Category Archives: newspapers

The troubles with online newspapers

Posted on May 10, 2007 by Rakesh Agrawal

Mike Markson of Topix has a Top 10 list of the troubles facing their online counterparts. I’ve written about a few of these in the past: disintermediation by syndicators and advertisers. I agree with most of Mike’s points, especially the … Continue reading →

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WSJ owners get a whopper of an offer

Posted on May 1, 2007 by Rakesh Agrawal

Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. made a $5 billion offer for Dow Jones, representing an eye-popping 67% premium above the company’s recent market value. Shares of Dow Jones quickly shot up to near the value of the News Corp offer, indicating … Continue reading →

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Who reads the front page?

Posted on April 9, 2007 by Rakesh Agrawal

I was trying to determine how profitable Tribune’s online operations would be if they blocked sites from displaying links to their stories. The answer: “Not very.” The stats for washingtonpost.com and nytimes.com (which have much stronger online operations than Tribune) … Continue reading →

Posted in journalism, media, newspapers, publishing | 4 Comments

Advertisers disintermediating newspapers, too

Posted on April 8, 2007 by Rakesh Agrawal

I wrote yesterday about content providers disintermediating newspapers. Advertisers are doing the same. We’ve all heard about the effects that craigslist has had on the three pillars of the classified business: real estate, automotive and recruitment. Direct-to-consumer email poses a … Continue reading →

Posted in advertising, local search, media, newspapers, publishing | 3 Comments

Disintermediating newspapers (and the most useless RSS feed ever)

Posted on April 7, 2007 by Rakesh Agrawal

I mentioned earlier that one of the big challenges facing newspapers is that much of what they do is unoriginal; many newspapers are just aggregators. Comics are an example of content that many people looked to newspaper for. Mislead the … Continue reading →

Posted in media, newspapers, publishing | 4 Comments

Newspapers vs. search engines

Posted on April 7, 2007 by Rakesh Agrawal

The Tribune company’s soon-to-be owner, Sam Zell doesn’t like search engines. From the Washington Post: In conversations before and after a speech Zell delivered Thursday night at Stanford Law School in Palo Alto, Calif., the billionaire said newspapers could not … Continue reading →

Posted in google, media, newspapers, publishing, web 2, web 2.0 | 7 Comments

A new local platform from Topix

Posted on April 2, 2007 by Rakesh Agrawal

I’ve written before about the need for newspapers to go hyperlocal — allow readers to get ultra-targetted news about where they live from their neighbors. Topix, a company owned by newspaper companies, is offering a platform to do that. Topix … Continue reading →

Posted in blogs, journalism, media, newspapers, web 2, web 2.0 | 1 Comment

Blogging from a coffee shop

Posted on March 17, 2007 by Rakesh Agrawal

It may be cliche, but this is my first time. As I sit here on a Saturday morning, I see more bad news for the newspaper industry: the ratio of laptop users to newspaper readers here is 2:1. And I’m … Continue reading →

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Hard numbers on reader participation

Posted on March 8, 2007 by Rakesh Agrawal

With as much attention as user voting models (such as Digg), email to a friend links, etc., are getting, I’ve wondered what the ratio of passive vs. active consumers is. Having been in the business for 12 years, I know … Continue reading →

Posted in newspapers, statistics, web 2, web 2.0 | Comments Off