Industry Moves: NBCU; Digital First Media; thePlatform; SMG; Adara Media
– NBCUniversal: Krishan Bhatia has been promoted to EVP, digital strategy & operations for the Entertainment & Digital Networks and Integra… Read more »
Sketchy Bloomberg Report On Amazon Prime Contains Little Real Data
Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) Prime has three to five million members, according to “people familiar with the matter” cited Bloomberg. The main thrust… Read more »
PO’d Parents Petition Against Cut To Amazon ‘Mom’ Benefits
Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) is cutting back “Amazon Mom,” a Prime-like program that gives parents and caregivers big discounts on baby supplies and… Read more »
Amazon Kindle To Japan And Brazil This Year?
photo: Flickr / William Christiansen
Kindle may launch in Japan and Brazil in 2012, according to reports published in the last week. Read more »
Amazon’s Kindle Plays A Part In Penguin’s Library Decision
photo: Amazon
Since Penguin announced yesterday that it is ending its partnership with OverDrive and will no longer provide e-books or digital audiobooks… Read more »
Digital Downloads Jumped 26% In 2011, Led By E-Books
photo: Shutterstock / olly
Users are downloading more e-books, music, TV shows and movies than ever: Digital content and subscriptions were the fastest-growing retail… Read more »
Zeebox Searches For Money In TV’s Social Second Screen
photo: Zeebox
After quickly gaining a warm reception and a rapid post-launch investment from BSkyB, the social TV app startup co-founded by ex BBC iPlayer… Read more »
Indie Booksellers All Yanking Amazon Titles? Not Exactly
photo: flickr
It would be dramatic to say that independent booksellers nationwide are boycotting Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) Publishing titles en masse — and hey… Read more »
Slovakia’s News Pay Wall Gets A Little Higher
photo: Corbis / Dirk Rees
The content payment system which signed up many of Slovakia’s leading publishers in 2011 is now adding two more. Read more »
Leak: Microsoft Planning NFC Support, Skype Integration In Windows Phone 8
Microsoft’s plan for Windows Phone 8–which appears to be moving in step with its overall Windows 8 launch strategy–has been leaked, and th… Read more »
Axel Springer Takes A Slice Of Airbnb In Exposure Deal
photo: Axel Springer
Apartment-letting site Airbnb will get investment, endorsement and distribution from the publisher of Europe’s most-read newspaper. Read more »
Amazon Launches Junglee.com Marketplace In India
photo: Junglee.com
Hoping to tap into India’s rapidly growing e-commerce market, Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) is launching Junglee.com in the country today. Read more »
Google Set To Relaunch OnePass, Halting French Papers’ Kiosk
photo: Flickr / Dan Moyle
paidContent understands Google (NSDQ: GOOG) is set to make some big first-anniversary upgrades to its OnePass paid content system in the nex… Read more »
Obama Campaign Nominates Square To Gather Mobile Contributions
It’s an election year, which means politicians are frantically trying to raise money for their campaigns. President Obama’s re-election camp… Read more »
ITV Picks Its ‘Oyster Card’ For Online Programme Payments
photo: ITV
Telegraph.co.uk reports the UK’s main commercial free-to-air TV broadcaster has delayed a programme under which it wants to charge online vi… Read more »
Industry Moves: ESPN; Yahoo; Wikia; AdoTube
– ESPN: The sports network is seeing a reorg: John Kosner has been promoted to EVP, digital and print media, from SVP and GM of the divisio… Read more »
Does Square Have A Doppelganger In The UK? Meet mPowa
Square, the high-profile mobile payments company started by Twitter’s Jack Dorsey, has yet to launch outside the U.S. But in the meantime, a… Read more »
Mecom To Launch Digital Paywall And Review Future Of 65 Free Titles
photo: Corbis / Dirk Rees
Mecom is to introduce digital pay models across its top newspaper titles, slash costs by €70m and potentially close or sell 65 free titles… Read more »
Polar Mobile Raises $6 Million For Magazine Apps, Cross-Platform Services
Polar Mobile — the Canadian startup that develops apps for big-name publishers like CBS Interactive (NYSE: CBS), Conde Nast, Sports Illustr… Read more »
How A Stolen Wallet Made Me A Mobile-Payments Enthusiast
Losing your phone is never fun. But losing your wallet is much worse, and that’s one argument where those trying to roll the mobile-payments… Read more »
Interview: 'No Decision' On Sun Paywall In Absence Of NOTW
