Netflix will launch personalized profiles some time this year
Personalized profiles are coming to Netflix this year, according to CEO Reed Hastings – but the company is still testing this kind of personalization to make it simple enough. Read more »
Stories for Jan. 23, 2013
Quora gets into the publishing business with new blogging platform
photo: Shutterstock / artjazz
Looking for a new platform for blogging, and finding that existing sites aren’t sufficient? You might check out Quora’s new blogging platform, which it plans to release Wednesday, that will allow users to create posts on the site and share information. Read more »
YouTube’s quiet evolution into the heart of Google
YouTube got a lot of play during this week’s Google earnings call, in part because the site is starting to move the needle for Google. Read more »
Netflix ends year on a high note, calls House of Cards “defining moment for Internet TV”
Netflix did better than many expected in its Q4, and the company is already gearing up for another big moment: The release of its scripted series House of Cards next month. Read more »
Battling Kobo, Amazon launches Kindle e-readers and store in Canada
In an effort to compete against Toronto-based Kobo, Amazon announced Wednesday that it is releasing the Kindle Paperwhite in Canada for the first time and will also sell the basic Kindle there. Amazon launched a Canadian Kindle store in December. Read more »
Google releases new government surveillance data, Facebook stays mum
photo: Flickr / Thomas Leuthard
Google published its latest report about how often governments are asking for data about individuals. The growth of this type of surveillance means that Facebook should consider publishing a report of its own. Read more at GigaOM »
Futureful’s smart content discovery app hits the iPad in the U.S.
The Janus Friis-backed serendipitous browsing tool is now available and, based on a pre-launch play-around, there really is something new and interesting in there. Read more »
Sky’s new subscription service lets UK users download video for offline viewing
U.K. digital satellite TV service Sky has launched Sky Go Extra, which lets customers download shows like Girls and Game of Thrones and movies to mobile devices for offline viewing. Read more »
iPads replace newspapers in Boston Globe’s school donation program
For years, newspaper subscribers who go on vacation have donated their papers to classrooms where students would do things like cut out pictures. Now, Boston readers will be donating iPads instead. Read more »
The story behind DIAL: How Netflix and YouTube want to take on AirPlay
Watch out, AirPlay: Netflix and YouTube are working on an open second screen protocol, and they’ve already secured support from key CE makers and content platforms. Read more »
Kobo hires former Apple sales director to oversee international strategy
Toronto-based ebook company Kobo is rapidly expanding abroad. On Wednesday the company announced that it has hired Jean-Mark Dupuis, a former sales director at Apple, as managing director for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Read more »
Ooyala adds Twitter card support, anticipates new forms of tweetable video
photo: Shutterstock / Mara008
Ooyala now allows its customers to embed videos right within their tweets – and anticipates that some of the tweeted videos may be very Twitter-esque. Read more »
Stories for Jan. 22, 2013
Q4 Earnings roundup: Verizon, Apple move iPhones, Google gets clicks
How did the most important public companies on GigaOM’s radar fare in the fourth quarter? Here’s our roundup of quarterly report cards. Read more at GigaOM »
If Twitter wants to be a media company, it needs to get a lot better at relevance
photo: Shutterstock / noporn
Evidence of Twitter’s ambition to become a media entity continues to accumulate, but if it wants to fulfil its role as a digital-media player, it is going to have to get a lot better at finding relevant content for its users. Read more »
Yahoo purchases content pinning site Snip.it
Yahoo has acquired content pinning and curation site Snip.it. The site lets users “snip,” save and share articles or excerpts from around the web in a graphical interface and fits with Yahoo’s goal of acquiring small companies and focusing on content. Read more »
Online dictionary Wordnik launches story suggestion engine Reverb
Content recommendation services are becoming big business. The latest entrant is Reverb, a site that draws on its experience as a dictionary maker to offer useful story suggestions. Read more »
Conversation site Branch launches “profile cards,” personal recommendations
Branch, the site that wants to improve the quality of discussions on the internet, is offering new community-like features that could make the site more approachable and conversations easier to discover. Read more »
Top jobs of the week in digital media
photo: Shutterstock / Tom Mc Nemar
Looking for a job in digital media? Each week we highlight some of the most interesting positions posted to paidContent’s jobs board. Check out the latest gigs at media companies across the country. Read more »
Is the decline in longform newspaper journalism a good thing or a bad thing?
