links for 2009-08-03

Yes, people do write stories in advance. This one is no big deal – mistakes happen.

I was with him up until the bit where he said "as an alternative, I chose to install MediaWiki on a virtual server."

Trader Media Group and EMAP are basically keeping the rest of the Guardian afloat. Notably, TMG made a stunning 85% of its profits from digital, up from 70% last year. In other words, Auto Trader has made a hugely-successful switch from print to online.

Note: Not yet available from the Amazon UK store.

A serious question: Why is the BBC doing boards at all? I can see why it once had to, but isn't this something that's basically covered elsewhere for pretty-much everything now?

I would love to find out just how valuable US traffic is to a UK site in terms of revenue. I suspect that for CPM, it's actually lowering the potential.

I think that one of the trends of the next few years will be more and more investigative journalism (real, proper journalism) done away from the newspapers. The economics of doing a deep story don't fit with the kind of "audience-first" model that most papers seem to be chasing.

I would bet that the $200 in revenue that Gawker got from its post based on the WaPo story is more than the WaPo got in revenue from the original. And definitely a better profit margin.

I'd add "solution" to the list. Products and services aren't solutions until you've shown me what they're a solution to. So don't call every damn thing you do "a solution". And if I read "market-leading solution" from anyone again, I'll eat their face.

Now this is interesting. I'm not sure they can pull it off, but still…

Ballmer is right in a way – but to ignore the growth of what remains your biggest competitor would be a mistake, and I'm sure it's not one he's making privately.

Uh oh.