A lot of people deride the idea of New Year’s resolutions because so many people make them and don’t keep them. Even if that’s true, it seems to me there is some virtue in trying. But in any event, I looked up some (allegedly) science-based ways to keep your resolutions. Make them … Specific and…
#1. Before I collect any data on my customers, I will write a customer-facing explanation of why it’s good for them for me to have that info. Consumer privacy concerns include the sentiment that they and their data are not a product for you to sell. There are also issues of trust and consent. I.e.,…
Publishers erred when they relied on ad revenue and put their content on the internet for free. That revenue model isn’t stable, and (worse) it created an assumption that digital content should be free. Now that ads aren’t providing enough revenue, publishers have to push back against consumer expectations of being entitled to free content….
How deeply should you micro-manage people? Do you treat them like competent professionals, or do you get into their business and check their work? I’m not sure there’s a one-size-fits-all answer. What do you think? If you want to understand contemporary issues, read old books. You have to get your mind outside the trap of…
Think of CDP capabilities this way: there are back-end functions and front-end functions. By back-end I mean the data collection, cleaning, and processing efforts to create the mythical “golden record.” By front-end I mean the activations: managing paywalls, displaying special offers to discrete audiences, personalization, and so on. You may only need the front-end. To…
You’ve created a great webinar on a topic that your market loves, and now you’re wondering, “what else can I do with this?” You’d like to create an article for your website or e-newsletter, but that uses up editorial time. You could hire a freelancer, but that will take time, and it might not be…
In the last issue, I mentioned why we should be skeptical of 3rd-party advertising claims. Along those lines, is attention measurement a real thing, or is it another way for the ad sales industry to snow people with BS metrics? Some “attention measurement” technologies require special apps and permission to track eye movements. Are people…
It’s such an old issue you might expect we’d be pros at this by now, but I continue to see serious, professional publishers making decisions about print and digital based on shallow metrics, like “we’ll save all the money we spend on printing and mailing.” Please. There are so many other things to consider. Are…
Democracy dies behind paywalls by Cosmin Ene encourages people to read outside their own news bubble. Which is a good thing. In his case, he couldn’t find certain stories in The New York Times (“all the news that fits our agenda”), so he looked to other sites and hit their paywalls. First, good on you,…
A lot of publishers who have podcasts or webinars are not effectively re-using that content in other mediums. Is it possible to use artificial intelligence to make this easier? I gave it a try. As I mention here, I used Descript to create a video version of the latest Krehbiel Letter. Descript automatically generates a…
My friend Donna Peterson told me about a new way to edit videos called Descript. It uses AI to create a transcript of your video, then you edit the video by looking through the script. It’s an interesting way to do it. I gave it a try on my most recent podcast. I’m no genius…
When software doesn’t do exactly what you need it to do, you’re faced with a choice of buying something that’s not exactly what you want, building your own custom system, or buying something you can customize. There are a lot of dangers in either of those custom options. You need to think long and hard…