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Wednesday, November 24
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CommentWhy newspapers should be afraid, very afraid
From Wired:
Don't think for a minute that young people don't read. On the contrary, they do, many of them voraciously. But having grown up under the credo that information should be free, they see no reason to pay for news. Instead they access The Washington Post website or surf Google News, where they select from literally thousands of information sources. They receive RSS feeds on their PDAs or visit bloggers whose views mesh with their own. In short, they customize their news-gathering experience in a way a single paper publication could never do. And their hands never get dirty from newsprint.
The Post experience merely mirrors the results of a September study (.pdf) by the Online Publishers Association, which found that 18- to 34-year-olds are far more apt to log on to the internet (46 percent) than watch TV (35 percent), read a book (7 percent), turn on a radio (3 percent), read a newspaper (also 3 percent) or flip through a magazine (less than 1 percent).
Monday, November 22
Freaky geek tattoo
Tuesday, November 16
The free vs. subscription debate
Bambi Francisco weighs in on the ad vs. paid online models on MarketWatch:
By contrast, if paid content continues at the same growth rate as the first half of the year, it will reach $1.7 billion in 2004, and register a growth rate that's less than half of online advertising's.
So now that the Web has been commercial for about 10 years, can we conclude that the online advertising model for news is a better mousetrap than a subscription-based model? Apparently . . .
AlwaysOn Network, a news and information site started by Tony Perkins, who previously founded The Red Herring magazine, has been largely free. The media company just launched a paid subscription service for $49 per year.
But even Perkins would agree that, "subscription money is a beautiful thing, but in the end, media is media."
If an online media outlet can get both, "[it's] all the better," said Perkins, who said that he's attracted 1,000 subscribers to his paid service since it was launched earlier this month, the same time as the quarterly magazine, Blogozine . . .
As Perkins puts it: "Ad-supported free content is the Trojan Horse. Once everyone shows up, you figure out different ways to turn them upside down and shake out all the pennies in their pocket."
Online content spending up 14%
From MediaPost:
Consumers in the United
States spent some $853 million for paid online content during the first
half of 2004, reported the Online Publishers Association yesterday.
Entertainment-related categories experienced the greatest gains, and
led an overall 14 percent year-over-year swell. The Online Publishers
Association's "Paid Content U.S. Market Spending Report," covering the
first and second quarters of the year, was conducted by comScore
Networks. Eleven percent of U.S. Internet users paid for content in the
second quarter of this year--and 11.2 percent did so in the first
quarter, according to the OPA.
Entertainment/lifestyles paid content spending--led by music, which grew a remarkable 78.3 percent to $182.8 million--bettered business/investment spending in the first quarter of 2004, according to the report. Sports, including "fantasy" sports games--where fans can orchestrate their own season play-- grew by a notable 68.7 percent, while games increased by 27.4 percent.
Entertainment/lifestyles paid content spending--led by music, which grew a remarkable 78.3 percent to $182.8 million--bettered business/investment spending in the first quarter of 2004, according to the report. Sports, including "fantasy" sports games--where fans can orchestrate their own season play-- grew by a notable 68.7 percent, while games increased by 27.4 percent.
Thursday, November 11
Press Release: IDG's InfoWorld Picks TACODA's AMS for Behavioral Targeting and Audience Management
NEW YORK, Nov. 9 /PRNewswire/
-- TACODA, the online industry pioneer in behavioral targeting and
audience management, today announced that IDG's InfoWorld Media Group
has signed an agreement for InfoWorld, the leading weekly
business-to-business technology brand, to use TACODA's Audience
Management Service (AMS).
Friday, November 5
More mainstream press on RSS
From Businessweek:
While RSS could help media titans sell more ads and keep users loyal, the technology could undermine the giants, too. RSS levels the playing field between upstarts and the established media, since news readers don't distinguish between blogs like Gizmodo, which covers consumer electronics, and publications such as PC Magazine. Some believe RSS could make online media even more fragmented than it is today, setting off a struggle for ad revenue. The biggies claim their brands will insulate them against upstarts. Says Catherine Levene, vice-president for product, business development, and strategy at New York Times Digital: "We think people will still come to [our site] for our editorial judgment."
So far most online merchants haven't embraced RSS. But the potential exists for Web stores to alert customers that they now have that snazzy blouse in aqua. Web-savvy outfits, including Amazon.com (AMZN ), Apple's iTunes Music Store, and the Netflix DVD-rental service already use RSS to alert customers to new music or movies. Analysts expect travel, apparel, and financial sites to start testing the technology early next year.
Monday, November 1
The year blogs entered mainstream media
From The Independent UK:
When it is all over, editors and reporters will finally have a moment to reflect on everything that was different about this presidential campaign. What they are likely to conclude is this: the traditional outlets, whether it is CBS News or the New York Times, mattered less. New forces nudged voters' sympathies and even drove the traditional news agenda.
This was the year when the mainstream media outlets unexpectedly found themselves looking over their shoulders at the internet and, perhaps most surprisingly, at the new armies of political bloggers.