Changes take effect

The Detroit Free Press begins Monday its push toward sustaining journalism in the digital media age. The paper will print three days a week for home delivery (Thursday, Friday and Sunday) as well as daily for coin machines. It will be sent digitally to subscribers each morning. It will still maintain its Web site (free for all, updated 24-7). It will also begin sending free e-mail newsletters to those who sign up. Social networking will also be integrated with Facebook and Twitter, and eventually e-readers will begin to carry a version of the paper. I watched the video below and became hopeful all the planning will pay off. One of the residents interviewed in the clip calls journalism the "fourth branch of the government." I believe this is true, as there is an important role newspapers and journalism play in our democracy. I also loved the part where a staff member taught senior citizens how to use the digital edition on laptops! One was overjoyed at the thought of printing out two copies of the Sudoku—adorable! The entire newspaper world will be watching to see if this model pans out (I'm crossing my fingers that it does).

200,000th user to join Facebook

"Is Facebook Growing Too Fast?" An article in the NYTimes asks that question of the five-year-old social networking site's growth within the last year—it doubled its size from 100,000 users last August to 200,000 sometime this week.

Facebook settles with ConnectU for $65 million

Somebody's in trouble.... 

Facebook, my most often-used social networking site, settled with ConnectU, whose founders claimed Mark Zuckerberg (the CEO of FB) stole their idea, for $65 million. The suit was filed in 2004.

According to the LATimes, details of the settlement were meant to be confidential, but the law firm in charge of the deal let it slip in a newsletter. As part of the deal, the founders of ConnectU—twin brothers Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss—were to receive the amount in cash and stock options. The ratio of cash:stock has not been released.