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Updated: NYT Mistakenly Sends Mass E-Mail Claiming Subs Have Canceled

Staci D. Kramer — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 02:06:37 +0000

My first impulse when I got an e-mail offering a discounted subscription if I’d rethink my decision to cancel home delivery of the New York Times was someone on the paper’s end misunderstood a holiday stop order. Then the second one came and others started getting it too.

What’s going on? An NYT spokesperson first said it “seems to be spam” and the paper is looking into it, then someone tweeted through @nytimes: “If you received an email today about canceling your NYT subscription, ignore it. It’s not from us.”

If I’d been online and not on my phone at the time I might have realized it wasn’t legit sooner despite how official it looks — or at least that it wasn’t directly aimed at me as a subscriber. The e-mail comes from email.newyorktimes.com; my NYT invoices usually come from customer care@nytimes,com via a third-party mailer. The link goes to NYTimes.com, not a credit card fishing site so it seems innocuous enough on the consumer side. For the paper, it’s more disruptive — creating confusion and possibly leading consumers to demand the 16-week half-price discount offered in the e-mail.

If it wasn’t an in-house error, the mailing also raises the issue of customer list security and privacy — which could cause even more headaches.

Update: Looks like I hit publish too soon. After insisting the e-mail was a fake, now the paper says it was a mistake:

“An email was sent earlier today from The New York Times in error. This email should have been sent to a very small number of subscribers, but instead was sent to a vast distribution list made up of people who had previously provided their email address to The New York Times (NYSE: NYT). We regret the error.”

So no privacy breach — but a bit of a black eye given the quick assumption internally that it had to be spam.

In Russia, DST's Mail.ru And Yandex Ramp Up Mobile Presence

Ingrid Lunden — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 18:24:42 +0000

Following on from its acquisition of mobile software developer SPB at the end of November, Yandex is making one more move to increase its ubiquity among the growing number of smartphone users in the country: the search giant is reportedly planning to launch search apps for Apple’s iOS devices by the end of this year.

The news comes at the same time that another big Russian internet property, Digital Sky Technology’s free mail provider Mail.ru, is also releasing a product it hopes will increase its use among mobile consumers in the country: it has partnered with Nokia (NYSE: NOK) to develop a new web browser for Nokia’s S40 feature phones, which remain some of the most popular in the country.

The Yandex deal will see the company launch an iPhone app by the end of this year, with an app optimised or for the iPad tablet in 2012. The news was first reported by the Russian financial newspaper Vedomosti, which cited company spokesperson Ochir Mandzhikov for the launch dates.

Yandex has some 10 apps already published for Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) devices — covering maps, navigation and mail — but this will be the first one dedicated to search, the company’s bread and butter from a revenue perspective, where (like Google (NSDQ: GOOG), China’s Baidu (NSDQ: BIDU) and other search portals) it runs advertising alongside search results. The app will also give users quick access to other Yandex services such as weather and exchange rates.

Meanwhile, Mail.ru is launching a new web browser for S40 feature phones, which remain some of the most popular in Russia today. In collaboration with Nokia, Mail.ru is integrating a number of its services, such as e-mail, news and social networking, into a browser that it says is specially optimized for smaller screens and lower bandwidth use (some of these devices, for example, will not even necessarily have 3G capabilities, or processors to handle heavy data files from the Internet).

What’s interesting about the S40 deal is that these were all the kinds of services that Nokia in the past had tried to develop itself, but is now conceding to other companies that are either stronger players in these areas technologically, that already have strong local presences (mail.ru is the biggest of the free mail providers in Russia today) — or ideally both.

Nokia’s Russia director, Alexander Kopanev, notes that the deal with mail.ru is a first for Nokia in Russia — and it will be interesting to see if Nokia tries to replicate the relationship with other local search giants in other markets, or whether it tries to work with other properties in the DST umbrella (the company is also a shareholder of Facebook, among other holdings).

