Ars Technica

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Ars Technica
Website logo
Web 2.0 blog
languages English
operator Condé Nast Digital
editorial staff Ken Fisher, Jon Stokes
Registration optional
On-line December 30, 1998 (currently active)
https://arstechnica.com

Ars Technica ( ˌɑrz_ˈtɛknɨkə ; Latin- derived “Art of Technology”, often just Ars ) is a blog about technology and web topics, which was started in 1998 by Ken Fisher and Jon Stokes. Core topics are news, reviews and guides on hardware and software , research, digital politics and computer games.

Ars Technica was acquired by Condé Nast Publications ' online division Condé Nast Digital, along with two other sites, for $ 25 million in May 2008 . Since then it has been part of Wired Digital, which also includes Wired and previously Reddit . Most of the authors, who also work at research institutions, work from home. Ars Technica has offices in Boston , New York , Chicago and San Francisco .

The site is mainly financed through online advertising and, since 2001, through the paid subscription service (called Ars Premier ). For testing 2009 users have been enabled ad-blocking excluded for one day from the side. This attracted strong criticism in some cases, but also led to a larger number of new subscriptions.

According to Alexa , the site has a global ranking of 1179 and is the 416th most popular website in the US home market (as of February 2015).

history

Ken Fisher and Jon Stokes founded the Ars Technica website and company in 1998. The site was founded with the primary aim of providing news and guidance in the field of computer hardware and software. According to their own statement, they want to "deliver the best reporting for various operating systems, PC hardware and general technology topics while [...] having fun, working productively, informatively and precisely". ("The best multi-OS, PC hardware, and tech coverage possible while [...] having fun, being productive, and being as informative and as accurate as possible")

The name "Ars Technica" is derived from Latin for "art of technology" ("technological art"). Even then, the authors lived and worked across the United States: Fisher in his parents' house in Boston , Stokes in Chicago, and the other editors in their respective hometowns.

On May 19, 2008, Ars Technica was sold to Condé Nast Digital (then CondéNet), the online division of Condé Nast Publications . The acquisition was part of a simultaneous purchase by Condé Nast of three separate, independent websites for $ 25 million: Ars Technica, Webmonkey and Hot Wired. In an interview with the New York Times , the co-founder Fisher said that other companies had also bid for the site, but the authors chose Condé Nast because the company offered them the best chance to professionalize their "hobby". The two founders and the then eight editors were hired by Condé Nast and Fisher appointed editor-in-chief. The wave of layoffs at Condé Nast in November 2008 hit all of the company's websites, including Ars Technica.

Ars Technica UK was launched on May 5, 2015, while coverage in the UK and Europe was expanded.

Content

The published content has remained almost the same since 1998 and is divided into four categories: news, instructions, reviews and features. Part of Ars Technica is also OpenForum, an open internet forum for the discussion of various topics.

Originally, most news articles consisted of links to articles from other tech-savvy sites and a brief comment (a few paragraphs) from the Ars Technica authors on the subject. After the purchase by Condé Nast, the company increasingly published its own news, some of it researched itself or based on its own interviews.

Features are long articles that cover a topic in depth. For example, in 1998 an article on CPU architecture was published entitled "Understanding CPU caching and performance". In 2009 the scientific theories, physics , mathematical proof and applications of quantum computers were discussed.

Many of the site's authors are post-graduate (e.g. PhD ) and work for academic or private research institutions. Even so, the writing style of the site is less formal than that of most trade journals.

revenue

The cost of running Ars Technica is mainly borne by online advertising. After the advertising space was originally marketed by Federated Media Publishing, the parent company Condé Nast is now responsible for it. The paid subscription Ars Premier has served as a further source of income since 2001 . In addition to the freedom of advertising on the site, subscribers receive exclusive access to certain articles, areas in the forum and chat rooms with important members of the computer industry. Additional income is generated through sponsored themed areas. Examples include Future Collaboration Spaces sponsored by IBM and Data Centers sponsored by NetApp. In the past, affiliate marketing was also carried out and merchandise with the Ars Technica brand was sold.

Action against ad blockers

On March 5, 2010, Ars Technica blocked users of Adblock Plus - one of several ways to block advertising in their web browser - from viewing the articles on a trial basis. Editor-in-chief and co-founder Fisher estimated that by then 40% of Ars Technica's readers had installed the software. The next day the ban was lifted and the article "Why Ad Blocking is devastating to the sites you love" was published. Readers should be convinced not to use ad blockers on websites they value:

“… Blocking ads can be devastating to the sites you love. I am not making an argument that blocking ads is a form of stealing, or is immoral, or unethical… It can result in people losing their jobs, it can result in less content on any given site, and it definitely can affect the quality of content. It can also put sites into a real advertising death spin. "

“... blocking ads can wreak havoc on the sites you love. I'm not saying that blocking ads is a form of theft, or immoral, or unethical ... It can lead to people losing their jobs, it can lead to less content on any given page, and it can for sure affect the quality of the content. It can drag websites into an advertising death vortex. "

