Newspaper chain reworking itself

Meanwhile the owner of 28 newspapers, including the Orange County Register, is reworking itself, building around an iPad link. It's got some innovative advertising ideas.

Good news for news magazines

Good news from the news magazine front. Advertising is growing, the New York Times reports. All of them gained except for Newsweek, which is undergoing a major "reinvention" (the Times' description) under Tina Brown, and is still finding its way.

But pages are up three or four percent at virtually all the other news magazines. And it was the same for most consumer magazines, Eric Sass reports.

Data from tweets at the Daily intriguing

I still don't know how I feel about the wealth of data being spawned by following tweets from the Daily's iPad app. On the one hand, I continue to be troubled by the fact that someone out there is counting everything I do online. On the other, the data is fascinating. Privacy versus data. It's a hard choice we are all going to be making, I guess.

Joshua Benton of the Nieman Journalism Labs reports today on more data (he's got a link to an earlier analysis). Among the more interesting -- not surprising but interesting -- results is a time-of-day study that shows iPad use is similar to old newspaper use, heavy in the morning and late afternoon. There's a lot more in Benton's report.

What digital companies make money?

What digital companies are actually making money? It's a subject that many seem to dodge, but paidcontent.org has come up with its list of the 50 most profitable digital companies. Names at the top are no surprises -- Google, Yahoo, Apple, Microsoft and Netflix -- but the list contains some surprises, not only some companies you've never thought of doing well, but others doing not so well. It's worth a look.

New media affects college students' eating habits

College students. New media. Food.

Those are words that go together well. OK, maybe not. A survey showed that new media has totally changed the relationship between college students and food. On the good side, social media is being used to get tips, recipes and advice on food choices. On the bad, it's really affecting how students eat. And, yes, they are a lot less likely to be social while eating than in the past.

Newspapers and paywalls, some thoughts

There now are six fairly large American newspapers with paywalls -- more if you count those like the Journal Sentinel with part of its content walled off (Packers Plus in the JS's case), and PaidContent.org offers a nice chart for comparing them.

As you would expect, models range all over the place with differences from price ($1.48 to $5 a week) to free for print subscribers (5 of 6) to what's free and what's behind the wall. I think we're going to see a real rush of struggling content providers moving to some form of pay wall, despite the naysayers out there.

Among the most interesting case is in Arkansas where, as PaidContent says, "The Democrat-Gazette has said its long-standing paywall has helped keep its paid circulation relatively steady over the last several years." Demonstrates the mistake newspapers made in ever going free online.

A few thoughts about media surveys

A new report from Project for Excellence in Journalism says that more people are reporting they get news from the Internet at least three times a week than report they get news from printed newspapers.

I don't see it as a bit surprising since I think people reading print newspapers are, for the most part, solid news consumers who get news from a variety of places. So far today (and it's only 8:32 a.m.), I have: 1) read a printed newspaper cover to cover, 2) scanned another printed newspaper, reading six stories, 3) listened to a radio newscast, 4) scanned five Internet news sites, one several times, 6) checked in on Facebook.

I do numbers 3 through 6 several times a day. I also generally read other printed newspapers, especially the nine free weekly publications I read each week, and that's not to mention the magazines and books. I am a news junkie. But so are lots of others. Yes, I'll show up in the survey's listing of people who get news online -- but I get it in other places as well, so when you read these surveys, think hard about the questions.

Switch from print to app isn't as easy as thought

A British group reports data showing that tablets are not substitutes for print newspapers, undoubtedly disappointing many newspaper executives who looked for tablet apps to fill in for print circulation declines.

The Telegraph newspaper reported (this from a story from paidcontent.org) that: "On average, the Telegraph iPad app was being used only seven times a month, when users ... were unable to buy a paper. The devices were being left at home or at work – not being carried everywhere.” Paidcontent.org interprets this as meaning that the hoped-for straight-line switch from print to tablets is "more complex" than hoped.

Media landscape grows more complex

New Pew report outlines the complicated media landscape with more reporting getting their news digitally than online. Report findings are mixed for newspapers with print revenues continuing to drop while online revenues continue to grow.

A worrisome finding is that newspapers no longer control their own destinies. Pew reports, "Online, news organizations increasingly depend on independent networks to sell their ads, on aggregators and social networks to deliver a substantial portion of their audience, and now, as news consumption becomes more mobile, on device makers (such as Apple) and software developers (Google) to distribute their content. And the new players take a share of the revenue and in many cases, also control the audience data." That dependency on others reflects an industry weakness.

Those iPad app are beginning to pay off

Evidence is beginning to mount up that theories of paid subscriptions on iPads and similar tablets may be correct. The latest is the announcement that the Wall Street Journal has 200,000 paid subscribers to its digital applications. That may not be huge, but does indicate that consumers will pony up for perceived value.

Adding tiger blood to new media mix

We talk a lot about how new media is reshaping the entire media landscape, offering users a host of new venues. One of them is offering direct access to celebrities where fans can find their own news.

It also offers celebrities the opportunity to shape their messages, and more and more of them have moved into the direct news route with their sites spreading views, news and, often, direct sales of products. For example, sports celeb Mark Cuban (a dot.com millionaire who owns the Dallas Mavericks) has long offered his views on all sorts of things directly, via Twitter and his website.

It was almost inevitable that Charlie Sheen -- currently the hottest name in the blogosphere -- would open his own site, and with the announcement that "charliesheen.com is finally in the hands of its Warlock owner," that opportunity became a reality. It promises to be fun to watch, although I'm not sure how much solid information will be added to the global intelligence cache.

Gawker makes a good move

I've been busy lately, and haven't posted much, but Gawker.com's latest move is so intelligent that it must draw mention. It's gone back to the future.

Gawker (and it's related websites such as the must-read Deadspin.com) changed its style a few weeks ago to one that I -- and obviously a lot of others -- found much less user-friendly. Now Gawker shows that it's managers actually are using their brains. It's offering not only the new design, but now the option of going back to its older version.

I've wondered for quite a while that so many website designers seem to ignore the flexibility offered by the Internet. Why just have one design? Why not offer a variety? All it costs is a little more designing effort.

In the option chosen by Gawker, you automatically get the new version. But there's a nice little tab to click and, voile, you've got the original version.