Comments on: What Publishers Could Do (Condé Nast)

By: EricFriedman

EricFriedman — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 11:26:32 +0000

You have a great point. It may be too late, but your suggestion to
distribute all the assets accordingly wouldn't pass through the BOD. I
doubt any of this will come to pass, but if you have large consulting firms
on board to try to turn the aircraft carrier, you might as well try to make
a real go of it.

Conde could stick with its core competency - and bring in a new breed of
business systems to help monetize that. My hope is that they will see this
as an option vs. a slow death of refusing to change.

By: EricFriedman

EricFriedman — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 06:26:32 +0000

By: Matt Daniels

Matt Daniels — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 17:45:02 +0000

This reminds me of an article by John Dvorak on Microsoft:
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/is-the-party-o...

Essentially, he makes the argument that Microsoft keeps trying to re-invent itself. The the reality is that it must stick to its core-competency: making software. Software is its blood, and trying to redefine their business is fruitless.

I get a similar feeling from Conde. Critics may argue that Conde is in the “information” business rather “publishing.” But its blood is paper. Moving to a new digital culture will be one of extreme difficulty, and if I was a shareholder, I'd rather bleed the business dry, distribute dividends, and have a closing party for the awesome ride. It seems to me that this is no different than any other industry that has failed, be it type-writers, sewing machines, rail-roads, etc.

In short, does it really makes sense to invest all of this money to evolve into a digital company and go against the wind?

By: DRM Is Failure

DRM Is Failure — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 14:46:31 +0000

[...] What Publishers Could Do (Condé Nast) (Marketing.FM) [...]

By: Riaz Kanani

Riaz Kanani — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 22:38:59 +0000

there is one other big fear that as every day goes by becomes smaller and smaller.. ad dollars. Before they feared that moving online would cannabalise on their offline print ads.. pretty serious stuff as the revenue from print ads is much much more than online.

Of course every day the revenue from print ads decrease as the readership falls.. leaving only one place to go. online.

By: EricFriedman

EricFriedman — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 17:56:44 +0000

Thanks Seth. Hope someone is listening!

By: elgaffney

elgaffney — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 17:12:43 +0000

Great read. Especially agree with the pt about the sales force selling strategic ideas.

By: Will Dearman Lifestream » Daily Digest for July 29th, 2009

Will Dearman Lifestream » Daily Digest for July 29th, 2009 — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 17:25:01 +0000

[...] What Publishers Could Do (Condé Nast) [...]

By: Auto source copied text with Tynt Tracer | Marketing.fm - Eric Friedman

Auto source copied text with Tynt Tracer | Marketing.fm - Eric Friedman — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 13:46:06 +0000

[...] have been exploring way in which publishers are thinking about controlling (or releasing control) of their content, and even how some are thinking about [...]

By: EricFriedman

EricFriedman — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 03:01:28 +0000

It is absolutely a question of training – its the “bring everyone up to a
certain level” that keeps me focused on net natives. There is enough
training to do on others things, and having people up to speed on the web is
very helpful.