Why big media is buying YouTube stars — and who could be next
What does Phil DeFranco’s new deal with Revision3 say about the state of the industry, and are there other creators who might be right for similar deals? Read more »
Stories for Jun. 3, 2013
Stories for Jun. 2, 2013
The spoiler: how an LA playboy threw a wrench into Aereo’s plan to take over TV
photo: Shockya/CraveOnline
Aereo’s careful plan to upend the TV industry was going fine — until an LA company, with a streaming service of its own, got in the way. Here’s an inside view of what happened. Read more »
Stories for Jun. 1, 2013
The painful realities behind the demise of the Chicago Sun-Times photo desk
photo: Flickr user Petteri Sulonen
The Chicago Sun-Times’ decision to lay off its entire staff of 28 photographers was widely criticized as a knee-jerk response by clueless managers, but the fact remains that newspaper cost structures are too high, and crowdsourcing works. Read more »
Stories for May. 31, 2013
The WSJ and Bloomberg are launching social networks — good luck with that
photo: Shutterstock / Thomas Pajot
The Wall Street Journal has said it is planning to launch a LinkedIn-style social network for readers, and Bloomberg appears to be launching (or relaunching) one as well — but is this really what their readers or users want? Read more »
Live blog: Publishing Hackathon at BookExpo America
The winner of the Publishing Hackathon will be chosen at BookExpo America on Friday afternoon, and I’ll be live blogging here starting at 3 PM ET. Read more »
Food52 partners with Rap Genius to let users annotate recipes
Rap Genius started out as a website that lets fans annotate rap lyrics, but it’s expanded to allow annotation of lots of different types of content. Cooking site Food52 has partnered with Rap Genius to let users annotate recipes, and Sheryl Sandberg annotated the first chapter of Lean In. Read more »
Who in the US can use Aereo’s new TV streaming service? (map)
photo: Rani Molla
A new technology lets consumers watch and record live TV shows on smartphones and other devices. Due to court fights, a large part of the country won’t see it anytime soon — here’s a visual. Read more at GigaOM »
Stories for May. 30, 2013
Yahoo, meet your new users: Tumblr adds sponsored posts, and the grumbles begin
photo: Rani Molla
Introducing advertising to previously ad-free platforms is a tough sell for anyone, but Tumblr users might be even less accepting of the new dashboard ads considering how they use Tumblr for personal expression. Read more at GigaOM »
No, the job of social media editor isn’t dead — but it sure as heck better be evolving
photo: Shutterstock / noporn
The departure of Thomson Reuters’ social-media editor sparked a debate about whether the position as we know it is dead or dying — but while those jobs may be evolving, the skills involved are more necessary than ever. Read more »
Free is not the magic number: New trends in ebook pricing
Ebook pricing strategies are changing fast as the market evolves and retailers and publishers amass more data. Here are some new tips. Read more »
Netflix wants to spend up to 15 percent of its content cash on originals
Netflix wants to triple its original content spend within the next few years, according to its Chief Content Officer, Ted Sarandos. Read more »
The Guardian has shown us the future of journalism, and it is — coffee shops!
photo: Flickr / Arvind Grover
The Guardian has gotten a fair amount of ribbing on Twitter for opening a coffee shop in London, but the venture is just another element in the newspaper’s attempt to open up its journalism and engage more with its readers. Read more »
New York Times looks at sponsored stories, expanding ads — and that may be a good thing
photo: Getty Images / Mario Tama
The New York Times has disavowed the current trend towards “native advertising” but a report suggests it is close to embracing it. Read more »
Stories for May. 29, 2013
Do we really want Facebook to decide what qualifies as hate speech and what doesn’t?
photo: Flickr user Hoggarazzi
Facebook has admitted that it failed to apply its policies about offensive content to some disturbingly misogynistic pages. But is this a victory for the social network’s critics, or just another stop on the slippery slope of censorship? Read more at GigaOM »
Why a sale to Yahoo may just be the best bet for Hulu
Here’s one reason why Yahoo and Hulu would be a good match: They’re practically roommates already! But the deal would also make sense from a business perspective. Read more »
What the Toronto Star, Chicago Tribune and other media companies have learned from publishing ebooks
The University of Pennsylvania, Frederator Studios, the Chicago Tribune and the Toronto Star all recently started publishing ebooks. Here are some of the lessons they’ve learned — and how well they’re doing. Read more »
Barry Diller: The internet is eating the cable company
photo: Asa Mathat/D: All Things Digital
“The domino is going to fall,” IAC chairman Barry Diller predicted. How fast and how hard, we don’t exactly know, but the television market is ripe for change. Read more »
Dow Jones turns to tech for future face-off with Bloomberg
photo: Dow Jones
Dow Jones is betting on tech investments to wield together a sprawling swarm of products — including the Wall Street Journal as well as research and data products — and compete with Bloomberg. Read more »
No IPO hints as Twitter’s Costolo focuses on simplicity and security
photo: Asa Mathat/D: All Things Digital
Twitter CEO Dick Costolo thinks Apple is his spirit company, news organizations shouldn’t fear Twitter, and that engineers need room to experiment. Read more at GigaOM »
Five things a new owner could do to revitalize the Newsweek brand
According to multiple reports, media mogul Barry Diller is looking to unload his stake in Newsweek magazine. Is the title’s brand irreparably damaged, or could a new owner revitalize it? Here are a few suggestions. Read more »
"Amazon, at its heart, is a customer relationship management company. Book publishers, at their heart, are author relationship management companies."
