The Newsonomics of the New York Times’ CEO Search

The next CEO is a big roll of the dice, as the gaming table shrinks. There’s little room for error. Pick the right new leader and the Times has improved its chances for survival; pick wrong and these key years of 2012-2014, as news crosses over into a mainly digital business, will be cited in ...

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The Newsonomics of WSJ Live

WSJ Live, launched last week, is a milestone product. It’s not Fox News. It’s not CNN. It’s not New York Times news video. WSJ Live is its own thing, and a model for the news industry. Newspaper companies can talk the talk of becoming multimedia companies, but most are still text-bound. WSJ ...

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New News Corp Strategy: Become an Even More American Company

News Corp can try to make itself over, as completely and quickly as it can, as an American entertainment company, with global investments (Britain, Italy, Germany, India, the Middle East). That initiative -- we may presume a new CEO some time in the not-too-distant future -- will focus on ...

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The Myths of Murdoch: Real, Unreal and Surreal

Please, don't tell me we're "all guilty," in the U.S., as well. We've heard a lot of citing of ABC's checkbook journalism controversy with the litany of crimes apparently committed by those calling themselves journalists. Treading on society's victims lives, paying off police for years and ...

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As Apple Uses Publishers, Publishers Can Better Use Apple

Inevitably, many consumers will buy subscriptions through Apple. That’s a good thing - and a lead list for newspaper companies. Let Apple sign up new subscribers, happily providing the 30% commission. Even if the publisher doesn't get much customer data (about 50% are withholding it, given the ...

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Nine Questions on Gannett Branding, Patch Widgeting, Stewart Becking, Bloomberg Viewing and Sunday Selling

Am I the only one who doesn't get Gannett's branding campaign? Yes, the Gannett math -- $33 million saved in furloughs, as much as $27 million potentially to be granted in exec bonuses -- seems sadly clueless, but what about the money the company has spent on its branding campaign. New logo and ...

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Nine Questions as the NYT’s Pay Fence Gets Ready to Go Global

Is part of the plan a backdoor Sunday paper/digital access new bundle? Three of the people I talked with on the day of the announcement had begun to run the subscribe-to-Sunday, get-free-digital access numbers in their head. At a $4-a-week introductory rate, that’s $208 a year. Which gets you ...

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Apple’s “New” Policy: Looking Beyond Digital Circ Dollars to Ads & Data

Digital circulation money, though it may the highest profile part of this story, isn't the most curious issue involved here. There are at least three big issues for media companies -- and you can put Netflix, Hulu and Rhapsody in the mix here -- surfacing here: Selling a customer across all ...

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The New HuffPo-AOL Combo: The Free, Anti-Murdoch Alternative?

Ah, but what kind of new face will AOL/HuffPost's be? It could be, simply, the anti-Murdoch. Sure, The Daily is "centrist," whatever that means in the world of 2011, but the right-leaning proclivities of Murdoch Media are clear. MSNBC has tiptoed into position, leaning forward gingerly, but ...

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Nine Questions on Murdoch’s Doubly Cool “Daily”

What will The Daily do with Cairo's Time? Egypt is the story of the week. With The Daily planning on being a daily, not an instant, news product, its thinking and philosophy will be tested Day One. If it has yesterday's Egypt news, as the revolution goes down, it will read like yesterday's. ...

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