For Yandex, the move into iOS search apps represents a significant step forward on the platform, where it has so far not gotten very far with discussions with Apple to preload the service on to devices sold in Russia. It has inked some other key deals to preload its services: with Samsung for its connected TVs and bada phones, as well as with Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) for its Windows phones distributed in the market. It also had an existing agreement with Nokia for its Symbian handsets.

The Vedomosti article notes that while Yandex is still the biggest search engine in Russia, the rise of Android devices and other smartphones have put something of a dent in its market share. That’s because the Android devices default to Google’s search services, while on iOS devices Google is the default search on Safari, Apple’s own default web browser.

Google’s Android currently accounts for 27 percent of all mobile devices sold in Russia — a three-fold rise over the last year — while Apple’s share is now five percent (from one percent a year ago). Yandex’s share of the search market is 60.8 percent, a decline of 3.6 percentage points. Google’s has gone up by almost the same amount, 3.5 percent, to a total of 25.4 percent of the market.

Mail.ru, on the other hand, appears to be making more of a play not for the platforms that may dominate more in the future, but for the ones that are strongest today. Nokia currently sells some 27 models of devices built on its S40 platform, which makes it the most popular platform for what is still the biggest mobile device vendor in the Russia.

The new Mail.ru-optimized browser is available for download by existing users, and will presumably be bundled into new devices that will be sold in the future.

DailyCandy Deals Teams With NBCU Sibling LX.TV On Video Series

David Kaplan — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 16:00:01 +0000

Women’s fashion and lifestyle e-newsletter and deals network DailyCandy is unveiling its first foray into broadband video through its partnership with its Comcast/NBC (NSDQ: CMCSA) Universal sibling LX.TV. The first show the two will work on is 1st Look, which will be focused around its daily deals showcase.

DailyCandy, which was acquired by Comcast for $125 million three years ago, was initially added to the cable operator’s interactive advertising channel. But that really didn’t involve video.

DailyCandy’s roots are in e-newsletters, where it shed a spotlight on fashion, entertainment and lifestyle features. The content was more akin to magazine’s perennial “holiday gift guides,” which were generally chosen by editors and instead of sponsors. The idea of turning something that looked like marketing into independent editorial content has served as the model for a range of deals sites that have grown in the latter half of DailyCandy’s 11 years of existence.

In the spring 2009, DailyCandy began expanding its e-newsletter pieces into broadband video.

The company then began getting deeper into the deals space with its city-specific DailyCandy Deals channel and thethe national sample sales offering Swirl.

While DailyCandy represents several ways that Comcast has developed an online strategy, LX.TV represents NBCU’s attempts to forge a web strategy around its local station’s digital content. A few months before Comcast bought DailyCandy in 2008, NBCU acquired the “luxury lifestyle” video site. Over time, LX.TV has expanded from the web to the back of NYC taxi cabs as part of the NBCU’s local news updates. It’s also featured on weekending programming.

Given the similar focus of the two properties, it’s natural that DailyCandy and LX.TV have come together.

The plan calls for DailyCandy Deals to provide discounts on locales featured in the first three shows – Late Night Bites (September 24), New York City Nightlife (October 1), and Best Thing Between Two Buns (October 8) in New York, Chicago, and San Francisco. The LX.TV DailyCandy Deals from every city will live on a special web page located online at DailyCandy/FirstLook.

The Wages Of Spam: ‘Spam King’ Who Hit Facebook, MySpace May Go To Jail

Joe Mullin — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 23:50:54 +0000

A famed spammer’s long career in the business looks like it’s coming to a close, and could end with a prison sentence. Sanford Wallace-long ago dubbed “Spamford” Wallace-has been the bane of social networks like Facebook and MySpace for years, but last week he turned himself in to the FBI. You wouldn’t know it from looking at his Google+ account, though.

Wallace is a 43-year-old Las Vegas resident who moonlights as DJ MasterWeb when he isn’t engaged in e-mail hijinks. He surrendered to the FBI on Thursday and will be prosecuted in San Jose federal court. He’s scheduled to appear there on Aug. 22. He stands accused of sending more than 27 million spam messages, including an alleged scheme to spam Facebook users in 2008 and 2009 that compromised about 500,000 legitimate Facebook accounts.

