Google and Newspapers: Fairplay, Fair Share and Fair Use

I think it's time we get beyond this tired storyline and confront the realities of the moment. Just as God didn't ordain that newspapers should drive 25%+ profits from their daily monopolies, God didn't set the pay-out rules that drives current web business models. It's time to re-boot the ...

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Chronicle Crackdown Prompts Question: Where’s the Bay Area Online Super Startup?

Could the Chronicle indeed go away? Well, don't expect anyone to buy it. The newspaper market is, to use the kind word, illiquid. Frozen solid by two minor problems: 1) the credit meltdown, which will someday ease; 2) no one knows how to hell to value a newspaper company because no one has ...

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Huffing and Puffing on the Door of Local

# Is Huff Post more than a national brand? Does it really have much resonance around local for its readers? Smart aggregation certainly makes sense in concept, but news aggregators have seen relatively slow audience growth. People are busy and not hungrily looking for new sources or pointers to ...

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Slate’s New SAGA Points to The Big Money

     Ask Jim Ledbetter about his new site’s driving idea, and he’ll tell you that, in part, it really just comes down to four companies. It’s the “SAGA manifesto" approach to business journalism, a term Ledbetter, editor of Slate’s new The Big Money site came up with, ...

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