Commentaries
Now raising intellectual capital
from Rolfe Winkler:
Google developing micropayment system for online news
From the San Francisco Business Times (ht J Lit): Google working on painless payments for news
Google’s platform, which should be ready within a year, would simplify the way newspapers and other publishers charge for online content. Some readers have balked at the need to sign in, create an identity and password, and jump other hurdles to access online news at sites that charge money. Google’s idea — based on its existing “Checkout” system — would let people create just one sign in for many different sites and subscriptions.
It would also let publishers combine subscriptions to many different web sites or titles and charge one price for them.
The platform would also allow creation of different levels of search access, from “snippets” to preview pages to complete access.
Tech Links: Phones, more phones and communion wafers
Better luck next year for Android
Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC has warned of a revenue shortfall, saying it has too many new phone models chasing too little revenue. Revenue growth will turn negative in 2009, instead of growing 10 percent, as the company had previously forecast.
Chief Executive Peter Chou says: “Momentum on both the Windows Mobile and Android platforms are also turning out to be weaker than expected.”
from MediaFile:
Most teens find “tweeting” pointless — Morgan Stanley
Taking a break from flogging the latest tired media business model, Morgan Stanley published a short report on Friday entitled, "How Teenagers Consume Media" by 15-year-old summer intern Matthew Robson that offers a frank discussion of what young digital media consumers are up to. The FT has highlighted it on its front page, perhaps as an antidote to wall-to-wall coverage of the annual Sun Valley media moguls conference in recent days.
The most memorable moment in the report is its discussion of the irrelevancy of Twitter to teenagers:
FDIC saves the media
This is a tough time to be in the news business. It’s certainly a lot tougher running a newspaper than a bank–at least the federal government is bailing out some of the really big ones.
But the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., which has had its hands full taking over failing regional banks, is also doing its small part to help out the news media. Over the course of the past year, the FDIC has shelled-out some $7.6 million in media buys and public relations activities as part of its 75th anniversary celebration.
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The Wall
