Brainstorming doesn’t work that well unless you follow the right procedures. The typical “brainstorming” session involves announcing a topic and inviting people to propose their ideas in an allegedly non-judgmental environment. A bunch of people get together in a conference room and say whatever they think. There are several problems with this model. People don’t…
You’ve heard of WordPress, but have you heard of WordCamp? It’s a great opportunity to learn more about WordPress, but also to get some general ideas about content, publishing, e-commerce, software development, and many more things. It’s worth your time even if you don’t use WordPress. I did a talk there a few years ago….
The Washington Post has discovered that personalized onboarding yields good results for subscriptions. Which isn’t a big surprise. The fact that you bought something doesn’t mean you’ll use it. Think of all the idle exercise equipment in basements around the country. It’s one thing to convince somebody to buy. It’s another thing to convince them…
Think for a moment about the trajectory of media consumption. For example, compare what you did yesterday to what you did five, ten, or twenty years ago. Twenty years ago, you might have read a morning newspaper on your way to work, and then you were mostly insulated from news (as you did your job)…
Most website owners worry about engagement, which they should do, because if people aren’t engaged with your site, they won’t do the things that you really want them to do. More on that in a bit, but first, let’s say you wanted to find the most engaged users on your website. How would you do…
Sorry to be philosophical for a moment here, but it fits today’s topic. Human society needs two impulses: protection and exploration. Somebody needs to explore the great unknown, try the new food, make friends with the weird tribe on the other side of the river, and somebody needs to make sure we don’t burn the…
You probably spend a lot of effort to get new email addresses on file, because email is still a fantastic tool for keeping in touch with your audience. But how much effort – and money – is justified? To know this, you have to calculate the value of a new email address. To do this,…
Zain Kahn’s “Superhuman” email says workers want to use ChatGPT, but bosses aren’t so keen. Why? Don’t they want people to be more productive? Of course they do, but there are some legit dangers in using ChatGPT. Which sent me on a bit of a search. What can go wrong? Let’s say you’re a programmer…
Bo Sacks distributed an article by Michelle Yeon titled “Stop the churn: Improving subscription retention rates.” It’s a good list, and she has some good commentary on each item, but I think there’s one very obvious thing missing, which I’ll explain at the end. Here are Michelle’s 10 tips, with my comments. 1. Personalize User…
I recently learned about “Gall’s Law,” which is a principle in software development, but I think it’s far more applicable. I absolutely love it. It goes like this. “A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked. A complex system designed from scratch never works and cannot…
Amy Kean, the CEO and Creative Director of Good Shout, says that if you want to differentiate your media business, you should hire more weirdos. Media is a small, fairly tight-knit community, and most people want to fit in. But that can stifle creativity. There’s been an influx of “really average people,” Amy says, and…
On a recent “people vs. algorithms” podcast, the boys talk about “dark patterns.” I’m not sure where that phrase came from, but it refers to the tricks companies use to manipulate consumers to do something the company wants them to do. An example from the publishing world would be a very low introductory rate that…
Are you tired of changing your business because some programmer has tinkered with an algorithm? They say it’s for the sake of the users, but we all know it’s to increase their ad revenue. LinkedIn recently changed how they promote content on their site. They say they want to make our feeds more relevant and…
Bo Sacks distributed an article by Peter Bale titled, “New book by Jeff Jarvis uses lessons from media’s print history to frame the digital future.” It reminded me of a rather cynical communist I used to work with who said, “Freedom of the press, for everyone who can afford a press.” Jarvis says the era…
As the AI wave threatens to reshape industries and disrupt the publishing business, publishers can gain a competitive edge by training their own large language model (LLM) with a distinctive voice and point of view. This article explains why this is a crucial strategic choice to make right now, explores the merits of this strategy,…