Category Archives: publishing

Why Apple is right on subscriptions

Posted on February 15, 2011 by Rakesh Agrawal

Apple has built an incredibly valuable distribution platform. It’s perfectly reasonable for them to say “if you make money using our platform, we want a piece of it.” Distribution costs money. Facebook charges developers on its platform 30% for using … Continue reading →

Posted in apple, ipad, journalism, newspapers, publishing | 4 Comments

What the AP must do now

Posted on June 7, 2009 by Rakesh Agrawal

I’ve written before about how the Associated Press blew it in the early days of the Web by choosing to not play in the online news space. More than a decade later, AP still has tremendous assets that it can … Continue reading →

Posted in google, journalism, newspapers, publishing | 1 Comment

Anyone can be a journalist

Posted on April 6, 2009 by Rakesh Agrawal

In conversations with people in the news business, I regularly hear about the need for “professional journalists.” Ask them what makes a professional journalist and the answers get wishy-washy. Is it someone who is on staff at a newspaper? What … Continue reading →

Posted in facebook, flickr, journalism, media, mobile, newspapers, publishing, social networking, twitter | 7 Comments

Newspaper companies can’t unring the bell

Posted on April 5, 2009 by Rakesh Agrawal

American newspapers are in trouble. So far this year, the Rocky Mountain News and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer have shuttered their presses. Tribune is in bankruptcy. My first employer, the Star Tribune in Minneapolis, is also there. Publishers have threatened to … Continue reading →

Posted in journalism, media, newspapers, publishing, twitter, web 2, web 2.0 | 3 Comments

More Americans get their news from… Facebook?

Posted on June 13, 2008 by Rakesh Agrawal

I found out about Tim Russert’s death today through Facebook. One of my friends had updated his status to say he was “shocked by Tim Russert’s death.” I glanced over at my Google Talk contacts and noticed that two other … Continue reading →

Posted in facebook, im, instant messaging, journalism, media, newspapers, publishing, social networking, twitter, web 2, web 2.0 | 3 Comments

The Internet’s perpetual motion machine

Posted on May 5, 2008 by Rakesh Agrawal

In my comment on Clay Shirky’s speech on the cognitive surplus, I mentioned the effect of increased content production on consumption patterns. I didn’t mention the Internet’s perpetual motion machine. I was reminded of that when I reviewed the post … Continue reading →

Posted in media, publishing, web 2.0 | Comments Off on The Internet’s perpetual motion machine

Measuring Web traffic, let me count the ways

Posted on August 1, 2007 by Rakesh Agrawal

Mark Glaser at MediaShift has a great two-part series on measuring Web traffic. It’s well worth reading for publishers, advertisers and anyone else who cares about how traffic is measured. There are a number of different ways firms measure traffic: … Continue reading →

Posted in advertising, media, publishing, statistics | 1 Comment

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 →

Posted in journalism, newspapers, publishing | Comments Off on The troubles with online newspapers

Creating a smarter, more useful RSS reader

Posted on May 8, 2007 by Rakesh Agrawal

After about a month or so of travel, I’m way behind on my blog reading (and writing). On my Google Reader, many of my subscriptions are maxed out at 100+. I’m tempted to just mark them all read and start … Continue reading →

Posted in google, publishing, rss | Comments Off on Creating a smarter, more useful RSS reader

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 →

Posted in journalism, media, newspapers, publishing | Comments Off on WSJ owners get a whopper of an offer