photo: Flickr / Jan Arief Purwanto
According to the Columbia Journalism Review, the past decade has seen a dramatic decline in longer stories at some of the industry’s leading newspapers. But does that mean longform journalism is dying, or just evolving? Read more »
Stories for Jan. 21, 2013
The biggest roadblock to media success? A traditional culture of journalistic hubris
photo: Flickr / Klobetime
Journalism professor C.W. Anderson argues in a new book about the decline of traditional media outlets in Philadelphia that one of the main stumbling blocks in adapting to a digital future has been traditional journalistic culture. Read more »
Report: Google made €50 million copyright offer, French publishers want €100 million
As Google gets bogged down with the French government over a so-called “internet tax,” the newspaper Le Monde reports that the search giant tried and failed to reach a large-scale copyright deal before Christmas. Read more »
Amazon Children’s Publishing expands with more books for younger kids and teens
Amazon is expanding its children’s publishing division with two new imprints. “Two Lions” will publish picture books, chapter books and middle-grade fiction, while “Skyscape” is aimed at teens. The imprints’ first titles will be published in spring 2013. Read more »
Jamie Oliver goes live with Food Tube on YouTube
Jamie Oliver’s new Food Tube channel is live on YouTube – and it’s going to feature some familiar faces for people who scour the video site for unique food videos. Read more »
FT announces buyouts in quest to be “a digital platform first, and a newspaper second”
The Financial Times is hoping that at least 35 staff members will accept buyouts as it attempts to prepare for a digital-first future. That future includes hiring 10 new digital employees and being choosier about stories, editor Lionel Barber wrote Monday in an email to employees. Read more »
RIM revamps BlackBerry app store, adding music and video
photo: RIM
BlackBerry App World is becoming simply BlackBerry World as RIM prepares to revamp its mobile storefront. In addition to apps and games, RIM will be selling multimedia. Read more »
The new Mega: a privacy triumph or just more content theft?
photo: Kletr
Flamboyant entrepreneur Kim Dotcom is marketing his new file-sharing locker as “the privacy company.” Is he for real or are the privacy claims just a cynical cover-up for a new piracy business? Read more »
Guardian Media CEO explains why the paper doesn’t like paywalls
photo: Shutterstock / Voronin76
Paywalls are being erected at hundreds of newspapers around the world, but Guardian Media CEO Andrew Miller says his newspaper is still opposed to a subscription wall because it wants to expand its readership as much as possible. Read more »
Random House’s new Facebook app: If you liked Evelyn Waugh, you’ll love the Berenstain Bears
Random House is attempting to aid online book discovery with a new Facebook app, BookScout, that gives users book recommendations from multiple publishers based on their Facebook Open Graph. So why’d it recommend me I Can Read: Berenstain Bears? Read more »
Stories for Jan. 20, 2013
Where to watch the 2013 Presidential Inauguration live online
It’s inauguration weekend, and hundreds of thousands are flocking to Washington D.C. to take part in the festivities. Live streams if the event are going to be available on the web, on iPads, mobile phones and connected devices. Read more »
2013: The year of the web series second season?
It’s been common for web series to never make it past a first season. But this year, there are four notable examples of shows continuing their runs, from independent teen dramedies to Jerry Seinfeld chatting with comics. Read more »
Stories for Jan. 18, 2013
No short-term payday for Oprah and Deadspin from Lance, Te’o trainwrecks
photo: Fer Gregory
Oprah Winfrey and sports site Deadspin had two of the year’s biggest stories this week and attracted millions of people to their websites. Too bad they didn’t have an ad plan in place. Read more »
Is the book a crucial cultural artifact, or just an outdated container for content?
photo: Flickr user Marcus Hansson
A blog post by Nick Carr about the future of the printed book touched off an epic comment debate between the author and media theorist Clay Shirky about whether the book format itself will die out and be replaced. Read more »
Harper’s publisher doesn’t understand how the internet works, blames Google
photo: Shutterstock / James Steidl
Many publishers are trying to adapt to the way media works in a digital age, but some still see Google and the web as parasites — and Harper’s publisher seems determined to stay in the latter category. Read more »
This week in ebooks: Kobo ramps up, Book Country goes free, Inkling gets Googled
This week in ebooks: Penguin made some digital decisions, Kobo claimed massive e-reader growth and Inkling opened up its titles to Google search. Read more »
Stories for Jan. 17, 2013
iOS Newsstand offers early peek at new magazine issues
So far, the only publisher participating is Hearst. There’s no set standard for how early a look each Newsstand issue will offer, Hearst told AllThingsD. Read more »
Why online book discovery is broken (and how to fix it)
Here’s the main problem with book discovery online: Right now, it doesn’t really work. New research shows that frequent book buyers visit sites like Pinterest and Goodreads regularly, but those visits fail to drive actual book purchases. Read more »
Rhapsody goes a la carte on MetroPCS but at half the regular cost
Rhapsody has retooled its relationship with MetroPCS. Instead of bundling its music subscription service in all upper-tier Metro smartphone plans, it’s selling the service for $5 a month to any Metro customer. Read more »
The little paywall that could: Tinypass gets a CEO and some money
photo: Shutterstock / Luiz Rocha
More publishers of all stripes, including star blogger Andrew Sullivan, are charging visitors for content. This has translated into good news for paywall provider Tinypass. Read more »
YouTube investing in Vevo? That’s smart.
YouTube is about to take a stake in Vevo, according to multiple reports. That would be a smart move, because it would help YouTube to hold on to more than half a billion views a month. Read more »
Amazon opens music store for Apple devices, songs start at 69 cents
Amazon is getting more aggressive in its attempt to muscle into the online music space. On Thursday, it announced a HTML5-based MP3 store that allows consumers to buy and play songs on their Apple devices. Read more »
