Smart money is betting on local, trustworthy news

This blog post started out as an explanation to my friends and family in Cleveland and Columbus, Ohio, why their local newspapers had become shadows of their former selves. Why their newspapers were so thin. Why news coverage was so shallow. Why they felt like they weren’t getting their money’s worth. And we will get […]

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When government fails, ‘business has to step up’

Businesses like to devote part of their marketing and public relations budget to promote how they are  giving back to society. We are not just about profits, they try to say. And the message is arguably true, not just propaganda, as far as it goes. But we are starting to hear a different kind of […]

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Innovation studies go back to the future

Predicting the future has always been a dangerous business in the creative industries. As any economist will tell you, products like books, movies, TV shows, and music are “experience goods”, which can only be evaluated after they are purchased or experienced. Making predictions or recommending strategies is especially difficult now with rapid technological change disrupting […]

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Newsstand owner adapts to survive media crisis

Newsstand owner Jesus Erro: Publishers are fudging their sales numbers. PAMPLONA, Spain – Those who study the business of media tend to look at it from the perspective of journalists and publishers. But the owner of a newsstand in the heart of this provincial capital has a different point of view. Jesus Erro, 56, has […]

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Forget about the big numbers; go for loyalty, trust

Anyone who has studied the metrics of the internet in any detail knows about the Big Lie: those big numbers of total users and page views that everyone relies on are practically meaningless. More than half of the visitors to websites stay for less than 15 seconds.  Three-fourths of the users of the most important […]

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