Can Apple Save Newspapers?

By Mark Evans in Apple/iPod, Media 11 Comments Tags: , , , ,

(Update: The Guardian has a story that the Financial Times will introduce a pay-per-view model next summer, while looking at whether any FT.com should be free.)

With Apple apparently scrambling to introduce a tablet computer by early next year, a bigger issue to consider is whether Apple can save the newspaper business much like it has come to the rescue of the music industry.

For years, newspapers have done a terrible job of embracing the Web and reconfiguring their business structures to the new economic, advertising and readership landscape.

Even as dozens of newspapers close or became Web-only entities with skeleton staffs, the industry still hasn’t figure out how to be vibrant and viable. For many newspapers, their only salvation will be charging for online content – something Rupert Murdoch intends to introduce next summer.

So where does Apple fits into the mix, and why could it save newspapers from themselves?

Before Apple launched iTunes, the music industry was flailing to deal with the growth of P2P and the fact consumers didn’t want to pay $20 for a CD with one or two good songs.

Apple and Steve Jobs corralled the music labels by convincing them there was a better way by giving consumers a user-friendly online music-buying service. Begrudgingly, the labels agreed with Jobs’ vision, and the rest is history.

For newspapers, the Apple Tablet has the potential to provide a new, user-friendly model to reach consumers, including younger consumers who don’t read newspapers any more.

With Wi-Fi/3G access, a large screen (10″?) and Apple’s design brilliance, Apple could roll out an iNewspaper service that was either subscription-based or ad-supported.

With hardware design to read content, the Apple Tablet would give newspapers an exciting new platform to deliver content when and where consumers wanted it.

With Apple’s support, newspapers would have a solid economic model as a key element of the iNewspaper service as opposed to trying a wide variety of different models.

The iNewspaper service would be easy to use, intuitive and compelling, which would encourage consumers to maybe even pay for content.

What do you think? Can Apple save the newspaper business to the same degree it has helped the music industry?


Classic (And Evil) Twitter Spam

By Mark Evans in Social Media 2 Comments Tags: , ,

There’s been so much talk about Twitter spam recently that it’s hard to feel the spammers are trying to take control.

Here’s a classic example of sneaky spam – the kind of spam that is frustrating because it doesn’t come across as spam.


At first glance, it looks legit because who wouldn’t be interested in an evaluation of social media monitoring tools. (Note: In hindsight, the numbers within the username were a dead giveaway for a spammer.)

If you click on the link, it opens this page, an ad for Social Blaster, which is a for-sale tool to manage multiple accounts on a variety of social media networks and sell more stuff.

(No link for you, Social Blaster!)


Spammers like this one are going to ruin the Twitter party is we’re not careful. Maybe it’s time for Twitter is really go after the spammers.

More: If you’re interested in how to reduce Twitter spam, check out this post I did on Twitterrati, which features a variety of services.


Where Are the Comment Search Engines?

By Mark Evans in Blogs 13 Comments Tags: , , , , ,

There seems to be no lack of entrepreneurs willing to take a crack at developing a new search engine – even if it means going to head to head with Google. Whether it’s Wolfram Alpha, Bing, Cuil or Blekko, there is no lack of search start-ups.

What’s puzzling about this search landscape is the lack of start-ups focused on blog comments. Sure, there’s BackType but it seems to be a lonely voice in the woods. In doing some research on comment search engines, it’s surprising to see so few options.

The question is why the dearth of comment search engines when there are dozens of general search engines, search engines focused on verticals such as travel, and search engines for Twitter?

Sure, there are social media monitoring and analytics services such as Sysomos that can show blog comments but there doesn’t appear to be search engines that simply focus on comments.

Is this an opportunity waiting for someone to capture, or are comments not interesting enough to warrant someone developing a search engine?

Who knows, it may be there’s no viable business model around comment search. But you still have to believe that in this you-can-build-it-so-built-it online landscape that now exists, there’s a smart person who would be willing to build a kick-ass comment search engine just for fun.

More: Speaking of comments, Mitch Joel has a post looking at whether or not comments should be offered as an option on a blog.


The Business of Bit.ly

By Mark Evans in Social Media 3 Comments Tags: , ,

In the past couple of weeks, I have become an enthusiastic user of Bit.ly – after a long and fairly healthy relationship with tinyurl.com. I like Bit.ly for a couple of reasons: It’s easy to post updates to Twitter using a browser toolbar or a widget such as Shareaholic; and the statistics showing the number of clicks on the linked created is interesting, although I think the data could be displayed a much more user-friendly way.

The question facing Bit.ly, its URL-shortening peers (and many other online services) is how to make money. In a paidContent post, Tameka Kee talks about how Bit.ly could launch a premium analytics services for businesses looking for more information, which makes a lot of sense.

bit.ly has also talked about launching a news service, tracking breaking and popular stories. This strikes me as a service rather than a business given the free competition out there.

No doubt, Bit.ly has a huge opportunity given it’s popularity (and a sweet partnership with Twitter), which saw the number of unique visitors climb 40% last month to 4.2 million, compared with 5.7 million for tinyurl.com.

bit.ly, which began as a project at Betaworks, has an investor group that includes O’Reilly Alpha Tech Ventures, Social Leverage, The Accelerator Group, SoftTech VC, Ron Conway, Josh Stylman, Pete Hershberg, David Shen Ventures, Jeff Clavier, Mitch Kapor, Howard Lindzon, Chris Sacca, and Founders Fund (Dave McClur


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