Market Data

2010

More than just an upgraded e-reader, analysts view the new full-color version of Barnes & Noble's Nook device as a worthy challenger to the iPad and other tablet computers. Unveiled Tuesday, the Nook Color goes beyond displaying printed content with features like a seven-inch touchscreen and the ability to watch video, browse Web sites, check email, and play games.

Those additions help the new Nook carve out a market niche somewhere between Amazon's less expensive, black-and-white Kindle and the more costly iPad. Forrester analyst James McQuivey, who has closely tracked the e-reader race, believes the latest Barnes & Noble device also signals where the entire category is headed.

Full article: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=138466&nid=120152

2010

In its latest move to extend an olive branch to the news industry, Google (NSDQ: GOOG) is donating $5 million to non-profits dedicated to developing “new approaches to journalism in the digital age.” The company says it will be giving $2 million to the Knight Foundation, which will use some of the money to “augment” the Knight News Challenge, which in the past has funded news startups, including Everyblock and Spot.us. The remainder of the cash will be dedicated to unspecified international projects.

Google says in its announcement that it’s making the donations because while in the past it has “mostly focused on working with news organizations to develop better products for users, we also believe it’s crucial to encourage innovation at the grassroots level.” The company harps that “journalism is fundamental to a functioning democracy.”

Full article: http://paidcontent.co.uk/article/419-google-to-give-5-million-to-journalism-non-profits-3-million-outside-us/

2010

The paywall went live on 2 July, at which point an average of 3.1m people were visiting the site each month. In the three months since then, the figure dropped to 1.78m, a 42.6% decline.

Of those 1.78m, 362,000 – a fifth of total visitors – access subscriber-only content. This group includes those who have paid for access, been given access by having a Times newspaper subscription, and those who are on a free trial.

Full article: http://www.nma.co.uk/news/-paywall-paying-off-for-the-times-claims-nielsen/3019712.article

2010

The internet has disrupted both the media and the retail industries. Now, new business models are emerging that blend the two together, offering publishers a much-needed new revenue line.

Media companies now have a chance to monetise their audiences not just through plain ads, but also through transactions. On the flip side, ecommerce companies have begun to create their own content - using articles and videos to provide curated commerce experiences - and to monetise their audience, like publishers before them, by selling ads.
Creative, aspirational markets such as fashion, design or luxury are areas where some of the most interesting business models mixing content and commerce are cropping up. Farfetch and Qype, two of the companies in which we have invested, are two examples. Others include…

Full article: http://paidcontent.co.uk/article/419-why-content-and-commerce-is-a-marriage-made-in-heaven/