The Mobile Revolution: Startup Ideas For Changing The World
March 18, 2012
We have entered the mobile era of computing. And just like the previous eras – those of the mainframe, then the client-server and the PC – the mobile era is a fundamental shift with a new set of problems to solve.
The key to the mobile era is that it’s all about delighting and empowering the end user. The end user interacts with technology the way he/she interacts with the world around them. It will be hard for incumbents to embrace this new paradigm, just as it was hard for mainframe-era leaders to dominate the world of PCs, or for PC giants to pivot to embrace the Web. Similar to how Cisco and Polycom pioneered telepresence, but it took Skype to bring videoconferencing to the masses, we believe that a new mobile world order will emerge, with leaders being created by entrepreneurs and disruptors.
Three trends are shaping these opportunities: Bring Your Own Device, Appification, and Cloudification.
Read here to understand more.
New Devices, Platforms Spur More News Consumption, But News Industry Loses Ground to Technology Rivals
A mounting body of evidence finds that the spread of mobile technology is adding to news consumption, strengthening the appeal of traditional news brands and even boosting reading of long-form journalism. But the evidence also shows that technology companies are strengthening their grip on who profits, according to the 2012 State of the News Media report by Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism.
More than a quarter of Americans (27%) now get news on mobile devices, and for the vast majority, this is increasing news consumption, the report finds. More than 80% of smartphone and tablet news consumers still get news on laptop or desktop computers. On mobile devices, news consumers also are more likely to go directly to a news site or use an app, rather than to rely on search — strengthening the bond with traditional news brands.
While technology may be adding to the appeal of traditional news, technology intermediaries are capturing even more of the digital revenue pie. In 2011, five technology giants generated 68% of all digital ad revenue, according to the market research firm eMarketer — and that does not include Amazon and Apple, which make their money from devices and downloads. By 2015, roughly one out of every five display ad dollars is expected to go to Facebook, according to the same source.
Click here to read a full summary of the study’s findings.
Why Apple’s New iPad Will Transform Online Advertising
March 7, 2012
Ever since the debut of the first iPad two years ago, marketers have been jazzed about the potential of tablets as a new advertising platform. Yet to date, revenues from advertising on tablets have been underwhelming, because marketers haven’t yet caught up to a medium that essentially didn’t exist until a year or so ago. Because of the lack of standards that exist both in print and online, says Rex Briggs, CEO of the marketing analytics firm Marketing Evolution, “mobile advertising especially on tablets is not getting its fair share of advertising dollars.”
Today, however, we have the new iPad, due out March 16. And it could change the game. No, the new version isn’t so radically different from its predecessors, so it won’t single-handedly change the dynamics of the nascent market, at least not right away. But several features of this new model likely will help accelerate tablet advertising this year.
Impressions Media acquired by Versa Capital Management
March 5, 2012
Impressions Media announced today that it has been acquired by Versa Capital Management, LLC. Impressions Media operates The Times Leader, several community papers, associated websites and digital media businesses that serve communities in Northeastern Pennsylvania.
Versa Capital Management LLC, which is based in Philadelphia, has diverse investments in manufacturing, food service, and media including the companies Polartec, Bell and Howell, Allen Vanguard, Black Angus Steakhouse chain and Ohio Community Media, which includes newspapers and websites serving communities in northern and western Ohio.
A Harsh Reality for Newspapers
March 5, 2012
Last year, researchers at the Project for Excellence in Journalism persuaded six companies that own 121 newspapers to share private data about the financial performance of many of their papers. And the findings were grim.
On average, for every new dollar the newspapers were earning in new digital advertising revenue, they were losing $7 in print advertising revenue. The papers seemed not to be diversifying their revenue streams or coming up with innovative products at a fast enough clip.
Link here to read more: http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/05/a-harsh-reality-for-newspapers/
Cloud Sherpas/GlobalOne Merger Illustrates Growing Opportunity for New Generation of Cloud Service Providers
March 5, 2012
Today’s news of the merger of Cloud Sherpas and GlobalOne not only adds a major new player to the rapidly growing Cloud consulting world, but also shows that there are plenty of new business opportunities for consulting and other value-added service providers in the Cloud.
For anyone who isn’t familiar with Cloud Sherpas, it is one the largest consultancies focused exclusively on helping organizations adopt Google Apps and was recently named the Google Enterprise 2011 Partner of the Year. GlobalOne has been quietly building a multinational consulting practice focused on salesforce.com, and is a salesforce.com platinum consulting partner.
The Future of Newspapers
A review of Apple’s App Store in May 2011 found more than 200 iPad apps offering local U.S. news content. Fifty-seven percent of newspaper publishers surveyed by the Audit Bureau of Circulations said that they “have plans to develop an iPad app in the next six months.
So far, mobile devices have not proved to be a major source of revenue for news outlets, neither through advertising nor paid applications, but news organizations are still experimenting with different business models.
Conde Nast Taps Brakes on Churning Out iPad Editions | MediaWorks – Advertising Age
Conde Nast is tapping the brakes on its drive to deliver iPad editions of all its magazines, according to company employees, acknowledging that conditions aren’t quite right yet to deliver the ideal app editions at the kind of scale that advertisers want. If publishers want to introduce new iPad editions right now, Conde wants them to be sure they’re justified.
via Conde Nast Taps Brakes on Churning Out iPad Editions | MediaWorks – Advertising Age.
Print ad revenues declined 9.5%
According to the Newspaper Association of America, total print ad revenues declined 9.5% in the first quarter to $4.75 billion, marking the 19th consecutive quarter of declines for newspaper print ad revenues. That compares to an overall 4.4% increase in ad spending across all media, according to Kantar Media, to $32.5 billion — the fifth consecutive quarter to see a year-over-year increase on this broad-based measure.
via MediaPost Publications Gannett: Cuts 700 Positions, CEO, COO Pay Doubled 06/22/2011.
Local Ad Dollars 2010
FWIX is run by Darian Shirazi, a 23-year-old former software engineer, already experienced at Facebook and Ebay. Its main funder, BlueRun Ventures, has put $2.5 million into the company. The goal: tapping into the bonanza of local ad dollars to come, and doing it on the sweat of smarter and smarter filtering technology. That market: $15 billion in local online ad dollars in 2010, as forecast by Borrell Associates; $36.7 billion by 2014 according to Kelsey.
via Content Bridges.
The Future of Print 
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