A new study from disruptive economics guru Clayton Christensen’s think tank gives more clarity into how online learning could shape the future of education. Read more »
Content owners, whether they are publishers, retailers, or marketers, are always looking for new ways to deliver a unique experience to their customers. We call this content personalization. Key trends in this area are led by a collection of technologies that we call post-programming curation. These technologies use the best of behavioral tracking, collaborative filtering, audience targeting, and dynamic content presentation. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Publishers must now focus on a strategy for effectively licensing digital content. In the latest GigaOM Research Podcast, analyst Paul Sweeting discusses why we need a strategy and how it will impact publishers and others. Read more »
Publishers’ lack of strategic focus on licensing and syndication today is matched by nearly equal indifference from software developers, entrepreneurs, and investors. To change this, they must structure their repositories of content so it can be searched, sorted, customized, repackaged, and accessed in real time via standardized APIs. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Publishing giant Wiley has launched Digital Classroom, an online marketplace of software training videos and digital books. Read more at paidContent »
Benchprep, a digital learning startup based in Chicago, is rolling out video-based software training courses targeting college and high school students, not adults looking for professional development. Read more »
According to Press+ data, the average price of a monthly digital subscription is now $9.26 — up from $6.85 at the beginning of 2012. Publishers are also offering fewer articles for free before a user hits a paywall. Read more at paidContent »
Specialist networks cater to diverse consumer segments, but Facebook’s sheer ubiquity means 94 percent of all social networkers use it. The bottom line: If any generalist network is going to gain mass-market traction, it will be at the expense of Facebook, not in addition to it. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Many of the biggest stories in the connected consumer space occurred mostly offstage in 2012, from Apple’s new media services to policymakers in Washington. Overall, the past 12 months have laid important groundwork for significant advances in the connected consumer space. The year 2013 should be eventful. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
As Pearson – along with the entire textbook publishing industry – rethinks its role in education, one of the company’s executives says it could look to build the core competencies of digital content creators like video game giant Electronic Arts. Read more »
Paywall startup Tinypass, which is based in New York City and works with small digital publishers, is expanding metering options to its users. Read more at paidContent »
Google now activates one million Android devices per day and has 400 million devices in the wild, but its media store efforts have lagged. Google Play now has more digital content types, so here’s a look at how it compares to iTunes and Amazon’s digital store. Read more »
Data is absolutely crucial for the business of online advertising, and thanks to a new ecosystem designed to serve the sell-and-buy side, it can now be leveraged. But it also makes online advertising a far more complex space than it was even a few years ago. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Has Pinterest created an entirely new way for users to share content? A survey conducted on GigaOM asked just that question, and a new GIgaOM Pro report delves into the various implications for the social network. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
New entrants are pushing alternative business models in the music industry. Though this evolution will take time, the overall industry should return to growth within the five-year forecast horizon, as digital music spending, driven by subscriptions, will average double-digit yearly growth to total $4.1 billion in 2015. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
It will take more than a five-button remote control to efficiently navigate the new universe of video content now available. That means a new user interface for the video viewing experience is inevitable, and many companies are involved. Here are a few to watch. Read more »
Free, digital content has shattered long-established ways of making money in the newspaper publishing industry, and publishers must now find new ways to subsidize content-creation costs directly. That includes everything from more-flexible paywalls to borrowing the business models of industries like online gaming and music. Read more »
The impact of digital technology has shattered long-established monopolies and ways of making money in the newspaper publishing industry. Today, publishers must find ways to subsidize content-creation costs directly, and this report examines a few different approaches, from more flexible paywalls to charging users directly for access and mimicking the business models of other industries, such as online gaming. Companies mentioned in this report include Ford, Netflix, Amazon and Hulu. For a full list of companies, and to read the full report, sign up for a free trial. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Apple no longer allows e-book sellers to link out to their stores, which is likely why Amazon introduced a new web-based app that works outside of Apple’s official software distribution channel on Wednesday. Here’s a look at the new Kindle Cloud Reader, and its integrated store. Read more »
