Category Archives: online publishing

Read, Share and Destroy

April 24, 2011 – 5:36 pm

TweetThe social web’s economics are paradoxical: The more it blossoms, the more it destroys value. In recent months, we’ve seen a flurry of innovative tools for reading and sharing contents. Or, even better, for basing one’s readings on other people’s shared contents. In Web 2.5 parlance, this is called Social Reading. For this, the obvious [...]

Edited by Frédéric Filloux | Also posted in social networks | Tagged , , , , | Comments (24)

Flipboard: Threat and Opportunity

April 17, 2011 – 6:26 pm

TweetEvery media company should be afraid of Flipboard. The Palo Alto startup epitomizes the best and the worst of the internet. The best is for the user. The worst is for the content providers that feed its stunning expansion without getting a dime in return. According to Kara Swisher ‘s AllThingsD, nine months after launching [...]

Edited by Frédéric Filloux | Also posted in design | Tagged , , | Comments (67)

The NYT’s Melting Iceberg Syndrome

March 27, 2011 – 5:09 pm

TweetCould the New York Times be viable as a digital-only operation? What a ridiculous question: With almost a million copies sold every day, why would this preeminent newspaper even consider such a drastic withdrawal from the physical world? Truth is: there is no urgency, no need to initiate, nor to accelerate the switch — at [...]

Edited by Frédéric Filloux | Tagged , | Comments (22)

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 newspapers | Tagged , | Comments (51)

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 newspapers | Tagged , | Comments (28)

RSS Lenin’s Rope

March 13, 2011 – 6:25 pm

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 [...]

Edited by Frédéric Filloux | Also posted in advertising | Comments (35)

Mobile First, and a Mag

March 6, 2011 – 7:54 pm

TweetTwo French journalists come to me with a question: which business model for their new project? They are about to resuscitate a fairly well-know trade journalism brand, planning to go mostly online — and marginally on dead trees. As an answer to their new investor’s questions, they first considered the “tried and true” formula: free [...]

Edited by Frédéric Filloux | Comments (10)

Bloggers, publishers and the Apple lockdown

February 20, 2011 – 2:56 pm

TweetBloggers like simplicity. They view themselves as computer industry geniuses, as the embodiment of a fantasied future, vectors for all forms of intellectual life, culture, news, entertainment… Bloggers believe in a world where traditional publishing will soon meet a well-deserved death. Last week, this Manichaean worldview reached a paroxysm: many self-proclaimed digital pundits were celebrating [...]

Edited by Frédéric Filloux | Also posted in journalism | Tagged , | Comments (46)

The Traffic Bubble

February 13, 2011 – 7:09 pm

TweetThe new high tech-bubble might not be the one you’re thinking of. Measuring the bubble’s size and inner pressure of is a delicate exercise. For today, we’ll consider two sectors: social networks and online media — such as the Huffington Post acquired last week by AOL for a stunning $315m. In the valuation game, social [...]

Edited by Frédéric Filloux | Also posted in journalism | Tagged | Comments (21)

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, newspapers | Comments (32)