iOS Newsstand is a success for Condé Nast: digital subscriptions up 268 percent
Condé Nast’s weekly digital subscription sales increased 268 percent since Apple launched its Newsstand feature on iOS 5 earlier this month, the company revealed Tuesday.
Newsstand is essentially a collection of iOS applications from print publications. Newsstand appears as a separate folder on the iOS 5 home screen that houses each publication’s app. The app automatically downloads new content and sends users a notification when it’s available. Some of the 295 publications participating in Newsstand … Continue Reading
OwnLocal nabs new funding from Automattic to resurrect newspaper revenues
Many local newspapers may be teetering on the edge of death, but web publishing service OwnLocal doesn’t think they’ll be meeting their maker anytime soon. The company has just nabbed an undisclosed round of funding to help traditional paper newspapers boost their income.
OwnLocal provides a variety of white-label software services to help newspapers increase their advertising revenues. The new funding was led by WordPress developer Automattic, with participation from 500 Startups, Justin Kitch and … Continue Reading
WSJ opens up new walled garden with Facebook news app
The Wall Street Journal launched a new Facebook app today that allows people to read the publication’s content exclusively on the social network.
As you can see from the Dell and Intel logos in the screenshot, the app is ad-supported. This is an interesting twist considering that the bulk of WSJ content is now behind a paywall.
The app, called WSJ Social, filters the publication’s content through Facebook’s social graph to yield a collection of … Continue Reading
The Boston Globe launches its paid subscription-only website
The Boston Globe today launched its new subscriber-only website, which puts much of the publication’s in-depth content behind a paywall.
The move to a subscription-based model, which was first announced in September 2010, is part of the company’s effort to become more profitable by charging its most loyal readers for an improved product.
The new BostonGlobe.com site has a clean, simplistic design that lacks the onslaught of ads common among other major newspaper websites. The … Continue Reading
Hackers steal info from 1.3 million Washington Post accounts
An unknown group of hackers targeted the Washington Post’s jobs section last week and made off with 1.3 million user e-mail addresses. An FAQ released by the Post on Thursday addresses what happened and how users will likely be affected.
While the breach only appeared to steal user names and e-mail addresses, this is bad news for newspaper websites, which often require registration via e-mail for access to articles. This incident yet again highlights the … Continue Reading
Internet ads finally surpass newspapers
Internet advertising has been gaining on newspaper advertising for a long time, and in 2010 the new media finally surpassed the old media.
The Internet Advertising Bureau reported that full-year 2010 internet ad revenues were $26 billion, up 15 percent from 2009. The report from IAB and PwC also said that internet ad revenue came roaring back from the recession and had a strong fourth quarter. While competition for ad dollars on the internet is … Continue Reading
USC's Jeffrey Cole predicts the death of newspapers in five years
For someone who works at a school of journalism, Jeffrey Cole isn’t particularly optimistic about the future of newspapers.
Cole directs the Center for the Digital Future at the USC Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism, which has been studying the effect of the Internet since 2000. Cole said that 11 years ago, he appeared at a newspaper convention and told the attendees that their industry had only 25 or 30 years or life left. … Continue Reading
New York Times paywall plans are ambitious and sort of crazy
In a bid to wean online readers from reading the paper’s content for free, the New York Times finally announced its digital subscription plans today, starting at $15 for four weeks of access.
While certainly ambitious, and something that every online publisher will be paying attention to, the paper’s paywall plans seem both too expensive and too confusing to take off.
The $15 four-week subscription gets you unlimited access to the site on the web … Continue Reading
Apple brings news subscriptions to the iPad, starting with The Daily
News Corp’s The Daily iPad newspaper is the first app to support one-click subscription billing, and Apple’s vice president of interactive services Eddy Cue says that the feature will soon make its way to other apps.
The addition of subscription pricing is a big change for Apple, as it will allow news publications to price their apps similar to print media. Users won’t be asked to manually pay for a new issue every month (like … Continue Reading
Can News Corp.'s iPad publication The Daily succeed from behind a wall?
Sources who have seen News Corp.’s iPad newspaper, The Daily, tell All Things Digital’s Peter Kafka that the app is “both old fashioned and cutting edge.” In that way, it sounds a lot like Rupert Murdoch, a man with newspaper ink for blood but who, for example, saw the potential for satellite television way before others did.