Even before the criminal indictment issued, Wallace had been on the receiving end of massive civil judgments for violating the federal anti-spam law, called the CAN-SPAM act. Facebook got a $711 million judgment against Wallace in 2009; that followed the $230 million anti-spam judgment that MySpace won in 2008.

Those massive fines didn’t follow trials. They were “default judgments” that went into effect because Wallace simply didn’t show up in court to defend himself. The civil cases also resulted in a judicial order that Wallace stop using MySpace and Facebook. He might not have been able to help himself, however-he’s accused of violating that order by logging into his Facebook account on a Virgin Airlines flight from Las Vegas to New York.

Needless to say, social networks probably shouldn’t count on any big payments from Wallace, although if convicted some restitution could be part of his sentence. He filed for bankruptcy back in 2009, just before he made a rare court appearance, realizing the threat of criminal charges was beginning to materialize.

If convicted on all counts, Wallace could be facing up to 40 years in prison. (That’s mainly because the three charges of damaging a protected computer are felonies that can be punished with up to 10 years each.) But federal judges have a lot of discretion in sentencing, and if he is convicted, it’s hard to believe a federal judge would slap a spammer with a prison sentence more suited to a murderer.

Facebook issued a statement form its lead security counsel, Chris Sonderby, saying: “We applaud the efforts of the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the FBI to bring spammers to justice. Two years ago, Facebook sued Wallace and a federal court ordered him to pay a $711 million judgment for sending unwanted messages and wall posts to people on Facebook. Now Wallace also faces serious jail time for this illegal conduct.”

Mike Masnick at Techdirt has some more history about Wallace. Apparently he started off his career in the junk-fax business, and moved on to email in the mid-90s. Wallace also had a run-in with the FTC over distributing spyware back in 2004.

Wallace didn’t immediately respond to an e-mail to his personal account. He seems to be favoring Google+ these days, and recent posts indicate he’s taking the episode in stride. He’s been posting party pics from around the San Francisco Bay Area on his Google+ account.

The tagline in Wallace’s Google+ account now reads, “2011 will prove to be an interesting year in my life.” That is certainly true.

Hacking Digest: Sun Editor Sacked; Miskiw Speaks; Lawyer Victims; Sunday

Ingrid Lunden — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 04:34:38 +0000

James Murdoch’s testimony on phone hacking is getting called into question by those who were closest to the situation at the time: that could have a huge impact on his position at the company if proven to be true. But it wasn’t the only big development today in the News International hacking scandal…

– Sun editor sacked: Another News International employee has left the building. Matt Nixson (pictured, from his Twitter feed) was the features editor for the The Sun, but he used to work for News of the World, and earlier today he was escorted out by four security guards. Although no specific reason has yet been given for his firing, it is known that it was instigated by the newly-strengthened Management and Standards Committee as part of its ongoing internal investigation. (via Guardian)

– Greg Miskiw: The former news editor at News of the World, who now lives in Florida, is heading back to London for questioning by authorities. He is alleged to have been involved in some of the phone hacking and dealings with the police for procuring other information. (via Telegraph)

– Lawyers: A report in tonight’s Newsnight program on BBC notes that lawyers representing some of those claiming to have had their phones hacked, were hacked themselves.

– Rupert and Wendi interviewed: Remember those long pauses and deliberate answers from News Corp (NSDQ: NWS) CEO Rupert Murdoch when he was getting questioned by MPs on Tuesday? Well, rewind a mere few weeks and see a completely different face of Rupert, as he and Tiger Wife Wendi get interviewed by Chinese television. (via Telegraph)

– Mobile tracking: Possibly worse even than mobile hacking in terms of how intrusive it is, mobile tracking data was also regularly being used by News of the World, according to claims from the late Sean Hoare, an ex-NOTW journalist-turned-whistleblower. MP Jenny Jones has now written to Scotland Yard asking it to investigate claims that some of that data was being purchased by NOTW and to seek a guarantee that anyone who suspects unlawful tracking will have the complaint investigated. (via Guardian)

– Sunday: That, apparently, is the name of the new tabloid being put together by the publishers of the Daily Mail, Associated Newspapers, with aim being to pick up new readers in the wake of the closure of NOTW. This is not the first time we’ve heard this venture mentioned, but what’s interesting here is the further detail about the content.

