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Monday, February 18, 2008

The Writers’ Strike: Our Last Video

While the writers’ strike in Hollywood was going on, BoomTown has been offering up suggestions about stuff to watch.
Of all the many videos out there, the most promising to me have been the many, many spoof videos the writers have done about the strike that just ended.
Along with terrific videos of the strike itself from [...]

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Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Writers’ Strike Over and Still No Web Profits in Sight!

What does it take to imagine a new industry out of orange groves?

A lot more than settling a strike, I would posit.

A lot has been written about the writers’ strike in Hollywood, which is officially over after three acrimonious months with the overwhelming vote by the members of the Writers Guild of America to accept a contract it hammered out with the entertainment studios.

Writers will presumably be back at their keyboards today.

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Thursday, January 24, 2008

Rosie O’Donnell: Not So Annoying

Until the writers’ strike in Hollywood is over–who knew it would go on this long?–BoomTown has decided to offer suggestions about cool new stuff to watch.

Today, I urge one and all to head over to the videos being done by celebrity, actor, talk-show host and larger-than-life personality Rosie O’Donnell.
Unlike a lot of celebs, who [...]

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Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Zucker: Apple of His Eye?

When last we checked in with NBC Universal CEO Jeff Zucker, he was merrily trashing Steve Jobs and Apple.
What a difference a three-month-long writers’ strike in Hollywood makes.
Yesterday, in an interview in the Financial Times, Zucker said: “We’ve said all along that we admire Apple, that we want to be in business with [...]

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“Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles”

Until the writers’ strike in Hollywood is over–who knew it would go on this long?–BoomTown has decided to offer periodic suggestions about cool new stuff to watch, focused on a more geeky audience.
We’ll start with TV–no, not the tiresome (sorry!) “American Idol,” but a new series on the same Fox network, which is “Terminator: The [...]

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Wednesday, December 19, 2007

The Striking Writers and the Striking Lack of Web Hits

Why does the idea of a marriage between Hollywood writers and VCs make me slightly queasy?

But that’s just the feeling I got when I read the always sharp Joseph Menn of the Los Angeles Times, who penned an interesting piece earlier this week about writers in Hollywood turning to venture capitalists as the strike drags [...]

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Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Hollywood Rumble!

While the collapse of the talks between writers and Hollywood studios to end the strike might seem more like a tragedy–a shoot-your-idiot-selves-in-the-foot tragedy, of course–you have to love all the very funny writers’ strike parodies being put on the Web.
In fact, it feels like the first good stuff to come out of Hollywood made specifically [...]

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Monday, December 10, 2007

The Never-Ending Story: The Writers’ Strike Continues

With the entertainment industry reeling from weakness brought on by changing viewers’ watching habits due to the Internet, the news of the talks to end the writers’ strike collapsing on Friday can’t be a good thing for Hollywood.
With the strike now in its sixth week, the studio reps–the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers–and [...]

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Thursday, November 8, 2007

Writers’ Strike Videos on YouTube (Of Course)

Since they’re fighting with the studios over being paid for content that is moving to the Internet, why shouldn’t the Writers Guild of America put up some choice user-generated content on the Web?
United Hollywood is a nifty Web site chronicling the strike in a blog and video, and it also has a page on YouTube.
After [...]

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Hollywood Hoo-Ha, Part 2,478

What, oh what, can we say about the latest inane quote from yet another Hollywood mogul about Apple’s Steve Jobs and his hugely popular iTunes and iPod products.
The latest piece of hoo-ha comes from former Disney CEO Michael Eisner (pictured below), pointing a finger at Apple as the real villain in the ongoing strike between [...]

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Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Striking Out on Creating an Internet Hit

So when, if ever, will there be a truly bona fide Internet hit?
And please, pretty please, it just can’t be “lonelygirl15″ (pictured below) and some clever music videos.

The lack of lasting and profitable professional content online is once again in sharp relief with the writers’ strike now taking place in Hollywood.
In a Wall Street Journal [...]

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Thursday, November 1, 2007

Man the Geek Barricades: Hollywood’s Digital Strike

The talks between Hollywood studios and the Writers Guild of America ground to a halt as of last night and a strike could happen anytime, since the contract between them expired at midnight.
The big problem? Digital issues, which are sure to be an increasingly vexing issue for the entertainment industry, as more and more [...]

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About Kara

Kara Swisher started covering digital issues for The Wall Street Journal's San Francisco bureau in 1997 and also wrote the BoomTown column about the sector. With Walt Mossberg, she co-produces and co-hosts D: All Things Digital, a major high-tech and media conference. Read more »

Ethics Statement

Here is a statement of my ethics and coverage policies. It is more than most of you want to know, but, in the age of suspicion of the media, I am laying it all out.

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