Twitter is in the midst of a strategic transformation, from being an open information network or real-time data utility to being an ad-driven media entity, and that evolution raises a host of questions about the future of the service and its impact on users. Read more at GigaOM »
Is offering your readers membership benefits a better approach to revenue generation than putting up a hard paywall? The tech commentary site Techdirt thinks so, and has launched some interesting new features that other traditional media companies might want to pay attention to. Read more at GigaOM »
As we consume more and more content via real-time streams that come to us through Twitter and Facebook and newer platforms, how does that affect advertising? Everyone wants their ads to look like just another form of content, but that’s a lot harder than it sounds. Read more at GigaOM »
The New York Times has chosen former BBC director Mark Thompson to be its new CEO. But is a man who has spent his entire career with a government-funded broadcaster the right person to reinvent the legendary newspaper at a time of almost unprecedented upheaval? Read more at GigaOM »
When is an explosion in mobile users ever a bad thing? When those users are switching from your website and you have no mobile business model. That is what growing numbers of online service are now worrying about. Read more »
As Twitter pushes for more control over the platform in order to monetize the content flowing through it, some prominent critics of this move argue the company is making a big mistake by focusing on the needs of advertisers rather than the needs of users. Read more at GigaOM »
The purchase of the sports-blogging site Bleacher Report by Turner Broadcasting unit fills a content hole for the Time Warner unit, but it is also a validation of the user-generated-content model behind the sports-blogging network, and a sign of the disruptive effects that model can have. Read more at GigaOM »
NBC’s Olympics coverage online, streamed through YouTube, features some quality technology, a deep catalog, a strong user experience — but the ad load on archived and broadcast coverage is massive. Which feels excessive, especially given that it’s limited to cable subscribers. Read more »
The Financial Times and New York Times are at or close to the point where subscription revenue exceeds advertising revenue. This means their paywalls are working, but it also means advertisers are fleeing — and the implications of that for journalism could be significant. Read more at GigaOM »
New technology can insert realistic branded 3D objects in to TV shows and movies. Channel 4 is getting the ball rolling with the first of several planned 2012 roll-outs. Read more »
Twitter’s decision to suspend the account of a British journalist raises a host of questions about the company’s behavior, but one of the important ones is to what extent Twitter’s filtering and curation features could make it legally liable for the content flowing through the network. Read more at GigaOM »
Company filings this week suggest economic worries have resurfaced the downturn in the free web’s engine oil – advertising . Some digital operators are celebrating sheltering in paid content, but others are still courting advertisers. What do their fortunes tell us about the recipe for online success? Read more »
Twitter is reportedly in talks with Hollywood producers and network executives about creating one or more reality-style TV shows that would be integrated into the network — but if it does decide to do this, the company risks alienating its core users and diluting its fundamental value. Read more at GigaOM »
The New York Times Co. used to rely on About/com for good news; now overhauling the info site is dragging down earnings. Meanwhile, reliance on digital revenue is increasing even as the company works to stem declines in digital advertising revenues. Read more »
While many still associate BuzzFeed with photo galleries of kittens and other web ephemera, the network has grown into a substantial digital-media entity, and an internal memo from founder Jonah Peretti has some lessons that other media outlets would be wise to pay attention to. Read more at GigaOM »
Aol has been in turnaround mode for years — this time, it looks like the turns are in the right direction. Advertising up, revenue decline almost flat, subscription churn lowest in a decade, latest re-org underway. Read more »
People led the way for Time Inc. with full-access authentication for digital subscriptions. Now it’s the first to launch a mobile site with responsive design, a new ad format and the same content as People.com. Read more »
When is “bye-bye buffering” not “bye-bye buffering”? When Virgin Media acknowledges its own ad starring Olympic athlete Usain Bolt was mere “puffery”, landing it in regulatory hot water. Read more »
Twitter CEO Dick Costolo says the company wants to become more of a media player, and also wants to become a Facebook-style platform inside which developers build applications — but can the company find a balance between competing with third-party providers and working alongside them? Read more at GigaOM »
