News Byte
Peter Kafka in Media on May 8 at 1:12 pm PT
Ongo, a newspaper-backed startup that tried to sell digital subscriptions to a variety of publications, is shuttering after less than two years. The New York Times, the Washington Post and Gannett each put a reported $4 million into the company, but it never got traction with subscribers. Nieman Journalism Lab has a good exit interview with CEO Dan Haarmann, who blames Apple’s subscription policy, among other factors, for the company’s failure.
Peter Kafka in Media on January 24 at 6:13 am PT
Gannett has bought Fantasy Sports Ventures, a Web sports network best known for its Big Lead Sports site. Gannett invested in Fantasy Sports back in 2008.
Ina Fried in Mobile on January 4 at 2:05 pm PT
MetroPCS says it will be the first to offer phones supporting the Dyle Mobile TV Service, which will feature content from NBC and Fox along with a number of major local TV station operators.
Kara Swisher in Media on September 6, 2011 at 8:37 am PT
Another ones bites the dust: According to sources close to the situation, longtime Yahoo Front Page chief Liz Lufkin has parted ways with the company.
News Byte
Tricia Duryee in Commerce on June 14, 2011 at 3:10 pm PT
Once eBay officially closes its acquisition of GSI Commerce, Chris Saridakis will lead the newly acquired unit, according to a document filed with the SEC today. Currently, Saridakis is the CEO of GSI’s Global Marketing Services division. He joined GSI in May 2010 from Gannett, where he served as SVP and chief digital officer of Gannett Marketing Services. GSI’s founder and CEO Michael Rubin
will operate a newly formed company, partially owned by eBay, which includes Rue La La and ShopRunner among other properties.
Kara Swisher in News on March 30, 2011 at 3:24 pm PT
A panoply of big media giants sent a cease-and-desist letter today to Zite, the Apple iPad news reader app.
The Washington Post, AP, Gannett, Getty, Time, Dow Jones and many other media organizations were part of the copyright violations action, which you can read all about after the jump.
Peter Kafka in Media on March 24, 2011 at 5:30 am PT
There’s a lot of great stuff on Twitter. And there’s a lot more lousy stuff. Twitter thinks curation is really important, but isn’t doing it itself–yet. So it’s asking outsiders for help.
Peter Kafka in Media on August 10, 2010 at 6:00 am PT
Foundry Group, DFJ Gotham, Dave McClure and former Gannett digital boss Chris Saridakis bet on the iPhone, Android, “in-app” ad maker.
Peter Kafka in Media on May 19, 2010 at 3:00 am PT
The News Corp. chief says he’s almost ready to deliver an “innovative subscription model” for digital news. But he still hasn’t convinced other publishers to join him.
Kara Swisher in News on March 24, 2010 at 12:04 pm PT
Even though they are two of the Internet’s largest advertising businesses, both Yahoo and Microsoft are without top execs to lead those units.
Worse, both are just entering a complex online ad sales and search partnership together, which will require a lot of management firepower.
Yahoo’s main online ad sales head just left and Microsoft has been searching for one for a year now.
So, here’s the skinny on who is in the running.
