly access via our phones or laptops? When will it end? We are becoming so reliable on modern technology and as the new creations continue to emerge, it is becoming easier to have everything we need within a small bag or purse. I think that this concept of having books within our fingertips is a much more rewarding concept than that of the famous I-Pod. We can learn from the books and we can educate ourselves.

Many people are unable to visit a library because we are constantly in a rush. We do not have enough hours in the day to complete the tasks we must. By having easy access to Stanza we are able to find things online, through our phone, or even visit public library databases and sometimes even read entire books.

Click here for a tour of Stanza: http://www.lexcycle.com/movie

So if you have an I-Phone or an I-Pod, take a few moments to check out this new phenomenon. Do not lose sight of the importance of having a hard copy text right in front of you.

According to Andy Greenberg of Forbes.com, the newly sleek Kindle has everything you need except the hassle. It can be read on the sunniest day, it has a longer battery life, it has a larger memory, and it has the same width as that of a pencil.

Greenberg says, "the device has finally caught up with its function". It does not have the harsh look that the first one did nor is it as chunky. The new Kindle is more attractive. But is it worth the $359 that it is marketed at? Greenberg concludes that Amazon made a concious decision to omit basic functions that they could have included in this newly renovated creation. These extra features are a built in light and a touch screen, both which can be found in the competing Sony device called the Sony reader.

The winning tatics of the Amazon Kindle are it's intense number of accessible books and it's impressible speech to text option. He notes that he had heard a portion of Abraham Lincoln's Gettysberg Address via the Kindle at a press event and that the naturalness of the computerized voice was uncanning.

Have you ever worried how you were going to fit all your devices into your bag or worse again into your pocket? I know I have! Just today I tried to fit my digital camera, my laptop along with it's charger, my SD reading device, my 2 memory cards, my 2 USBs, my cell phone along with its charger, oh yea and then there are all those books that I "have" to take. Well I have all my devices safely packed away in various "necessary" cases. Unfortunately, David Berlind of The Information Weekly's Tech Radar, did not think as wisely before traveling out with his devices, twice! As devices are becoming more compact and more slender, they are also carrying much more information than before therefore putting them at a higher risk of breaking easily.

In this article, Berlind talks about the Kindles that both he and his wife "used to" own. To make a long stoary short, he accidentally broke both of their Kindles by allowing them to get punctured while tightly compressed against other things such as his Nikon camera. He describes the unfair disadvantage that Kindle 1 users experience. They are not offered any upgrade discount or special fee. In order to replace a broken Kindle, users must pay a fee of $180 and even at that there is no certainty that the Kindle is not reburbished. If they want a new Kindle, they must pay the full retail price of $359.

So after conscious deliberation with himself, Berlind pondered about the necessity aspect of the Kindle. Did he really "need" this expensive device? He realized that the answer to this question was no not really. He has an I-Phone. What is a new unique feature of the I-Phone is its relationship with an application called Stanza. Stanza is a published feature from Lexcycle and it is offered via I-Tunes. He notices that the Kindle is much easier to read and turn the pages, but that the I-Phone, once you get adjusted to it, also works well and is available in 60 out of the 75 countries that support the Stanza feature. The Kindle only works in the US. David does not prefer Stanza on the I-Phone, but he respects its attributes. He did admit that it is harder to read books via your I-Phone unless you are in the dark.

It does have automatic scrolling, but it doesn't offer you with numerous titles once you apply the Bookshelf app. at the Apple Store, so why do we need it? Bookshelf is another book reading application that can be applied to an Iphone. This application allows users to read different books via their phone as opposed to actually carrying the "heavy" book itself. Michael Muchmore of The Daily News explains why the Bookshelf is not as popular as Stanza or E-Reader. He explains the difficulty with retreiving new books. He says that the site does have a great deal of Dickens classics, but believes that the users necessity to download a particular work without getting more information first is not acceptible. "You can't even find an author's name, let alone a description or synopsis", complains Muchmore. He argues that some serious "interface" is yet needed in this device. On the up side, it provides its users with very easy access to their pc documents. BookShelf also uses Bonjour networking just like Stanza, so PCs need iTunes to run it, but that usually is not a problem as it is nearly assumed that most users already have the program installed.

Although auto-scrolling may seem an attractive and easy feature to most speed readers it has its fault for those who suffer from diseases such as ADD. Even though you can speed up or slow down the pace of the feature, Muchmore states that the function does not appeal to someone like him. Bookshelf can be somewhat distracting as it always displays both the signal feature at the top as well as an advertising bar at the bottom. Stanza does not display these items and therefore users feel moreso as if they are actually reading a book instead of just reading something off their phone which is obviously what they are actually doing, but they all enjoy the illusion.

