Poor Microsoft. The next hurting blow comes from Japan with the announcement this week that the Mainichi Shimbun, one of the LARGEST circulating newspapers in the country, has decided to cut their online ties with MSN Japan and create their own Web 2.0 site called Mainichi.jp. The new site is to launch October 1, 2007.
This story is of interest on two fronts. The first, of course, is how easily the newspaper cut the tie with Microsoft. The partnership was formed at the beginning of 2004 and has had good success migrating selected content online. The site even launched an English language translation of Japanese news which is become a favorite of both foreigners in the country and English speaking Japan watchers around the world. The English site will also be migrated to the new Mainichi.jp site.
The second point of interest here are the intentions of the Mainichi Shimbun. There is a FULL acknowledgment of the blogosphere and particular attention will be given to “established alpha bloggers”, known in the rest of the world as A-Listers. It wasn’t released who these individuals will be but it’s safe to say Technorati Japan will be fully utilized to establish at least a list of contenders they will be approaching. Commenting and RSS feeds of the online edition will also be promoted, though I have been VERY disappointed with how Japan has utilized RSS to distribute the news so far. The only other competitor in this game is Japan Today which is completely an online news source from Japan (often translating to English various sources).
I give Mainichi full credit for not only taking this bold move of leaving Microsoft and building something from scratch, but also taking the initiative in an area most major newspapers are STILL afraid to venture into throughout the world. Good going!
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September 23rd, 2007 at 3:35 pm
Actually, the announcement of the launch of Mainichi.jp was made back at the end of June.
Given that MSN had also simultaneously announced (http://www.sankei.co.jp/keizai/it/070627/itt070627000.htm) that it is joining forces with Sankei Shimbun - who amongst other things are the people behind iza.ne.jp, the first real attempt to embrace the blogging community by a Japanese newspaper, I’m not so sure that it is really a major loss for Microsoft.
I’m not particularly convinced that most of the visitors to MSN care about or will even notice a switch of news providers.
As for A-list bloggers actually blogging something substantive about current affairs and politics, they are as rare as hens’ teeth. The interesting blogs in this area do not rely on sources as vapid as Japanese mass media, especially not the newspapers, who haven’t scooped a real story in years.
October 1st, 2007 at 3:07 am
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October 1st, 2007 at 3:28 am
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