Apparently Sunday will be “based on” the SportsJournalists.co.uk)

To see all our coverage of the hacking affair in one handy place, check out our NOTW page, and for the wider corporate perspective, the News Corp page.

NYT On The ‘Psychology Of Sharing’: E-Mail Still Rules

David Kaplan — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 19:30:56 +0000

When the New York Times first began talking about creating a metered paywall for its website last year, the company was quick to note that social media links would be exempt in order to keep the traffic flowing. Hoping to get a better sense of who shares links and why, the NYT commissioned a study that breaks down the types of people who share links and offered an overview of some recent marketing campaigns that appeared to hit the “buzz” mark. The one big surprise — at least for those fully immersed in the worlds of Twitter, Facebook and now Google+ — is that e-mail is still the most popular sharing tool.

In an online survey of 2,500 self-identified “medium-to-heavy content sharers,” Latitude Research and the NYT found that users generally fall into six “personas”: altruists (mostly female, attached to causes), careerists (it’s all about the job), hipsters (younger altruists and careerists), boomerangs (people who share simply to stir up controversy), connectors and selectives (related to careerists and altruists, respectively).

While people who are younger and view themselves as more tech-savvy have begun to eschew e-mail as a communications tool, for the most part, e-mail remains the most popular way users choose to share news. As the study reminds the technological elite, despite appearances, not “everyone” is on Facebook, and Twitter is still mostly the province of media and tech people. Secondly, e-mail is viewed as more secure and private and therefore more “personal.” As such, people tend to want to have a one-to-one conversation about news that moves them rather than a one-to-many. Social media, the study says, is all about “serendipity,” where a post can lost in the shuffle of a Twitter or Facebook stream; but an e-mail is something that definitely will get seen and therefore, produce a specific response.

Among the other findings in the study, which is being presented at the ANA Social Media conference in New York, include:

– 75 percent say sharing helps them better understand and “process” the news they’re interested in; 85 percent say the responses they get from posting to a social media site provide more thought
– 94 percent consider how helpful a link would be to another user
– 68 percent share as an advertisement for themselves, to give others a better sense of who they are.
– 78 percent use links to stay connected to people they may not otherwise be in touch with.
– 73 percent say it helps them find people with common interests.

Will You Be Able To Get Your iCloud E-Mail Through A Browser?

Tom Krazit — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 05:23:00 +0000

Could iCloud, Apple’s boldest attempt at Web services to date, have been so myopic as to cut one of the most basic Web-based capabilities out of the former MobileMe service? A back-and-forth on tech blogs and Twitter Monday on an otherwise slow news day created a little confusion regarding how Apple’s plans for iCloud will affect current MobileMe users.

For the uninitiated, Apple’s current Web offering, MobileMe, allows customers to sign up for a $99-a-year Web-based e-mail account, calendar, and contacts service that syncs those services between their computers and their iPhones and is also available through any browser. That’s going away when Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) rolls out iCloud later this fall, which is a similar idea but goes beyond MobileMe to include syncing of applications, documents, and music. But Joshua Topolsky of This Is My Next suggested Monday in a story about Apple’s Web strategy that Apple would be going much farther by eliminating access to e-mail and calendars through a Web browser once MobileMe is discontinued next year, which he wrote was confirmed by Apple representatives.

Others weren’t so sure, however, and a debate quickly sprung up on Twitter and elsewhere questioning Topolsky’s conclusion. It would be a bit surprising for Apple to completely drop support for something not particularly challenging, a simple browser-based method of accessing e-mail. But Topolsky said this appeared to be part of a strategy to get Apple users to think app-first and not Web-first, writing “your devices will become not just the primary place where Apple intends for you to do your work and get your content–they’ll be the only place.”

