Guiding media innovators toward solutions, around the world
As we all struggle to make sense of the flood of disinformation and misinformation in digital media, some entrepreneurs are developing businesses to help us identify the good stuff, the credible stuff. At the heart of one of the three business models is transparency–full disclosure–to increase our trust of particular media. And the other two […]
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During 10 weeks of quarantine, I have been getting a lot more of my information and entertainment from podcasts. My interests in news, the arts, and business lead me to programs like Hidden Brain, How I Built This, The Indicator, Fresh Air, Planet Money, SER Historia, Radio Ambulante, El Hilo, Freakonomics Radio, Against the Rules, […]
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We see lots of hand-wringing about the sorry state of local news organizations because of digital disruption of their financial models. I just happened on a 2016 study by Clare Cook, Kathryn Louise Geels, and Piet Bakker that finds reasons for optimism while realistically assessing the problem. Their study, Hyperlocal revenues in the UK and […]
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And the reasons why those lies make us blind to the true opportunities we have. Lie No. 1. The news we produce is valuable. The Truth: Not really, at least in economic terms. Once we publish the news, everyone has access to it. For example, take the headline, “Michael Jackson is dead.” The first news […]
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Note to readers: I wrote this blog post in November 2018, but it seems relevant today. Lots of people distrust the news media and lots of people distrust the government. And I am not just talking about the U.S. but Spain, the U.K., Italy, etc., etc., etc. This blog post started out as an explanation […]
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The new dynamics of the digital media business are driving publishers away from advertising-based business models and toward user payments. In that context, many of them are rediscovering that supposedly obsolete distribution channel, email. Email has the power to create an intimate relationship between a publication and its users. That relationship can translate into loyalty, […]
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Picard: News organizations need to focus on creating value for users Now that Google, Facebook, and other tech platforms have taken away most of their ad revenue, news publishers are realizing they need to get revenues from users to stay afloat. Well, good luck with that. Most of the paywalls or freemium products they have […]
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