Google to Identify Content Searches for Publishers
Complicating Demand Media, Yahoo!/Associated Content and potentially Aol/Seed’s algorithms and content milling plans, Google has a patent in play to harvest users’ searches for publishers.
Via FT: Google obtained a patent this year for a system that would help it identify “inadequate content” on the internet, based on comparisons of what people search for and what they find, executives who have reviewed the filing, said. The filing said data from the Google system could be sold to online publishers or given away for free[.]
Welcome to Content Farmville!
If the social or virtual goods market is exploding, expect it to also affect content online. Find a way to commoditize virtual content. So forget the Zygna virtual goodsvilles for a second, and start seeing 2010 as the year of ubiquitous “content farming” – where all of the serious digital publishers start long-term planning. Writers and journalists will be told by their editors to create articles that – unless tabloid topical in nature – hold future or lifetime value. I.e., articles that stand the test of time, they don’t rest after a week, but gain continued readings culminating in a heady 50,000 and up read count. Writers will be paid on ultimates: initial viewings, repeat viewings, sharing via social outlets,
The value of these lifetime posts? Well, to a Demand Media/Studios, AOL, Mahalo or similar, it’s a matter of quality (and quantity), think of it as quality based on what people are organically searching on Google, and quantity in terms of creating enough of a base of content that the YouTube’s of the world treat you as regulars. As YouTube’s video search is becoming a natural extension of text search, the ability to create posts in text and video is rapidly changing the landscape of content consumption. Users will start with the 10-step best of written articles, then graduate to video tutorials leading eventually to the user referring the post to others, include religious comment reading and the potential original user comment.
Sites like Huffington Post, the Gawker Network and other blog networks (blog nets) have been built on aggregated editorials – e.g., taking original posts from other relatively well funded or traditional media outlets and adding a little personal spin. That approach, while it’s worked out to a recent $300M valuation for Gawker’s templated Movable Type-hacked sites, may be changing as advertisers and publishers start jumping on the long tailed horse. Read more >>
The Ten Spot: Nov 30, 2009
via The Media Equation – For Media, a Sunset Is Followed Quickly by a Sunrise – NYT
For those of us who work in Manhattan media, it means that a life of occasional excess and prerogative has been replaced by a drum beat of goodbye speeches with sheet cakes and cheap sparkling wine. It’s a wan reminder that all reigns are temporary, that the court of self-appointed media royalty was serving at the pleasure of an advertising economy that itself was built on inefficiency and excess. Google fixed that.
via The $20m Actor…Who Needs ‘Em? | ZDONK
I like to think of it like this: Every time a studio green lights a movie for production, it’s like they’re investing in a company. Some companies are run by charismatic leaders who are proven winners ($20 million actors), but if that company’s agenda and business model (script) are weak, then it doesn’t matter who the CEO is. I have to imagine that every Fortune 500 company started out with a great concept, not some name brand face.
via Spotify CEO Confident For 2010 U.S. Launch
“Subscription doesn’t work on its own because that’s been proven for 10 years as well,” Ek continued. “But the combination of an ad pricing model and a subscription model does. So far, in terms of Spotify, we haven’t actually spent any money at all on marketing. But what we have done is that we have taken a lot of people in using the free service, they start using the free service and they find attractive options such as becoming a paid user because they wanted to have [the service] on their mobile phone or they wanted to have higher volume quality… and they’ve done so now at the scale where we can say that we’re the biggest subscription service in Europe.” Read more >>
New Medici: Media “Ten Spot”
Deadline / #1 ‘Paranormal Activity’ Scares Away Weekend Rivals
[Nikki Finke] can report that, as it expands for next Halloween weekend, the studio is starting to think the thriller has a shot at $100M. Which would make this the most profitable pic in modern Paramount history. After all, the project was acquired for a mere $300K, and the studio spent under $10M total on prints and advertising, “so this will be the best return Paramount has ever had,” an insider tells me. Amazing, since Paramount had been playing the movie mostly at midnight shows and in just a 100 or so dates. Then again, the hype has been so successful — right down to the claim that Steven Spielberg screened it and returned it in a trash bag.
