What is Twitter’s Vision?
http://mashable.com/2009/02/02/what-is-twitters-vision/

The singular thing that distinguishes Twitter from blogs, RSS, IM, email, etc. is synergy

"The user must be given the option of whether to pay for a Web site's content (by financially supporting the site), or read it for free. I'm betting this one will be a tough pill to swallow for many industry executives with traditional media mindsets, but it's critical because it fits the culture, indeed the nature, of the Internet. Traditional micropayment schemes for online news content -- "pay up or go elsewhere" -- fight it, and thus are doomed to fail, in my view." Okei, en ehtinyt lukemaan tätä kunnolla enkä oikein ymmärtänyt, että mistä ne rahat tulevat. Mutta luen paremmalla ajalla...

Many people in the newspaper industry are already in full-fledged panic mode, and one of the recent responses has been a wave of calls to resurrect an online publishing business model that has not yet worked: micropayments.

Forget Micropayments -- Here's a Far Better Idea for Monetizing Content While Time magazine and others claim the answer lies in asking readers to pay in small increments, that model will only hasten newspapers' death spiral. Instead, consider what may prove to be the solution: a California start-up called Kachingle.

While Time magazine and others claim the answer lies in asking readers to pay in small increments, that model will only hasten newspapers' death spiral. Instead, consider what may prove to be the solution: a California start-up called Kachingle.

Pretty good list of options for burgeoning game developers.

Facebook's redesign, and why customer feedback shouldn't be the only driver of a product's development....

My former boss, Jim Fawcette, used to say that if you asked a group of Porsche owners what they wanted they’d tell you things like “smoother ride, more trunk space, more leg room, etc.” He’d then say “well, they just designed a Volvo.

http://www.boxuk.com/blog/monetizing-your-web-app-business-models boxuk.com

Business models for web applications

monetizing web apps

Ultimately, though, every business needs revenues—and advertising, it transpires, is not going to provide enough. Free content and services were a beguiling idea. But the lesson of two internet bubbles is that somebody somewhere is going to have to pick up the tab for lunch.

the lack of any business model describes the Web 2.0 era

"Ultimately, though, every business needs revenues—and advertising, it transpires, is not going to provide enough. Free content and services were a beguiling idea. But the lesson of two internet bubbles is that somebody somewhere is going to have to pick up the tab for lunch."

"Now reality is reasserting itself once more, with familiar results. The number of companies that can be sustained by revenues from internet advertising turns out to be much smaller than many people thought, and Silicon Valley seems to be entering another “nuclear winter”"

How to price an iPhone app, or whether to charge at all and use ads instead.

iphone app developer

Blog post, 5 lessons learned from YouSendIt.com

It was a hostile audience. It was June 2007, at a conference center in London, where newspaper and magazine publishers were hearing how a new industry-backed search engine rights standard called ACAP was coming along. The day ended with an "issues" oriented panel. The audience didn't seem that pleased with me telling them they were full of shit about how important they thought they were and how awful they thought they had it from Google in particular. I didn't phrase it like that, but that was the essence of my attitude. I'd rarely encountered so many people in one place with such a sense of entitlement. Worse, these were supposedly my own people. Newspaper folks, where I got my start in journalism. What an embarrassment. I'm not talking the rank-and-file of newspapers, however -- the reporters and editors doing the grunt work. This crowd was full of publishers or editors of a different type, not wordsmithing and story assignment but looking out for the business issues.

I also explained that unlike virtually all other publishers on the internet, newspapers were given extraordinary special status with Google. They were among the very select few to be admitted into Google News and receive the huge amounts of traffic it could send their ways. That many small blogs with excellent content struggle for admittance that these other publishers just got handed to them on a silver platter.

/via Perttu) Search Engine Land -verkkojulkaisun päätoimittaja sanomalehdille: Stop looking to blame Google for your failings. Figure out a better business model rather than blowing hot air about the privileged positions you occupy.

Dave, you might find this one interesting

Because I've been thinking about business models.

-

1) What compelling reason exists for people to give you money? (or votes or donations) 2) How do you acquire what you're selling for less than it costs to sell it? 3) What structural insulation do you have from relentless commoditization and a price war? 4) How will strangers find out about the business and decide to become customers?

Ah, le vieux se lance...

Rupert ­Murdoch expects to start charging for access to News Corporation's newspaper websites within a year as he strives to fix a ­"malfunctioning" business model. Encouraged by booming online subscription revenues at the Wall Street Journal, the billionaire media mogul last night said that papers were going through an "epochal" debate over whether to charge. "That it is possible to charge for content on the web is obvious from the Wall Street Journal's experience," he said.

