DIY digital magazine platform Glossi adds new tools, with paid subscriptions coming soon
Digital magazine publishing platform Glossi rolled out new tools Wednesday, designed to let users create and distribute their magazines more easily. Read more »
What next for The Week? The content curator’s plans for the digital domain
The Week surprised the publishing industry by carving out a profitable place in the competitive world of magazine news. Now, it is building up its operations for the digital long term. Read more »
The future of streaming video – four predictions for 2013
The streaming video industry continues to undergo radical transformation. Kun Gao, of Crunchyroll, points to four things to look for in the coming year. Read more at GigaOM »
Around the world, no set rules for ebook pricing or digital reading
photo: Shutterstock / Thomas Bethge
Ebook pricing and device trends that hold in North American countries don’t necessarily work for less developed market. Executives from Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Google, France’s FNAC and India’s Indiaplaza discussed similarities and differences between digital reading cultures Wednesday afternoon at the Frankfurt Book Fair. Read more »
Following Target, Walmart stops selling Kindles
photo: Wal-Mart
Walmart has announced that it will stop selling Kindles in its stores and on its website, suggesting that as it beefs up its own e-commerce strategy it does not want to turn sales over to a competitor. Target also stopped carrying Kindles in May. Read more at GigaOM »
The 3 pieces that are turning WordPress into a platform
These days, WordPress acts more like a development framework or a PaaS (Platform as a Service), says WooThemes CEO Adii Pienaar. And in the last year, several new services have sprung up to help make WordPress a platform in the truest sense of the word. Read more at GigaOM »
Confirmed: Pinterest taking $100m for e-commerce play
Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten wants to plug Pinterest in to purchasing, after leading a $100 million investment in the social pinboard curator. Read more »
Fab CEO to entrepreneurs: learn to break up with a bad idea
photo: Fab
Less than a year after its relaunch, Fab.com is nearing 4 million members. Co-founder and CEO Jason Goldberg talks about the once-social network’s reinvention, saying it’s not just an e-commerce site — it’s a movement. Read more at GigaOM »
Yahoo turns to PayPal import for e-commerce boost
photo: Getty Images / Chris Jackson
Ahead of Q1 earnings, Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson filled in a vital blank spot in his plan to remake the media company. Last week, he sketched an outline.
Tuesday he has to color between the lines. Read more »
Time Out NY adds e-commerce, daily deals and apps
photo: Time Out New York
As Time Out New York rolls out a new digital strategy, the company hopes its trusted editorial brand will outweigh New Yorkers’ possible app fatigue. Read more »
Google wants to mobilize your Web site – for free
Google is wants to bring more small websites to the mobile phone, and to help nudge those sites along it’s willing to foot the bill for a year. Google and Duda Mobile are offering free hosting and customization of Web sites for mobile browsers. Read more at GigaOM »
Russia’s Fast Lane flips again with Shopping Live sale
Russian web incubator Fast Lane Ventures is developing a reputation for building big businesses fast, with the sale TV channel Shopping Live — its second significant exit inside a couple of months. Read more at GigaOM »
Amazon Gets No Love From Its Hometown Newspaper
photo: Flickr / William Christiansen
In two separate articles published this weekend, the Seattle Times criticizes Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) for its business practices and philanthrop… Read more »
Will Hachette Be The First Big-6 Publisher To Drop DRM On E-Books?
photo: Shutterstock / nulinukas
DRM is just “a speedbump,” Hachette’s Maja Thomas said at a copyright conference this afternoon. However, opinion within Hachette is clearly… Read more »
Google Partners With Pandora, AdWeek, NYDN On New Paywall 'Substitute'
Google (NSDQ: GOOG) is rolling out a new product, “Google Consumer Surveys,” that lets publishers monetize content through “microsurveys” cr… Read more »
Facebook's Big Freemium Funnel Helps Spotify Et Al Find The Pay In Free
photo: mpgrigg
In the land of the freemium, how much free is enough to convince users to pay?