Circle of Eight tells the story of a young woman who moves into an historic building, The Dante, where she encounters an assortment of neighbors harboring a mysterious secret that unravels in a chain of deaths and supernatural interactions. Multiple levels of interactive content enhance the audience’s connection with Circle of Eight, including hidden clues, an online and mobile game, and exclusive material that can be unlocked through game play.
Viewers can tune into MySpace at www.myspace.com/circleof8 now to watch the first three episodes of the series. Following the online run on MySpace, Circle of Eight will be available for rent exclusively at participating BLOCKBUSTER® stores, as well as by mail and through BLOCKBUSTER On Demand®. The full-length film will have additional scenes and a surprise alternate ending.
FT.com / UK – Hollywood told to rewrite script
Mr Iger advocates a thorough re-examination of costs associated with marketing and film production. The solution, he said, required “research and development, risk-taking . . . real focus on changing the status quo”. Next month Disney plans to unveil Keychest, a new technology that will allow digital copies of films to be stored remotely and then viewed and moved across several platforms, such as smartphones, or games consoles such as Microsoft’s Xbox.
Yahoo! News / Disney CEO calls for rethink of movie model
Iger advocated a fundamental rethink of the costs associated with movie production and marketing. Disney’s movies studios, which account for about 15 percent of the media conglomerate’s revenue, suffered a 12 percent fall in sales in the quarter to June 27 and swung to an operating loss of $12 million.
Broadcasting & Cable / Rupert’s Main Man: Q&A With News Corp.’s Chase Carey
[Chase Carey] I think cable networks are a great business; they have a lot of room to grow. The areas that would be at the top of the list would be international, which is a place to which we bring a unique set of strengths. In some ways, the international market is uniquely appealing. You always want to be an opportunist with the content businesses. There are ways to really expand that content portfolio. If I look at our cable group, it’s not where I’d like it to be today. I look at Discovery, it’s a road map of where I’d like to be.
NYTimes / Eisner’s Web Video Studio, Vuguru, to Emerge With Backing
Bolstered by an investment from Rogers Communications, one of Canada’s largest media companies, the budding new-media mogul Michael Eisner is expanding his Web video studio.
Mr. Eisner [...] intended to increase production of the programming that he started financing two and a half years ago. Under a dozen series have been released by Vuguru to date, but he would like the company years from now to be producing 30 series a year. “The most important thing is volume, honestly,” he said. Mr. Eisner said he expected Vuguru to generate 10 to 12 series in 2010, gradually building up to the goal of 30 a year. Read more >>
Tim Armstrong Leaves Google to Innovate AOL
Breaking: The portal days are a-changing … again. Tim Armstrong, President of Google Sales, is now Chairman and CEO of AOL, a Time Warner company. With some younger and less traditional (cable) media blood. Borrowing from the Google thinkbank, Jeffrey Bewkes from Time Warner is trying to reconstitute AOL with fresh leadership. Definitely a “New Medici,” Armstrong is supremely ad/sales based, so it will be interesting to watch what level of new product definition comes out of Google – versus reviving its search (currently Googlized). As Google’s former president of the Americas operations and senior vice president, overseeing North and Latin America – and an investor/former chairman of Associated Content, Patch.com and FitPlanet, Armstrong has to redefine what AOL means to a marketplace of users looking for fresh content and ads. Can he reinvent advertising like Google reinvented search? Read more >>
AOL Anti-Portal: Hub and Flow
At New Medici we’re intrigued by niche content networks and how they grow, survive and generally roll-up niche audiences. With AOL’s announcement of MediaGlow via NYT, we dug around to see how it was really working. From the articles, PR and even comment threads at Techcrunch, it seems that AOL, former traffic portal hub, now new anti-portal, is turning a corner. Read more >>
Bring on the Relevancy Engines
With everyone trying to personalize user experiences, we’re tracking Tsavo, founded by Userplane (sold to AOL for $40M) Michael Jones. Like a few companies these days (Demand Media, Evolanding), Tsavo is rolling up niche content sites, while applying best practices from an experience level. Read more >>