Newsonomics: The Thinking (and Dollars) Behind The New York Times’ New Digital Strategy

It was a quiet manifesto — an 11-page document that unofficially serves as The New York Times’ follow-up to the much dissected Innovation Report (Nieman Lab’s story about the Innovation Report is the most popular story in its history) of May 2014. (Look at the signatures at the bottom of this ...

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Newsonomics: The Washington Post Offers an Arc in the Storm

Do you remember where you were when you heard that Jeff Bezos bought The Washington Post? Okay, that’s a bit too dramatic. But: Do you remember how surprised you were when you heard that Jeff Bezos bought The Washington Post? Bezos bought the Post from the Graham family a little more than two ...

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Newsonomics: L.A. Consequential

It’s a trademark line of Austin Beutner’s: “I cannot imagine Los Angeles without a vibrant L.A. Times.” As anyone who follows media knows, the Los Angeles Times publisher’s imagination short-circuited the day after Labor Day, when he was fired by Tribune Publishing CEO Jack Griffin (“Tribune to ...

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Newsonomics: 10 Numbers on The New York Times’ 1 million Digital-Subscriber Milestone

If, half a decade ago, you’d been able to put money down in Vegas on The New York Times’ chances of reaching 1 million digital subscribers by 2015, what kind of odds could you have gotten? Longer than longshot. In 2010, when the Times announced it would put up a paywall, hardly anyone thought ...

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Newsonomics: Eight Questions (And Answers) About Nikkei’s Surprise Purchase of the Financial Times

Is Nikkei the new Axel Springer of Asia? Is $1.3 billion as ridiculous a price as the $5 billion Rupert Murdoch paid for Dow Jones? How did the turn from Berlin to Tokyo happen in 15 minutes? Will Japanese lessons be the first order of business at One Southwark Bridge beginning next week? ...

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Newsonomics: How Much is the Financial Times Worth, and Who Might Buy It?

  Updated post on Nikkei’s purchase of the FT Complete archive of Newsonomics FT coverage   If you wanted to buy a top business news publisher, which one would you choose? Assuming the marketplace offered you choice, would you go the newer-media route, buying a Business Insider ...

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Newsonomics: When News Companies Are No Longer Built To Last

I’ve gotten feedback about vulture capitalists, hatchet men, and chop shops, and of close-to-retirement publishers getting that unexpected knock on the door from visiting corporate vice presidents. I’ve heard about 30-year-old journalists turning in their resignations, and other young reporters ...

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What Are They Thinking? Rafat Ali’s Skift is Bootstrap-Plus

There’s bootstrap, and there’s “bootstrap plus.” Bootstrap plus is what digital media entrepreneur Rafat Ali calls his Skift modus operandi. Three years ago, he set out to raise about $4 to $5 million to build his second start-up, a travel-industry website. As the company celebrates its third ...

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Newsonomics: Are Post-Paton DFM Cuts More Than a Milking Strategy?

Two months ago, Digital First Media’s deal to sell itself to Apollo Global Management collapsed (“Apollo withdraws from DFM deal, Paton leaves”), and its founding CEO (and would-be industry leader) John Paton said he would leave the company. Now, as of July 1, he’s gone. New CEO Steve Rossi, ...

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What Are They Thinking? Why Atlantic Media Floods The Zone

Related post: Newsonomics: On Endgames and Endtimes   Facebook’s Instant Articles starts populating with news stories this week, as questions abound about the shape and impact of Apple News. Meanwhile Twitter is figuring out how to hire editors for its Lightning curation product and ...

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