Predicate, LLC » Business Strategy

Let Us Pay

Jeffrey — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 15:00:24 +0000

I say again, let us pay. Make the process as easy as possible. Make it invisible and transparent. Make us register once and once only. Walls are not the way forward, but walls are not the same thing as payment, and without some form of payment, the press will not be here in five years’ time. I hope one of the big organisations is working on this idea or something like it, because for print newspapers, the clock isn’t just ticking, it’s ticking louder and faster.

LRB · John Lanchester · Let Us Pay.

An App Is Not a Content Strategy

Jeffrey — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 15:00:58 +0000

Scarcity is not a viable business model on the Internet.

Fred Wilson, via Mathew Ingram, If an App Is Your Content Strategy, You Are Doomed: Tech News and Analysis «.

Daily Was Murdoch’s Fresh Start

Jeffrey — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 15:00:57 +0000

Rupert knows the ad model of publishing is doomed. Print and broadcast command the heftiest premiums, and both are at risk of price and volume erosion as consumers cut their ties to offline media. In the digital environment, online advertising is highly commoditized: the explosion of content publishers is outpacing the shift in demand, while technologies target audience ever more efficiently. Advertisers have plentiful ways to reach a consumer.

via Ben Elowitz, Rupert Murdoch Is Right About The Daily | paidContent.

Luxury Brands Command Own Media Online

Jeffrey — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 15:00:10 +0000

Editorial credibility, once the sole province of old-line publishing houses, is now being bought and paid for by the brands themselves.

via David Carr, Brands Create Media Outlets Online, Bypassing Magazines – NYTimes.com.

National Archives Digital Preservation Policy

Jeffrey — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 15:00:58 +0000

The National Archives has developed guidance on the need for a digital preservation policy. It discusses the main success criteria for a policy and its relation to other policy areas.

Policy guidance | The National Archives.

Print V Web or Attention V Apathy?

Jeffrey — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 15:00:22 +0000

It’s never been print vs. web – it’s attention vs. apathy. A bunch of people who care about the same thing is the most powerful, rare, and wonderful thing in the universe. It doesn’t matter how they find each other – web, print, a great disturbance in the force – it only matters that they find each other, and that they can do something with that shared attention to make the world a better place.

Derek Powazek – How To Save A Newsweekly in 5 Easy* Steps.

5 Business Benefits of Content Re-Use

Jeffrey — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 15:00:47 +0000

Process Efficiency. Content developers are knowledge workers, and an efficiency goal is to create more time that can be spent on the important tasks associated with content creation. Using a CCMS to produce content supports efficient processes by reducing, and sometimes eliminating, rote tasks such as searching, cutting and pasting, checking for identical changes in multiple places, and repetitive set-ups for generating content output.

Scope Extension. When staff isn’t spending time on the rote tasks, they can concentrate on the activities that add value to the organization. The gain in process efficiency allows staff to re-allocate their efforts, perhaps creating material that had previously been beyond their reach, or responding to requests for materials that didn’t fit within the product schedule. Or, it could mean the difference between having the resources to enter a new market. or taking a pass.
Risk Management. Inaccurate content, or content that inconsistent across publishing media – documents, websites, and product packaging – can lead to lawsuits. One content developer estimated that her company successfully avoided one lawsuit per year, at approximately $1 million per lawsuit, by demonstrating content accuracy. The only way they could maintain accuracy across all their product lines, given the amount of content and time-pressured publishing schedule, was through a CCMS.
Customer Trust. In markets where the difference between you and competitors is a better user experience, getting good information out to your customers quickly can be a distinct advantage. With a CCMS , you can publish content sooner, be confident of its accuracy, and, when it makes business sense, easily create more variations of your material for specific audiences. When customers have better instructions, more personalized content, or targeted translations, it all adds up to increased consumer confidence in your products and your organization.
Increased Revenue. Whether the support takes the form of better material for sales reps, better training material, more translated material to allow your product into a new market, or real-time sharing of content with other groups such as customer support, the ability to manipulate content quickly, easily, and accurately translates into more sales.

via 5 Top Business Benefits of Content Re-Use | Intentional Design Inc..

The Allure of HuffPo Churnalism

Jeffrey — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 15:00:11 +0000

So when I hear that Forbes.com, notorious den of high-pressure churnalism, has found religion, I’m not surprised that it’s no less calculating than what came before.

It’s not that I think this operation will fail; It’s that I’m afraid it will succeed. In the best case scenario, it becomes a showcase for experts who have day jobs, experts who are every bit as eloquent and even better informed than the journalists they supplant. In the worst case scenario, it’s another low or no-wage content mill.

via Chris Mims, I’ll tell you what Forbes.com is up to | That’s So Media.

What Daring Fireball’s Success Teaches Us

Jeffrey — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 15:00:35 +0000

Gruber is a great example of the new kind of one-man, self-publishing empire, made possible by the advent of free/cheap publishing tools, inexpensive web hosting, and advertisers that will pay for influence, and not just mass “reach.”

via Dan Frommer, REVEALED: Daring Fireball’s Impressive Traffic Stats | Business Insider.

Articles Are The New Clutter

Jeffrey — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 15:00:48 +0000

In the never-ending quest to get page views, the choices writers and editors are making to attract eyeballs and drive traffic are creating a new breed of low-brow, gimmicky disposable content. At its best it adds little insight and at its worst amounts to a slimy bait-and-switch (catchy headline, nothing to say in the article).

via Richard Ziade, Basement.org: The New Clutter.