Comments for Roadies of the C3

Comment on Do what he say! by Paul Nus

Paul Nus — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 17:15:07 +0000

WSJ Fail.

Comment on Hypocritical Sensitivity? by Mike Coleman

Mike Coleman — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 12:53:51 +0000

I almost choked on my coffee this morning reading this: http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1004010569. Mike Tharp, somewhere out in Merced California, touts his status as a veteran as part of his credentials and as part of the basis upon which he made the decision to post and print the photo of LCpl Bernard. Mike Tharp was in the Army in 69-70 and spent his time writing articles for an Army magazine. I’ve found no indication of his war activities beyond that – not a grunt, not a cannon-cocker, not a door gunner, not a medic…apparently not living the life of muck, mire, blood, fear and death like many who were drafted. There is an entire world of difference between a “veteran” and a combat veteran when it comes to being able to talk about war. Those of us that fit the latter category understand that and also understand why Tharp’s decision was just another piece in disrespecting the Bernard family.

It was run for the shock value. Tharp can beg off on advertising v. circulation revenue and can point to below-the-fold, lip-service war coverage, but the photo was just another opportunity to make a splash and sell papers.

Comment on ViewPass just another paywall by Photo flap reinforces my point « Roadies of the C3

Photo flap reinforces my point « Roadies of the C3 — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 12:52:27 +0000

[...] C3 Roadies blog on ViewPass being just another pay wall…nothing more, nothing less (6/9): http://c3it.wordpress.com/2009/06/09/viewpass-just-another-paywall/ [...]

Comment on Retreading the print edition by Mike Coleman

Mike Coleman — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 19:15:00 +0000

I had a nice suprise last Wednesday (17th) from Tom Altman ( http://tomaltman.com/ ). Tecnavia, our current pre-press pagination vendor, announced on 1 April a built-in e-book capability in their service (translation: we can start doing this for no additional cost). After some conversation, I found out they engineered their process using the Mobipocket Creator software. Great idea…too bad I didn’t think of that! Oh, wait…

Anyway, here is a link to their 1 April announcement (1 and 1/2 months after mine hit the wire…)
http://tecnaviapress.mn.newsmemory.com/eebrowser/frame/check.2458/php-script/fullpage.php?pSetup=tecnaviapress&file=0@/tecnaviapress/20090401/newsletter_final_20090401_edition_2_page_1.pdf.0/§ion=Front&edition=Tecnavia%20Newsletter&pageNum=A01

Comment on Toy? Fad? Time and circumstances will tell. by tomaltman

tomaltman — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 05:44:58 +0000

That was basically what I was thinking – if you have not tried to use Twitter search to “feel” what is going on in some of these news stories…it is awesome.

Comment on ViewPass just another paywall by Steve Buttry

Steve Buttry — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 13:15:47 +0000

Mike, I agree wholeheartedly on pay walls, which I have said loudly on my own blog. And Alan Mutter, who’s pushing ViewPass, said explicitly in his blog: “If you suddenly put a pay wall on a website that used to be free, you are bound to lose a substantial amount of traffic representing a considerable amount of potential advertising inventory. Once customers are turned off, it will be awfully hard to get most of them back, especially as plenty of free websites will be glad to welcome them.” He sees ViewPass as having value for premium content (which I see as barely a trickle) and collecting user data (which is important). The reason I see some value is that something like ViewPass, which is easily used on multiple sites, might be tremendously helpful for the transaction-based business model we need to develop. I think it’s worth exploring, with a huge dose of skepticism for the backward-thinking people who will try to use it for paywalls.

Comment on GazComm Tech Team challenge: escape! by tomaltman

tomaltman — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 06:41:39 +0000

I wondered if alfresco was a possible SharePoint replacement candidate – we should also take a look at MindTouch. It’s a wiki, but nothing like you have ever seen before. They are great guys too, and smart – oh yea.

OK – got to go. I have to catch a wave. Right after Springer!

Comment on ViewPass just another paywall by tomaltman

tomaltman — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 06:35:04 +0000

It’s funny, because when I first came into the newspaper business (radio transplant in 2000) I was always told the subscription rate was just enough to cover the distribution of the paper. So, one would conclude we could charge the cost of delivery of a digital product, but the consumer is already paying for that

But Mike, you’re right on – call it ViewPass, Subscription, or a Pineapple. It’s all the magic Kool-Aid.

Comment on ViewPass just another paywall by Steve Ribble

Steve Ribble — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 15:22:25 +0000

It sounds like there is no way to monetize the electronic distribution of information. It also seems that monetizing viewing of the information (advertising), cannot support a large overhead news gathering operation. So, is it possible to monetize the actual gathering of the information? If not, self-chosen cyanide might be mute. We will die of old age.

Comment on Murdoch myopic? by ViewPass just another paywall « Roadies of the C3

ViewPass just another paywall « Roadies of the C3 — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 13:51:04 +0000

[...] would provide long-term encouragment to consumers to fork over their money is so apparent. I won’t repeat myself here, but I will make the prediction that the average consumer will care no more or less about [...]