"Encouraged by booming online subscription revenues at the Wall Street Journal, the billionaire media mogul last night said that papers were going through an "epochal" debate over whether to charge. "That it is possible to charge for content on the web is obvious from the Wall Street Journal's experience," he said. Asked whether he envisaged fees at his British papers such as the Times, the Sunday Times, the Sun and the News of the World, he replied: "We're absolutely looking at that." Taking questions on a conference call with reporters and analysts, he said that moves could begin "within the next 12 months‚" adding: "The current days of the internet will soon be over." |||| What I don't get is how they plan to get people to start paying for content that they've become very, very comfortable with getting for free.

RT @davidakin: News Corp will charge for newspaper websites, says Rupert Murdoch http://bit.ly/dSI3S (back to future?) [from http://twitter.com/writelife/statuses/1726447940]

"The current days of the internet will soon be over."

Current days of free internet will soon be over, says media mogul

How to Save Newspapers (Or, Why the NYT Should Acquire Twitter) - Umair Haque - HarvardBusiness.org http://ow.ly/42Jn [from http://twitter.com/sasii/statuses/1625479259]

There's nothing more timely than Twitter. Twitter would provide the NYT with four key resources and capabilities.

How to Save Newspapers (Or, Why the NYT Should Acquire Twitter) - HarvardBusiness.org http://bit.ly/zmw7p What will Maureen say? [from http://twitter.com/JEBworks/statuses/1598590889]

Why the NYT Should Acquire Twitter

Before you launch your startup, you should be thinking about how you're going to make money. Here are 5 ways social media startups can bring in some cash.

You Think ‘Free’ is Only About the Price? It’s Not.

Unresolvable

Time and time again I see the discussion about free content, free services, free products, and how they're going to liberate/destroy/change the current economy,

In this 30 minute video from the FOWA Tour, you’ll learn the key points you need to consider when deciding on the business model for your product or service.

Carsonified on thinking about models for your online business - when to, and when not to, consider freemium models and building up a viable paying customer base.

How to Choose a Business Model

avarice

Journalists vs. Bloggers

Then, later in my career, I started blogging, and then writing for ReadWriteWeb, and now I am COO of this news media business. So that got me thinking about the past, present, and future of journalism. Disclosure: I do not come at this from a long career as a journalist. This is a personal, blog-style view of the journalism profession by somebody who cares about the outcome.

Why make one big website when you can create 100 little digital experiences?

I want to see a new digital agency model that sells a package of 100 small digital experiences, that can each be executed quickly and cheaply, instead of selling the 1 big digital experience

thoughts about how to behave as the a new model digital agency

A ceramics professor comes in on the first day of class and divides the students into two sections. He tells one half of the class that their final grade will be based exclusively on the volume of their production; the more they make, the better their grade. The professor tells the other half of the class that they will be graded more traditionally, based solely on the quality of their best piece. At the end of the semester, the professor discovered that the students who were focused on making as many pots as possible also ended up creating the best pots, much better than the pots made by the students who spent all semester trying to create that one perfect pot.

http://stealourideas.tumblr.com/

pretty darn fascinating

@venturedig

Four Primary Business Models in the social networking space that I’ve experienced–they primarily are concerned with Facebook Applications.

business models for journalists, courtesy of CUNY and Jeff Jarvis

CUNY: "We have developed four business models for a new news ecosystem. The question we attempt to answer: What happens to journalism in a top-25 metro market if a newspaper fades away. Can journalism be sustained? And how?"

We have developed four business models for a new news ecosystem. The question we attempt to answer: What happens to journalism in a top-25 metro market if a newspaper fades away. Can journalism be sustained? And how?

ed, just that it's something that you should be willing to experiment with on an ongoing basis with the knowledge that it's going to take a long time to get it exactly right.

Interesting blog abour freemium strategies

Free is not a business model, it’s a marketing and distribution tactic. Don’t forget this, and don’t get distracted into thinking otherwise. Free is not an excuse to make a lesser product, in fact it forces you to make a better product or no one will ever pay. Free will expand your market size and scope instantly

Newspaper: Valley Morning Star City: Harlingen, Texas Average paid circulation: 23,294 Pricing plan: Online-only subscriptions are available for 75 cents a day, $3.95 a month, or $39.50 for the year. Daily print subscribers get free access to web content and also to an e-edition of the paper. Weekend subscribers have to pay an additional $3.16 per month for online access, while Sunday-only subscribers have to pay $3.56 a month. Event listings, obituaries, AP stories, video, blogs, and classifieds all remain free.