photo: vapour trail
News Of The World’s closure deprived News International of data on which it could have based a decision to introduce digital fees at the UK’… Read more »
UK's Biggest Regional Newspaper Ending Web Fees
The UK’s largest regional newspaper title, the Wolverhampton-based Express & Star, is ending the premium online payment tier it introduced i… Read more »
Penguin's DK: Goodbye Books, Hello 'Flat' Content. Make Once, Use Anywhere
Dorling Kindersley, the division of Penguin that publishes children, travel and reference titles, made a strong case for how it is moving to… Read more »
The Times Plans Social Sharing Upgrade, Real-Time iPad News
News International’s The Times may shed its social media invisibility cloak by letting subscribers gift paywalled articles to friends. Read more »
Updated: In-App Purchases To Overtake Sales From Paid Apps By 2013
photo: Google Android
The consumer draw of free apps over paid apps has been well-documented, and so has the rise of in-app payments as a route to making money fr… Read more »
Former CBSi Head Neil Ashe Lands At Walmart; Will Head E-Commerce
Neil Ashe said he wanted a break when he left CBS (NYSE: CBS) last year and he got one. Roughly a year after leaving as the president of CBS… Read more »
Updated: 'Mortified' Google To Act On Those Who Poached Rival's Clients
photo: Getty Images / Chris Hondros
Google (NSDQ: GOOG) has “apologised unreservedly” after its Kenyan outfit poached customers from a rival business directory by systematicall… Read more »
Amazon Scoots Past Apple's Rules With HTML5 iPad Kindle Store
Back in July, Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) and other content providers pulled the purchasing options from their iOS apps, in order to comply with App… Read more »
46 Percent Of Kickstarter Projects Successfully Funded In 2011
photo: Kickstarter
Online crowdfunding platform Kickstarter raised just shy of $100 million in pledges in 2011, and successfully funded nearly 12,000 projects,… Read more »
How The FT And NYT Aim To Make Paywalls Pay
photo: Corbis / Don Mason
(This version corrects an error in the percentage for the price increase of the FT)
Every newspaper, magazine or website is working on a pa… Read more »
Eight Slovenian Media To Start Charging For Some Online News
photo: Boris Stroujko
Eight big Slovenian publishers are about to start charging for parts of their online content all at the same time, using a single payment ki… Read more »
Wal-Mart's Mobile Team Thinking Big With App Development Firm Small Society
Wal-Mart’s digital labs arm has snapped up a small but influential mobile software-development team, adding Small Society to its group of te… Read more »
Confirmed: A New CEO For Yahoo, Scott Thompson
photo: PayPal
Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) this morning confirmed that it has appointed a new CEO, Scott Thompson, formerly the president of eBay’s payment division… Read more »
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Will Launch Metered Paywall
photo: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Starting tomorrow, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel readers who are not print subscribers will have to pay for online access above 20 articles per… Read more »
EU To Focus On Digital Content Policy In 2012
The European Commission says 2011 progress against its digital agenda ambitions has been “mixed”. Read more »
Record-Breaking Christmas For iOS, Android And Mobile Shopping
photo: Shutterstock / Maria Dryfhout
Christmas day 2011 was a record-breaking day for Android and iOS device activations, says a new report from mobile analytics firm Flurry: Ac… Read more »
How Publishers And Authors Are Promoting E-Books For The Holidays
photo: Hachette
I asked publishers and authors how they’re promoting their e-books for the holidays and got answers from bundling and free samplers to Kindl… Read more »
Italy's Paid Content Market Actually Seems Relatively Healthy
photo: Flickr / Images Money
Italians are twice as likely to pay for digital content as consumers in some other major nations. Read more »
Product Strategists Should See NFC As Much More Than Contactless Payments
A year ago, Forrester stated that 2011 would–finally–be the year that Near Field Communications (NFC) began to matter. We predicted that d… Read more »
Amazon Includes Circular In Weekend Newspapers
Among the Target, Best Buy and Radio Shack ads bundled with my Saturday New York Times this morning is a surprise: an 8-page circular from A… Read more »
