I retired from personal blogging in July 2008.
But you can find me over at http://blog.xero.com.
Well done Pete. Newsroom turns 10. Good bit of NZ Internet History.
The web site that revolutionised the distribution of news in New Zealand, newsroom.co.nz, marks ten years of existence today.
Former Radio New Zealand journalist Peter Fowler registered www.newsroom.co.nz on 21 November 1996, and began publishing press releases on the Internet soon after.
Among the barriers Fowler had to overcome was few organisations had access to the Internet or e-mail at that time, but it proved to be a catalyst for major newsmakers such as Parliament to adopt the Internet as part of their communications strategies.
Before NewsRoom, press releases were sent to just a handful of mainstream media via fax, who would then make decisions about their newsworthiness. Fowler’s idea caused a revolution in that suddenly the middleman - the mainstream media - had been bypassed.
The public could for the first time see the news agenda unfolding on the Internet at the same time as the major news organisations saw it unravel off the fax machines.
Receiving press releases via e-mail and publishing them immediately gave NewsRoom a speed advantage over the traditional news agencies that used fax machines in the 1990’s and had to type up stories before they could be wired.
Julius Reuter grew Reuters with the knowledge that the first agency to deliver the news accurately and consistently could extract the most value from it, which remains the principle to this day, and is the key behind NewsRoom’s success.
The news agency continues to expand and earlier this year launched the shopping and news site newswire.co.nz which now has about 55,000 unique browsers a month and growing.
NewsRoom turned subscriber-only in 2001 when it became apparent that some businesses would not subscribe when they could get the service for free from the Internet. Contrary to predictions of doom this proved to be a windfall for the company and secured its future.
Subscriptions have grown substantially over ten years and continue to grow, with NewsRoom becoming an influential player in the news industry in New Zealand. It is a trusted first-source of breaking news for mainstream media outlets and decision makers alike.
NewsRoom.co.nz is focussing now on further enhancing its subscriber services, expanding into the United States market, and building a media model for the anticipated convergence of computers, television, and mobile devices through broadband and digital satellite services.
Newsroom.co.nz remains owned by Peter Fowler, and currently sends about one million e-mails a month to subscribers.
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Yep, Newsroom a ground breaker alright - with a lot of technical help from yourself in time of crisis.
It is often overlooked when debates about NZ internet history take place.
Peter also recently made it to 40 a few weeks ago which given the smoke filled Newsroom environs I remember may surprise a few people :-)