As more newspapers kick around the idea of charging for content, much of the attention has been focused on the pay models employed by the bigger players like the WSJ and the Financial Times. But quietly, some small- and medium-circulation papers are coming up with their own formulas to get readers to pony up for access to their websites. We checked in with some of these papers to find out how much they are charging and how they’re faring.

paidContent: Taking The Plunge: How Newspaper Sites That Charge Are Faring <some figures beside #WSJ & #FT, mixed picture http://j.mp/5r14J [from http://twitter.com/frankhellwig/statuses/3816403648]

marketing internet

An utterly enthralling rant about the economics of the web, written 40,000 feet up in the air. "Newsflash folks: The Internet does NOT want to be FREE... It wants to GET PAID on Fucking Friday, just like everybody else on the damn planet."

password friction paypal login

ASSERTION #2: The default startup business model for 2010 & beyond will be subscriptions and transactions (e-commerce, digital goods). Newsflash folks: The Internet does NOT want to be FREE... It wants to GET PAID on Fucking Friday, just like everybody else on the damn planet.

(+ why Facebook, Google, & Apple will own your wallet by 2015)

Dokumente aus der Firmengeschichte von Apple im Computer History Museum.

Apple Computer (now known as Apple, Inc.) was a major force in the personal computer revolution that took place in the 1970s and '80s. Learning about its history teaches us about competing visions of the future and how companies made decisions during this exciting time. The Computer History Museum presents here two special documents from Apple Computer during the early days of personal computing.

Case Studies in Freemium: Pandora, Dropbox, Evernote, Automattic and MailChimp

great read RT @nickdemey @lizgannes - Case Studies in Freemium: Pandora, Dropbox, Evernote, Automattic and MailChimp - http://bit.ly/9w7ofE

The Web site has caught on to the point where Bakersfield Californian now publishes 20,000 copies of a free magazine with content from Bakotopia twice a month. The articles range from reviews of the local theater scene to goings-on at various hot spots. Because the magazine's audience is young, hip, and hard to reach, "advertisers do pay full rates," says Dan Pacheco, senior manager of digital products at the company. The magazine even turns a profit.

# Another list of examples.

Άρθρο στο BusinessWeek (Μάρτιος 2009). Χρησιμοποιώντας ως παράδειγμα την The Bakersfield Californian, αναφέρει τρόπους με τους οποίους οι εφημερίδες μπορούν να δημιουργήσουν νέες πηγές εσόδων.

The independent, family-owned Californian is preparing to take the idea of Web-created niche magazines national. Using an $837,000 grant from the Knight News Challenge and about $200,000 of its own money, it's launching a site called Printcasting.com later in March. The site will allow individuals, schools, homeowners' associations, wine clubs, and the like to create their own digital magazines.

A venture by <cite>The Bakersfield Californian</cite> is one of many ways newspapers are trying to generate new revenue

using technoloyg

RT @davewiner: Twitter VC :there will be "sudden" changes and then we'll know what Twitter's business model is. :-) http://bit.ly/15lTiK [from http://twitter.com/rohitharsh/statuses/1267090367]

RT - Twitter VC Laughs at Idea that Twitter Has No Bus Model - ReadWriteWeb http://ff.im/-1hDCY. +++Some said that about Google early on. [from http://twitter.com/paulwalker/statuses/1266876050]

Todd Dagres, founder of Spark Capital and one of the VCs that poured an additional $35 million into Twitter recently, finds it amusing when people talk about Twitter's lack of a business model.

$ frm twttr VC says: "All of a sudden...some changes...won't undermine...but...pretty obvious how we...monetize it." http://is.gd/llEp [from http://twitter.com/DrIanFenwick/statuses/1292447685]

is it obvious? will those first to react to it be in a position to leverage it?

Dagres, who claims that Sparks and Union Square Ventures are the two biggest shareholders in Twitter, said that there is a business model - it just hasn't been implemented yet. But he did provide one clue. "All of a sudden there will be some changes that won't undermine the experience or the vitality -- but it will be pretty obvious how we're going to monetize it."

Very nice

Upside of software as service

Mostly saving this for myself, but Warren had a great post talking about online pay models - and why even a universally adopted pay wall is a bad idea.

Isn't this collusion? A bunch of different newspaper to gather together and discuss monetization? http://bit.ly/6fwTW [from http://twitter.com/JMaultasch/statuses/1963825631]

"Executive recruiters likely do not swarm the industry for talent; certainly not in the same way they've gone after leaders at companies such as General Electric, Wells Fargo Bank or Microsoft over the years. Indeed, the June issue of Fast Company, a very sharp tech and business publication, features a cover story on "The 100 Most Creative People in Business." Perhaps I missed it but I don't think I saw a single newspaper executive mentioned. Why not? Now, more than ever, is a time for creativity and nerve, not just hunkering down and crossing fingers that safe harbor will appear on the horizon. It's a wonderful and important product, vital to American communities. Unlike a lot of jobs, you can look yourself in the mirror and know you're doing some good. Many newsrooms remain filled with a sense of mission even amid the looming dread.

