Michael Arrington's Conflicts of Interest? Not!

I have been carefully considering this post for a couple of weeks, ever since seeing a bleary eyed Michael Arrington at the Web 2.0 conference fending off criticism from journalists who suggested that he was conflicted due to his investments or involvement in a series of Web 2.0 companies.

The blogosphere and the comments section of CrunchNotes were awash with posts on this issue but I want to take an angle that I think has not been looked at. The headline is that as long as Arrington discloses his relationships (preferably on each post about that company) he is more than fine. He is more than fine compared to research analysts (more on that in a second) and generically he is above board on disclosure issues. Disclosure is what matters so that we the readers can form our own opinion. In fact, his position as an insider is beneficial to getting the real insider scoops and pre-annoucnements that we all want. I actually think that this is a blueprint for bloggers and is what we the readers want: as much information as possible in real time and full disclosure.

In his own words, Arrington correctly writes:

"TechCrunch is a new kind of publication. We don’t fit into a neat little box like traditional media, who refrain from financial conflicts of interest with their readers and feel that they are therefore above reproach. They aren’t, but they really, really feel that they are, and look down on blogs and other media as the unwashed masses. Yes, I’m grouping them unfairly, but the really good reporters will all soon be on their own anyway, so this will be completely true eventually.

TechCrunch is different. TechCrunch is all about insider information and conflicts of interest. The only way I get access to the information I do is because these entrepreneurs and venture capitalists are my friends. I genuinely like these people and want them to succeed, and they know it and therefore trust me more than they trust traditional press.

I am an active investor, board member and advisory board member with a number of startups. That isn’t going to change. I also write about startups. That isn’t going to change, either. Obviously people like what we write on TechCrunch or they wouldn’t come back. But no one should think TechCrunch is objective or conflict-free. We aren’t. We never have been. We never will be."

Techcrunch is not journalism (as if that is objective and conflict free:)). Techcrunch and other blogs like it is insider announcements, opinion and analysis. In fact, I would suggest that Michael Arrington and Techcrunch are closer in genre to Jupiter, Gartner and Oreilly than he is to the NYT or Sydney Herald. And, I would suggest that Arrington is more above board than any of those companies.

As anyone who has been in the enterprise software business will tell you, many of these research houses are implicitly pay to play. When you subscribe to their services and get their analysts' time then he knows enough about you to put you in the quadrant or report . There are more conflicts of interest at the market research houses than at TechCrunch and they are rarely disclosed. As David Jackson wrote in this post on Seeking Alpha (Full Disclosure: Benchmark is an investor):

"Market research in general is rife with undisclosed conflicts, and as a result small companies often view the cost of industry research as a marketing expense rather
than a business planning expense ...

Currently, industry analysts do not have to disclose potential conflicts of interest, and there's no Chinese Wall between the business unit that accepts payment from clients and the analysts who comment on companies' products and positioning. The potential for abuse is a problem even in an organization of ethical people.

That problem could at some time bite Jupiter and its shareholders. "

So, Kudos to Arrington for his disclosure policy and the more disclosure the better. Keep on bringing us the insider news. And the next time Asher Moses calls or rags on you, send him to the CEOs of the Jupiter and Gartner. As I have written in a previous post and back and forth with Michael Gartenberg, CEO of Jupiter, Bloggers will likely replace the analysts anyway so let us set the gold standard for disclosure as well.

TSA Inc. Take 2

Running on the treadmill this morning, I saw an unbelievable item on CNN that made me recall an earlier post of mine entitled TSA Inc. that described the advertising in the bins at airport X-ray machines. The CNN item traced what happens to the ever-expanding list of items confiscated by TSA officials at airport security. For years we have been accustomed to scissors and razors and the famous Machette but now it includes creams toothpaste, mouthwash and water bottles. Do you know what happens to those items?

According to CNN items are taken to regional wharehouses like one in Harrisburg PA that services the northeast where they are sorted and then SOLD ON Ebay. the TSA has made $280,000 from selling confiscated goods on EBAY. The money goes to some education program in Pa. With all the hassle the TSA is, they could at least give out tax deductible receipts as they wand you....

Naomi Ragen on Jerusalem The Ghost Town

I have posted in the past (here and here) about American tourists and "Future French Refugees" paying high prices for Jerusalem real estate, which in turn drives out lower income or student families, which in turn makes Jerusalem a ghost town during most of the year. Today, a friend forwarded to me this blast email from Author Naomi Ragen on the same topic. I pasted the email below and agree with every word.

