Links of the Day 12/3/2008

Anime/Manga:

Economics/Freakonomics/Geekonomics

College Prices are going up and up - This story has been all over the news, this gives a simple graphic. If this doesn't change, or if financial aid doesn't change, the repercussions will be dramatic.

Publishing:

Simon and Schuster has a small amount of cuts - Small as it may seem, this is going to have impact just due to it being a big name.
Mississippi's Clarion-Ledger Cuts 33 jobs.
Gannett cuts 206 jobs at 6 papers in New Jersey.
Fitch Ratings figures by 2010 we'll see some cities without newspapers. Frankly I figure the latter is a given - and would advise anyone in the industry to plan on a move just in case, if only to be ready. However the loss of local newspapers could make other opportunities - some towns are very highly wired and may move things online (some do already with websites, blogs, and even video). Your career might be best geared towards these areas - and perhaps you might be able to make a job for yourself at a newspaperless town or city as its webmaster or content manager.

Technology:

Adobe is Laying off 600 people - This is buried in the article - and it will be global, so it's unlikely to have a significant regional impact - but is another sign of the times. If you're jonesing to get into Adobe its probably still good to keep sending resumes.
Angie's List gets $7 million more - This is a rather old raitings/review site, so its probably a safe investment compared to others.
Think consumer electronics? Think thin batteries? Think Infinite power getting $13 million in Venture Capital. A nice bit of money for a very reliable idea. I think consumer electronics are going to fare well (or less worse) in the economic downturn, and investment in good power sources is a good idea. I'd say this is a resume-polishing issue.
Facebook hands it's classifieds off to Oodle? Not a bad move, though I too wonder just how this is going to be done. On the other hand since Oodle handles a lot more things this could give the chance for Facebook to leverage the alliance to do more with classifieds.

Video Games

Electronic Arts Bought Korean Online Game Developer J2M - Gives them additional presence, several properties, a regional expansion, and some interesting payment technology. Sounds like a good deal for them - and helps out EA during their changes. It also sounds like EA is thinking even more global, which is needed in this market.
EMA CEO Doesn't see Downloadables overtaking store bought gaming until 2015. I might argue with him by a year or two either way, but I think we've got a few years until this is a serious reality. That being said, downloadables and delivery IS going to become a reality, and I suspect it will be accelerated by the fact, in a large-scale economic downturn, it's cheaper and faster and requires less physical media. Keep this in mind in the gaming industry if you've got an itch to work on more "middleware" technologies because it is coming.

- Steve