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Publishing

  • 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.

  • Aggregation and Antitrust, BuzzFeed Makes News, BuzzFeed’s Valuation in Perspective

    The differing approaches to antitrust in the U.S. and Europe could mean completely different outcomes in the long run for aggregation companies. Meanwhile, BuzzFeed has raised a new round and seems to be doing better than ever, which is great news for journalism. Plus, how to think about startup valuations.

  • Why Web Pages Suck

    Everyone complains about web pages that suck, but the reality is that it is advertisers who call the shots. This should, at a minimum, put Facebook’s Instant Articles and Apple’s News app in a new light.

  • Apple Loses E-books Appeal; Apple Music and Antitrust; Producers, Consumers, and Apple

    Apple’s E-book case finally came to it’s likely end a few week’s ago; it’s worth reviewing what was at stake in light of recent news that Apple Music could face a similar investigation. Then, if Apple Music will do for musicians what the App Store did for developers, is that a good thing? Plus, why sites…

  • Curation and Algorithms

    More and more companies are announcing new products based on human curation, even as the most important content players — Google and Facebook — rely on algorithms. When does curation make sense, and when are algorithms better? And ultimately, who is responsible for both?

  • Twitter Lightning, Twitter’s Communication Problem, Buzzfeed’s New News App

    Word is out about Lightning, a new Twitter feature that lets people dip in and out of current events. It’s a great move. The question, though, is why talk about it now? The timing highlights a big communication problem. Also, BuzzFeed News’ new app, and the importance of notifications to its future monetization.

  • Battle of the Box, Updated; Apple Enables Ad-Blockers

    A year ago I compared and contrasted Box and Dropbox; both have taken very different paths over the last year, and in light of Box’s earnings and recent Dropbox news I check back in on their progress. Also, Apple and ad-blockers.

  • The News App, Open Source Swift, Additional Notes from the WWDC Keynote

    This update touches on why Apple Music may be a much bigger deal than I suggested, and the moves on to all the other important announcements from Apple WWDC keynote. This includes the News app, open-source Swift, and more.

  • Vox Acquires Recode; Stars, Money, and Reach; The Apple Car and Jony Ive

    Recode has sold to Vox, and while everyone involved is putting a happy face on the matter, it seems highly likely that Recode failed as a business. Understanding how content businesses work show where they went wrong, but what does that mean for someone like Bill Simmons? Also, Jeff Williams spoke at Recode, and he just…