The Times reports today that BSkyB is in advanced talks to buy UK online gaming and sports company 365 Media for £94m. 365 Media Group used to be called ukbetting and claims around 9m users every month. 365 is focused on the UK market which has meant it wasn't targeted during the recent clampdown on online gambling in the US. Sky wouldn't confirm or deny the story.
Also: Start-up publishing mistakes, BT's content value tool, vodka.com sells for $3m, CBS launches digital label, Norway trials personalised mobile TV ads, EMI/Last.fm's music map and a star-struck Steve Rubel.
• Making mistakes in online publishing
Online Journalism Review has a detailed piece on the common mistakes made by new online publishers and, bravely, asks for publishers to submit their own advice. That might mean admitting some mistakes.
For starters, common mistakes are: throwing money at a site, using misleading traffic numbers and telling the world what you're doing before you actually do it.
"Embrace the Web's interactivity and make it a resource to enliven your reporting and writing. Don't expect to get rich, famous or win awards. Focus instead on building a relationship with your readers that develops a useful publication, filled with engaging information that they will not want to do without. Don't expect any of this to happen overnight, either. Use realistic traffic numbers to project your ability to earn revenue (or attract financial backers). Then keep your expenses below that level... or be willing to admit that your website is a cash-draining hobby."
• Content value calculator
BT has launched an online tool that will calculate the value of locally stored music, video and photos. Not out of the kindness of their hearts, you understand, but as part of their digital vault service. This is a growing market; insurance for digital stuff was launched by Nationwide in September.
• Russian vodka firm pays $3m for vodka.com
Russia's biggest vodka manufacturer the Russian Standard Company has paid $3m for the address vodka.com. Next to the reported sale of sex.com for $12m earlier this year, that looks like quite a bargain. From Reuters.
• CBS to launch digital record label
CBS Records is to launch a digital record label in January. The attraction seems to have been the low cost of entry,rising music-licensing costs and the ease of digital distribution according to this piece in Variety.
• Norway trials custom mobile TV ads
Norwegian broadcaster NRK is running a two-month trial of personalised TV ads on its mobile TV service. This is about presenting ads related to the TV content but also related to the location of the phone, so they might be shown an ad for a nearby shop or restaurant. From the BBC.
• EMI partners with Last.fm on music map
Last.fm is a genius social net site built around music. EMI seems to have worked out that it is missing a trick here and is working with the site on a music map designed to help users find other music they like. Thanks netimperative. EMI have graciously allowed non-EMI artists to be included in the map but with more functionality like biographies and special offers for the EMI names.
• Meeting the Micro-maker
Steve Rubel gets all star-struck on Micro Persuasion after meeting Bill Gates.
"This has been on my calendar for over a month now and I had plenty of time to process it mentally before Gates arrived. Still, it's a rush once the world's richest man and one of the most influential people in business and world affairs sits right down across a table from you. A bunch of us were overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of the moment. I have never met a President of the United States but this sure felt like it for me."
He paraphrases Gates' answers to a whole bunch of disparate questions but the last is the most interesting to me: what does the operating system look like in 3-4 years? It will evolve faster, said Gates, and more user centric as you move from machine to machine. It will replicate trivial stuff up to the cloud and back, cross-PC and cross-device. I want that whole cloud thing now, dammit.
• Ilana Fox moves to News Group
News Group Digital has poached Ilana Fox from Associated Northcliffe Digital to become its new community editor from January 2007.
Ilana will now be community editor for News Group instead, working on projects involving moderation, blogging and interaction for MySun and Times Online.
At Associated, Ilana oversaw the introduction of reader comments to the bottom of news stories on the Daily Mail site and launched new blogs with journalists including Peter Hitchens and Baz Bamigboye. She also oversaw the integration of user contributions from the thisislondon site into the London Lite newspaper when it launched.
Ilana joined Associated in October 2004. She said she doesn't have her own blog but writes novels instead and the first of those is due to be published this summer.
AND is also losing general manager Dave Killeen in a couple of weeks. He's off to Hachette Filipacchi to start as director of digital, which means heading up its new digital division and responsibility for publishing eight titles online.
