Have you ever wondered what makes Microsoft’s CEO Steve Ballmer angry? I found out on Tuesday when I had another opportunity to interview Ballmer again (we met twice when I was at InfoWorld in San Francisco).

Today I got a copy of the speech he made to the Committee for Economic Development of Australia on Tuesday shortly after our interview. At one point he states,

"Now I get asked sometimes – are you a mature company?  I hate that question.  There’s no worse question in the world because it sort of implies that there’s nothing left to do.  No innovation that’s necessary."

Ah, now that would explain why my line of questioning about Microsoft’s maturity and declining revenue growth (on a percentage basis) elicited such a combative response. The story (sub req.) made page 1 of the Fin today and I wore out my fingers transcribing the interview that ran in features on p 60 (but doesn’t seem to be online, grr).

Finally! An analyst with his head around the opportunities for newspapers in the digital age. This Biz Week article is a welcome read:

People want information, and newspapers have been successfully fulfilling this demand for more than a century. They provide compelling content, but we think it isn’t being leveraged to its full extent. Many newspapers are giving away all of their online content for free, and we think greater associated discipline is probably appropriate. Charging for access to premium content and archives of stories, photos, and even front pages is a possibility.

We think new distribution formats, such as spoken-word audio, have potential. In addition, new types of content are being created in the Web world. Blogs and podcasts are a good way to reach a younger audience and can generate advertising revenues, in our view. Real-time chats with writers and other special events could be made exclusively available online.

I’m not an expert on the newspaper business, but I think its companies have more assets and opportunities than people realize. S&P expects newspaper concerns to continue acquiring Net companies, and many are taking steps like those listed above. However, we also believe newspapers have brands, customers, and content that could be used more effectively to drive more online traffic and revenues. Additionally, in our view, new types of content, services, and distribution, specific to the Internet, constitute a notable opportunity.

Big news from Microsoft, for all you RSS and blog devotees: Microsoft’s lifting its support of RSS up a significant notch. This from a good read in Business Week:

Before Microsoft brings out the new technology with Longhorn, it’ll make RSS feeds readable from inside its widely used Internet Explorer browser. Right now, users typically have to cut-and-paste Web addresses into RSS readers to subscribe to services. RSS subscribers will be able to read those feeds in a test version of the new browser, available later this summer.

ps. It’s Sunday and I’m taking a quick lunch break while working at the office on Monday’s paper - yes, someone’s gotta get this thing out for you. Upside: The phones don’t ring and you can be surprisingly productive. Downside: It’s Sunday. And I’m being teased by my view of Darling Harbour and the Balmain peninsula from the 25th floor.

I’ll let this story speak for itself.

Updated

A quick hello to those of you who went to the HotHouse Interactive BlogFest 05 brekky event this morning.

Yours truly was joined by The Fourth Estate’s Mike Walsh, journalist and new blogger Brad Howarth (thanks for the kudos re my big Telstra scoop Brad), and Deacon’s lawyer Andrew Sorensen to take turns in presenting our take on all things blog at Sydney’s very stylish Westin Hotel.

If you went, what did you think? I’ve had a few positive emails and comments already, so it’s good to see the level of interest in blogs is rising in Australia. Today was my second blog-related speech this year, and for a guy who’s currently living in print journalism land I must say that I enjoyed revelling in the subject again.

Now a quick media scoop: Mike Walsh revealed in his presentation that he is working on what is touted as News Limited’s first blog. News is about to launch a sports magazine called Alpha (SMH story here) with a reported circ around 600,000, and he’s building a supporting website and blog in stealth mode - i.e. didn’t ask for exec permission (Now there’s a great way to get around the blog sign-off problem in traditional media organisations.)

It will be interesting to hear about News Ltd executives’ reactions to the site. Although, given Rupert Murdoch’s on record call to action re blogs it just might get traction.

Update: Mike tells me New Ltd mgmt do actually know about the blog, but the site is in stealth mode - as all yet-to-be published sites are, I guess.