Comcast’s Digital Deal and Our Digital Wallets

First published at Harvard’s Nieman Journalism Lab   Last month, I’d gotten fed up. My Comcast DVR only held 10 hours of HD programming, and I was tired of being its valet. So I did my research, found out about my old friend Tivo’s new products, and decided to buy one. Tivo was still ...

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The Newsonomics of All-Access Delight

Remember the first time you got cross-platform delight? For me, it was when I started a second look at “Lost in Translation” on my TV, happened to click on my Netflix app while working out the next day, and was astounded to see the film paused precisely and ready to start where I’d left off, ...

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The Newsonomics of Breakthrough Digital TV, from Aereo to Dyle and MundoFox to Google Fiber

Today, TV is no longer a box. Sure, even with all the Rokus, Boxees, and Apple TVs, it seems like TV isn’t yet an out-of-the-box experience. But with Hulu, Netflix, and Comcast’s Xfinity, it’s emerging quickly, escaping our fixed idea of what it once was — the boob tube in the living room. If ...

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The Newsonomics of Marissa Mayer’s Yahoo Legacy Challenge

What has the experience of leading Google’s latest push into local advertising taught Mayer? Google Maps, Google+, Google Ad Words Express, Google Zagat, Google Places are all meshing into Google Places for Business, meaning a better place for local merchants to invest their marketing dollars — ...

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Newsonomics: 10 Top Snapshots on Larry Kramer’s USA Today

Kramer inherits a widely known brand — maybe not really “The Nation’s Newspaper,” but in its hotel and airport ubiquity, a mark seared into the minds of many. Yet it’s oddly a mid-market, Middle America medium with Flyover Country warmth. Being stuck in the middle isn’t a good place in the ...

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The Newsonomics of Signature Content

Forget “content wants to be free.” Now content wants a fee. And everyone from Time Inc to The New York Times to the Memphis Commercial Appeal to Hulu’s co-owners (Fox, Disney, and Comcast) see gold. They see another digital revenue stream, in addition to advertising or to cable subscription ...

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The Newsonomics of Amazon’s Prime Subscription/Membership Moves

Now let’s turn the news and magazine industry, and ask a few questions: --What’s the difference between a shipping fee and a subscription? --What’s the difference between a buyer and a reader? --What’s the difference between a newspaper subscription and a membership that gets you “free” media?

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The newsonomics of the missing link

In this evolution, the iPad is so far our human pinnacle, though it will be followed by wonders to come. It also marks a signal change in digital usage, and especially in digital news consumption. I think of it as the likely missing link in the digital news evolution. It’s a link that, out of ...

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Paywalls, Patch, Public Media & Pointcast Memories: 11 Conventional News Wisdoms We’ll Test in 2011

Conventional Wisdom #1) Readers won't pay for non-business content. Yes, we know that readers will pay for the Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times, and that Consumer Reports, which helps us save money, counts more digital subs than anyone else. While some smaller dailies have begun to ...

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The Newsonomics of News Anywhere

News Anywhere, or unified news, or All-Access, whatever we want to call it, demands the singular focus, product development and messaging that Netflix, HBO, Comcast, and Facebook are bringing to it. Those are all skills that have been problematic in the news industry. Yet, here we are, in a new ...

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