Topix.net goes for Local Ad market

Interesting commentary on the Topix.net model and the fact that is more than just another “internet play” it is a “local advertising media play”.

Olive Software get new funding

“March 23, 2004 – Olive Software, Inc., a global leader in content management, ePublishing and archiving technologies for the publishing and library industries, announced today that it had secured a $6 million investment partnership with Sequoia Venture Capital.”

Tony Ridder (Knight Ridder) on Online Newspapers

“We are currently evaluating multiple approaches to developing a news and information relationship with consumers ages 18-to-24. One good venue for doing so is online. We have the entertainment data, sports coverage, event listings and classifieds young people want. Online technology enables us to package it the way they want to see it”, Tony Ridder, Knight Ridder in article from Presstime.

Vin Crosbie: Analysis on “Project for Excellence in Journalism” report

“News executives perhaps should be less worried about one medium cannibalizing another,” the PEJ study said, “and more worried about making the news more engaging, relevant and interesting generally, and making their advertising and sponsorship strategies more valuable to the people paying for their products.”

The study data indicated that nearly three-quarters of users (72 percent) said that they spent the same amount of time reading print newspapers now as they did before they began reading news online, and that a similar pattern holds true among readers of printed news magazines.

What’s Happening to Oline Newspapers in the US

This is a great overview of trends in online newspapers in the US by Lisa Rabasca, covering – Registration, Targeted Advertising, Targeted Content, Paid Content and … hooking up Registration Information to Offline subscriptions – using information about how customers use online newspapers to put attractive online / offline subscription packages to them.