Scripting News: Did Microsoft pay star writers?

Scripting News, the weblog started in 1997 that bootstrapped the blogging revolution.

Did Microsoft pay star writers?

Valleywag has a story that Federated Media is paying "star writers" to recite a Microsoft marketing slogan.

I sent emails to several of the writers and Microsoft PR. I also asked John Battelle, the founder of Federated Media, if this is true. He said: "As usual, it's a bit more naunced."

I have reason to not trust Valleywag, they've said things in the past I've known were not true, so right now I don't know what to believe.

On the other hand the Federated Media site is for real, and it has quotes from the people Valleywag says are quoted. So some of it is true. Battelle didn't deny it.

Om Malik: "I have requested Federated Media, our sales partners, suspend the campaign on our network of sites, and they have."

Last update: Thursday, June 3, 2010; 4:00:57 PM

~About the Author~

Dave Winer, 55, is a visiting scholar at NYU's Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute. He pioneered the development of weblogs, syndication (RSS), podcasting, outlining, and web content management software; former contributing editor at Wired Magazine, research fellow at Harvard Law School, entrepreneur, and investor in web media companies. A native New Yorker, he received a Master's in Computer Science from the University of Wisconsin, a Bachelor's in Mathematics from Tulane University and currently lives in New York City.

"The protoblogger." - NY Times.

"The father of modern-day content distribution." - PC World.

One of BusinessWeek's 25 Most Influential People on the Web.

"Helped popularize blogging, podcasting and RSS." - Time.

"The father of blogging and RSS." - BBC.

"RSS was born in 1997 out of the confluence of Dave Winer's 'Really Simple Syndication' technology, used to push out blog updates, and Netscape's 'Rich Site Summary', which allowed users to create custom Netscape home pages with regularly updated data flows." - Tim O'Reilly.

Mail: scriptingnews1mail at gmail dot com.

May Jul