In the latest refinement to its market strategy, Spotify in… Read more »
Cheapest 'Hunger Games' E-Books Are At Kobo — Not Amazon
photo: The Hunger Games movie
Teen dystopian trilogy Hunger Games appears to be on its way to blockbuster-dom, pulling in $19.75 million at the midnight premiere of the… Read more »
New Book Startups Focus On The Actual Buying And Selling Part
photo: Jellybooks
Two new book-related startups that launched in beta this week seek to redefine the book buying, browsing and selling experience. Read more »
Video: Slovakia's Paid Content System Plans To Launch In Bigger Markets
photo: Corbis / Don Mason
The online news payment system introduced across Slovenian and Slovakian publishers in May and February wants to launch in three more countr… Read more »
Top Kindle Fire Activity: Reading E-Books, Says Citi
photo: Getty Images / Spencer Platt
Analysts don’t know how many Kindle Fires have been sold any more than you do. Sometimes, though, they do cool stuff like an analysis (PDF)… Read more »
Slovenia's Big Pay 'Wall' Has Made €26,000
photo: Boris Stroujko
Piano Media, the online news payment system which first launched in Slovakia last year, says it made €26,000 ($33961.2/£21616.4) in its f… Read more »
Telegraph Puts Mobile App In Subscription Bundle
The Telegraph and Sky News may each operate subscription iPad outlets – but, with latest revisions to their mobile offerings, the two news p… Read more »
Germany Wants To Charge Search Engines To Use News Excerpts
photo: leonello calvetti/Shutterstock
Germany’s government wants search engines and news aggregators to pay news publishers for using pieces of their material. Read more »
Pottermore Is (Finally) Coming. In April!
J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter-focused web community and e-bookstore, Pottermore.com, will finally launch to a general audience in April after… Read more »
BBC Plans iTunes Competitor With Download Fees For New And Old Shows
photo: zawtowers
The BBC is developing a radical scheme under which UK viewers would pay to download new and old BBC TV shows from a service it hopes will co… Read more »
Yahoo's Next Strategy: There's Gold In That There E-Commerce
photo: Global Sports Forum
New Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) CEO Scott Thompson’s upcoming turnaround may centre on mining Yahoo’s green plains for different prospects, including… Read more »
Google eBooks Now 'Books On Google Play', With Big Sales
photo: Google Play
With yesterday’s launch of Google Play, the poor old Google (NSDQ: GOOG) eBookstore has a new name and is part of a portal that also offers… Read more »
Google Aims To Convince Mobile Game Makers On In-App Payments
photo: Getty Images / Tim Whitby
Google (NSDQ: GOOG) will this week try to convince mobile game developers to adopt its improved in-app payments features, as it vies with Ap… Read more »
Facebook TV Vote Slip-Up Earns Warning For Channel 5
photo: Corbis / Brooks Kraft
The UK’s media regulator will consider the reliability of social networks as premium-rate TV interaction mechanisms, after Britain’s first e… Read more »
Cudo Blames Vendor For Pirated E-Book Deal, Grosses AUD $230k
photo: Cudo
Cudo, the Microsoft-backed Australian daily deal site that offered a $99 Chinese e-reader bundled with a CD of pirated e-books (Stephen King… Read more »
Who Decides What Gets Sold In The Bookstore?
photo: Seth Godin
We can probably agree that the local supermarket has no moral or ethical or business obligation to sell cherry-flavored Cap’n Crunch. If the… Read more »
Microsoft-Backed Daily Deal Site Sells E-Reader Bundled With Pirated Titles
photo: Cudo
Australian daily deal site Cudo, which is backed by Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT), has a great deal for you if you like pirated e-books. Stephen Ki… Read more »
Can A Fashion Blogger Make It Pay? Frockwriter Is About To Find Out
Fashion blogging has grown from a few wannabe writers looking from outside in at the industry to an influential new media category that desi… Read more »
FT Digital Subscriptions Surpass Print In U.S. As Sign-Ups Slow
The Financial Times is still signing up new digital subscribers, but at the slowest rate since iPad lit up its business model in mid-2010. Read more »
Google Scales Back E-Book Affiliates Program, Drops Some Users
photo: Getty Images / Justin Sullivan
Google (NSDQ: GOOG) is cutting back on the e-book affiliates program it launched in June. Read more »
News Corp’s Times Hikes Digital Fee To Milk iPad Riches
With Rupert Murdoch in London to launch the Sunday Sun whilst grasping News International’s crisis for a second time, News Corp is doubling… Read more »
Home Decor Flash Site One Kings Lane Expands Editorial Content
photo: One Kings Lane
In the hopes that users will be drawn in by the video on how to make a bed perfectly, then stick around for the deals on Scandia pillows, ho… Read more »
Yahoo Has No Bearing On Alibaba.com Privatisation, E-commerce Site Says
photo: Getty Images / Guang Niu
Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group’s main business unit aims to delist from the Hong Kong stock market – but says the move is unrelated… Read more »
News Corp Sees Digital Payments Soften But Not Reverse UK Sales Decline
More than a year and a half after News Corp.’s flagship UK “quality” papers introduced new paid digital outlets, their effect is becoming cl… Read more »
The Future Of Music Is Boring – And That’s Exciting!
photo: Flickr / quinn.anya
I noticed an interesting trend at the MusicTech Summit in San Francisco this week: A lot of the talk over lunch and during hallway conversations wasn’t about the next big thing, about fancy Spotify apps or sexy mashups. Instead, people were busy talking about CRMs, CMS platforms and e-commerce. Read more »
