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At 14:58 on 10 Aug 98, David Sklar  wrote in part:

> I think the folks that run a lot of heavy traffic sites that rely a
> lot on freeware (Yahoo, Dejanews, IMDb, Hotwired, etc.) come from
> startup-type backgrounds....

> They were designed by people for whom performance is the bottom line. 

Speaking as a devoted FreeBSD/Apache user who manages databases 
exclusively with home-brewed PERL, let me offer a seemingly obvious 
observation: If you're inventing the wheel, you can't wait around for 
Goodyear to come up with a tire.

Outsourcing technology inherently compromises functionality to a 
lowest common denominator, eliminating many potential competitive 
advantages.

As an industry, we seem obsessed with recent experience whether 
applicible or not. In crushed-tree days, news organizations 
initially created their own publishing tools. Once the medium and the 
tools had matured, they began relying more on outsourced 
tools, ultimately settling on off-the-shelf standards. 

This was the right path at that point in the medium's development.
In early development, however, it would have been disasterous.

What we have today sometimes reminds me of all those book publishers 
who will let you self-publish your own book. They, like the online 
software and service companies, make money. You, the creator of new 
content, do not.

As I like to say, plenty of money is being made today in online 
publishing. It's just that online publishers aren't making most of 
it.



              ERIC K. MEYER - meyer@newslink.org
-----------------------------------------------------------------
           managing partner - NewsLink Associates  
           online publisher - AJR NewsLink  
    asst prof of journalism - University of Illinois
visiting research scientist - Natl Center for Supercomputing Aps

- "Tomorrow's News Today" critically acclaimed guide to strategic 
   planning for online publishing (mailto:report@newslink.org)
- "Designing Infographics" (http://www.newslink.org/book.html)
-  http://www.newslink.org, web's top media resource: 8,000 
   links, more newspapers, hundreds of journalism jobs 

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