Posts tagged as Business Models
Tumblr Invents Yet Another Business Model
For a dollar, Tumblr will let you "highlight" your own Tumblr posts, which then... puts a sticker on the post that lets people know it's extra-important. Among the more negative (and not profane) comments are "This is actually ridiculous. Why would I even do that??" and "Well done staff, this is stupid and unnecessary." They will probably make a ton of one-dollars at this actually!
'Daily News' Has New Traffic Scheme
In a naked bid for high-yield SEO-related traffic, the Daily News has launched... a book blog? It is called "Page Views" though, which is actually kind of "ugh why didn't I think of that" hilarious.
Blog Gives Itself Blog-to-Book-of-Bloggings Deal
Now you can get your Grantland blog posts from August in book form, to be delivered in November, for $19.95, with "a cover that looks and feels like you're holding a football." Only 81 shopping days until Christmas!
Saving the St. Mark's Bookshop (From Itself)
The St. Mark's Bookshop has been the beneficiary of a much-Twittered petition to its landlord this last week. Just a little over two years ago, the bookstore signed a new ten-year lease for $20,000 a month. ($240,000 a year; that's 9,234 full-price hardback copies of The Art of Fielding, or, 36% of Chad Harbach's advance for The Art of Fielding.) That lease expires in a bit under eight years. Now the owners say it's onerous (so what were they thinking!?) and they have a meeting with their landlord, Cooper Union, this week. (Their last meeting was ineffectual, the owners said; since, a City Councilmember and others have gone to Cooper Union asking for a reduction. READ MORE
The MoMA Admission Increase is Horrible
At MoMA, the amount of revenue from admissions (almost $25 million a year, and these are all 2010 fiscal year numbers) is quite nearly equal to the amount approved by the board for yearly spending from their investments. (The museum overall has investments valued at $642 million. You know: 2/3rds of a billion dollars.) READ MORE
A History of Bob Stein, Full-Time Thinker
The extraordinarily abstruse Triple Canopy has a new issue up. Most of it is beyond my interests and/or understanding, however I greatly enjoyed this interview with Bob Stein, who for the last six years has run the think tank Institute for the Future of the Book (I don't know, really; one of its goals is that it has "no deliverables") and also founded the Criterion Collection and spent a lot of time thinking about LaserDiscs and HyperCard (oh man!) and also worked at Atari, trying to create the encyclopedia of the future. Basically he makes Clay Shirky's jobs look very task- and result-oriented.
Antony and the Johnsons, "Thank You For Your Love"
There's a new Antony and the Johnsons song out. Interesting: you can download it in exchange for your email address. It has nice horns on it and is the title track to a five song EP that will arrive at the end of this month. A teaser, I suppose, for the new album Swanlights, due October 12. Also on the EP, a cover of John Lennon's "Imagine," which I sang with my class at my 8th grade graduation ceremony. There was some controversy about that, due to the blasphemous nature of that song, which is about making the world better. But we students prevailed. (Attica!) I look forward to hearing Antony's version, though. I'm thinking he'll sing it better.
A Q&A with the Creator of "I Write Like": "The Algorithm is Not a Rocket Science"
This week's meme is I Write Like, a new website that uses an algorithm of mysterious methodology to tell you which author's work your writing most resembles. You enter some text-"your latest blog post, journal entry, comment, chapter of your unfinished book"-and a split-second later, it spits out the html code for a blog-ready badge: "I Write Like H.P. Lovecraft," or any of the 49 other authors in its database. It's hard science and great literature, together at last! Well, kind of. READ MORE
The Las Vegas Observer
Also the Times, last year, laid off some copy editors. (Staf?) In any event, the news conveyed is that the Observer is launching a free weekly in Las Vegas. Duuuuuude. Also, may we amplify? Jared Kushner "has started a string of new ventures, like The Commercial Observer and a group of political news Web sites in several states [which he later shut down]." (via)
The Future of Journalism: Ira Stoll's New Business Model
Did you know that former New York Sun vice president Ira Stoll is back in business? He is running a website with the impressive name The Future of Capitalism. It launched two months ago, and where have we been on this important news? What is most wonderful is his business model. This man has a plan! In it, the more money you give, the more influence you have. Ta da, capitalism and the future of it! For instance, for $250K? You will "support a reporter to cover the Federal Reserve, Treasury, Congress, White House, or other beat designated by the sponsor in consultation with the editor." Hoo boy. Though! For just $75K a year, you get to call and email Ira Stoll anytime you want, night or day. Which, you know, I'm pretty sure we could do that for free? For now at least. Soon he will be so rich and powerful that he will not accept our free phone calls and emails.
