09.26.07
What consumers want from online news
News consumers are keen on “brand promiscuity”, their favourite information platforms are television and the Internet and usefulness, timeliness and easyness in getting news appear to be more important than quality and accuracy. These are the basic findings of the McKinsey Quarterly reasearch about online readers.
Media companies should be aware that the reader’s behaviour is changing: as he prefers relying on a variety of different sources, he appreciates quick and targeted informations, some solutions could be to offer multisource aggregators directly from a newspaper’s website, to thighten links and partnership with local institutions and within the different media companies, to invest in the development of new products for unsatisfied niches.
09.18.07
N.Y.Times online to give up charges
After two years of charging for access to some parts of its website, The New York Times decided to provide its digital content for free. The reasons are simple: on one hand the readers are less and less willing to pay for online content (and most of them have already given up buying the newspaper), on the other hand advertising expenditure on the net is increasing and revenues from this source appear to be more consistent than the few the TimeSelect program brought in the Times in two years.
09.05.07
E-Polis is back… in telecommute mode!
The new publisher of E-Polis, Alberto Rigotti, has decided to bring back the title on the editorial market, introducing an innovation: no more newrooms, the editors will work at home (pc and mobile granted as benefits).
The publisher presented the solution as a plus for his employees (not caring about law and contract infringments):
“The journalist is one dimension of our project for whom we would like to do more. Journalism has gone through a gene mutation due to many factors, not only the technological ones, and great possibilities are opening up: the journalist is becoming a knowledge vehicle and not only an information vehicle. The idea is provide the conditions to our reporters to participate in the editorial tasks, also the paging ones, everywhere they are”.
Congratulations for recognizing the digital revolution affected also journalism in 2007! Concerning the knowledge stuff, it’s a pathetic attempt to gild the pill: no newsrooms means cutting editorial costs. The publisher might have no money (again??) or be simply trying to rise revenues, anyway that’s not a good re-start…
