The anti-social court house network

The Los Angeles Superior Court has a Facebook page, but Facebook and other social media sites - Twitter, Tumblr, YouTube - are blocked on the court house's public WiFi, according to fishbowlLA blogger Pandora Young, who spent the day trying to surf the web as she did her jury service:

Stuck at jury duty in downtown Los Angeles, this fishie is tapped into the web via the courthouse wi-fi. Infuriatingly, they block access to Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, YouTube, and a number of other worthwhile websites. ... To the courthouse’s credit, they do not block access to Wikileaks.

The YouTube collection agency

Tina Dupuy wrote a column. The Tampa Tribune published the column. The Tribune did not pay Dupuy for the column. Dupuy posted a YouTube video pointing all of this out. The Tribune has decided to pay Dupuy. Dupuy has posted a second YouTube video extolling the virtues of public embarrassment.

YouTube wants payers

Google's YouTube plans to stream movies for a fee, putting it into direct competition with Netflix and providing the still free service with some much needed revenue.

Four today

1. The head of Wikipedia agreed to suppress information about the kidnapping of New York Times reporter David Rohde by Taliban mercenaries. NYT

2. In the old days, non-staffers hired on an interim basis to produce news stories were called freelancers. Now we call them "citizen" journalists so that we can pay them even less. Live Citizen is the latest to get into the act. The start-up is advertising for freelancers, er, citizens to produce do-it-yourself newscasts - up to five a week - for the site. Live Citizen will pay a fee per story on rotating three-month contracts. The only requirement is that stories be "relevant and intriguing." Berkeley's J-Jobs

3. The sluggish performance of some online news shortly after news of Michael Jackson's death has some scratching their heads about whether the Internet can handle the traffic when big, breaking stories hit (whether you consider Jackson's death big, breaking news is another debate). A new study says third-party advertising on websites, not internal content, may be to blame. Data Center Knowledge

4. YouTube is teaching people how to be reporters. YouTube Reporters' Center

Is YouTube going down the tubes?

If the ubiquitous YouTube can't turn a profit - if billions of eyeballs and Google's best efforts at monetizing popular content can't turn a profit - then what chance do newspapers have at turning popularity, a strong brand name, interactivity and free online content into a solid moneymaking venture?

From the Silicon Alley Insider:

Credit Suisse estimates YouTube will manage to rake in about $240 million in ad revenue in 2009, against operating costs of roughly $711 million, leading to a shortfall of just over $470 million. This half-billion dollar loss comes after more than a year of feverish experimentation in various forms of advertising, cross-product embedding, licensing and partnership deals. YouTube is adamant that ultimately they’ll find an advertising solution that will enable the ungainly behemoth to reach profitability. Looking at the math, it doesn’t seem likely.

So what can Google do to turn the financial picture around?:

Google could take a lesson from its neighbor, Hulu, and focus only on proprietary content with existing consumer loyalty and real monetization prospects. With its massive audience, this is a viable option, and a direction in which YouTube has already taken some baby steps. Axing user-generated content would seem to be anathema given the site’s roots, but it may be the surest way of putting the business into the black.

Alternatively, YouTube could implement a subscription structure for the site, either monetizing certain members-only content, or requiring users to create a paid account in order to contribute content. With so many marketers looking at YouTube as part of their viral strategy, this too could be a viable option.

That last bit sounds an awful lot like what newspaper companies are being encouraged to do.

Post-factual partisanship

Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota calls her very own words, captured on tape, an "urban legend."