Good news, Bad news

 

 

This morning, while reading online newspaper, I realized that I was feeling more drawn to bad news than to good news.  For example, on the front page, there were about 10 good news and 2 bad news. Despite the fact that I had choices, I couldn't help but pick up gruesome news about a serial killer over a story of a 80 year-old philanthropist. 

I know that Bad news sells best, because good news is no news and a thirst for sensational stuff such as violence, sex, corruption is innate to human nature. 

But I still feel weird about my wanting to peek into other people's tragedy, while I post all the happy moments of my life on Facebook.  ( oh...well, people don't usually take a picture in the middle of crying or fighting) 

Just some fleeting thoughts on bad news...

The fate of online Minerva

There is an interesting debate going on presently in my home country. Actually, by now, the debate has grown into international stage since it was picked up by many other foreign news media including BBC, WSJ, FT etc.

OK... Here's a story about a famous Korean blogger, known by his pen name ‘Minerva’.

When I visited Seoul last time in December for winter vacation, my father asked me whether I was aware of the identity of Minerva. ( well, he thinks her daughter knows every rumor related to news, only because she works for a newspaper. )

“No. I don’t even know what Minerva is”, I answered.
Disappointed dad explained what was happening in online community. (Believe me, he is not a very tech savvy guy. The fact that he knows something implies everyone else does.)

According to my father, a blogger named Minerva had posted around 200 comments last year and predicted the imminent collapse of Lehman Brothers, the sharp falls in Korea’s won currency, the national stock market. By that time, most of he had forecast proved to be right. Not only his accurate prediction, but his writings were sprinkled with jargon that suggested he was an economic expert. He drew a cult like following. ( his webpage had more than 40 million visitors a day.)

Even the Korean finance minister, Kang Man-su, admitted that Minerva was making a reasonable point and he said he wanted to meet Minerva in person.

That was the story I had heard from my dad.

Around two weeks later ( I mean after my arrival in LA), I got news that police arrested the Minerva!! And my first reaction was “Why?”, my second reaction was “who is it?”.


Minerva turned out to be an unemployed- 30 year old guy who graduated from junior college with a major in information and communication. He confessed that he was the ‘Minerva’, but he merely collected information from various newspapers and rewrote it.

As of today, prosecutors charged him with spreading false information that they alleged damaged the country’s foreign exchange market and undermined the nation’s credibility. (Minerva posted comments in December that government had banned major financial institution from buying US dollars.)

This blogger’s arrest ignited a debate about freedom of speech in cyber space and lots of talks are going on. Here are some articles offering the details.


I just wonder what would have happened, if Minerva had not attracted so much attention across the web… or if Minerva had been a real economist or journalist?

Mexican billionare lends NYT $250 million

 The humiliation of New York Times ? 

 NYT received 250 million dollars in financing from Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim due to the plummeting advertising revenue and tighter credit markets.  More details here. 

 Of course, nothing is for free. Slim will get senior unsecured notes due in 2015 with detachable warrants. Currently he holds 6.9 percent of NYT class A shares and at the time of his initial investment, he cited the company's "attractive value". Apparently he still thinks it is. 

Looks like, we will soon be seeing NYT's sales frenzy. According to Bloomberg, NYT is seeking a buyer for its stake in the Boston Red Sox baseball team and the cable network that carries its games. 

A series of gloomy news... Last week, the Minneapolis Star Tribune filed for bankruptcy, following Tribune. 

 

endless competition

 Back home in Korea, when I first used a Bloomberg terminal, instantly I fell in love with it. 

 It enabled me to collect or edit almost any data from security to commodity to currency in the world. The more I played with it, the more I got addicted to it. At that time, I thought to myself it's totally worth 1,200 dollars a month ( well it didn't come from my pocket but my company's though ) 

As professor Cowan mentioned briefly last time, the success of Bloomberg is a phenomenon. It was the first one to package a vast amount of raw financial material and data, analysis and make it available on a computer terminal. It isn't just a machine, but a huge network where buyers and sellers could meet. 

But recently, the new players are tapping into the market that Bloomberg is feeding on. They are companies like 'Quote.com', 'Stockpoint', 'Thomson Reuters' etc. These information companies are offering fragmentation of what Bloomberg provides for a fraction of the price and the services are getting more sophisticated. 

Here is my news of today from Financial Times. 

It is the story about the launch of a new service by Thompson Reuters. From now on, customers can access all best 'bid and offer' data to know whether they are getting the best deals. Maybe this can be an interesting game to watch. 

After a long talk, again, I felt all the more keenly the importance of constant changes. It needs no repetition here but  a newspaper or information companies, financial (whatever you call it) should be nimble and customer-focused not only to survive but to lead the industry. 

The irony of oursourcing

Today I stumbled on this article about USA today's decision to stop printing its international edition. Due to plunging advertising revenue, USA today is seeking licensees to take over its production abroad. However, USA Today would still write articles and supply photos for the edition. In other words, basically it will be outsourcing!



So I guess I will still be able to pick up USA today Asia at a hotel lobby while traveling.According to the paper, its international edition has a daily average circulation of 60,000+.



Recently I have witnessed that newspapers are not only outsourcing its production to local publishers but outsourcing its foreign correspondents to local freelancers. I remember reading an washington post article lamenting the 'Demise of the foreign corresspondent'.



This is incredibly important trends for me in that now I am a LA correspondent of Chosun Daily and my dream is to work in as many countries as possible. I fully understand the benefits of outsourcing as a business reporter who has written hundreds of stories about them, but it is true that when it comes to my self and job it becomes bitter...What can I do...hum.



If there is any consolation for me, it is not easy for korean papers to find someone abroad who wrties perfect korean and speak local language at the same time. :)