Tag: digital innovation
Without advertising, your media product is toast – and other heretical thoughts
There are many who claim that the business of media advertising is dying, that it is impossible for publishers to compete with Google and Facebook, that subscription revenues are all publishers should rely upon. Let’s unpack these assertions and expose the naiveté behind them. Plus, the latest update of the most important recent developments across the world of media
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
The Age of the Skim
Back in the days of monopoly distribution, selling the news was a fantastic business. Local media outlets, with captive customers and competitive insulation, enjoyed profit margins as high as 25% or even higher. The internet dismantled their monopoly advantage. Now, offering general news like that is a shitty business. In a world where diversion is just a click or a swipe away, user engagement with general news products is irregular, with short, shallow usage sessions and erratic visit frequency. Smartphones have given birth to the Age of the Skim, which has made the engagement problem even worse. How to build audience by transforming skimmers into engaged customers with a predictable consumption habit is the singular challenge faced by media outlets today. The second challenge? Learning how to sell them, of course.
Plus, the fall 2021 update of the most interesting current developments in 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?
How well do you know your market?
The content management system is important. But the customer management system is critical
Local news, emerging from the ashes
– local news in a post-newspaper world
Why is marketing so important?
– because without an audience, you’re talking to yourself
You Gotta Pick Your Shots
Why digital advertising has failed to deliver on its original promise
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?
The Times and Facebook – it doesn’t really change a thing
The Times and Facebook are exploring a joint venture. But without refreshing the product for a new, younger audience, the Times will still find itself stuck in the same old newspaper demo – and that audience is leaving, one way or another
“The Only Newspaper In The World That Gives A Damn About Yerington” or, The End of Local Media
Differentiating your product is the ultimate marketing challenge in the digital world – and local doesn’t cut it
A new year – and a new era in news
2015 – a new era in news begins. Just as cable television created a new product cycle in media, introducing brands like Discovery and CNN and HBO, so new digital brands like Vox and Buzzfeed and Reddit are rising on the Internet
Tener el martillo sin la una. To have the hammer without the nail.
There’s no Silicon Valley in Europe. Over the pond they take a different approach to technology development. It’s top-down versus […]
Nothing New Under the Sun
Digital news products face the same essential challenge of audience capture that traditional media faced
The Heart of the Newspaper Problem
There is a level of fixed cost to newspaper publishing below which the business cannot be sustained
The Sayonara Strategy: How Newspapers Will Fade Away
In 2018, more daily newspapers, by now out of cash and ideas, will be published only on Sundays, with news updates on online editions during the rest of the week
Cox, Tribune and a story of self-disruption
In the disruptive digital world, only cannibals survive It’s now fashionable to trot out the Harvard Business School thesis on […]
Digital First Media – the end of the beginning
This is a great time to be in the news business – if you’re not a newspaper. Andreessen Horowitz just […]
Owning Your Own Destruction
Business synergy is a myth – chasing it is fruitless An established company is always tempted to position a new […]
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 […]
The Future of the News Business: A Monumental Twitter Stream All in One Place
The extinction of newspapers does not mean the end of journalism, just the end of journalism as we know it…
Success Can Be Fatal
Any business leader worried about the future must build a culture that welcomes it For newspapers, the Internet offered one […]
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