An Open Letter to people who love Jerusalem:

You come to Jerusalem during the holidays and on vacations.
You are good, loyal Jews, connected to tradition and ardent Zionists.
God has blessed you with success in your life, and you've decided that instead of staying in a hotel on your visits, you'll buy an apartment instead.

Please, please don't.

In a story aired on Fox News, it was revealed how rich American and French Jews are buying up property in the center of Jerusalem, paying almost any price,and leaving them empty most of the year. As a result, thousands of middle-class Jerusalemites have been priced out of the housing market, and are leaving the city for good at a rate of 5,000 a year, turning the city center into a ghost town.

I can testify that there are areas in Jerusalem that are already wastelands because of this trend. Mamilla, for example, the area across from the Old City Walls, where not a soul can be seen stirring behind the expensive shutters of
million-dollar dwellings.
Worse, the rising prices are encouaging builders to push for more and larger high rises in areas like German Colony, which will destroy the beauty and character of the neighborhood for all its residents. It is pushing the City to agree to build roads in neighborhoods like Baka, that will fill its quaint streets with endless, smoke-belching cars, and send its long-time residents fleeing.

So, please, if you love Jerusalem, follow these guidelines:

1. If you can't visit more than once or twice a year, stay in a hotel.
2. If you already own an apartment here, then rent it out at a reasonable rate.
3. Don't pay over a million dollars for anything, period.
4. Encourage your friends not to love Jerusalem to death.

Naomi


=======================================
Naomi Ragen
Please visit my Web page at:
"http://www.naomiragen.com
http://www.NaomiRagen.com
and subscribe to my mailing list
by sending an empty email to:
naomiragen-on@mail-list.com
email:Naomi@NaomiRagen.com

Family Simchas

Simcha is the hebrew word for happiness. Last night we celebrated my sister's wedding (I am writing because I am too hoarse to speak) and it was a wonderful family affair. It was wonderful because all of my aunts and uncles were there and it was truly a broad family wedding. It was wonderful because my sister and brother in law wed under the same Chupa (wedding canopy ) that my parents did, grandparents did, and my siblings and I did (a family heirloom). And, it was special because we celebrated it together.

Sometimes in our hectic lives we do not take enough time out to appreciate the value of our extended families and how much they enrich our lives, views and perspectives. It reinforces the need to redouble our individual efforts to partake in family simchas. My view has always been that if God forbid there was a tragedy we all know we would be there, so shouldn't we make the effort to be there for happy occasions?

As Shabbat rolls in here in Jerusalem (see picture of Chupa with view of Jerusalem) and we continue the wedding celebrations with an extended family Sheva Brachos (post-wedding party) tonight, I am taking the opportunity to count the blessings of family. I wish you all the same. Shabbat Shalom.

Stopping the Kassam Rocket Attacks on Sderot

I highly recommend a great opinion piece by Evelyn Gordon in today's Jerusalem Post (Click Here for full article). Small Excerpt below.

Whenever politicians or army officers say that there is no military solution to the problem of Kassam rockets, my reaction is: Just how stupid do you think we are? After all, more than 1,000 Kassams have been fired at Israel from Gaza over the last 12 months, yet not a single rocket has been fired at Israel from the West Bank during this period. So unless you believe that West Bank terrorists, unlike their Gaza counterparts, have no desire to launch rockets - an assumption that defies both logic and the facts (the media periodically report on Palestinian efforts to start a West Bank Kassam industry) - the obvious conclusion is that the army has succeeded in preventing Kassam fire from the West Bank....

THIS WAS better than nothing, as the sharp increase in rocket launches since the disengagement demonstrates. According to the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, there were 309 Kassam launches at Israel and the Gaza settlements combined in 2004 (the last full year before the August 2005 pullout), compared to 932 at Israel alone during the first 10.5 months of this year - a more than threefold increase....

THE BOTTOM line is that a military solution not only exists; it is already being successfully employed in the West Bank: a Defensive Shield-type operation followed by a long-term deployment aimed at achieving comprehensive territorial control. Such a strategy would not end the Kassams instantly, any more than Defensive Shield ended the suicide bombings instantly. But in the years since Defensive Shield, successful terror attacks from the West Bank have fallen steadily and dramatically, by about 50 percent every year. And there is no reason to believe that a similar approach in Gaza would not produce similar results.....

The other essential step is replacing Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Dan Halutz.......Defensive Shield required a massive call-up of the reserves, and so would any similar operation in Gaza. Yet it is among reservists that bitterness at Halutz's conduct of the Lebanon war has been deepest and most pervasive, and there is a real danger that many might refuse to answer a call-up from him a second time. That would stymie the operation even before it began.