The action and the following article were controversial. Other websites took up the topic with their own articles and also discussed Internet advertising (and user blocking) in general. Ars Technica readers largely followed Fisher's invitation: the day after the article was published, 25,000 readers had allowed ads to be displayed on Ars Technica again, and 200 readers had registered with Ars Premier , the site's premium, paid and ad-free offer.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ About Us . In: Ars Technica . Condé Nast Digital . Archived from the original on April 5, 2010. Retrieved April 10, 2010.
  2. ↑ arstechnica.com Site Overview. Alexa , accessed February 18, 2015 .
  3. ↑ a b Report: Ars Technica bought by Wired Digital . In: Mass High Tech Business News . American City Business Journals . May 16, 2008. Archived from the original on February 4, 2009. Retrieved on April 10, 2010. (offline)
  4. ↑ a b Kara Swisher (interviewer), Ken Fisher (subject). (April 18, 2008). Ars Technica's Ken Fisher Speaks!  ( Adobe Flash ). Dow Jones & Company. March 25, 2017.
  5. ↑ Welcome to Ars Technica . In: Ars Technica . Ars Technica. 1999. Archived from the original on May 8, 1999. Retrieved April 10, 2010.
  6. ^ The Ars Technica Group . In: Ars Technica . Ars Technica. 1999. Archived from the original on May 8, 1999. Retrieved April 10, 2010.
  7. ^ Gavin O'Malley: Condé Nast Digital Replaces CondéNet . In: MediaPost Publications , January 26, 2009. Archived from the original on May 11, 2011. Retrieved June 23, 2011. 
  8. ↑ David Carr: Geek's Crash a House of Fashion . In: New York Times . The New York Times Company. May 19, 2008. Archived from the original on May 21, 2008. Retrieved on May 20, 2008.
  9. ^ A b Arrington Michael: Breaking: Condé Nast / Wired Acquires Ars Technica . In: TechCrunch . TechCrunch. May 16, 2008. Archived from the original on April 10, 2010. Retrieved on April 10, 2010.
  10. ↑ Swisher Kara: Ars Technica's Ken Fisher Speaks! . In: All Things Digital . Dow Jones & Company. March 17, 2008. Retrieved on 2017-03-250.
  11. ^ Peter Kafka: Condé Nast Web Arm CondéNet's Turn for "Across the Board" Cuts . In: All Things Digital . Dow Jones & Company. November 11, 2008. Archived from the original on April 8, 2010. Retrieved on April 10, 2010.
  12. ↑ Sebastian Anthony: Welcome to Ars Technica UK! . Condé Nast UK . May 5, 2015. Archived from the original on May 5, 2015. Retrieved May 5, 2015.
  13. ↑ James Fallows: Festival of updates # 3: Snow Leopard and "huge pages"! . In: The Atlantic . The Atlantic Monthly Group. October 5, 2009. Retrieved March 25, 2017.
  14. ^ Charles Arthur: Snow Leopard: hints, hassles and review roundup from around the web . In: guardian.co.uk . Guardian News and Media. September 29, 2009. Retrieved April 10, 2010.
  15. ↑ Understanding CPU caching and performance . In: Ars Technica . Ars Technica. December 1, 1998. Archived from the original on May 8, 1999. Retrieved April 10, 2010.
  16. ↑ Joseph B. Old Peter: A tale of two qubits: how quantum computers work . In: Ars Technica . Condé Nast Digital . February 1, 2010. Archived from the original on March 23, 2010. Retrieved on April 10, 2010.
  17. ^ Geoff Brumfiel: Science journalism: Supplanting the old media? . In: Nature News . Nature Publishing Group. April 1, 2009. Retrieved April 10, 2010.
  18. ^ Laura Bonetta: Scientists Enter the Blogosphere . In: Elsevier (ed.): Cell . 129, No. 3, May 4, 2007, pp. 443-445. doi : 10.1016 / j.cell.2007.04.032 . PMID 17482534 . Retrieved April 10, 2010.
  19. ^ A b c d Laura McGann: How Ars Technica's "experiment" with ad-blocking readers built on its community's affection for the site . In: Nieman Journalism Lab . The Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard. March 9, 2010. Archived from the original on March 14, 2010. Retrieved on April 10, 2010.
  20. ↑ Ars Premier FAQ . In: Ars Technica . Condé Nast Digital . September 15, 2009. Archived from the original on April 12, 2010. Retrieved on April 10, 2010.
  21. ↑ The Ars Emporium . In: Ars Technica . Ars Technica. 2001. Archived from the original on December 17, 2001. Retrieved on April 10, 2010.
  22. ^ Matt Asay: Is ad blocking the problem? . In: CNET . CBS Interactive. March 9, 2010. Retrieved March 25, 2017.
  23. ↑ Jennifer Valention-DeVries: To Block or Not to Block Online Ads . In: The Wall Street Journal Blogs . Dow Jones & Company. March 8, 2010. Retrieved March 25, 2017.