Muchmore admits that the price of this application which is $9.99 is far too expensive especially when taking into consideration the limited number of available texts. He also admits that one of the most attractive features of Bookshelf is that it leaves you right back where you left off in a book whenever you sign back on to it. But he still isn't biting the bait just yet, maybe in the future after a little bit of reconstruction takes place.

Lance Ulanoff, a writer at The Daily News professes his desire for an Amazon Kindle. In discussing his "need" for this new device, he alsoconfusingly tries to encourage and yet disencourage himself and many others about making this sinful purchase. He lists the 10 things that everyone should know about the Amazon Kindle 2.

They are as follows:

1)It's too expensive. - Ulanoff says that although the Amazon Kindle 2 is very expensive at ..ahem...$359 a pop, when compared to the price of newly released books these days, overall it is a good investment. For the avid reader, this device is money in the bank and space in the house. It is dust off the bookshelf and a new way to go green. Ulanoff does express his appreciation of the cheaper devices such as the Sony E-Reader which starts at only $299.

2) Where's the color?- Although Amazon increased the shades of gray displayed on the Kindle 2 from 4-16, that still is not enough to make a photo come to life. What I find interesting about this is that we are not reading for the photos. I don't deem this issue as a reason not to purchase the Kindle 2. If it was being bought for a child who is reading mostly picture books, then sure I can see where the problem lies, but adults should not over exaggerate about this small flaw.

3) The five-way joy stick is simply replacing one bad navigation metaphor (the scroll wheel) with another - There is nothing fun about this joystick, Ulanoff says it's quite hard under his thumb and he wishes Amazon would replace it with a more comfortable feature such as the Blackberry track ball or glowing pearls.

4) It only does ONE thing! - This is a good thing. In a world where most peolpe have a phone which allows them to talk to someone, text someone, listen to music, check their email, take some photos, and record videos, it is impossible for most to imagine an expensive device that only allows us to read things. This is a positive aspect of the Amazon Kindle 2. The battery life lasts longer as a result. We are more focused on what we purchased the device for, not because of it's extras.

5) It doesn't always tell you what it's doing - Ulanoff admits that it is important that there are no suprises. The Kindle must tell users at all times what it is doing therefore not to startle them.

6) It's too slow! - Although Amazon increased the speed of the device by 20%, the Kindle 2 is still to slow. We are always looking for instant gratification and according to Ulanoff, the Kindle 2 is not satisfying our needs just yet.

7) It's too fragile! - Ulanoff says that there is nothing like the durability of an old fashioned book and he is correct. He recognizes how much he usually packs into his backpack and notes that if he had this device he wouldn't have half of it, therefore possbily allowing more room for the Kindle 2. He notes the fragility of the screen, but this is nothing new to techology consumers who currently must also worry about the screens of devices such as Iphones or Ipods.

8)I can already read books on both my Ipod and my Iphone - I learned something new via this point. I learned that for $0.99 you can download a program called novella to your Ipod Touch. Ulanoff says that his eyes were stranined after only looking at the device for a small period of time. Basically, it's just not worth the hassle.

9) Why no touch screen? - These days it seems that the demand of consumers is for everything to be touch screen. With Ashton Kutcher advertising the Nikon touch camera and every other person flaunting their Ipod Touch that they received over the holidays, it is "ashtonishing" that the Kindle did not follow the current trend. This is somewhat of a breath of fresh air for now because it is nice to manually control the device with older-fashioned controls. Ulanoff predicts this may change with the future Kindle 3.

10) E-Books will kill books, publishing, and reading - Ulanoff agrees with a great quote stated by award winning author Stephen King. When launching his new novel via the Kindle 2 he said, "E-books and books are not in conflict. They're like peanut butter and chocolate. When you put them together, you have a whole new taste."

The Huffington Post recently reported that two Newspapers in DuLuth, Minnesota will receive grants in order to retrain their current print reporters. These grants are usually given to manufacture or industry workers who are trying to update their knowledge of their specific niche. Both The Duluth News Tribune and the St. Paul Pioneer Press are planning on working with The University of Minnesota's School of Journalism and Mass Communication to aid their staff 's adaptation to an igrowing internet centered industry.

Paul Moe, who directs the programs of the state, said, "newspapers around the country are looking closely at the project as a potential model". The main goal of this training is open the eyes of everyone on the workforce and to deter them from thinking solely about print journalism. The Huffington Post reported that, "Minnesota Job Skills Partnership is awarding $238,000 in state funds, while the newspapers and the university will contribute about $469,000 combined, mostly by devoting staff time to training".