I encourage you to read the entire article.

Disproportionate Reaction/Force

Kofi Anan often used this in describing Israeli reaction to measly Kassam rockets or suicide bombers that directly target civilians. Well 8 dead Sderot residents later, I wonder about the disproportionate response as well. In a conversation with a taxi driver today, he made an interesting point: While not wanting to distinguish between whose life is more important, it is interesting to note that when two soldiers were kidnapped on the Lebanese border, the Israeli Air Force bombarded southern Lebanon and Southern Beirut and chased Hizbullah leaders but with 8 dead Sderot residents and with the government considering building reinforced roofs and buildings in Sderot, we are still trying to pinpoint the small group of rats who are firing Kassam rockets. What will we do when they have Katyushas in Gaza? Reinforce the roofs in Ashdod and Tel Aviv? There is something disproportionate about the force used in Lebanon and the lack of force used in Gaza.

Thoughts?

My Very Own Widget

Thanks to the folks at MuseStorm, I now have my very own widget on the right side of the page. Feel free to grab it and post it to your sites. I promise you won't need to feed all 6 kids if you take the widget feed :)

Yet another Sad Day for Israeli Governance

I was in the US for election day two weeks ago and while I have Republican leanings, the election results brought a huge smile to my face. Not because of the outcome which was a little too blue for my taste buds but because the voters threw the bums out. The American people fundamentally opposed the policies of George Bush and his party and made a change. I wish we could do that in Israel. But we are stuck with a very messed up system and stuck forever with the same "bums" in different seats..

Two items in this morning's local Israeli news have me refocused on our governance problems in Israel. The people of Sderot, under daily attack from Kassam rockets, have circulated a petition openly calling for Defense Minister Amir Peretz to resign or be replaced. The irony here is sweet as Peretz was the pride of Sderot. Speaking of pride, one cannot escape the conclusion that Peretz'’s pride is keeping him glued to his chair at the cost of Israeli'’s lives (I made this point a long time ago as well). In polls, 80% of the population of Israel thinks Peretz needs to resign; even his own friend and Labor Minister Eitan Cabel has called for him to resign. But Peretz is sticking around hoping that Hezbollah Leader Nasrallah "will remember the name Amir Peretz" as he threatened during the Lebanon war. Unfortunately we will remember him well and not fondly. But we should not be surprised, this is Amir Peretz and it is always about him. The citizens be damned. He led the unions to multiple general strikes, causing untold economic damage and maybe costing lives. All of this in the name of…Amir Peretz. But we are stuck with him for now because of coalition politics and an inability of our leaders to take responsible and be accountable to the will of the people.

The second item this morning was the decision of the Supreme Court to approve the registration in Israel of homosexual marriages that took place abroad. Without discussing the issue itself, this continues a line of Supreme Court decisions that is clearly not in line with prevailing public opinion and where the Supreme Court has taken on the role of the legislature. This is Aharon Barak’s judicial hyper-activism legacy and it is the epitoime of Spinoza's famous "Nature (Power) Abhors a Vaccuum". Our legislature, the Knesset, is so dysfunctional the Supreme Court has moved in to legislate. They decide the route of our security fence, who is registered for marriage and even who its own judges should be. There is no check or balance of Israel’s Supreme court whatsoever and it is a group of anointedinted Philosopher Kings run amok.

There has been much talk recently in Israel of changing the system of government. It is clear that we need to do something. Any solution that does not include: direct election of parliamentarians, where leaders are accountable directly to the public, lowering the amount of coalition partners needed and changes to the method whereby Supreme Court justices are chosen to put a check on them, will be woefully insufficient.

More on Yahoo

Robert Young penned a great piece over on Gigaom about what Yahoo should do in the wake of the Peanut Butter Manifesto from Brad Garlinghouse. Here is the crux of the suggestion although I recommend reading the entire post:

"If you strip away all the layers that make up Yahoo, what you’ll find is the Internet’s largest communications and community company. And being so represents a comparative advantage versus Google… in all the areas where communications and community matter most. The challenge is to turn that comparative advantage into a competitive advantage by developing the vision and strategies that hit Google where they are most vulnerable. Put simply, Yahoo needs to leverage its strengths in communications and community to become the dominant content aggregation and distribution platform for all non-text media."

I actually made a suggestion in a similar vein a month ago but I think Young's suggestion is better and assumes mine as well.