— Brian Napack, senior advisor at Providence Equity and former Macmillan CEO
Meeker: The next ten years will be about wearable computing and personal data
If the last ten years were about mobile computing, the next ten years will be about wearable computing. And as a result, the type of content we share with the internet will also change. Read more at GigaOM »
HarperCollins makes it easier for authors to give away their ebooks
photo: thinkstock
A new initiative from HarperCollins allows authors to give away digital advance copies of their ebooks. The ebooks are protected by DRM and can only be read on devices that support Adobe Digital Editions (which does not include Kindle). Read more »
TuneIn raises $25 million, nabs new CFO from Google to monetize radio streaming
TuneIn more than doubled its funding with a new $25 million round, and the company wants to use the money to help monetize radio online – without the need for subscription fees. Read more at GigaOM »
FT launches breaking news tool — “when 140 characters doesn’t cut it”
The FT just launched a rapid-fire news service that consists of 100-250 word stories. The idea is to offer punchy news and analysis — and ensure readers don’t have to stray from the FT for their business news. Read more »
Stories for May. 28, 2013
The new writer’s dilemma: You wrote something really great — now, where do you put it?
With the proliferation of new publishing platforms — and not just blogs or social networks, but also all-digital publishers like Medium, LinkedIn and the Huffington Post — how does a writer decide where they should put their work? Read more »
Liked Jane Eyre, hated the cover? Now designers can sell classic books with new jackets
A new initiative from DailyLit/Plympton, the Harvard Book Store and the Creative Action Network lets artists design custom covers for classic books, then sell the books in print and digital editions. Read more »
Arrested Development premiere spurs piracy, pleas to expand internationally
Guess who else likes Arrested Development? Pirates, that’s who. The new season of the cult show has been downloaded by 100,000 file sharers within a single day. Read more »
Parents, toddlers lose it over Netflix’s decision to drop Dora
Netflix declined to renew its licensing deal with Viacom last week, leading to the loss of popular streaming kids’ shows like Dora the Explorer and SpongeBob SquarePants. Toddlers nationwide had a terrible weekend. Read more »
Gawker editor defends crowdfunding crack video, calls out “timid” Canadian media
photo: Chris Howey
Gawker reached its goal of raising $200,000 to purchase a video of a big city mayor smoking crack. Editor John Cook explained on Tuesday the reasons for the controversial campaign in which the fate of the video is still unknown. Read more »
Circa hires Anthony De Rosa away from Thomson Reuters to expand its editorial ambitions
Circa, the San Francisco-based startup that creates news summaries for mobile users, says it has hired Thomson Reuters social-media editor Anthony De Rosa as its new editor-in-chief to expand its journalistic reach. Read more »
Kobo says the $170 Aura HD e-reader now accounts for “up to 27%” of its device sales
Kobo said Tuesday that the $170 Aura HD e-reader now accounts for over a quarter of its device sales. And, the company said, 15 percent of its new customers are from the United States. Read more at GigaOM »
BuzzFeed partners with CNN, announces LA-based “social video” studio (Update)
Viewers got a first taste of a new partnership between BuzzFeed and CNN with a video clip that appeared on the viral site Tuesday morning. The deal also appears to involve syndicating YouTube content. Read more »
Stories for May. 27, 2013
Binge-viewing Arrested Development Season 4: Patience required
Ostriches, Google cars, SNL cast members, cameos, Liza Minelli and so much narration — the return of Arrested Development is finally here, and binge-viewing Season 4 this weekend revealed one of the densest seasons of television ever. Read more »
Stories for May. 26, 2013
ICYMI Podcasts: Google’s Chrome strategy, IoT design, and the Xbox One debut
A three-day holiday weekend deserves three podcasts, no? In case you missed them, here are the audio episodes from this past week where GigaOM breaks down and analyzses the latest tech news. Read more at GigaOM »
Stories for May. 25, 2013
It’s a trap! Publishers crave an alternative to Google’s adtech “Death Star”
photo: Lucasfilm Ltd
Adtech has made great strides but is in a period of transition. The most pressing concern for publishers? The need for a soup-to-nuts provider that isn’t also a competitor like Google. Read more »
Vine, hip-hop and the future of video sharing: old rap songs and new copyright rules
photo: R. Gino Santa Maria
Is there a reason Vine videos are exactly six seconds long? Yes, and it has a lot to do with high profile court cases that almost destroyed hip hop music. Read more at GigaOM »
Stories for May. 24, 2013
Crowdsourcing the news: Do we need a public license for citizen journalism?
photo: Flickr user Petteri Sulonen
Social platforms like YouTube have become a rich source of “citizen journalism” about breaking news events, but media outlets don’t always provide credit. Mark Little of Storyful wants to try and change that with a public license for video news. Read more »
Fight over TV streaming heats up as broadcasters file new lawsuit in Washington DC
The great game between broadcasters and upstart services that stream TV took another turn this week as Fox and others filed a new copyright lawsuit in Washington, DC. Read more »
News Corp spin-off will include stock buyback fund, poison pill
photo: Getty Images / Mario Tama
News Corp will officially split into two companies on June 28th. The corporation announced new details about the split, including provisions to prevent hostile takeovers. Read more »
