Comments on: What Jimmy Fallon — yes, Jimmy Fallon — can teach newspapers

By: Joshua Benton

Joshua Benton — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 14:15:31 +0000

Hi Rags — I think we’re having two separate debates here. You’re talking about the merits of being free vs. being behind a pay wall. I’m talking about the merits of being free and never linking to anyone else vs. being free and linking out to other people.

There are a lot of newspapers stuck in the first half of that second dyad, and they’re the ones I think are mistaken.

On the free vs. paid issue, my own opinion is that newspapers will have to come down on both sides: having a lot of free content to prevent cannibalization by a startup and to attract online advertising revenue, but also having a portfolio of subscription products (newsletters, premium content, access to reporters, whatever) that they do charge for. I don’t think online advertising revenue alone will ever be enough to fund a newspaper-sized newsroom, and I don’t think shutting the entire site behind a pay wall is an economically effective answer either.

By: Rags

Rags — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 04:25:54 +0000

You said, “The more link-love you send out to the web, the more you get back ”

A newspaper is still a business and its objective should be profit. I assume you still mean here the free online newspaper. As you previously dicussed Crovitz’s column, there is only one reason for the newspaper to be free, if the Ad revenue from page views bring more profit than the subscription revenue.
Is the marginal revenue from the “link love” from other sites worth it?

By: steve garfield

steve garfield — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 02:24:19 +0000

Whoa! GReat news about quests getting Flip cams. I’m enjoying testing out flip cams right now. The fact that all you need to know how to do is press a RED button to record is huge. I’ll be following this closely.

By: Robb Montgomery

Robb Montgomery — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 02:13:29 +0000

Agreed. @Jimmyfallon does not seem to be posing – from what I have seen with his interaction with trusted colleague @stevegarfield he seems to be very social media savvy.

His timing is close to Immediate and he is very responsive using Twitter and his video promos to bring others into the close contact field that social media can generate.

I just hope he will be as funny as he is smart.

;-)

By: Tomorrow Museum » Archive » What Jimmy Fallon can teach newspapers

Tomorrow Museum » Archive » What Jimmy Fallon can teach newspapers — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 18:18:13 +0000

[...] meme to Jimmy Fallon content. (Further proof You Wrote It, You Watch It, was ahead of its time.) NiemanLab has an interesting comment on the Carlson piece, pointing out this is all strategy relevant to the [...]