New New York Times Plan: (Digital) World Domination

Today's news that the Times Company is finally selling its New York Times Regional Newspaper Group holdings of 14 newspapers absolutely fits with the last week's news of CEO Janet Robinson's abrupt departure. Expect the new CEO, most likely from the outside to be focused on three A's: audience, ...

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The Newsonomics of Tablets Replacing Newspapers

A few companies are now laying new strategy, based on private projections. They are forecasting that 20-25 percent of their print readers will migrate to the tablet within five years. (Remember, at the forecast rates, one in five Americans would have a tablet by 2014.) All admit that it’s ...

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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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Reuters America Claims New Territory; First Stop, Chicago & Tribune

Still, it will be an intriguing test. Beyond the immediate test, we're seeing how flexible news content delivery is getting to be. Demand Media is selling content to USA Today and Hearst papers, while Reuters and Tribune buddy up to Examiner. Mix and match is the order of the day and ...

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The Newsonomics of Journalist Headcounts

So let’s look broadly at those numbers. Count them all up — and undoubtedly, numerous ones are missing — and you’ve got something more than 65,000 journalists, working for brands of one kind or another.

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9 Questions: Zell’s Clown Car, The New “100,” Tablets & Print Circ & Daughter of Alesia

Will the cats of newspaper industry be successfully herded? After pouring millions into his Alesia project, Rupert Murdoch gave the retreat order to his would-be Roman warriors, killing the tablet-oriented paid news portal initiative. Though his News Corp is the biggest news company in the ...

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Who Would Buy Newsweek?

In an age of hot and loud debate, amplified by cable TV and the web, Newsweek's cool demeanor may simply be out of time and out of place. If it gets sold, it's hard to believe that much other than the brand will long survive, as the economics under it are badly wounded. Look for it, ...

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Competition for the Business News Reader Intensifies

The push in business news shows several key trends in the marketplace: * Niching. Beefing up “news” in general is out; targeting select readers is where investment is going. * The action is greatest among the Digital Dozen, the term I’ve originated to describe top globally-oriented ...

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iPad and the New Five-Fingered Exercise

I think we'll see these companies go head-to-head for reader and subscriber dollars. As they do, I think they'll face a new five-fingered exercise. Raise one hand; five is the probably the maximum number of iPad news sites for which readers will pay.

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Nine Questions on the Tablet and the News Industry Future

The Apple model, in a sense, just sets a new cost-of-distribution. While web distribution has been free-plus, the cost of Apple distribution – if you charge for news products – is a predictable, and seemingly stable 30%. Just give me 30% off the top, says Steve Jobs. Ironically, that 30% is ...

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