According to Ongo, a curated news service, more than half of Americans go online for news once or twice per day, and nearly one-third check for news three or more times. As we've reported, online news consumption reached a major milestone this year, surpassing newspapers as a preferred news source for the first time.
Fifty six percent of the 726 respondents go online for news once or twice per day, 26% visit three sites, and 24% visit four or more sites. The survey also found that men were more likely than women to visit multiple sites.
Flipboard, the social magazine app for iPad, has just launched its first advertising program in partnership with magazine publisher Condé Nast. This campaign displays ads alongside content from The New Yorker, Wired, and Bon Appétit. Later this year, Flipboard plans to expand the progam to other publishers, including independent publishers.
This ad program builds on Flipboard Pages, Flipboard's first step into content that's specific to the reading environment of its app. Instead of showing a Web view, Flipboard Pages display articles using "print-inspired layouts, typography and imagery" built for Flipboard. Beginning with the Condé Nast partnership, publishers can now easily intersperse full-page ads into the Flipboard versions of their content.
Regarding future ad partnerships, Christel van der Boom at Flipboard says, "We are already working with a number of publishers in our Flipboard Pages program that we announced in December."
Netflix announced this morning that it is changing its pricing structure for DVD and streaming videos. Starting Sept.1, unlimited movie streaming and DVD-by-mail will be separate options costing $7.99 a month with the option of combining the two for $15.98 a month, or double what a standard Netflix subscription now costs. The announcement comes as a surprise to those that thought that Netflix would eventually kill off its DVD-by-mail business and only offer streaming video.
It was inevitable that Netflix would change its pricing structure. The company started as a DVD-by-mail operation at $7.99 a month and operated with that as its primary business model until the unlimited-streaming option became available in 2008. It is a wonder that it took this long for Netflix to unbundle the two options and make them separate sources of revenue.
On my visit to Seattle last month, I visited the office of data visualization company Tableau. As more and more data gets uploaded to the Web, it needs to be analyzed and made sense of. Data visualization is one of the most effective ways of doing this and Tableau is a leading company in this field. I sat down with Ellie Fields,
Director of Product Marketing at Tableau Software, to find out how data visualizations are changing the way people are consuming information on the Web.
Tableau's vision is to "see and understand the world's data." The company has carved out a particular niche with media organizations, who use Tableau software to enable their readers to play with data in interactive way - for example customizing charts.
Netflix announced today that its movie streaming service will be available in 43 countries in the Caribbean and Latin America later this year. Members will be able to access Netflix.com in Spanish, Portuguese or English on a range of Netflix support devices. Interested users can leave their contact information with the company and receive reminders when the service is ready.
What does this mean for Netflix? Foremost, it is adding a huge new potential user base to its market demographic. Technology and content companies that do well in the era of Web 2.0 have significant sources of traffic in international markets, such as Facebook and Twitter which both have 70% or so of users overseas. The move will further cement Netflix as a go-to source for streaming content on the Web. With all the competition in that area, that will be huge for Netflix going forward.
Rumors have surfaced in the past 24 hours that premium content video provider Hulu has been fielding unsolicited offers to buy the platform. The question, of course: who in their right mind would want to buy Hulu?
Yahoo is the name that has emerged. The Los Angeles Times and Wall Street Journal both reported through unidentified sources that the Web portal reached out to Hulu. Yet, TechCrunch has cited sources that say Yahoo did no such thing. Sales of this size and complexity generate lots speculation with a plethora of moving pieces. Let's examine the possibilities to see who would make the best suitor for Hulu.
Pete Erickson is trying to become the go-to man that brings innovators and industries together. Through his Disruptathon series, he travels North America, putting on one-day events where entrepreneurs compete in front of industry leaders to present disruptive ideas. The prizes are not large, but the opportunity for brand awareness in front of industry leaders can be invaluable.
Disruptathon came to the Washington D.C. area on Thursday evening with eight entrepreneurs in tow to make their pitches at USA Today headquarters in McLean, Va. When it comes to disruption, the news industry was hit hard by lack of innovation and forward digital thinking. As one presenter put it: "the foundation for the news business has shifted." Take a look at the eight startups trying to change the way we consume, produce or interact with the news.
As many print media outlets continue to struggle to find their place in an increasingly digital ecosystem, the satirical newspaper The Onion has managed to not only make the most the Web and social media, but also continue to expand into new markets and new mediums.
On the second day of ReadWriteWeb's 2Way Summit Tuesday, a team of Onion staffers walked attendees through the publication's history, from its fictitious beginnings in 1756 all the way to its modern experimentation with social media and expansion into broadcast.
What if you could create content as quick as you write a tweet? That is what startup Webdoc wants to know and it has created a tool where building a micro website or digital flyer is a relatively smooth and pain free project.
Webdoc is not revolutionary, but it is an interesting step in do-it-yourself publishing. It gives users a frame that they can do just about anything in and then embed that frame anywhere on the Web. For instance, if you want to create a flyer for your band, add an audio clip and YouTube video and canvas the Internet, a Webdoc may be just the thing you are looking for.
What is next for Flipboard? The startup is rapidly growing, hiring new employees and forging new partnerships with publishers to create dynamic new content platforms.
The next step is to make a jump off the iPad and start monetizing the company. These are easier goals to say than to do, but CEO Mike McCue and does not want to jump too far too fast. As such, do not expect to see an Android version anytime soon as the iPhone is the next platform in store for Flipboard.
