Making money from content online

I found this session at the Monaco Media Forum yesterday fascinating. It features a debate between Mathias Dopfner, Chairman & CEO of Axel Springer and Arianna Huffington, Founder & Editor in Chief of the Huffington Post.
It starts off very amicably but soon gets to the heart of an old media / new media debate about [...]

Developing mobile apps, monetising social media, models for paid content, e-readers… and more

If you work in specialist consumer or business media markets I am sure you have a list of new ideas that you think might present good opportunities for the development of your business.
I’d be happy to wager that at least one of the following topics was on that list:

How can I build up a community [...]

Can you really transition from print to online?

Fish and chips don’t taste the same out of a laptop
Originally uploaded by Rory Brown
Over the past few months I have done a few pieces of consultancy work for a range of media companies. Most of it has been around managing the transition from an analogue to a digital world.
We talk about the different ‘publishing’ [...]

What’s the point of trade associations?

During the course of my career in media I have been involved in the work of a variety of trade associations – as an attendee at events, speaker, committee and board member.
Generally my experiences have been positive ones and I have learned a lot and made some great connections as a result of my participation. [...]

For anyone involved in the paywall / premium content / freemium debate for digital news

This recent presentation by Steve Outing nails a lot of the issues.

So, should we all give up and go home?

It is now a little over 8 months since I left Incisive Media. At some point in the future I will do a ‘reflections on a post-corporate world’ post, but for the time being I wanted to share some thoughts on what has happened to the media industry this year. I’d also like to discuss [...]

Proper blogroll finally added

Eventually, I have got round to constructing a proper blogroll. You’ll see some of the sites I enjoy reading added to the right hand column. Generally they focus on media, technology and search but there are a few other random ones in there.

Information wants to be free, err expensive, err… oh, never mind

On the one hand information wants to be expensive, because it’s so valuable. The right information in the right place just changes your life. On the other hand, information wants to be free, because the cost of getting it out is getting lower and lower all the time. So you have these two fighting against [...]

A spring clean

When I first set up this blog it was really only meant to be a way of collating my various activities online. Hence the fact that my blogroll only links to me… 
Now, as I have started blogging I realise that this looks incredibly ego-centric. So, over the next couple of weeks I’ll be doing a [...]

Tim Brooks interviewed at Publishing Expo

A really good video interview with Tim Books of Guardian News and Media.
It’s quite long but well worth watching for Tim’s thoughts on newspapers, magazines and the digital evolution.

Specialist publishers: 3 great conferences coming up in May, June and July.

Unless you have been living under a rock for the last 18 months it cannot have escaped your attention that big changes are afoot in the media world. Changes that have been accelerated by the current recession but most of which would have been taking place anyway. Some traditional revenue lines are under significant pressure, [...]

If a B2B marketer had launched Wired UK – part 2

OK. Apologies for the delayed sequel – school holidays, planning for a new business, Twittering instead of blogging, blah blah blah…
In my last post I looked at the launch of Wired UK. I said that it was a brave company that would launch a glossy consumer magazine in this climate and that I was generally [...]

If a B2B marketer had launched Wired UK – part 1

Last week the UK edition of Wired magazine hit the newsstands for the first time. I have long been a fan of the US version and was interested to see how they had taken the format and adapted it for a UK audience.
Generally I was impressed. It’s a brave company that launches a glossy consumer [...]

A solution for the broken advertising model in media?

I really enjoyed SIPA’s Online Marketing conference yesterday. We had sessions covering social media, developing online stores, best practice e-mail marketing, monetising online communities, mobile, video & podcasting. Thanks very much to the speakers from Electric Word, AI Digital, E-Consultancy, Nature, Magicalia, Incisive Media, Communicator, Euromoney & Babyworld.
While all the presentations were great the one [...]

SIPA online marketing event tomorrow, 24th March, London

Another quick plug for a great SIPA event in London tomorrow. 
Full programme.
Come along – there are still a few places free.

The greatest week of the year

It’s the Cheltenham Festival this week – the real start of the year. I’ll be there Thursday & Friday if anyone’s around. Can’t wait.

Thomson Reuters results – singing from the same hymn sheet

Another day; another set of results. This time the Q4 results from Thomson Reuters which seem to be pretty robust.
You can listen to Tom Glocer on his investor call here but I wanted to highlight a couple of very similar comments to those heard in the Reed Elsevier call the other day (not direct quotes).

Thomson [...]

Knowledge driven solutions – the growth sector of business media?

In my last post I had a look at Reed Elsevier’s results presentation and suggested that the real growth area of business media was in building tools and workflow solutions for customers. It is an area that a lot of B2B media companies highlight as part of their strategy and an area that I was [...]

Listening to the Reed Elsevier results presentation

 
 
Over my years in business publishing I have always loved monitoring the reporting season for publicly quoted media companies. You gain an enormous amount of insight into the broader trends in the industry & it gives a much better perspective into the general market conditions – away from your particular coal face.
Today, one of the [...]

Surviving and thriving in recession – Feb 24th, London

A quick plug for an event which SIPA are hosting at the end of Feb in London.
There are lots of these type of events around at the moment but this will actively focus on the specialist media community. 
It is designed to be very interactive and limited to 20 participants. Hosted by Robin Crumby of Melcrum [...]