The Newsonomics of News U

At first glance, the question of whether professors and journalists are in the same business seems almost absurd, doesn’t it? We know what a college is, and we know what a newspaper is. One’s got ivy-covered walls, demands on-site instruction, costs tens of thousands of dollars a year, and ...

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The Newsonomics of Pricing 101

Let’s start with this basic principle: People won’t pay you for content if you don’t ask them to. That’s an inside-the-industry joke, but one with too much reality to sustain much laughter. It took the industry a long time to start testing offers and price points, as The Wall Street Journal and ...

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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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New York Times Digital Transition: Worth $34 million (annually) and counting

In 2010, the New York Times took in $683 million in circulation revenue. So a 5% change in that number is about $34 million annually. That's our key number of the moment. A trajectory to add $34 million to Times revenue, without negatively affecting print or digital ad revenues. It's not the ...

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The Newsonomics of the British Invasion

Ad revenue: All the newbies face hyper-competition in the world’s most competitive digital marketing marketplace, one built both on the seemingly paradoxical tricks of leveraging long-term buyer/seller relationships and satisfying the dreaded “23-year-old” media buyer, one who may never have ...

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The Newsonomics of Reuters’ Americanization

Reuters — a household name in the U.K., where it was born 160 years ago — is now an emerging force in the U.S. That push is fueled by the 2008 Thomson Reuters merger, by the great disruption of the U.S. news business, by the launch of Reuters America (“Reuters America Claims New Territory: ...

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The Newsonomics of Defense and Offense

It’s the offense that represents a problem. Most pay tests have yielded relatively little new revenue. Digital circulation revenues, if broken out, would be minuscule for most, leaving publishers underwhelmed. While buoyed by the defensive wins, without significant new circulation revenue, ...

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Apple ‘s Turnaround: There Are Apparently Some Things You Wouldn’t Be Able to Do with an iPad

Far more important for Apple to maintain the iPad as the best, most complete way to do our digital reading. Readers don't care about the tiffs between Apple and publishers; we all just want everything in one orderly place (nothing hursts like an incomplete Newsstand). Yes, Apple will go some ...

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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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