The debate continues over which model is better for social networks: free and ad-supported or paid for by users? Dalton Caldwell says the latter and is building a paid alternative to Twitter, but VC Fred Wilson argues that free is the only model that works. Read more at GigaOM »
The latest hires in the digital and tech industry. Read more »
The Washington Post is one of the few major newspapers left without some kind of digital paywall or subscription model, but despite the financial pressures on the company, publisher Donald Graham says he remains committed to not charging readers for the newspaper’s content online. Read more at GigaOM »
Former Google executive Marissa Mayer looks to some like the savior Yahoo and its shareholders have been waiting for. But her focus in the past has been on technology and product development, and that may not be what a media company like Yahoo really needs. Read more at GigaOM »
There has been a lot of criticism of Advance Publications for shutting down printing of newspapers like the New Orleans Times-Picayune, but Digital First Media CEO John Paton says the chain should be defended for trying whatever it takes to save its business from certain disaster. Read more at GigaOM »
It has become obvious by now that Twitter is building a digital-media business, powered by a rapidly-growing advertising platform. But trying to capture more of its users’ attention is going to bring it into conflict with the media companies who are providing all of its content. Read more at GigaOM »
Penny Arcade, a webcomic publisher and event producer, is trying to use Kickstarter to finance its web operations for a year so it can replace traditional banner advertising with a reader-centric model. Could traditional publishers learn something from this crowdfunding experiment? Read more at GigaOM »
Although both Google and Facebook have so far had little success with mobile advertising, Twitter says that its mobile ads are seeing huge levels of engagement. Is there something about the real-time information network that could make it a superior medium for mobile ads? Read more at GigaOM »
News-aggregation services Flipboard and Pulse have both signed deals this week to distribute content from a mainstream outlet — one the New York Times and the other the Wall Street Journal — but they are taking very different approaches when it comes to monetizing those relationships. Read more at GigaOM »
A partnership between the New York Times and Flipboard isn’t just noteworthy because it is a first for the newspaper. It could also be a sign that the NYT‘s philosophical approach toward content in the digital age might be changing for the better. Read more at GigaOM »
The world’s largest advertising agency is buying yet another specialist digital outfit – this time, it’s one of the sector’s biggest, and it will form the basis of a new Silicon Valley digital investment strategy. Read more »
Nike falls foul of UK advertising regulators because sponsored tweets for which it paid two top footballers were not obviously marked out as marketing. Read more »
Spotify prepares a free mobile “radio” service that will take on Pandora, sell advertising and aim to drive more users to pay a subscription. Read more »
Russian entrepreneur Oleg Tinkoff has started businesses in everything from online banking to beer. Now he’s turning his attention to the digital advertising market, with a new company backed by Goldman Sachs that hopes to cash in on the country’s rapid online growth. Read more »
Newspapers haven’t really had a monopoly on the news or the advertising market for some time, but they continue to behave as though they do. If they are to survive the transition to a digital future, they will have to learn how to compete for both. Read more at GigaOM »
In this summer Olympic host country, online ad sellers have mounting concerns that the Games would suck away ad spending, rather than boost it. Read more »
Huffington Post now looks less like a blog network and more like a traditional media entity, having launched its own weekly digital magazine for the iPad — but is launching a subscription app a smart way of branching out, or a sign of old-media thinking? Read more at GigaOM »
Twitter’s hiring of editorial staff to curate real-time information around news events through “hashtag pages” may not be a direct competitor for media companies, but the areas of overlap are growing — and so is its attractiveness to the advertisers that media entities desperately need. Read more at GigaOM »
A comScore study of consumer behavior following exposure to marketing messages on Facebook shows that both fans and friends of fans are more likely to buy things after they see such messages, data that Facebook badly needs to prove the value of its social platform. Read more at GigaOM »
While some mainstream newspaper companies are being dragged toward a digital future whether they like it or not, the Daily Emerald at the University of Oregon has decided to remake itself for a digital and mobile world before it is forced to do so. Read more at GigaOM »
The deal that Twitter announced on Thursday with NASCAR will see an editor employed by the network curating and highlighting tweets and other content, a deal that takes Twitter even further into the realm of being a media entity. Should traditional media players be concerned? Read more at GigaOM »
