By , October 04, 2013.

These Journalists Spent Two Years and $750,000 Covering One Story — Writes Peter Osnos of the Atlantic, “It costs a lot, but investigative reporting can save lives. And non-profits lead the way in producing high-quality, in-depth stories. So who’s going to pay for them?” Maybe they can sell t-shirts?

Breaking Up With ‘Breaking Bad’ Is Hard for Albuquerque — A highlight of the contributions that film and television production have on local economies. “During the show’s run, the production directly employed an average of 200 people, said Wayne Rauschenberger, chief operating officer at Albuquerque Studios, the 28-acre facility where much of the show was filmed. Beyond that, there were lumber yards, antique stores, limousine companies, hotels, caterers and others performing ancillary functions. Residents were hired as extras, and homeowners and businesses were paid for filming privileges.”

A Conversation with Dr. David Price Part 1 — David Newhoff chats with Price, author of the recent NetNames report Sizing the Piracy Universe. The result is an in-depth and engaging discussion. Continued in Part 2.

New York Times: “David Lowery Represents the Anger of Musicians In the Internet Age…” — “Because the tech industry still hasn’t innovated a way to shut up David Lowery.” Digital Music New’s intro to this New York Times article.

An interesting duo from the Trichordist, whose titles speak for themselves: Record Labels Invest $4.5 Billion Annually in Artists… Pirates, $0… Any Questions? and Grand Theft Auto V: How Profits Soar when Piracy is Managed.

Why Ad Blocking can Hurt Ad Blockers — Jonathan Bailey writes, “The end result though is that ad blocking doesn’t push the Internet toward a future free of advertising, rather, it pushes us toward a future of ads tougher to separate from the content and harder to remove. We’re likely nudging toward this future regardless of ad blocking, but ad blocking is certainly a factor and could become a much bigger one. The only way to ensure better business models and a better future for content is to support the content creators that you feel are finding the right chords.”

5 Comments

  1. As to the 3 journalists that “spent $750K” for one story, not one of them can tell us how much money has been stolen by Google, YouTube, RapidShare, Fileshare, HotFile, Oron.net, DailyMotion, Facebook, Twitter, MetaCafe, et al (an infinite list that grows every day), and then returned to copyright owners and retailers after every single DMCA Take Down Notice has beenb issued.

    How about Trillions stolen and not one nickel returned. And then punitive damages, compulsory damages, and more. And how many inventoried physical objects have been reduced to a zero value vs. non-inventoried digital file copies (the later not protected in any copyright law or amendment)?

    How much? $750K for 3 journalists on one story vs. what has just been written above? That’s cheap change, a disgrace.

  2. Terry, you left out the reason why Breaking Bad was filmed in New Mexico – millions of dollars in government giveaways. This year, New Mexico’s taxpayers paid 30% of the show’s local labor costs under the so-called “Breaking Bad Bill,” in addition to millions in tax credits. Maybe the show was still a net positive for the state’s economy, but that’s far from clear.

    • Devlin Hartline

      Terry, you left out the reason why Breaking Bad was filmed in New Mexico – millions of dollars in government giveaways. This year, New Mexico’s taxpayers paid 30% of the show’s local labor costs under the so-called “Breaking Bad Bill,” in addition to millions in tax credits. Maybe the show was still a net positive for the state’s economy, but that’s far from clear.

      It was a tax refund, right? So they paid the taxes themselves, and then a fraction of that payment was returned to them. How is that the same thing as “New Mexico’s taxpayers pa[ying] 30% of the show’s local labor costs”? They paid their own local labor costs, including the taxes associated with those costs. They paid less in taxes than they would have without the subsidy, but I don’t think it’s accurate to say that it cost the New Mexico taxpayers anything. Am I missing something? And as far as whether it was a “net positive for the state’s economy,” why would so many states have similar subsidies if it weren’t?

  3. Devlin Hartline

    These Journalists Spent Two Years and $750,000 Covering One Story — Writes Peter Osnos of the Atlantic, “It costs a lot, but investigative reporting can save lives. And non-profits lead the way in producing high-quality, in-depth stories. So who’s going to pay for them?” Maybe they can sell t-shirts?

    As one who until recently was guilty of thinking “if two are good, three are better,” I really appreciate the Tylenol story. I’ve told/warned several people about it. I might buy that t-shirt! 🙂