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Short reads on a Saturday morning:
• The week was dominated by news from the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona: from the announcement of the Wholesale Application Community, to the reentry of Microsoft with their preview of Windows Phone 7. But despite the many new products and operating systems, the emphasis going forward will continue to be developing for the iPhone and Android mobile phones, and the new tablets such as Apple's iPad.
• New Reed Elsevier CEO Erik Engstrom confirmed the company's continued exit from the B2B market, while at the same time reporting lower revenue and profit numbers. The presentation revealed that Reed will exit the controlled circulation business (most of RBI) while stating that they will hang onto Variety and the entertainment division, as well as Reed Construction Data and Buyers Zone lead generation business.
• College new media provider, CoPress, announced it was closing down operations. The organization was active in assisting college publications go online, specializing in WordPress solutions.
• The BBC announced it would finally launch iPhone applications for news and sports some time in April. The UK based Newspaper Publishers Association didn't wait long to complain about the move, accusing the BBC of muscling "into a nascent market and trample over the aspirations of commercial news providers.” The BBC most likely tell the NPA to stick it.
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Week in Review
Friday, February 19, 2010
Photoblogging Friday - 7
This week's Photoblogging Friday edition features an interview Dean Brierly conducted last year with famed photography George Zimbel, who was kind enough to let TNM crosspost a large segment of it. The entire interview can be found on Brierly's site, Photographers Speak.
The year was 1954. The place was New York City. The time was round about midnight. George Zimbel was a 25-year-old stringer for the PIX photo agency when he was handed the opportunity to cover the decade’s reigning sex symbol, Marilyn Monroe, filming the famous subway-grille scene in The Seven Year Itch. Zimbel and the other photographers in attendance were allowed to make like paparazzi while the actress performed some warm-up poses before director Billy Wilder finally called “Action!” Zimbel reaped a rich harvest of images that night, capturing Monroe’s powerful sexual charisma along with her vulnerability and, perhaps more revealing, self-conscious manipulation of her public image. (He also caught Monroe’s soon-to-be-ex-husband Joe DiMaggio leaving in a huff over his wife’s overt display of exhibitionism.) The Monroe photo-essay is but one of many in Zimbel’s long and illustrious career as a documentary photographer—all of them imbued with honesty, compassion and respect for his subjects—but he recalls that night with Marilyn fondly and with cinematic clarity.
☜ The Flower
(© George Zimbel 1954/2009)
The biography on your website reveals when you became a photographer, but not why.
When I was 14 my uncle Barney asked me to print his 1930s negatives of Europe. I started it as a paid job using our kitchen as a darkroom at night. I ended with the feeling that I wanted to take pictures of interesting people and places for the rest of my life. I have.
Why did you turn to documentary photography rather than portraiture, landscape or another genre?
I have always been interested in what is happening around me instead of “creating” something. I find it more interesting.
You’ve written that collectors should ask themselves if photography is about ideas or feelings. Did you ask yourself those kinds of questions when you were starting out?
I did not ask myself many questions. I knew I had to know about a lot of things and this would enable me to work more intelligently, but I never let ideas overwhelm the instant. Ideas helped me get to the instant. Today, I think it is about feelings. I think it is about sharing your vision of the here and now with the future.
Have you tried to express certain themes or ideas in your photographs?
I don’t think I have tried to express themes or ideas, but what comes out is my interest in this world. That has been very upbeat, but now I don’t have that view and I am having an internal battle over how I see.
All of your work exhibits a sincere respect for your subjects. This is very much in keeping with the credo of the New York Photo League, which you reference as a big influence on your artistic development. Can you briefly describe the extent of your relationship with the League beyond a course you took with John Ebstel?
Well, John Ebstel brought the honest man out of me photographically, and that man is compassionate and respectful of his subjects, which is a hallmark of the Photo League philosophy. Respect is not a valuable commodity these days, exploitation is more popular, but that is who I am.
Mobile strategy: despite new product introductions and media hype, all roads still lead through Apple and Google
The recent Mobile World Congress in Barcelona may have been one of the most covered technology events in recent history. Product and system introductions by Samsung, Microsoft and others have been all over the web media world, with each new introduction getting its pans and raves.
In the end, however, not much has changed for publishers.
Before MWC, Apple's iPad and Google's Android platform appeared to be the path forward for media firms moving into mobile. And it still is.
Microsoft is still a giant, and its Windows Phone 7 received its share of positive press. But in the end it might as well have been vapor ware. The new OS is not expected to appear on phones until the holiday season. Worse yet, the SDK (software development kit) is not available and not expected for a while. So since developers can not create product for the phone for a while why should publishers worry about it? They shouldn't, there are plenty of other devices to design for.
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Constructing the Great Paywall: TBI Research study claims that it may not pay off for newspaper publishers
Greg Mitchell today called attention to this new survey conducted by TBI Research that concludes paywalls just won't work.
(Mitchell is not a big fan of paywalls. I am trying to keep an open mind on the subject. I am a strong believer that if the information you are publishing can be directly tied to income or profit -- like the WSJ or other investment news -- then a paywall makes sense. In just about all other cases I am a skeptic.)
Rory Maher, writing on the TBI Research web site, states that newspapers in small markets are in the best position to utilize a paywall system. On the other hand, in larger markets, the paywall's effect on traffic would result in more lost revenue in advertising than would be gained from subscribers.
The study also claims that mobile "could be the driver that makes the paywall model achievable (but we're likely years away from usage levels making mobile material)." I would add that if you include tablet publishing in this category, then I could see where a subscription paywall, or charging for an app, could produce enough revenue to justify the practice. (See this recent story concerning turf wars over pricing for the new NYT iPad application.)
The study also concludes that "every executive we spoke with believes there is more potential for newspapers in mobile phones than PCs. The executives were particularly excited about downloadable apps." They look for newspapers to move away from free phones app towards a paid model. Interestingly, the Times offers a free iPhone app, but plans to erect a paywall online, while The Guardian charges $3.99 for its iPhone app. The Guardian's Alan Rusbridger has also come out strongly against paywalls online.
I side with Rusbridger, on this: charging for mobile makes sense -- assuming the charge is a one-time only fee for an application. On the other hand, I believe a subscription might just work on tablets and readers, as long as the fee is lower than the print price.
UK newspaper association begs BBC to back off iPhone app efforts; apparently UK papers can not compete
Stop me from laughing now!
The UK based Newspaper Publishers Association (NPA) has complained in an e-mailed statement that the BBC's plans to launch iPhone apps for news and sports will "undermine the commercial sector’s ability to establish an economic model in an emerging but potentially important market."
Apparently the NPA, which is clearly very interested in New Media judged by the fact that the last press release to be found on its site is dated 2001, thinks the Beeb is just too powerful for its members to deal with.
☜ UK Newspaper Publishers Group fears a BBC iPhone app would be unfair competition to its members.
"The BBC is preparing to muscle into a nascent market and trample over the aspirations of commercial news providers,” said David Newell, director of the NPA. "At a time when the BBC is facing unprecedented levels of criticism over its expansion, and when the wider industry is investing in new models, it is extremely disappointing that the corporation plans to launch services that would throw into serious doubt the commercial sector’s ability to make a return on its investment, and therefore its ability to support quality journalism,” Newell is reported to have said.
"The development of apps for a niche market does not sit comfortably with the BBC’s mission to broadcast its content to a wide, general audience. In other words, this is not about reach, and we believe the BBC’s efforts - and the considerable investment - would be better directed elsewhere," the e-mail statement read.
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