The New York Times has rolled out a site called beta620, to provide a home for all of its experimental web projects and apps. But can the paper successfully adopt the kind of beta culture that drives startups, or is the new site just a sideshow? Read more »
AOL’s new Editions iPad app, billed as a “daily magazine that reads you,” is now available in the App Store. It’s actually remarkably smart and sexy, but can Editions hope to make a significant splash when similar apps like Flipboard already seem so firmly entrenched? Read more »
Project Runway viewers are already big social media users, sharing thoughts about the show while watching it live. So why not use Twitter as a way for fans to vote for their favorite contestant. That was the thinking behind Project Runway‘s Fan Favorite contest. Read more »
If TV OEMS are going to embrace smart TVs, they need a business model that fits this new paradigm. Up-front, one-burst revenue models are being replaced by longer-term, services-oriented relationships. The key to success in this new world is ensuring that new smart-TV owners are connected and […] Read more »
Hollywood has set its eyes on Newzbin2, an indexing site that facilitates movie and TV show downloads from Usenet servers. However, it’s not going after the site directly, but is instead suing British ISP BT to have Newzbin2 blocked on the IP address level. Read more »
For all the talk of social media replacing RSS, I still find it to be the best way to get news efficiently. A quick look at the Mac App Store shows quite a few RSS reader options, so here’s a look at three of the best. Read more »
We’ve spent so long consuming the news in fairly predictable formats that the new forms of journalism we are seeing all around us can be confusing. But these new forms have the potential to broaden the field immensely, and that is a good thing. Read more »
Taboola is giving its publishers more control over the automated video recommendations that are served up on their websites. To highlight these changes and to take advantage of them, Taboola just launched a revamped website and has added new members to its senior management team. Read more »
While most thought the biggest news out of Amazon’s e-book business this week was the revelation that e-books now eclipse print books, it was the launch of the company’s second genre imprint in the span of two weeks (and fifth imprint overall) that’s the bigger deal. Read more »
Google announced its new cloud music service Wednesday, and Amazon revealed its own Cloud Player in late March. At this point, Apple is really the last major player to make its move. But judging by the offerings so far, that might work to Apple’s advantage. Read more »
For all its growth, the e-book market has been stillborn in one major way: methods in which to monetize. But recent news that a Spanish company called 24Symbols went into beta on a an e-book service shows that digital publishing could finally be evolving. Read more »
AOL’s recent acquisition of the Huffington Post for $315 million has centered a lot of attention on its content strategy — big part of which is automating and standardizing content that attracts search-related advertising. While there are some clear benefits to this “content farm” approach to content, there are also some significant disadvantages. Here we look at some of the leaders in this sector and their histories, as well as the key risks and benefits of the content farm strategy. Companies mentioned in this report include AOL, The Huffington Post, MySpace, Demand Media, Google and Associated Content. For a full list of companies, and to read the full report, sign up for a free trial. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
With DVD sales plummeting and Blu-ray and digital sell-thru unable to make up the gap, Hollywood continues to struggle with the digital revolution. Among the countless strategies under consideration to reverse this trend is making titles available for rent on or near the day they premiere ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Growth of digital content in homes and businesses continues to grow, fueling a demand for more and more storage. And though inefficiency and usability gaps in this market are showing, so too are the opportunities companies can seize to create convenient, secure and redundant storage ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
The world of digital content is in a state of almost continuous upheaval, but a new report from GigaOM Pro analyst Paul Zagaeski estimates that the worldwide market for digital goods will grow to $36 billion by 2014, up from $16.7 billion in 2009. Read more »
The worldwide online market for digital goods will grow amid a state of continuous disruption across all forms of content markets. Fueled by an ever-growing user base, migration from physical formats to digital distribution, and a proliferation of new connected devices, the overall market for digital goods will grow to $36 billion by 2014, up from $16.7 billion in 2009. This report examines the state of paid content and the various monetization and payment models across each of the various digital goods markets. The report examines key players and market dynamics in the film and video, newspaper, online game, music and social networks space relative to their paid content strategies, and includes a revenue forecast of each of these segments relative to the overall paid content market. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
There’s probably a PhD in economics to be had by anyone who can explain the unusual pricing dynamics of the e-book market. Despite increased retail competition, with Barnes & Noble (BKS), Sony (SNE), Google (GOOG) and now Apple (AAPL) joining market leader Amazon (AMZN), consumer prices ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
