Cook’s Illustrated: Stirring up synergy to sell online food content
80,000 paid subscriptions at $24.94 per year …. $2 million in revenue and subs have doubled in the last year and a half. Given there is no advertising in Cook’s publishing model, there was no alternative.
Call this the Consumer Reports Model of paid content. So now we can add food to the magic triangle of Sex, Sports, and Stocks. Seems like the essential ur list of human needs.
Poynter Online – E-Media Tidbits
Lots and lots of noise about paid models. Here Romensko notes the dropping of a paid model to the Atlanta Constitution’s sports section. (the old rule of thumb was only three types of content could thrive behind the cost wall: sports, sex, and stocks). Lots of grumbling among ESPN users about formerly free stuff vanishing behind the sub wall. Doug Kay at ITConversations has a long essay about public radio and the donation-model.
TechTarget First-half Revenue Increases 58% on Strong Gains Throughout Business
Private but reporting results — an offering in the offing?
This is the final nail in the coffin of the old dichotomy between print and online operations. Keeping the two seperate, in different locations, is incredibly destructive to a news organization’s culture, the morale of both sides, and in the end reinforces a division between print and online that needs to vanish.
Net Sense: CNet’s plan to be ‘suddenly relevant’ – Internet Services – Internet – Opinion
CNET traffic on the wane — look at ZDNet falling 17% in June. Whoa — what happened there.
A VC: Posting, Subscribing, and Tagging
Should be required reading for anyone who doesn’t get it.
WSJ.com – Use of a Mysterious Cookie Irks Some Internet Users
This is disquieting, given that CXO uses Omniture’s SiteCatalyst to measure its traffic.
This was in the weekly update from Doug Kaye at ITConversations, my favorite podcast channel and a model for how to present content from live events:
"1. Free content is more valuable than paid content. When content (or whatever
you choose to call it) can be freely linked to, blogged, reviewed and
remixed, its value to the world (and hence to its creator/owner) escalates
dramatically. Conversely, if you put your content behind a toll gate or
hinder its access or reuse in any other way, you drastically reduce its
value."