As the afternoon wound down, however, more details emerged that suggested Apple was just playing coy about what iCloud would and would not enable, as per its usual strategy of sharing as few details as possible about products that have yet to be released. MacRumors posted a screenshot taken by a reader who was able to discover a Web interface hosted on icloud.com through the iOS 5 beta, suggesting Apple has done the work required to allow Web access to e-mail and calendars but just doesn’t want to talk about it. Jonathan Geller, editor of the Boy Genius Report, also said on Twitter that Apple will have some sort of Web access.

Topolsky stuck to his guns, so there’s still some uncertainty as to just how iCloud will work when it is formally released. An Apple representative did not immediately respond to a request for clarification on the issue.

At least iCloud will be free, so unlike MobileMe it will be harder to complain about missing features, but the absence of such a simple and useful tool would be a head-scratcher if it’s not around when iCloud makes its debut.

The Morning Lowdown 04-26-11

David Kaplan — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 17:20:31 +0000

» YouTube (NSDQ: GOOG) On The Verge Of A Big Movie Upgrade? (paidContent)

» St. Louis Post Dispatch owner Lee Enterprises (NYSE: LEE) said it would refinance more than $1 billion of debt with two new classes of notes and by issuing nearly 9 million new shares of stock. (Des Moines Register, via Romenesko)

» Agencies Get 28% of Revenue From Digital (AdAge)

» New York author Harry Hurt’s e-book, to be released May 3, is among the first to feature both advertising accompanying each chapter and significant product placement woven throughout its narrative. (WSJ)

» DVRs Give More Shows a Lifeline (NYT)

» HuffPo, WP, others add “Send” button to their sites, but it’s too soon to tell whether this will replace the traditional “email this story” on news sites. (Romenesko)

» Adam Rapoport, Bon Appétit’s new EIC on magazine apps: “You can’t just replicate a magazine; what’s the point? What you put on there needs to be different.” (Adweek)

» EveryBlock’s Adrian Holovaty: Enabling Community Conversation (StreetFight)

» Slate rethinks aggregation (again) with a Slatest redesign (Nieman Lab)

» Relax, They’re Still Making Typewriters (Gawker)

ExactTarget Raises $30 Million More In Part For M&A

Joseph Tartakoff — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 05:00:58 +0000

E-mail marketer ExactTarget has raised $30 million in new funding, which it says it will use to “fund key acquisitions, enter new global markets, (and) expand its operations.” The company has already made some notable acquisitions since raising $70 million in a funding round in May 2009, including picking up enterprise Twitter client CoTweet and London-based Keymail Marketing.

The company says its sales jumped 41 percent to $134 million in 2010. That’s well above the sales total at some other startups that have filed to go public recently, including Zillow and Envivo, although ExactTarget hasn’t provided an update on whether — or if — it intends to file for an IPO. The company had filed for an IPO in late 2007 but pulled its offering a year-and-a-half later, choosing to raise more venture capital funding instead.

The company’s latest funding round was led by Technology Crossover Ventures. Existing backers Battery Ventures, Scale Venture Partners and Greenspring Associates also participated.

The Misadventures Of PlayBook: Questioning Reviews Jump The Launch Gun

Ingrid Lunden — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 16:02:17 +0000

RIM (NSDQ: RIMM) has been previewing and talking up its new PlayBook tablet for months already, with demonstrations shepherded by the likes of its CEOs and other executives. But those steps forward have also been met with a number of knocks. Now, on the day that RIM prepares for a public launch of the product in New York ahead of a commercial launch on April 19, a clutch of reviewers are posting their first hands-on impressions.

The reviews we’ve excerpted below come on the back of a challenging couple of months for RIM and the PlayBook.

On top of accusations of RIM losing its way with BlackBerry devices seeing declining market share, the PlayBook has had its own rainstorm: accusations from developers over the difficulty of making apps for the device; news of all the things that the PlayBook will initially lack (cellular connection; email and the rest); and alternating claims of device security to speak to enterprise/corporate concerns but at the same time opening the device to apps from the very open Android Market.

