Monthly Archives: May 2009

The Internet Creative Deflation

May 31, 2009 – 1:16 pm

TweetWhen LG, the cell phone manufacturer, started work on far-reaching future concepts for handset, it had two choices. The most obvious one was setting up a competition between world-class design firms, getting a stampede and a bidding war as a result, and picking one firm to work on its concept-phones. The Korean electronics giant took [...]

Edited by Frédéric Filloux | Posted in advertising, design, online publishing | Tagged | Comments (6)

The VC Money Pump: NAV

May 31, 2009 – 1:15 pm

TweetThe acronym stands for Net Asset Values. Be forewarned: this is the more boring installment in the VC Money Pump series of columns (see part 1 and part 2 ). Worse than spreadsheets and compound interest calculations, today’s topic forces us to deal with FASB (Federal Accounting Standard Board) regulations. Expensive futility as far as [...]

Edited by Jean-Louis Gassée | Posted in venture capital | Comments (2)

Measuring time spent on a web page

May 24, 2009 – 9:45 am

TweetHow much time is actually spent on websites? New technologies are emerging, starting with time spent on individual pages and drilling down to page segments. Such technologies will lead to improved monetization; they could even spell good news for paid sites.  Here is why. First, display ads. Banners and other modules still represent  30% to [...]

Edited by Frédéric Filloux | Posted in online publishing | Comments (12)

Inside a Venture Capital fund: Reserves

May 24, 2009 – 9:43 am

TweetLast week, with Excel’s help, we looked at the “simple” computation of a VC fund’s rate of return. This week: Reserves, a most important sets of numbers. As a rule, for every dollar initially invested in a company, we immediately set aside an additional $2 or even $3 as a reserve for future rounds, future [...]

Edited by Jean-Louis Gassée | Posted in venture capital | Comments (3)

The Niche Temptation

May 17, 2009 – 6:12 pm

TweetUpdate : Newsweek just launched its brand new site today. Story on the Editors Weblog. Very few industries are tempted to drastically and willingly reduce their base in order to increase each customer’s value. The magazine sector is one such industry. This month, Newsweek gets its strategic turnaround under way: a redesigned magazine, less news [...]

Edited by Frédéric Filloux | Posted in magazines | Comments (5)

The Venture Capital Money Pump

May 17, 2009 – 6:11 pm

TweetThis week, I intend to take you through the pipes of a VC fund’s “money pump”. It starts with dollars coming in from our investors, our Limited Partners, LP, to be invested in entrepreneurs’ big ideas. Later, sometimes much later, money comes back to be shared between the LP and us, the General Partners, the [...]

Edited by Frédéric Filloux | Posted in venture capital | Comments (10)

New Journalistic Storytelling

May 10, 2009 – 12:37 pm

TweetFrom multimedia productions, to Computer Assisted Reporting Last Thursday, I presented a series of great news related multimedia productions before a group of students of the Sciences Politiques School of Journalism where I happen to have a small gig.  I was curious to see their reactions. Too often, journalism students are mostly interested in the [...]

Edited by Frédéric Filloux | Posted in journalism, newspapers | Comments (13)

The New Papyrus

May 10, 2009 – 12:36 pm

TweetOnce upon a time, in 1986, Bill Gates commissioned a book, The New Papyrus, subtitled: The Current and Future State of the Art. I recall an animated conversation with Bill as we were having dinner on top of Seattle’s Space Needle. He was hard at work promoting the CDI, the interactive CD and pushing Japanese [...]

Edited by Jean-Louis Gassée | Posted in online publishing | Tagged | Comments (5)

Providing oxygen to publishers

May 3, 2009 – 5:48 pm

Tweet22% of Internet users in the United States said they stopped their subscription to a printed newspaper or a magazine. Why? Because they could access the same content online, according to a study released last week by the Center for the Digital Future. And it was only one in a string of bad news for [...]

Edited by Frédéric Filloux | Posted in newspapers | Tagged , | Comments (8)

More on sensors [digital photography]

May 3, 2009 – 5:47 pm

TweetIn the (now waning) days of analog photography, much was made of which film was best: Kodak’s Kodachrome, Ektachrome, Fuji’s, Konica, Agfa, Ferrania… to name but a few of the old standards. Today, a similar debate goes on regarding the altogether simpler digital sensors. In the April 5th Monday Note #80, I took a first [...]

Edited by Jean-Louis Gassée | Posted in hardware | Tagged | Comments (4)