9 Feb 2012
In the world of plenty, the only currency is attention and attention is what defines “media.
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Om Malik, on GigaOM buying PaidContent. Two brands with serious authority that command attention.
21 Jan 2012
The rules: everyone stacks their phones face-down, and if a person at the table reaches for their device before a meal is over, they have to pay the whole bill.
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Participated in a phone stack last night. No one cracked, though we did almost reach for The Google to settle some arguments. Zeitgeist!
Yes, Cell Phone Stacking Is Now a Thing - Trendwatch - Eater National (via etagwerker)
(via etagwerker)
20 Jan 2012
Popped this for New Year’s Eve — was better than Champagne. Great drinking and a lot of fun.
I’ve been saving Infinium in my fridge as well, and have been saving the beer for the best occasion to open it and share with fellow beer lovers.
I can’t wait to drink this!!! Samuel Adams and Weihenstephan Infinium Ale. It’s been sitting in my garage, if it tastes half as good as it looks I’m into it.
19 Jan 2012
When beer prices get out of hand, head to social media
NYC pricing is a real problem for craft beer. Certain grocery stores are especially ridiculous in marking prices up to and above corner deli levels.
We’ve written lately about beer prices getting out of hand at bars in New York City. With the growing popularity of craft beer in the city, it’s no surprise that some businesspeople might try to take advantage of the boom by driving up prices.
How do we combat this?
8 Jan 2012
If you’re a pure economist and following the laws of supply and demand, the argument is that if someone is willing to pay a price, then it is not excessive,” said Liran Einav, an associate economics professor at Stanford. “But that all depends on the type of long-term relationship you want to build with your customers.
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When standard economics meets behavioral economics. This week: dynamic pricing bites back.
Disruptions: Taxi Supply and Demand, Priced by the Mile - NYTimes.com
5 Jan 2012
There has never been a mass market for good journalism in this country. What there used to be was a mass market for print ads, coupled with a mass market for a physical bundle of entertainment, opinion, and information; these were tied to an institutional agreement to subsidize a modicum of real journalism. In that mass market, the opinions of the politically engaged readers didn’t matter much, outnumbered as they were by people checking their horoscopes. This suited advertisers fine; they have always preferred a centrist and distanced political outlook, the better not to alienate potential customers. When the politically engaged readers are also the only paying readers, however, their opinion will come matter more, and in ways that will sometimes contradict the advertisers’ desires for anodyne coverage.
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Clay Shirky gets into it. Bonus points for use of “anodyne.”
Are Newspapers Finally Figuring Out How To Reward Their Best Customers? | paidContent
27 Nov 2011
In short, micro-pub is a combination of old fashioned newsletter, blog and a directory service, managed by one to ten people. This is a model which is sustainable and perhaps makes more sense than some of the idiotic models proposed by hype meisters of the dot-com era.
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Interesting read from Om Malik. For those interested in a niche covered by a micropub the value is tremendous — PaidContent is my go-to source for media/publishing news.
And, according to Om, PaidContent founder Rafat Ali is making more off it than he did as a journalist.
20 Nov 2011
Amazing to see my own device usage so clearly as part of a larger consumption pattern.
- Computers get used during the workday (that big plateau from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.)
- Tablets get used at breakfast, during commutes, on the couch, and in bed (peaks around 8 a.m. and 10 p.m.)
- Smartphones get used in spare moments throughout all waking hours.
20 Nov 2011
Apparently (pun intended) if one wants to read the New York Post on an iPad, one must download the application instead of using the browser. Makes sense from a publisher perspective: get downloaded, get user data, turn casual visitors into more frequent readers. After all, casual readers — like me — are not that valuable (even though they do boost traffic stats). I haven’t seen this elsewhere, but it is consistent with News Corp.’s strategy.
I didn’t download it. Maybe next time.
17 Nov 2011
A week old, but a helpful guide to the benefits of HTML 5.
Key message? More features, no plugins, less connectivity required.
Score.
5 Nov 2011
“Go get ‘em, n00b.”
Official Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 - The Vet & The n00b (by CALLOFDUTY)
28 Oct 2011
I like craft beers, too. Have you ever had Blue Moon?
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Everyone I’ve ever hated, ever. (via labombaantieverything)
Ha.
(Source: labombaworstbestworstblog, via ohhleary)
27 Oct 2011
Conde Nast, Wired’s parent company, saw a 268 percent spike in subscriptions since the Newsstand app landed. “It’s clear that the focused attention and greater discoverability that Newsstand provides our brands has been embraced by the consumer,” said Monica Ray, Executive Vice President of Conde Nast.
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I’ve been loving iOS5’s Newsstand because it’s convenient and reminds me to update my news: just the right amount of motivation without being intrusive. Discoverability, as one commenter points out, is huge.
Still, are publishers getting any data from their new subscribers? I’m guessing not much. I’d also be curious to know the break-even number of new subs required to match Apple’s share from each sale vs. selling directly to consumers.
The WSJ app still stands alone — and it’s good enough to be able to. Too bad it can’t automatically download new issues each morning.
Apple’s Newsstand a Huge Success for Digital Publishers | Gadget Lab | Wired.com