The crux of my suggestion is pasted below.

"In my opinion, Yahoo got the engagement part right but picked the wrong segment by going after broad horizontal plays like Flickr.

"I think that Yahoo needs to get after second and third generation vertical content plays with an aggressive acquisition strategy. They have the roadmap, it is the CPC values that advertisers are paying them in the general search context. Mesothelioma is often considered as the #1 keyword and I am sure Yahoo has the list of the next 10. There are widely read categories looking for content innovation and there are many startups pursuing these areas (putting up a list might be dangerous) who could be acquired by Yahoo and its $2.6Bn of cash. It may cost Yahoo more money than the ~$30 million that they have shelled out for each of Flickr and del.icio.us because most of the vertical plays are venture backed but it will be well worth it for Yahoo in the long run where online advertising is growing and migrating to vertically focused sites. The vertical plays exist in every high CPC category: automotive, finance, medical, legal, real estate, shopping etc. Yahoo can end-run Google with vertical depth that puts real context and content around advertising - not just the context of search terms in generic search. Pursuing deep vertical content plays feels to me like a better strategy than trying to one-up Google either in general search and CPC rates or by adding social features to the Yahoo portal."

Yahoo and Newspapers

Busy posting day today.

Wanted to leave one comment on the Yahoo deal with newspapers. I like the fact that Yahoo made a bold move and I hope it works (I am rooting for Yahoo to come back - and for full disclosure I own the stock). However, while the upsides of the local salesforces, cross-media selling opportunities and local job placements are obvious, I want to point out one potential medium/long-term concern.

We all recall the days where the press was abuzz with "Getting Amazoned". "Getting Amazoned" meant that your company (start up or big retailer alike) got in the path of the giant online retailed and you would be beat into submission by Amazon's better logistics and cheaper prices. Well the "Getting Amazoned" of 1999 is the same as getting "Craigslisted" in 2006. Craigslist is the better, faster, cheaper, clubbier classified ads and HAS traction in ALL major cities and many smaller ones The newspapers in major metropolitan areas were already getting craigslisted. Will this drag Yahoo with it as well?

Leaked Memos

I was really impressed by Brad Garlinghouse's memo that leaked to the WSJ (copy on Techcrunch). I was impressed not so much by the content which was long on generalities and light on specifics but by the effectiveness of the new PR paradigm called the leak.

Because of the linking nature of today's blogosphere (see the # of links at the bottom of the Techcrunch post) as well as general interest about companies in trouble, an insider leak of internal memos from key managers or rising management stars is a sure way to get attention. It is friction marketing of the first order and it was a brilliant move by Garlinghouse. Bill Gates did it (first in 1991 I believe) when Microsoft got in trouble or wanted to pick on/expose a competitor and he has been followed in step by Ray Ozzie and now we have Brad Garlinghouse at Yahoo. Garlinghouse was doubly brilliant because leaking it to the journal gives it an imprimatur of accuracy and credibility on Wall Street.

Leaks, especially at public companies, sit at the nexus of rumor, fact and insider intrigue. That premium position causes them to spread like wildfire, greased by rumor mongers, the fast pace of Wall Street information and bloggers. This triad makes the email leak a great way to bring external pressure to bear on internal issues by focusing a giant spotlight on them because everyone reads and sees the leaked memo.

Garlinghouse obviously learned the tactic from the master Gates and cloaked in purple and yellow patriotism he has now given the army of Yahoo skeptics on Wall Street all the ammunition they need to push for change. In fact, he gave them the roadmap the weaponry and the general on a white horse and all through an accidental leak.

By the way, did I tell you......

Widgets Widgets Everywhere

Some of you may have noticed the Scoop.co.il and SeekingAlpha widgets on the right side of the page. Well, the provider of those widgets Musestorm has launched launched a simple-as-pie widget creator at their website www.musestorm.com. It is pretty cool and very easy to use if you want to push content out. Look out soon for the sixkidsandafulltimejob widget - each of my kids will be syndicating it to push up my page rank :)

The Movies in Israel - Still 6 Months Late

When I was a teenager and used to visit Israel on vacation, I was always amused how movies that I had seen 6 months earlier in New York were just opening in Israel. It was always a mystery to me why it took a video reel 6 months to cross the Atlantic when I could do it in 11 hours. Well, I am happy to report that the movies now get to Israel on time but as the saying goes in Hebrew "I have seen this movie before." It now feels that the old movie time warp has reached Web 2.0 (i still wince at the term) entrepreneurship.

