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ISSUE NO 48 IN SEARCH OF THE BUSINESS MODEL

NEWSPAPERS: BRAND ADVANTAGE IS NO SUBSTITUTE FOR STRATEGIC THINKING

"Newspapers and the vendors that serve them are further behind the technological revolution than they think they are," says Luke Cavanaugh of The Seybold Report. "Profits are acceptable, stock prices okay, and the feeling is that they will react when they need to. Vendors will in turn react with more enabling technology. But at the rate newspapers are losing brand power on the Web, coupled with the rate of change, such passive strategy is yesterday’s news." The brand advantage newspapers currently enjoy on their Web sites will slide rapidly if the likes of Yahoo, MSNBC and AOL continue to beat them in functionality—giving users on-the-spot local information, from news to tomorrow’s school lunch menu, in a consistent, fast, usable format. Even if newspaper sites do a rapid turnaround and start thinking of their product as part of a larger suite of services rather than a packaged deal, they’ll have a difficult time winning users back from big-name competitors. "Once consumers have made up their minds, it’s very hard to change them," writes Cavanaugh. "And, yes, the newspapers will still be paid to provide the information, but it won’t be branded as theirs, and, thus, they will have lost out on the opportunity to truly capitalize on it."

(Seybold Report on Internet Publishing Jan 2001)
http://www.seyboldreports.com

(source: TAD Newsletter)

THE PRICE OF FREE ISPS

For all those following the battle in South Africa between free ISP ABSA and pay-for MWeb, an article by Jason Krause of The Standard is absolutely "must" reading. Free internet services seemed like a good idea at the time. But now (in the USA) only NetZero remains - and it’s looking for new ways to get people to pay.

(source:
http://www.thestandard.com/article/display/0,1151,22216,00.html?nl=int)

NAPSTER FACES A DIFFERENT FUTURE - DETAILS OF NEW BUSINESS STRATEGY

Napster and its new owner Bertelsmann are getting down to the difficult task of creating a "pay for" future. As with the free vs pay for ISP debate, this one will prove absolutely crucial to how business is conducted on the internet.

(source: http://www.idg.net/go.cgi?id=420014 )

E-BUSINESS: THINK BEFORE YOU MEET THE BRAVE TOMORROW

The latest edition of International Data Corp.’s (IDC’s) eBusiness Trends newsletter offers the simple advice to companies thinking of hopping on the e-business bandwagon - think first

(source: http://www.digitalplanet.co.za/dp/news/red.asp?ID=10241 )

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