Media Industry Archive

Should official news sources get favorable treatment in Google’s search results? A lot of publishers think so. That’s the gist of a story today by Advertising Age’s Nat Ives, which quotes one (obviously discontented) “content executive” as saying: “You should not have a system where those who are essentially parasites off the true producers of content benefit...

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Declaring that its “business model is not sustainable,” the publisher of the venerable Ann Arbor News announced today it will cease operations as of this July. The newspaper has been covering one of the nation’s most important college towns and research centers continuously since 1835, the year Charles Darwin arrived at the Galapagos Islands aboard the HMS Beagle; also the...

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Around a year ago, a variety of sources inside Google (none of whom would allow me to quote them by name) made me aware of a conversation that had been conducted at the top level of the company about how to help the ailing news media companies that create so much of the content upon which the search giant depends. One statement by a high-level exec that was repeated to me several times in...

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Newspapers ask for special treatment by Google — A small invitation-only group of publishers met with Google’s Publishers Advisory Council and asked for elevated status among Google’s search results. The publishers, which included ESPN, Hearst and the New York Times, are upset that Google’s algorithm penalizes paid content. Many publishers, such as the Times, are...

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You know things are bad in the magazine business when six out of 10 titles on AdweekMedia’s so-called annual “Hot List” of the top magazines post ad revenue declines, and two post circulation declines. (By comparison, no magazine on last year’s list dropped in any category, though a few posted flat circulation.) In fact, a hot list full of cooling-off titles is so...

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Occasionally, among all the media disaster stories, there is some good news about a standout company that is defeating the odds by achieving sustained growth, producing excellent work, and innovating technologically. Like the Financial Times. Long many a business journalist’s favorite reads, the FT on its distinctive salmon-colored newsprint continues to be a disruptive force in media,...

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Yesterday was Doug Bowman’s last at Google. His departure leaves the company without its talented lead visual designer, a guy millions of bloggers (including me) owe big-time for his remarkable set of playful design templates at Blogger, among his many other design contributions. Bowman explained his decision to leave what just three years had seemed to be a dream job on his blog, and by...

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Newsprint company may declare bankruptcy — As the majority of customers trim content, newsprint distributor AbitibiBowater may have to declare bankruptcy. The company has been struggling to restructure and pay down debt created by the 2007 merger of Abitibi-Consolidated and Bowater. Several of the largest newspaper companies in the country have declared bankruptcy including the Tribune...

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Following on yesterday’s report about how the future of news will be via apps on mobile devices, today it’s time to revisit the growing competition over eBook platforms. Sony ratcheted up the pressure on Amazon and its Kindle device  by announcing this week a partnership with Google that will bring a half million of the books digitized by the search giant to its Sony Reader. ...

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Hey, media exec! Lack of a viable business model got you down? Well, the solution may be right in your refrigerator! Maybe, like the Walt Disney Corp., you can start selling eggs stamped with your corporate logo, or the image of the cutest character in your stable. Just imagine SpongeBob eggs, or New York Times eggs (with, maybe, a special limited edition featuring Pinch’s face), or...

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