From the category archives:

Publishing

It’s all about discovery

October 22, 2011

The biggest problem online since the turn of the Century has been that it’s really hard to discover new stuff. Not find stuff: discovery isn’t the same thing. If I know roughly what I want, Google makes it easy to find. But finding things that I might like that I don’t know about yet? Much [...]

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The unedifying arrogance of PC journalists

April 28, 2011

Barry Collins is angry. Specifically, Barry is almost splenetic about what he sees as “Apple’s unedifying arrogance” in its response to the brouhaha over the database which your iPhone carries of locations. In particular, Barry is vexed over what he sees as Apple’s slipperiness over whether it’s tracking your location, describing its explanation as… “at [...]

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Amazon’s Ad-supported Kindle Price: Too High?

April 12, 2011

TUAW on the release of an ad-supported Kindle from Amazon: “Still, the $114 price point seems a little silly; $99 would be a much better psychological buy-in point.” I think that $25 is a fair reflection of the value of the ads. Remember, these ads are home-screen only, and not in the books. Pundits constantly [...]

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Nieman Journalism lab responds to John Gruber

March 2, 2011

Nieman Journalism Lab responds to John Gruber’s defence of the 30% Apple subscription take: “But if someone searches for and downloads The New York Times app — after the Times has spent more than a century building up its brand, as the cost of billions of dollars — can it really be said that Apple [...]

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When is “the best price” for customers not “the best price” for customers?

March 1, 2011

The Sage Gruber’s contortions to position Apple’s subscription pricing scam as “good for consumers” are getting so wild that he’ll be a high-level yoga master before you know it: “Why not allow developers and publishers to set their own prices for in-app subscriptions? One reason: Apple wants its customers to get the best price — [...]

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Apple 2011 = Microsoft ’97

February 18, 2011

Brilliant comment from “Chucky” on a post from from Michael Tsai: Microsoft in 1997 had a very specific corporate strategy. They had a temporary situation of great market leverage. And rather than concentrating on making better products for their users, they began to concentrate on two objectives: 1 Using their leverage to avoid the rise [...]

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This is why Apple’s subscription system fails for consumers

February 17, 2011

From Apple Subs: Publishers Seek Clarity, FT Concerned, Some Sign Up | paidContent: “We have a fair and open approach for customers whereby we offer digital access to FT journalism for one price and enable access across multiple platforms for no additional fee. It is necessary to have a direct relationship with the customer to [...]

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Apple’s subscription system: A mess

February 17, 2011

From ‘Apple Just Fd Over Online Music Subs’ | paidContent: “Music and video services do not have a 30 percent margin to give away to Apple NSDQ: AAPL. It means you’ll see them exit the market on iOS devices, paving the way for Apple’s own iTunes streaming.” Does the subscription system include music content? No [...]

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I couldn’t have put it better myself

February 2, 2011

Mathew Ingram, writing for GigaOm: “Call it a deal with the devil or whatever you want, but Apple is the one that came up with devices that are so appealing, and a content-distribution model that is so effective, that it has sold 10 billion apps in less than three years, and created a whole generation [...]

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A thought on journalism for Boxing Day

December 26, 2010

Cover via Amazon I’ve spent part of the Christmas break reading Andrew Marr‘s book “My Trade“, which is a kind of personal history of journalism. If you like Marr’s history programmes, and have any interest in the history of media, I’d highly recommend it as his writing style, a mix of good research and excellent [...]

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