Category: Business

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Business

Notes from last night’s product managment class

Last night’s Product Management class covered two important business areas: Business development (Guest lecturer to remain anonymous) and “Tips for success in growing revenues” – Guest Lecturer: Steve Tennant. I’ll put up tennant’s slides when/if they become available. The BD talk was from an individual from a big company with a lot of paranoia any time any of their people talk, I appreciated the chance to learn.

A couple of metaobservations. In a case study, one observation was that advertisers just won’t advertise against user-generated media. There is too much concern over potential porn, infringement and old-fashioned crappiness, making many UGD projects unprofitable, despite guarantees you put in place. Hardly news: i remember randy Farmer mentioning this being a problem back in his palace days. Interesting that with the prevalence of UGC it still hasn’t been solved though.

Secondly, it was pointed out that 99% of your end users will watch the work of the 1% who will actually make content with any tool you offer, which means you have got to make certain that you have enough traffic that 1% of that 1% will actually be cool enough to attract an audience (Don’t forget Sturgeon’s law!), or the whole thing is unprofitable.

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Business, Words

The News Business

Out of Print in The New Yorker

Three centuries after the appearance of Franklin’s Courant, it
no longer requires a dystopic imagination to wonder who will have the
dubious distinction of publishing America’s last genuine newspaper. Few
believe that newspapers in their current printed form will survive.
Newspaper companies are losing advertisers, readers, market value, and,
in some cases, their sense of mission at a pace that would have been
barely imaginable just four years ago. Bill Keller, the executive
editor of the Times, said recently in a speech in London, “At
places where editors and publishers gather, the mood these days is
funereal. Editors ask one another, ‘How are you?,’ in that sober tone
one employs with friends who have just emerged from rehab or a messy
divorce.” Keller’s speech appeared on the Web site of its sponsor, the Guardian, under the headline “NOT DEAD YET.”

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Business, Words

Tell Me a Story

Truth, naked and cold, had been turned away from every door in the village. Her nakedness frightened the […]

Business

Don’t Listen to Your Users

via IT conversations Malcolm explores why we can’t trust people’s opinions — because we don’t have the language […]

Business

Brand

“A brand is the sum of the good, the bad, the ugly and the off-strategy. It is your […]

Business, Tech

Damn Spam

The New Yorker’s Annals of Technology “If you used to have to send fifty thousand pieces of spam […]

Business, Social, Tech

Graphing social

At Graphing Social, a facebook conference. I’m doing the biz track, Jim the tech track. Lee Lorenzen is […]