As The Daily prepares for its hoopla-filled launch Wednesday at the Guggenheim Museum in New York, pundits are … Continue Reading
News Corp. chief James Murdoch wants to toss the newspaper onto your iPad
James Murdoch is the chairman and chief executive of News Corp. And he’s the son of Rupert Murdoch, the mogul who created the far-flung media empire that includes everything from Fox Broadcasting to the Wall Street Journal.
Murdoch offered a window into the tough problem of straddling two different businesses, new media and old media in a talk at the Digital Life Design conference in Munich this week. While News Corp. is anchored in the … Continue Reading
Perfect Market raises $9M to fund newspaper moneymaking tools
Perfect Market, a startup aiming to help newspapers make more money from their articles, just raised $9 million in new funding.
The Pasadena, Calif. startup works with publishers to optimize their content for search engines, delivering a customized (usually stripped-down) version of an article page for users visiting from search engines, with advertising targeted at that particular audience. It also offers data to publishers about what articles could earn the most money. Customers include the … Continue Reading
NimbleCommerce lets newspapers build their own Groupon
Startup NimbleCommerce is officially launching today, but founder and chief executive Prashant Nedungadi said the company, which has been working in stealth mode for the past year and half, has already signed up more than 25 large newspapers and business directories for its group-buying service.
NimbleCommerce helps those publications tap into the excitement around group buying, where discounts are only available for a limited time and only take effect if enough people sign up. The … Continue Reading
Amazon lures newspapers and magazines to Kindle with 70% revenue share
Amazon announced today that qualifying newspaper and magazine publishers will soon be able to earn 70-percent from sales on the Kindle store.
The new revenue sharing plan, which will take effect on December 1, is clearly a bid to get more periodicals onto Kindle devices. To coincide with the news, Amazon also announced a beta version of its Kindle Publishing for Periodicals utility, which will help publishers easily bring more newspaper and magazine content to … Continue Reading
New York Times updates iPad app with full content, free until 2011
The New York Times is set to update its Editor’s Choice iPad app — which only offers a select amount of content — with a new version tomorrow that offers much more content from its website, media-and-technology news site PaidContent reports.
The update iPad app will offer content like breaking news, video and other multimedia, as well as deeper access to the New York Time’s archive. Full access to the app will be free for … Continue Reading
NYT, WSJ pin hopes on Samsung's new Galaxy tablet, due out on Sprint Nov. 14
The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today are all lining up to provide applications for Samsung’s upcoming Android Galaxy Tab tablet, sources tell the WSJ.
Given that the Galaxy Tab is among the first Android tablets to be released, and that it actually has a shot at competing with Apple’s iPad, massive publisher interest was to be expected. Publishers are also seeing the device as a stepping stone to getting their content … Continue Reading
Apple gearing up for newspaper subscription plan
While many are eagerly waiting for Apple to announce a subscription offering for its music and video content, the company is apparently looking to offer newspaper subscriptions first, the San Jose Mercury News reports.
The news, which is still unconfirmed by Apple, makes sense considering the iPad’s skyrocketing sales (it sold over 3 million units as of July). Newspaper companies are desperate for a new way to bring in revenue, as print subscriptions and ad … Continue Reading
Google to put more newspaper content on Google News
While many are eagerly waiting for Apple to announce a subscription offering for its music and video content, the company is apparently looking to offer newspaper subscriptions first, the San Jose Mercury News reports.
The news, which is still unconfirmed by Apple, makes sense considering the iPad’s skyrocketing sales (it sold over 3 million units as of July). Newspaper companies are desperate for a new way to bring in revenue, as print subscriptions and ad … Continue Reading
Digg founders launch Revision3, a new video studio, with $1 million
While many are eagerly waiting for Apple to announce a subscription offering for its music and video content, the company is apparently looking to offer newspaper subscriptions first, the San Jose Mercury News reports.
The news, which is still unconfirmed by Apple, makes sense considering the iPad’s skyrocketing sales (it sold over 3 million units as of July). Newspaper companies are desperate for a new way to bring in revenue, as print subscriptions and ad … Continue Reading
Newspapers can't innovate — need "Switzerland Inc." to survive
While many are eagerly waiting for Apple to announce a subscription offering for its music and video content, the company is apparently looking to offer newspaper subscriptions first, the San Jose Mercury News reports.
The news, which is still unconfirmed by Apple, makes sense considering the iPad’s skyrocketing sales (it sold over 3 million units as of July). Newspaper companies are desperate for a new way to bring in revenue, as print subscriptions and ad … Continue Reading
