Transparent Agenda - Latest Comments

Re: AT&T Uverse App - Finally!

brantgriffin — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 02:50:45 -0000

This application is really cool!!!.. I'm telling you guys should try it.

Re: Time to get in shape

Kelly H. — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 15:56:18 -0000

Nice work, dude! I use Garmin Edge 305 GPS for my mountain bike and a regular wireless bike computer for my road bike. Considering putting it on my road bike, as we got lost last week! -Keep pedaling!
-Kelly H.

Re: Danny MacAskill

ben K — Wed, 13 May 2009 13:05:56 -0000

"More unbelievable" huh? How about "less believable"?
(I know, that's not what you mean... but neither is. I'd go with "remarkable". This type of construct reminds me of when people describe something amazing but very credible as being "incredible"... or something very flammable as "inflammable"...)

But yeah, sweet tricks, and it's a good edit against the music, too.

I hope they properly licensed the song.

Re: Danny MacAskill

Dave — Wed, 13 May 2009 10:00:20 -0000

This is one of the most amazing things I every seen! Talk about perseverance to over come.

Re: Want to save the newspaper industry? Get Jeff Bezos on the phone!

gfurry — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 13:11:50 -0000

I would guess that people that still read the paper in paper form either aren't comfortable with computers or like the portability of reading in paper form. The kindle is also much easier on the eyes than a computer and/or iphone.

There would be no print ads after shutting down the presses. The online ads and print ads would be combined. The people who pay for the paper now would continue to pay for it but they would get it on a kindle. Others I suspect would pay for a subscription to their local paper to get a free kindle. I know I would.

Re: Want to save the newspaper industry? Get Jeff Bezos on the phone!

reality check — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 12:48:36 -0000

Why would you want to pay for news content and a Kindle when you can already get all the news you want for free on the internet via your computer, iPhone, etc? The only people interested in this deal would be those who see another reason to own a Kindle--because they are book readers. And there aren't many of those (according to parapub.com, 80% of Americans did not buy or read a book in 2007). By comparison, Pew Research says 81% of Americans consume news on a daily basis.

Incorporating color and video into the Kindle could change all that. That technology will take a while to arrive still, unfortunately not in time to save most newspapers.

Lastly, the math just doesn't work. Online ad revenues are only 20% of the ad revenues collected from print ads. Cutting all paper, ink, presses, delivery, etc costs does not represent 80% of the budget, so you still have an unsustainable business.

Re: Want to save the newspaper industry? Get Jeff Bezos on the phone!

gfurry — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 16:12:20 -0000

The advertising part is hard but not impossible. See my comment below about how coupons could work. As far as the studies are concerned I don't doubt those but there is a fairly easy way to provide better data.

Have users for the kindle. Have a family of 5? You get your Kindle from the newspaper and they input all your family members. When dad picks up the Kindle he first clicks the dad button and then reads the digital paper. When he passes it off to mom she click the mom button and so on. While this does make it hard to share sections at the breakfast table it would tell you exactly who read what.

Part of the reason for this post is that I see cuts being made to the talent rather than the fluff. If you cut your best talent you get what you deserve. Hopefully by cutting the press and delivery you could afford to keep the talented staff and hire some more vetters for the public submissions.

I would love to discuss this over lunch sometime.

Re: Want to save the newspaper industry? Get Jeff Bezos on the phone!

gfurry — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 16:01:23 -0000

Color will come and the ads and coupons could work electronically. Picture an ad section on the kindle. You could click a checkbox on all the ads you want to see and all the coupons you want to use.

The kindle would email you a page of links to the websites of the various companies or even to the papers own website where the full color ad would be shown. For coupons the selected coupons would appear on a special page that you could easily bring up while at the store so it could be hit with a scanner at the checkout counter.

Re: Want to save the newspaper industry? Get Jeff Bezos on the phone!

Greg Hildebrand — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 15:48:59 -0000

Greg,
There was a recent article on businessinsider.com that printing and delivering the NYT costs twice as much as providing a Kindle to every subscriber. No doubt the physical newspaper is going the way of the buggy whip.
My concern is the news gathering that these papers are providing. It seems that the journalism that once was regarded as the main product that local newspapers provided is being replaced by submitted first hand observations of participants. And as anybody involved in crime will tell you some of the most unreliable evidence is from a single witness. And honestly newspapers have been their worst enemy when it comes to quality journalism, cutting newsroom staff to save operating expenses, relying on this type of submitted copy to fill editorial space.
In my opinion Kurt has a good handle on what is keeping the newspaper industry printing and that is the display ads and inserts. In marketing the number one statistic is how many people see my ad. The newspaper industry has done studies to show that appox. 2.5 people read every printed copy of the paper. And this number goes up with multiple days in the paper. Webstats are a little harder to play this math with. Combine this with the level of sophistication of the local retail merchants, and online sales of ads gets a little more difficult, but it is starting to change. People are beginning to realize that marketing next to local content on the World Wide Web is still marketing to local consumers.
If you are ever in Plymouth stop by the newspaper, perhaps we can discuss this over lunch.

Re: Want to save the newspaper industry? Get Jeff Bezos on the phone!

Kurt Knippel — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 14:35:29 -0000

That is an excellent idea. The physical news paper is a relic of the past and should be done away with. So much more could be done via the electronic delivery. Sadly the #1 revenue stream of the newspaper is selling ad space. The #1 worst competency of the old media is web design. They would first have to translate how the ad sales paradigm works on the Kindle....no more full color, no more inserts. Its great for the reader of course and for the environment.

Re: Gift Guide Day 7 iStik

kelly h. — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 20:19:31 -0000

Nice one! Did someone at BLASToutdoors pitch you? -we've got like 50 of them here in the office in SanFrancisco (they are a client). .....let me know if you want one (because Santa didn't get you one!)

Re: Where can I get a mypod?

Christo — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 22:36:08 -0000

LOL - hysterical.

Re: Google Mobile app

David Rock — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 01:49:27 -0000

Google already has launched voice search for iPhone but the location search for iPhone I knew here 1st time. It is good news for iPhone.

Re: Will Peter Schiff continue to be right?

Chris V — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 15:42:20 -0000

I believed him a year ago when I read his book "How to profit from the coming Economic collapse"

Moved assets to non-us currency based investments and avoided the largest part of the market melt.

He is right and will be "RIGHTER" as this catastrophe continues to unfold.

Re: Will Peter Schiff continue to be right?

kelly — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 15:23:18 -0000

whew, i hope not, but it sounds like he knows what he's talking about!

Re: How Not to right a semi

Christo — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 02:23:00 -0000

LOL - now that was funny.

Re: Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3 Review

zona — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 11:22:33 -0000

here is alink to all the panasoniz lx3 reviews on the web and some sample images, you may want to look at..

http://photolectic.com/database/panasonic-revie...

Re: Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3 Review

kelly h. — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 14:58:08 -0000

good post.....ordering one now..!

Re: Cool Nike Soccer commercial

kelly h. — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 10:38:01 -0000

wow....wicked.

Re: Ubiquity from Mozilla Labs

Christo — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 08:52:19 -0000

Interesting - I like it!

Re: eX BizTracker, Version 2.0!

gfurry — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 15:55:25 -0000

test comment