01.10.09
Gemini version available ♊︎Microsoft’s Fan Press is Crumbling
“Just keep rubbing it in, via the press, analysts, newsgroups, whatever. Make the complete failure of the competition’s technology part of the mythology of the computer industry.”
–Microsoft, internal document [PDF]
For obvious reasons, geographical at the very least, Seattle P-I has always been pro-Microsoft about 90% of the time. The bad news for them (and positive news to competitors of Microsoft) is that this “fan press” won’t last for much longer, not in its current form anyway.
Hearst announced today that it’s putting the Seattle Post-Intelligencer up for sale. If no buyer is found in 60 days, the newspaper will either cease operations or move entirely online. Whatever happens, it looks like a lot of good journalists will be losing jobs.
[...]
“Awful. Angry. Depressed. Stunned,” were the four words P-I reporter Mike Lewis used when asked to describe how he was feeling after the news was announced internally today following a report by KING 5 last night.
The P-I has been around in various forms since 1863, making it one of the oldest businesses in the city. It has survived dozens of ups and downs over the years.
Ziff Davis (notoriously called “Ziff|Gates” because of the editorship, funds, and the Microsoft employees who post there under pseudonyms) declared that it was on the verge of bankruptcy last year and CNET, which had received investments from Microsoft’s co-founder, suffered staff cuts too.
In absence of such publications, Microsoft’s ability to control minds is diminishing. Well, it can always bribe bloggers and employ "technical evangelists". It also keeps publications of IDG alive [1, 2, 3] by paying excessively for IDC contracts (anti-GNU/Linux 'studies' and the likes of them). We’ll have more details about that soon. The corresponding antitrust documents require further processing. █
“Mind Control: To control mental output you have to control mental input. Take control of the channels by which developers receive information, then they can only think about the things you tell them. Thus, you control mindshare!”
–Microsoft, internal document [PDF]
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Roy Bixler said,
January 10, 2009 at 10:40 am
The Seattle P-I has sometimes run some good stories which were critical of Microsoft. Even if the lion’s share of their stories are pro-Microsoft, I consider this news to be sad. It’s more reflective of an overall decline in news readership and subscriptions coupled with the current difficult economic climate. For some time, newspapers have been cutting their staff, which has resulted in fewer in-depth stories and more reliance on republished AP or Reuters articles. According to one survey I’ve seen recently, people prefer to use the Internet for their news. All of that means that this is a period of transition for the traditional print media and that they need to readjust their business model. As the saying goes, “we live in interesting times.”
Diamond Wakizashi said,
January 10, 2009 at 11:03 am
Microshit can’t hide the truth!
http://inconstantin.ro/2009/01/09/funny-windows-7/
Roy Schestowitz said,
January 10, 2009 at 11:03 am
Roy B,
Yes, they also published some decent stuff.
There’s the Seattle Times (Times) with things like:
“Government attorneys accuse Microsoft of using its monopoly position to bully, bribe and attempt to collude with others in the industry, while illegally expanding and protecting its Windows franchise.”
And there’s the Seattle Weekly:
“THE ALLEGATIONS WERE shocking: For years, Microsoft has systematically distorted its profit figures in an effort to consistently beat Wall Street expectations and keep its stock price steadily rising. The false reports would violate SEC regulations, and amount to outright fraud.
“More shocking was the source of the allegations: Microsoft’s chief of internal audits, Charlie Pancerzewski, who reported directly to the company’s chief financial officer.”
G. Michaels said,
January 11, 2009 at 12:37 am
This wouldn’t have anything to do with the economic downturn, would it? Nah, this is divine retribution brothers and sisters! Praise the lord!
The Tribune group, which owns a crapload of newspapers, magazines, TV stations and websites recently filed for Chapter 11. Did you do a hard-hitting story on them too? I can’t seem to find it.
Note: writer of this comment adds absolutely nothing but stalking and personal attacks against readers, as documented here.
David Gerard said,
January 11, 2009 at 9:05 am
My first thought was actually “will Bill buy it?”