Topics

Publishing

  • A New Publishing Model…Maybe; Facebook Earnings, Facebook Sharing

    Follow-up on yesterday’s article on potential new publishing models, and then a discussion of Facebook earnings. Plus, a new reason skeptics have found to doubt the company.


  • Grantland and the (Surprising) Future of Publishing

    ESPN’s decision to close Grantland seems to be more evidence that there is no future outside of massive scale or one-man operations. Bill Simmons’ recent successes, though, suggest that the answer could be the exact opposite.


  • In Defense of The New York Times

    Amazon and The New York Times had a fascinating exchange this week, on Medium of all places. What that exchange represents — the search for truth, now open to anyone — is far more important than the particular article in question.


  • The Web-App Tradeoff, Google’s Accelerated Mobile Pages Project, A Win for the Web

    Some follow-up on Twitter, and then a deep dive on Google’s Accelerated Mobile Pages project. Why is it necessary, what does it do, and is it to be applauded or feared?


  • Twitter’s Moment

    Twitter has had a rough stretch, and most are pessimistic about its chances. I was previously, but I think the upside is looking much brighter than it did before this week.


  • What is Medium Doing?, Facebook Updates Notes

    Medium just raised $57 million on a relatively modest valuation, but lots of folks aren’t still sure what the company is trying to accomplish: today I give it my best shot. Plus, Facebook has updated Notes, which look a lot like, well, Medium posts. The appearance, though, isn’t what will make them succeed or fail.


  • Are Ebooks Declining, or Just the Publishers?, Oyster Goes Out of Business, Media Notes

    A follow-up on e-book publishing, and why there is so much dispute about just how many e-books are sold.


  • Disconfirming Ebooks

    Aggregation Theory would seem to argue that ebooks are destined to dominate the publishing industry. However, that is decidedly not happening; understanding why is a powerful tool to make the theory better.


  • Medium and the Publishing Long Tail, Content Blockers and Facebook, Amazon Prime and the Washington Post

    A bit of follow-up on yesterday’s post Popping the Publishing Bubble, and why Medium is potentially trying to replicate Stripe’s strategy. Plus, the key decision-maker when it comes to ad-blocking is Facebook, and it’s not at all clear what they will do. Finally, an experiment from Jeff Bezos with the Washington Post and Amazon Prime.


  • Popping the Publishing Bubble

    For years publishers haven’t had to worry about business models: they just captured attention and watched the money come in. Those days, though, are over: the publications that survive will start with business models and build journalism around it.