I spent much of last week at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco. I am happy to report to those of you that did not shell out $3000 for the conference that you missed nothing in the sessions and you could get the hallway shmooze fest without a badge (Go Eyal!). It was a good place to catch up with a lot of people but as many in the blogosphere have reported, the session content was, shall we say, light.

Speaking of light, the sheer number of entrepreneurs, features trying to be companies and VCs (yours truly included) and the new name "Summit" had the eery feeling of the end of a bubble. That lift in peoples' step as they wandered the hallway was a last burst of helium propelling entrepreneurs and VCs still chasing Web 2.0 glory. While "web 2.0" will certainly leave us lasting changes in the way we all interact with the internet and each other, its coronation as a category seems a bit far-reaching and overly invested, certainly at this point.

This brings me back to the "6 month movie delay." You see Web 2.0 seems to be just getting its start in Israel and with Israeli entrepreneurs. I am deluged with Web 2.0 slideware looking for money these days and only slightly less overwhelmed with some barely launched companies/features. For Israeli companies that started in these spaces 12-24 months ago and are approaching critical mass, you were on time and are hopefully building real companies in unqiue markets with limited competition. For those of you starting now, you are walking head-first into hyper-competitive markets with 5 VCs (somewhere in the world) funding independent companies going after the same problem. The conference, or "Summit" as John Batelle renamed it, was a great testament to the fact that 2.0 is now mainstream and no longer innovative in a meaningful sense. As Israelis we need to stay in touch with these ebbs and flows of the markets and try to innovate ahead of it and not in concert with it.

As for me, my web 2.0 bets are already in the ground and I am on to the next great thing (read:next bubble) WEB 3.0! Whatever the heck that is.

What Do Spam and the War on Terror have in Common?

Huh? Email annoyance and the war on terror? What could they have in common?

Until earlier this week, I also thought nothing. However, as I started to get more spam this week and began thinking about what happened to Benchmark portfolio company Blue Security on the one hand, and read about Israel discovering yet another 2 weapon smuggling tunnels and more bloodshed in Iraq, I saw a direct link. I thought it would be appropriate to address this topic on the day of Saddam Hussein's sentencing.

What spam and the war on terror have in common is that we can't defeat either, and, for a common reason. Spammers and terrorists are not bound by the same rules of engagement that western citizens or governments are. We could defeat spammers if we did not require opt-in to bombard spammers' servers as they do ours. We could defeat terrorists if we were willing to ignore "collateral damage" to civilians and other innocents. You see, both of these battles, spam and the war on terror, are being fought on unfair terms. We will not use our massive computing infrastructure to take out the spammers and the spammers know this and take advantage. It is an issue of willingness to cross moral lines, not a technology issue. Israel won't wantonly blow up Mosques or drop large bombs to kill terrorists if there are large numbers of civilians who may be killed. But terrorists do blow up civilian busses. We do not engage in lying to the world while developing nuclear weapons but Iran does. And, America, won't leave Iraq in a lurch by disengaging and letting the Sunnis and Shiites kill each other. The terrorists know this and continue to kill American soldiers. We tow a moral line which both spammers and terrorists are not bound by and it hurts.

I do realize that the stakes are different in the war on terror and spam. One is still an annoyance and the other existential. However, I think they both illustrate the unequal stage that the world theatre is playing out on now. In our increasingly globalized world, vastly different cultures are meeting and engaging for the first time in history at a dizzying pace. There are 2 different sets of rules of engagement out there and when the sides meet, those handcuffed by the stiffer rules have a hard go of it.

Change in the Venture Model or bubble 2.0

Matt Marshall and the NYT are reporting on Charles River Ventures announcement that they will be giving out $250,000 bridge loans on "simple terms." and a quick process. Judging by the number of blog posts picking this up, this is a very popular move. This is similar to the Gemini/Lightspeed internet incubator in Israel. I think the CRV observation that internet companies need less money now is correct. I also think it is healthy for them to have smaller amounts of money and simple cap structures that often get muddied in angel rounds. However, I think smart angels can actually benefit both the founders and the VCs if we all work in unison. In Israel I have seen a new cadre of angels that I think is having a positive impact on both venture scene and internet startups.

