Monthly Archives: November 2009

11.04.09
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Cars: There’s an app for that

Suw and I are taking two weeks off. Most of the time, we’ll be here in London enjoying a holi-stay. I might engage in some deep-thought blogging after recovering from a really too busy 2009. In the meantime, I’ll just engage in a little light coolhunting.

Someone recently was picking my brain about the future of in-car technology. I think that one of the knock-on effects of the iPhone is that people will expect apps and add-on services in a wider range of consumer electronics. Cars will not just have on-board computers to manage the engine but also on-board computers to navigate, entertain and inform much as we would expect in our home.

Hobbyists have already been adding these kind of systems to their cars for years, and Prius drivers love to hack their hybrid cars. High-end cars have complex environmental and entertainment systems, but we’re starting to glimpse how these activities will filter into the mainstream.

Satellite radio services in the US have been using some of their surplus bandwidth to provide information services, and with 4G data services such as WiMax and LTE service expanding in the next few years, mobile data will provide the kind of bandwidth that we’ve previously thought of as restricted to DSL and cable. Faster wireless connections will bring new forms of entertainment, expand the use of web services and provide new opportunities for information providers.

GigaOm has a great post on a prototype system in a Prius.

As a journalist, the question is whether news organisations will let another opportunity slip by them.

11.04.09
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links for 2009-11-04

  • Texas Tribune: An impressive launch that feels web-native » Nieman Journalism Lab
    Kevin: There is a lot to the launch of the Texas Tribune, and there are some impressive web-native aspects of it as Martin Langeveld writes at Nieman Lab. The TribWire and TweetWire bring together some excellent aggregation, something that most mainstream outlets have failed to do. They have a Datablog, much like the Guardian where I work, as well as data and document repositories. They also have Topic pages. Look at the post for all of the features. In terms of revneue, they also have the Texas Weekly political e-newsletter available for an annual subscription of $250.
    This is not a replacement for a general purpose newspaper but a rather a statewide version of Politico, a highly focused news service.
    (tags: journalism newspapers newmedia paidcontent texas online US revenue)
  • National papers 'need to convert less than 5% of web audience to pay model' | Media | guardian.co.uk
    Kevin: Mark Sweeney of the Media Guardian writes: "National newspaper groups need to persuade less than 5% of their internet audience to pay for online content to make a success of moving away from relying on digital advertising, according to a private equity financier.

    Dharmash Mistry, a former senior Emap executive who is now a partner at private equity firm Balderton Capital, told MediaGuardian.co.uk that getting about 3% to 4% of an online audience of a national newspaper to pay a modest £3 a month would cover the entire annual digital advertising revenue he estimated most groups currently make."

    Dharmash Mistry, a former senior Emap executive who is now a partner at private equity firm Balderton Capital"

    (tags: newspapers paidcontent advertising paywall internet businessmodels)
  • Six Social Media Trends for 2010
    Kevin: David Armano is part of the founding team at Dachis Group, an Austin based consultancy, makes some predictions for social media and 2010. Mobile. Location. Social media policies at companies that are enforced. Not a whole lot earth shattering here, but it is worth a look.
    (tags: socialmedia facebook twitter foursquare locationbasedservices)
  • GlobalPost on track to profitability – Editors Weblog
    Kevin: GlobalPost expects to generate $1 million in revenue this year and $3 million next, reported Nieman Lab, from notes taken by Bill Densmore at a seminar organised by the Joan Shorenstein Center at Harvard, entitled "How to Make Money in News: New Business Models for the 21st Century."
    I'll be looking for a breakdown on how much revenue comes from advertising, syndication and their membership scheme. The site currently only has 500 paying members so I would expect that part of the revenue picture to be relatively small. I'd also be interested to see how it is working out for individual journalists working for the site.
    (tags: globalpost 2009 business journalism syndication international)
11.03.09
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links for 2009-11-03

  • GlobalPost on track to profitability – Editors Weblog
    Kevin: GlobalPost expects to generate $1 million in revenue this year and $3 million next, reported Nieman Lab, from notes taken by Bill Densmore at a seminar organised by the Joan Shorenstein Center at Harvard, entitled "How to Make Money in News: New Business Models for the 21st Century."
    I'll be looking for a breakdown on how much revenue comes from advertising, syndication and their membership scheme. The site currently only has 500 paying members so I would expect that part of the revenue picture to be relatively small. I'd also be interested to see how it is working out for individual journalists working for the site.
    (tags: globalpost 2009 business journalism syndication international)
  • Old newshounds hunt for digital future | Crain's Chicago Business
    Kevin: Chicago is turning into a very interesting laboratory for new news models. The Chicago News Co-operative and reconstituted ChiTown Daily are pursuing different models. ChiTown Daily tried to pursue grant-based online model and has switched to a print tabloid focusing on 'City Hall', Chicago city politics. Both the ChiTown Daily and the Chicago News Co-operative will be focusing on City Hall "and and other big institutions that dominate civic life in Chicago".
    I am sure that they can find some success, but unless they connect with readers beyond these institutions (which they seem to have a plan to do), I can't see them being anything but niche players.
    (tags: chicago US journalism startups)
11.02.09
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links for 2009-11-02

  • A Graphic History of Newspaper Circulation Over the Last Two Decades | The Awl
    Kevin: A graph showing the circulation of major US newspapers over the last two decades. It's an interesting visual, but as people in the comments say (or speculate about), we don't really have a sense of what drove this. Is it the Huffington Post? Google News? Issues of coverage, trust and politics? The graph is grim reading for anyone working at these major US metro newspapers. However, it's a graph that gives rise to more questions than it answers.
    (tags: newspapers US circulation graph journalism newspaper)
  • Apple Will Soon Overtake RIM in Consumer Smartphone Market
    Kevin: Richard MacManus of ReadWriteWeb looks into the details of a report from ChangeWave in the US. I'm assuming that this is for the US market and not the global market. Their research shows a surge in Apple iPhone versus Research in Motion's (RIM) Blackberry in the consumer market. The most important data in this report is really about customer satisfaction. Apple's iPhone is miles ahead of the competition with 74% of customers saying they are very satisfied versus 43% for RIM, 33% for Palm, 32% for Motorola and 29% for Nokia and Samsung.
    (tags: Apple RIM blackberry iphone mobile internet)
  • Dutch Augmented Reality Firm Layar Raises $1 Million | mocoNews
    Kevin: Layar is Dutch augmented reality company whose application runs on Android devices, iPhone and as of last week, Symbian Nokia. Augmented reality layers extra information on top of the view based on information from the GPS, compass and accelerometer in smartphones. The company looks to have closed $1m in funding.
    (tags: augmentedreality mobile Dutch funding VC)
  • Keller’s Guess: NYT ‘Within Weeks Of Decision’ On Charging For Online
    Kevin: Staci Kramer reports: "One of the longest-running guessing games for New York Times insiders and observers may be nearing an end: will the paper charge again for content online and what form would a pay program take? Now after months of deliberation, Executive Editor Bill Keller tells Public Editor Clark Hoyt he guesses a decision is coming “within a matter of weeks.” And yet it doesn’t sound like he sees a straight path to that decision: 'It’s a much tougher, more complicated decision than it seems to all the armchair experts. There is no clear consensus on the right way to go.'"
    (tags: newyorktimes paidcontent online revenue)
  • The Complete Guide to Google Wave
    Kevin: "Google Wave is a new web-based collaboration tool that's notoriously difficult to understand. This guide will help. "
    (tags: google wave guide howto tutorial)