Yesterday’s post from the BBC — about co-CEO Mike Lazaridis ending an interview after the BBC raised questions about RIM’s issues with security in India — didn’t help much, either.

Walt Mossberg of the WSJ, takes issue with the PlayBook’s lack of basic functions built-in: that lack of cellular connection, email, and such popular services as BBM, unless, as mentioned above, connected to a BlackBerry using the device’s “Bridge” service. “This odd system, aimed at pleasing security-concerned corporate customers, doesn’t work with other smartphones. So, in my view, even though Bridge is a neat technical feat, it makes the PlayBook a companion to a BlackBerry phone rather than a fully independent device.” Other problems include being unable to run BlackBerry apps, a small amount of apps (27,000 versus 3,000), and not brilliant battery life.

Positives? “I really liked the user interface of the new operating system [QNX]. It’s smooth and fast, and makes excellent use of multitouch gestures.”

Josh Topolsky, formerly Editor of Engadget and now preparing a new tech site, weighed in with positive words on the smaller, leaner design compared to the iPad and competitors like the Xoom: “I think RIM has mostly made the right decisions with the PlayBook. The 7-inch rectangle is – as stated – not exactly fanciful, but it is nice to look at, and a pleasure to hold in your hands.”

Similar response to media specs: “I was stunned by how good the device sounded when playing back music or watching video… the combo of that dual-core CPU and the QNX architecture seemed to deliver on all the promises of speed and flexibility that RIM has been touting. There aren’t any real benchmarks to run on the platform at this point, but I can say that the PlayBook feels extremely snappy in most scenarios. Apps open quickly, and switching between the truly active programs is instantaneous.” Also mentions how well Flash works on the device. He calls the lack of an email client (without the aid of a BlackBerry device, or a web interface) “astounding”.

But a big vote down for the apps: “The majority of third-party apps I tested while using the PlayBook were simply awful. It’s quite clear that many of the 3400 applications that will be available at launch are converted Flash and Air titles, and many are truly not ready for primetime, nor are they really developed with a touchscreen in mind.”

David Pogue, NY Times, also takes issue with the lack of apps, and much more: “For now, the PlayBook’s motto might be, ‘There’s no app for that.’

“Remember, the primary competition is an iPad – the same price, but much thinner, much bigger screen and a library of 300,000 apps. In that light, does it make sense to buy a fledgling tablet with no built-in e-mail or calendar, no cellular connection, no videochat, Skype, no Notes app, no GPS app, no videochat, no Pandora radio and no Angry Birds?”

And a final note about how even now the software is being tested: “You should also know that even now, only days before the PlayBook goes on sale April 19, the software is buggy and still undergoing feverish daily revision. And the all-important BlackBerry Bridge feature is still in beta testing. It’s missing important features, like the ability to view e-mail file attachments or click a link in an e-mail.”

Om Malik was significantly more positive: “As an old BlackBerry fan, I found the OS, interface and even the icons for various apps felt very familiar, and the menus are clean and easy to use. The home screen is divided into three panes: status bar, apps list and, when you have apps open, an open app panel. The whole experience feels very natural.”

Also mostly good words about Flash incorporation too: “RIM has been making a lot of noise about the PlayBook’s Webkit-based browser – and specifically its ability to run Flash. I can see why –- the browser is Playback’s single best feature.You can hardly tell the difference between a desktop browsing experience and the Playbook. I have been watching YouTube (NSDQ: GOOG) videos off the YouTube website on the Playbook without much of a problem. There is no doubt that Adobe (NSDQ: ADBE) and Blackberry have spent a lot of energy on getting this right – even though Flash does start sucking down the battery pretty fast.”

He calls apps RIM’s “Achilles heel”, while the music service is nothing to write home about, and the lack of some of the most popular media consumption services — Amazon’s Kindle, Netflix (NSDQ: NFLX), etc. — a big drawback at this stage. His “deal-killer” though is that lack of native email, calendaring and to-do list functions.

The WiFi-only PlayBook goes on sale on April 19, with prices ranging from $500 to $700.