But back to the new VC model, I have a few questions:
1. As a VC, even if you can put out money quickly and easily, how do you invest time (added value?) in a larger number of small investments? How do you bring relationships to help on such a broad range of companies.
2. David Sze from Greylock asks a good question in the form of a statement in the NYT article: "But David Sze, a partner at Greylock Partners, which has led small investments in promising Internet start-ups like Digg, said the program could force entrepreneurs to commit to a particular venture firm before they are ready to do so."
3. This was clearly created to generate deal flow in an area, Internet, where CRV has not made a lot of investments, much in the same way that Gemini did in Israel to generate internet deals. This can lead to a flow of deals that it becomes hard to dig out from. Does it really float the quality to the top? And, if you are an entrepreneur, do you want to be in that pile?

In the bottom line, I think this is a brilliant marketing move by both CRV and Gemini moving to quickly establish positions in the internet space and a keen observation.

Competing or cooing with the Alexa problem

Yesterday, Bill Gross launched compete.com which provides free web metrics and wants to get us off the Alexa drug. Alexa results have always seemed terribly skewed, likely resulting from the heavy concentration of Alexa toolbar users in Silicon Valley. Compete.com claims to have double the toolbar installs that Alexa does and cross-correlates and normalizes the data with other sources such as ISPs and panels.

I played with compete.com this morning and to be honest, its results better conform to my gut check and what I know from some of my companies than Alexa does. This is not empirical evidence, just an instinct. That having been said, in the spirit of full and free disclosure that compete.com prides itself on, they should share with the community the geographic distribution of their toolbar installations. That would help allay concerns. The other limitation of compete.com is the lack of international data. This is critical information for many site owners and visitors, especially as it relates to social sites where I want to interact with people who are from similar cultural backgrounds.

We definitely need better metrics than Alexa provides and this is a step in the right direction. Not sure we are there yet though.

Desperate for Great Web Programmers

My situation is getting desperate so I am turning to my blog: I have 2 companies in Israel that desperately need great web programmers, with web programming experience. We need Flash, Java, PHP, AJAX and HTML skills. We are paying TOP DOLLAR for TOP TALENT. If you are a great programmer with experience and want to be part of two killer projects that are already venture backed, send me an email with your CV to Michael@benchmark.com. This is getting desperate.

If you are at one of Israel's web gaming companies, internet companies etc. get in touch!!!

New Media Mashup

Yesterday's Israeli newspapers reported that Las Vegas casino mogul Sheldon Adelson was negotiating to buy Israel's second largest daily newspaper, Maariv. This is on the heels of Adelson's reported investment in upstart free newspaper Yisraeli. The Israeli media market has always troubled me because of its highly concentrated ownership. Those who own the newspapers own the TV channels and some radio despite some of the regulators efforts to distribute ownership. It is a fact that a small number of well-heeled and politically/economically connected families control what Israeli citizens read and watch. Whereas in most democracies the media is the watchdog of democracy, I question sometimes whether that is the case in Israel. This of course is one of the reasons we launched Scoop.co.il, to give a voice to all Israelis and help regular citizens (the true leaders of Israeli society) to set the media agenda and not be subjected to the agendas of the concentrated control of the mainstream Israeli media.

But more help is on the way from the internet. This New York Times article entitled " In a Blurry World Ownership is Yesterday's News" that paints media cross-ownership rules in the United States as anachronistic rang true with me also in Israel. With web video going mainstream, American readers deserting the printed newspapers in droves (see NYT article "Circulation Plunges at Major Newspapers" , the emergence of blogs and the cross platform nature of digital content, the internet is wresting control of media from the moguls. This is also reinforced by the skepticism our generation has developed toward advertising and mainstream media.

Sooner rather than later, news, politics and entertainment is going to skirt these media filters. Politicians will talk directly to the body politic through blogs, podcasts and videos. Economic news such as hirings and firings will leak from employees to blogs and online sites faster than either TV or the press can get to it. Soldiers in the field will report events using SMS in a way that no spin doctor will be able to remedy. And, a new cadre of analysts will emerge through the grassroots using the web's short form and rapid response medium to reach and interact with their audience. Isn't that better for consumers than being stuffed with an analyst anointed by Editor or owner X who gave the analyst a platform from which to pontificate?

Furthermore, spontaneous protest groups and interest groups will form online and through SMS rather than relying on newspaper advertising or appearances on talk shows to get their messages out. We have so many important issues and voices in our country that need to be heard and respected and the web will give them all an unfettered platform for us to judge for ourselves in the market of ideas. I feel that time is coming to Israel soon and I can't wait!

**update: Since my post I now see an announcement in Globes today that Efi Triger, a major talent from Israel's channel 10 television station is moving over to run heep.co.il, Israel's local version of Youtube and metacafe (Benchmark company).