The (Still-Evolving) Newsonomics of Digital Transition

AOL, business model, Dave Hunke, digital revenue, Patch, print, SeattlePI.com, USA Today, Warren Webster

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9 Questions on Apple’s “iTunes for News” Store

Isn't Apple wanting 30% of fees for apps a little like [Sony CEO] "Howard Stringer demanding 30% of the revenue produced by TV shows running on Sony TV sets"? That's how a friend put it to me when we talked today. It's a confusing world, no doubt, but still Apple is fundamentally a ...

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The Newsonomics of Public Radio’s Argonauts

The Argo funding is one of the first things that tells us about the business of this effort. Like Silicon Valley startups, the effort is about building a product that seems to meet a clear audience need, building that audience — and then finding a sustainable business model. That’s what has ...

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Does the Newspaper Industry Need a Strategy?

In fact, lower-cost entrants -- AOL, Yahoo/Associated Content, Demand +++ -- aren't just pests; they're changing the economics of producing content. That's not a small issue. It may well lead the next wave of disruption.

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Patch vs. MediaNews: One Little, Instructive Story

Type "San Ramon shooting" into Google, and on both web and news search, Patch comes up first. In addition, Patch's story elicited nine comments by late Thursday evening; Contra Costa's none. A small sample, but therein may lay this emerging tale of newspaper vs. Patch competition. The story ...

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Yahoo’s Buy of Associated Content Makes It a Publisher, Syndicator, Wire, Ad Rep…and More

For Yahoo, I think, it's simple arithmetic. If you've figured out how to monetize content better than the other guys -- remember Yahoo Newspaper Consortium members say they can mark up $8 CPMs to $15 and beyond, courtesy of Yahoo's behavioral targeting technology -- why not do it against ...

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Philly Report: Thinking About the Roll-Ups to Come

The magic word here from a business perspective: Roll-up. Whoever figures out how to roll up major audiences and monetize them wins. J-Lab's report holds out hope that may come about somewhat organically. History, though, teaches us that it's more likely to come by dint of more singular zeal.

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Nine Questions: Philly.Com Gets Risque, Anti-Trust and Newspapers, Senior Niching, craigslist Killers and the Sweet Science of Content

What is Christine Varney taking from her newspaper industry talks? Obama's new anti-trust chief has drawn a lot of attention for her interest in Google's books deal, and beyond that, to Google's great search dominance. Varney has also been meeting with news industry people, management and ...

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Is Circulate the Geritol the News Industry Needs?

Here's my sense of the biggest questions ahead for it: * Scale: First and foremost, this is the challenge for any new solution, no matter how potentially game-changing. The network effect is a web law, and one of which news companies have so far failed to take sufficient advantage. If the goal ...

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