Category Archives: newspapers

Trying a Simple Model

January 15, 2012 – 8:16 pm

TweetAdvertising still dominates the newspaper revenue model. Depending upon the particular country, it is not uncommon to see print dailies getting 70% to 80% of their revenue from advertising. In the early days of the digital era, when business plans were driven by “eyeballs”, everybody hoped to replicate the tried and true print advertising revenue [...]

Edited by Frédéric Filloux | Also posted in online publishing | Tagged | Comments (14)

Cracking the Paywall

January 8, 2012 – 11:04 pm

Tweet(This version corrects an error in the percentage for the price increase of the FT) Every newspaper, magazine or website is working on a paywall of sorts and closely monitoring what everyone else is doing. In almost every news company, execs are morosely watching advertising projections and finding numbers that are not exactly encouraging. For [...]

Edited by Frédéric Filloux | Tagged , , | Comments (19)

Innovation in turbulent times

August 21, 2011 – 8:31 pm

TweetNews organizations have an innovation problem. Especially print media. As they gingerly wade into digital, their ability to foster innovation becomes more critical than ever. In today’s fast-changing landscape, they should view innovation as their main weapon against direct competitors and emerging players such as tech startups,. Unfortunately, print media appears ill-equipped to innovate. The [...]

Edited by Frédéric Filloux | Also posted in online publishing | Comments (20)

The ePresse Digital Kiosk: First Lessons

July 10, 2011 – 6:29 pm

Tweet[correction added about Relay.com's rate] On June 30th, the French consortium ePresse opened its digital kiosk. Six months of hard work for a very small team (the ePresse consortium is a three persons operation: a CTO, a marketing person, and a manager), and still a long way to go. ePresse brought up eight titles: five [...]

Edited by Frédéric Filloux | Also posted in online publishing | Tagged | Comments (7)

NYTimes’ “Fair” Prices

March 21, 2011 – 7:10 am

TweetToday, both Jean-Louis and I struggle with the same topic: last week’s announcement of the New York Time’s strange paywall structure. For a digital newspaper, there is no such thing as a fair price. Too many questionable assumptions, too many variables, too many ways to play with data. The Monday Note and my day job [...]

Edited by Frédéric Filloux | Also posted in online publishing | Tagged , | Comments (47)

The NY Times: Un-Free At Last!

March 21, 2011 – 7:10 am

Tweet On March 28th, after much handwringing, the New York Times will finally deploy a paywall. NYT fans, your author included, rejoice: We see this as a necessary condition for the newspaper’s survival. Necessary…but not sufficient. A “small matter of implementation’’ remains an obstacle on the paper’s path to greatness in the digital era. A [...]

Edited by Jean-Louis Gassée | Also posted in online publishing | Tagged , | Comments (28)

Tear down this PDF

February 7, 2011 – 12:33 pm

TweetThe PDF document format is digital publishing’s worst enemy. For a large part, the news industry still relies on this 18-year-old format to sell its content online. PDF is to e-publishing what the steam locomotive is to the high-speed train. In our business, progress is called XML and HTML5. Picture today’s smartphone reading experience. We’ll [...]

Edited by Frédéric Filloux | Also posted in mobile internet, online publishing | Comments (29)

Ongo… where?

January 30, 2011 – 9:16 pm

TweetOngo is an ambitious digital kiosk. Launched last week, it was founded last year by Alex Kazim, a high-tech executive who worked at Ebay, Skype and PayPal. Kazim lined up an impressive group of investors: Gannett, The New York Times, The Washington Post and the venture capital firm Elevation Partners whose portfolio includes Facebook, Yelp [...]

Edited by Frédéric Filloux | Also posted in online publishing | Comments (14)

The Uncertain Future of Free Dailies

January 16, 2011 – 9:24 pm

TweetThere are signs. Not necessarily good ones. At ten in the morning in Paris, you still find piles of free dailies at almost every distribution point. At four in the afternoon, in the business district, outside one of the busiest subway stations, unopened stacks of copies of Metro lay soaked by the winter rain. Two [...]

Edited by Frédéric Filloux | Tagged | Comments (10)

Le Monde: a blueprint of a turnaround

January 9, 2011 – 6:29 pm

TweetThe iconic French newspaper Le Monde is about to begin a new chapter of its complicated history. Last September, what remains France’s most influential paper changed hands (see previous Monday Note Le Monde’s escape velocity and story in NY Times’ DealBook). Le Monde is now owned by a triumvirate: Xavier Niel, a telecom entrepreneur, provided [...]

Edited by Frédéric Filloux | Also posted in journalism | Comments (14)