Two subscription sites and two free sites are in the black (some barely).
The Financial Times is reporting that FT.com is on target to make money in the fourth quarter. Meanwhile Consumer Reports has signed its one-millionth subscriber.
New York Times Digital’s revenues increased 26.8% to $18.2 million in the third quarter. The company said this was the fifth consecutive quarter of operating profits.. Knight-Ridder digital is also “on track” to break even in the fourth quarter, although it will lose $9 million to $10 million for the year.
It’s notable that both paid sites are premised on making or saving money and the two successful free sites are general news sites.
Handheld market to rise from the dead
Handheld sales will grow 18% over the next five years, according to In-Stat/MDR, and are poised to grow the fastest next year.
Their theory is that speed, better form factors, and Internet connectivity will breathe new life into what has been the moribund personal organizer segment. Palm’s lack of innovation and Microsoft’s unappealing offerings have pretty much stifled the demand.
Maybe, maybe not. It’s hard to believe that we won’t have handheld computers at some point, but no one knows how we’ll get there. Meanwhile, the wireless carriers are a huge barrier to innovation in this segment.
In the meantime, start prepping your templates and CMS to deliver information to multiple platforms.
False pessimism, child of false optimism
Optimism is scarce at this year’s Agenda conference. The NYT story raises the question of whether the high-tech sector is a mature business. I guess that depends on the segment. PC’s and workstations are mature. Operating systems and application software are mature. Processors are mature. Networking and telecom equipment are in a depression right now, but are far from mature. Internet software is nowhere near mature and now might be the right time to re-examine this segment.
The story concludes with a killer quote that encapsulates the real problem:
“We’re in a real technology gridlock,” said Peter Schwartz, co-founder and chairman of the Global Business Network, a consulting group based in Emeryville, Calif. “All of the entrenched industries are attempting to protect their positions so that in broadband, digital television and digital distribution of content, we’re stuck.”
…and the legislative and executive branches of the government are further entrenching these interests under the banner of sparking growth — having exactly the opposite effect of what they claim they’re trying to do.
There's nothing surer…
People with household incomes over $100,000 are the fastest growing group on the Net, according to a report from Nielsen/Netratings. This is surprising, because the penetration of that group was always high. Among those making less than $50,000, usage growth was less than 5%.
Because the growth rate is for individuals using the net, this may be the result of increasing use of shared broadband connections and multiple computers in the home.
DoubleClick's interest in advertising sinks with market
DoubleClick is still hurting. DoubleClick’s third-quarter revenues are down 1.4% from previous quarter and 20% from last year.
DoubleClick is de-emphasizing its ad-serving business in favor of data services, email marketing, and marketing software.
They have apparently given up on trying to lead the unfashionable Internet advertising industry, except for their alliance with Macromedia to make the Web more annoying by increasing the amount of Flash advertising.
AOL discovers the nose on its face, stops cutting it off
AOL is rediscovering its members, according to this AP story on CNN. I remember at the beginning of the merger, when AOL/TW was touted as a merger of subscription powerhouses, from online, to cable, to HBO, to magazines.
What they’re also rediscovering is that when people pay for something, they expect a certain degree of service and don’t expect to be whored out to advertisers, who are only paying a fraction of what subscribers are putting up.
'Without Advertising, We Will Damage This Country'
According to Turner president (and thus an AOL/TW exec) Jamie Kellner:
“I’m not against PVRs [personal video recorders, i.e. “Tivo”], I’ve used it (sic) myself. But, the business cannot exist as its current model is today unless consumers are willing to give time for you [marketers]. I believe advertising has driven this country. Without advertising, we will damage this country.”
Two things leap out from this:
First, Mr. Kellner believes that once a “business model’ has been created, it shouldn’t be threatened. Perhaps it should be protected by law, especially if disturbing it might damage the nation in this time of war.
Second, he believes that the nation depends on advertising for its well-being. That beggars belief. It’s reminiscent of the current mindset in Washington that the best way to deliver health information to Americans is to rely on drug company (and packaged goods) advertising to do it.
AOL's big lie
There’s an outstanding review of how AOL got itself into trouble over online advertising revenues over at the NYT. Highlights:
- Overreliance in cross-promotions with other AOL/TW properties. (“Synergy”)
- Advertising revenue from customers and suppliers that was clearly disguised in the purchase price of other goods and services. (“Partnership”)
- Having to deliver on Steve Case’s and Gerald Levin’s promise of 30% revenue growth in a dying market. (“Partying like it’s 1999”)
- Claiming that they could grow business that included tens of millions in one-time payments from failing companies trying to get out of ad contracts. (“Fraud”)
I never thought much of AOL as a company, but I’m staggered by what a house of cards it turned out to be.
MediaSavvy update
I’ve made a couple of changes to MediaSavvy. I didn’t find the previous topical organization to be helpful, so I’m organizing by the type of information. I’ve reclassified all the postings as Analysis, News, Research, or Links. This is more tightly coupled to my mission: “Daily analysis of Internet media news and research”. I was happy to do away with date-based archives. But unless I can break my category archives into pages, I may have to add them back in the near future.
I can now use Moveable Type’s database to organize my link library, which is something I’ve been wanting to do for a while, but was uncertain what was the best way to do it. You’ll start seeing links on MediaSavvy soon.
Finally, I’ve integrated the search feature that comes with MT 2.5 into MediaSavvy. This was becoming a necessity as the number of entries grew.
I’m more impressed than ever with Moveable Type. I don’t think I could do what I’m doing with MediaSavvy with any other tool that I’ve tried. The more I use it, the more depth I find, rather than limitations. That’s what makes it such a great platform for publishing.
More on Arts & Letters Daily
Arts & Letters Daily was the victim of its parent company’s finances, according to this story from the Chicago Tribune. It’s more evidence that consolidation of media, and the purchase of content by non-media companies, probably isn’t in anyone’s interest. [Thanks to Emedia Tidbits]