walter isaacson

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How Not to Save Newspapers
The New Cool Media Moguls
Why TED Sucks
Media Bubble: Putting the Jew in "Judith Regan"
Media Bubble: 'RS' Matters, Dammit
Walter Isaacson and AOL/TW
Walter Isaacson transcript
Isaacson leaves CNN

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If_I_Had_a_Poodle
02/05/09

In reply to How Not to Save Newspapers
i'd pay for stuff that was worth reading

but the same old, "republicans are telling obama what to do" when obama won and they lost is worthless in print or online

new model needs to include new content, which has at least glancing contact with reality
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Figaro
02/05/09

In reply to How Not to Save Newspapers
Micropayments don't work. They've never worked and never will. So many startups have tried it and failed.

I bet it has something to do with human psychology... but I can't put my finger on it.
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Smitros
02/05/09

@Figaro:

Perhaps someone could set up a basic account with a line of micropayment options, like texting on cell phones.
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i'm a bottle
02/05/09

In reply to How Not to Save Newspapers
I think they ought to pay the readers five cents for making it through a Maureen Dowd column.
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Smitros
02/05/09

In reply to How Not to Save Newspapers
Maybe an all-issue sponsor is the way to go, like that issue of The New Yorker where all the large display ads were from Target.
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markscottmusic
02/05/09

In reply to How Not to Save Newspapers
I think micro payments are exactly the way NOT to go. You will decrease readership and time on site by making people think before each click "do I really want to pay 3 cents for this story." The beauty of the web (and old fashioned print newspapers and magazines) is that if an article is boring or not what you thought, you move on to another one with nothing lost except the cost of the overall subscription. But if you get burned 10 or 12 times with articles it turns out you didn't want to read but wasted money on anyway, you'll stop going to that site all together. Americans are much happier paying a one-time subscription knowing that during the course of that subscription they will read things that interest them than they are willing to potentially waste money on articles they end up paying for but not wanting to read. Even if the pay-per-story model ends up costing the reader less money, the fact that they may be actively wasting money will be more important to them than passively wasting it.
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LatestBy
02/05/09

@markscottmusic: Exactly. And it will mean that less-important-but-drier stories end up getting read less than "Britney in rehab!", which means that over time everything devolves into US Weekly.
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LatestBy
02/05/09

@LatestBy: That should be "more important".
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MrInBetween
02/05/09

In reply to How Not to Save Newspapers
Outstanding post, Owen. And that fish looks unhappy having Friedman and Dowd gumming up its gills.
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izzyrowlands
02/05/09

In reply to How Not to Save Newspapers
Whatever you say Mr. Thomas, but that is a pretty sweet cover.
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Smitros
02/05/09

@izzyrowlands:

Is that a red snapper in there?
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sample032
02/05/09

@Smitros:

I bet the Times takes the box.
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Smitros
02/05/09

@sample032:

Now that's a find.

I think taking the box has been the prevailing business model at the Times for a while, alas.
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nirreskeya
02/05/09

@Smitros: Should have been a red herring.
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Smitros
02/05/09

@nirreskeya:

Ha!

Or a flounder.
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ifstone
02/05/09

@izzyrowlands: The legend, "A Modest Proposal" does not belong on the cover, and not on that cover.
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