Category: business culture
from the past to the future
Judy Woodruff, the anchor and managing editor of PBS NewsHour for nearly 10 years, retired at the end of 2022. Many are sad to see her go. Her on-air personality was warm and earnest, and she presented her liberal perspective softly. But throughout her tenure, NewsHour viewership remained stuck at around a million households, this during an historic epoch of high news consumption. Nor did the program’s digital audience grow much at all. The NewsHour as currently positioned could be generated by Artificial Intelligence – and nobody would notice. You don’t believe me? Read this! Plus, the usual update on the most interesting developments in media since we were last together
This is a Stick-Up
Rupert Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal has adroitly managed the transition to digital. The London Times, not so much. His other newspapers around the world? Not at all. So, he’s leading the charge to hold Google and Facebook to ransom. Plus, as always, the latest update of interesting recent developments around the world of media…
Living in LaLa Land
The herd is almost always wrong. It seeks safety in numbers because it is lazy, and terrified of an original idea. Independence could get you killed. That’s why conventional thinking can cripple an established business. This examination of the editorial process inside news companies is a call for change based on new product and market thinking. Plus, the latest update on new developments across the world of media
Where’s the beef?
Five insights guaranteed to shortcut the path to profitability of any news start-up – they’re the basis of the playbook both Axios Local and 6AM City are using to fuel the rapid growth of their local offerings. Plus, the usual summary of the latest developments in digital media, from another epic Murdoch fail to Nextdoor’s public offering to the surprising resurgence of Yelp to a heartfelt memoriam for one of the last great newspaper editors…
My Spring 2021 $0.02 worth…
Everything happening in media right now, including the post-Trump slump in audiences, how CNN got lost, the big revenue challenge of newyorktimes.com, dialing up headlines for more clicks, the Washington Post technology strategy, the rebound in advertising, a confused Congress holds another hearing on social media, and how the newly-independent sovereign writer poses a threat to the companies they used to work for…
Small is Beautiful and Product is Everything
Everything that’s going on in the news business right now, from attempts to make Google and Facebook pay for linking to publisher websites, to the arrival of newsletter products in local markets, to the rise of the role of the news product manager, to subscription tax credits to support newspapers…in France, naturellement
Starting up
As local newspapers continue their fall to extinction, digital news start-ups are emerging to fill the market gap. But do they understand how the market for news has changed? And do they understand the process of building a start-up business in the digital age?
Culture Clash
Predictable profitability is fatal without leadership committed to continuously challenging the assumptions on which it is based. You can’t do that if you don’t know how to build an open-minded and competitive culture
Breaking the stranglehold on the news
Newspapers are dying and digital news companies are struggling because their newsrooms either refuse to listen to the markets they serve — or don’t know how to. In the age of data, they’re flying blind. It’s time for a new generation of news product specialists…
How well do you know your market?
The content management system is important. But the customer management system is critical
OK Boomer
Hey, there, millennial media person! Do you know what Customer Lifetime Value is and why it’s so important?
Pravda, the U.S.A. edition
Fox News Channel hosts are brazen in their allegiance to Trump and his agenda. It’s as if they work for Pravda, the mouthpiece of the politburo. But behind their pretense of objectivity, mainstream media is no less biased
Bucking the herd, again
In 2018, digital publishers struggled again to make their advertising sales number. The problem is not the market share of Google and Facebook. The problem is the product, and the way it is sold. Here’s what to do about that…
Between a rock and a hard place
Traditional news monopolies had no incentive to invest in the art and science of creating user demand. So when the Internet arrived, users grabbed the chance to go to more interesting places. Can they be persuaded to come back?
Why is local news so boring?
There is an art to telling a story. Even a local news story can be rendered in an attractive way. So why isn’t it?
The horse has bolted
Without access to your personal data, digital media companies cannot give you what you want – or make a buck
Bite the hand that feeds you
– why traditional media companies must set their digital ventures free
The Media System is Broken
– and only you can save it
When the circus came to town
– bad things happen when the status quo rules
Schädenfreude
The elementary mistake that destroyed one of the largest newspaper companies in the country
The challenge of managing agents of change. Or, Justine should know
To create a successful new product, you may not need an Elon Musk, but you do need someone with a strong personality. How do you manage them? How do you insert them effectively into your company?
It’s tough being the boss
Digital First Media and McClatchy, the second and third-largest newspaper holding companies, are going south fast. What happened?
10 slides in 2 minutes
In just 10 slides and 2 minutes we show why newspapers capitulated to digital and what can be learned from it
Can anyone be trusted?
Why you watch the news you watch and visit the news sites you visit
Go as far as you can see – then you’ll be able to see farther
The secret to new product development in the Digital Age: Start small, fail early, fail often I’m going to let […]
A pox on the editor-priests
The future is never a straight line projection of the past Strange to say, newspapers suffered from years of recurrent […]
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