Well, whaddya know? Amazon has reached a deal to acquire Audible. Amazon now sells books, e-books, and audio books. Awesome. [CNET, Last100]

Saul Hansell wrote a good, “hold your horses, there”-type article in the New York Times on the apparent all-out war between Netflix and Apple’s online movie rental offerings. In the article he explains that, while both are technically in the online movie rental business, they actually cater to different markets: Netflix concentrates on having a large collection of older movies as an add-on to its DVD rental business while Apple is going after the latest releases and is positioning itself as an alternative to DVD rentals. And, though there is an overlap, for the time being both companies should be happy in their own niches.

Of course, there’s also the issue that Netflix’s service doesn’t work on the Mac while iTune’s service works on any OS as well as on Apple’s portable media devices (Apple TV, iPod, etc.). Again, that’s not too much of an issue since they are catering to different markets. People who rent DVDs are probably not the type who’d want to watch a movie on their tiny iPod screens. Of course, Netflix is still missing out on the small proportion of users who own only a Mac, but I guess adding a Mac-compatible offering of an already add-on service isn’t all that high in its list of priorities.

So a couple of fun things have happened in the online media landscape over the last few days.

First, in anticipation of the announcement that everyone was expecting from Steve Jobs during his Macworld keynote address, Netflix ditched its online movie viewing quota. Steve O’Hear from Last100 explains what that means:

As of today, all subscribers except those on the most basic two DVDs per-month plan will be given unlimited access to the 6,000+ movies available as part of Netflix’s Internet streaming option, dubbed “Watch Instantly”. Previously, subscribers were offered a limited number of Internet viewing hours based on which DVD rental plan they were on.

This is really cool, especially since Netflix has a subscription model and doesn’t charge on a per-movie basis.

Second, as expected, Steve Jobs announced Apple’s entry into the online movie downloads space during his keynote address yesterday. To see how this stacks up against Netflix’s model, O’Hear compared the two based on (1) content, (2) pricing, and (3) convenience.

Each offering has its pros and cons: Neither has the upper hand in content, Netflix has better pricing (subscription model), while Apple has greater convenience (great hardware-software coupling and the ability to watch the downloaded movie on multiple devices). Of course, both are still limited by telecommunications infrastructure (especially Apple’s movies-in-HD offering for Apple TV) and the reluctance of movie studios to fully embrace the online rental concept. And though the market for online movie rentals is still small, it is growing (thanks, in part, to the writer’s strike).

So, at this time, it’s not clear how things will go. What I do know is that 2008 should be a fun year in online movie rentals.

Earlier today Tim O’Reilly wrote an excellent article on how Wikipedia is the new face of publishing. Fundamentally, he writes, Wikipedia is much like any other publishing organization because it has both “a large network of contributors and a core of committed regulars”. That is why it puzzles him when publishing houses scoff at Wikipedia’s content generation model. After all, they use the same model themselves.

This is just as true of any publishing company. Did Bloomsbury’s editors invent Harry Potter? No, it was a welfare mom who dreamed up the idea while riding on the train.

What has changed, though, is the technology that brings contributors and publishers together and the speed at which all this happens.

John Hockenberry, a former NBC Dateline correspondent, writes a fascinating article in the January/February 2008 issue of MIT’s Technology Review in which he talks about how the US news media actively chooses to go with emotion-centred news stories (that appeal to as many people as possible) as opposed to more relevant, hard-hitting, and (dare I say) real news stories.

Networks are built on the assumption that audience size is what matters most. Content is secondary; it exists to attract passive viewers who will sit still for advertisements. For a while, that assumption served the industry well. But the TV news business has been blind to the revolution that made the viewer blink: the digital organization of communities that are anything but passive. Traditional market-driven media always attempt to treat devices, audiences, and content as bulk commodities, while users instead view all three as ways of creating and maintaining smaller-scale communities. As users acquire the means of producing and distributing content, the authority and profit potential of large traditional networks are directly challenged.

It’s a long article, though, so if you want a quicker version, read what Jacqui Cheng has to say about it over at Ars Technica. Both are great to read, by the way.

Peter Sciretta from /Film has compiled a list of the ten highest revenue generating Hollywood film directors. Obviously, Steven Spielberg tops the list and, if you want a list of the next ten, check the comments.

Interestingly, as Sciretta points out, six of the top ten have been involved in trilogies, three others have been involved in big franchises, and the only one who hasn’t done either is in the process of directing his first sequel. Oh, and they’re all white men, of course.

Ever wanted a basic (i.e. address, phone number, and URL) media company directory for Australia that is both online and free? Mediabay.

Hot on the heels of his Internet TV in 2007 roundup, Last100′s Steve O’Hear has written a good roundup of digital music in 2007. He talks about DRM, mobile music stores & services, and the other alternative models for online music distribution that were used in 2007.

Last100′s Steve O’Hear wrote a good roundup of Internet TV in 2007 and what we should expect of it in 2008. He covers YouTube’s continued dominance of the online video market, what television networks and film studios are up to, how Internet TV is being watch on both desktop and televisions, and how the DivX standard is being increasingly adopted by vendors.

Leo Laporte, of TechTV and TWiT fame (the latter being home to two of my favourite audio netcasts), was one of the keynote speakers at the Blogworld Expo held in Las Vegas in November this year. You can find a video of his excellent keynote speech, with a rather inspirational introduction by Six Apart’s Anil Dash, here on In Business TV’s Brightcove channel.

Leo talks about the new face of media, where he sees new media going, and what it’ll take to get it there. If you have the time, make sure you take a listen. It’s a large file and takes a while to download, but it’s worth it.

P.S. Apologies for the long hiatus from blogging. The last three weeks of term (including exam week) were really busy and since end of term I’ve been on vacation. I’m back now and should get back to posting regularly very soon.