"Models to Monetize Content" is the subject of a gathering at a hotel which is actually located in drab and sterile suburban Rosemont, Illinois; slabs of concrete, exhibition halls and mostly chain restaurants, whose prime reason for being is O'Hare International Airport. It's perfect for quickie, in-and-out conclaves. /.../ There's no mention on its website but the Newspaper Association of America, the industry trade group, has assembled top executives of the New York Times, Gannett, E. W. Scripps, Advance Publications, McClatchy, Hearst Newspapers, MediaNews Group, the Associated Press, Philadelphia Media Holdings, Lee Enterprises and Freedom Communication Inc., among more than two dozen in all. Ultimately, many in attendance will start charging for some online content because they don't know what else to do.

"Models to Monetize Content" is the subject of a gathering at a hotel which is actually located in drab and sterile suburban Rosemont, Illinois; slabs of concrete, exhibition halls and mostly chain restaurants, whose prime reason for being is O'Hare International Airport. It's perfect for quickie, in-and-out conclaves. There's no mention on its website but the Newspaper Association of America, the industry trade group, has assembled top executives of the New York Times, Gannett, E. W. Scripps, Advance Publications, McClatchy, Hearst Newspapers, MediaNews Group, the Associated Press, Philadelphia Media Holdings, Lee Enterprises and Freedom Communication Inc., among more than two dozen in all. A longtime industry chum, consultant Barbara Cohen, "will facilitate the meeting."

Here's a story the newspaper industry's upper echelon apparently kept from its anxious newsrooms: A discreet Thursday meeting in Chicago about their future. "Models to Monetize Content" is the subject of a gathering at a hotel which is actually located in drab and sterile suburban Rosemont, Illinois; slabs of concrete, exhibition halls and mostly chain restaurants, whose prime reason for being is O'Hare International Airport. It's perfect for quickie, in-and-out conclaves.

We'll see how long that lasts.

New York Times is thinking about two plans to charge of their online content: a "meter system" or a "membership" system. Decision probably will made end of June 2009.

Reports are The New York Times is considering two different ways to charge for online content

Mark Josephson, the CEO of local news platform Outside.in, figures the local, online-only newspaper of tomorrow, for a decent-sized city, will have a staff of 20 people. That’s 20 people, period. Perhaps six of them will be “news gatherers.”

P&L put together by Mark Josephson (CEO outside.in) explaining how future newspapers will survive by using services like "outside.in for publishers"

Interesting piece on the business of local news sites, and how you should be doing them now. Interesting.

The pitch: Outside.in wants to help local news sites by supplying them with a river of extra content created by local bloggers, Twitterers and lots of people who don’t even think of themselves as content creators, like people who post real estate listings. The local site is supposed to aggregate and filter the stuff and sell ads on it. The people supplying the content get more exposure via links from the bigger site.

good bullet points on the common challenges facing the freemium model.

YouSendIt

RT @igrigorik great read on freemium models / patterns for startups: http://tinyurl.com/d5a5xs [from http://twitter.com/nealrichter/statuses/1575106507]

team structure

The bureaucratic organizational model thrived during the 20th Century. But is it the right model for advertising agencies in the 21st Century? Could an adhocratic model be better suited for these challenging times?

MySpace will be implementing the system with initial support for content from MTV Networks, with shows including The Colbert Report, Punk’d, and Sarah Silverman. So every time you post a clip of Jon Stewart ripping on the presidential candidates, someone is going to get paid, and users won’t have to deal with the often-clunky proprietary video players offered by each network. And instead of trying to prevent these clips from making it onto MySpace in the first place, content owners will want users to upload as many as possibl

MySpace has implemented an exciting new ad platform called Auditude that willautomatically identify any uploaded video clips from a number of shows produced by MTV Networks and will display an overlay when the clip is played that shows which episode the clip originally came from, its original air-date, and links to online stores where users can buy the entire episode.

Since YouTube heralded the era of user-uploaded videos, media corporations have been fighting a hopeless battle to regain control of their content, sending out endless waves of DMCA notices in a vain attempt to take down countless clips scattered across the web. In the last year sites like Hulu have made progress - it’s finally possible to legally embed a clip of The Office in your blog, but publishers continue to lose out on millions of video clips that were uploaded without permission.

Yep, there’s a proliferation of unlicensed video content out there. Media co’s have tried, largely in vain, to track and act on the zillions of daily infractions. Whole companies have popped up to try to help them in the tracking. Well another company has popped up that might make those companies, and the problem, go away. MySpace is testing a service provided by Auditude which intercepts video uploads, compares segments to its last-4-year, 250M video catalog and, if found to be a copy, tags the video w/ header information, overlays ads and/or provides links to full, pay versions. This is a game-changer, these guys are smart.

Helpful.

Long post, but good read (headline says it all).