The March 2023 edition of The Krehbiel Letter is now available
A PDF of the latest Krehbiel Letter is available for view / download.
Publishing
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Podcast: Will AI be the death of publishers?
This podcast summarizes the key takeaways from the Feb 2023 issue of The Krehbiel Letter. The first two articles focus on how artificial intelligence will affect publishers, and what they can do about it. Greg reflects on what publishers can learn from the Pareto principle, how publishers should be wary of conclusions and advice based…
Why print books are better than digital, and my recommendations for eBook readers
[This is from July 2015, but it’s still relevant.] I read on my iPad every day, but the experience frequently reminds me how much better it can be to read a real book. Sooner or later, somebody is going to solve (at least some of) these issues on the digital side, and the experience will…
Beat artificial intelligence with attitude
I’m sure you’ve played with ChatGPT, or something like it, and I’m sure you’ve come across situations where it demurs. It wants you to think it’s being objective, even though we all know that’s silly. It has the bias of its programmers, just like M5 did. It reminds me a little of the silly keyboard-clicking…
Alternatives to words on a page
After reading a suggestion that audio content makes readers more loyal, I started thinking about alternatives to words on a page. Here’s a partial list. Try to incorporate these and other concepts into your content creation. Other ways to convey information – beyond text. Audio Infographics Surveys Video Outlines Podcasts Charts Checklists Micro-learning Graphs Forms…
“The publisher of the gaps”
Takeaways: The areas where publishers can add value are shrinking. Don’t look for diminishing niches. Think more broadly. There’s an old argument called “the God of the gaps” that says we used to need gods to explain thunder and famine and life, but as we advance in our knowledge of the world, God is required…
The chumpification of publishers enters its final stage
Premise: Publishers hastened their own demise when they put their content on the internet for free. Artificial intelligence is one more nail in the coffin. To follow along with the argument, think of the history of the internet in these broad stages. 1. The worldwide web. Independent websites were connected by an informal and disorganized…
Can you increase revenue through membership programs?
A couple newspapers have. Noozhawk and Cap Times prove that for-profits can have strong membership programs. (Thanks to Bo Sacks for the link.) Most of Noozhawk’s revenue comes from advertising and sponsorships, but reader contributions have been a growing source of income since soon after the site’s launch. In 2008, after a handful of readers…
New Year’s resolutions for publishers, micropayments and more. Vol. 2 Issue 1
The latest edition of The Krehbiel Letter Podcast is available. Two New Year’s resolutions for publishers regarding customer data and micropayments. Thoughts on paywalls. Front-end vs. back-end CDPs, and why you should let your use cases drive your decisions about customer data. How to use AI to create additional content from your webinar. Print vs….
Two New Year’s resolutions for publishers
#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.,…
Don’t be fooled by “print vs. digital” metrics
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…
Do paywalls “kill democracy”? Let’s be serious
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,…
“My kids are always in TikTok”
In brief … “Lots of people” doesn’t mean “lots of your people.” One company’s success might be an outlier. Consider the opportunity cost before you invest in TikTok. From time to time we get a new dose of “everybody’s doing this, we should do it too.” Such advice stems from a laudable desire to notice…
If you’d rather listen — The Krehbiel Letter in audio
Some people don’t have time to read. I get it. So here — you can listen too. The podcast feed is available here.
Dial back your expectations for the metaverse
Examples of the metaverse are silly and childlike, and people aren’t using it. Meta is falling short of projections for their version, called Horizon Worlds. Most “worlds” get no visitors. The appeal of the concept is the ability to interact with a virtual world, but to make that happen would require a full-body suit that…