Commentary: Report shines little new light on journalism woes

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In the winter of 2009, Seattle was the center of a global maelstrom that has yet to bottom out: the collapse of the advertiser-supported business model that funded mainstream journalism. The Seattle P-I published its last printed edition that March after a flurry of town halls and salons where journalists, academics and news junkies tried… Read More…

Horses and Bayonets: The top 10 sound bites from the Barack Obama-Mitt Romney debate

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Last night’s final presidential debate produced some of the best zingers of the campaign, with President Barack Obama sounding off about “horses and bayonets” and former Governor Mitt Romney proclaiming that he likes “American cars.” Tracking all of the action throughout the campaign has been Seattle startup Hark, one of the biggest repositories of audio… Read More…

Amazon.com vets launch news service Goldfinch, hoping to fill Summify void

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I was a huge fan of the news aggregation service Summify, and was bummed when the Vancouver, B.C. was shut down this past summer after being sold to Twitter. But now two former senior technologists who helped build the product recommendation engines at Amazon.com — Bob Cottrell and Andrej Gregov — are hoping to fill the… Read More…

Leaning left or right? This browser plugin looks to bring balance to political news

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It’s an election year, which means a lot of mud is being slung in various media outlets. Oftentimes, it’s hard to find the truth among all of the clutter. But a new online tool could help identify biases in news reporting, pointing consumers of news to other viewpoints, especially when they’ve been fed too many… Read More…

Get to know your neighborhood: Walk Score unveils new crowd-sourced pictorial guides

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Seattle’s Walk Score today rolled out a series of new community-oriented features for the Web site and iPhone app that allow individuals to get more information — primarily via photos — of the neighborhoods in which they live. “In a nutshell, we’re enabling our users to share and discover the places that make neighborhoods unique,”… Read More…

LOLwork: Cheezburger TV show coming to Bravo Nov. 7

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Bravo film crews have been hanging out at Cheezburger’s offices in lower Queen Anne, getting footage for the release of their new reality TV show. Cheezburger CEO Ben Huh has been keeping his lips sealed when it comes to anything having to do with the new show. But Bravo just released some previews, and announced… Read More…

Tech Moves: Cheezburger adds AllRecipes vet Dunn as Sawicki changes roles

Todd Sawicki at Ignite. Photo via Randy Stewart

Cheezburger’s Todd Sawicki is transitioning to a new position at the online humor network, taking on the role of vice president of audience. Taking over for Sawicki is newly-appointed chief revenue officer Amber Dunn, a former senior vice president at Seattle-based AllRecipes.com. Dunn will oversee Cheezburger’s advertising sales, marketing and merchandising. Both Sawicki and Dunn… Read More…

Netflix loses out as Amazon inks deal with Epix for popular movies

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Amazon.com continues to bolster its collection of movie titles for its Prime Instant Video service, announcing today that it has struck a deal with Viacom’s Epix premium cable channel for thousands of movies. The new titles will be provided from studios such as Paramount Pictures, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and Lionsgate, bolstering Amazon’s position in the video content… Read More…

In ongoing battle versus media powerhouses, streaming video service Ivi loses appeal

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Seattle streaming video startup Ivi Inc. has been hit with another setback in its battle against some of the country’s biggest media companies.  The young upstart was shut down by a federal judge last year over its live, streaming TV service, one which allowed customers to gain access to TV programming at a low monthly cost… Read More…