The Mythical Viewer

They all seem pitched toward the same mythical viewer, presumably the one prized by Internet advertisers, whose mind appears to be occupied with a sticky mix of celebrity gossip, blockbuster movies, video games, zombies, action sports and news of the weird.

Mike Hale of the New York Times, writing about new channels on YouTube

Liveblogging Yahoo's Q1 Earnings Call: Get Me to Funky Town

MicroHoo is funky! At least according to Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz on the Silicon Valley search giant’s first-quarter earnings conference call about its recent financial performance. Yahoo’s results showed a continued worrisome revenue growth stall, due in large part to a search advertising fall-off, and a still-turning turnaround.

Yahoo's Got a Digital Newsstand

Chief Product Officer Blake Irving defines Yahoo as “the premier digital media company in content and context.” That’s a far shorter answer to the “what is Yahoo” question than the one he provided last year. A bit more cogent too. And it sets the stage for the company’s latest push into mobile content, Livestand, which it announced moments ago.

Viral Video: Mel Gibson and a Beaver

Wacky actor Mel Gibson has been the gift that keeps on giving to online gossip sites, with a string of ever more controversial episodes in his personal life. Well, a new movie, “The Beaver,” about a man going crazy and the beaver puppet that returns him to mental health, is not going to help much to make anyone think Gibson is sane.

Viral Video: A Dilemma Solved (And Also for Perez Hilton?)

Here’s the new trailer for the upcoming movie “The Dilemma,” minus a joke that used the word “gay” in a negative manner. With the recent spate of bullyings of gay teens that have ended in tragedy, such a move is probably wise and not too surprising. More surprising was another, in which gossip blogger Perez Hilton vowed to stop being so mean on his popular (and very mean) Web site.

Winklevii Vs. Zuck: Who'd You Rather?

The Facebook movie might have performed slightly below box office expectations last weekend for Sony movie unit Columbia Pictures, but it certainly has invaded the mainstream zeitgeist. Still, BoomTown was quite surprised to see a mention of “The Social Network” on one of my favorite celebrity sites, TMZ.com.

EXCLUSIVE: On the Internet, No One Knows Your Story Is Make-Believe

Or more accurately, no one really cares if your story is make-believe. How Radar Online’s fable about the Supreme Court became “news.”

Same Beat, Different Boss: New York Post Media Reporter Peter Lauria Jumps to The Daily Beast

Instead of working for Rupert Murdoch, veteran reporter Peter Lauria will be answering to Barry Diller. The more important change: He’ll have the ability to publish more than once a day. Welcome to 2010, Peter!

Voices

Keep a Civil Cybertongue

In less than 20 years, the World Wide Web has irrevocably expanded the number of ways we connect and communicate with others. This radical transformation has been almost universally praised. What hasn’t kept pace with the technical innovation is the recognition that people need to engage in civil dialogue. What we see regularly on social networking sites, blogs and other online forums is behavior that ranges from the carelessly rude to the intentionally abusive.

TMZ Sports? Why Not?

Is TMZ looking to branch into sports? It’s already there. But a spinoff makes plenty of sense.
tiger woods tmz

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