The economics of star power (bad news Tom - academics who study the film industry tend to agree that stars don’t make a difference to the bottom line of a movie) (The New York Times, reg. required)

- Coffee the new comfort food for teens? (Although Strabucks claims not to market to children and teens, the rise of chocolatey, whipped cream topped drinks and teen-friendly locations seems on the contrary. And speciality coffee is definitely a hot part of teen culture. As a teen in the article says, "Think $4, that's what you pay for lunch. Not for coffee and lunch. Coffee is lunch. It's like the new mashed potatoes. Coffee is comfort food, especially when it rains.") (Salon)

- Mobile services for students (the Rave Wireless service is slowly expanding across campuses, offering students access to assignments, grades, and all types of other tools including groups and blogs) (USA Today)

- Fake profiles take the real away from social networking (more on MySpace losing its authenticity because of marketers...) (MediaPost, reg. required)

- MTV and digital content (how they re "extending the viewing experience" to digital avenues like Overdrive and cell phone screens. See my post below!) (Reuters)

- ‘Lonely Girl’ as birth of new art form (so says the New York Times New York Magazine. They call it WikiTV - a TV show of sorts broadcast over the Web by a community of basically random characters who don’t know each other (reg. required)

- Sponsoring textbooks (freeload press offers electronic textbooks to students, with ads from their sponsors inserted in the text) (The New York Times, reg. required)

- Copying Facebook around the world (Univillage did it in the U.K., now StudentFace is doing it in Australia. Will it prosper? Sounds like it has a good chance due to low competition in the space, but the site is not all that impressive) (Mashable)

Posted by chet