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By James Temple for SF Gate.com
Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc. are redefining the online news experience, but in diverging ways that underscore the evolving identities of the search giants.
Last week, Yahoo unveiled the Upshot, a blog created by the Sunnyvale portal’s growing staff of editors and reporters, who will use search and other user data to help determine what they’ll cover and how. Read More
By Jeremy W. Peters, for The New York Times
Welcome to the era of the algorithm as editor.
For as long as hot lead has been used to make metal type, the model for generating news has been top-down: editors determined what information was important and then shared it with the masses.
But with the advent of technology that allows media companies to identify what kind of content readers want, that model is becoming inverted.
The latest and perhaps broadest effort yet in democratizing the news is under way at Yahoo, which on Tuesday Read More
PR Newswire
SAN FRANCISCO, June 21 /PRNewswire/ — Qewz, Inc. is launching www.qewz.com, a new website that uses a combination of technology and the human touch to highlight varying perspectives on the leading stories of the day.
Qewz draws from reputable, proven news sources and opinion columns – as well as thought-provoking blogs and other new forms of media.
Left, Right, Green, Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians, corporate America, middle America, far from America, ordinary Joe and offbeat: Qewz showcases them all. Beyond politics, Qewz covers arts, sports, culture and any major issue that arises. What it doesn’t do is pass judgment. Qewz is strictly non-partisan. It doesn’t filter out provocative Read More
By Joseph Tartakoff for PaidContent.Org
Google (NSDQ: GOOG) is asking select publications to suggest stories which are then promoted as “editors’ picks” on the front page of Google News. The move, which Google describes as a “test,” is similar in some ways to the “curators of the month” program on YouTube, which features video playlists made by either individuals or publications.
But it also could point to a bigger shift at Google News. After all, the site established itself as an automatic aggregator Read More
By Joseph Tartikoff for PaidContent.Org
Hearst has finally succeeded in buying search marketing specialist iCrossing, we have confirmed with a source familiar with the matter. The company is paying $325 million plus earn-outs for iCrossing, which it has been in talks to acquire for more than six months now. Hearst had initially bid $250 million for the company late last year, but the interactive ad shop rejected that offer and put itself up for sale instead. Hearst—which has been trying to move beyond its traditional businesses—had been said to be close to completing the deal in mid-April after several other suitors balked at the price.
In an interview with the WSJ, which first reported the Read More
By Edmund Lee for Advertising Age
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — Yahoo has acquired startup Associated Content for slightly more than $100 million in a deal that gives the portal new technology and a new strategy for producing low-cost media.
The deal, which will be announced later today, is part of an effort to shore up Yahoo’s content offerings and underscores the increased use of low-cost, crowd-sourced content, a strategy that AOL is pursuing through its SEED content factory, as well as by Demand Media, which reportedly hired Goldman Sachs to explore an IPO this summer. Read More
By Joseph Tartakoff for PaidContent.org
CBS (NYSE: CBS) has made a small acquisition, buying EcoMedia, an environmental media firm. The two companies had already been working together in local CBS markets; under their partnership, advertisers could allocate a portion of their CBS ad spending to a local environmental project that EcoMedia identified as needing funding. So far, EcoMedia says it has invested $1.5 million in environmental projects, including a project to install solar panels at the Long Beach Airport. CBS says all of its divisions will now work with EcoMedia “to bring advertisers a new way to engage consumers while improving the environment.” No financial terms were disclosed.
By Rob ORegan for E-MediaVitals.com
The roles of publishers, advertisers and agencies are becoming less distinct as brands become content creators and publishers become marketing strategists. The Moira Group’s Mark Holdreith calls it “the big muddle.”
For many publishers, the muddle means money. Increasingly, publishers are finding new revenue opportunities in marketing services, offering a wide range of programs from custom publishing to website development to event production. Hanley Wood, a B2B publisher that serves the housing and commercial construction industry, increased its business with one client tenfold in just two years, primarily through marketing services. The Integrated Marketing unit of consumer magazine publisher Meredith has marketing services revenues of about $175 million, according to the Wall Street Journal, and grew by 13% last year, partially offsetting the company’s 15% drop in magazine ad revenue.
According to American Business Media, 20% of its members are engaged in or currently developing marketing
By Evan Smith for Texas Tribune
Last week we celebrated our six-month birthday (it’s not too late to send a card — or a gift). It seems like only yesterday, blah, blah, cliché, blah — but, actually, it does seem like only yesterday that the Trib went live, even if doesn’t feel like it (ow, my aching lack of sleep).
What we’ve learned from then until now is truly if predictably mind-blowing, Read More
By Ken Doctor for the Nieman Journalism Lab
The first quarter newspaper numbers are in. They paint a consistent picture.
Across the board, the reporting of public news companies reflects a new, if unsteady reality. In short, that reality is one of profit. Not the big profit of 20-percent-plus profit margins — the envy of many other industries — that were a truism as recently as five years ago. Now, the profit’s more tepid, mostly in single digits: The New York Times, 8 percent; Gannett, 8 percent, McClatchy, 1.5 percent. Expectations run that news companies will show a five to 10 percent profit for the year, absent unforeseen calamity.
But that mild profit is good news. Recall that a year ago, much of the industry was in freefall. A number of companies — stunned by the quick near-Depression downturn of ad revenues — went operationally into the red. They responded with draconian cuts in staff and newsprint, and as the recovery has emerged, they’ve positioned themselves as smaller but profitable companies, though their first-quarter revenues still largely lagged the first quarter of the horrific Q1 2009. Wall Street has rewarded them with improved credit ratings and advanced share prices. There seems to be, say investors, some future here. This week’s tenacious auction in Philadelphia with lenders led by the Angelo Gordon private equity company — now a big player in the U.S. daily business — winning the papers with a $135 million bid only reinforces the notion that newspaper valuation may have been trashed too much.
It’s a fragile stability. One big question for all publishers: where do we go from here? Read More
