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05 Mar 2010 21:37

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Tech: At least one publisher gets how awesome iPad books can be

  • The iPad represents the first real opportunity to create a paid distribution model that will be attractive to consumers. The psychology of payment on tablets is different to the psychology on a PC.
  • Penguin Books CEO John Makinson • Regarding what he sees as the future of books. What’s that future of books? Well, in the case of the children’s books he used as an example, a really fun, educational experience, the kind of thing everyone was hoping for with the iPad when it was first suggested (but Apple forgot to show when announcing it). This looks really awesome, Penguin Books. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

20 Feb 2010 16:01

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Tech: Authors all scared eBooks about to ruin the book economic model

  • I’ve got news: It takes about a year to write a book, you have to travel extensively, you have to do a lot of fact-checking. What Amazon and Apple are trying to do is significantly decrease the amount of money that publishers, and specifically authors, can make.
  • The Register writer Dan Goodin • Regarding the possibility of making profits off of eBooks via Kindle or iPad. We think the point he’s trying to make is pretty weak. Why’s that? Well, it completely discounts the things that eBooks make obsolete: The high costs of printing and distribution, which are no longer an issue. We’re not geniuses, but we’re guessing that if you take those two things out of the equation, it more than makes up for the $5 less that an eBook version of your average novel costs. Not convinced. Blame publishers for damaging the model by taking more than their fair share of the pie, not e-readers. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

18 Nov 2009 22:14

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Tech: Wired Magazine to Apple: Our magazine, your tablet. Kapish?

  • Wired is working hard on a new version of its magazine, ready to launch on Apple’s purported tablet next year. source
  • Apple hasn’t yet announced this new tablet, so if they don’t launch it, Condé Nast will have wasted a lot of time. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

04 Nov 2009 10:51

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Biz: Time Warner’s third-quarter profits look scary and anemic

  • -38% decline in profits at Time Warner; the company’s been most hurt by publishing and online ad declines source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

02 Oct 2009 19:11

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Biz: A Hulu for publishing: Will media finally get its act together online?


About time someone noticed. We're not going to give the publishing industry a full pass here, but it's great to see they're finally attempting to cobble together a plan for magazines to have a life outside of glossy paper.
  • The plan Time Inc. is pushing to create a Hulu-style app for magazines, and other publishers (such as Wired publisher Condé Nast) are getting on board. The idea is to focus strictly on the content and the distribution system instead of where the content might show up. (Good idea, because you guys know nothing about devices.) source
  • The plan Time Inc. is pushing to create a Hulu-style app for magazines, and other publishers (such as Wired publisher Condé Nast) are getting on board. The idea is to focus strictly on the content and the distribution system instead of where the content might show up. (Good idea, because you guys know nothing about devices.)
  • Why it might work Let’s say Apple releases a tablet. Or Microsoft does something with its Courier prototype. The media industry could totally do some awesome things with it, such as multimedia, interactive graphics, or contextual stuff like Apture (used above). If they do it right, they finally – finally! – have a unique product that people would pay for again. source
  • The plan Time Inc. is pushing to create a Hulu-style app for magazines, and other publishers (such as Wired publisher Condé Nast) are getting on board. The idea is to focus strictly on the content and the distribution system instead of where the content might show up. (Good idea, because you guys know nothing about devices.)
  • Why it might work Let’s say Apple releases a tablet. Or Microsoft does something with its Courier prototype. The media industry could totally do some awesome things with it, such as multimedia, interactive graphics, or contextual stuff like Apture (used above). If they do it right, they finally – finally! – have a unique product that people would pay for again.
  • Why it might not To this, we defer to Fake Steve Jobs (a.k.a. Daniel Lyons), who made some really interesting points a couple of days ago. His argument is that content manufacturers completely lack imagination, and as a result, tech companies are eating their lunch. He nails it. If they just recycle the same crap from print, nobody will want it. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

09 Jun 2009 23:03

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Biz, Politics: Stupid idea: Charging $100 a year for an e-mail newsletter

  • Good idea Billboard Magazine has for years offered a daily, informative e-mail newsletter that told readers about their latest free and paid content, on top of telling you who was going to the top of the charts. If you’re a chart nerd like us, reading data about music is actually interesting. It was by no means junk mail: We looked forward to reading about the latest music-industry trends in our inbox every day. source
  • Good idea Billboard Magazine has for years offered a daily, informative e-mail newsletter that told readers about their latest free and paid content, on top of telling you who was going to the top of the charts. If you’re a chart nerd like us, reading data about music is actually interesting. It was by no means junk mail: We looked forward to reading about the latest music-industry trends in our inbox every day.
  • Bad idea Today, after numerous changes to the format, Billboard informed its subscribers that it would charge them $100 a year ($2 a week!) for content that they used to give away for free – an e-mail that, throughout its history, essentially linked to a Web site. (Now it offers up a useless PDF. Which makes no sense. What, are we going to print it? Why discourage the positive Web traffic?) source
  • Good idea Billboard Magazine has for years offered a daily, informative e-mail newsletter that told readers about their latest free and paid content, on top of telling you who was going to the top of the charts. If you’re a chart nerd like us, reading data about music is actually interesting. It was by no means junk mail: We looked forward to reading about the latest music-industry trends in our inbox every day.
  • Bad idea Today, after numerous changes to the format, Billboard informed its subscribers that it would charge them $100 a year ($2 a week!) for content that they used to give away for free – an e-mail that, throughout its history, essentially linked to a Web site. (Now it offers up a useless PDF. Which makes no sense. What, are we going to print it? Why discourage the positive Web traffic?)
  • Bad example Why does this bother us so much? Well, it’s a poorly-done example of the trend towards pay walls for content, which newspapers are about to screw up. With all that niche content, they should set the example for everyone. Instead, they’re charging for what should be a promotional tool. Have you not heard of Twitter, guys? E-mail is the same way! Sigh. We digress. What do you think? source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

08 Jan 2009 09:35

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Tech: This was my favorite magazine when I was a kid

  • EGM is shutting down Electronic Gaming Monthly was a long-running magazine about video games. They’ve published since 1989, in the days of Megaman and Sonic the Hedgehog. Their last issue will be the January 2009 one. source
  • EGM is shutting down Electronic Gaming Monthly was a long-running magazine about video games. They’ve published since 1989, in the days of Megaman and Sonic the Hedgehog. Their last issue will be the January 2009 one.
  • The Web site remains EGM’s web destination, 1UP.com, is pretty popular itself and will stick around. Ziff-Davis, the magazine’s publisher, will sell the site to competitor UGO. 30 jobs will be lost from the EGM divestment. Game over. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 1 Comment • Permalink
 

07 Jan 2009 15:57

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Tech: We want you to help newspapers, Google. Thanks for the thought.

  • We’d like to help them better monetize their customer base. We have tools that make that easier. I wish I had a brilliant idea, but I don’t.
  • Eric Schmidt • Google CEO, on the company’s desire to help newspapers get out of their funk. He means well, grizzled old journos. • source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 2 Comments • Permalink
 
 
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