paid content | Internet Marketing Blog

Should publishers sell tablets?

When Apple announced the iPad, many executives in the publishing industry voiced high hopes for the tablet device. "This could be the technology that helps us capitalize on digital," they effectively said in one way or another.

Of course, today we know that the iPad isn't a panacea for traditional publishers. That, of course, doesn't mean that tablet devices aren't important to them, or that they should abandon all hope.

But how much hope is too much hope?

by Patricio Robles 12 July 2011 15:50pm 1 comment

Does Slovakia hold the secret to paywall success?

Here's a question most publishers would love to have an answer to: what's the secret to building a successful pay wall?

Although one might expect major publishers like the New York Times to eventually provide the answer, newspapers in Slovakia may have beat their Western counterparts to the task.

by Patricio Robles 06 July 2011 15:39pm 4 comments

Can ad-supported hardware trump ad-supported content?

When it comes to online content, consumers by and large prefer to pay for it in attention rather than currency. As a result, it's no surprise that far more publishers have built successful ad-based business models than paid content business models.

Advertising, of course, usually isn't a path to easy money for publishers. Yes, advertisers love the internet, but digital still accounts for a minority of total ad spending, and advertisers generally pay less for digital ads than traditional ads.

by Patricio Robles 05 July 2011 16:00pm 1 comment

Five big mistakes made by publishers

Publishing may be a tough business all around these days, but thanks to the internet, there are more publishers than ever.

Many of them won't survive, of course. And the ones that die won't just be traditional publishers that fail to adapt to the internet; there are plenty of digital publishers making potentially fatal mistakes too.

by Patricio Robles 28 June 2011 16:02pm 3 comments

Number of U.S. tablet owners to double by early 2012: report

Despite the hype, tablets are still most accurately described as a 'niche' market. But that market is expected to grow really, really fast.

That's according to a study (PDF) conducted by the Online Publishers Association (OPA) and Frank N. Magid Associates, which sees 54m Americans owning or using tablets by early 2012, up from 28m today.

by Patricio Robles 23 June 2011 16:43pm 1 comment

NY Post: dumbest iPad strategy ever?

The iPad is a source of hope for many traditional publishers. Which explains why publishing moguls like Rupert Murdoch are investing lots of time and money into the tablet device.

But not all iPad strategies are created equal, and one of Murdoch's newspapers, the New York Post, may have the dubious distinction of executing the dumbest iPad strategy yet.

That strategy: in an effort to get readers to pony up for the newspaper's $6.99/month app, block the Safari browser on the iPad from accessing content on the nypost.com website, content that's freely available via any other browser.

by Patricio Robles 20 June 2011 16:43pm 2 comments

Newspaper circulation declines, even with free copies

Newspapers need help anywhere they can get it, and the Audit Bureau of Circulations is trying to help. Recently, it updated the rules it uses to calculate newspaper circulation.

One of the changes: free copies given to local schools and newspaper employees are now counted.

That should help, right? Apparently, it's not that easy. Despite the Audit Bureau of Circulations' good intentions, newspaper circulation in the U.S. continues to decline.

by Patricio Robles 04 May 2011 14:28pm 4 comments

Forget the pay wall: introducing the like wall

Faced with the reality that viable businesses require revenue, more and more newspapers and magazines are erecting pay walls on their websites.

But paid content isn't a panacea, and it's far easier -- and more comfortable -- to erect a pay fence. Case in point: the New York Times, whose new pay wall features enough holes to fit a truck through.

by Patricio Robles 20 April 2011 14:52pm 18 comments

Spotify's new freemium: a little less 'free'

The internet has popularized the freemium model like no other channel, but building a successful business on this model can be quite a challenge.

One company that has succeeded: Spotify, the Swedish company that has become Europe's most popular music streaming service.

by Patricio Robles 15 April 2011 10:09am 2 comments

Google launches in-app payments for Android

Google has accomplished a lot in the mobile space thanks to its mobile operating system, Android, but when it comes to building a platform that developers want to develop for, Android still lags behind Apple.

Unlike Google, Apple has thrived at building an ecosystem in which consumers not only use applications, but purchase them.

by Patricio Robles 31 March 2011 12:07pm 1 comment