by Tony Haenn on February 3, 2010
What the newspaper industry hasn’t realized (or refuses to come to grips with), is content is no longer king. I bet we’ll see more media houses (terrible phrase…) focus on a freemium model. Basic content (e.g. breaking news, sports scores, etc) are free. Those are the tickets to ride the Google train.
That will be subsidized partly by advertising (today’s model) and partly as a cross-subsidy from products they try to upsell. Want to read Thomas’ Freidman’s blog? That’ll be a $1.50 a month. Want a commerative book of the best NYTimes stories of the year? How about an electronic edition delivered straight to your Kindle/iPad/gadget every morning? They’ll sell premium content and convenience.
The content focus of these places will narrow as well. Things like the stock prices in the WSJ will be eliminated. Why go to the WSJ when Google Finance, Yahoo Finance, or even my online broker has up to the minute pricing? If it isn’t core to their offering, then it won’t be offered.
On reflection, it may be too sweeping a generalization to say the media houses will all shift the way I suggest above. However, I would bet that is the model for any new entrants into this space – especially with a focus on social media. Topically focused blog networks (e.g. SBNation.com) are going to be an interesting contender in the media space. They naturally aggregate a particular demographic (more attractive to advertisers) and build communities (due to participatory nature) that are more engaged and possibly more likely to consume an upsell.
A colleague forwarded me a recent SmartBrief poll regarding the NY Times decision to erect a paywall for portions of it’s content. The respondents were fragmented, the highest proportion (31%) saying the NY Times can do what they want. Though a good percentage said they would simply go elsewhere if the NY Times wasn’t easily accessible.
What the newspaper industry has not yet realized (or refuses to come to grips with), is content is no longer king. I bet we’ll see more media houses focus on a freemium model. Basic content (e.g. breaking news, sports scores, etc) are free. Those are the tickets to ride the Google train.
That freemium model will be subsidized partly by advertising (today’s model) and partly as a cross-subsidy from products they try to upsell. Want to read Thomas’ Freidman’s blog? That’ll be a $1.50 a month. Want a commerative book of the best NY Times stories of the year? How about an electronic edition delivered straight to your Kindle/iPad/gadget every morning? They’ll sell premium content and convenience.
The content focus of these places will narrow as well. Things like the stock prices in the WSJ will be eliminated. Why go to the WSJ when Google Finance, Yahoo Finance, or even my online broker has up to the minute pricing? If it isn’t core to their offering, then it won’t be provided.
On reflection, it may be too sweeping a generalization to say all the media houses will all shift the way I suggest above. However, I would bet that is the model for any new entrants into this space – especially with a focus on social media. Topically focused blog networks (e.g. SBNation.com) are going to be an interesting contender in the media space. They naturally aggregate a particular demographic on a topic (more attractive to advertisers) and build communities (due to participatory nature) that are more engaged and possibly more likely to consume an upsell.
by Tony Haenn on November 16, 2009
Four-square is neat, but a little flat. The depth of game-play is lacking right now. The next step is scavenger hunts on a city-wide basis. Imagine the game starting to drive users to places outside of their usual patterns – going across town to check-in and receive that last “item” to complete a set.
Regardless of the evolution of the game play (and scavenger hunts might not be it), the cool angle for location based games is driving foot traffic to retail locations. Imagine the gap deciding to sponsor one part of a Four Square game. All players that check in at a gap store receive a $5 coupon (or an in-game reward…). In retail foot traffic is a huge driver of sales – that’s why mega malls first sprang up. If a location based game can find the right game play that pushes players to go to places outside their usual patterns, watch retailers line up to shower them with cash.
