TweetAs I write this column, I wonder: Am I slipping into schizophrenia? My right brain is frying, overloaded by a never ending whirlwind of new digital tools, from hardware to internet applications. My left brain, which powers both my current daily job and this Monday Note, is cooler, skeptical. Both sides look on as the [...]
December 13, 2010 – 1:07 am
TweetLast week, Akamai quietly rerouted loads of its client’s traffic to deflect Wikileaks related attacks. The company, based in Cambridge (Massachusetts), had a surfeit of busy days fighting massive DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks. These raids were directed at companies seen as too complacent with the US government (the so-called “Wikichickens”, as coined by [...]
October 24, 2010 – 9:34 pm
TweetIn defining business strategies for modern medias such as online newspapers, the most difficult part is finding the right combination of revenue streams. Advertising, pay-per-view, flat fee… All are part of the new spectrum media companies now have to deal with. The gamut looks like this: As we can see, newspapers mostly consist of one [...]
October 17, 2010 – 8:51 pm
TweetAn update to this column: According to the Wall Street Journal, any of Facebook’s most popular applications have been transmitting identifying information — in effect, providing access to people’s names and, in some cases, their friends’ names — to dozens of advertising and Internet tracking companies. See here (paywall). This year, Facebook will make about [...]
TweetIs advertising the next casualty of the on-going digital tsunami’s? For now, advertising looks like the patient who developed an asymptomatic form of cancer without realizing how sick he is. Such behavior usually results from excessive confidence in one’s body past performance, mixed with a state of permanent denial and a deep sense of superiority, [...]
TweetLet’s discuss a developing data management contradiction. People thinking in strategic terms about the monetization of digital medias, publishers, marketers, are unanimous. Collecting and poring over data has become more important than ever. That’s one trend. The other involves the gatekeepers. As I briefly explained last week, we now face a small club of high [...]
January 24, 2010 – 6:21 pm
TweetFinally! The New York Times is coming out with its paid-for content strategy. A quick summary of the Gray Lady’s paywall plan: a monthly allotment of stories to be read for free and, above that, a flat fee for full access. Subscribers to the print version (including those who only get the Sunday paper) will [...]
January 17, 2010 – 7:49 pm
TweetForget Joe Average, he’s dead. Ten or twenty years ago, analyzing audiences was much easier. Medias enjoyed well-defined and relatively unchanging target groups. For television, networks had a precise idea on who was watching what, and specialized cable outlets knew their viewers pretty well. Newspapers had their content structure sliced to fit various audiences by [...]
January 3, 2010 – 6:22 pm
TweetNo predictions, just a few of many hot topics for the newborn year. Paywalls. 2010 could see a significant number of newspapers jumping into the paid-for option. Among the conditions to be met: – Grouping around a toll collector. It could be Journalism Online in the US, a big media group in Europe, or even [...]
December 20, 2009 – 8:18 pm
TweetWhat can we learn from classifieds web sites? Are there some features, strategies that could apply to online news media? On Google.fr, one of the most searched terms is “Le bon coin” (the good spot). (1) Leboncoin.fr, is a free classifieds site that ranks n°7 on the French market. It generates stunning monthly numbers: 4bn page [...]
