[hackmeeting] Fwd: FC: Newsbytes, R.I.P.

Lun Jun 3 16:15:03 CEST 2002

 argggg

Newsbytes era uno de los mas veteranos, confiables y mejores sitios de
informacion de la red. Byez, free words

M&M

########### INFORMATION WANTS TO BE FORWARDED ###########

FC: Newsbytes, R.I.P.
31/05/2002

===8<==============Original message text===============

[Hope all the Newsbytes reporters on Politech have remembered to
switch their subscriptions to wpni.com! Newsbytes.com is now
offline. (So much for the many links pointing to the site.) :(
--Declan]

---

http://www.internetnews.com/bus-news/article.php/3_1136291

   Business 
   May 16, 2002
   Washington Post Co. to Shutter Newsbytes
   By Thor Olavsrud
   The Washington Post Co. will shut down its Newsbytes online IT news
   service on May 31, a source close to the company told InternetNews.com
   Thursday.

   While the company would neither confirm nor deny the shutdown,
   Washtech/Newsbytes Publisher Valerie Voci told InternetNews.com: "We
   currently publish two technology Web sites for the Washington Post Co.
   and we are consolidating our online tech coverage."

   "I think the Washington Post is making a mistake," the source said.

   Another source inside the company said the Washington Post Co. will
   announce a number of changes to its online tech news coverage in the
   near future.

   [...]

---

[Newsbytes.com now redirects to the Washington Post tech section. It
looks 
like not only are the old newsbytes.com links dead, but that as Brian
says 
below, the content is not searchable on washingtonpost.com.

 From a former Newsbytesian: "There are no Newsbytes reporters left.
The DC 
crew that was with Newsbytes moved over to Washtech about a month
ago, and 
the rest of us were laid off. Newsbytes is not only offline, it is 
effectively dead. Its only remnant will be in name only, as I
understand 
it, and that will be only as a brand for whatever WPNI does with its
online 
syndication products from here on out." --Declan]

---

Date: Fri, 31 May 2002 16:37:45 -0400
To: declan en well.com
From: Brian McWilliams <brian en pc-radio.com>
Subject: Re: FC: Newsbytes, R.I.P.

Hi Declan,

I'm biased, but I think it's a loss for the Net that *nearly two
decades* 
of Newsbytes articles will be inaccessible once the site is shut down 
(sometime tonight I'm told).

As I understand it, the Newsbytes content will only be available from 
LexisNexis.

Google currently has a lot of Newsbytes pages in its cache, but
Archive.org 
reports that it was kept out by a robots.txt file.

My memory may be faulty, but I can't recall a comparable destruction
of 
Internet-based information.

Brian

---

Date: Fri, 31 May 2002 16:32:53 -0400
To: declan en well.com
From: Doug Isenberg <disenberg en gigalaw.com>
Subject: Re: FC: Newsbytes, R.I.P.

         A burning question: Will The Washington Post now archive the 
previously published Newsbytes articles, as IDG did when it bought
some of 
The Industry Standard's assets (and resurrected 
http://www.thestandard.com)?  It'd be a shame to lose so much
wonderful 
tech news history.  Newsbytes may be gone, but its excellent and 
comprehensive reporting should not be forgotten.

         A little more background to add to the story you shared,
from The 
Wall Street Journal on May 17 
(http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB1021653697982741080,00.html):

"WashingtonPost.Newsweek Interactive, the online subsidiary of the 
Washington Post Co., is consolidating its online technology news
operations 
under the TechNews.com (www.technews.com) Web site, a strategy shift
that 
comes amid an advertising recession that has forced many new media 
operations to cut costs....

"The company is de-emphasizing existing Washington Post.Newsweek 
Interactive sites WashTech.com and NewsBytes.com in favor of
TechNews.com, 
which will include technology news and policy reports from Washington
Post 
reporters, original content from online writers and content from
other 
Washington Post Co. sources....

"...NewsBytes stories will continue to be syndicated to newspapers
and Web 
sites, but the NewsByte.com [sic] Web site will shut down."

Doug Isenberg, Esq.
Editor & Publisher, GigaLaw.com
FREE daily Internet law news via e-mail!  Subscribe today at 
http://www.GigaLaw.com/news

---

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/editorandpublisher/headlines/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1499399

MAY 23, 2002
Washingtonpost.com Folds Newsbytes Unit
Site Consolidates Technology News

By Carl Sullivan

NEW YORK -- Updated at 12:35 p.m. EST

Washingtonpost.com is closing Newsbytes, the tech news service
founded way 
back in 1983 and purchased by the Washington Post Co. in 1997.

Three Washington-area Newsbytes reporters will work for a new
section, 
TechNews.com, scheduled to launch June 3, according to 
Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive spokesman Don Marshall. Five
other 
full-time employees, including founder and Editor-in-Chief Wendy
Woods, 
will be laid off as of May 31. Some independent contractors for
Newsbytes 
will also lose their positions.

[...]

---

Date: Sat, 01 Jun 2002 13:11:30 +1000
From: Nathan Cochrane <ncochrane en theage.fairfax.com.au>
Reply-To: ncochrane en theage.fairfax.com.au
Organization: The Age newspaper
To: declan en well.com
Subject: Re: FC: Newsbytes, R.I.P.

Hi Declan

Very sad indeed.

We have been subscribed to Newsbytes from the beginning, and this
really 
hurts all those downstream publications as well. It effectively cuts
off 
our eyes and ears in the US. And because Newsbytes also syndicated
stories 
from elsewhere in the world, including Australia, it means US tech
coverage 
will become even more parochial than it is already.

Newsbytes was the only tech wire service worth a damn. We regularly
wet 
ourselves laughing at some of the stuff that crawls onto many of the
other, 
more general wires.

But I guess if Newsbytes was not making money, a paper can't be
expected to 
be a charity case.

I hope the Newsbytes reporters will be able to find jobs elsewhere
within 
Washington Post.

cheers

Nathan

-- 

Nathan Cochrane
Deputy IT Editor
:Next:
The Age and Sydney Morning Herald
http://www.next.theage.com.au

---

Date: Fri, 31 May 2002 16:55:30 -0400 (EDT)
From: Miguel Danielson <mcd en pair.com>
To: Declan McCullagh <declan en well.com>
cc: <politech en politechbot.com>
Subject: Re: FC: Newsbytes, R.I.P.

Declan-

What a bummer.  Of course, I might add that the Berkman Center for
Internet and Society has recently launched its own Internet Law news
and
policy portal:

http://grep.law.harvard.edu

I hope you will invite your readers to our new site and help us
create a
community-driven source for Internet law news, information, and most
of
all, discussion.

Regards,

Miguel Danielson
Project Leader
grep.law.harvard.edu

P.S. I also note the outstanding LawMeme project at Yale Law School
(http://research.yale.edu/lawmeme/)

---

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list
You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice.
To subscribe to Politech:
http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html
This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/
Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Like Politech? Make a donation here:
http://www.politechbot.com/donate/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

===8<===========End of original message text===========