Newspaper economics: online and offline
Posted by Hal Varian, Chief Economist It is widely recognized that the news industry is facing financial difficulties, but there is little agreement about the source of those difficulties or what can be done about them. The debate about the role of the web has been particularly heated: is it the source of the problem or the source of the solution? The news industry's financial problems started well before the web came along. In the last five years many more people have been reading the news online: About 40% of internet users say they looked at online news “yesterday.” However, visitors to online newspaper sites don't spend a lot of time there. There's a reason for the relatively short time readers spend on online news: a disproportionate amount of online news reading occurs during working hours. What about search engines? Furthermore, the real money in search engine advertising is in the highly commercial verticals like Shopping, Health, and Travel.
Hal Varian Is Right: Newspapers Need to Engage – GigaOM
As part of the Federal Trade Commission’s ongoing hearings into the future of journalism, Google’s chief economist, Hal Varian, gave a presentation on newspapers and their financial problems that is well worth taking some time to read (or view). The slide deck is embedded below, and Martin Langeveld has a great overview at the Nieman Journalism Lab that also includes a transcript of Varian’s presentation. The Google economist (who also wrote a blog post) does a pretty thorough job of explaining the untenable position that newspapers currently find themselves in, and how it isn’t the Internet’s fault (in other words, it isn’t Google’s fault). Traditionally, the ad revenue from these special sections has been used to cross-subsidize the core news production. That could well be part of the problem, but I think Varian puts his finger on something important towards the end of his presentation, when he says that newspapers “need more engagement.” 030910 Hal Varian FTC Preso
Old media needs to embrace change | The Equity Kicker
There was a good article on Techcrunch on Saturday covering an interview Erick Schonfeld had with Marc Andreessen. In a reference to explorers landing in Mexico and burning their boats so looking forward was their only option the post was titled: Andreessen’s Advice To Old Media: “Burn The Boats”. He makes an excellent contrast between the way technology companies embrace change whilst old media companies fight it. On technology companies embracing change: The one thing technology companies do really well is deal with constant disruption. “Microsoft is going through this right now,” he points out, “Ballmer is not complaining about it.” On old media fighting change: Andreessen asked me if TechCrunch is working on an iPad app or planning on putting up a paywall. And if you are wondering about the impact of the iPad, read this: [Andreessen] points out …. Old media’s excitement about the iPad is symptomatic of an industry in existential crisis.
Andreessen’s Advice To Old Media: “Burn The Boats”
Legend has it that when Cortes landed in Mexico in the 1500s, he ordered his men to burn the ships that had brought them there to remove the possibility of doing anything other than going forward into the unknown. Marc Andreessen has the same advice for old media companies: “Burn the boats.” Yesterday, Andreessen was in New York City and we met up. We got to talking about how media companies are handling the digital disruption of the Internet when he brought up the Cortes analogy. Andreessen once famously put the New York Times on deathwatch for its stubborn insistence on trying to save and prolong its legacy print business. Andreessen asked me if TechCrunch is working on an iPad app or planning on putting up a paywall. But people pay for apps. Oh, and he points out, that the iPad will have a “fantastic browser.” Despite trying time and again, Andreessen’s observation is that media companies have no aptitude for technology, nor do they really understand what technology companies do.
iPad Owners Are Spending $70,000 Per Day In Newsstand [Report
Apple’s Newsstand is only about 6 months old, but it’s already raking in a decent amount of cash for media publishers. According to a new report, iPad owners are spending $70,000 per day for content in the iOS 5 Newsstand. Consumers are buying subcription-based content from publications like The New York Times, The New Yorker, and The Daily. Unsurprisingly, the majority of revenue is coming from in-app purchases. According to Distimo, news apps account for 7% of the top 200 grossing apps for the iPad. Related
