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Crap Detector Part II: Mr. Daisey’s Apple Factory A digital news organization has to differentiate itself from the mass of online competitors vying for people’s attention. The best way is to be credible, reliable and trustworthy. Credibility is the most valuable asset of a news organization. It attracts a community whose members can collectively support […]
Read More »Crap detector Part I: Credibility as business model A few weeks ago I listened to a podcast of “This American Life” called “Mr. Daisey and the Apple Factory,” which was the story of a technology geek who goes to China to see where his iPhone was made. In the course of the story, the narrator, […]
Read More »The digital publishing industry will hit a significant milestone this year when for the first time it will book more ad revenue than all print newspapers and magazines. The really bad news for print media, even those with robust web operations, is that most of the revenue is going to non-print publishers such as Google, […]
Read More »Gannett’s announcement that it will establish paywalls at its 80 community newspapers is the latest sign that the newspaper industry believes it has found practical technology to charge for its content. But these are not really solutions so much as experiments. Every newspaper will have to test reader response to the various subscription offers and adjust […]
Read More »If you are running a news organization, you have much in common with the coach of a sports team, the director of a ballet or the producer of a hit comedy. The issues are the same. Motivating people. Encouraging creativity. Developing people’s talent to its highest level. Maintaining the discipline to meet deadlines and stay within […]
Read More »Here in China, one of my guilty pleasures is watching DVDs of old episodes of “Mad Men,” the cable television hit about the glory days of advertising and mass media in the 1960s. In one episode, when Don Draper’s advertising firm loses the multimillion-dollar Lucky Strike cigarette account, he takes out a full-page ad in […]
Read More »At first it seems an unlikely place for an expensive paywall business model to work — Nova Scotia. Nearly 6,000 subscribers are paying $360 a year for access to the AllNovaScotia.com website, according to Tim Currie’s story in Nieman Lab. That’s about $2 million and represents 80 percent of the revenue of the site. How […]
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