June 2012
“Congressional staffers asked company officials at the time about rumors that...”
– World War 3.0
“The War for the Internet was inevitable—a time bomb built into its creation. The...”
– World War 3.0
“Freemium requires a business to maintain two value propositions with a...”
– The Anatomy of Profitable Freemium
Will the wires survive?
Andrew: You think the wires will survive? 2:11 PM
Me: As in the current companies, or the idea of centralized information gathering as b2b? 2:29 PM
Andrew: Well, both, I suppose 2:32 PM
Me: Bloomberg has a shot – their customers are finance not journo. Reuters is doing interesting things with staffing, becoming a destination, and "new media" AP is doomed. So are most others. 2:36 PM
Me: centralized information gathering as a B2B model will likely continue, but not in it's current form. 1) twitter, et al, eats their lunch. Wires need to get very, very specialized and easier to filter. See: bloomberg 2:39 PM
Me: 2) information has become more commoditized. Getting it right, and fast is meaningless when man-with-smartphone beats them 50% of the time. The quantity of wires needs to go down, or specialization needs to increase. See: bloomberg terminals 2:40 PM
Me: 3) staffing needs to get sorted. Full time salaries for world-wide locations are a needless expense. Much better to have a network of specialized freelancers who work for several interests. 2:41 PM
Me: 4) the current institutions are largely professionals that strive for professionalism. This really means that they are old-boys clubs that spend a lot of money on gear. The Arab spring has, in part, shown us that cheap and good-enough are nearly as effective. 2:43 PM
Me: 5) the major problem wires were created to solve were speed of information flow, and gathering of disparate information. Speed (with some exception [Bloomberg terminals] is a solved problem), quantity of information is a solved problem. What's needed are good filters – that's new for wires (see: what AP doesn't do). 2:45 PM
Me: IHMO. Why?
“Other Justices show no such deference — in fact, they appear to think any...”
– Behind Stephen Colbert’s fascination with Super PACs, c4s and ‘independent’ expenditures 